This week in Room 18 has been chock-full of summer adventures! We visited the Fire Station, and learned about all the ways firefighters help keep us safe. We learned what information we will expect to give the 9-1-1 operator (all the students brought home a "cheat sheet" with their information on it - please keep it near the phone, if you have a landline). All the students got to sit in the driver's seat of the fire engine, and they had a great time turning on the flashing lights! I have begun our final Fountas & Pinnell reading assessments of Room 18 students. I know that reading assessments aren't the most fun for Room 18 students, so we have a deal: after a student reads one book, they get to play a game of their choice with me for five minutes! Our biggest news is the emergence of all seven of our butterflies from their cocoons! We were excited all week, anticipating seeing our new friends emerge. Finally, they did, and we released them all on Friday. “We are going to let the butterflies free, and that is sad.” –MB “When we let the butterflies go, they’re going to have a good life, even though we will miss them and it is really sad.” –CL “When they hatched out of their cocoons, their wings looked so beautiful. And I’m going to miss them when they’re gone.” –BM In Math, we have been learning about measurements. Then we will be focusing on money for the rest of the year. “When you see something, first you take a guess how big it is, then you measure it with blocks or a ruler.” –BM “We used measurements to see how big it is.” –CL On Friday, we had our final Sibbald U session of the year! In Social/Emotional work, we wrapped up our work on the First Agreement (Be Impeccable With Your Word), and we moved onto the Second Agreement: Don't Take Anything Personally. “If somebody says something kind to you and you ignore them and say, ‘Hm!’ that’s taking things personally and it also means you’re grumpy.” –CL We have a new school website: check it out! http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/andrewsibbald/Pages/default.aspx Important Dates: Thursday, June 1, 8 & 15: Garden Club 11.45-12.15p Tuesday, June 6: Bike to School Day Tuesday, June 6: Nicke Drama Presentation 10-10.30a Thursday, June 15: Spirit Day & Fun Lunch Thursday, June 22: Talent Show Assembly Tuesday, June 27: Sports Day Thursday, June 29: Last day of School (Half-Day)
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It's looking more and more like summer! We've been enjoying the beautiful warm weather this week in Room 18. We have been working hard to wrap up our year's work and to prepare for next year.
We have finished our Happy unit, although we continue to discuss the concepts that we learned, and to apply them to new areas. Our new "Big Picture Idea" in Social/Emotional is the Four Agreements. Agreements differ from rules because the individual can choose whether or not to participate. The Four Agreements are a distillation of ancient wisdom for a happy life. In short, the Four Agreements are a way to take back the power for our own happiness, rather than depending on others to validate us. We have begun by exploring the First Agreement: Be Impeccable With Your Word. “Our first agreement was be impeccable with your words all the time, and don’t say mean words. That will make someone hurt and they will feel sad.” –DT To illustrate the power of words (to hurt and to heal), we introduced a new friend, Greenie (a person-shaped cutout). We each took turns saying a hurtful word to Greenie, then ripped a piece off. After that, we said a kind word and taped our friend back together: “We made a green paper and named him Greenie, and we said mean words and ripped a part of him off, then we said sorry and taped him back. But some people are still ripped and sorry doesn’t work all the time.” -CL “Next time, say nice things to people instead of bad things.” –MB In Science, we have seen the growth and changes in our plants and our caterpillars: “Our caterpillars are in cocoons now, and we left some dandelions in there, and they’re going to turn into butterflies. Once they turn into one, they will take some nectar from the dandelions and then one day we will let them go.” –CL “Our plants grew a lot, and they’re going to turn into sunflowers and bean plants. Our beans are going to grow really big, but the sunflowers grew faster.” –DT In Art, we painted what we think the butterflies will look like when they emerge: “We painted butterflies. We paint them however you think it will be when it gets out of its cocoon.“—DM “You can’t just paint it however you like it; you have to paint it what you think it will actually look like when it goes out of its cocoon. We’ll see how they will look like compared to our painting.” –CL Our bodies and minds have been getting stronger through our community walks over the past few weeks: “We have to use our senses—the sense of touch, the sense of sight, the sense of smell, the sense of hearing, and no sense of taste. No crossing the road all by yourself” –MB “We all stay together and don’t run ahead of the teachers.” –AS “The more you walk, the stronger your leg muscles get.” –BM “On our community walk, we use our senses to look at stuff and see what it looks like and we walk with the group. The more you walk, the more you can walk for longer periods.” –CL Next week, we have an exciting field trip to the Fire Hall on Tuesday morning. In addition, we will solidify our understandings of Agreement 1, and start working on Agreement 2. Our caterpillars will soon emerge as butterflies, so we will have more opportunities to observe and answer our questions. Stay tuned! Dates to Remember: Tuesday, May 23 – Room 18 Field Trip - Fire Hall Tour (leaving at 9.45a **Parent volunteers needed!**) Thursday, May 25 – Volunteer Tea 10:00 am Thursday, May 25 – Fun Lunch (Boston Pizza) & Spirit Day Thursday, May 25 - Community walk (leaving at 10.15 **Parent volunteers welcome!**) Tuesday, June 13 – School Council Meeting 7:00 pm Spring is definitely here, and Room 18 is springing to life, with many opportunities to take our learning into the real world!
