Movie Day

This afternoon we got to watch a movie. It was called The Lorax. In the middle of the movie Mrs. Malkoske was called some kids over to do some math and counting. After the movie was done, we watched the other movie that was on the Lorax movie. Now we're blogging. In music I got a dragonfly. Aaron, Madeline, Kaspir, Rylee, and Tyson got them too. -Taylor
In music we were singing songs and played a game. -Madeline
In music Mr. Chan gave us dragonfly because we did the right actions. -Kaspir
Today at recess I was playing with Evan and Lucas and they were playing soccer. Me and Kaspir were sitting down playing fun stuff. -Nick
The movie that we watched was The Lorax. My favourite part of the movie was when the Lorax was upset because a green guy was chopping down the trees. The funny part about The Lorax was that he had a mustache. The Lorax said to the green guy "I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees!" -Sydney R The movie The Lorax was made by Dr. Seuss. My favourite part of the Lorax movie was the Lorax because I thought he was funny and he talked loud and ran through houses. I've never seen a Dr. Seuss movie before but I have Dr. Seuss books at home. -Rhianna
Today my favourite part of the day was doing Daily 5. There is a word in a book that I couldn't read but now I know how to read it because now I'm older. -Rylee
Today in music I had to stay after class because I was getting dragonfly ticket. When I went to get my dragonfly my number was 85. -Tyson
In Daily 5 today we all did our projects. Now everyone is doing projects. The PIP people are having a meeting tomorrow. -Jadyn

Daily 5 Projects!

Today was a great day in Room 9! Since last week when some of the kids in our class started working on PIP during Daily 5, many of the other children have been anxiously awaiting the start of their Daily 5 project. Every day they've been asking about what their project will be and when they're going to be able to get started. Today was the day. Two more groups of kids started working on two new Daily 5 projects.

I decided to start these Daily 5 projects for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, projects like these provide kids with purpose and motivation for reading and writing. Each of the projects was tailored to suit a small group of students with similar strengths and needs. For example...

Personal Inquiry Projects (PIP)

The children working on PIP are independent readers and writers who are moving from "learning to read" to the "reading to learn". They are working on building their independence in both reading and writing, learning those life-long learning skills of finding information and asking good questions, and most importantly they are learning that if they are interested in something and want to know more about it, they have the skills to do it. As I watch these kids decide on their topics, ask to visit the library at recess time, take notes, share information, and take their notebooks home at night to keep on learning, I can't help but feel very proud. :)

The Recording Studio

The children that are working on recording some of our picture books for our listen to reading centre are working on solidifying the reading skills that they have. They are building their confidence as readers and working on fluency and expression. Recording books on a digital recorder allows them to hear themselves read, and gives them an opportunity to try again if they want to do something differently or if they make a mistake. Burning their recordings to CDs for the other children to listen to provides them with purpose and motivation to make their recordings their very best work. I stood back and watched these children work today and overheard a wonderful conversation between them where they made a plan, talked honestly and respectfully about how the recording went, and gave each other advice. It was one of those moments that I wish I had recorded!

Newspaper Project

The group of children working on the newspaper project are working on solidifying some of their writing skills like ensuring that their writing makes sense to other people, spelling high frequency words correctly, using their 'voice' in their writing and building confidence as writers. The are so excited to share thier newspaper with other people when it's finished. As I watched one of these kids sit and write out a list of questions for an interview (during choice time) and then take our digital camera, her reporter badge, and her notebook and head to the office to ask for an interview with Mrs. Caldwell I couldn't help but smile. Earlier in the day I'd watched this same child struggle and ask for help with a writing task... a little motiviation and a chance to feel very important made a huge difference.

Today the some of the grade 1 stared a project and it was newspaper. We had to talk to people and record or write what they said. We are taking pictures and put them in the newspaper.- Sydney R

I love watching kids learn to love learning. It makes my day :) Today during choice time more children chose to read, blog, play a word work game, work on their Daily 5 project, and write in their writer's notebook than chose to play Lego or with blocks... I think that is AWESOME.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Many of you know that I connect with a variety of other teachers and educators on-line via Twitter, Edmodo and a variety of other social media tools. Today I noticed a link to the video below. The teacher that posted it is a teacher librarian in our school division and thought it would be a great way to kick off I Love to Read Month. I agreed :) Today we watched it and did a little bit of writing during Daily 5 time. The kids liked it so much they asked to watch it again while they were eating their lunches, so I thought I would share it with you too. Enjoy!
-Mrs. Malkoske


The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo.

