Tuesday, 18 Sept.

Today we began by doing a group practice of identifying parts of speech in sample sentences.  Then I gave some new instruction about run-on sentences.  Afterwords I issued a worksheet and students had an opportunity to test their knowledge identifying p.o.s. on their own.  The most common sticking points came around adverbs and prepositions.  All-in-all, I thought people coped well and I was pleased with the effort the class gave.

After recess we did a group lesson aimed at introducing the concept of using variables (like n) to write generalized pattern rules to summarize what was happening in some tables of values we looked at.  However, before we could finish the lesson, we had to stop and review/introduce the concept of the "order of operations."  Tomorrow I'll have a work sheet to re-enforce the work we did with order of operations (multiplication/division before addition/subtraction) before we reattempt to understand variables.
Click the link to go to an interactive game if you think you already understand order of operations:
http://cemc2.math.uwaterloo.ca/mathfrog/english/kidz/order.shtml

After lunch we had a Terry Fox Run planning session with both Div 1 and 2.  Tomorrow morning students will sign up for the planning/prep activity they are interested in.  The run will be next Thursday (Sept 27).  Afterwords we went outside to play a couple of games and we ended the day with an activity in the forest with our Grade 2 little buddies.  It was a bit unsettling to hear upon our return that there was a cougar sighting in the area.

For homework, students are asked to ensure they have read up to about page 30 in the novel Crash.

Tomorrow we will start the day with a talking circle to see if we can develop a way to help recover Braedon's skateboard that was taken from our hallway this morning.