This afternoon with the 3’s

What a great group of kids. It is easy to teach when they only leave you 8 kids to have in the class.

Gym class went really well. We made up a volleyball game and the boys played against the girls. Sorry girls, but the 4 boys won. We then played a game of secret agent, which involved a lot of running and dodging. They were quite tired in the end, but no one could catch Leanne.

Back in class, we worked on a word mine. A word mine involves taking a word, and then using some of the letters or rearranging the letters to make other words. We played with the word “Environmentalist” and students found between 70 to 100 words. Some students are still working on it, while others are feeling like it is time to draw. One student has found 150 words.

I’m still playing some jazz. The Entertainer, Linus & Lucy, Green Tea and Yama Yama Man got the best responses from the students. I think they liked Bang!Zoom (by Bobbie McFerrin), but they did look at me funny went it came on.

Pretty soon the day will be over, the students will go home, and I will get back to my office desk and read report cards or emails. Taking a class for a day has been fun.

Thanks Mrs. Korsch and Mrs. Pearson for letting me a guest teacher for a day.

Take care.

Lunch Time

The grade 3’s continue to do well. We did some math, and continued to listen to Jazz.

It’s lunch time now. Today is one of the PAC food days – Subway sandwiches. Food days help the school in many ways. They provide funding to help us in classes and with big “wish list” purchases, and they provide a break for some families from making lunches. Students come down to the front hall and get their lunches from the volunteer parents who organized the day’s food. Thanks parent volunteers 🙂

The children are quietly eating now, so I will head out of the class and leave it to our grade 6 lunch monitors to keep an eye on things. Thanks Jan & Cam.

Take care.

Grade 3 Day – So Far, So Good

The grade 3’s and I have gotten off to a great start. We started with Story Time – Dr. Seuss’ If I Ran A Zoo. Excellent story.

We then followed up with Community Circle. The description they gave was, “We sit in a circle and talk.” So we talked. Tell me something interesting about yourself. What is your favourite food? What is your favourite animal? What is your favourite word? These kids can talk. Oral language activities are very important in school. We teachers sometimes spend too much of the class time talking, and we need to provide time for children to talk and share their ideas or stories.

Now the students are all quietly working on their Social Studies – “Your Circle of Support.” As they are working we are listening to some jazz. I like some music when I work, so today they will hear some Bobby McFerrin, Wynton Marsalis, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Bud Powel and Duke Ellington.

If time permits, I will write some more during the day. For now, I am going to go chat with the kids.

Take care.

Teaching Grade 3 Today

A group of grade 4 and 5 students are heading up to the Bighouse at the North Vancouver Outdoor School, so we are left with a group of grade 3’s who are in need of a teacher. Today, that’s me.

When I visited classes last week, a couple of grade 3’s would always ask me, “What are we going when you teach us?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Well, apparently that was not good enough. They wrote the day plan for me, which they presented to me yesterday. They made sure to include story time, math and gym. I really liked the hour of free time (that we may need to negotiate).

So, my day plan is set. They grade 4’s and 5’s are off to Outdoor School. I am ready to teach.

Wish me luck.

Take care.