June

There are 22 days left of school. Ack!

So much to do in so little time. We started our alphabet countdown on Tuesday. So far we’ve had A (art extra), B (bonbons), C (cache-cache dans le noir) and D (dodgeball). Monday is E (English Day & EQAO)…. etc. (The last day of school is Z – zip les sacs à dos)

Things that need to happen between now and my champagne birthday (which also happens to be the last day of school this year – June 29th.)

– EQAO (3 days worth of provincial testing for my grade 3s)

– Submitting assessment data for term 3

– Our class trip to Medieval Times and the CN Tower in Toronto (with the English 3/4s)

– school Track & Field meet for junior/intermediates (I am co-organizing)

– board Track & Field meet (I am chaperoning)

– Primary Play Day (T&F for the primaries – and since I have a 3/4 split….)

– Our school production (Doo-Wop Wed Widing Hood!) – two nights (and final rehearsals and final prop/costume making!) (I am co-directing/producing/prop making/set design etc)

– Our  Medieval Fair (with the English 3/4s)

– a couple of Assemblies (including a going away assembly for Father Peter)

– a couple of masses

– I imagine there will be a talent show of some sort (my kids seem to think that they’ll organize it)

– class movies: stop-motion animations and math videos

– Father’s Day art

– one more math PD

– REPORT CARDS!

(oh, and do my regular subject teaching!)

What seems to be a crazy time of year (which it is), it is also my absolute favourite time of year. Everything comes together, the sun is shining and the kids are smarter. The end of the year is much like a giant culminating task at the end of a unit. Designed with the end in mind.

xo

Persuasive Letters

For homework this year, we have been doing weekly writing and math practice. I have homework mainly to appease parents – they don’t actually get marked on the content, but rather the responsibility. In mid-march, students wrote persuasive writing pieces for homework about how we should stop homework for the rest of the year (we are all getting tired of it). I told them if I was persuaded by 15 (the whole class) with well-written letters, I would listen to them. So far, 12 have stepped up to the challenge.

Check out some of the great persuasive letters – these are written by some of my grade 3s – unedited. It has been a long year in writing, but I am proud of them! You can clearly see that we have been working on organization and ideas (with details). We still aren’t the greatest with grammar and spelling…..

Two more grade 3 letters – Teagan’s letter and Danielle’s letter

The grade 3s & 4s came up with very valid reasons for no homework – no time for family, no time to play in the fresh air outside, home is not time to do school work, nobody to help at home in French, it’s a waste of time and it gives your hands blisters.

Once all 15 students have convinced me (I am really hoping that is soon), there will be no regularly assigned homework. Students, however, will still be expected to read nightly (in French and/or English) and are encouraged to contribute to one of our class websites (if they have Internet access at home) –Wallwisher, Bitstrips or Kidblog. I did introduce them to multiplication.com today – and they went crazy with excitement. I’ll bet many logged on tonight.

(ps. if you speak French and want to comment on our class blogs or if you just want to check out my classroom website, message me and I’ll give you to the guest password! They are just being introduced to blogging, so they aren’t so great yet….)