Persuasive

Students have been working hard on persuasive writing in Literacy. They have learned how to structure a five paragraph essay, how to choose a specific audience to persuade, and how to back up their main thesis with different supporting details. So far, they have orally persuaded in groups about what would be the most useful tool to take to a deserted island (my favourite being the trained honey badger), they have persuaded the world that kids should rule the world, and they have practiced organizing their ideas using a planner sheet.
All of this will culminate in students writing a persuasive essay about Kiva. You can read about Kiva here.

How Kiva Works from Kiva on Vimeo.

We have chosen three different microloans: Smbat, Ednar, and Josephine. Students will have to persuade us about which one we should loan our $100 to. These essays will help us decide. Then, we'll make our loan, track our progress, and hopefully re-invest upon repayment. I'm very excited about this project. As I type this, the room is close to silent as they plan their essays which tells me they are just as excited.
Yesterday, Molly wrote up her own example of a plan. Students then worked in groups to take one paragraph of her plan and turn it into a full paragraph.

Craig Cardiff is a Juno nominated artist who came to do workshops with the entire school yesterday. Students helped to write a collective song. He was blown away by the students and how thoughtful, intelligent, and respectful students and staff were. What a special place we are!
Here is the work in progress:



Next week, I will be chaning things up. We are going to start our day with math, and finish off with Literacy. I am looking at starting a multi-disciplinary unit on Space and Math. More to come soon.

You can also ask students about Ivan, the acrobats, and the grandmas!

Happy Monday. 

Today, we started with a communication book prompt asking them to write a four sentence story that included one interrogative sentence, one declarative, one imperative, and an exclamatory.

Next up, we read a story after discussing three words that apply to that story.

This story has very vivid pictures and we will be diving into the author's craft of creating characters tomorrow.

This poster comes from a math lesson we did about algebra. Ask the kids about it.

 Here is a colourful lesson on contractions.

 We are very lucky at our school to be hosting Kate Settle who is running a photography workshop. She is giving us three introductory lessons over the next two weeks and then we will be incorporating what we have learned into a larger project. I will be sending home a notice about this tomorrow.



Boo

Here are some pictures from our Haunted Fairy Tale Forest that will prove just how scary we were.

What did we learn? We learned that sometimes, the scariest part is in the waiting. We learned that adults are easier to scare than kids (especially Megan). We learned that sitting in cardboard boxes all day long is hard work. We learned that cardboard, a bit of paint, some makeup, and a lot of screaming can go a long way.
Mostly, we learned that we are a team that can pull things together when it counts. If you would have seen the state of our haunted house the day before, you might have been more scared than you would have of our actual haunted house. In the end, the students worked together. They stayed focused, worked cooperatively with each other, and maybe most importantly, withstood my stress levels and put up with me. They reflected on how fun it was but also how proud they were that they could actually get it done. We got so much positive feedback. Many commented that it was our scariest haunted house yet. This being the 10th haunted house makes that a great accomplishment.

Ask students about our Dr. Seuss Cafe math.