Classroom Activities
Work in the Classroom
The LLC extends outside of the library walls and into the classrooms of the school. M Acorn is involved in many projects and activities in classrooms. Take a look below to see what he has been doing with different groups at Varennes.
April 2022
Author Study: Students in Mme Aimée's class began creating their own original Scaredy Squirrel stories using a template.
March 2022
Author Study: We continued our author study in Mme Aimée's class with the Bruce series by Ryan Higgins and the Scaredy Squirrel series by Mélanie Watt.
Research Project: Students in the two grade 4 classes completed their research on a country of their choice using the knowledge they gained about research skills. Afterwards, they created a PowerPoint presentation to share what they learned.
J'aime Lire: We provided weekly activities for J'aime Lire throughout the month of March, including creating story quilts, bingo and character guessing game.
January/February 2022
Not as much action in classrooms for me during the month of January due to COVID restrictions and filling in for colleagues. Despite that, I was able to work in a couple of classrooms.
In Mme Aimée's 2/3 class I am leading a picture book unit where we are focusing on three different authors. We have covered Jon Klassen's hat trilogy and are now working on Ryan T. Higgin`s Bruce series.
In the two grade 4 classes I led sessions on using our online encyclopedias for research and on recording information using key words. Students are now using these skills as they complete a research project on a country of their choice. We will finish off the project by creating a PowerPoint.
December 2021
I continued supporting Grade 7/8 students with their Museum of Civilization projects. They each created two exhibits that featured an aspect of architecture, daily life or science and technology.
I completed lessons for the Respecting Diversity program in Mme Benning's Kindergarten classes. They did a great job learning about their different smarts.
November 2021
I wrapped up the Global Read Aloud with four Grade 2/3 classrooms. We really enjoyed the book, Dragons in a Bag, and are glad there is a second one in the series so we can find out what happens with that third dragon! Students demonstrated amazing enthusiasm and creativity during the novel.
I spent time in all of the Grade 5-8 classrooms co-presenting different learning tools available to students to help with their reading and writing through Microsoft with our school Occupational Therapist, Mme Appleton. Hopefully students find them helpful.
I began lessons for the Respecting Diversity program in Mme Benning's Kindergarten classes. The students were quick to pick up on the idea that we can all be smart in different ways. I am looking forward to continuing the program in December.
Grade 7/8 students in Mme Lavich's Sciences humaines courses have begun work on a Museum of Civilization project with an exploration of potential exhibit topics in either ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia or Indus. Work will continue through December as students begin deeper research and exhibit creation on their chosen topic.
October 2021
Oh my goodness, it`s been Global Read Aloud-polooza here at Varennes. I have been working with four Grade 2/3 classrooms on the novel, Dragons in a Bag, while completing connecting activities with groups from Texas, New Jersey and British Colombia.
It has been amazing to see the enthusiasm of these groups as I come to the classroom to read the book and do a variety of activities. I am looking forward to wrapping this project up in November with the end of the book and some entertaining activities.
January 2020
Picture Book Project: Students began creating the story for their own picture books using tools such as thumbnails.
Citizenship Group: Groups continued working on their area of focus for the year. We have groups working on creating literacy activities for pre-schoolers, book promotion, literacy activities for classes at school and audio book creation.
Options Course: The gentlement continued their code.org courses and took on the challenge of creating a chase game in Scratch.
December 2019
Respecting Diversity: Mme Benning and I completed our work on the different kinds of smarts with her two classes.
Options Course: The gentlemen continued their code.org courses by learning about loops and conditions.
Citizenship Group: Groups continued working on their area of focus for the year. We have groups working on creating literacy activities for pre-schoolers, book promotion, literacy activities for classes at school and audio book creation.
Picture Book Project: We worked on the different elements of a story such as plot, character and setting through a series of activities.
November 2019
Respecting Diversity in Kindergarten: Mme Benning and I helped her classes learn about how there are different ways to be smart through a series of lessons.
Options Course: The gentlemen continued their course on code.org and also took on the challenge of building a simple catch game in Scratch.
Citizenship Group: Groups began working on their area of focus for the year. We have groups working on creating literacy activities for pre-schoolers, book promotion, literacy activities for classes at school and audio book creation. We also took a walk to St.Vital Library to see what kinds of things they offer.
Research Skills: I gave a series of workshops on research skills in the Grade 7/8 classrooms.
Picture Book Project: We began exploring picture books and their elements in conjunction with our Kids Need Mentors Author, Aimee Reid, in Mme Duncan's Grades 5/6 class.
October 2019
Global Read Aloud: The GRA continued with participating classes connecting with their partner classes using a variety of tools such as Skype, Flipgrid, Padlet and email.
Create a Star Wars Character: To culminate their unit on biomes and adaptations, students were tasked with creating a new creature for the Star Wars universe that could survive on a particular planet. Stay tuned for their final products!
Options Course: My Grade 7/8 Options course this year is focused on coding and STEM. They have begun the year by following the intermediate coding course on code.org.
Citizenship Group: My citizenship group this year is focused on literacy. In October, students decided on an area of focus for the year and planned how their sub-committee would proceed.
September 2019
Global Read Aloud: We have several classes participating in the Global Read Aloud program. Through this program our classes are paired with another class somewhere in the world and together they read a common book and share activities. I was happy to support these classes with their planning, making connections and delivering activities.
Book Bentos: Mme Duncan's class undertook a new way to reflect on and share books. Students read a book, then chose artifacts that represented important ideas or events in the book to place in a annotated interactive photograph. You can find their work on this site under Book Recommendations if you are interested!
Kids Need Mentors: Throught the Kids Need Mentors program, Mme Duncan's Grade 5/6 class has been matched up with author Aimee Reid. We were able to Skype with her and ask her questions about herself and her books on September 26th. We are looking forward to working with her this year.