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Winter's Last Hurrah! Awaiting Spring!

2/28/2014

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I an linking up again at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Here is a glimpse at my week.

The snow finally caught up to us on the west coast of Canada. This is a picture from our kitchen window on Sunday afternoon. The snow continued to fall through the night and we had a snow day on Monday.
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The kids had a great time this week playing and sledding in the snow. It is disappearing now, but there is a chance of some more coming this weekend.

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My class had a great time following the Olympics. They were so excited every time Canada won a medal. We began writing stories last week from my writing activities package. They are finally done and on the bulletin board. I am so proud of the stories they created. Even my weakest students wrote incredible stories. They also created fabulous illustrations to go along with them. I can hardly wait for the parents to see them next week at our student-led conferences.

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My students have been having a blast doing idioms. When I found this blog post by Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching, I had to show it to my class. Now they have homework for the weekend. I can hardly wait to see the idioms they bring to school.
I also created a set of task cards which we played with today. I am amazed at how much they have learned about idioms.


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February is such a jam packed month, it is hard to find time to do teaching of core material. I find that I need to squeeze it in between all the events going on. We have just started working with measurement in math and with the scientific process in science. I was able to get a set of measurement tools cards from Camping Teacher and I also created a set of anchor charts and conversions that we will be using.
The kids had fun going around and measuring things in the classroom using measuring tapes, rulers, links, cubes, pencils, erasers, and hands.
We also did a math lesson as an experiment. We wrote it up using the scientific method and then we proceeded to test it out. I will share what we did next week after we try it out again with the parents at the conferences.

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Finally, I just wanted to comment on how effective I am finding the rules for WBT.
I have modified them a bit for my class, but they work like a charm. I have not needed to use a treasure box, behavior charts, or any other types of motivators this year. It is exciting to see the children buying into following the rules and taking it so seriously. It is time to say goodbye to the winter theme and create a new and brighter set for the spring. This set will be available for free for the weekend if you would like to grab a set for next winter.


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Communicating Student Learning Update

2/26/2014

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We have now completed 6 months of the school year. It is hard to believe that over half of the year is already over. Communicating student learning continues to be a focus in our district. Here is my post from the beginning of the year. 
Soon we will be holding our second set of interviews. This is the first time that we have had a second scheduled interview with parents in a school year. For some of my colleagues, student led- conferences are a new way of meeting as well. They are used to doing parent interviews. We have this year to make the shift, and some teachers have yet to try the student led conferences.
It is also a big shift to be sending home assessment material throughout the year instead of the standard formal report cards we were doing each term.
It is supposed to be easier and more authentic, but it is becoming overwhelming and people are getting stressed out. Change is not easy and this is a big shift for many people. Hopefully as time passes, the stress will lessen and the process will be more streamlined.

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We are also moving towards using more technology and less paper. Some people are testing out using e-portfolios and class websites to communicate with parents. Others are uploading and scanning assessment papers, rubrics, newsletters, and work samples into group folders.
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I have been doing student-led conferences for almost twenty years now, and I love them.  Student-led conferences or three way conferences can be very powerful for both the students and the families. It allows for sharing of successes and focuses on what is going well. It is a great way to share learning. The time spent with the teacher is only a small part of the conference and it is usually after the child has done some sharing first. It is a time to discuss what is going well, areas needing improvement, and concerns. The atmosphere is inviting and empowering for the child.
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Here are two activities from my student-led conference package. I find them very helpful in the process. The first one is great for getting conversations started, and the letter is a wonderful reflection for the child later on.

What are some of the ways you report back to parents and communicate student learning? I would love to hear about them.

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Pro-D, Scientific Process, and the Olympics

2/21/2014

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February continues to be very busy and full of many different special times and events. I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share some of them with you.
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Monday was a Pro-D Day for our district. We are working on communicating student learning in a different way this year, so this was a chance to meet and discuss how things were going. We also did some more work on moving toward electronic communications and how to better manage this.
In the afternoon, we spent some time learning about the 8 iPads that we received for our school. We will start signing them out and sharing them soon.
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The Scientific Process
This is a new concept for my class. We looked at the posters and explanations from a set that I got through TpT.
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Clink Clunk Test
We used the scientific process to do an experiment on gravity.
I call it the Clink Clunk test. My students were amazed to discover that the objects fell at the same speed. If you would like a copy of this, click here. One day I will make it look more appealing, but for now, it does the job.

