The LAST Day Before Christmas

Today, we ran our annual Christmas Loonie for License.  Students were able to purchase 1 license for $1 or get all 3 licenses for $2.  Bargain shopping for the holidays!

In our room, the three licenses offered were 1) eat with friends = no lunch room monitor in primary classes 2) games and 3) movie in the afternoon.  Ha-ha-happy to report that every student purchased all three licenses.

Just before pizza lunch, the bosses treated the entire school to a Christmas show performed by a local talent, Matthew Romain.  Lots of smiles and singing filled the gym and our own Brent and Gloria became part of the show!

On the last day before Christmas my teacher gave to me

A popcorn snack and movie.

In the afternoon while munching on SmartFood popcorn and enjoying chocolate milk (courtesy of the snack program and less messy than hot chocolate but equally as yummy), we watched "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever".

1983 movie adaptation of the book

We got to see the Herdman's cat (a class favourite character), meet the Herdmans and other characters but missed the show and tell incident with the cat.  The movie stayed fairly true to the book and was less than an hour so it gave the kids a chance to play some games on their devices, listen to music and play a class game of Kahoot that Gloria created for Christmas.

These last five days before Christmas Break were ones filled with a true spirit of Christmas.  The students experienced cookie baking (some for the first time), singing Christmas songs, giving and receiving, wrapping presents and making them, packing our school's gifts for the Downtown Mission, attending Mass and spending time together.

In the words of Gladys Herdman as the Angel Gabriel, 6B leaves you with this message:

"HEY!  Unto us a child is born!"

Merry Christmas!

~MissBrooks

See you in 2017

The 2nd Day Before Christmas

Today was a day of community and prayer.  The entire school headed over to our neighbouring church to attend Mass right after morning bell.  I decided to give the students an M&M Christmas poem as their second to last gift before the break to coincide with that prayerful look at the season.

Someone is certainly clever to have come up with this one!  Some kids even had M&Ms left at the end of the day.  Simple but great message!

In the afternoon, the school gathered again; this time in the gym for assembly.  The grade 2s treated everyone to a Christmas dance they had prepared.  This was followed up by the big kids' number that they had practiced with the dance coaches.  Here is a clip that shows some of the girls from 6B:

The purpose of the assembly was to award a student from each classroom with a certificate for being representatives of the pillar of Gratitude.  Congratulations to Katie from our class!

With only one day left before Christmas break, I'd say we've covered many traditions of Christmas.  What could tomorrow possibly have in store?

~MissBrooks

The 3rd Day Before Christmas

Well, we've reached the middle of the week pretty much unscathed and still with some Christmas spirit left in the tank!  As the Christmas song says, it really is the MOST WONDERFUL TIME of the year!

It's a wrap!  We spent first period this morning wrapping the snowman ornaments from yesterday.  These girls pitched in to help most of the class.  They're a little like Bryony Elf from the movie Arthur Christmas ... they could wrap a gift with only 3 pieces of tape!

French class brought the rolling of the dough and cookie baking time.  The halls were filled with the smells of minty, cookie goodness.  We certainly appreciate all of the time and effort (not to mention cost) that Madame put forth to share this Christmas tradition with the Grade Sixes.

Taste testing elves agree that this recipe is a keeper!

On the third day before Christmas, my teacher gave to me

An Hour of Code to challenge me!

This gift came courtesy of code.org .  Their site is full of different coding challenges for various ages and ability levels.  My class stuck to the Code Your Own Sports Game, Flappy Bird, Moana, and Candy Quest options.  Many finished in about 40 minutes.  I was one of the laggers and I've coded before!  I think it's because I had to stop to take pictures and see what everyone else was up to!

We did a lesson in the morning which involved making the students become programmers and robots.  This was to drive home how important it was to not skip steps.  

Madyson is here in this pic and shows up in the video
below.  A future programmer?

Needless to say, there was some frustration (mostly me), complete concentration and engagement and loads of exhilaration!  A real sense of satisfaction was felt by everyone who completed their coding challenge.  This coding sure teaches perseverance and patience and to follow steps in order.  

By the end of the day, we agreed a nap could be in order.  Kaylie didn't hesitate and snuck in about 10 winks before having to get ready to board the bus for home!

