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:
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 🙂
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
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.
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.)