This has been a week of endings, and of preparing for things to come. It was the last week before March Break, so we were hard at work finishing up our projects. The Room 18 students finished their research PowerPoint presentations, and will be showing them to their parents during Student-Led Conferences on March 23. Room 18 students also finished up their second drafts of their writing samples. Earlier, they were given a writing prompt picture, and they wrote about it. This week, we looked at our first drafts, and decided how they could be improved in our second drafts. Students will be showing both their first- and second- drafts to their parents during Conference. Another milestone for Room 18 students was the end of Jeff Stockton's residency, culminating in our Storytelling Celebration on Tuesday, March 21st. Students were nervous and excited to share their stories that they had been working so hard on with their families and loved ones. I am so proud of the effort that the students put into their stories, and their willingness to work with other teachers and students! In Social/Emotional learning, we are about halfway through our study of the Happy movie--a documentary all about what happiness is, and how we can become happier. Room 18 students were introduced to the concept of FLOW: the feeling of being completely in the moment, without worrying about other things. We also discussed whether or not money buys happiness, and what it means to have intrinsic (inside) or extrinsic (outside) goals. Students record their notes in their Happy Books (another artifact being presented to parents during Conference). After break, parents can expect to hear about our work on telling a story by creating a comic, more work on our Happy movie (and ways that we can implement happiness strategies in our class and in our lives), and gymnastics in PE! I hope everyone has a fantastic break, and I am looking forward to seeing you all in April! Dates to Remember: Friday, March 24: PD Day; NO SCHOOL March 26-30: March Break; NO SCHOOL Monday, April 3: Classes resume
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We have been working hard in Room 18 as we prepare for both our Storytelling Celebration as well as our Student-Led Conferences next week! In addition to the exciting events to come, Sibbald U wrapped up this week. Here's what the Room 18 students had to say about their end-of-Sibbald U-celebrations: "In Sibbald U, we made cupcakes and one looked like an owl. The other one had an ant stealing a watermelon." -MB "We got glitter and we worked on our terrarium, and we had a fairy party." -AS Here's what the Room 18 students had to say about our classroom work this week: "We worked on adding two-digit numbers. We used a big piece of paper." -MB "This week, I learned how to be a good host and how to tell stories without whooshes." -CL (A whoosh is what Jeff Stockton calls the rush of energy that we get when we go to speak in front of a group. In Room 18, we have learned that this whoosh comes from our amygdalas, our "emotional brains" that protect us from danger.) "This week I learned that you can take pictures and funny videos on the computer." -AS (The Room 18 students recorded their stories on video to share with their parents on the Storytelling Celebration evening.) This week,we discussed integration, and why it is important that we show our best behaviour when we join the typical classes. Almost all the Room 18 students have spent time in typical classes this week! We work on building strategies to use when we start to feel overwhelmed--I am very proud of all the Room 18 students for their courage and their hard work. In PE, we did more work on what is expected behaviour in the gym, and the Room 18 students are knocking our socks off with their hard work and sportsmanship. Here are some important dates to remember: Tuesday, March 21: Storytelling Celebration at 6p at the school Thursday, March 23: Student-Led Conferences from 8-1p & 4-7p; NO SCHOOL for students (To sign up for a timeslot, log in to My CBE. NOTE: make sure to bring your child to this conference!) Friday, March 24: PD Day; NO SCHOOL for students Monday, March 27-Friday, March 31: March Break; NO SCHOOL Monday, April 3: Students return to school Room 18 students have been focusing on how to be a friend and how we can be kind to ourselves and to each other. In Phys Ed class, we have been de-emphasizing competitive activities, in order to emphasize cooperative play and skill-building. We first do a warm-up, then we do an individual skill-building activity or a cooperative game, then we do a big group game. Room 18 students are really developing their sportsmanship vocabularies--we hear lots of, "Good try!"s and "Well done!"s! For our social/emotional work, we are studying a documentary called HAPPY, about what makes people happy. Each of the students has their own "Happy Book," where they respond to what they have seen in the film. (We watch 10 minute clips at a time, so it will probably take us a while to get through the movie.) This week, we had a visit from Miss Jessica, the Occupational Therapist, and we worked on creating our calm, quiet place in our minds. The room 18 students drew their calm, quiet place. We have finished our graphing booklets in Math, and are now working on deepening our understandings of numbers and functions. Upcoming dates: March 13: Jeff Stockton visits March 15: Sibbald U--LAST ONE March 16: Assembly 10:30a March 20: Jeff Stockton visits March 21: Storytelling Celebration: 6p at school. See you there! March 22: Last day of school before break March 23: Student-Led Conferences March 24-31: BREAK April 3: First day back Room 18 students welcomed another new friend this week, so now there are six in Room 18! We used the opportunity of welcoming a new friend to spur us on in a discussion about how it feels to be new, and how we can welcome new people into our group. We did some work on what it means to think about other people, and how we ensure that we are thinking about others. The students drew their "I WANT" monsters--the monster that tells us that our way is more important than others'. Our graphing booklets are finished, and all that's left is to reflect on what we learned from our graphing unit. Next in Math is more work on Chisanbop! In ELA, we have studied setting and character. Right now, our focus is on memorizing our story boards for our oral storytelling event with Jeff Stockton. After that, we will turn our attention to creating our own stories in the form of a comic strip! In P.E., our focus is on sportsmanship and teamwork. We do a "teambuilding" exercise after our warm-up every day in gym, before we do our main activity. Upcoming events: March 6: Jeff Stockton visits March 13: Jeff Stockton visits March 13: Student-led conference booking opens online March 20: Jeff Stockton visits March 21: Oral Storytelling Evening Presentation March 23: Student-led conferences 8:00-1:00; 4:00-7:00 (NO SCHOOL) March 24: PD Day (NO SCHOOL) March 25-April 2: Spring Break |
AuthorMs. Spray loves teaching and learning with her students. Archives
October 2018
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