Here are some of their comments about the video:
My favourite part was the houses flying all over the place. -Cameron
In the movie I saw a tornado. -Nick
There was a tornado and everything was flying. There was a man riding his bike to home and he was flying. -Sam
When we watched the movie, my favourite part was when the book needed surgery. -Madeline
My favourite part of the movie was when he did surgery. -Rylee
My favourite part of the movie was when all the books were sad because the man was leaving. Then the little girl came and they were happy again. -Ashley
When he came into the different world, he was black and white. Then he went into the house with all kinds of books. When he picked up a book and read it he turned colour. -Tristan
When the man was lending the books to people, and wehn he gave them a book, they turned colour. -Sydney R
In the movie my favourite part was where the books had to have surgery. It was a good movie. -Aaron
In the movie there was a part where the book had surgery and the book was hooked up like a person to see if his heart was beating. When he read the book, there were bumps like his heart was beating. -Tyson
My favourite part was when the man put the little jacket on the book. -Jadyn
When he looked at the book it made him turn colour because he liked it. -Kendall

Number 99...

Today I'm posting by myself as the kids of Room 9 are off to Music class. Our afternoon was very busy and we ran out of time to post together. However, as always, they were very clear about what today's post should say. :) Here is what the kids wanted me to tell you:

This morning during Daily 5 we took a look at a few pieces of writing that some of the children are working on for our next Mixbook. In order for us to be able to see the writing and revise/edit as a group, I took a picture of a few students' notebooks with my iPad and connected it to our projector. We opened the pictures in the Glow Colouring app (a word work favourite!) and we were able to write on top of the student writing to highlight, fix, and add. It was very interactive and the kids loved to see their writing on the big screen :) Here is a picture of one of the pieces we looked at. ------->

In this piece we were able to see that the author was using language that made it sound more like a poem than a story, they were using some WOW! Words (descriptive words) and that they had asked a couple of questions. This group revision/edit was valuable to both the student who's work was on the wall, as well as to other students who were working on similar pieces.

The second thing the kids wanted me to share with you is about an art project that we've started during our inquiry time. We are learning about different states of matter and we have had many discussions about changing from one state to another (solid to liquid, liquid to gas, etc). One of the student in our class talked about a crayon maker that she got for Christmas. She explained that you can melt crayons (solid to liquid) and make new ones. This reminded me of an art project I saw on Pinterest where crayons were attached to a piece of foam core and heated to melting with a blow dryer. Of course, the kids had to try it. They busily peeled broken crayons during indoor recesses last week, and today we did step one of the project... choosing our crayons. Here's a picture: ----->

Tomorrow we'll attach them to our board and blow dry. I have a feeling it's going to get warm in here!

Just one more note... This post is our 99th blog post of the school year!  Be sure to check out our special edition 100th post tomorrow :)

Yummy Word Work & Science Centres!

Today at Word Work Mrs. Malkoske got a new word work material. It was crackers and we got to make words with them because they had letters on them. After, when you were done word work, you got to eat them. (And I am star of the week). -Madeline

I did fishy crackers at word work. When I was done my words I ate them. They tasted like cheesy crackers and they were letters. -Nick

Today word work was yummmy. It was exciting to work with things you eat. After your round you could eat them. That's the part that made it yummy! -Ashley & Cameron

Today in the afternoon we had centres. There were 6 centres. There was different groups. Some were with their whole table group and some had one person away to make another group. We got to pick our own spot at our table. After that we got to pick where we wanted to go. -Taylor

We kind of used marbles and we put some water in to see if it would go up or no. -Sam

Today we did centres. I really liked using the marbles and the blocks. It was hard. -Rylee

My favourite science centre was the ones with water. In one of the water ones you filled a cup with water and put marbles into it and see if it overflowed. The other one was there was a container with a line and a big marble. You poured the water into the cup with the line then  put the marble in. -Sydney R

My favourite centre was the one with beads but the beads spilled everywhere! It was still fun. -Kendall

This weekend I took another trip down to Grand Forks with my Mom to visit my sister and her family. We were celebrating my nephew's 4th birthday and watching my niece perform in the North Dakota Ballet Company's production of Alice in Wonderland.

