This week was PACKED with fun activities and great learning! I'm not even going to blabber at the beginning of my post because there is SO much to share as it is! This was a HUGE week for science! Looking back, its hard to believe that we fit this many activities into one week! The first cool activity that we did was the oreo moon phase activity. The kids had been asking me lots of questions about the moon and why it isn't a source of light, so I decided to take a day to focus on the moon's reflection and how it changes through the phases. Although it was a fun activity, I found the whole process to be a bit too messy for my liking, and since we have science in the morning, the kids were hopped on sugar for the rest of the day which wasn't good! Also, the kids got the phases in the right spot, but I don't think that they truly understood what way their moons were supposed to be facing. I think that if we had had a longer class, it would've been a better success. With that being said, I decided not to be too nit-picky about it because it wasn't technically part of the grade 4/5 curriculum and I know that they will get it covered again in grade 6! Either way, here are some of the pictures! The next day we started looking at properties of light. We did an experiment to prove that light travels in straight lines. We punched identical holes through 2 index cards, then placed a third card behind it and traced where the hole would've been if we were to punch a hole through that card too. The drawn on "hole" on card 3 acted as a target so that we could see just how accurate we were being. When the kids shone a flashlight into the holes, most of the light went through to the third card. Then I gave them a wooden dowel to put through the holes so that they could see if the cards were actually perfectly straight. Kids experimented with moving the cards around to recognize that the cards had to be straight in order for the light to pass through. After discovering how light travels in straight lines, we spent the next day discussing the Law of Reflection and how we can use our knowledge of straight lines to predict the path of light. We discussed how light is constantly bouncing off of objects. I did a small demonstration to show how a reflected beam has the same angle as the incident beam when light has a mirror (I traded it and measured the angles with a protractor). Then I shone a light beam at a crumpled up piece of tin foil so that we could observe how light does NOT reflect in one single beam, but rather it spreads out in a larger area and scatters off into many different directions. After discussing the law of reflection, it was time to use our new knowledge for a purpose! I designed and set up a "laser golf course" throughout our school that students rotated around from hole-to-hole trying to master. One student would stand on the tee-off box (an arrow with the number and direction), while the other kid had to use a mirror to reflect the light towards the target! The kids had a BLAST getting to be silly and have fun as they ran around the school reflecting light in various ways. For kids that finished early, I also started pairing them up with other kids who were done so that they could retry the course, but this time they had to reflect the light off of 2 mirrors instead! It was a lot of fun, and the kids were excited to tell me about all of the tricks that they learned while playing the game! Below is a video that I created to showcase our pictures and videos! After mastering straight light, I introduced the kids to refraction. I created 5 centers that the will rotate through to discover some various ways that light bends. The 5 centers are broken down below: At station 1 the kids confine themselves in the breakout room to watch this short but magical video, then they discuss the video using some prompts that I have provided At this station, kids work we me as I demonstrate how light changes through some different pieces of glass. I set a scientific light with "beams" within a box so that I could mark where the original 5 beams hit on the end of the box when there isn't any interference from other objects. Then I place a series of other pieces of glass into the rays, and we see how the beams change as they pass through them. The students quickly sketch a diagram after each example. Each kid gets to shine a laser light into the glass tube. The tip of the tube lights up. They must draw how they think that the light travels through the whole tube keeping in mind that light travels in straight lines (bounces back and forth off the walls until it comes out the other end). Students experiment with how light travels through water through 3 mini-experiments. The first test is that kids simply fill a cup with water and put a straw in it to see how it appears "broken", then they draw a picture. The next experiment the kids take note of which way an arrow on a piece of paper is pointing. When they pour the water, the arrow flips around the other way! For the third experiment, the empty glass is placed in front of a sheet of diagonal lines. Once water is poured, the lines switch which way their diagonal is!! Students were to play around with a curved glass bottle filled with olive oil to see how a laser beam can bend when it hits the oil in certain ways. The beam also can internally reflect! I had decided to include this center because it is neat how you can actually SEE the beam of light when it passes through olive oil! This center was set up so that kids would try the laser at 3 different heights and then they could play around with it by themselves for a bit. Some kids were able to make the laser beam refract so that it was almost immediately beside the bottle, other were shooting the light into the left side of the "ball" up top, and it would curve around and come out the right side, etc. Due to laser golf, we only had one health period this week, so we used our time to start discussing online safety. We had basically opened up this topic by having a big class discussion about what we know so far, and about what rules we think that we should follow to stay safe. We had a good discussion, I was happy to hear that the kids already seem to have a lot of knowledge about online issues, and I think that this could be an interesting topic! I shared this cute video with the kids and they loved the song... I have a feeling that we will end up listening to it a few times! This week we wrapped up our dance unit. I had Jamie Medicine Crane (the head of FNMI for our school district) come to visit my class to teach us about some aboriginal pow wow dances. The kids were great because they were so interested in hearing about the different dances. We even got to try some dances such as the owl, the snake, and the friendship dances! We also ended off our last day by having a Zumba dance party in the gathering space! Social was long overdue for some literacy