Here we are at the beginning of a new week and we are already off and running with lots of things going on.

Today, we started with Mentor Sentences. With Mentor Sentences, we take interesting sentences from children’s books and look to see what makes them so good. This also goes very well with our focus on grammar as we are looking at all the important grammatical elements in the book. By looking at the grammar and structure of sentences written by children’s authors, children will be able to transfer those elements to their own writing.

For Math, we are starting of with some math fun with the game of Quadice. This is a very easy game involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and a little element of change as students roll the dice to make numbers. By finding ways to make two of kinds, three of kinds and four of kinds, kids earn points. We just started to but already it has been lots of fun as students quickly learn the rules.

Science has been all about learning about how Scientists and listening to instructions. One of the things I told students today was that Bob (my evil twin brother – the students will tell you all about him), found a mysterious substance outside the other day, which I am going to be bringing to school tomorrow. Bob wanted to eat it right away but I told him you should never eat anything lying around. That and I wanted to bring it in to show the students tomorrow. It should be very interesting!

One of the big things I shared with students today was the fact that there were two words I was banning from the class – I’m Done! We spent some time this morning talking about why we were banning I’m done from our classroom:

• It forces us to focus on the next activity rather than focusing on the task at hand
• It makes other students feel rushed when someone else in the class says they are done
• It makes it feel like the only goal of the activity was to finish rather than on doing the best we can.

Obviously, there will need to be time limits but we will be spending lots of time this talking about what they can do to make their work better – instead of rushing to say “I’m done!”

Finally, three last bits of information –

1. Rainy weather and smoke – We are supposed to be getting rainy weather this week. We are trying to have the kids go outside as much as possible as per the Government’s recommendation during Covid. Unless, it is torrential rain, we will most likely have the students going outside. Please make sure to pack rain gear and/or umbrella. This is of course, if the smoke clears. If the day is smokey as it was today, we will keep the students inside at the recesses.
2. Individual Photos – Students will have individual photos on Sept. 18. This means there is no Knights Day. Students will need to wear their regular uniforms.
3. Music of the Week: Each week I like to share a variety of music with the class. I love music and I enjoy a wide variety of music which I love to share with the students. This week, our music of the week is Dan Zanes. Dan Zanes is a children’s singer. However, his music is not your typical children’s music. Rather, he gathers a wide variety of genres and makes them appealing for students. I have shared a couple of his videos below for you.