Commenting on Blog Posts

Today we spent some time in the computer lab learning about what makes a quality comment. The children in our classroom know that when you comment on a blog post you should:

1. Choose a post that is interesting to you.
2. Give a put-up or compliment to the writer.
3. Make a connection to yourself, your life or something you know.
4. Ask a question.
5. Sign your first name.
6. Reread your comment before you post it to make sure it makes sense.

The children worked in partners to go through the process of leaving a comment on a blog. We had a few technology glitches, but everything was in working order by the time we left the lab.

This weekend the children's Weekender homework assignment is to work with their families to post a comment to our blog, or one of the other blogs that we follow. Here are some quick links to the other blogs we follow:

Mrs. Dent Scarcello's Blog

Mrs. Caldwell's Blog

Mr. Hoeppner's Blog

Mrs. Kosolowski's Blog

Receiving and responding to comments on the blog is always exciting for the children in our classroom. It helps them to realize that they have a real audience, their work is important, and that people are interested in what they are doing and what they have to say. I'm fairly certain that when I was 5, 6, and 7 the only people that were listening to and reading about what I had to say were my parents and maybe my sisters (but probably not... I'm the youngest). Through the use of technology we are able to turn our classroom walls into windows, we are given the opportunity to connect with and learn with people in far away places, and are able to share what we do with the world. Awesome.

-Mrs. Malkoske

An afternoon away and other news...

It feels like it`s been a long time since my voice has been heard on our classroom blog... which is kind of awesome because that means that I`ve started to meet my blogging goals...
1. To post something every school day.
2. To `hand over` the responsibility for the blog to the children.
3. To help the children in my class see that the work they do is important, interesting and worth sharing with the world.
...I`d say so far so good. We`ve posted every day and blogging has become a natural part of our daily routine. Some days we blog together and everyone has a chance to contribute, and other days two or three students take on the responsibility. I have had a number of children ask if they could post on their own and very soon they will get that opportunity. The children are interested in looking at our flag counter to see which countries our visitors are from, and the LOVE getting comments! They`ve even helped Mrs. Caldwell with her blog. She was a bit nervous about sharing her thoughts and ideas with a global audience, but Taylor assured her that she would be okay, there was nothing to be nervous about, and that `it`s just like sharing stuff with your friends`.
This week we got a present in the mail from one of our blog followers. (Which was very exciting for all of us!) Mrs. Dent Scarcello at Bird`s Hill School follows our blog and saw that we are doing the Daily 5 in our classroom. She sent Awesome Owl bookmarks to each of the students in our classroom! The children knew that we needed to thank her so we Skyped her this morning. It was our first Skype call of the year and we had a couple of technical difficulties at first, but we got to talk with Mrs. Dent Scarcello for about 5 minutes. She asked the children about the Daily 5 and answered a few of their questions. We talked about the criteria for Skype and the jobs that we will have during longer Skype learning calls. This short call allowed us to test out all of our equipment and of course to thank Mrs. Dent Scarcello!
You might have noticed that I`ve made a few changes to our blog tonight. That`s because I`m getting it ready to share at a professional development conference for teachers this weekend in Winnipeg. I`m facilitating a session called A Window to the World - Blogging in the Classroom at the Fab Five conference for new teachers. I`m also conducting a couple of different technology sessions at the SAGE conference later in the month... so our visitor counters are going to sky-rocket!
I almost forgot... the reason that I`m posting without the children today is because I was away this afternoon at an ICT coordinator meeting (I am the coordinator for Dr. Hamilton this year). Our blog requires a password in order to create a post, so the kids can`t post without me... but they`ll be back tomorrow!
-Mrs. Malkoske

The Happy Day

It was picture day today. -Kendall
It's my birthday. We sang happy birthday and Mrs. Malkoske blew up a balloon. -Nicholas
Aliegha showed us her bird's nest. We had word work. -Tristan
We had pictures in the gym and a birthday to celebrate. -Taylor
Today we had library and music. -Peyton
We did some shape work. The stars were my favourite. -Cameron
We had fun! We had 3 recesses!-Sam
We wrote in our writer's notebook. -Brandon
I wrote a whole page in my writer's notebook! -Jadyn
We did finger painting. We made ovals. -Lindsay
My favourite centre was the finger painting.-Sydney R
We wrote in our books. I wrote about my birthday. -Rhianna
I wrote two pages in my writer's notebook. -Tyson
Today is Mr. Chan's birthday. -Jolene
We're gonna go to music right now! -Olivia

Substitute Teachers!

