Mid November updates!
Happy rainy weekend, all!
It has been a couple weeks since my last post so it will be hard to recap our busy days. However, I am feeling good that Seesaw has allowed you to see into our class in small bits- the fun, the messy, the complex, the calm & all spaces in between 🙂
A few particular highlights have been:
- The reader’s theatre production, an adaptation of The Room on the Broom: It was so great. We definitely have a class of many actors who shine on the (puppet) stage. The kids made puppets on popsicle sticks and performed the play together in groups for each other and then for Ms. Anania and Ms. Carson. I took videos of the groups but decided not to post them on Seesaw as they were just so long! Perhaps when I have time I can cut them down into bits to share. It was amazing. We only practised a couple times to keep it fresh and new but the students did SO well reading their lines and delivering with expression.
- Box city, aka, Shifu’s community village: As you may have seen, our city grew and grew…. what started as a simple community project grew into a rather large task with ziplines, robot cars and rollercoasters. As I mentioned, it might not look like much, but the number of lessons we spent investigating each element were plentiful. One important aspect of my previous role in Advanced Learning is that process is ever so important. That’s where the big out-of-the-box world changing ideas take place! In the words of Thomas Edison (to one who said ‘where are your results??’), ‘Results!? Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know a thousand things that don’t work!’ This being said, we do do some worksheets and product making, but a lot of what we do is in the process….the making, the dialogue, the risk taking and mistake making– and I want to continue to challenge our students with these processes.
- A BEAUTIFUL interactive book on Coast Salish Fall seasonal rounds. They are stunning and I would like to post them soon both in person and in Seesaw before sending them home. A few students are still working carefully on them.
- We continue to work on weekly writing, Story making, word play (spelling) and I have now introduced Sight words to the mix!
- In math we have worked on number sense, ordering numbers and skip counting. I am trying to get a pretty good foundation going before moving towards operations.
Coming up…..
A community project involving you! Yes, you! 🙂 It will probably be a really lovely project to work on as a family. Keep your eyes open for news of that project coming later this week (hopefully!)
Addition & subtraction strategies
The Night Sky & how day and night work! How do seasons work??
More daily reading and writing, PE, yoga &/or relaxation and philosophy….we are BUSY!
What you can do at home:
- Reading. This is ALWAYS number one. Enjoy reading together and enjoy books. This is essential and if you have no time for anything else, do this! We are just getting a subscription to Raz kids which will allow you to read levelled books online at home. More info when it’s ready to go….
- Practice number patterns– skip counting, forwards & backwards, look at number puzzles and make patterns
- Do the bi-weekly homework I send home for word play. Enjoy playing with words with your child and help them have fun doing their ‘homework’
- Practice doing challenges where they must make mistakes and celebrate that! We must take risks to learn and we can support our students by being right there beside them when they do.
I think this is all for now….there is always much more, but I shall leave it there for the time being. As always, please contact me if you have any comments or questions. The first ‘snapshot of learning’ will be coming home in December, which is an update on your child’s learning so far, a somewhat informal report card, but with a progress report in Numeracy and Literacy. Looking forward to celebrating your child in those snapshots then 🙂
Take great care, stay dry, and until next week.
Ms. M
P.S. Please pardon no photos, I think SeeSaw has inundated you plenty 🙂