We have built a classroom mailbox and send notes to one another! The rules for the mailbox are clear: I will be reading what they send to one another, and only kind messages allowed: “The mailbox is in our classroom and it’s all of ours. We put kind notes in.” -WBR “Don’t put bad notes because the person might think that they don’t want to be your friend. We have to put good notes in the box.” -DT In Math, we have been working on fractions: "Fractions is when you have a pie with nine slices, and usually you eat three pieces, and the other person eats one. Another person took one more, and there was four more slices left. And the person usually eats three again. But there’s one more slice left and no one wanted it, so they saved it for the next party.” –MB For Science class, we have continued to make observations about our plants and our caterpillars as they have been growing: “We’ve been talking about our plants and our caterpillars. Our plants are growing.” –AS “Also we checked on our caterpillars and they grow and grow every day and they poop a lot. And they eat a lot too.” –DT For our Social/Emotional work, our focus has been on how to be a good friend, and how to productively engage in social encounters. Several times each week, Room 18 students are encouraged to initiate a game or activity with another classmate. Room 18 students have been growing a lot in this area--I am so proud of their willingness to work through different preferences, and come up with a workable option. We went on one community walk this week, and once again, I am so proud of how the Room 18 students kept their bodies in the group and focused on walking mindfully. We will plan on going on one community walk this coming week, on Tuesday around 10.15a. Important Dates Tuesday, May 16: Room 18 Community Walk at 10.15a Thursday, May 18: School-Wide SOGO fieldtrip--Room 18 leaves at approx 1.15p **Volunteers needed!** Thursday, May 18: Garden Club Friday, May 19: PD Day; NO CLASSES Tuesday, May 23: Room 18 field trip to Fire Hall **Volunteers needed!** Thursday, May 25: Fun Lunch & Spirit Day The month of May started with many opportunities to enjoy the beautiful weather, and many spring-related inquiry sessions. We planted some beans and sunflower seeds, and the students have been caring for their plants diligently. “Plants need soil and water and lots of sun.” –BM “They will grow really big until they are done, and they need water but not too much.” –CL We have also welcomed some Painted Lady caterpillars into our class. Each student is responsible for one, and they care for and observe them every day. “We gave them food and they will grow into a butterfly and when they’re a butterfly, we’ll let them go.” –CL Both of these experiments help Room 18 students understand the scientific method, and the importance of observation over time. Each student asked a question related to our experiments, and made a prediction (hypothesis). After our experiments are complete, they will be able to answer their questions to see whether their predictions were correct (conclusion). This week, we went on two class walks. The purposes of these walks were threefold. First, walking is excellent exercise, and is wonderful in developing physical literacy and lifelong health. Second, community walks help students to feel more "at home" in the school and in the community, and help us better make connections between what we do in the classroom and what we do in the larger world. Lastly, we have been taking the opportunities while walking to use our senses to observe the world around us. We find a green space nearby on each walk, and sit and reflect what we've noticed, then we allow time for reflection afterward. Using our senses to perceive what is going on around us in the moment is called mindfulness, and helps to both increase resiliency and decrease anxiety. Here's what Room 18 students had to say about class walks: “I like class walks because I get to smell fresh air and you get to have the sun on your face.” –BM “We’ve learned that when we go on class walks we look at cool stuff that we like, and explore.” -CL “We stay together in a group.” –AS Next week, we will plan on doing community walks on Tuesday and Thursday at 10.15. Parent volunteers are welcome, and please remember to dress your children for the weather. Lastly, we have been exploring different ways we can tell stories, by using Book Creator on iPads, and Comic Life on laptops. “Comic Life is fun because you get to make your own comics. You get to take a picture and you can do any word bubble you want.” –BM “[In Book Creator], we can take pictures and put them on the book, or you can go to photos that you already got. You can write stuff and draw.” –CL Important Dates: Thursday, May 11: Shave Your Lid for a Kid Thursday, May 11: Garden Club begins! Thursday, May 18: School-Wide SOGO Field Trip **Parent volunteers welcome!** Thursday, May 25: Spirit Day & Fun Lunch |
AuthorMs. Spray loves teaching and learning with her students. Archives
October 2018
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