Category: Social and Emotional

Be You!

Inspired by Peter Reynolds’ book, Be You!, we celebrated the importance of being unique and true to yourself. In our class discussion, there were some statements that stood out more than others. Many students liked, “Be your own thinker!” “Be okay reaching out for help,” is one that many of us adults have a hard time with. We also really liked, “Be connected,” and “Be kind,” and some students thought they were good statements in a pandemic.

We shared the connections we made to some of these statements.

“I felt brave when I jumped off a diving board into a pool.”

“I was being curious when I went for a nature walk.”

“My mom was patient when she was waiting a looooong time for me.”

hallway bulletin board
Our hallway bulletin board

Please login to your child’s blogfolio to view their response to this book. Students were asked to choose a statement that stood out for them.

School-wide Write: What is your Superpower?

For our school-wide write, we read a picture book called, What is your Superpower? by Aviaq Johnston.  In this story, a girl named Nalvana discovers that anyone can have superpowers. She has friends with super speed, friends with super strength, and friends who can do all sorts of amazing things. Nalvana discovers that she herself has a unique superpower that is even more powerful than strength and speed. Please ask your child to tell you more about this story.

The story is set in Nunavut and is written by a Canadian Inuk author. There is a glossary provided, as there are Inuktitut words that are included in the text of the story.

 

For the write, students were asked to respond to the question: “What is your superpower?”  They were asked to draw a picture, adding colors and including as many details as possible. Kindergarten students are not expected to write in complete sentences. They may write using “kid-writing” (e.g. invented spelling), writing any phonetic sounds or words related to their picture. Some may write random letters that represent sounds or words that are mispelled.

 

Your child’s writing sample has been uploaded to their blogfolio. Over the next week, I will also leave a comment on the post, highlighting what I have noticed about their writing and giving them a suggestion on how to improve their writing.

RULER and the Importance of Emotions

The RULER program has become an integral part of our social and emotional learning.  As we are always trying to find better ways to help our children solve conflicts, we hope that teaching these skills can help them to better understand and manage their emotions.  This is what RULER stands for:

Since the beginning of the school year, we have been discussing feelings and emotion words. Students are learning how to label their emotions.  As a class, we voted on the words that we felt were important to us.  They were able to narrow them down to three words that they felt were most important to them.

Using these three words, we created our classroom charter.  Our statement reads:

“We want to feel safe, peaceful, and included.”

Students also drew pictures about their feeling words.  Here are three examples.

 

In conflict situations, I often relate back to our classroom charter. If someone forgets to clean up a mess on the floor, I would ask if this was a “safe” thing to do.  Students would say that someone could slip on the mess, fall and hurt themselves.

By increasing our students’ social skills and emotional intelligence, we can build a classroom culture that encourages positive relationships.  For more information on RULER, here is their website:  http://ei.yale.edu/ruler/

Poppy Poppy

While it is not always easy to talk about Canadian history and war with young children, Remembrance Day presents a good opportunity to recognize the courage of those who served for our country. In class, we talked about the significance of wearing a poppy and about peace – what peace looks like, sounds like, and feels like.  We can give our children a reason to work towards a more peaceful world.

Here are some comments from the students:

“Peace is going to the playground.”

“Peace is sharing our toys.”

“Peace is feeling safe in school.”

*More comments will be available in students’ e-portfolios.

This is a great book for young children: The Peace Book by Todd Parr

The kindergarten and grade one students in Div. 8 & 9 did a wonderful job reciting this Remembrance Day poem at the school assembly.  Thank you to parents for helping your child practice the lines at home.

Poppy Poppy

Poppy Poppy, what do you say?
Wear me on Remembrance Day.

Poppy Poppy, what do you tell?
Many soldiers in battle fell.

Poppy Poppy, what should we know?
That peace on Earth should grow, grow, grow.

Poppy, we are but children small,
We are too little to do it all.

Children, you may do your part.
Love each other is how you start.
Play without fighting.
Share your games and toys.
Be kind and thoughtful,
To all girls and boys.

3D poppies on our class wreath
3D poppies on our class wreath; each class created a wreath for the assembly