We had a substitute teacher for gym and this morning. We were in gym when the fire drill rang. We went outside to the back in gym. -Tristan
In gym the substitute teacher taught us a new game called Billy Goat Tag. -Ashley
Ms. Koehn was here this morning and she's nice. -Jadyn
She's a very nice teacher. -Rhianna
She remembered some of our names. She was here til lunch -Peyton
Ms. Koehn is fun! -Taylor
Ms. Koehn is the sister of my neighbour. -Jolene
We had our second fire drill. -Cole
We went outside when the fire bell rang. We waited outside for another bell. -Nicholas
Today we learned about shapes. Two people read a story to people in groups. They read their book over and over to different groups. -Ashley
We're doing shape stuff in Math. -Cameron
We have 3 play structures. Yesterday was our day. -Sam
We had fun today. -Rylee

We Belong Together

Today we talked about who we belong to like family and friends, and lots of sports. We talked about groups like Brownies and Sparks, dancing, skating, jobs, school, and cousins. We had to draw and label pictures of our groups and it was fun!
-Aliegha & Mrs. Malkoske

1 Awesome Day!

we  had a fire drill we went out the side door. we had gym we did lots of  runing. the Terry  Fox  walk was right before last recess. my mom came for the Terry Fox walk and my sisters came to. we learned  two  more things for Daliy 5.we went to gym before lunch. this week it was Coles birthday.we had  T.W.A.S. we wrote alot. are stamina was 11 min.for read to slef. and are stamina for read to someone is 11min.
-Madeline & Peyton

Busy Beehive

We had to do lots of writing... and it was fun! -Brandon
We had jungle gym. -Jadyn
We had jungle gym two days in a row. We had three things out of our room: Choir, Gym and Computer Lab-Jolene
We made ourselves into kind of like animals at computer lab. -Nicholas
If we were done our work we did free writing. I was drawing pictures and writing about my room and my cabin. Nine people visited our fridge survey. We had fun. -Tristan
We had choir. -Cole
Gym was fun! -Lindsay
We had a busy day and afternoon. -Taylor
We had fun. The best part was jungle gym! -Sam
We went to computer lab. -Cameron
We were making a movie. -Madeline
We had word work stations. -Ashley

*Note: The most of the titles of our blog posts are given to us by Tyson. I think he might have a career in marketing in his future! :)

The website we visited in the lab today is called Build Your Wild Self and it was created by the New York Zoo. It`s always a favourite!

The Daily 5 in Action!

The children in our classroom have spent the last two weeks learning about the Daily 5. We created lists of expectations together, the children have had many opportunities to practice, and their stamina and independence is increasing every day.
Until today we have been practising each of the five elements of the Daily 5 all together, one at a time. Today was the first day that the children were given the opportunity to choose the order of their Daily 5 activities... and they were terrific! They knew exactly what they wanted to do and when they wanted to do it. They were focussed and independent.
This morning we had time to do three rounds of Daily 5. The children chose between Read to Self, Read to Someone and Listen to Reading. At the end of the third round, each child had compeleted each of the three elements. Here is a short video that shows what our classroom looks like during one round of the Daily 5:

The Daily 5 in action! from Erin Malkoske on Vimeo.

Daily 5 is Awesome!

During Daily 5 we had to do all three things but you got to pick in which order. -Peyton

We listened to reading on the stereo. -Cameron

On Daily 5 I read with the birthday boy. -Tristan

I picked chapter books for Daily 5. -Aliegha

I learned how to read Mom! -Kaspir

We switched our books. -Sydney

I read with Aliegha when it was Read to Someone. -Madeline

It was my birthday today! -Cole

We had cupcakes for snack. -Jadyn

We drew our houses. - Nicholas

Today we had jungle gym! It was AWESOME! -Ashley

We had fun at jungle gym. -Rylee
We had fun! -Sam

It was another busy day in Room 9. The children in our classroom are getting very good at following the expectations for each of their Daily 5 choices. Check back later to see a short video of the Daily 5 in action!

PS - Cole had an AWESOME t-shirt on today! :)

Mad Science!

Mad Science came today. -Aliegha
We're going to learn about planets. -Rylee
They had a card and ripped it. Then she put it on fire and put it in a pot. Then Tyson got it out and it was the card again. -Sydney R
When they put dry ice in the container the lid popped! -Nicholas
When they put dry ice up against a plate it made a noice. -Cole
Then Mr. Chan said eeeeeeekkkkk! -Sydney R
They did lots of experiments. -Peyton
They put a fire in a bottle and they put an egg on top. Then the Mr. Eggbert squeezed in and the fire went out. Then she blew in the bottle and Mr. Eggbert came out. -Madeline
They brought a friend that was an egg (Mr. Eggbert). -Ashley
She put a leaf blower and it blew in her face. Then balanced a ball in the air with it. -Sydney H
She put a hair dryer on and a ping pong ball on top and balanced it. -Kendall

Note to Parents: Mad Science will be offering a before school club at our school beginning in October. Information is coming home tonight in your child's Back and Forth folder.