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Olympic Stories
Today, my class worked on their Olympic stories. It was so rewarding to see them becoming writers and sharing some of their voice and style in their writing. We still need to do lots of work with conventions, but at least the ideas are getting down on paper now.
We spent time this afternoon drawing pictures to go with the stories. The stories still need some editing, but we will continue with that next week.
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Olympics Medal Count
We have been keeping track of the medals that Canada wins on our Medal Tracker sheet. Each day we watch about ten minutes of the Olympics and we check the results from the day before. Because of the time difference, this is the only time some of them see the events. We have been very fortunate, because most times when we have watched a segment, one or more of our Canadian athletes has been featured.
The Canadian pride in our classroom is very strong. It is so cute to see them cheering on the Canadian athletes.
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I had to add in the speed skating and put the team medals for skating at the side. This is our count as of today.
Well, there you have it. Another busy, but exciting week in my classroom. Have a great weekend everyone! I am also linking up with Manic Monday. Click the button to see all the other freebies there.
Classroom Freebies Manic Monday
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Hundreds Day, Valentines Day, and More Olympics

2/14/2014

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Wow! What a busy February. We just completed Chinese New Year, Groundhog Day, and the opening events of the Olympics last week, and now we are into Hundred Day Week, Valentines Day, and more Olympics. Time is moving so quickly.
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Different classes have Hundreds Day on different days due to gradual entry for Kindergarten and whether or not the first day starts with our new classes or with our old classes. Therefore, we celebrate Hundreds Week. Tables are put in the hall for displaying collections of one hundred. Our class decided to do a booklet of 100 idioms because we have been focusing on them this term.
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We also spent the day doing other activities to do with 100. There are so many great products on TpT and from teacher bloggers, that I had trouble picking just a few to use this year. We did some graphing with the pizza template, finding the mouse with Susanna's Whimsy Workshop poster of 100 cats and a mouse, coloring shapes on the number 100, and of course, we finished our 100 idioms booklet.
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I have been madly printing, laminating and cutting cards for Valentines Day and the Olympics. These two sets are ready to go. I also have several activities for the day. We will be doing games, writing, and math with a Valentines theme for Friday. We will also do some more with the Olympics.
We have been lucky enough to get a small glimpse of what has been happening with our athletes during the morning with the online streaming. We usually get to see about 10 minutes of the various events when we are checking for daily results. It is so exciting to see the kids' react when our athletes are competing.
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Here in British Columbia, we also celebrated Family Day on Monday. This meant a long weekend for us. It was my grandson's first birthday, and also my mother-in-law's birthday this month, so we had a combined celebration with the family. My mother will be celebrating her birthday in a couple of weeks also, along with my granddaughter, so we will have another celebration at the beginning of March.
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To top off the week, our honor ukulele group,Pacifica Ukes, is going down island to perform for a Valentines concert on Friday evening. This is a great opportunity to share music with others.
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Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, Olympics, and More

2/7/2014

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February is always a very busy, but exciting month at school. We started the month out with Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, and the beginning of the Olympics. We also worked on a couple of writing projects. Next week will be Hundreds Day, Valentines Day, and more Olympics. Here are some of the highlights from the week.
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Our week began with Groundhog Day. We did many games during Math and we graphed our results from Friday's predictions. Below are some of the great products that teachers have created that were a part of our day.
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In celebration of Chinese New Year, we did a fun chopstick activity and we read some great books. The kids were excited to get a small red packet of their own.
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The 2014 Winter Olympics have finally arrived. We have been doing many different activities inspired by this event. We even watched the team pairs skating on Thursday morning for a short time. In gym we have been doing team games that simulate some of the sports as well.
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My kids have fallen in love with Amelia Bedelia and figurative language.They were thrilled when I introduced them to the new chapter books about Amelia Bedelia as a child.
I can't speak without someone saying "Idiom" anymore. We even made a collection of idioms for Hundreds Day next week. I hope to share that next week.
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Many teachers have been posting about Snow Days on Facebook lately. We have had a wonderful winter and have had very few inside recess days as well.
I told my students about the crazy weather going on in other parts of the country and in the USA. We decided it would be great to write some crazy weather stories for our school.
My daughter created an awesome picture a few years ago. This is the graphic for our stories. The kids could hardly wait to see their Frozen stories.
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I'm linking up for Five for Friday. Hop on over and check out some of the other posts. Have a great weekend and enjoy the Olympics.
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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.

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