Week of November 27th

Bonjour!

I mainly update this blog to post the new audio dictée, but it also allows me to reflect on the past week and what is to come.  Perhaps if I only posted the dictée the post would get out sooner, but I wouldn't get to share the fun things like how fun it was to make bread this past Wednesday!

Making bread in a classroom with 7 & 8 year olds is a whole-day adventure.  In the past I would help each student to measure ingredients.  In an effort to streamline the process, and to save my sanity, this year I decided to pre-measure ingredients for each group.  With the pre-measured ingredients, the dough had extra time to rise since all groups were able to mix the components at the same time.

My goal was to tie-in this baking with our Matter unit, so I tried to point out how the yeast was activated with the warm water and how mixing the ingredients together produced gasses.  The proof were the bubbles in the dough.

Mixing ingredients was a cinch.  An hour or so later, shaping the dough quickly became very exciting.  At some point someone had the idea to add more flour and soon many students were running to the front of the class while stretching gooey dough between their hands.  I wish I could have shared the laughs by texting a picture to my night custodian!  Everything turned out fine and it really wasn't all that messy after all.  I still have to perfect this part of the process though so next time,  giving each group a small bowl of extra flour and having more cookie sheets would make it this step easier.

Bread dough is very forgiving and it turned out well in the end.  We ate the buns around 2pm, hot out of the oven.  Many thanks to all of you who sent in flour, butter, and jam.  Every year someone says:  "This is the best bread in the world!".  I love hearing this and it makes it all worth while.  Next time we will have to make a few extra buns for hungry staff who turn up at our door.

On Thursday we wrote-up our "experiment" in our Science duotangs.  If you would like to try this at home, the recipe is here.  Our dough was a bit too runny so you may need to add more flour.

Friday and Saturday I was sponsored by the District to attend the Google Summit for educators at Oak Bay High School.  It was a s 2 day conference packed with all the latest and greatest ideas using Google Apps for Education.  I'm really grateful to have been one of the teachers chosen to attend this conference.  Oh, and someone in my household may or may not have welcomed a new 360camera into our life.

This week's audio dictée:

Week 12

Bonjour!

It was a busy week with our field trip to the Royal BC Museum, and us teachers writing report cards for the past few weeks.  Luckily we had such an incredible day on Wednesday, and the end is in sight for the reports.  

First, let me thank Paul, Tracy, Shari, and Daphne for shepherding the students on the bus as well as in the museum.  We were treated to our guide Lesley McGarry's knowledge of First Nations traditions and ways of learning during our visit of the First Peoples' Exhibit.  While I have visited this gallery many times in the past decades, hearing her information was like experiencing it for the first time.  The kids were mesmerized by Lesley's delivery, we all were actually, and they were able to retell many tidbits of information they had learned on a Mindmap they created later that afternoon in school.  I hope they were able to share some of their experiences at home too.

It's hard to believe that our first term is already at its end.  It seems like we're just getting comfortable in our new classrooms (new to me too).  Exciting news at Willows this week as the portables/studios/cottages/... are near completed and the 2 classes will finally get their new digs.  For us that means that the library will be back in business this week and students will be able to have classes in the gym.

To celebrate our first term of learning together I would like to celebrate in a small way.  I like to make bread with students at least once a year.  It’s messy, but fun and delicious.  We can also look at it from the point of view of matter changing states from liquid goo to solid as we are starting to look at Matter in Science.  I’m planning on baking this Wednesday, as long as the kitchen is available. 

- Please send along 1 cup of flour or some butter or jam if possible. 

Tomorrow afternoon we have the pleasure of welcoming Gary Allen and his wolf to Willows, yes that's right, his 90% wolf.  Gary will be speaking about ecosystems and is a speaker in great demand.  You can find out more about his program here:

2 weeks at a glance:

This week:

Monday:  Gary Allen wolf presentation

Tuesday:  P.E.

Wednesday:  Breadmaking day, choir

Thursday:  Dictée (please return dictée cahiers), library visit

Friday:  Pro-D (no school for students.  I will be attending the Google Summit for educators at OBHS Friday & Saturday)

Next week:

The return of library days as needed Mondays and Thursdays

Tuesday:  P.E.

Wednesday:  Choir

Thursday:  Dictée

Friday:  Little buddies

This week’s audio dictée:

Week 11 in Div. 11

Bonjour!

Please see the email for field trip information.

Upcoming:
Thurs. Nov. 16 - Dictée
Fri. Nov. 17 - Pizza/sushi

Mon. Nov. 20 - Author visit
Tues. Nov. 21 - P.E.
Thurs. Nov. 23 - Dictée
Fri. Nov. 24 - Professional Day.  No school for students.  I will attending the Google Summit for educators on Friday and Saturday at Oak Bay High School.

This week's dictée:

Week 10 in Div. 11

Bonjour!

Please look for a newsletter coming home tomorrow about our upcoming field trip.

What we're working on in class right now:

Math
- Learning and practicing French numbers:  Many students enter Grade 3 having difficulty remembering French numbers over 59.  Please practice counting by 10s in French at home.  To practice matching numbers from 1 to 100 at home, try this game.

You can also make flashcards on this link.

- Place Value:  We are also learning all about the "House of Math", otherwise known as "Thousands, Hundreds, Tens, and Units", and recognizing that the "2" in 3298, is greater than the "9" because it represents 2 x 100, which is greater than 9 x 10.  We will be working with blocs, representing numbers with words and illustrating them, as well as breaking numbers down into smaller parts.

French
- I have started to assess French reading for the first report card and will update the first page of each student's agenda so you can double-check that your child is bringing home the correct reading level.

- This week we should be finishing to read our first French novel together.  It's the story of a family vacationing in a house with a bat problem.  We have been transforming the non-fiction parts of the story into our own ideas to create an informative poster about bats.

Remembrance Day posters
This past week we started to discuss what Remembrance Day means to us.  Many students have connections to this time of the year and were able to share them in class.  We also started to work on posters for this occasion.  Every year, I invite students to participate in the Canadian Legion's Remembrance Day poster contest.  We take time to look at other students' artwork which leads to discussions about what makes an interesting poster.  If your child is interested in participating in the contest I will send a form in the agenda.  Find out more information about the contest here:

This week's happenings:
Monday Nov. 6th: reading assessments.  Please send your child's labeled choir uniform in a labeled plastic bag.
Tuesday:  Choir practice, P.E.
Thursday:  Choir practice
Friday:  Remembrance Day assembly, little buddies

Next week:
Monday Nov. 13th:  holiday, no school
Tuesday:  P.E.
Friday:  Pizza/Sushi, little buddies

Here is this week's audio dictée: