The Last Day of 2011!

Today we have early dismissal. -Cameron
Today at school we got bags that we got to take home. We made picutre frames to give to our moms and dads. I had fun doing it. -Kaspir
We got bags and there was a card in it for moms and dads. Mrs. Malkoske gave us treats and a Christmas ornament that looked like a snowball. In gym we played world cup soccer. -Tristan
Today when we were doing TWAS Mrs. Castor came in and pretended she was Santa Claus and gave us candy canes. -Sydney R
Today in the morning we did TWAS and Mrs. Malkoske was pulling some kids to do something for Christmas for our parents. There was some good things that our Moms and Dads will like. One of them is for them. -Taylor
Today in gym me, Tristan, Peyton, Cole and Nick and Andy and Aaron were all on the same soccer team. We got 2 goals and the other team had zero. -Tyson
Today at gym we played World Cup Soccer and I was in net. When I sat down I saved it. -Jolene
Today in gym I was on the bench and I was sad because I got pushed. Tristan made me feel better because he's nice. -Nick
Today is the last day before Christmas Hoildays. I will miss Mrs.Malkoske I will see her in 2012. We
had gym and I had fun!-Madeline
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! -Jadyn

The Christmas Party!

Today we put the icing on our cupcakes and did karaoke. -Sydney R
Today we did karaoke at the end of the day. My song was Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. I was all by myself. -Madeline
Today in the afternoon we did Christmas karaoke. It was fun. -Kaspir
Today we had a party in our class. At the end of the day we did karaoke. I'm doing it 3 times. One by myself, one with Jolene and one with Taylor. Taylor's mom came to help us finish the frames and helped us decorated them.Today the grade 7's came to read to us. They had 2 of us to read to and then we read a book to them. -Ashley
We had our cupcakes today that we made. We had our Christmas party. It was yummy and fun. -Tristan
Today we had a snack at our Christmas party. I ate cheese and it was yummy. After we got to play a little bit and then karaoke. Then we had to blog and then home time. -Nick
Today Taylor's mom came and she helped us make picture frames and we had a Christmas party. I brought vegetables and they were good. I sang with Lindsay. We sang We Wish You a Merry Christmas.  -Sydney H
Today at the end of the day we did karaoke and me and Nick did Jingle Bells. I had fun with Nick doing Jingle Bells. -Rylee
We had a party and I brought some pretzels and they were good. I liked to eat them. -Cameron
In the afternoon, at the end of the day, Aaron and me did Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer for Christmas karaoke. -Jonathon

The Baking Day

Today in the afternoon we were baking. We made tree cupcakes and we made cupcakes. When some kids were doing surveys and playing, me, Madeline, Rhianna, and Nicholas were making the icing. -Taylor
In the afternoon we baked cupcakes. Tomorrow we will put icing on them and eat them! -Cameron
Today we had Presents for Parents. I got something nice for my Mom and Dad. -Nick
Today in the afternoon we baked and we helped Mrs. Malkoske pour stuff in. We made trees and cupcakes. -Sydney R
Today was my fake birthday because its on the two weeks off. I'm going to Grand Forks. My real birthday is January 2. -Jolene
We took pictures with hats and the hats were santa, elf, and reindeer. Mine was Santa. We made picture frames for them. -Aaron
Today we celebrated Jolene's birthday. We also had presents for parents and in the afternoon we baked some cupcakes. The other kids made surveys and painted picture frames. -Ashley
Tomorrow will be our Christmas Party and I'm excited! -Olivia
My mom was volunteering at Presents for Parents and I went to her. -Madeline

The Advent Calendar

We went on our Wiki page today and there were some new things on there. One of them is called Snowflake Workshop. -Rhianna
We saw a paper that you cut into a snowflake (Make a Flake) and then you can look at it. -Nicholas
Mrs. Malkoske put some games on the Wiki page. One of them was Make a Snowman.  -Kendall
My favourite Christmas game was taking Santa down in his sleigh. -Sam
Today at the end of the day we had computer lab. On "Just for Fun" we did Make a Flake. While we were doing that Mrs. Malkoske was putting some Christmas games. After we had to close our windows and come sit down and then she talked about the games that she put on. Then we went and played those games. After when we were playing the games she put on, she put some more on! Then after we came to sit down so we know what to do when we played them. Then we went off and played those games and it was the end of the day. :) -Taylor
The advent calendar every morning a lock will open and then you can play a new game. It will keep going on until Christmas. -Jonathon
The Advent Calendar is right here:


Free website - Powered By Wix.com

When you click a number there will be a game and the ones that are locked, they will open. -Madeline

Penguins, Polar Bears and Snowmans

We made snowmans, polar bears and penguins in the afternoon because we were making a craft. I picked a snowman and it was fun making it and it had a red a green hat, green mitts and googly eyes. The eyes were hard to peel because they were so small. My snowmans name is Wonderland. -Madeline
Today I made a polar bear and I put googly eyes on him and a hat. I put arms and there is a little hole for the string. There is a big hole for a picture. Mines name is Snowball. -Sydney H
We watched a movie in gym and it was Dolphin Tale. -Sam
We did arts and crafts today. My craft was a penguin and Cole, Peyton, Jonathon and Aaron all made penguins. We all have a land and it is called Penguana. My penguins name is Pogo. -Tristan
My penguins name is Penguini- Jonathon
Today we did a craft and I did a penguin and his name is Pok-Pok. -Cole
Today at recess I was playing with Nicholas and he was being really funny. -Kaspir
Today we watched 2 movies. One was Dolphin Tale and the other one was Madagascar. -Jadyn

Christmas Concerts

This morning when we got to school it was really busy because we had 3 Christmas concerts. We are blogging at seven o'clock. I was nervous. I saw my brother, my Grandma and my Grandpa. -Jadyn
Today we had 3 Christmas concerts. One was a rehersal, the second one was real and the last one is at night and it is really dark. This is our last Christmas concert for the day and my mom and dad came to watch me and my brother. My class is still in the classroom and its really, really, really dark outside and it will be hard to see when the concert is over. -Taylor
Today me and Kendall were making a book. It is called The Crazy Book of Seasons. All the pictures are the same but a little bit different. Me and Kendall are going to give it to Mrs. Malkoske-Syndey R
Today we had 3 Christmas concerts. One was a rehersal and we were the last ones to perform. We watched the actors perform and it was fun. We sang a sings called "Whats That in the Sky" "Christmas Eve We Hit the Sky Tonight" "Little Green Men". When the show is almost over we sang "Whats That in The Sky" again. It was fun to sing to the moms and dads. -Madeline
It is really, really, really dark outside. There are lots of people at the concert. We are going to sing "Whats That in the Sky" and some other songs. - Cameron
Today I was in the Christmas concert and I saw my dad and Grandma. When we were done singing we we lined up and my Grandma tickeled me because she loves me. -Nicholas
My whole family came to the Christmas concert. I was nervous for the afternoon and evening concerts. - Jonathon
Today we had Christmas concerts in the gym. I had fun!- Kaspir
Today me and Rhianna finished our map. It was called Tooth Town. All the houses were made out of teeth and there was lots of houses. -Sydney H
Today we our maps and my partner was Nicholas. We are almost done and we had fun. -Rylee

We Made a Map

Me and Cameron's community was called Animal Island. Cameron named it. -Kendall
We are making a community that Ms. Anderlic taught us about what stuff is in a community. Jonathon and me are partners. -Peyton
Today Cameron's mom came and helped us with a craft. We were making snowmen. We also made a town and we made it our dream town. My partner was Jolene. Our town was called Rainbowland. -Ashley
Petyon and me were partners and we made a map together and it was gigantic. -Jonathon
Our town was called Land Lake. The people are going to be cavemen living in there. My partner is Tyson. The town is a campsite. We had a big circle and it had people biking and a washroom and people cutting down trees to make fires. -Tristan
My town had a lot of roads and it was hard to make, but fun. -Aliegha
Me and Brandon we made a map together and we coloured it out. -Sam
Madeline's mom came this morning to help out in the classroom. My town is called Tecow Town. -Olivia
My mom came today and we made snowmen. I was the first one to go to paint. We made a map about a make-believe town. Mine was called Taco Town. -Madeline

The Christmas Concert and Other Stuff

We showed our skip counting raps to the whole class. My group was Aliegha, Sydney H, Lindsay and Olivia. -Madeline
In two more days we have to do our Christmas Concert. -Jolene
We had our Christmas Concert rehearsal today in the Gym. -Olivia
Today we had a fire drill after last recess. -Rhianna
Today we had Choice Time and I drew a picture of a sunset and a rainbow. -Ashley
Today we had a fire drill. I got scared when it rang to go outside and when it rang to go back in.- Sydney R
We had Music. There were lots of kids. -Sam
Me, Jadyn and Cameron and Sydney H and Aliegha and Madeline stayed in to make Christmas decorations for our tree out in the hallway. -Lindsay
We counted hats in the case and I counted 46. -Aaron
Please be at our Christmas Concert. -Jadyn

The Awesome Day

Ashley's Mom came this afternoon and we made hands and when we went out for recess Ashley's mom put them up on the bulletin board for the Christmas concert. One is a tree and one is a wreath. In gym Mr. Chan has the stage up already. We only had stations in Gym. -Taylor
We had inquiry and we were learning about goods and services. We had to glue on a paper and write what we wanted to be when we grow up. It was fun. -Tristan
We had gym and I was happy. My favourite was bowling. -Sam
Today we had Gym and my favourite stations was stacking cups. Me and Jadyn and Lindsay and Sydeny H and Cameron stacked up and we used all the cups and we made a big castle. -Rhianna
Me, Tristan, Cole, Jonathon and Peyton and Alexander all stayed in at last recess to do our comic. It will be $4 or $5. Me, Tristan and William and Jaden made up a club called Secret Ninja. -Ty
Outside I was playing with Kaspir and we were playing tag. We were having lots of fun outside. -Nick
Today my Mom came and we learned a new game called Scrabble Alphabet Scoop. I like to play it because its fun. If you get a fly you have to put all of your letters back. There are cards to tell you which words you can do. -Ashley
Today at recess me and Kendall were playing and we made a snowpile and I rolled over it. -Sydney R
Today at recess Nicholas and me Rhianna were playing. Nick and me had a little fight but we appologized to each other. We said sorry. -Kaspir
Me and Sydney were playing dead and I don't know why we were playing that. We were just being silly. -Kendall
Today for Daily 5 for word work you could only do Scrabble Alphabet Scoop because we were learning it so that for other word work time you can play it. There can only be 4 people. I was in the third round with Lindsay, Olivia and Peyton. -Madeline

Monkey Machine!

This week during our Math time we've been exploring skip counting (counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc). At the beginning of our exploration we watched a Youtube video rap of skip counting. It was very catchy! Throughout the week I've caught a few different children singing it quietly as they work. :)

In order to help us remember the counting sequences, the kids in our class have decided to create their own rap videos... from scratch. We started on Tuesday by choosing our skip counting sequence, writing a rhyming introduction (which is much harder than we thought), and practising. Today we used a site called Monkey Machine to create our beat tracks. It was really easy and a lot of fun. Here's a sample:



Stay tuned to see our finished videos next week!

Little Drummer Boy & Winter Wonderland

I love Christmas music! A couple of days ago I hit the local musical jackpot when I came across 2 tweets about local artists' performing Christmas songs. I thought that I would share them with you :)

The first one is a link to the song Winter Wonderland by Winnipeg duo, Keith & Renee. If they look familiar to you, it might be because both Keith MacPherson and Renee Lamoureux were on Canadian Idol a few years ago, and they both work at Moksha Yoga Kildonan occassionally... talk about talent! Here's a link to the free download of their version of the song.

01 Winter Wonderland by keithandrenee

The second tweet was a link to a Youtube video created by Sean Quigley, a 16 year old Oak Park student. In the video he perfoms the song Little Drummer Boy. It's amazing! Here's the video:

Happy Holidays!

Thursday

Today we did  Daily 5.Aliegha and my first choice was work on writing because we wanted to do the blog.
We had Gym it was  awesome! Last day Mrs.Castor said that the Gym classes outside we have gym  inside because Mr. Chan was not here.
At lunch the lunch helpers sade if we be quiet then we get candy. if the whole class is quitet we all get candy but only one table  will.
today  my and  table finished our ornaments.
-Madeline & Ali

all about today

Today we worked on our comic Cole Tristan Tyson Alexander Peyton and Jonathon are makeing A comic. We are makeing all of the carachacters first we are allmost done the cover.  We finished our me on the map. Tristan said we would get 20 pages of paper and we allmost did of our comic.
-Cole, Jonathon, Peyton

Making a Math Video

We maked a math video today. it is a video about cownting by  2s  and  5s  and   we    allso   did    10s     my    gruop     did    2s. my gruop did 10s. my   group  had fun doing 2s and are excited because we did our very own song. It went like this: 2s 2s 2s lets count by 2s, 2,4,6,8,10 lets all count by 2s again.
-Olivia and Rhianna

Word Work!

This week the children in our classroom are trying out some new materials for Daily 5-Word Work. Each week they practice their individualized word lists using a variety of materials. I'm always looking for new things to keep it interesting for the children as they learn and play with words. Here's a picture of some of the things I picked up last weekend in Grand Forks:

Some of the other materials the children use include:

-mini whiteboards and dry erase markers

-mini chalk boards and colorful chalk

-letter beads

-letter puzzle pieces

-wiki stix (Bendaroos)

-ABC magnets

-ABC stamps

-ABC silly bands

-play doh

-felt letters and the felt board

-using Pictochat on our DSs

They've also been learning some word games that challenge and give them a little break from practising their word lists. Most of the games require the children to make their own words from a given set of letters. We have mini Boggle, Scrabble Slam, the Jumbline App (on the ipad), and Scrabble Flash in our classroom. I am a huge fan of Scrabble and love to play with anyone who has the patience for it. :) Scrabble Flash is fun for kids and adults (trust me, I've played a few games with the kids in our classroom). Here is a video of a group of kids playing Scrabble Flash today during Word Work:

My favourite thing about this game is that it often fosters meaningful conversation about words and word patterns between the players. I've heard children discussing whether or not a word is in fact a 'real' word, giving other possible spellings for words, using what they know about word patterns and vowel sounds to help others make more words, and occasionally sticking letters together randomly only to find out that a word like "mira" is actually a real word. (Usually I'm then asked for a definition...or we take a trip to an online dictionary to find out!) I think the children enjoy the break from their word lists and are having a lot of fun learning!

If you want to check out Scrabble Flash or Scrabble Slam, here's  link to the Scrabble site. Enjoy!

-Erin

The Skip Counting Day

Today we swtiched jobs and my job is library and my partner is Jolene. Me and Jolene are at a different table but are really close to each other. Today we had a Christmas concert rehersal and the actors came over so we watched them do their play. -Taylor
We had gymnastics and we were doing backward rolls and we were doing cartwheels and we were doing balancing. -Nicholas
Today I got a new job and my new job is greeting. We had gymnastics at lunch recess and I like gynmastics because you can do cartwheels and I like to do cartwheels. -Rhianna
Today we went to music and the actors were there. We also switched seats and jobs. My job is cleanup with Aleigha. -Ashely
We switched seats today and we switched jobs too. I played a math game with Aleigha. - Cameron
Today I went to the dentist but I was here this morning. I came back at lunch but everyone was still outside. -Jadyn
We had music today and the grade 4, 5 and 6s came and watched the rehersal. - Kaspir
We switched our jobs and our seats today. I sit beside Taylor and Olivia. My new job is survey. We played a math game and my partner was Sam. -Madeline
I switched jobs and my partner is Taylor for my job. My old job was survey and I was with Ashley. - Jolene
We switched seats and I sit beside Sydney H. and Cole. - Jonathon
We switched seats and I was beside Sydney and Jonathon.- Lindsay

Today we practiced skip counting by 2, 5 and 10. Here is one of the videos we watched. (Be careful, it is catchy!)

A note about conferences...

Conference time can be a very crazy time of year in an early years classroom. Helping 25 children prepare 25 portfolios is always a challenge... but worth every second and every effort! Over the past two weeks, the children and I spent lots of time talking about our year so far, reflecting on the things they've learned, setting some goals for next term, choosing just the right pieces for portfolios, and practising sharing learning with others. The night and afternoon of conferences can be quite hectic, but also very rewarding. I love eavesdropping on the children in my classroom as they talk their way through their portfolios with their families. Hearing the children explain their work, talk about their favourite books, teach their families a new math game, and laugh about something they remember about a project is my favourite part of the night. Seeing them explain, reflect, and discuss all of their learning makes me feel very proud. Watching parents look at their child's work, ask them questions about their learning, and congratulate them on their accomplishments is also very rewarding. It was another AWESOME week.

On Friday afternoon I came across some interesting tweets while I was checking my professional Twitter account. A number of the educators I follow were at a conference where author Peter Reynolds was the keynote speaker. (Peter Reynolds has many great children's books including "Ish" and "The Dot") The tweets were sent by Tony Baldasaro and many were quotes from Reynolds' keynote speach. Here are 4 of the tweets Tony sent. I thought they came at a perfect time. I love it when that happens :)

Here they are:

The last one was my favourite. Simple. To the point. True in everyway. Every child is amazing. 

-Erin



Lots of Parent Teacher Conferences

We have a short day today because we don't have school at lunch time because we have Parent Teacher. -Madeline
Today we have really, really, really early dismissal because there is Parent Teacher in the afternoon. Some kids have to take different buses and some take the same bus. I have to take bus 34. Everybody is singing a song today. It's a Katy Perry song.-Taylor
Today is Parent Teacher. I'm coming today with my family. Today Jolene's Grandpa came to read us a story. It was called "How Santa Lost His Job" and in the end he got his job back. -Ashley
At recess we were singing a song about Katy Perry and Cameron was singing the wrong way. It was funny. Me and Kendall were singing it to the boys. -Sydney R & Kendall
Today I had a short recess and we are having Parent Teacher today. -Cameron
The people that are on bus 11 are still on bus 11. That's the bus I always take. -Rhianna
Today at recess I was playing with Nicholas and Ashley and Jolene. We were playing tag. -Rylee
Today I'm taking the bus. I'm going on bus 33 with Alexander, Tristan and Jolene. -Cole
Me, Tristan, and Cole we stayed in for recess to do our comic. It's about a talking banana. My character is an apple and Tristan's is a watermelon and Cole's is a banana. -Tyson
My bus for today is 33. My Grandpa came to read a story to us. -Jolene

Fix Up Portfolios

Sydney R put stuff in my portfolio because I was painting. We put some stuff that we did for inquiry in it. -Kendall
I put stuff in Jolene's portfolio. My favourite thing is the map book. -Jonathon
My favourite books were "The Haunted Castle" and "101 Cool Jokes". Only one of them were Geronimo Stilton. -Cole
Today we made a huge Christmas ornament. We painted it yellow. -Brandon
Today my Mom came and she helped us do our Christmas ornaments for the Christmas concert. Ours was blue. -Ashley
We put stuff in our portfolios and we did Me on the Map. -Aliegha
When my table was painting the Christmas ornaments, our colour was red. When I was painting it, it reminded me of the Christmas concert. -Jolene
Today we painted 1.5 metre by 1.5 metre ornaments. My table painted blue. We had fun. -Jadyn
Today at school we painted ornaments for the Christmas concert. Our ornament was coloured gold. -Lindsay
We had gym today. We played world cup soccer. -Sam
Today we had 2 volunteers. In the morning Madeline's Mom was here to finish our tree project. For the afternoon Ashley's Mom came to help us finish our big Christmas ornaments. -Taylor
My Mom came today. I was the first one to finish our summer tree and we did our portfolio. My favourite one was Me on the Map and my other favourite was My Favourite Books. We did Me on the Map.-Madeline
At Daily 5 we did word work at the end together. Someone came to watch us do word work. He was Mr. Walls. -Olivia
Ms. Anderlic's boss came and watched us do word work. Today I had a special lunch with Jolene. We ate and drank with a plate and cup. -Ashley

Another Busy Day

We had our Christmas Concert rehearsal and the actors came in. It was a fun day! -Tristan
We had choir and we did our Christmas Concert and the actors were really good. -Tyson
Today we had Library and we got our library teacher back because she was sick. We got chocolate bars. She saved them for us. -Taylor
We had Daily 5. We had to make words. -Sam
We almost finished our Just Like Me book. It was fun to make it. -Sydney H
Today we got a paper for making a book that Ms. Anderlic read to us. It was about a map and we made one about the classroom and it got bigger and bigger and then it went smaller.-Sydney R
Today we had a fun day because we did our surveys and our surveys made me feel really surprised because when the teacher said that I felt so surprised like I was going to explode. -Rylee
Today at recess we were in the front with grade ones and twos. They went down a big line of ice and it was like a slide. Some grade ones and twos went down it and it was fun. I had fun too. -Rhianna
In library we got chocolate bars. -Olivia
We played a game it was scramble. You had to make different words and you had to make 2 letter, 3 letter, 4 letter, 5 letter, 6 letter, and 7 letter words. It was really fun. -Madeline

Report Card Day!

Today we are going to get report cards. It took me hard work to get there. -Lindsay
Today we got report cards. When Mrs. Malkoske said we were getting report cards today I got surprised. Ashely was surprised too. -Taylor
I was excited when we got our report cards. I wonder how big they are. -Rylee
If I get all positive comments then I get money. -Tristan
When I heard Mrs. Malkoske say that we were getting report cards today I was scared because I didn't want it to say bad things about me. -Ashley
Today we get report cards. I hope I have a 5 or a 4. -Jadyn
Today we got report cards. I was wondering how many pages it has. -Sydney R
Today we're going to get our report cards and I hope I get a 4 or a 5. -Madeline
I was surprised that we were going to get report cards today because I didn't know that we were going to get them. -Sydney H

The Blue Bombers lost the game. I wanted the lions to win. -Sam
Yesterday I had a Blue Bombers party and me and my Dad and my auntie and uncle watched the game and had lots of snacks. I wanted the Blue Bombers to win but they lost. -Rhianna
Last night I had a party. My friends came over. We played downstairs and the Dad's were upstairs watching the football game. My Dad, my brother and me were cheering for the BC Lions. -Taylor

Awesome Blue Bomber Day

Today we could wear blue and gold or a blue bombers jersey. -Olivia
We finished the book that Ms. Koehn was reading today. We finished our gingerbread glyphs. -Cameron
On blue bomber day most of the people in our class wore blue bomber stuff. I took mine off because I was too hot. It was a fun day. -Tristan
We were doing some gingerbread glyphs and putting buttons on them. We had to glue them on.-Nicholas
Today, me, Kendall and Cameron were playing hide and seek at recess. Me and Cameron hid in the play structure and Cameron called it Bunny Hide and Seek. It was fun.- Sydney R
We had fun because we did our glyphs and when we were all done we drew pictures and we had fun. -Rylee
We had music and went on the instrunments. -Kaspir
We coloured pictures. -Sam
We had music and the kindergartners came to join us. -Cole
We coloured pictures when we were done doing our glyphs, and when we were coloring our pictures Ms. Koehn read us a story called "The Twelve Dancing Princesses." -Madeline
We got sour soothers and jelly beans from Ms. Koehn.- Jadyn
This week was really fun. -Tyson

I can't believe the week is over already! The children were well behaved for both myself and Ms. Koehn. I taught my second lesson today and it was on natural and constructed features. I feel that the lesson went well and I can't wait to teach more. -Ms. Anderlic

P.S. Do you hope the blue bombers will win?- Kendall

Good Times

In Daily 5 I was doing reading to someone and my partner was Sydney R. Her book was New Kitten and it was the Berenstein Bears.- Nicholas
Mrs. Malkoske and Mrs. Masey came to our class and helped us with the writing continium. - Kaspir
I want to write more than one page. -Cole
We looked at our writing in our writers notebook. -Brandon
Today in gym we were learning how to catch and pass. - Lindsay
Today we had gym and we played a couple games, one with balls and we tried to see who was the last one standing. - Ashley
In gym we played hot potato.- Jolene
In gym my partner was Brandon. We almost were standing at the end.- Tyson
In gym today we played two types of ball. My partner was Sydney R and we won one of the games. -Rhianna
In gym we played a game and my partner was Ashley and we had to practice before our little competition. A couple of times we were almost left standing. -Taylor
We did math and my partner was Sydney H. We played number blackout. - Cameron
We played a game that had Bellybutton dice. There was a blue dice inside and a see-through dice on the outside. -Tristan
We had fun playing with the belly button dice.- Rylee
We made a Glyph and it was a gingerbread girl or boy. -Madeline
We made gingerbread mans but they were actually us. - Aliegha
We had a subistitute. We were learning about our Community.- Olivia
We had recess. - Sam
I was late for school because I was at my grandmas house with my cousin. -Alexander
Today Ms. Anderlic wrote the Blog post instead of Mrs. Malkoske. -Sydney R

Today I taught my first actual lesson. We are starting a new Social Studies unit that focuses on Canadian Communities. The children learnt what a community is and what makes a community. I am so happy that the lesson went well; the kids were very well behaved and I am so proud of them. -Ms. Anderlic

The Everything Day

In gym we played spongebob square pants it was fun. -Aliegha

We have A substitute her name is ms koehn and ms anderlic but she is A student teacher. - Aliegha

Today in computer lab we are doing pinky dinky doo and story bird. - Lindsay

we playd a game calld number black out and I win.- Lindsay

Today I started my practicum block. This means that I will be in the classroom for the next month until Christmas break. I am really looking forward to seeing the children everyday :) They are awesome students and I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to teach them. - Ms. Anderlic

The 50th Day of School!

In gym there were stations and my group we started on balancing games. For read to someone my partner was Sydney H and we read the book "Beautiful Oops!" -Rhianna
Today was the 50th day of school! I did read to someone on the computer with one of Mrs. Dent Scarcello's students. His name was Matt. My book was called "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed". -Cole
We did math. We did groups of and number of the day. -Jadyn
Today at gym when we were in the stations, I was on the balance with Nicholas and we had fun balancing together. Nick was good. -Rylee
We are getting ready for the Christmas concert. We were making decorations. -Lindsay
We had gym and there were stations and it was jungle gym. -Peyton
We added a pet to the blog. We had to do a little vote to get which pet. And we got a hamster. At lunch recess me and Ashley were playing puppies and we were playing with the supervisor. -Taylor
At the gym my partner was Kendall and I played with her on the ropes. I started with ropes. -Cameron
We were counting with some numbers to make 50. One was two (groups of two). -Kendall
Today we had read to someone and we did something different. First Mrs. Malkoske wrote a list. She tried to put girls with girls and boys with boys and the same level. My partner was Jadyn. Today we did our last tree. We're going to finish it tomorrow. We're doing our summer tree. -Ashley
We had recess. We had fun. I went on the slide. -Sam
I Skyped with Peyton in Mrs. Dent Scarcello's class. She was a girl. She read "Roar!" And I read a book called Henry and Mudge and the Sparkle Day. -Madeline

Skypeing with Mr. Hoeppner's Class

we  wher skypeing with  mr.  hoeppner s  class  and  they  wonid  to know  the   criteria  for  skype and  they  wher  asking us questions.
- Kendall, Cameron, and Sydeny H

Today Mr. Hoeppner's class called us to ask us some questions about Skype. His class is new to Skypeing and wanted to know about our criteria and how we us Skype in our classrom. The children in our class did a great job sharing our criteria and answering their questions. We are hoping to connect with Mr. Hoeppner's class again soon!

the so so beisy day

Me and Taylor did a skype call and we red a book to grade5 and thay raed a book to me and lindsay.
the grade five s were a vary good rader and we were to.We had gym and we playd beall got grof
and we had a soubstot in gym I was it but Taylor wasint it and my fraend  Jadyn was it to.
we did potfalleol wrok one of are sets were what is your favrit daily 5 chos and what is the most
challsan chos . we had a   fun fun awesome day  by      lindsay and Taylor         

Survey Questions!

Yesterday we had a booklet that we got to make surveys. On one of the sides it has all of our names. On the other side we made 3 questions and after the next day we got to write on the back and do one today. -Taylor
Before recess we started our books and after recess we finished. Some of us had interesting questions. -Rhianna
Today we walked around the classroom and asked people which one they like. One of the sheets had all the names and the other had all the questions. On one of them, after you asked the person your question, you put a checkmark on the person you just did. When the answered we put a tally on their answer. Some were Yes and No and some were choices. -Ashley
We were thinking of finding out about what people like and don't like. -Sam
There were 4 different ways to start a Yes and No question. They were "Have you ever...?" "Did you want to...?" "Do you like...?" and "Do you have...? -Kendall
I was coming around and I was asking people which colour they like and the colours were blue, green, yellow. -Nick
My survey was what's your favourite hockey team. The choices were All, Other, Jets, Vancouver, and Pittsburg. -Cole
My survey was "Have you ever went to Mexico?" -Lindsay

If you want to answer some of our questions.... click the link below to do our Survey Monkey Survey:
Click here to take survey

skype calls!

We Skyped today with mrs.dent scarcello class. Jadyn read dalphins and tristan read flippidy frog. it was cool becuase there was a microphone in the headphones. The grade 5s read to us and we read to them. It was for Read to Someone during Daily 5 in the morning.      

-Tristan & Jadyn

What Makes Good Writing?

As we get ready for portfolio conferences, the children in our classroom have been reflecting on some of their learning in reading, writing, math and our inquiry projects. Today our focus was on writing. I asked the kids the question, "What Makes Good Writing?" Here is what they said:
Tristan - Start with the date.
Cameron - Neat, small printing.
Peyton & Madeline - Use periods, exclamation marks, commas, and question marks in the right places.
Cole - Write the details.
Taylor - Write on the lines.
Jonathon & Lindsay - It makes sense.
Jolene - Uppercase letters at the beginning of a sentence
Kendall & Sydney R - Finger spaces!
Rhianna - Do the title.
Kaspir - No scribbling, use letters.
Sydney R - Try to sound out the words.
Kendall - Don't use bad words.
Jadyn - Read it over.
Peyton - Then we looked at the Writing Continuum and compared our writing to the samples. We used our TWAS to match the writing on the writing continuum.

Here are some more things that help to make our writing even better:
Ashley - Make all the words uppercase in a title
Aliegha & Jolene - The picture has to go with the writing. They have to match.
Aliegha - Add feelings to your writing.

A note about report cards...

Today I am sitting in a very quiet classroom working on student report cards. I must say that our classroom is a whole lot less exciting (and a whole lot more lonely) without the 25 little people that usually share this space with me.... I am looking forward to tomorrow when we're all together again. :)

Report card writing is not my favourite part of being a teacher. I always seem to struggle to find just the right words to describe what I know about my students. It is a difficult task to put into just a few words, everything that a child has had success with, is working on, and needs a little extra help with. It's just a small snapshot of what I know about each child at this moment in time. Tomorrow, or in a week, or in a month, that snapshot will look different... that child will grow a little more, and know a little more, and have new challenges to face.

As I look at the list of names in front of me I can't help but feel proud of the children in my classroom. Every day I ask children to be kind, to be a good friend, to help and take care of each other, and to try their very best always. On top of all of that they are learning to read, write, figure out math problems, explore science topics, and learn about the world outside of our classroom. It seems like an awful lot to ask of a group of 5, 6 and 7 year olds... but they meet the challenge every single day. Every one of the kids in my classroom tries their very best, wants to learn new things, and rises to any challenge I present to them. I think everyone in this classroom deserves just one mark on their report card... an 'A' for AWESOME!

