FROM THE STUDENTS DESKS Reflections on our First Month My class is a hardworking, friendly fantastic group of kids. We all work together great. My first month of school was legendary! -E
Learning about each other with our Wonder Jars!
We had Monarch butterflies Gus, Oreo,
Crystal & Spiderpillar. We did really complicated math problems. Not even you adults could figure them out. But we met new people and did not give up what we started. Our first month was awesome! -H
Good-bye Summer, Hello Fall! What a lovely summer finale
we have had this past week! It is hard to believe that it is October already! September was a busy and exciting month, settling into our new classroom and getting to know one another. I feel like we have become a close community and a great team already! I am thrilled to see how quickly and comfortably our new JM and VT students I like how we do a community circle everyday and express our feelings in our have settled into our school and I am very proud of how gratitude journals. Weve done the 8 Keys inclusive and welcoming our JB students have been! Much of September has been spent on community building activities, working on classroom routines and getting to know one another; our learning styles, strengths and goals. We began the year learning about the Eight Keys to Success. Student groups took responsibility for exploring a key and presenting their understanding to their classmates in an interesting and memorable way.
and it helps our class be successful. This is
going to be a great year! -L Our class has a lot of good thinkers and a lot of good friends. We stay on task, we work as a team and we act like we already know everyone from the start. M
We had a variety of creative presentations, from skits, to
posters and slideshows. The keys are; Commitment, Speak with Good Purpose, Ownership, Balance, Flexibility, This is It, Integrity and Failure Leads to Success. They have already become a common language in our classroom! We learned about how we can grow our intelligence, about growth mindsets and about the science of happiness. We begin each day by reflecting in our gratitude journals and try to start most days with a community circle.
Quote from our Read Aloud, Wonder.
Thank you for helping your
child put together a Wonder Jar full of treasures to help us get to know him or her! Students have been meeting with different people, asking questions and sharing stories about their artifacts. We are using their favourite artifacts to inspire their writing!
popcorn partners. Through a
variety of collaborative problems, we have discovered and shared a number of effective problem-solving strategies including; Draw a Picture, Guess and Check, Make an Organized List or Chart, Look for Patterns, Act it Out, Use Objects or Manipulatives, Use Logical In Language, we are working Reasoning and Try an Equation. through introducing a variety I am so impressed with of literacy centres (the Daily 6) everyones effort, perseverance and building our stamina. The and determination! Most of centres are; Work on Writing, the students are using more Read to Self, Read to Someone, than one strategy to prove Word Work, Listen to Reading their answer and are working and Genius Hour (Inquiry). I am hard to explain their thinking. working through reading conferences with all of our Currently in math, we are readers. working on reading, representing, comparing and In math, we are doing ordering whole numbers to wonderfully at collaborative 100 000 (gr.5) and 1 000 000 problem-solving with different
(gr.6) and decimals to
thousand, ten or one hundred
thousand and writing numbers in expanded form. We will have Game Day (testing our understanding) soon. I will let you know! In Science, we have started learning about Life Systems; specifically Human Organ Systems (gr. 5) and Biodiversity (gr.6). Students will be working collaboratively on an inquiry project and will be responsible for documenting and sharing their learning with their classmates. In gym, we are working on setting and working toward personal fitness goals, playing cooperative games, long distance running and soccer skills. Finally, the students are enjoying Music with Mr. Bacchus, French with Madame Ghazarian and have just started Media Literacy with Mrs. Mahoney in the library. Looking forward to more great
Upcoming Dates & Events
Oct.13- Thanksgiving Holiday
Oct.14- P/J Cross Country at the Community Centre Oct.14- School Council Oct. 22- Jr. Soccer at Elora Oct. 23- School Council Halloween Dance Oct. 27 & 28- Earthkeepers (gr.5) *details to follow! Oct. 31- JBC Assembly, Halloween Costume Parade I will be contacting volunteers very soon! We need you! Thank you!
Gotta Go, Gotta Go, Gotta Go to Mexico! Our class website is almost ready for launching! Stay tuned
Proven Speed Reading Techniques: Read More Than 300 Pages in 1 Hour. A Guide for Beginners on How to Read Faster With Comprehension (Includes Advanced Learning Exercises)