I am joining other teachers in sharing Canadian books/resources this week. I chose to focus on Phoebe Gilman and her books.
Phoebe Gilman was born in the USA, but she moved to Canada as an adult and she taught art at the Ontario College of Art. She created her stories based on events in her life. She continued writing and illustrating children's books until she died in 2002. The picture above shows some of the books that she wrote and illustrated. These are my personal copies. My students loved the stories about Jillian Jiggs and her imaginative actions and adventures. They also enjoyed the story Something From Nothing and how Gilman added the story of the mice to the main story through her illustrations. Another thing that she did was add illustrations from her previous books into each new book she wrote.
A few years ago, Scholastic put out a VHS called Meet Phoebe Gilman. I still have a copy of the tape. On the tape she reads the two books above and then she talks about how she came up with the ideas for her books. She also shows how she created her books. I wish it was still available for you to see.
I have chosen the book The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs to focus on. It is a delightful story about a little girl who has a big imagination. She often gets so caught up in creating stories and adventures that she gets messy. Her mother says her room looks like it has been lived in by pigs.
In this story, Jillian finds a jar of buttons while cleaning up her room and the buttons remind her of pig noses. This gets her imagination going and she decides to make pigs. Check out the book to see some of the delightful pigs she makes and what happens when she decides to sell them. I created this product to accompany the book The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs. Click on the image to get a copy. I hope you get a chance to check out some of her books. I think you will enjoy them.
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On November 11th, Canadians took time out to remember our veterans. Here is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the National War Memorial in our nation's capital. This was just one of the places where ceremonies took place. Ceremonies of remembrance also took place at towns and cities across the country.
This year I had the privilege of working in a classroom of a colleague prior to Remembrance Day. It was a special time to share ideas and discuss what Peace is all about. We began with a few videos and some discussion around them. If you would like to see them, click here to read about them in an earlier post.
The next day, we discussed what Remembrance Day was about and why we had it. Here are some of the ideas that we came up with.
After discussing war and who veterans were, we talked about Peace. We brainstormed what it is and then we shared examples of peace. We also talked about a kindness explosion. I showed them the following poster and we talked about how children can make a difference by spreading kindness and getting along with others. We tried to imagine what it would be like to have everyone in the gym create the model of paying it forward. This would be fun to do sometime.
After all of our brainstorming, the children wrote poems about peace. They were to come up with 4 things and then end it with "Let's all live in peace." Here is the template they used. If you right click on the image you can download a copy.
To encourage them to do their best writing and to help them with the concept of draft and good copy, they were given a colored copy after the draft was complete and edited. They then did the good copy on the colored template. This concept of having to rewrite the poem was difficult for some.
Here are the final copies of their poems. The colors pop and make for a great bulletin board display.
These pictures were hanging in the hotel that I stayed in on the weekend. I thought they were perfect for this time of the year, so I am sharing them with you.
Let's focus on what is right in the world and how we can work towards a world of peace, especially in light of what is happening around us right now.
In Canada, October means Fall, Thanksgiving, Gratitude, Halloween and Fun. It is a great time to use seasonal material to engage students in learning. When I began teaching, I did the basics for Fall and Thanksgiving, and then I spent lots of time with Halloween ideas. As time went on, this shifted. I began to focus more on Thanksgiving and gratitude and I kept Halloween activities for the end of the month.
Teaching about gratitude and kindness is so important. I believe that this is one of the most important things we can share with others. If people have an attitude of gratitude, and develop giving natures, the world will be a better place. This poster shows just how acts of kindness can cause an explosion if we all get involved.
I have created several products that focus on Fall and Thanksgiving. To see the details, click on the images below.
As Halloween approaches, the following activities will keep children engaged.
I wish everyone an exciting and fun-filled October and I look forward to seeing some of the blog posts of fall adventures.
December is a busy and happy time for sharing and giving. The children can hardly contain their excitement. It is sometimes exhausting, but it is very rewarding at the end of the day. Here are some highlights of our last couple of weeks.
A couple of years ago I got this DIY idea from Pinterest. It was from Charity Preston"s Classroom DIY. My kids loved finding out what was hiding behind each number. On one day they had a movie and popcorn. We watched Santa Claus the Movie. They loved it.
For our Christmas concert we performed A Porcupine In a Pine Tree. This was a Canadian version of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I created the boards based on the images in the book and each child had a board to hold up. They did an awesome job. Here are some pictures of the Mounties, the Leafs, and some of the animals.
On the last day, I decided to let the children do a make and take it activity. I put out a bunch of different craft materials and they created their own Christmas crafts. Here are some of the creations.
At Christmas teachers often receive gifts from students. I appreciate every gift, but this one especially warmed my heart. One of my students really wanted to give me something, so she colored me a picture and gave me Canadian Tire money along with a candy cane. Isn't that sweet?
