These past two weeks, we have been working on empathy—understanding how other people feel, and trying to help those who need help. We welcomed a new student into our classroom as well! Pink Shirt Day was February 22. We discussed how it started in 2007 with a grade 9 student wearing a pink shirt to school, and being bullied for it. The other students decided to take a stand and be visible in support of the bullied student. We created a presentation, and performed for all the other classes to explain why they should wear pink shirts! It's powerful when many people stand up against bullying like this, and I'm proud that in Room 18 we can be part of that. We have been enjoying our visits from Jeff Stockton, our oral storytelling artist-in-residence. All the Room 18 students have chosen their folk tales to retell, and we have been working on building storyboards to get to know their stories. In Math, we have started to learn Chisanbop: an awesome tactile way of using our hands to count and calculate equations! Room 18 parents can feel free to ask their children about how we were able to count and add up to 5 using Chisanbop. It may seem like we're going backwards in doing more simpler equations than the Room 18 students are capable of, but it is important to learn the basics of Chisanbop before continuing on to more complex stuff. Soon, we will learn how to add with two-digit numbers, and how to subtract single- and double-digit numbers. In ELA, we are developing our abilities to create a story using setting and character. We are also working on our functional communication in the form of our End of Day responses. Next week, we will be building an “anchor chart” that shows what we do well, and how to write better End of Day reponses. Upcoming events: March 21: Oral Storytelling Event in the evening March 23: Student-Led Conferences (8:00a-1:00p; 4:00-7:00p) March 24: PD Day—NO SCHOOL for students
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What a wonderful, full week Room 18 students had this week! In Math, we chose a new question to collect data for--Room 18 students decided to do a survey of how people were feeling! We created our data collection sheets, then we hit the road (well, the hallways...) in order to ask our question. Room 18 students showed increased levels of comfort in asking the question to each class, and they used loud, confident voices. Well done! We will finish graphing our results next week, then we will reflect on what we learned about data and graphing. In Language Arts, we read another two folk tales-- Stone Soup and The Gingerbread Boy. During each story, we discussed how the characters were feeling, and how they helped make the situation better or worse. In Social Studies, we started a "Rights & Responsibilities" unit. We started by asking if we were going to take off on a spaceship, what would we need to take with us? After they decided their needs, we told them that we had even less space, so they had to reduce their options. This got them thinking about what we need versus what we want. Next week, we will see how those "needs" turn into "rights," and how each right comes with a responsibility. The Room 18 students have been working hard on their research presentations as well--everyone is almost done their PowerPoint presentations! We will try to finish up next week, then present the week after. In Gym class, we have been discussing what is means to be a good sport. This week, we heard students say things like, "Nice try!" and "So close!" to their classmates. Well done! I am so proud of the Room 18 students for showing perseverance and empathy this week, and am looking forward to another fantastic week next week. Reminders: Jeff Stockton will be here Feb 14, 15. Sibbald U is on Monday, Feb 13th. This week is a short week--no school on Thursday or Friday, and it's Family Day on the following Monday (Feb 20)--no school. Apologies for the late entry! In Language Arts, we read another folk tale in preparation for artist-in-residence Jeff Stockton's return on February 14. We read Rumplestiltskin, and the students all enjoyed the funny little man's antics, and his very long name! We contrasted that with the story "Rumplestiltskin's Daughter," a modern re-telling of the classic tale, in which the princess falls in love with Rumplestiltskin, and they have a clever and wise daughter who makes positive changes in the kingdom. In Math, we finished graphing our t-shirt colour data in our graphing booklets. We have one more set of data to collect to finish our graphing booklets! For social/emotional learning, we focused on the best ways to play with others during FAB. Room 18 students have been playing a variety of unstructured games with students from other classes during time outside--I am proud of their willingness to experiment socially! Lastly, February is Black History Month, so we will be doing some work on that in Social Studies. We read the book, "Let's Talk About Race," and discussed how we are all stories, and how our race is part of our story. We made sure to THINK before we speak, especially when talking about what might be a sensitive issue (ask ourselves if what we're saying is true/helpful/inspiring/necessary/kind). One thing I love about this book is that it emphasizes how people sometimes like to make themselves feel better by trying to make others feel worse, and how when this happens, those people are telling a story that is not true. Many exciting things we learned this week, with more to come next week! |
AuthorMs. Spray loves teaching and learning with her students. Archives
October 2018
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