Seesaw and Box city
Hello families!
Well…I think the Seesaw app may change my life! What a difference it makes to be able to send photos of your kids doing all the wonderful things they do at school. I had to pace myself from posting all the photos from the past few weeks in case it felt like social media overload! But I think this platform will be a great one to highlight your child’s learning. If you haven’t already done so, you can use the invitation I sent yesterday afternoon in your child’s planner. If you didn’t receive one, please let me know as there are two that seemed to be left behind yesterday! And, if you have any questions about this portfolio app please let me know. As I have mentioned, it is new for me too, so may take some troubleshooting!
This week- in case you haven’t noticed- the kids are very excited about their city they are constructing. It is one of those messy but necessary projects. It was the highlight of my week to see every single student enraptured by their community building. We had a conversation to introduce the project and we brainstormed what are things we need and what are things we want in our community. Of course, this is an interesting philosophical question…. it took a very long time before the students realized they couldn’t just live with a cupcake bakery, a cookie bakery and a pet store 🙂 At one point a student jumped up and said: waitaminute! If we build a farm we don’t have to PAY for groceries!!!! 🙂
We also read a book that was very enlightening for me as well as for the students. We read a book by an Indigenous author called ‘Our Community’… it was all about going for a walk along the river where the characters see the salmon swimming in the river. At first glance I went back to what has been taught in schools for years: Community– who are the people who work in your community? And THEN I had a wonderful revelation that I should know by my age! Our community is the creatures, plants, land, systems and stories that are all around. They sustain us and we are all connected, and that is the meaning of community. I am thankful for that book.
We will continue to explore this meaning of community through our studies of the fall season this and next week, and then some more with an upcoming project (foreshadowing: it will involve you too!)
Take care and stay dry,
Ms. M