See what we're up to tomorrow!

~MissBrooks

The 4th Day Before Christmas

Today, in an effort not to be outdone by yesterday, was "snow" full of activity that maybe a nap is in order for tomorrow!

After a game of "Tree Movers" in gym, we headed back to the classroom to see Madame Coolen, decked in her finest apron and wielding wooden spoons and measuring cups.  The grade sixes were going to be making short bread cookie dough this morning as part of their French lesson!

Listening to instructions for making candy cane short bread cookies

This leant itself well to the problem for Math.  It was a baking question that the students were told to VISUALIZE, VERBALIZE and VERIFY.  The visualization really helps in understanding the problem...

Each batch of 48 cookies that Jolly McJingles makes takes 20 minutes in the oven. If the oven is on for 3 hours and 55 minutes (15 minutes for preheating), how many cookies did Jolly McJingles make?

I love how you can use different
strategies/thinking
to get to the answer!

The entire school is doing an open response for the poem "Snowman".  So, that was the text we read aloud today since it fit with our plans for later in the afternoon (and a sample was due to the bosses tomorrow).

SNOWMAN

Author Unknown

My little snowman has a mouth,

So he is always smiling south.

My little snowman has a nose;

I couldn't seem to give him toes,

I couldn't seem to make his ears.

He shed a lot of frozen tears

Before I gave him any eyes---

But they are big ones for his size.

This lead to a discussion about line 2's "smiling south" and punctuation's importance when reading poetry.  Do you interpret the meaning differently depending on how the poem is read?  The kids noticed that there was no punctuation after "tears" in line 6 so, if it was read along with line 7 it meant something different to some of them.  The question they were asked to respond to was "Why do you think the snowman is built the way that you are visualizing?"

We decided poetry is a little like Math because there is no right answer or way to go about it as long as you give REASONS for your THINKING!

Some responses included:

They put a smile, nose but he doesn't have toes or ears so he is feeling pretty sad cause he doesn't have those body parts but there was one last thing: his eyes. So he was waiting for his eyes to be put on and as soon as the person put on the eyes he stopped because it said that  “He shed a lot of frozen tears Before I gave him any eyes---” That means the wet tears turned into frozen tears because he was no longer sad.--Christian

I think he was sad but he became happy because it says “He shed a lot of frozen tears Before I gave him any eyes--But they are big ones for his size.” And that means that he was sad before he could see the world that it good and full of joy and not badness.--Grace

Maybe the person found too big of rocks (eyes) so they looked odd on him.The frozen tears could be that the snowman is melting and water was dripping from his face.Also his mouth he could have made the snowman facing south (direction).That is why I see him that way.--Xavier

The disastrous craft table

We spent the last period of the afternoon with a glue gun and an explosion of craft items so the students could make Christmas tree ornaments.  These turned out pretty cute and definitely show the maker's personality.  Tomorrow we will wrap them (if giving them away) and send them home.

Come back to read how the cookies turned out and what the third day before Christmas gift is going to be!

~MissBrooks

Each​ ​batch​ ​of​ ​48​ ​cookies​ ​that​ ​Jolly​ ​McJingle​ ​makes​ ​takes​ ​20​ ​minute

5 Days Before Christmas

When your French teacher comes up with an idea to have the class figure out their "elf names", you embrace the fun and go with it!  

So, 5 days before Christmas (break), our class had "Elf Day".  I delivered hats to each of the students with an ulterior motive in mind!  If the kids put their name on their hat, I would not fail to remember their elf names! 

Madame passing out the clips for the Name Game

The trick of Madame's game is to only call each other by our elf names.  If we get caught using real names, we give up a clothespin.  Elvis PicklePants is currently sharing the collecting lead with Gabriella ... OOPS!  I meant Merry SugarSocks.

Names are determined from the first letter of your
first name and your birth month

Carrying the elf theme into some curriculum, I read aloud the story "How Santa Got His Job" by Stephen Krensky.  We talked about what qualities Santa possessed that made him suited to his job as deliverer of presents on Christmas Eve.  I then challenged the students to apply the RAFT strategy to their writing.

