We have had a busy two days! Yesterday started our ongoing Writer's Notebooks by designing and decorating the covers. Students will be working in these notebooks all year, so they were asked to make the cover fun and interesting... just like them! Today we started some of the idea pages of the book. These are pages that students can use throughout the year, just in case they develop writer's block! Today we completed an Authority List, where students write about things they know a lot about, a Heart Map, where students write about what they love, and an Ideas for Writing page, with some ideas we already have that the would like to write about in this notebook. We will be continuing to set up this notebook next week.

In Science, we started to look at Weather. Yesterday the students were asked to share what they already know about weather. Students shared that: 

- the weather can change
- it can rain, snow, sleet, or hail
- when it is humid it might rain
- humidity creates clouds
- air moves because of hot air and cool air; land breezes and sea breezes
- air can have different density
- the weather changes with the seasons
- the weather changes with the sun

I am so excited to dig in a little deeper to some of these ideas in our upcoming lessons! Yesterday and then again today, we started this unit by looking at the difference between weather and climate. We watched the following:
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We learned that weather describes the minute-by-minute changes in the earth's atmosphere and climate describes the weather in a specific location over a period of time. They are not the same thing. Yesterday we played a game of Kahoot! to review what we learned. Today we added an entry into our Interactive Science Notebooks. Students copied some notes on weather and climate before sorting this information into a Venn diagram. Next up... how does the movement of the sun affect the daily temperature? The seasons? 

In French today we quickly introduced our first topic of study. We are going to be learning to tell time. 
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Today we looked over the above, but we are going to have to do some review of our numbers from 1-10 and then our numbers from 1-60 before we can become time telling masters. This will be our focus for the next few lessons. You can always practice telling time with a little tune:
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In Art today we began working on our first self-portrait project of the year. I like to do 2-3 different self-portraits in different styles throughout the year with students. Our first self-portraits of the year are inspired by pixel art. Students practiced using grid paper to draw only straight lines (no curves allowed) and then began to put together there good copies. I am really excited to see how the finished projects all look.
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Agenda
Language Arts:
​- Read 20 minutes (begins next week)
Math:
Science:
Social Studies:
French:
Health:
Art:
Other: 
- Return GAFE Permission Forms (Owen, Rachelle, Ibrahim)
​- Return Additional Information Handout (Rachelle, Ibrahim)

Welcome Back BBQ - September 12th, 5:30-7:30 pm
​Broadcasting Permission Forms - due September 10th (Monday)

Today the students and I started our day with some fun "Would You Rather?" questions. This is a fun way to get students moving, talking to different students, and getting to know one another. For example, "Would you rather be a werewolf or a vampire?" or "Would you rather have an elephant's trunk or a giraffe's neck?" It was interesting to see what students chose! 

We began reviewing/learning the 7 Habits today. Today the students and I discussed Habit 1: Be Proactive. The students and I watched a short video that demonstrated what it means to be proactive. We also brainstormed our own ideas about what it means to be proactive. Students shared that being proactive is:

- being positive
- making your own decisions
- doing the right thing, even when no one is watching
- controlling your own feelings, actions (choose your own weather)

Then we discussed the difference between being proactive and being reactive before writing our own proactive statement that we can use to help us to set and meet goals for this school year. I will post our statements at a later date; we are going to be posting them along with a picture outside our classroom when everyone is done. 

Want to know more about Habit 1? Watch the following story at home and see if you can figure out how this story demonstrates being proactive:
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The students and I also created our classroom management positions today. The students helped me to brainstorm what jobs we thought needed to be done to help our  classroom be the best it can be. We narrowed our list down to: Pencils, Custodians, Fidget, Chairs/Desks, Whiteboards, Leader, Student on Call, Technology, Bob, Agenda, Police Chief, Boot Room, Hallway, and Supplies. Tomorrow will be our first day assigning students a role. I am excited to see how it goes! 

The PEAK students had their first PEAK class today. The other students and I continued with an Art lesson on Wassily Kandinsky. We used what we learned to create our own learner profile inspired concentric circles. Students choice their favourite subject as the colour of the first circle, the way they learn best, etc. It is interesting to see how different every student's circle looks, but as you look closely, you can start to see what things students have in common. See the full lessons below: 
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​Agenda
Language Arts:
​- Read 20 minutes (begins next week)
Math:
Science:
Social Studies:
French:
Health:
Art:
Other: 
- Return GAFE Permission Forms (ASAP)
​- Return Additional Information Handout (ASAP)

Welcome Back BBQ - September 12th, 5:30-7:30 pm

​Welcome back to another school year! I am so glad to be back at Christina Gordon this year teaching Grade 5. We have a wonderful teaching staff who work hard to make Christina Gordon a place where all students feel valued and welcome. I am happy to be part of such an amazing team. 

Today the students and I started off by getting to know me a little bit. Then we worked together to unpack our supplies. Students will be sharing a few items in our community bins (ie. paper, pencils, etc.). Individual items are kept in students' numbered bins in the back of the classroom. The only item we did not deal with today were our notebooks/duotangs. We will be these created and organized throughout the week as we begin working in different subject areas (ie. Language Arts, Math, etc.). 

We also took some time to play a few games, to get out of our seats and get active. We played a community dancing game this morning that had the students dance space (a book order) getting smaller and smaller. Students had to get creative to stay on their page. We also learned some MooseTube songs that we will be using throughout the year when we need a brain break. 

This morning we also had our annual Welcome Back Assembly. It was wonderful seeing how much our school has grown in just two years. In our first year, we could barely fill half a gymnasium. Seeing so many excited faces filling our school gym this morning was amazing! 

The students and I also began going over some of our rules and expectations for the upcoming year today. We will continue to set and practice our classroom routines throughout the week and the students will be getting to input some of their ideas into the management of our classroom as well: helping to create student manager positions and deciding on how groups can earn table points. More information about these areas of our classroom will be shared as we finalize them. 

Be sure to check back here each day for updates as well as homework! See you soon! 

Agenda
Language Arts:
​- Read 20 minutes (begins next week)
Math:
Science:
Social Studies:
French:
Health:
Art:
Other: 
- Return GAFE Permission Forms (ASAP)
​- Return Additional Information Handout (ASAP)

Welcome Back BBQ - September 12th, 5:30-7:30 pm