Whenever I go across the border Target is always on my list of places to visit. (After family of course.) When I shop at Target my rule is to only buy things that I can't get in Canada. This weekend I found Cheez-It Scrabble Junior crackers... and they were a huge hit during word work this morning! The kids are always excited to use a new material, especially when they can eat it after. :) -Mrs. Malkoske

All Together Again

Today was the first day since before Christmas break that our whole class has been at school! Here are some highlights from today:
Today we had family groups and I had fun making my brick. -Kaspir
Today we have early dismissal. -Lindsay
Today we had indoor recess again because it was so cold out. -Taylor
We had gym and then we were exercising like running. -Sam
It's early dismissal and my Dad's going to pick me up but he doesn't know it's early dismissal. -Jonathon
At all the recess I was peeling crayons. -Aliegha
We had gym today and we were exercising. At recesses I was peeling crayons with Aliegha, Jonathon, Tristan, Tyson, Cole, Jadyn, Olivia, Lindsay, and Jolene. It's for an art project. -Madeline
At Daily 5 we had to do Read to Self and then we got to pick our last choices. -Peyton
When it was school my Mom dropped me off because I wanted to because it was too cold out and my bus was early in the morning. -Nick
Today at recess I played Connect 4 and Let's Go Fishing and Lego. -Cole
Today at the end of the day Mrs. Malkoske showed us a video of a man that helped people have light and he used a plastic bottle, and water, and bleach, and sealer. -Sydney R & Kendall At family groups we had to do a project with a paper that looked like a brick with a stick person. There was a speach bubble. You had to colour it and write something in the speach bubble about what conscience means. I put "Doing the right thing." -Ashley
Today is early dismissla and wer're having indoor bussing because it;s really cold. -Rhianna

The Bubbly Day

In the morning we did daily 5. (Madeline) We did T.W.A.S and it was about the artist who came to the school. (Nick) Her name was Allison Moore. (Jadyn) We went to music today. (Lindsay) In music I got gummy bears. (Cameron) In math, we worked on adding and subtracting. (Peyton) In inquiry we wrote about our Frosty Experiment. (Rylee) We wrote about what Frosty looked like the first time we saw him, at the end of the day and this morning. (Kendall) He was a liquid today. (Kaspir) Today we did a project with bubbles, liquid watercolor and soap. We used straws to blow the mixture and it made bubbles. We put a piece of paper on the color we wanted and when you lifted it up it looked really cool. It looked like a circle made of bubbles. (Ashley) Ms. Anderlic was back today. (Jadyn)

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

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

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

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

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 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         

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

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!

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! :)

Reading Rocks!

We read a lot this morning. -Taylor
We did read to self. -Kendall
We did read to someone. -Alexander
Today we started word work during Daily 5. -Lindsay

Here are some other things we did today:
Today was our first day of math centres. We started Inquiry too. We talked about ourselves and had to answer questions.-Tristan
We did counting by 5s in math centres. -Brandon
We had the grade 5s and 6s in gym with us. -Jadyn
We did our jobs. -Nicholas
We had an awesome day! -Taylor

Watching young children grow as readers throughout the course of a school year is an awesome experience. Listening to a young child read a book that they couldn't read just a few short months or weeks before is rewarding, but watching their faces as they realize what they've just done is magic. :)

The Daily 5 and Open House!

Tonight our Mom's and Dad's are going to meet our teacher (Madeline). We can look at books at the Book Fair too (Rhianna). Open House starts at 6:00 (Petyon).

Today we started the Daily 5. We learned about Read to Self (Lindsay). When we read to self we have to remember:
-Keep our eyes on the book (Sydney H)
-Read for the whole time (Cameron)
-Look at our books slowly (Nicholas)

-Don't talk to your neighbours when you're reading your book (Taylor)

-Pay attention to your book (Peyton)
-Whisper if you're sounding something out (Jolene)
-Read your just right books (Ashley)

-Pick 1 spot and stay there (Jadyn)

-Get started right away (Jolene)
-Treat books right (Rylee)

Today we also had Run Club and Gym. (Aliegha)

It was another busy day in Grade 1 & 2. Today we started the first component of The Daily 5, Read to Self, and it was a big success! This summer I read The Daily 5 and The Cafe Book  and plan to implement this program in my classroom this year. At our school there are 5 teachers that hope to do the same. We are working together to share, discuss and celebrate with one another as we grow our professional practice around literacy. What I like best about The Daily 5 is that it fosters literacy independence and provides children with choice. I will be blogging a bit about how things are going as we learn about the other 4 components of The Daily 5. Stay tuned...