integration, so I had the kids create a Fakebook account for one of the 4 fur traders we had been looking at! Some of the kids really caught on to the concept and flew with it, while others really struggled to put themselves into the fur-traders shoes and imagine what they might've posted about their lives if they had had Facebook back in the day. I loved the idea of this project, but the site itself had many issues that we had to battle against. For example, the site only lets you 'save' your site after it has a few posts saved on it, which was a big problem for us because we were experimenting with the site! In the end, we got some pretty funny posts out of the project, and the kids now have another program that they can use in the future! After doing so many interactive things in last week's math, it was time to slow things down and work through some questions on worksheets to make sure that the concepts were lining up. One of the worksheets in our bundles was focused on a game that used a 100s chart, and how kids might start at different points, increase by different amounts each turn (in a number pattern), and we had to figure out who would win first. I decided to take this 100s game idea and roll with it - by having the kids play a variation of snakes and ladders! In this game, each kid draws a "fate card" to see what square they will be starting on. Then they each roll a 10-sided die which states how many squares each kid will skip-count by for their preceding turns. I had the students recording their processes as well so that they could monitor "I started at _____ and increased by ______". Each time that they hit a snake or a ladder (something that would've been altering the repetitiveness of their current pattern) they had to re-record what starting point they were at now, as well as restate how many they are still increasing by. I had decided to do the snakes and ladders version because I knew that then that would throw a kink into the predictability of who would win the game. The funny part, however, was that kids were still counting ahead before it was their turn and saying things like "Darn! In 3 turns I'm going to hit a snake!", which is great because they are engaged in the patterning without even realizing that they are doing more work! The glitch in this game, however, was if two kids happened to be hitting all of the same squares because they were working on the same pattern. I switched things up by saying that every time you hit a snake or a ladder, you still have to record your new "starting point" on the recording sheet, but now you could also re-roll the die to start a new number pattern! So, each time a kid hit a snake or ladder, they were essentially starting a new patterns and relations question! I think that it was a great success, and I plan on keeping this game as an activity for the remainder of this unit! We went to the Piyami Lodge to visit the old folks to sing, do puppet plays, and read stories. In drawing club we learned how to draw poodles, people, hippos, and bunnies, and in art the kids started making some really cool glue and watercolor Easter egg paintings!
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Holy cow! 10 weeks later and here I am on my final month of my internship. The fact that I only have a month left is both terrifying, sad, and exciting all at the same time! This week was all about 'new beginnings' as I began 4 new units in my courses, as well as started my own school club! I have started the "Light and Shadows" unit in science, started the "dance" unit in gym, started the "New roots for Alberta" unit in social, and started the number patterns unit in math! I have also organized a "Drawing Club" which started this Friday, and it was SUCH a success that I think I will have to open it up to be more times than just once a week! This week was also filled with some great FNMI content in social class. On top of all of that, today was also a great experience because we were celebrating Down Syndrome Awareness Day and we all painted our nails blue and wore our funky colored socks. It was another great week, and here are my highlights! ScienceThe kids FINALLY finished their cars this week, and we tested them out to see who could all pass the KISS motors car test! I had the kids complete a self-evaluation to see how THEY think that they did on this project, but more importantly for them to reconsider what the MOST important tips are that they have learned during the process. They were to leave their "Top 3 building tips" for the next employees, as well as to consider what things they would try differently next time! Overall the whole unit took much longer than anticipated, but I think that I did a very thorough job with it, and the kids definitely had a lot of hands-on fun! Next I got the kids set-to-go for their next science unit. I found that science class can be very hectic with that many kids trying to find the right papers during the last unit, so for this unit I have gotten wiser and photocopied the important sheets on certain colors of paper so that I can just say "flip to the orange page" instead of trying to describe what sheet I am talking about! It is rewarding to know that even the slightest and simplest things such as that are things that I am picking up along the way! I also decided to give the kids their "I Can" statements because I think that it will act as a great 'study sheet' when the test comes around. To introduce the science unit I wrote the word LIGHT on the board and had students brainstormed some of the things that reminded them of the word light, and I made it into a brainstorm cloud. Using those words, we tried to construct our own definition that didn't include the word LIGHT in it. We wrote this in our yellow vocabulary log. This is what we had come up with: Then, perfectly on cue as if I had planned it, one student asked me "but Miss Miller, what about the moon?". I asked the kids what they thought about that question, and many of them already knew that the moon wasn't a source of light. I had already planned a demonstration to make sure that they could recognize the difference. I had a flashlight, a glowstick, a laser pointer, a lighter, and my Ipod. I held up each item as said "raise your hand if you think that THIS is a source of light", then I would ask "WHY?" and "where is the light coming from?". The students were able to predict how they figured that each one produced energy, and often responded with "the light is coming from WITHIN the _______". Finally, I held up a mirror and wiggled it around so that it shimmered some light. Then I once again asked "does THIS produce light? And why?" - Most kids had decided that the mirror DID in fact produce light until I asked the question "Where does the light come from?". While some kids stewed over that question, others were bursting out of their seats yelling 'the sun!' 'a flashlight!' etc, then I asked prompting questions such as "If I turned out every light in here and made it PITCH black.... would you still see this mirror? Where do I turn it on? If I was to say I was sending you out into the pitch black forest alone would you willingly take a mirror to guide your way over a flashlight?" After much discussion the kids finally came to the conclusion that the mirror ISN'T a source of light because it is a reflector instead! So, with that in mind, we discussed the similarities to the moon, and then added to our current definition of light in order to make sure that we were eliminating the possibility of confusing it with reflectors later on! After defining light, we did a similar process to define SHADOWS as well. I think that having this in-depth break-down of the main vocabulary will be very helpful to my weak students. The next day I continued to introduce some of light's properties by reading the kids an awesome picture book that I had found! HealthThe kids finished up their safety posters, and I made them into a bulletin board in the hallway immediately across from our door to help them remember all of the rules we have learned so far (and also to promote safety in the school). Physical EducationIn gym class we finished up our final few gymnastics routines! Overall most of the routines were very well done and the kids were SUPER excited! This week we moved on to the dance unit, which has been very exciting for many of our kids! We have some very dance-oriented girls in our class, so they were very willing to showcase some different kinds of dance for us! We got to watch everything from point, to character, to Irish folk dance, to jazz, to tap dance! It was very rewarding to watch my girls so excited to show us their fantastic talents! We started off dance by listening to the beats of some music and getting the rhythm down by tapping or clapping. Then we moved on to some "instructional dance" as I called it which was where we were dancing to songs that TELL you what to do such as the "cha cha slide" and "If you're a kid". Then we played around with the bunny hop to get into the Easter spirit of things! SocialWe wrapped up our "living with the land" unit in social by finishing our National Historic Site brochures, and by having a Native-inspired celebration. I had the kids sit in a circle and hold the talking stick as they each presented their piece to our "Napi Creation Story". Brochures: Napi creation story and illustrations: After our story time we had some "pemmican" (beef jerky) and "bannock" to highlight how things started to change once outside influences came into this area. Some of the kids ESPECIALLY loved the bannock I made, especially once I told them they could some berry jam on it to make it even better! And finally, I recreated some of the games that I had learned during a SWATCA session by Move and Play about learning through traditional aboriginal games. I created the sticks for kids to play "Stick and hoop" and I already had the posts to play "make the stick jump". The kids thought that it was very neat how the Native children played these games, but they were actually designed to make them more accurate hunters! MathWe were wrapping up our unit on division this week, and some kids were having issues understanding why we would ever represent remainders as a fraction. So naturally, I brought in some chocolate to help drive home the point! I had kids count how many kids we had (13), then count how many pieces of chocolate Toblerone we had (6). So we didn't have enough to let everyone have a whole piece, or even half a piece, so we had to cut our pieces into 3. We drew our 6 pieces cut up on the board to record our numbers, then we eat ate our pieces and filled in the pieces that we ate on the board. Once we had 13 little pieces filled in on the board, the kids were able to see that we had EATEN 4 whole pieces plus 1/3 of another piece. The point of doing it this way to emphasize that we weren't worried about what was remaining in some of these questions, but rather were looking for the fraction of how much we had eaten in total. The kids finally had that "light bulb" moment, and we got to eat chocolate in the process... so that's a win! I decided to use a very kinesthetic method to introduce the next unit to my kids: I had color coordinated tiles of number patterns that they had to arrange, extend the pattern, and then write the number rule for. The kids had a lot of fun and I heard some really awesome math conversation going on, as well as overheard some great problem-solving strategies! I love how this group is also very good at working cooperatively and being supportive of each others' learning, it is so rewarding to be a part of! The kids were quick to realize that some of my patterns were set up so that they had to be subtraction questions, some were addition, and some were trickier patterns such as doubling and halving relationships! The kids have also been busy doing some math games such as long division races, multiplication memory, and some dice races! I also had one kid who has forgotten how to read money and divide up money, so I made him up this 3-D handout with taped fake money on it to help him remember while he does some extra money work! Drawing ClubI have been itching to start a club of some sort, and a drawing club seemed right up my alley! One of the main reasons why I decided to start a drawing club over any other club was because I have a LOT of extremely talented drawers in my class that aren't always the most socially accepted people, and so I wanted to give them the opportunity to showcase their talents and hopefully even encourage them to teach US a mini-lesson on drawing the thing that they are skilled at! I was amazed at the turnout that I had! 23 of our 34 students in grades 4,5,6 showed up to draw! Today's meet was basically to get a feel for WHAT the kids would like to know, as well as to see if any of them would be willing to teach a mini-lesson. 13 students were so excited that they DID sign up to teach a mini lesson! I am thrilled at the excitement over drawing club... so much so that I am even going to do it more times than just once a week now! After surveying what the kids want to learn and getting kids signed up to teach mini-lessons, I quickly gave them my top 5 tips for drawing, and we demonstrated all together how to draw a cartoon frog by drawing lightly, using basic shapes, and then erasing the extra lines. I am very excited about all of the opportunities that this club is creating! Other stuffFriday was Down Syndrome Awareness Day, so our class took some time to recognize how special children with down syndrome are, to create a poster of encouragement for their schoolmate with down syndrome, and to paint our nails blue to show our support. It was great to see a classroom so full of blue nails and colorful socks! The cute little leprechaun traps that the ELP kids made!
This week was all about continuing on with many performance projects! We also took a trip to a FANTASTIC Aladdin play put on by the grade 7 class at St.Josephs, and visited the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. This week I got to experience many scary "firsts" as I officially submitted my first ever report card grades, attended my first IPP meeting, and booked my first field trip! I am at a point in my practicum where I feel extremely comfortable with my TM, my kids, my coworkers, and my work environment. I hope that in my final month of practicum I can start to expand my relationships with other students as well as with parents. I plan on starting a "drawing club" within the next week so that I can get a few of my artsy students involved in some drawing opportunities as the art curriculum doesn't allow much room for them to refine their strengths. I will also be developing relationships with parents as I meet with them in upcoming parent-teacher interviews, and if any of them decided to join us on our field trip to the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. In the upcoming week, I look forward to starting new units in basically all of my classes. I have many exciting activities planned for my upcoming social unit "New Roots for Alberta". For example, I have created a fur trader game where kids will get the chance to experience how the fur trade worked by taking the role of either a trading company, a voyageur, or an aboriginal trader. In science I am excited to be moving on to the "Light and Shadows" unit because I know that the kids will really love a lot of the experiments that I have found! In gym we will be moving on to dance which is very exciting for me because I think that dance is a great way to get kids active, and I know that I can integrate a little bit of technology into my curriculum too which is great! In health we will wrap up our physical safety unit and move on to talking about internet safety. In math we will be moving away from the division unit and moving towards patterns and relations. ScienceThe kiddos have been busy as bees building away on their KISS motors vehicles. Many of them have quickly realized the importance of simple things such as parallel axles, even wheels, longer or shorter brakes, etc. It has been amazing to see how the kids work together and give each other tips to help make everyone's vehicles more successful. My students have been super engaged during this performance project, and I think that it is safe to say that they are learning LOTS about testing for consistency and accuracy. They come in every morning excited to get building and to try to make their vehicle better. Below are some pictures and videos of their cars/ trials. GymIn gym the kids have been very busy planning and practicing their gymnastics routines. I gave each group many chances to practice their routine to their music throughout the week. One of my classroom management strategies during this time was to have each groups' routine planning and 'textbooks' in a color-coordinated envelope that they would get at the beginning of class, and then would put their papers in and return at the end of class. The envelopes were carried into the gym in my red bin and I would simply place them in the middle of the gym and kids knew to come find their own once their mats were set up, their shoes were off, and they had stretched as a group. This system of organized envelopes worked very efficiently! Due to absences, not every group has performed yet, but a few of the routines are shown below! SocialThe few social classes that we had this week were mostly dedicated to working on our social brochures. The students had some time to do online research, and to find maps and pictures. They are having fun learning about Writing-On-Stone and the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, and they were very excited with my announcement that we will be heading to Head-Smashed-In in April! One of my things that I decided to try out this week was a "thinking-deep" question that I would write on the board each day. Then I would hand kids a 'cell phone' sticky note and asked them to 'text' me their response to my prompt. The kids loved being able to 'text' me their answers, and it served as a great formative assessment method for my sake. MathIn math this week we continued learning about the different ways to represent remainders, and how the context of a question can change the resulting answer or the importance of a remainder. We also had one class where students got to try out a few multiplication fact games. They were very engaged in the games and were so excited to try and shout out their answers!
This week I have been experimenting with many different "performance projects" and final projects. I had assignments happening in most of my classes as a way of trying to gather some final grades before having to finalize report card marks. I have had a lot of fun planning these projects and the kids have come to school excited to prove what they know! I also had some experience dealing one-on one with some parents this week. I had noticed an unusual trend in one student's behaviour, and decided to take action towards notifying the parents. We were able to meet up, come up with some solutions as a team, and were able to let the child know that we were supporting their success in school. It felt great to have my first real parent interaction go so smoothly, it has really opened up my eyes to the benefits of creating a partnership between home and school. Below is my weekly recap and highlights! ScienceWe used our information gathered from last weeks gravity racers to chart our distances into bar graphs. It was a great chance to do a little bit of cross-curricular math integration into our science class! I also demonstrated a "wind-powered" car using a sail and a blow-dryer for the kids. Afterwards, our science performance projects were under way! I created a fake company called KISS Motors (Keep It Safe and Sound) who has 'hired' our kids to create a model car that can drive within a set road's width and stop within a certain range by using brakes. The kids have paired up, brought in their materials, and have signed the employee contracts. They have been busy working away to figure out how to combine all of their previous knowledge in order to complete all of the requirements. I have been taking a "stand back" approach in order to allow the kids to make mistakes, learn from their mistakes, and then work hard to make their vehicles more effective. HealthWe continued with our safety unit this week by looking at some recreational safety rules. The kids completed a cut and paste activity by carefully reading rules and deciding which rules were most suitable for each type of activity. Then I had the students pick topics from a bag to base a safety advertisement poster on as a way of reviewing all that we have covered so far. They were to give a suitable title, a picture promoting safety, and a sentence to explain their safety rule as well as to shed light on possible consequences. I gave them a rough drawing example of how to go about showing their safety topic. GymI started off this week by teaching the kids how to do cartwheels and how to keep balance on a 'balance beam'. I had decided that doing some balance beam exercises would be a fun change for them, so I simply flipped our gym benches upside down because they would be more challenging and more sturdy by being upside down. After wrapping up those couple of skills I introduced the final project and the kids have now been busy creating their own gymnastic routines! I am amazed at the creativity that many of the students have come up with so far! They are really putting in the effort to be daring and to coordinate with their partners. I can't wait to see their final performances! I have been busy trying to download all the required music which ranges all the way from the Harlem Shake to an Allan Jackson song... priceless! SocialIn social I have had the kids gaining an appreciation for the value of native stories by interpreting and rewriting a chunk of a creation story. Their pictures have turned out awesome and they have been realizing how these stories would've helped to explain WHY Alberta is the way that it is! They have really been attempting to incorporate native American artifacts and lifestyles in their drawings which has been awesome to see! I have also had them beginning to work on an information brochure which promotes either Writing-On-Stone or Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. They have been doing some online research and deciding what information is important, how to organize information, and what types of design features would draw customers' attention. I am hoping that they will really gain an understanding of how important these sites are to Alberta's history, but also recognize how important these sites are to share the Native's ways with the world. I have brought in many brochures for them to gather information from and to look at as examples. I am finding that this group of kids really responds to anything creative, so I am going to try and keep this in mind while planning their next unit! MathIn math this week we have been busy learning about remainders in division and have been exploring the importance of remainders. I had the kids use my homemade board games to practice long division - they rolled a set amount of dice to determine the dividend and divisors, and then solved the question to find the remainder (which was how many spaces they would get to move). The game was a great success because all of the players had to do the math for the same rolls to make sure that their opponents didn't mess up the math or weren't cheating! I found that it was an awesome way for them to practice some questions, but in a more engaging way than just doing worksheets. This game also allowed me to ask the question "are remainders important?" and the kids were quick to respond with a "YES! Because that's how we get points in our game!" I've been finding that now when we do our worksheet questions the kids aren't forgetting to add the remainder to the answer because they now have an appreciation for the importance of remainders. I know that this will help us out next week when we begin discussing instances where we can ignore the remainder, and instances where the remainder can't be ignored and we must round up. To introduce these ideas, I also created some visual division questions on the Smartboard that dealt with buying tickets at a fair. In this example, the kids divided up 3 tickets to each customer, and then there was one ticket left over. So then the kids decided that that ticket would just be sold the next day instead - at that point I revealed the second half of the scenario which showed that it only takes 1 ticket to ride the ferris wheel, so now the cashier could sell his final ticket of the night and brings in more profit for the fair. The kids were able to see how even in the same scenario, there were reasons why the remainder might be useful or not useful. I also introduced the idea of representing remainders as a decimal by bringing in some awesome money manipulatives from the Curr Lab. The whole set has been really helpful so far for those kids who need the visual of trading money in for other coins in order to continue with the division. I also attended a SAPDC PD session called "Math Games to Support Basic Math Facts". I attended this session because we had decided that it would coincide with our PD project very well. It was a really interesting session and I learned many new games that could potentially help me out in my classroom! Wow looking back on the past 2 months it is REALLY hard to believe that I am already halfway done this PS3 internship! I have had such a fantastic experience so far, and I have definitely learned a lot about the realities of teaching! Right now I am starting to "feel the heat" in regards to stressing about giving grades, making report cards, and upcoming parent-teacher interviews. With that being said, my next 2 weeks will largely be focused on assessment and some projects to help wrap up my units that I am currently teaching. Should be a busy 2 weeks ahead! Here are a few of this week's highlights! ScienceIn science we have been busy building miniature cars and testing out how to make our vehicles more effective. Kids have already picked up on needing the wheels to be tight on the axle, the axles needing to be parallel, the cars needing "spacers" to keep the wheels away from the vehicle, and much more! It is pretty amazing how quickly they can assess what is wrong with their vehicle and work to find a solution. This week we simple built the body, then started testing them out by using "balloon power" and by putting the cars down ramps of different heights. The kids are quick to observe what IS and ISN'T working and then they successfully fix their errors before the next trial. HealthSince it was Pink Shirt Day this week, I decided to take the week to discuss anti-bullying and how our actions effect other people. I decided to get my points across by using one of my favorite picture books "How Full is your Bucket?". The kids loved the story, and we had some great discussions about what it feels like to have an empty bucket, and how we can make other people have a full bucket instead. I love that this book points out how your own bucket gets filled when you do good deeds for other people because it makes you feel better about yourself as well. After our discussion the kids had to draw an example of how they could be a "bucket-filler" instead of being a bully. Their buckets turned out great, the hallway was brightened, and it really helped to set the right atmosphere for pink-shirt day. GymOur gymnastics unit has continued on, and I have been experimenting with how to manage the class so that I can have more of a "stand-back" approach that allows me to assess the kids. Some strategies that I have tried to help with this so far has been a circuit approach, as well as a setup where the mats were all gathered in the middle and there were less students trying a skill at once. Both of these approaches have been successful so far, and I plan to continue using them next week. For the circuit approach, I had pictures of 11 different balance supports up around the gym, and kids had 1-2 minutes at each station to try and master a balance before moving on to the next stage. It was a lot of fun and the kids shared lots of laughs while trying out these tricky positions! MathSince my class has really been struggling with math, I decided to take things VERY slow in the division unit. We started off by reviewing division terminology and practicing all the different ways to write division equations. We then reviewed the steps for long division, making sure to focus on following the correct order until the division is completely done. We spent the majority of the week using blocks to physically divide large numbers into even groups by "trading" the required blocks. I have been making my kids be very thorough with their division by writing out the equation, drawing the "starting" set of blocks, doing all of the trading and dividing, drawing the "final outcome" drawings, and then checking their answer through long division. Although it is painfully slow at times, all of the work seems to be paying off so far as the majority of the class has really been on board thus far with our division! Next week I will kick it up a notch by adding the division into word equations, and then by starting to explore the importance of remainders. I have also finally finished my pretty game boards that I have slowly been working on for the last few weeks... so I have been brainstorming ways to use them as a way to "practice" our equations instead of just doing worksheets! This final week before Reading week break was a crazy week because we had lots of Olympics-themed activities planned on top of our already-hectic week of presentations, skating, Valentine's Day, and Jump Rope for Heart. I am looking forward to my reading week break simply to get a bit of rest, but also to start looking forward into the upcoming units and to get the chance to reflect more deeply on my strengths and weaknesses as a teacher. I know that I need to wrap up my units that I am on and move forward into new units because we are quickly running out of time! I also recognize that I need to get better at doing every-day assessment practices to gather more grades as evidence for the upcoming report cards. I believe that my strengths as a teacher lay in my strong relationships that I have built, but also in ability to make creative and fun lessons, to engage the students, to discipline when necessary, and to manage the classroom and smoothly transition into new activities. When observing my PD goals that I made for this semester I would say that I have been doing a pretty good job of working towards those goals at this point in my practicum. I recognize that I need to work a bit harder now on developing my professional inquiry project and implementing games as a METHOD of teaching or practicing math rather than just as a sponge activity. Other things that I want to work on in this second half of my practicum involve more school involvement, better differentiation strategies, and more assessment measures. I am ready for my week off, but can't wait to continue learning when the break is done! Below are my weekly highlights from each class and an overview of activities we did. ScienceIn our science unit "Vehicles and Devices that Move" we have moved on to defining vehicles and determining what are the crucial parts to make vehicles work. We defined vehicles as "any device that uses runners or wheels to carry people or goods from one place to another". I made a picture-list of potential "vehicles" and made kids debate whether each picture belonged in the "vehicle" or "not a vehicle" column based on their reasoning from the definition. It was interesting to hear how students were able to make logical arguments against each other by using scientific reasoning! One we had our definition for a vehicle sorted out, I introduced them to some "vehicles" and we had to decide what the most crucial parts are in a non-motorized vehicle. We were able to narrow it down to 4 parts: the chassis, the axles, the wheels, and the "axle holders". After having our parts labelled and defined we were able to have discussions about the similarities and differences between some non-motorized vehicles and could observe toy cars to find those parts and have educated discussions about why each car was effective. My goal was to have kids realize that there are different ways to secure an axle to a car, but some ways may be more effective than others. Although they got a glimpse at axle effectiveness, this is one thing that I think will come into play more concretely once we start building our vehicles. HealthI decided to jazz-up health class this week by doing a little bit of drama integration (so that the kids could get all of the 'stage fright' out before performing their Olympic play!) I broke the kids up into groups, gave them a scenario relating to outdoor safety, and then had them decided roles such as actors, narrators, and "questioners". After each scenario had been acted out the group had to guide the class discussion in order to come up with good prevention strategies to avoid that scenario, as well as to brainstorm a potential course of action for each danger. I have composed each of the 4 scenarios into the video below, but didn't include all of the class discussions because they were hard to hear. Physical EducationThis week in PE was all about the Sochi Olympics! The activities that I set up included a torch run, Nordic combined skiing, slalom alpine skiing, biathalon skiing, skating, and bobsledding. The video below showcases our fun! SocialTo introduce "oral story telling" to the kids I decided that we would turn one oral story into our own classroom picture-book. I found one Blackfoot creation story about how the world was made, and had each kid choose one part of the story. They had to read their chunk, decide what the most crucial thing being explained or created was, and then reword their chunk and illustrate it using appropriate aboriginal diagrams. I created the first part of the story to act as a title page, and then the kids' parts will get added in order behind it to make a book. When we have the book done I will get the students to sit (in order) in a circle, and we will read our story parts and show our illustration as we each hold the talking stick. I think that it will be a very meaningful way for them to recognize the imagery in oral stories and to appreciate aboriginal creation stories. MathI decided that this week in math we would focus on developing more strength in multiplication instead of starting a new unit so close to a big break. I had the kids make multiplication tables so that they could practice their math facts, but also so that they would be able to have a copy to refer to sometimes during our upcoming division unit. Besides doing our multiplication facts, I also taught them "old-school multiplication" and the multiplication trick that uses all 10 fingers to multiply 6x6 to 10x10. When kids were done their daily work, I had them practice the "old school" method by attempting to solve "whiteboard challenge questions" through trial-and-error. I had questions posted around the room that increased in difficulty as you circled around. The questions had a product on them, and the students had to find out what 2 consecutive numbers multiplied together to get that answer. The amazing thing about doing those "extra" questions was that it was a way of challenging the students at their own zone of proximal development while still practicing the math skill they had just learned. I could TELL that those questions were actually a form of differentiation in themselves because kids were either working on the basics with me, or pushing themselves to solve harder questions on their own. I was really amazed at how well the kids did, and I was even MORE thrilled to see them strategizing with one another and using teamwork to try and effectively get to an answer more quickly! It was really great to see such a competitive and productive outcome for my "fast" students! Below are some pictures showing the "whiteboard challenge" and a YouTube video that showcases the "hands" strategy for multiplication facts. Other fun stuff this week...Olympics Assembly I was in charge of one of the school "families" as we circulated around the school completing Olympic-themed challenges. Below is a video that I made to showcase the Olympics play, some of the activities that we did, as well as some of the awesome Olympic dioramas that my students made to inform visitors about each sport!! Valentine's Day Party! It was great to get to relax with the kids and get hyper on sugar. They expecially LOVED my minion Valentine's that I made but I was surprised at how many of them didn't know what a Twinkie was! Jump Rope for Heart
