Fitness Morning Photos

Fitness Morning has been a wonderful success. The kids are moving, planning and managing! I love it when they bust out our Grade 5 signals and routines to help them teach completely on their own. Skye and I also got to teach them fantastic old school games like Red Light/Green Light, Mother May I? and Red Rover, which they are all loving. Other than the glares we are getting from our colleagues about us coming to school in fitness clothes for 3 mornings a week, all has been good! Thanks kids for doing such an amazing job!

  

Persuasive Writing Essays

Photo Credit: http://goo.gl/NLP60t

I really love teaching writing and seeing how the students grow throughout the year. For our last genre, the students have been introduced to persuasive writing using researching to strengthen their arguments. The first guided lessons were from Lucy Calkins using the "Should chocolate milk be served in schools?" argument. When I grabbed the book I was amazed at the topic because it fits perfectly with our current unit of inquiry, health and wellness.

The kids took the concepts and ran with them using the research skills that they learned during the 1000 word exhibition research report the completed. The essays were really good and the students really included some great facts about nutrition and made wonderful connections to what we have been exploring in class.

Next, students got to choose their own persuasive research question and write an essay based on their interest. A few students knew just what they wanted to research, but others needed some guidance, so with a quick google search, we had 101+ persuasive essay topics. Check out the sites we found!

101 Persuasive EssayTopics
100 Persuasive Essay Topics

Then, once the kids were set with their questions, they began researching and found some great sites for conducting research on a variety of topics. Check those out below too!

procon.org- The Pros and Cons of Controversial Issues
debate.org

Hope this gets your kids brains flowing and helps you teach persuasive writing essays in your class!
 

Nutrition and Cooking: Making Hummus

As part of our health and wellbeing unit we have been cooking on Fridays. First students learned how to read a recipe and make a grocery list. The day before we did a lesson on knife usage and safety and they cut up vegetables. I was surprised to find out how many students did not have experience with knives and cooking. I can remember when I was a child I would always cook with my mom and sister.

The next day we formed groups and created hummus as our first healthy snack. The kids had a great time and most of them were risk-takers and tried it. We had a wonderful parent volunteer come in to help which made all of the difference. It was so nice to see the kids learning a life skill that is typically not taught in elementary school.

 

Fitness Morning Assignment

In Grade 5 we just started our Health and Wellness unit and the students are very excited. Our central
idea is "personal well being is dependent on a complex balance or inter-connected factors." Our lines of inquiry are: Changes in your body, Building a network of support and Caring for your changing body.

The importance of proper food and exercise is crucial to learn at an early age and it should be a fun unit. One of the activities Ms. Skye and I are having the students complete is researching and leading 10-15 minutes of exercise for our "Fitness Mornings"

Here are some resources that can be used to find activities and games if you want to lead your own Fitness Mornings!

Activity Corner
Family Education
Activity Village
30 Classic Games for Simple Outdoor Play
Inexpensive Indoor and Outdoor Party Games for Kids



 

Showing Compassion

Last Wednesday night, right before Exhibition, I found out that my grandfather passed away. It was a very hard thing to experience, especially being so far from home. When occurrences like this happen, it makes you question life choices, like being an international school teacher and going on that last holiday instead of saving money for an emergency. I really wish I could have been there for his service but everyone at ISL has been so supportive. The teachers and staff have been giving me hugs and listening to my amazing stories about him. The students have also been giving me hugs, being extra kind and made me fantastic cards to cheer me up. I can not express enough how special ISL is to me.