Math Workshop: Patterns
Students in Division 19 have been exploring patterns during Math Workshop. We have been talking about how patterns are more than just colours repeating: “blue, red, blue, red…” and so on. Patterns are all around us. In our class. In nature. On the playground. Comment on this post and tell me what patterns can you find in your home/neighbourhood.
Here are some of the patterns we found at Brentwood Park:
-
- Even shadows can create patterns!
Kindness and Friendship
I wanted to hop on here and let families know that we will be working on developing some whole-class goals around kindness and friendship. It can be challenging being in a room all day with 16 other people – each with their own idea or plan about what is and what should be! So please stay tuned for ways you can support and contribute (virtually or otherwise), starting with reviewing our Classroom Charter with your child when it comes home next week. I will use the class website (and individual ePortfolios) to share more information/learning related to class goals and activities.
Thank you,
-Ms. Taylor 🙂
Halloween Fun 🎃👻
-
- Monster Math
-
- Wait, what happened to our classmates? Something spooky going on in Room 9!
-
- What a fantastic group of Jack-O-Lanterns! Thanks for participating!
Classroom Charter + MindUP
Students in Division 19 have been learning about feelings and mindfulness. We began with exploring our Todd Parr “Feelings Cards” to begin to name and define feelings. Then, as part of a three step process to develop our own Classroom Charter, we discussed how we want to feel when we come to school. We agreed on six feelings words: calm, happy, excited, helpful, brave, and kind.
The next step was to brainstorm ways we can show that we are feeling this way. Below is our brainstorm:
Our next step, that we will continue to work on, is what to do if we make a mistake and hurt someone’s feelings (because as we all know, we all make mistakes, and we learn from them!). Stay tuned for an “official”copy of our Classroom Charter to come home soon!
We also began our MindUp program by learning about the brain. We learned about 3 important parts of the brain: the amygdala (our little animal/security guard), the hippocampus (our memory keeper), and the pre-frontal cortex or PFC (the decision maker). Sometimes our little animal is feeling scared, or frustrated, or “untamed” and using practices like mindful breathing help to “tame” our animal and calm ourselves down in order to make good choices.
Below is the video we watched to accompany our MindUp lesson about the brain:
Protected: Rainy Day Adventures
The Hunt for The Green Tomato
On Thursday afternoon the students in Division 19 went to explore the plants around the school yard. Mr. Yanko provoked them to explore like scientist, and in doing so the children examined the subtle yet significant aspects of the plants using their senses.
We first journeyed to the two planters outside of the Ms. Allanson and Ms. DiSpirito’s classrooms.
“Come gather around the plants. What do you notice?”
“I see sunflowers and a birds nest,” H.S. observes.
“Lean in to smell the plants?”
“This one smells nice,” J.T. notices.
“It smells yummy. Like cooking,” H.S. says.
From there we wander to a maple tree nearby.
“What colours are its leaves?”
“Red…Green…Yellow…orange” Replies the class.
“Why so many colours?”
“Because they are falling down,” I.A. says.
“This one feels crispy. How do they get dry?”
“In the summer,” replies L.M.
“Maybe they didn’t put on enough sunscreen,” Mr. Yanko adds.
We make our way to a pine tree and the students compare it to the maple.
“What about this tree? What do you notice?”
“It is green,” states H.S.
“It doesn’t have leaves,” comments H.B.
“It’s a forever-green tree,” adds L.M.
We venture over to the garden growing along the fence and the students are amazed by all of the beautiful flowers, fruits, and vegetables growing.
“Wow so many sunflower plants,” Exclaims H.B.
“Mr. Yanko come smell this it smells beautiful,” J.T. says while leaning in to smell a rose.
L.G.D.C. Notices a ton of apples grow. “Wow! There’s a million of them.”
As we head back to the classroom we stop at the planters outside of Mr. Yanko’s music room and notice a ton of tomatoes growing. Mr. Yanko invites the children to draw what they notice with the tomato plants. Many of the children head inside to grab their red pencil crayons, but when they start to draw they realize that all of the tomatoes are green and yellow, and go back to get the right colours to make detailed drawings of their observations.
After they finish their drawings we head inside with a green tomato and leave it on the window sill to ripen. All of the children make a guess as to how long it will take to ripen and what colour it will change to.
| Name | What colour the tomato will turn | How many days until the colour changes |
| L.M. | Yellow | 20 Days |
| H.S. | Red | 18 Days |
| K.T. | Red | 5 Days |
| A.V. | Orange | 6 Days |
| E.H. | Orange | 5 Days |
| L.G.D.C. | Yellow | 20 Days |
| J.T. | Pink | 5 Days |
| I.A. | Red | 10 Days |
| H.B. | Yellow | 2 Days |
| D.P. | Yellow | 4 Days |
| Mr. S. | Red | 15 Days |
| Mr. Yanko | Red | 8 Days |
| Ms. Taylor | Green | 0 Days |
Gratitude
Each morning, during Community Circle, we celebrate and appreciate the things that mean the most to us and the things that we are grateful for. We began this special time by reading a story “The Thankful Book” by Todd Parr. Students brainstormed many different things they were grateful for …and many of those things were YOU! 
We use our “Gratitude Stone” and everyone gets a turn to share one thing s/he is grateful for. There are many benefits of gratitude that lead to happiness and Harvard Healthbeat says:
In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
Ask your child what s/he is grateful for? What are you grateful for? Perhaps try sharing your gratitude with your child…
Math Games
Playing math games is not only fun, but it helps your child practice skills in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them. I hope you have had a chance to take a look at the “Ways to Support Math at Home” document under Parent Info/Resources or some online math games at Starfall and ABCYa!. Here is another list of 10 Playful Math Activities for you to try as well. I will also add the games that we play in class, so you can download and play at home as well. Stay tuned!
Fostering Independent Play
Here are some images from family psychologist, Ashleigh Warner’s, Instagram account (@raisinghumanskind) about fostering independent play. (Keep in mind she specializes in earlier years but this information might be helpful especially under current circumstances and/or if you have younger siblings at home.)
