Month: November 2019

Division 7 is extremely fortunate with the opportunity to be involved in Story Workshop with the lovely Ms. Field each Wednesday morning. This was our second introductory class to Story Workshop, what it entails, the purpose and what it will look like. The students were beaming with excitement, bursting with creativity and eager to become authors and creating their stories. Today our young and budding authors were introduced to the purpose and importance of a story setting.

With the materials presented in front of them, what setting could be created before their very eyes? What did the buttons represent in their story setting? Was it still a leaf, or had it evolved into something so much more? Did each material represent and mean the same thing for each student, or was it different?

As I circulated throughout the class and asked the students about their settings, a student shared with me that she was so ‘impressed with how we are using the same materials and creating different things!’ I could not agree more, it was wonderful to witness the creativity and originality that flowed throughout the library during this time as the students were hard at work.

Why Story Workshop? 

Story Workshop is a method of writing. I feel that students exude confidence with their writing through the creation of their story, by physically making it with their hands, essentially they are bringing their story to life. Through hands-on story making, their imagination is endless, their creativity comes more effortlessly and before their very eyes a story has been created. At which point it is much easier for our blossoming authors to then write pencil to paper to document and record their story. In addition to confidence, I feel that Story Workshop also supports and cultivates creativity, compassion, leadership and communication skills. Students were communicating to one another and problem solving as they developed their story based on the available resources. How could they share and take turn to ensure that everyone in their group felt that the materials were distributed fairly?

Stay tuned as our skill-set unfolds and our young authors become immersed within our Story Workshop.

Take a quick sneak peek at the community that is under development in Division 7. Students are collaborating, relying upon their communication skills, applying their creative and critical thinking skills as well as learning how to navigate peer dynamics, turn taking and perspective taking of others. Stay tuned as our community further develops!

In Social Studies are are busy creators as we develop our very own community. Ask your child what service they created, was it a school, a post office, a fire station and more. What form of service does that occupation serve to our community? How does that ensure that our needs are being met? Do the needs and wants vary among communities? How can a community’s needs differ based on climate? or geographical location?

Through our exploration of communities, we are beginning to have meaningful conversations about diversity. We are gaining awareness and perspective of diverse cultures and backgrounds. We are demonstrating our self-awareness of our individual differences. Through the picture book, Lovely by Jess Hong, we discovered that we are all lovely individuals, “lovely is different, weird and wonderful”. The students thoroughly enjoyed speaking with each other about their similarities and differences among themselves. Do we enjoy different foods, live in different houses, have different families, speak different languages, have different hobbies, have different eye colour etc? What is the importance of have these wonderful differences?  Why is diversity important?

I encourage you and your families to continue these wonderful conversations at home and continue to wonder, ask questions and discover answers.

• What is the difference between our Needs and Wants in life?
• What is necessary for our survival, compared to a desire or want that we have? Do our needs in life change based on communities, cultures and age, or are they similar? Do our needs change based on where we live in the world, i.e., warmer or colder climates?
• How does our community meet and support our needs?
• How do we get our needs met?
• Are eye glasses, wheelchairs, asthma inhalers and epipens examples of needs in one’s life? Why or why not?

Above are some of the big questions that Division 7 explored together as a class. Ask your young citizen some of these big thinking questions and continue to have a family discussion.

As Scientists we are learning to independently gather information through observations and various sources of data. Today we conducted further investigation on our penguin of study, taking a closer look at their specific habitat, diet, predator(s) and appearance. We continue to develop our skill-set in making and recording our own observations and communicating our knowledge and understanding through oral and written communication, as well as through drawings and labels.

Stay tuned as our investigations continue to blossom!