I had a great time jumping with the kids and encouraging them to be active during this fundraiser for heart and stroke awareness. I really enjoyed getting to spin the double-Dutch rope and having to remember all of the old skipping chants! I think it is a great program with a great message! WOW I can't believe that my entire first month has already flew by! I feel that I have grown exponentially in my classroom confidence and management since starting this internship. As I continue to get comfortable with the curriculum and the routines, I recognize that I need to start focusing more energy into regular assessment practices, as well as start building some parental relationships. I know that February will go extra-fast given the reading week break, but I can't wait to continue learning alongside the kids! I even have a few surprises lined up for the kids in February so I can't wait to get started! Here are my favorite highlights from this week! ScienceScience has continued to be the "fun" class as I surprised the kids by basing our week around their favorite video game "Angry Birds". I don't know whether the kids had more fun, or I did! We built 2 different types of catapults, then tested them out to see who could get the most "pigs" or "points". Then we discussed what types of alterations we had to make to either our devices or our "shooting techniques" to make the catapults more effective. We observed how differently the catapults shoot (based on the angles of the spoons) and the kids had to make an educated decision as to which catapult they think would work better in the ACTUAL angry birds game and why. We had such a great time! Check out the video below to see all the fun! SocialAs we continue to learn about the Native American people, the kids have become fascinated by learning about all the ways that the buffalo was used for survival. I found this great interactive buffalo where you can click on a body part and guess which artifact is made from that part of the buffalo. The kids thought it was so neat to see how one animal could make so many different artifacts! I also showed them many photos of artifacts online to help them understand what some of the other tools looked like as well.
Although this week seemed a bit slower than the other weeks so far, there were quite a few memorable things that stand out in regards to how this week went! ScienceWe continued to have lots of fun with our science unit "devices that move" as we reflected on last week's science centers, and then moved on to building jumping jack dolls! When one kid asked me "what does this have to do with science?" I was able to explain to them how the doll arms are like little levers rotating on their fulcrum, and we link the arms and legs together by using linkages. We also exert the force of a PULL to make the devices move, and then we have to use our knowledge about devices (especially in regards to friction) to examine how to improve our devices. There were 3 different kinds of jumping jacks for the kids to choose from, and they all turned out great! HealthWe moved on to talking about "home safety" this week and I found a great game online that allows students to pick out the "most dangerous threat" in each room that could lead to a fire or an accident. We played it as a class on the Smartboard and the kids were extremely engaged in the game and more importantly, in discussion regarding why each item was dangerous! http://www.homesafetygame.com/homesafetygame.html Physical EducationWe were studying our "hockey" unit in gym class at the perfect time... One of my students' sisters agreed to come in and run my kids through some hockey drills such as dry-land training, puck handling, playing a game, etc. It was a big deal for our class because this player has played for Team Alberta and she was a great role model for teaching about perseverance, never giving up, and working hard. The kids had a great class getting to listen to a pro instead of listening to me! :) SocialDue to needing a sub for one of my classes, I had decided that my absence would be a good time for the kids to engage in a little research online. I made them a guided worksheet to follow and fill in as they explored the Blackfoot traditions and the importance of the teepee. I had them going through the AWESOME glenbow website, and although they struggled with some of the readings initially, we were able to clarify any confusions when we looked over the worksheets later on. I think the coolest part about doing that research was that when we opened up our textbook the next day we were able to "decode" an interpretation of a teepee paining in our textbook by using our newfound knowledge!http://www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/online/blackfoot/main_eng.htm MathThe kids have really been struggling with one of our math concepts this last week, so I really had to use some differentiated strategies to make sure that all kids stayed on task and challenged! I started by filming a very visual video exemplifying the strategy (as I had a sub for the first math class). Apparently the kids were SO excited that I was on YouTube! As the students worked on worksheets I tried my best to pull any struggling students aside to allow them to physically manipulate with the base 10 blocks if they needed it. When kids were STILL having a hard time trying to understand when to add or subtract I decided to make a math poster that could be hung in the room for easy reference when they were struggling (to free myself up to help more kids!) Although the week felt hectic at the time, looking back it was very impressive at how much work the kids accomplished and how HARD they were working for me! As a way of rewarding the hard-working kids who were done early I decided to make a generic math "board game". The board game works great because I can just switch out the "questions" for the game each week so that it applies to whatever unit we were just working on! I have multiple sets of "practice questions" (either strategies we have been working on or basic math facts) and 2-4 kids can play at each game. They take turns holding up a question, and if the answering player gets the correct answer, THEN they get to roll a dice and proceed onto the game board. To compensate for the "unfairness" of the probability of uneven abilities in partners, I made sure that the board game had squares such as "go back 20 spaces" and "jump ahead 10 spaces" so that every kid has the chance at some good or bad luck to even out the playing field! I also made some simple "white boards" out of a page protector and white paper so that kids could have some reusable way to write out their work if they needed to. Kids who got the chance to play the board game already said that they had LOTS of fun practicing their math facts, which is what I like to hear!