R - Role -  An elf applying to work for Santa

A - Audience - Santa

F - Format - Persuasive letter

T - Topic - Elf for hire

Students worked on the brainstorm portion and some even began rough drafts.  Tomorrow, we will co-create success criteria, consider the rubric, complete the rough drafts and ask a friend to help us peer edit.

We ended the day, like all elves, in a rush to meet a deadline!  This was a day that the 6B classroom was transformed into Santa's "wrap shack" as the students hustled to pack bags for St Bernard's "Operation Christmas Backpack".

Each classroom was responsible for bringing in a part of the contents which ranged from toiletries to socks, gloves and toques to some snacks.  These will be loaded in my sleigh (Jeep) and dropped off at Street Help.

Until tomorrow,

~Jolly McJingles 

(aka MissBrooks)

The Best Christmas Literacy Ever (Part 1)

This year, with a full three weeks (plus 2 days) of December before Christmas Break, how to deliver some literacy curriculum in a festive way is extended until the 23rd!  

I dug out an old favourite, Barbara Robinson's "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" to share with this year's class.  The novel introduced the Herdmans and their introduction to the Christmas story in seven chapters (80 pages).

This is the cover of the novels we have

Since I have a class set of novels, I read aloud a chapter each day while the kids follow along or simply listen.

Chapter 1:  Robinson's descriptive language allows for the reader to easily visualize her scenes and characters.  Although there are pencil illustrations scattered throughout the book, I challenged the students at the end of this chapter to sketch the Herdman's pet cat based on what was read.
  

From the above student sketches, courtesy of Dylan and Marie Claire, you may notice that the cat is missing an eye, has a broken tail and one leg that is shorter than the other three.  It also was responsible for the destruction of a classroom aquarium of goldfish.  As Marie Claire notes, the Herdmans DO have a Beware of Cat sign hanging on their property.

Later, I had the students answer a seemingly simple question:  What do you think of the Herdmans?  Many students mentioned how terrible they were, supporting their opinion with proof from the text (they smoke cigars, bribe and blackmail the kids in their classes, steal, burned down a tool shed, swear).  I was not expecting the response I got from Jesse:

"I think that no one gave them a chance to make a good impression.  I would hang out with them because they seem lonely and might need someone to cheer them up.  When they do those bad things I guess it would make them happy.  I think they are amazing, good kids.  Maybe they are only bad because they want someone to hang out with."

Warms your heart, doesn't it?

Chapter 2-4:  The reader is introduced to the Christmas pageant preparation at the local church,  We hear Luke's Gospel of the birth of Jesus and learn of the Herdman kids' reaction to Jesus being born in a stable since the "hotel" was full.  They perceive the Wise Men as horrible gift givers and Herod's "dirty little spies" and Gladys, the youngest Herdman, views the angel of the Lord like a comic book character who shouts "Shazam!" to get the attention of the shepherds.

Taking my cue from their reaction, I suggested to the students that the Herdmans would have been appalled by Joseph's lack of planning for a return to Bethlehem for the census with his very pregnant wife, Mary.

Students were then tasked to form a travel company (alone or in partners) and create a brochure that included flight information (why travel on a donkey when you can ride first class?), an attraction, a restaurant and a pre-booked hotel.  We agreed it is much easier to be prepared in the age of technology and with some help from Tripadvisor, Trivago and Red Tag sites!

The brochure created by Gloria and Gabriella

This coming week, we finish the novel. Stay tuned for part 2!

~MissBrooks

 

Getting in Shape

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been exploring Geometry in our math block, covering angles and attributes and exploring nets and nonagons (and other -gons!).  Below are a couple activities we tried.

SeeSaw app in action

my shape has 4 right angles. 4 sides, 2 lines of symmetry and 4 vertices

SeeSaw App

This app is like a live bulletin board where students can display their work for others to see.  Peers can make comments (give descriptive feedback) about the work to further learning.

After adding the app from the ChromeStore to our individual Chromebooks, students were challenged to 1. take a photo of a quadrilateral in the classroom.  This proved not so challenging as we only had squares (Starburst candies) and rectangles (tables, books, charts).  Not even a trapezoid table!  But we persevered...

Next, and after uploading the picture to SeeSaw from their camera roll, the Ss were encouraged to use the 2. drawing tool to show attributes.  These "smarties" didn't care that they had never used this app before and began colour coding their math thinking (which made it easier for anyone seeing their work to distinguish ideas).

