Setting Goals

I love goal setting conferences as it gives me a chance to learn more about students! Thank you so much to all of you who attended this week. Look for a copy of the goals to come home next week along with any follow-up we discussed.

Stamina - one of the things I have noticed in the afternoon is that students find it harder to focus. We have been building in a variety of daily physical activity breaks into this time such as head-to-toe stretches, chair aerobics, and outdoor play.

We just finished our first math unit on patterns and algebra. Students should be bringing home their math test this weekend. Next week we will begin a unit on place value.

In Science, we have learned about how meteorologists measure the weather using a variety of instruments. Now students have been giving daily weather reports in groups of three, reporting on temperature, wind speed, cloud cover and precipitation amounts.

We will begin our unit on Nutrition starting next week using a program called Food Sense by the BC Dairy Association. The objective of the program is for students to learn to assess their diet and physical activity levels. This program meets the requirements for grade four in Health and Career Education.

Friday afternoons will be a blend of Fine Arts activities (music, drama, and art). Dance will be incorporated through PE. Currently, students have been learning about rhythm and beat in music. In drama, students are enjoying participating in a variety of drama games and activities. If you visit the school, you should check out the beautiful pastel leaf tracings project that students have completed.

We began two new classroom routines this week - class meeting and Free Write Fridays. Class meetings will be held on Mondays. Students will rotate as the chair. They will be running the meeting (with a little help from me). The purpose of class meeting is to build classroom community and to introduce problem-solving to students. Each week we will discuss items from the class meeting box - either a problem or a suggestion. The format that we follow for class meeting is:

1. Meeting called to order
2. Bouquets
3. Old business
4. New business
5. Compliments and Thank you's
6. Meeting adjourned

Free Write Fridays has been launched with much enthusiasm. This idea began a few years back and has morphed into a favourite for students. Basically, the students get to choose the type of writing they work on, who they work with, and how they will write. Some will be writing comics or graphic novels. Others might create a PowerPoint presentation. Projects from years past included recipe books, catalogues, stories, poems, songs, letters, and reports. Published writing will be shared and celebrated with the entire class. The only requirement for students is that they are WRITING and that they MIX IT UP!

Well, I should head to bed. I am looking forward to a JUMP math workshop tomorrow for my professional development. Have a great weekend.