The main highlight of week 2 was definitely our "Building Devices" centers!! This week I had decided to set up science "discovery centers" to use a more hands-on method of teaching the "Devices that Move" unit. There are 5 "devices" that the students must build together in groups and they rotate to a new center each day. I wanted to make sure that this "inquiry" unit in science took more of a student centered learning approach rather than a traditional teacher-lecture approach. As I reflect on the success of this week I think that the activities were very valuable to the students' learning because they really got the chance to engage with the trial and error processes that are part of any building project. I know that I will be able to refer back to the movement of all 5 of these devices for students to immediately have an understanding of the terms that I want to address next such as friction, durability, effectiveness, fair test, etc. After all of the centers had been completed, we had class discussions about each experiment, went over the paperwork, and discussed topics such as what could've been done differently to make devices work better. The breakdown for each of the "assignments" is explained below. #1 Pinwheel (Windmill)The students were required to read the mini-textbook to learn about windmills so that they could discuss the benefits and history behind the devices. They were able to recognize how windmills are a logical and beneficial way of creating energy here in windy Alberta! They followed the directions to create a pinwheel out of paper and a sewing pin. Although many of the students' pinwheels worked on the first try, students were able to recognize that the pinwheel was rubbing against the pencil and slowing down. After evaluating their initial pinwheel, they added a "control" mechanism (a few beads) between the pencil and the paper to decrease friction and increase productivity of their "windmills". #2 Flag PoleFor the flag pole experiment students were to build an initial flag pole without pulleys, and then rebuild it using pulleys to evaluate the effectiveness of the pulleys in reducing friction. They had to use their fingers to pull the strings up and down to evaluate the force needed to pull each of the flags. They evaluated the 2 flag poles using diagrams and by the guidance of our class criteria to come up with a final decision on which one they though was more effective. #3 Water WheelThe students were required to read the 2 page explanation of a waterwheel from our mini textbook to help them discuss the benefits of waterwheels and why we have them. Next they tested a waterwheel that I made that was made out of a cut-up empty yogurt container. After evaluating the first waterwheel, they were given the challenge of creating their own waterwheel with a plastic spool, shortened plastic spoons, and tape. The purpose was to see if they could use their previous knowledge to use the spoons as "paddles" to spin the spool. Then they had to compare the 2 waterwheels and decide which one was more effective. When we discussed the water wheels at the end of the week the kids were able to point out why their water wheels weren't that effective and what factors could've been changed to make them more effective (such as using duct tape over masking tape).
#4 Ski LiftI figured that the typical "ferry" experiment from the Edmonton Public Schools resource was a bit far fetched for my kiddos who have probably never seen a river ferry before... so I figured I would turn it into something similar that might speak closer to their interests: we created ski lifts! I made a "mini-ski lift" out of wood, elastics, pulleys, nails, and paperclips. The kids had to get the "travelling paper clip" from one end of the lift to the other. They used their observations from the mini lift to make their own lift with string, spools, dowels, and little skiers. They had to use their hands to push or pull the strings so that the skiers travelled from one end of the lift to the other.
#5 Construction CraneFor the final center kids were to follow both written and picture instructions to help construct a complicated crane with a crank. Kids quickly realized "tricks" to make the crane more effective and they had a lot of fun cranking the "load" up and down. Their paperwork required them to label all the various parts of the crane and to summarize the procedure that they followed to build the device. Well I have had a very fun and successful first week teaching grades 4 and 5 out here! I have already learned a lot, and I am looking forward to the many weeks ahead! Some areas that I hope to improve in the next little while include interacting with the students of other grades, interacting with the staff, and creating fun activities to enhance the curriculum for the kids. Here is a recap of some of the highlights of this week: Science - We didn't get much time for science this week because we had other things going on instead. We spent most of our class reviewing the previous "simple machines" unit because it serves as a building block for the "building devices and vehicles" unit. I decided to test their knowledge of simple machines by giving each class pod a "mystery bag" with a simple machine inside. The students had to identify the object, identify what type of simple machine it is, tell what type of work that object helps you to complete, and what force is needed to make that object do work. Below are some pictures of the mystery bags. Health - in health we have been talking about school rules and safety. I had the kids do a "graffiti walk" to brainstorm things that could been potentially dangerous in each area of the school. We then used the brainstormed ideas to create good general safety rules for being safe in each area. We also discussed how to make sure that other kids are being safe too. Here is a photo of some of the graffiti posters! Physical Education - We have been playing basketball. We worked on dribbling drills and played many games such as knockout and musical chairs (dribble to a hoola-hoop when I blow the whistle). I have discovered that the kids really enjoy elimination games, so I have been trying to find lots of those games to play. We have also practiced some passing through games as well. Social - The kids have been very intrigued during our "living with the land" social unit. After learning about different ways that aboriginals used to communicate, I had the students draw a pictograph story using aboriginal symbols, and then they shared their story while holding a "talking stick". Below is one student's pictograph story. Math - The kids have been struggling to understand wording and arrays for multiplying by 10s, 100s, and 1000s. To help out, I decided to make some math games that they can play to practice. In "Zero War" the kids simply flip their two cards, and the first person to multiply them gets to keep the cards. I also created equation cards so that kids can kinaesthetically make an array using tens/ hundreds blocks to demonstrate the equation on the card and to prove an answer. The answers are on the back of the card so that they can double check their work or have a partner double check it. |
AuthorCheryl Miller Archives
April 2014
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