Making pictures...
Finally a fraction problem...
Mel and the tower building activity.
The parachute... how many times can the team throw it up and catch it?
Guiding a blind person through a maze of dots.
A team game of concentration.
Prep princesses on 100 Day.
Monday,
July 25th to Friday, July 29th
Although
it feels strange to be working in the summer, I can't believe how
fast July has passed. This was another busy week at school. As usual
we had our two one hour professional learning meetings on Monday and
Tuesday after school. The Monday one is being led by an instructional
leader who is taking us through a Second Steps program for reading
across the grades. The Tuesday meeting changes weekly but this week
each grade team had to prepare a spreadsheet of all the grades we had
assigned students on the reports divided into subject areas and by
gender. Then the team leader had to present and interpret the data to
the whole staff.
I
wanted to teach fractions to the group and I am never quite sure what
they know and where the gaps are, so I gave each table group a set of
fraction pieces and waited to see what they would do. Obviously I was
hoping for fraction work, but most of the kids happily made patterns
or pictures or spelled their name with the pieces. It took a while
but eventually Alexander created the circle above. I took photos of
all their work and through the computer displayed them on the
overhead. They loved to see their pictures this way and when I got to
the circle we could talk about how there is three different coloured
pieces making up the whole circle, what are they and how can you add
them mathematically to make one whole circle.
We
had another incursion, this time around team building. This is apropos as the grade 3/4 team is getting organized for our outdoor
education trip in September. The instructor was a British woman named
Mel and she lead the children through five activities that all
focused on having the whole team complete the activity together in
order to be successful. The activities were: building a tower, traveling across the floor on a series of blocks and not leaving anyone behind, tossing a ball as many times as possible on a parachute, leading a
blindfolded person through a maze of dots using only verbal commands
and a version of concentration. The kids loved it and by enlarge
worked together in a friendly, competitive way.
This
day also coincided with the Prep's (kindergarten) 100 day. This is
the celebration that all schools mark on the 100th day of
the school year. They dressed up in costumes, had a parade, played
games, ate lunch with their grade five buddies and had a great day.
Always fun to watch this age level, but I can't imagine teaching
them!
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