This week, we have started our unit on community walks, as well as our Science unit on how plants grow. In Science, each student has planted two sunflower seeds and two bean seeds. We will observe our plants each day and write down our observations. This will help Room 18 students understand the Scientific Method, and how it can be applied. Our Community Walks unit started with discussing what is expected and what is unexpected on a class walk. If you like, you can review these expectations with your children at home. Expected behaviours include staying with the group, keeping pace with the rest of the class, keeping our volume down, and to follow directions given by the teacher. The students were reminded that, although it is sometimes nice to say "Hi" to a furry, four-legged friend we meet (after asking their owner permission, of course!), we will not be approaching dogs on class walks. Sometimes, we will focus on our senses during "Mindfulness Walks," and in those occasions it might be nice to pick up a small pinecone or other item, in general, we will not be picking up any items from the ground. This week, we went for walks on the school grounds, so that we could practise walking as a group. Next week, we are planning to go for two walks in the community! We will be going for "Mindfulness Walks," in which the students will be asked to observe their environment with four senses (taste is excluded for obvious reasons!). Walking is one of the best overall exercises for improving health and mood, and those benefits can be increased by adding a mindfulness component to the walk: an intentional focus on the present moment. Mindfulness exercises have been shown to improve mood and decrease feelings of anxiety and depression. We will plan on departing from the school around 10.15a on Tuesday, May 2nd, and on Thursday, May 4th, for a community walk of around 20 minutes long. If you have any questions or would like to volunteer, please contact me via phone or email. The grade 3's have been doing some work on fractions, and we will continue this work next week. We are continuing to use our Compromise poster in order to help us sort out those tricky social situations. In ELA, Room 18 is working on multi-modal writing. We have been experimenting with Book Creator, as well as Comic Life-- applications that can be used to tell stories in interesting new ways! Important Dates to Remember: Tuesday, May 2: Due date for flower orders (fundraiser for school grounds clean-up). Place your order here. Wednesday, May 3: School choir performance at 10.30a Thursday, May 11: Garden Club starts Thursday, May 11: Shave a Lid Thursday, May 18: SOGO field trip Thursday, May 25: Volunteer Tea Thursday, May 25: Fun Lunch & Spirit Day Thursday, May 25: Flowers Arrive
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Despite being a short week, it has been full of teamwork and cooperation in Room 18. We started the week with a discussion about how challenging it can be to navigate social situations, and some strategies we can use to help. Compromise is an important part of the social landscape, and is essential to being a good friend. Unfortunately, there are no hard and fast rules about how to compromise, so we tried to create a clear pathway toward increased social flexibility. We found that the most important part of compromise is that all people involved remain invested in the process: “Compromising is making a deal with a friend. If your friend says ‘no,’ he makes an offer, but if he says ‘yes,’ you shake on it.” –WBR This week in ELA, we worked together as a class to plan and write a story! “We made the story together, like a team. And we each got a turn saying something. The story is about a puppy and Queen Elizabeth, and he was scared of big things like the Queen’s crown.” –MB The Room 18 students were all proud of our collective story, and were excited to start planning their own animal stories. Ask your child about what they're planning for their stories! We will begin writing the stories next week. In Phys. Ed., we got to do more gymnastics. We ended the week with a Mission Impossible course. “I enjoyed gymnastics because I like the tunnel. Also it was pretty cool when it was like a jungle.” –DT “I like Mission Impossible because it’s obstacle courses. My favourite part was climbing the rope and going under the tent.” –BM Important Dates to Remember: April 24-28: Gym closed for painting Thursday, April 27: Fun Lunch & Spirit Day Tuesday, May 9: School Council Meeting, 7:00pm Thursday, May 11: Shave a Lid Thursday, May 18: SOGO Field Trip (school-wide) We celebrated Easter in style in Room 18--by dyeing eggs using plants! Our new Science unit is All About Plants, and our first experiment was to hypothesize which plants would make the best egg dyes. Students chose to try strawberries, raspberries, grapefruit, blueberries, grapes, and flower petals as dyes. Here's what the students said about our exploration:
“We dyed eggs using fruit. They changed different colours.” –DM “We were using hard-boiled eggs to get dyed, and the fruit was boiled as well. And we put the eggs in there and let them dye, then we saw what they look like.” –CL This week, we finished watching the Happy movie, and the students have almost completed their Happy Books. In the students' words: “Andy Wimmer helps sick people in India. We learned that he quit his job that he made lots of money from to make lots of no money to help people.” –BM We have been focusing on reading and analyzing dog stories in ELA this week. Next week, we will begin to write a dog story as a class. “Dogs are important because they help you find stuff so that you don’t lose anything. Dogs are like a tool and they like smelling things so they really like their job even though they smell disgusting things.” –CL To help combat anxiety around expectations at school, we explored what are students' jobs at school, and what are teachers' jobs. Students' job is to do their best and to ask for help. “Students’ job is listening to the teacher, you do what they teacher tells you to do, you do your work.” –MB Room 18 students have been excited about our Gymnastics unit in PE this week and next week: “In gymnastics, we need to listen to the teacher and you must be careful to not get hurt. –AS Look out for more gymnastics news next week, as well as for story-writing and plants news from Room 18! Important dates: April 18: Board games club; Skipping club April 19-20: Missing Impossible April 21: Sibbald U Round 3 begins April 24-28: Gym not available April 27: Fun Lunch & Spirit Day May 11: Shave Your Lid for a Kid With Cancer Room 18 students came back from Spring Break ready to get to work! This week, we have been focusing on life skills and attitudes needed for a happy life. Since learning that Room 18 students will be taking a bus rather than a cab, we have been discussing expected behavior on the bus. Here’s what some Room 18 students had to say about what we learned about bus-riding: “Whatever you do, don’t forget your stuff on the bus.” –AS “We don’t eat, sit still, and be quiet.” –WBR We have continued to work our way through the Happy movie, and are almost all the way through! This week, we learned about Okinawa, Japan—a place with the most 100-year-olds per capita. We also learned about Michael Pritchard, a comedian and educator who talks to kids about preventing bullying: “In the Happy movie, we learned that we should be kind to one another, even if they’re short.” –CL “In the Happy movie, I learned that it doesn’t matter if you’re small or big because you can have friends no matter what.” –BM We will be starting our story-writing unit next week with a class story about a dog. Our plan is to finish up the Happy movie and reflect on our journey next week. We will be starting our Healthy Body unit once the Happy unit is finished. In addition, we will be starting our Community Walks unit in the next few weeks. Dates to Remember: April 10: Gymnastics Unit starts. No jewelry, loose clothing, or shoes. April 10: Sibbald U forms go home April 14: Good Friday. NO SCHOOL April 17: PD Day. NO SCHOOL April 21: Sibbald U begins April 27: Fun Lunch & Spirit Day |
AuthorMs. Spray loves teaching and learning with her students. Archives
October 2018
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