Writing Activity

 

                                           

 

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. Also, it is the ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. Therefore, our third graders were distributed in groups according to the first letter of their names to fill the organizer of their narrative descriptive story. At the end, each group had the chance to present the work to the other groups. The aim of this activity was to encourage my students to fill their webs before writing their stories.

 

 

 

New Cooperative Strategies in our Math and Science Classes!

Three-minute Papers:

Every day at the end of the math and science sessions, I ask my students to work in pairs and comment on the following questions:
1-What was the most important or useful thing you learned today?
2-What two important questions do you still have; what remains unclear?
3-What would you like to know more about?
I give my students exactly 3 minutes to submit the “Three-minute paper” to me.
I use these papers to begin the next day’s discussion. This activity provides me with a feedback on where the student is in his/her understanding of the materials taught, and foster students’ voice.

Group Annotations:
At the end of every week, I ask my students to form groups of 4 members each to review the lessons they took in this week. Students discuss key points and look for divergent and convergent thinking and ideas.
Finally each group prepares annotations in the form of a concept map that summarizes the lesson they studied and represent their annotations in front of the whole class.

An Apple a Day, keeps the Doctor Away!

The KG2 students have been learning about Community Helpers, and fun in the Neighbourhood. While investigating the Doctors, we discovered that we should eat healthy foods. The best way to learn and remember to eat healthily, is to make it fun. So on Thursday, Miss Joumana letlet the KG2 students make their own snack!
First, the students identified the different fruits they had brought to school, and their initial sound. They waited patiently while Miss Joumana peeled the fruit and distributed it to the students for them to cut up themselves.
The students all had a plastic knife and cut up the apple, orange, banana, (and red group had a Kiwi, thank you Mohamad Ali! Several of the students saw the brown skin and thought it was a potato, but when they saw it was furry and green inside, they realised that it wasn't, and were interested to know what it actually was! ) and clementine.
For hygiene purposes, Miss Joumana covered all of the tables with a disposable tablecloth, and gave each student their own cup with their name on it. Therefore they cut their own fruit salad for snack, and ate only from their own food.
The students had a lot of fun cutting their fruit, and felt a great sense of accomplishment with completing their fruit salad themselves.
Well done KG2. 
No more chocolate for second snack!!!!

Math and Science First Term Stars!

It’s such an amazing feeling to get the results of your effort and the hard work of your students!

I want to congratulate our first term Math and science stars, the first 2 top achievers in both math and science.

Grade 2: Omar Imad- Ahmad Itani

Grade 3: Saffiya Ahmad- Mostapha Sarafedine

Grade 4: Khaled Ghawi – Layana Shbaro- Aded Al Rahman Sukkar

Grade 5: Moataz Maarouf- Jana Keshawy- Ali Ahmad

Grade 6: Rasha Sukkar- Ahmad Imad

The LCM and GCF Scavenger Hunt

The Scavenger Hunt provided a fun way for grade 6 students to practice finding the LCM and GCF of math word problems.

 I distributed for every student “LCM and GCF word problem cards”. Students started at any card and solved the problem. They then searched for the card with the answer to that problem. The search continued until all 8 problems were solved. As students were traveling around the classroom completing the scavenger hunt, they recorded their answers on the record sheet. My students and I loved this activity because it got students out of their seats and triggered cooperative learning among them. It was a great way to have fun in our Math class!

Modeling the parts of the digestive system- Kinesthetic model

Kinesthetic grade 5 students acted out the process of digestion in an interesting activity.
 First, we placed several M &Ms in a small plastic bag. 

Then, we placed the bag of candies along with wadded papers in a plastic container.

 Finally, we brought spray bottles filled with water that demonstrated the juices in our digestive system; we labeled them as Saliva, gastric juice, pancreatic juice, and bile. 

Now it’s grade 5 students turn to model the digestive system. Students were divided into 2 groups and lined up facing each other. The path between them is the digestive tract. All the students worked together to push the food particles down the tract. I assigned a job for each pairs of students, based on their position along the digestive tract. The first 2 students were the molars that cut food into small pieces. Then the second 2 students were the saliva, stomach, small intestine, and finally the large intestine.

 At the end of this activity we all enjoyed eating the delicious M & Ms.

Dramatic play in the Rooms of the house.

While studying the rooms of the house, I brought some toys to replicate some of the areas in the house. The children had fun exploring all areas through dramatic play, and practiced the 'Value of the Month', "Sharing, Caring and Cooperation", by taking turns with the toys, looking after the baby, by bathing and feeding it, and playing together in a nice way.

The B.U.G. award.

To encourage the students in KG2 I introduced a smiley chart in the classroom. Students receive smiley faces when they are; following classroom rules, participating in activities, staying on task, as well as for trying hard and good behaviour.

Whoever collects the most smiley faces each week will receive a reward, and whoever has been extra good (in particular with regards to behaviour) will receive the B.U.G. award.
I wonder who will get it next...