See you tomorrow,
Mrs. Malkoske :)

The Remembrance Day Assembly

Me and Jolene were at the Remembrance Day Assembly and we said our speeches. My speech was "Peace is wearing a poppy to remember" and Jolene's was "Peace means remembering the people that died." My Grandpa's name is poppy-Tristan
Me and Tristan were worried when we were waiting to talk. When we were speaking it was scary because there was a lot of people looking at us. -Jolene
The grade 3 and 4s sang a song. The grade 5 and 6s did some recorder and one person sang. -Ashley
I was happy. I have a poppy. -Sam
Mrs. Malkoske gave us poppies and my mom gave me a poppy and put it on my sweater. -Nicholas
We had to put our heads down when  someone was playing the trumpet. She stopped playing the music and then she started to play the trumpet again. -Kendall
We had a Remembrance Day assembly and I was excited. We watched a movie called "What Does Peace Feel Like?". We made that movie. -Cameron
When we went to the assembly and someone played the trumpet it reminded me of my Great Grandpa. -Rylee
Two people from each class brought thier wreaths that they made in their class and they said speeches. The speeches started with "Peace feels like.... to me." -Cole
There was a lot of people that were singing and doing the instruments. -Tyson
My Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, and my sisters came to the Remembrance Day assembly. We sang a song called Peace Begins with Me. -Madeline
When we were at the assembly we heard music from the recorders. Then there were people singing "Peace begins with Me". -Rhianna
There was a girl named Sam in grade 4 and she talked about peace to the school and families. -Sydney R
At the Remembrance Day assembly, when the girl played the trumpet we had to bow our heads and be silent. -Taylor
The girl played the trumpet two times. For the kindergartens, when they carried the wreath down, only one did the speaking. For every other class two people did the speaking. After the movie you couldn't clap.-Peyton
We had fun today! -Lindsay

Our Day in a WORDLE!

Today we decided to share the events of our day as a Wordle! Our Wordle is all about our Family Group
time today. Can you figure out what we did?

A Special Delivery

After lunch recess, we walked into the room and there was Frisbees in our classroom and everyone got a Frisbee with their name on it. After we got our Frisbees, there were some leftovers so we got to practice with the Frisbees outside in the front and the side. -Taylor

We were throwing them to our partners. My partner was Sydney H. It was feeling great! -Sam

When I was outside, me and Jadyn were throwing the Frisbee and we threw it to each other. It ended up over the fence. Then Mrs. Malkoske had to get it. -Rhianna

Me and Tristan threw the Frisbee together. It got full of mud. I threw it and it looked like it was going over the fence, but it didn't-Cole & Tristan

When we were outside in the front, my partner was Nicholas. We are friends. Nicholas was a really good thrower. -Rylee

I thought my Frisbee was going to end up over the fence. It got all full of mud too. -Jonathon

My partner was Aliegha and Jolene and Mrs. Malkoske. When Aliegha threw the Frisbee it went in the mud and I had to go get it. -Madeline

You put your pointer finger out and hold it with your thumb on top. Then you wrap it with your arm and throw. -Cameron

Taylor was my partner and she was awesome! -Ashley

I caught the Frisbee two times. -Jadyn

My partner was Sydney R and we sometimes hit the glass on the window. -Kendall

Lindsay was my partner. She was a good thrower. -Olivia

My partner was Brandon and we almost went so high, it almost went over the fence. -Peyton

My partner was Alexander and he was AWESOME! -Tyson

When Kendall threw the Frisbee, it rolled and I thought it was going to go in the parking lot. -Sydney R

Recess!

Last week I took my camera outside at recess to see what the kids of Room 9 were up to. It was a beautiful November day... and the kids were playing beautifully together. :)
After waking up this morning, I'm sure glad I went outside last week! I have a feeling it will be a while before we see the grass on the playground again!

Click here to view these pictures larger

Halloween Photos

Here is a Photopeach spiral of some of our Halloween photos!  :)
Halloween! on PhotoPeach

Bag Up Manitoba!

Our adventure with Bag Up Manitoba has come to an end. The kids in our classroom worked really hard to collect, count, package and recycle 3733 plastic bags... that's 3733 less bags that will end up in Winnipeg landfills this year. This video documents their work and learning. Awesome!

What's Peace?

Our class was reading a book about peace.The book was called What  does PEACE  feel like?
We drew pichtures and then we painted them.
Mrs. Malkoske and Mrs.Remillard  recorded  are voices to make the video.We will show the video on Remembrance Day at the assembly.The video is about  what does peace feel like, taste like ,smell like sound like and look like.

What does peace feel like to you?

Please leave us a comment and tell us your answer to our question.

from   Madeline, Kendall and Sydney R

What Does PEACE Feel Like?

Last week the children in our class read, talked about, and created this video about PEACE. This video is based on the book "What does PEACE feel like?" by V. Radunsky... with a few small changes of our own. The children in our classroom recorded their story and created beautiful paintings to illustrate it. We will share our video at the Remembrance Day assembly next week.

Awesome Awesome Awesome Day!

Today we had a remembrance day project. We had to paint something that represents peace. I (Tristan) did sour stuff. For the project  I (Jonathon) picked cinnamon. Each table was making a list ideas for Remembrance Day. Each table got their list and did a recording. We're going to make them into a movie. For Remembrance Day me (Tristan) and Jolene went to the Music room to practice our speech for the Remembrance Day assembly next week. We had to make a wreath and lay it down on the stage and do our speech. When Taylor's Grandma and Grandpa came we made the poppies and glued them onto a paper and that was the wreath. We had gym and there were 4 centers. We had choir and it was fun.
By Tristan, Peyton and Jonathon

Note to Readers: Our "What Does Peace Feel Like?" video will be posted to the blog soon!

The 3 Days Together

Mrs. Malkoske was sick so we had to have substitute teachers two days in a row. So we couldn't blog because they didn't know what to do. -Cole, Jolene, and Madeline
Today I got a Dragonfly Ticket. It was my first one! -Sam
We missed Mrs. Malkoske but she's here today. I missed Cameron and I wanted him to come back.-Rhianna
We wrote about peace today. We switched jobs and seats. I was sick yesterday. -Cameron
We did lots of writing, reading and math. -Peyton
We made an Animoto today about Bag Up Manitoba! (Mrs. Malkoske will post it later). -Jadyn
While Mrs. Malkoske was gone we had a piece of paper and we had to do math on it. It was about adding. -Sydney R
We did writing. I like writing because now writing is my favourite thing. -Rylee
At first recess me, Taylor and Jadyn stayed in to help Mrs. Malkoske. -Ashley
At last recess I stayed in to help clean up the classroom. -Kendall
Today Mrs. Malkoske was back. -Alexander
I missed Cameron because he was sick. -Nicholas
We collected 3733 bags! Now we're done. -Olivia
That makes 93 Frisbees!!! -Tristan

Happy Halloween! Boo!

It was Halloween and we had a lot of treats at the end of the day, after last recess. I dressed up as Smartie Pants. After we had a Halloween party I played Don't Break the Ice with Cole and Jolene and Sam and Peyton.-Tristan
We had two Halloween activities - The Little Witch story and Smarties. At the Halloween parade everyone got to show their costumes. -Peyton
The Halloween parade was in the gym. -Kendall
I brought cookies shaped like ghosts. My costume was an Angry Bird pig. -Cole
We all dressed up for Halloween. In the parade all the people were different. -Rhianna
We had a Halloween party and we had a lot of treats and we counted bags and there were a lot of bags. We went to the parade and we showed our costumes. -Cameron
Lots of costumes were different. We had fun and ate lots of snacks and we had fun. -Jadyn
Mrs. Malkoske was supposed to be Pinkalicious. We had to go in a circle around the gym for the parade. I was a bumble bee.  -Olivia
Ms. Anderlic was an old grandma. - Aleigha
We had 3 recesses and I came on the bus. -Sam
Tonight we go Trick or Treating!!! -Nicholas

AWESOME FRIDAY!

We had gym and we played hallowen games again. We did hallowen paderns at the end of the day. We played a witch game and you had to say how many steps you take. We had 3 recesses. We carved 2 pumpkins. Taylor's Grandma and Grandpa helped us. We made groups, boys and girls, and we had to guess how many seeds were in the pumpkins and then counted. Then we carved the pumpkins. When we were carving the pumpkin, most of us used our hands and not spoons.
-Mrs. Malkoske's Class

An Author Came Today

After last recess we met an author and her name was Debbie Holme. She read us her book called "Sarah's Poppy Puppy". It was fun -Tristan

We met her after last recess. The book was about Remembrance Day because it's almost Remembrance Day. -Taylor

The book was about her uncle and the war and poppies. He died in the war. -Jadyn

It was about her family. I asked "Do you like being an author?" and she said she does. In the book they found a box with family things that are special. -Sydney R

In the story they found a box with a toy and 4 medals. -Peyton

The book was really cool. It had a poppy puppy in there. -Tyson

 The book was about the war. -Sam

They found an old newspaper in the box. -Kendall

They travelled to go to the cemetary to plant flowers by the grave. -Cole

She (the author) was wearing one of the medals from the story. -Jolene

We wrote questions for the author and we asked her. The story was very fun. -Cameron

It was kind of sad because her uncle died in the war. -Rhianna

We had fun because we learned about being an author. I had fun learning about authors and the war. -Rylee

The Busy Fun Day

We had a substiute teacher. Her name is Mrs. S - Nicholas
We had gym with the grade 3 and 4 class. We played Halloween games. Ms. Anderlic gave us cupcakes. They were spiders! -Tristan
We have 2634 bags.- Peyton
We had 3 recesses, it was fun. -Sam
Ms. Anderlic came here today. We did Daily 5 at the end of the day. - Jadyn
Today we had fun becasue we had a sustitue teacher and we went to gym and we watched Geronimo Stilton.- Rylee
We did bus evacuation and got to jump out of the back.- Jonathon
We made bookmarks. The bookmarks were for empathy. We gave them to our book buddies. - Olivia
We did some writing about Peace and we wrote lots. I did lots of writing and we watched a movie in the gym today instead of recess. - Cameron

Volunteers are Awesome

This month we've had many volunteers come into our classroom to help out with a variety of jobs. They've helped us by getting materials ready, typing up our stories, reading with us, doing art projects with us, and being there when we need them. I'm not quite sure what we'd do without them! We look forward to meeting more parents next month and throughout our year together.

This week we had a couple of familiar faces return to our classroom all the way from B.C. Taylor's grandparents came and spent this afternoon in our classroom and will return on Friday afternoon. The children who were in my class last year met Taylor's grandparents when they came and helped us paint the birdhouses the children built. We always enjoy having them and of course welcome other Grandfolks too :)

Here are a couple of pictures that I took looking out our classroom window earlier this month. Our feeders are keeping the neighbourhood birds very happy. We've already gone through an entire bag of birdfeed... and we're pretty sure that Mr. Miles is feeding them too!

Plastic Bags and Big Numbers!

We were making tens out of bags. -Rhianna
We've got 1810 plastic bags! -Olivia

The first day we had only 46. Now we have 1810. In gym we played Halloween games. -Tristan

I was having fun. -Sam
I was at Gym and we were playing Ghostbusters. There are 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and then Halloween! -Nicholas
It was Madeline's birthday and she gave us cookies. -Peyton
We had Gym and we played lots of games. They were
Halloween games. -Taylor
We were doing the Plastic Bag Round Up. We found a soft bag.
First you shake it, then you pull it, then turn it inside out and
into an umbrella. -Cameron
We read a new book called Timmy the Tumble Bag. It was from Mrs. Dent Scarcello. -Kendall

Our Plastic Bag Round Up has had a very successful start. In just 1 week the children have collected over 1800 bags! Each day our 'collectors' go to each classroom to collect bags from the other children. It's always very exciting when they come back with a full garbage bag. Today we tried to estimate the number of bags in our pile before we counted. We had estimates ranging from 130 to 8000. Many children looked at the pile we'd already collected, looked at our pile for the day and made their guess. We had lots of kids that estimated around 1000 bags (our actual count was 953)... not bad!
This project has been quite exciting for me as well. The kids have completely taken ownership of the collection, counting, organization, and advertising for it. They know how to get the bags ready for counting and they've developed a system for keeping track of how many bags go into the large garbage bags (they make piles of 10 and one student marks the 10s on the whiteboard as they are added to the bag). Not only have they created an accurate and efficient system for counting, they are learning about taking care of our environment, the importance of recycling, how things are recycled into new things, the importance of good advertising when you have an important message to share, how to count in groups, how to add large numbers, how to work together with a group of people, how to compromise when necessary, and most importantly that small people can do big things. I'm always amazed at how much a group of 5, 6 and 7 year olds can do when they care about something and work together. Awesome :) -Mrs. Malkoske

Lots of Birthdays!

My real birthday is on Sunday and my party is on October 23rd. -Jonathon
We drew pictures for Jonathon. Everyone makes a picture and we make it into a book. You get a pencil from the office and one from our classroom. We have 7 birthdays in October. -Peyton
We sang Happy Birthday! -Rhianna
We celebrated my birthday on Monday. -Tyson
We also celebrated mine on Monday too and it was fun. -Rylee
When somebody has a birthday, you get to wear a birthday ribbon. -Sydney R
We celebrated Jonathon's birthday today. -Cole
We made pictures for Rylee and Tyson last time and we put them in their books. -Cameron
My birthday is on Monday next week. -Madeline
My birthday is on October 29. -Ashley
You get a balloon when it's your birthday. -Aliegha

Seeing Double!

This week we've been learning about doubles and how they can help us when we're adding. Here are a couple of YouTube videos we watched to help us remember our doubles. (Careful... the songs are pretty catchy!)


