WeekThree Term Three

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 25^th to Friday, July 29^th

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 100^th 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!