Category: We are critical thinkers.

Our grade 1 and 2 students have worked very hard on their re-creation of the water cycle with their partners and were really excited and engaged in their learning. With practice and repetition, they became more and more confident with their explanation of the water cycle and the moving of the sun, clouds, and precipitation at the same time. Not an easy task! We are very proud of how they improved in their communication skills as they worked as partners negotiating their shared vision while exercising their creative thinking and critical thinking skills in order to pull this off! 

Children have had opportunities to share “I can” statements before and after they worked on their shows again and again. Today, they worked on their final reflections. They really understand their strengths! Click here to read all of their “I can” statements.

Enjoy our Water Cycle shows that we made using Puppet Pals! Hint: Might want to pop some popcorn first. Sorry, videos do not play on iPhones or iPads but play fine on Androids and computers.

Tobee & JeanBenoit	Sasha & Charlotte	Farbod & Lucas	Isla & Dustin
Fisher & Myel	Jeffery & Ronan	Manoj & Priscilla	Leo & Riley
Avia & Sonia	Charlotte & Katherine	Gabby, Hanna & Kailan	Owen & Zachary
Olivya & Mehr	Enjoy!	Made with Puppet Pals

Dear students (and parents),

What do you think about your friend’s shows? Please feel free to offer two stars and a wish or write a comment about why you enjoyed working on this project. What are you most proud of? What appreciations might you have for your partner? If you were to do it again, what would you change? Thank you.

Thoroughly enjoy your spring break, everyone! Looking forward to seeing you on April 1st. We have had such a wonderful year so far with you and your child. Thank you for your continued support at home. We appreciate you!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan & Ms. Cowan

A ball of modelling clay was provided to manipulate into an object that can float. After discovering a way of how to make it float, students were tasked with seeing how many teddy bears can sit on the boat before it sank. For such young children, what we were most impressed with was their ability to stay focussed with great determination to succeed and for such a long time. They showed such patience, perseverance, and critical thinking when provided with the challenge to make a dense object float.

The critical thinking skills that were demonstrated throughout were also truly brilliant. Wished every parent could have been there to witness their learning! Some used the inside of a bowl to form their boat. When that didn’t work, they tried it on the outside of the bowl. Other students believed that making sure their boat was dry was important so they used our sponges to dry it off each time. Then in order to try to hold more teddy bears, they exercised further critical thinking skills to experiment with the shape of their boats. The learning was so rich and students were so engaged and motivated. We felt so proud of how they self-regulated their emotions even though some of them weren’t successful until the very end. They kept trying and trying and demonstrated a never give up attitude.

Here were some reflections shared:

• I learned that when I take the clay and fold it up, it float.
• That the same object can sink and float. – Isla
• If you have too much water in the boat, then it will sink. – Sasha
• I learned to “never give up”. – Charlotte T.
• I learned that even if there’s little tiny holes, you will have to block the holes. It can be holes on the side but not on the bottom. – Mehr

Spontaneously, most unexpected student etched “I can think critically” on her floatie. Made us smile!

Core Competencies connection:

• I can show perseverance.
• I can try and try again.
• I can think critically.

Students, what did you think about this critical thinking activity? Please feel free to leave a comment. We would love to hear your thoughts!

Last week, groups of students were tasked with the challenge to move plastic cups from one location on the table to another. They were given a number of cups and one elastic band with four attached pieces of string. Each group member was responsible to control one string. No hands were to touch the cups!

Upon first attempts, they realized how much there was a give and take with controlling the elastic band in the middle. It was more difficult than it first appeared so they had to use their communication and critical thinking skills. Their first task was to move all of the cups from one side of the table to the other side. Once successful, they were to try the challenge of stacking cups like a pyramid. I wish you were there to see how happy they were to work together, how well they persevered when they weren’t successful yet, and how elated they were when they were eventually successful. A few were jumping up and down excitedly and one exclaimed as she jumped in celebration, “We did the challenge! We did the challenge!” What a positive bunch of children with great communication and teamwork skills! 

During our debriefing, we discussed what went well in our groups as teammates and the strategies to get the work done:

• Myel: We did planning.
• Mehr: We stayed focussed.
• Olivya: We talked a lot and tried to communicate a lot.
• O: We communicated with other people.
• Priscilla: Being nice with your words.
• Sasha: We used tools properly.

It helps when we use positive language to support and encourage our teammates. These were some examples of what we heard:

We can do it! Good work! Yay, we did it! Good teamwork! Go team!

Isla summed it up nicely: We enjoyed learning through playing.

Core Competency – Communication: I can work with others to achieve a common goal; I do my share.