Here's another one:

Lots of fun day

There was 326 bags that we counted today. -Aliegha
We had gym and we had centres that we could do. One was bean bag toss and one was kind of like bowling and one was hoola hoops and skipping. The last one was scooter races. -Madeline
We did some math centres with Sydney R's Mom and it was so much fun. -Cameron
Today was the first day that me and Ashley went around the school and collected bags. -Jolene
Today we had choir, gym and computer lab. In the computer lab we learned some new math games. -Ashley
Today at gym we had a substitute and we played duck duck goose. -Taylor
In the computer lab the math games are on our wiki. -Peyton
In choir we sang songs and had fun. They were Christmas concert songs. -Olivia
We got lots and lots of bags. -Jonathon
Me, Taylor, Ashley, Aliegha and Madeline had to go to every single classroom and give them notes for the end of the day. -Jadyn
We had fun this morning because we did lots of learning and I like learning at school. -Rylee

531 Plastic Bags!

Yesterday we had 257 bags, and this morning we had 531. -Tristan
We put up signs all around the school because it's important. -Sam
We make the bags into "umbrellas". -Nicholas
These are the 3 steps to get a bag ready for counting:
1. SHAKE it.
2. Put your hand in and grab the bottom and PULL it.
3. Then grab the top and pull down. (It looks like an UMBRELLA) -Jolene
We put them in groups of 10 to count them. -Cameron
Jonathon, Sam and me made signs. -Peyton
I was one of the ones that was going around the school and putting the signs up. -Jonathon
We had groups making the signs. -Cole
The signs said "Plastic Bag RoundUp" -Kaspir
We had a fun day when we were putting up the signs and also when we were fixing them. -Rylee
Me, Taylor, Aliegha and Tristan made an announcement about the plastic bags. -Olivia
Ashley, Taylor, Aliegha, Madeline and me delivered letters to all the rooms in the school. -Jadyn

Teachers Are Learners Too :)

This afternoon I was in a meeting with my PLC (Professional Learning Community). My PLC is made up of 8 teachers from our school and our focus this year is on integrating technology into our classrooms in meaningful ways. Our group will meet throughout the year to plan with one another, support each other, and grow our learning about technology integration. We've already made some exciting plans for our students!

This Friday is an inservice day for students across Manitoba because it is SAGE (Special Area Groups of Educators) Day for teachers. This year I am participating in SAGE as a presenter instead of a participant. I belong to a SAGE group called MAME (Manitoba Association of Multiage Educators). Our group is hosting events at two different schools this year for over 600 Manitoba teachers! Mrs. Dent Scarcello and I are presenting two sessions together. The first session is about blogging with students and the second is about free web tools for classrooms. I am looking forward to Friday, although it is quite a different experience to teach teachers instead of kids. I can't wait to show off all of the great work the kids have done on our blog this year!

First Guest Reader!

Alexander's Dad (Coach) read us a story. It was called 'Boo!'. -Lindsay

It was a good book. -Nicholas

It was written by Robert Munsch. -Peyton

It was illustrated by Michael Martchenko

A monster kid was scaring everyone. He was scaring everyone and saying "boo!!" on Halloween. -Sam

When Alexander's Dad read us the story, at the end of the story, there was another teenager who dressed up as the same thing except he was a rock star and then he had a big bag of candy (like the same as the boy) and he had a pillow case on his head. He took off his mask and he showed a scary mask but it wasn't as scary as the boy's. Then the boy took all the candy. -Tristan
It was funny. -Olivia
When he said "Boo!" they would scream and fall right over. -Aliegha
It was so scary and when I saw it, it scared me! -Cameron

The Plastic Bag Round Up!

We are collecting plastic bags to recycle them into Frisbees and other stuff. We made jobs like making posters, bag collectors, talking at assembly, letters, and announcements. We do not like to throw stuff in the garbage. We saw a video about the garbage dump. When it rains the water goes through the garbage and it isn't good for the earth. We watched a movie about recycling and making new plastic bags. Here is the video:

Here are some picture of us getting ready for the Plastic Bag Round Up!

 We wrote an announcement to read in the morning.                              We wrote a letter to Mrs. Caldwell to tell her what we're going to do.

We already got some bags from the kids in our class.              We counted how many bags we've collected.        We wrote a speech to give at the assembly.

You can sign up for the Plastic Bag Round Up too! Or send us your plastic bags.

-The children of Room 9

We made posters to put up around the school to remind people to bring in their bags.

When we count the bags we make sure they are empty and we count them in groups of 10 (Thanks to Mrs. DentScarcello's class!)

Reflections on the Daily 5

This morning I asked the children in our classroom to talk a little bit about what they liked best about the Daily 5 now that we've learned about all of the different components and have had a chance to practice them. Here is what they said...
I like listen to reading because you get to look at the pictures and listen to the stories. -Jolene
I like word work because Mrs. Malkoske bought whiteboards. -Lindsay
Read to someone is my favourite because you get to read to someone else. -Kendall
I like read to self because I sit in a comfy spot and have fun there. -Cameron
I like listen to reading because you can hear a story and you don't need to read it. I also like work on writing. -Olivia
I like work on writing because we can write about what we want and I write different things every time. I do some writing and some pictures. -Tristan
I like read to someone because you get to  hear the other people read a story to you and you get to read to them. -Cole
My favourite is listen to reading because you get to hear the story and there's lots of books on there. -Peyton
I like work on writing because I get to write what ever I want and me and Ashley work together when we need help. -Taylor
I like work on writing because I get to write what I want. It's fun because I can draw pictures and write a lot. I also like read to self because I can read chapter books. -Ashley
I like listen to reading because I like listening to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie because there's a song after. -Jadyn
I like listen to reading because you can go on Tumblebooks and you could pick what ever story you want and listen to it. When you're done you can listen to another one. -Madeline
I like work on writing because I can write about my family. -Rhianna
I like work on writing because I like to write a lot of things. -Aliegha
We can pick where we want to go (and what we want to do). -Jolene
I like word work because you get new words when you get them right. -Brandon
I like listen to reading because I don't have to read a story and it's fun. -Sydney H
I like work on writing because I never draw pictures. -Tyson

Choices, choices, choices! As I read over the reflections the children made, one thing is very clear... They love to have choices in their learning. Choice in materials for word work, choice in which books to read or listen to, choice in what they write about, choice in location for working. When they have choice, they are happy and focussed. They are working on activities that are important to them, and appropriate for their skill level. As I looked around the room today during Daily 5 I saw a room full of children making great choices. At any given time there were children listening to reading on the computer or the iPad, children practicing their words with a variety of materials, children sitting side-by-side reading to one another, children quietly curled up in a comfy spot reading a great book, and children working on writing in their writer's notebooks. What a great way to start the day!