Mr. McCallum | Napan Elementary

2024-2025 Napan Elementary School 2/3

Posted: September 6, 2024

Friday September 6, 2024

Our First Friday Together! Our routines are getting stronger every day. We came in this morning and got straight to work. Our spelling word was "transition"—we might be seeing more of that interesting “-tion” ending! We practiced "Show, Not Tell" by describing an angry dog, and we did our final doodle of a tractor. Afterward, we swapped out the books in our book boxes for Read-to-Self and then partnered up for buddy reading. How did your buddy read go? We also outlined a story about Foxy the Cat, who had a very messy room. In Math the Grade 3s practiced skip counting with Mr. Ross, while the 1s and 2s explored our M-A-T-H centers: M (Meet with the Teacher) A (At-your-seat worksheet) T (Technology with DreamBox math) H (Hands-on math—today we played a dominoes game). It was our first introduction to using the centers, so we worked through each one together as a class. Lunch and Afternoon Fun: During our pizza lunch, we watched part of a movie. It looked a bit scary to me with all those monsters! Afterward, we learned about "Bucket Filling" and headed outside for gym with Mr. Ross. I recognized the soccer game, but the paired ball-throwing game looked like a lot of fun too! End of the Day we wrapped up with our Book of Gratitude, reflecting on “Something that filled my bucket today was…,” completed our Home to School books, and somehow had a little extra free time at the end of the day. I won’t be betting on someone making a mid-classroom basketball shot again anytime soon! Have a great weekend, and thanks for an amazing first week!

Posted: September 5, 2024

Thursday September 5

Our class routine is starting to come together! This morning, we settled in quickly, set up our pages, and jumped right into our opening activities. We tackled the spelling word "marathon," learning it has three syllables. We also introduced a new concept: "Show, Not Tell," where we use descriptive details instead of just words to explain something. Ask your child what details they used to SHOW that a man was old? We found the picture of the old man helped! Of course, we doodled another tractor too. We had a school-wide fire drill, and everyone got out safely and quickly. After returning to class, we did our "Read to Self" time and wrote a group story called Wyatt's Wing. Can your child remember how the story goes using the pattern: Character, Problem, Try, Try, Solve? In math today the Grade 3s continued working on their DreamBox accounts, while the 1s and 2s had an oral test on numbers up to 20, worked on a missing numbers worksheet (up to 100), and practiced skip counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. We also tried logging into DreamBox, but not everyone got in since the teacher needed a little refresher! After lunch we reviewed some facts about Terry Fox and worked on a coloring sheet. We also did a fun 3D art activity, drawing our hands using straight and curved lines. We finished the day by adding to our Book of Gratitude (today's prompt: "One thing I was thankful for today was...") and signed our Home to School Books. Don’t forget—tomorrow is Pizza Day! See you then!

Posted: September 4, 2024

Wednesday September 4, 2024

Day 2! We are working on mapping out our morning routines. We started our Language Arts with our spelling word “adorable”. We did a quick write on a summer activity, and doodled another tractor. Everyone follow the same instructions, draw the same thing, and all have very different looking pictures. The same is true of our writing. We did a quick review and practice of 'Read To Self'. We read a book called Doug's Shoes. We found a pattern that we will start to use in our own writing. (Character, Problem, Try, Try, Solve). Does this pattern help you remember the Doug’s Shoes Story?

After recess we had math. We reviewed and practiced printing our numbers. The 3’s worked on getting their dream box accounts active while the 2’s and 1’s worked on learning and playing snakes and ladders. We even tried a quick version on the outdoor basketball court! We finished off with some skip counting. Some of us can skip count by 2’s to 50, others are still working on making it to 20.

After lunch we reviewed our lock down and fire drill routines. We watched a quick video on Terry fox before heading to an outdoor gym class with Mr. Ross. I saw him taking hula hoops outside. I never did find out what he was using them for?

We finished off our day with a quick write on “My favorite thing in the world right now is …” and we signed the home to school books. The day flew by!

2024 Napan September

Posted: September 4, 2024

Napan 2024

Posted: September 3, 2024

Tuesday September 3

Class Pic Welcome to my Teacher Page! If your child is like most, they probably come home and, when asked "How was your day?" respond with a simple "fine." And when you ask, "What did you learn?" they might say "nothing." To bridge that gap, I like to journal a few highlights from our day so you can stay informed and ask more specific questions to get your child talking about their school life.

Our First Day Recap:

We began our first day by finding our seats and exploring the classroom. The basketball net on the wall was an instant favorite! We briefly reviewed the calendar and our class schedule. During our language arts lesson, we set up our writing pages, learned two spelling rules (syllables and vowels), and even doodled a tractor. We also organized our duo tangs and selected two books for our book boxes. Before recess, we attended a school-wide assembly.

In math with Mr. Ross, we worked on making numbers, practiced skip counting, and learned the difference between a digit and a number—digits are symbols 0-9, while numbers have value.

After a nice lunch and some fun on the playground, we had guidance with Mrs. Robichaud. The students discussed mindfulness, read Riley the Runt, and wondered what a book about them might include.

For outdoor PE, we joined Mr. Ross and honed our soccer skills.

We ended our day with some reflective writing. We added to our Book of Gratitude and completed the sentence prompt, "The best thing about the first day was…" We also updated the agenda page in our Home to School Book. Since today was a busy notice day, please make sure to check their books.

It was a full and exciting first day! I hope you're all looking forward to an amazing week. Stay tuned for more updates!