With pictures in, I forced the Ss to try putting their thinking into words...to explain what they had drawn on their pictures.  They had the option of 3. captioning the picture or recording their explanation with the   4.audio tool. 

The magic happens in the comments!  The Ss needed to apply what they knew about quadrilaterals and suggest ways their peers could improve upon their work.  Here are the comments Marie Claire received for her work (in the above photo):

 

Math

 Allyssa Langford, Christian Dushaj, Gabriella Stabile, Gloria Julius, Jesse Hamilton, MarieClaire Juntilla, Max Masood-Luca

 

Gloria Julius I like that you put the lines of symmetry. Maybe next time you could add dots on the vertices so it's more clear. 

Dylan Gilliam I like how you showed the lines of symmetry

Jesse Hamilton I love how you showed parallel lines, vertices and the angles. What if you could show more about your shape? What would you do? Roberta Brooks Marie Claire, I appreciated how you colour coded the work which made it really easy to read. I think I would like it if everyone did that! 

I ❣ this app!

Grandpa Tang's Story 

by Ann Tompert

Grandfather Tang and Little Soo create a story using their tangrams about two fox fairies who have the ability to change into the shapes of any animals they choose. Includes informational section about the ancient Chinese puzzles called tangrams.

After reading the story aloud to the Ss, I projected the animals that were created in the story and challenged them to use their own set of tangrams to re-create as many of the animals as they were able in 10 minutes. Can you guess these animals that appear in the story?

Manipulating the tangrams was a bit of a challenge at first.  Ss are so used to seeing shapes in an upright position; rotating and flipping the shapes to create the animals was not their first instinct.

I then projected another challenge where Ss were to try and create a shape using a set number of pieces.  Each tangram piece was given a point value to help them to narrow down their choices.  This may have led to some confusion but the Ss who love numbers were certainly aided with this bit.

An example of one of the challenges was to create a square using 2 pieces that were worth 10 points.

The Ss who like numbers looked for combinations that made a total of 10 and saw it was the yellow and green pieces, the red and light blue pieces, or the orange and pink pieces.  By manipulating the two pieces together, they could quickly decide that the 2 large triangles would form a square.  Some Ss knew the answer had to have two congruent shapes or a square was impossible.  This particular example will come into play when we discuss area of rectangles vs area of triangles.  If Ss remember that 2 triangles make a square (which is a type of rectangle) AND they already know that the area of a rectangle is l x w, wouldn't the area of a triangle be half of that (since half of a square is a triangle)?

Let us know in the comments how you get students in shape for geometry!

~MissBrooks

We Took (Virtual) Field Trips to Indonesia and Thailand

We just completed our second field trip with Brandon Hall from Learning Around the World GEOShow.

Minus the jet lag...

and without passports...

and no crossing of time zones...

We went to Thailand and Indonesia without even leaving our classroom and it was beyond expectation!

Our first VFT was to see the Asian Elephants in Thailand

The engagement and level of enthusiasm from almost every child was high.  These webinars allow the participating classrooms to interact with Brandon through Twitter, playing Kahoot and chatting (either face to face as an on-screen guest or through the chat feature by typing questions).  Field notes were provided for the Thailand trip and students scribbled to get as much information as possible.  This helped us make the leader board in the Kahoot challenge at the end of the webinar.

4th Place finish in the Kahoot challenge

Gloria's notes evidence her learning and engagement
throughout the hour long webinar.

For the second field trip, which was to Komodo, Indonesia, we signed up to be on-screen guests.  This was the first time for the kids to participate like this and luckily, Brandon controlled the mute button to block our chatter from the other participating classes!  Some of the students had read an article ("Dragon Alert") as part of their guided reading groups this week (happy accident) and they were eager to share some facts about Komodo dragons, a cannibalistic creature whose only predator is itself (and humans, but it's illegal to hunt).

Here's a tweet I sent out during the VFT to Indonesia.

Experiencing these trips has made the study of biodiversity (one of four strands in Ontario Science curriculum) interactive, engaging and interesting for everyone in our classroom.  Go check out if one of their virtual field trips applies to some level of interest in your classrooms.  It will blow you away!

~MissBrooks