Run Fox Run

All students from grades 1-6 ran their little hearts out at the Terry Fox Run at Dovercourt today. It was a lovely sunny day and perfect to be outside together. The grade 6 students will miss going to Dovercourt to do the Terry Fox Run next year.

We have been doing ECLIPSE almost every day. Today was a great day in ECLIPSE. One friend was having trouble because she didn't feel like reading. Some of us helped her with great advice. Here it is:

What To Do If You Don't Feel Like Reading:

1. Find the most interesting book that you have in your Book Box
2. If you don't feel like reading a lot of words, pick a book where you can read the pictures
3. If you don't feel like reading, pick a book that you have already read and re-read it
4. Try to have a book in your Book Box that you will always feel like reading

The advice was great and it really helped the student out. She ended up reading a picture book that we had already read in class and also looked at a book about animals that had a lot of pictures with good captions.

In ECLIPSE, we also reviewed Text Busting. In Text Busting you figure out the following about the text you are reading:

1. Genre
2. Purpose
3. Target Audience
4. Message/Big Idea/Moral/Main Idea
5. Evidence: 3 pieces of evidence to support the main idea
6. Summary: Somebody Wanted But So Then

Hop on Edmodo tonight and keep us in the loop about that thing that we talked about. You know what I mean.

Show Me

Sohail's Show Me

Sohails other Show Me

Evan's Show Me

Show Me is a recordable White Board app. We use it to reflect on our learning and to teach others.

Updates

Hello dear blog readers. We are sorry to have neglected you. Our poor network has been feeling icky. We think it is feeling better now and we endeavour to post more regularly. Please accept our apologies.

We have discussed Mystery Skypes which sound like a lot of fun. We're glad our WiFi is up and running and look forward to our first Mystery Skype! We will be sure to live tweet the event when it happens. We'll keep you posted.

These are pictures from Math Buddies. We measured our heights using centimeters and a non-standard unit of measure that our buddies picked (Quinn and Alicia). We do Math Buddies with five different classes (Sohail)! 

We did something called Math Blitz with all of the Junior classes where we got together in five different groups and had to solve a math problem (William). We were put in a big group but could work independently or with a few others from our larger group (Ben). Some of us chose to work with our friends and we were not getting as much done. Next time, we will try to work with people that we don't know as well. It was nice to hear about the different ideas on how to solve the problem (Julianna). Some of us got to work with a lot of people that we don't usually get to work with (Sharky). In one group, they worked in pairs and then got together to share what each pair did (Fin). We will be getting together to talk about our successes and areas to improve on and then we will get to try one of the other questions. We'll be doing this tomorrow.

This is fun team challenge that we did in gym.

We are participating in something called the Global Read Aloud. In this fun initiative, students all over the world read the same book and share their thoughts. It is a chance to connect with new global friends and see similarities in how we think. Here is an excerpt from their website:

Why participate?
This is meant to make the world a little smaller, to open our eyes to the rest of the world and look at all of our shared experiences.  How phenomenal for a child to know that the same book they are reading is being read in classrooms across the globe.

The book we will be reading together is called, "Out Of My Mind" and we will begin to read it with everyone else on September 30th. 

One of the ways we will share our thinking about the book is using Edmodo. This is a social networking site designed specifically for students and teachers. Students create their own accounts and use it to access our classroom social networking site. Please check it out here and let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

We have also started our Instagram project. For now, we will only be taking pictures of objects. If any students are included in a picture, it will not include their face. I hope this is ok with everyone.

Terry Fox is this week. Please continue to send in your donations!

We have also started our Morning Run. Students are encouraged to persevere! It is hard to jog that far for some of us. Let's see how much easier it gets with practice.

Cross Country starts this week. Practices are Mondays and Thursdays during second recess in the gym. All students who come to practice and try will be able to go to the meet. So, come on out!

TGIF WCWFM (We Can't Wait For Monday)

These are some pictures from Week 2 at school (Sohail).

We enjoy doing things together with Room 209.

This is a list of behaviours that will help us succeed in math.

 These posters are part of ECLIPSE which stands for Engaged, Choice, Literacy, Independence, Purpose, Stamina, and Enthusiasm.

