November 12, 2014

After an unusual day off yesterday, it was back to work for all of us today, and we definitely had a productive day!

1. Opening exercises - we worked on a Mad Minute, but with 50 questions this time instead of 30.  They were more challenging addition questions too, so very few of the students did better than they had previously.  Encourage them to continue with their Xtra Math (here's the link in case you misplaced it) to help with their basic fact retention.
2. W.W. - we were back at our narratives about the best/worst day ever today.  They had been put on the back burner while we worked on the Veteran's postcards, so it took a bit to get going, but we're back at it again.
3. Grammar - Today's lesson was about different types of sentences (interrogative vs. declarative).  A frequent mistake I see children in this class making is forgetting to put an end mark on their sentences.  They must have one, whether it be a period, a question mark, or an exclamation mark.
4. D.P.A. - The popular vote was for another game of Dungeon Ball, so we all played today (I even joined in too!).
5. Music - with Mr. Banman
6. R.W. - We finished our read aloud, and soon we'll be on to The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks.  It's one I read when I was this age, and I'm looking forward to sharing it with the children.
7. Math - the Grade 4's got to play a fun multiplication game with my fancy 10-sided dice today. Ask them to play it with you at home - they can easily do so with two 6-sided dice, and it's a great way to practice multiplication facts as they don't even realize they're working!  The 3's finished up work from yesterday, and then both grades went on to an assignment where they have to push their thinking a bit beyond what we've done in class so far.  This proved challenging for many, but by the end I believe they all understood! We had a big problem today with students talking while I was talking and it made for a lot of wasted time in class.  As a result of all the lost teaching time, I had the students stay 5 minutes into lunch to cover what we hadn't covered during class time.  Hopefully that will never happen again.
8. S.S.- Continuing through our unit on 'Communities', today our focus shifted to Chilliwack, and what is unique about our community.  We learned about the population of Chilliwack and we also discussed the election as well.  Please read the homework assignment description on the homework page.