Winter break is finally here and we are having everyone here for Christmas. This will be the first time since 2009 that all my family will be together. One daughter has arrived with her 3 children and my older son and his family live in town. My other son and his family, my son-in-law and my mother and mother-in-law will be arriving on Christmas Eve. My other daughter will arrive on Christmas Day.
Here is a picture of the tree. It is hard to find it under all the presents. There will be some very excited people on Christmas Day.
Merry Christmas to all my friends and family and to all the wonderful people I have met or had the blessing to encounter through blogging and collaborating.
Last Week of School Activities
School is almost done and this week has been a busy one. We got rained out today, so Beach Day didn't happen, but we had a Movie afternoon so the kids were happy.
This week I have been doing review in Language Arts and Math through games. My kids think they are in a new class. They can't believe that they get to "play" all day. I have so many games, that there were many they had never seen before, so they were excited to get their hands on them. Check out the pictures below.
We also had a couple of class movies, one on Friday, and one yesterday. The first one was Ramona and Beezus. My boys were not too happy because they thought of it as a girl's movie, but once they started watching it, they didn't want it to end.
The second one was more for the boys. it was Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The girls weren't impressed at first, but again they couldn't stop watching once it got started. Math Fun Today we did Math review of addition and subtraction, counting money, and telling time. I used the QR Codes Math Fun Bundle from Flapjack Educational Resources. I didn't get any pictures because my phone was being used for scanning the codes. I have never seem my kids work so fast. They wanted to get their hands on the scanners so they could check out their answers. People were surprised by how focused they were. Student Gift Bags
Last night I put together my year end gift bags for my class. I gave them each a book from Scholastic on Friday, but I made up a little goodie bag as well. Check it out below. It has some of the things they might need to be ready for Canada Day.
Here is a closer look at the items I used. I am sure my American friends could find something similar for your July 4th celebration.
I am super excited to be a part of Booking Across Canada. This is such a great country and I love having a chance to share a part of it with others. Click on the button above to check out posts from different provinces and territories of this great land.
The book I would like to share is called S is for Spirit Bear. It is a book about British Columbia that is written in an alphabet format. It is part of a series from Sleeping Bear Press.
I was introduced to the series when my class received a gift from my cousins in Manitoba as part of our flat family project. They sent us G is for Golden Boy with a message in the cover for my class. I really liked the format and went on a search to see what other books were available. I found S is for Spirit Bear in the library and quickly signed it out for my class to see. It fit in perfectly with our study of Canada and the province we live in. I knew I had to have a copy of it for myself. I also got copies of the other provinces. There are now books available for all ten provinces. I hope that one day there will be books for the three territories as well.
The book format works well for young children who have just learned their alphabet. It helps them to see how different ideas or events match the letters of the alphabet. It has realistic illustrations that capture the attention of the readers and it has more detailed information along the sidebars for those who want to learn more about the people or events chosen. I shared this book with my five year old grandson and he told me what the next letter would be and he helped me to think about what activities would go well with different pages. Here are a few examples. Click on the activity images to download them.
This is just a small sampling of what this book has to offer. If you get a chance to look at it, you will also learn about some of the other important features and people of our province. Don't forget to check out the books on the other provinces as well. I just put the finishing touches on my activity booklet to go with each of the letters of the alphabet. It is now in my TpT store if you would like to get a copy. It will be on sale for 50% off for this week to allow those visiting the Booking Across Canada blogs a chance to get it for a reduced price. Click here to see it.
I am so excited to be able to link up with other Canadian bloggers.
Ms. McKay from Teaching is a Gift has created a linky party that connects Canadian bloggers with other in the same province. I have met so many fabulous teachers through their blogs, but I felt like something was missing. I am a real homebody and I wanted to be linked to "Home". For me, that is the place where I live and teach. Terms like Common Core are still a bit foreign to me. I guess it would be the same for my American friends if I started talking about our curriculum strands. In British Columbia, teachers would be familiar with terms like IRPs and PLOs which stand for Integrated Resource Packages and Prescribed Learning Outcomes. There are many overlapping concepts, learning outcomes, goals and objectives, but the terminology is different. If I look past the terminology and check out the products, it is easy to see how they can be adapted to fit. I appreciate that so many teachers have graciously provided them for us to access. Now, I have the chance to connect with some of the Canadian teachers and help this market to grow and blossom in the way that the American market has.
Mrs. D over at Reading With Mrs. D is putting together a Booking Across Canada party and she is looking for representatives from all of the provinces and territories.
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About Me Charlene Sequeira
I am a wife, mother of 4, grandmother of 9, and a retired primary and music teacher. I love working with kids and continue to volunteer at school and teach ukulele. Categories
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