Ap. 24 – Ap. 28
- MON: Writing Book – What did you do on the weekend?
- (W5) Writing Book Lesson
- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- This writing book lesson was very successful as more than normal tried to write about what they did on the weekend
- Next time I think it could benefit students to brainstorm words they might need to use to write about the topic and write those words on the board
- Math – Measurement: Cut & Paste Width
- (W5) Math Measurement – New Cut & Paste Width
- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- The video I played was effective however I should have mentioned that the boy sounds different (he has an accent) in the video so the students knew in advance. Since I didn’t do this they laughed during the video and I had to stop it and have a chat with them before restarting the video
- This activity took longer than I thought it would; I didn’t realize asking them to cut the pictures out would take as long
- Some didn’t cut all of the pictures or order them from thickest to thinnest but they were labelled correctly
- Thankfully the students did not need assistance with the activity because I had to address a student who was getting upset since there was a mix up with one of her flower and flower pot pictures; I felt a little overwhelmed, at first, trying to help this student calm down and modify the activity for her to continue. I told her she could just use the three she had but later she fixed the pictures which had ripped slightly and used them to complete the activity. This student went through a roller coaster of emotions in about 20 minutes however once she had calmed down, I brought her back to the table and she quickly completed the worksheet.
- Nature School:
- Spring has finally become much more visible which has worked to motivate students to look deeper at their surroundings. Many are happily lifting rocks, logs, and bark to discover new bugs.
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This student was incorporating nature as a part of her play by making soup with the water, that had gathered on a fallen tree, and leaves/needles as ingredients.
- TUES: Nicholas Oldland Author Study
- (3) language arts unit plan Lesson 3 author studyWhat would you do if you were on a deserted island?:
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“I go swimming and make a tree house and my dad catches fish.”
“I’m painting the leaves.”
- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- This activity could have been furthered by creating a spot on the paper for students to write what they were doing rather than me writing down what they told me
- A few students didn’t finish in the time provided – this tells me who may need to be motivated earlier on to complete the assignment or that students should be moved around (in this case it was three students who were sitting together)
- To provide more time I could have read the whole book and then presented the activity rather than splitting the book into two sections
- Book of Letters: Qq
- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- I didn’t have the usual page that we put up after watching the letter video; instead I asked students for their suggestions of Qq words which I wrote on the board – once I sent them away to trace/copy their letters I drew pictures beside the words
- Although doing it this way was more work, the students seemed more invested and willing to participate because their input was part of the activity
- I noticed this week that any of the letters that go beneath the line some of my students seem to struggle with – I spoke to my colleagues about this and one said that in her room they tell the students that the letters that go under the line are ‘with the worms’ comparing the ground with the line. She said this works well in their room so I may try this trick while helping students write in the future (the last few letters we have are all above the line)
- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- I played a Terry Fox video at the end of the day with a video that has a slideshow of pictures and a song in the background. I did this as part of the closing activity at the end of the day. It was a nice way to introduce someone and answer some initial questions while simultaneously gathering interest.
- WED: Terry Fox
- Played another video with pictures/videos of Terry Fox with music playing in the background – students were very itrigued and quiet throughout the video; since this was after music I told them they could march on the spot to the music however most sat mesmerized. We then read half of the book Terry Fox by Jennifer Sutoski and read the second half at the end of the day.
- THUR: Story Workshop
In this photo you can see the enjoyment on a student’s face as she creates her story using the materials.
- Math – Measurement: Measuring and Estimating Width
- (W5) Math Measuring Width
- Reflection & Ways to Improve:
- I started this lesson by connecting it to the last two lessons on width we have done – students were able to produce the words thick, thin, wide, and narrow
- I introduced the concept of estimating before measuring during this lesson; after reviewing the worksheets it appears that a little over half of the students grasped the concept; I did hear some students worry about their estimate being wrong (despite that I said we don’t need to worry about this) while other clearly wrote the same number in each space
- I was worried about demonstrating this lesson because often I wonder if students will memorize the answers and one did do that this lesson (although he could only do it for two as I used a different book for the demonstration and one was a personal measurement: arm span)
- I made a salamander out of straw connectors to challenge some of the students who have been moving quickly through these measuring activities; many liked it but some clearly did not measure the salamander and just wrote a number in; one student in particular I sent back to re-measure it since he wrote 100 as his answer (I knew this answer was around 24 from the demonstration) and I told him it seemed too big of a number; when he showed me his paper again he changed it to 74 and I said to try to do it with a friend instead of doing it all by himself; later he showed me his paper and he had changed the number down to seven; this shows me that some students when faced with a bigger task choose to avoid it rather than try it themselves; next time I may require students work in pairs when I present a more challenging task or at least present this as an option before sending students to complete their worksheet
- FRI: Today was a fun day for both myself and the students. They had a presentation in the morning which allowed us to collaborate for next weeks lessons. After recess we did calendar and read some poems by Shel Silverstein. Reading poems to the students is something new I started this week and so far they seem to be enjoying the silliness of Shel Silverstein’s poems (we’re reading Don’t Bump the Glump). After lunch our school was participating in the Terry Fox run. I was a main organizer of this event and ran the warm up for the Primary group (grades K through 3). As a result of all my prep and mini-lessons with the students they were very excited to participate in the run. I ran two laps with some of the students helping to motivate those running, ensuring students didn’t give up after falling/getting tired, and checking in with parent volunteers who were holding signs along the route. The weather was lovely and it was a wonderful way to end the week.
Week Five Reflection