 This is Ukulele Club. We are looking forward to learning more and getting out to perform more this year. Please check out the link for Chukuleles for more information.

We had a Mystery Skype planned this week but had to cancel due to technical difficulties. We are excited to try our first one. In it, we Skype another class somewhere in the world and ask yes or no questions to try and guess where each other lives.

We love Genius Hour (Noah). Genius Hour is a time for people who have been standing in a little cave (as in their group of friends), to get out and meet other people (Quinn). It gives you a chance to think freely, and get outside of the box (Ben). Genius Hour is when we get to pick a purpose and create a project to fulfill it and have fun (Aidan). It's sort of like productive free time (Kaitlyn). The point is to spend time doing something that we are interested in and being productive (William). There are a lot of great ideas coming out such as a collage celebrating Churchill, a webcam to capture the Degus at night, a skit about a witch, several charity projects, some movie ideas, and a campaign about online bullying to name a few (Sharky).

Forms

Right now, the following forms are due to be handed in:

Student Verification Form: 2 pages, white

Pink Package: Technology Use, Peanut Free School, Media Permission, Pita Pit order form

Parent Questionnaire: 2 pages, white

Pizza Order: DUE THURSDAY! Check which side you are filling out (gluten free?).

$20 School Levy cheque (Churchill Alternative School) or cash

Scholastic: due this week

Second Week

Hello!

We want to tell you about what we have been up to so far.

We have been doing something called ECLIPSE (Rowan). It is a Language Arts program (Katie). ECLIPSE stands for Engaged Choice Literacy Independence Purpose Stamina Enthusiasm (Kaitlyn). We have been practicing "Read to Self" everyday and building our stamina and muscle memory (Sohail). It is very very quiet when we are all doing "Read to Self" (Sarah). It's also very peaceful (Noah). We have Book Boxes that have good fit books in them and we practice picking a good seat, and reading independently (Katie). We talked about the three ways you can read a book (Read the Pictures, Read the Words, Retell the Story) (Evan and Jay). We also usually have volunteers demonstrate how to do it correctly and how not to do it (Evan).
I hope the students are enjoying ECLIPSE and learning from it so far. We will be training and adding on to the choices over the next little while (Tiiu).

We've been practicing our times tables by doing something called Precision Math each day (Jay). Precision Math is where you have a minute to answer as many math facts as you can and you are trying to reach your goal (Grady). We set our goals by writing the numbers 0-9 over and over again for a minute. We used the number of digits that we wrote down in one minute to set our goal (Zane). When we pass our goal we get to move on to the next fact family (Yarabi). Each digit counts as a point (Quinn). The idea is that students are working according to their own skills and pace. At the end of each minute, we graph our results (Katie). The Precision Math program has us practicing our facts from the 2 times tables to the 12 times tables. After we finish all of the facts, we might restart with a higher goal or we might move on to the Division program (Dominic).

In math, we also filled out a multiplication table with all of the facts that we knew automatically with a green pencil (Sohail). We did all of the facts that we needed to calculate a bit in yellow (Rebecca P.). We used red if the answer takes us a long time to figure out (Aidan). Now the students will have a better idea of the facts that they need to work to memorize or make little tricks to help them learn them. We will be learning some of these tricks in class.

We've also been working on an art project based on the artist Chuck Close (Grace). We are using photos of our faces to recreate something that looks like a Chuck Close piece of art (Ben). Chuck Close did grid paintings because he had a special kind of dyslexia known as prosopagnosia which made it difficult for him to recognize faces (Leigha). His style of art is called photorealism (Sarah). Chuck Close got a blood clot near the top of his spine that paralyzed him but he persevered through it and still makes art (Ciarn). After his accident, when he started painting again, his painting were more colourful. He said he was happier after the accident (Dominic). He was happy to be alive and still be able to paint (Alicia).

We are very happy to be in Room 207 (Katie).
We want to know if you are visiting us here. Please comment so that we know you are around. Thanks!

Hello Families

Hi! We would love it if our families checked in here regularly. Checking in will give us something to talk about at home. It will show us that you are interested and wanting to support us. If you do check in, comment and let us know! Thanks!

Please remember to sign and hand in your pink forms and the $20 school fee. I am also collecting a Parent Questionnaire, Student Verification forms, and Scholastic.