Gymnastics!

Dear parents,
I know you've received an email from the gym teachers explaining the gymnastics unit, and the clothing necessary to participate in all the fun climbing activities. In the past, I've put a list of gym dates on the blog to help parents prepare, however I didn't want to get anyone too excited this year, as our gym day falls on the same day as our ROM trip. I've been in touch with Ms. Sharma and our other gym teachers, hoping to find some extra times when the gym is free so that we can enjoy the exciting gymnastics unit as well. Today, they were able to squeeze us in last minute, and the kids had a blast trying out the balance beam, yoga poses, fancy footwork stations and more. We would like to ask that each student keep shorts and a t-shirt in their cubby for this week and next, so that they are always prepared, should we be able to get into the gym. To use the climbers safely, we do need to have some exposed skin for gripping the equipment.

I love that our class does backwards lunch, giving us some alone time outside before the other classes come out. This morning, we had so much fun doing relay races in the snow. Within their teams, students paired up to pull each other in a toboggan, make snow angels and fill a container with snow, before racing back. Everyone was a good sport and congratulated the other team.

 

Meet Mlle Jade! Jade is a student from CTA across the street, and is doing her co-op placement in our class this term, as Mlle Sofia did last term. Jade is interested in being a teacher or ECE in the future, so this experience will be a great introduction to what that really means. She has already learned our students' names and has been helping them with their tasks, helping them with their belongings, helping with problem solving and helping them focus at calmer times. Please introduce yourself to Jade when you see her around the school or at dismissal!

This afternoon, Jade checked in on our math groups during some open-ended problem solving. Our challenge was to organize our jetons in a way that would make it easy to count, and see which colour had more and less. After drawing their idea, each group presented it to the class. We had a range of good ideas, from dividing the colour groups using a line, to drawing the jetons in an organized circle, to drawing the jetons in a straight line, or even straight lines of equal length. We did agree that it is certainly easier to count things when the material is laid out neatly in a line.

Yesterday, we celebrated family day by making beautiful origami families. Students thought about hair colour, eye colour and what type of clothing to put on their parents and siblings. They are so cute!

Here are some people in our family that we definitely know en français!

Maman

Papa

Frère

Soeur

Bébé

I have finally finished meeting with each student to help them write down something they are already doing very well, and choose a goal to work on going forward. We have some excellent ideas in mind, and will start earning stars when we work hard at our goal. Ask your student what they wrote down as their official school goal!

Finally, in addition to everything else, this month we celebrate Black History Month. We will have an assembly Friday morning with some presentations and storytelling. In discussing Black History Month in our class, many students brought up the idea of slavery, but in Canada we have had other problems much more recently. We read the story of Viola Desmond, who stood up for her rights in the late 1940s. Please ask your student what happened to her, and if they think that was fair.