I hope you are all well and enjoying this warm weather. We are doing very well at school, and after a busy beginning to the school year, I'm now finding time to set up a few more initiatives for our class. I'll take a moment now to catch you up!
First of all, as always safety - covid specifically - is number one. We are very diligent about sanitizing our hands every single time we enter and leave our classroom. We now have a class helper who offers the squirt to everyone as they enter, or once we are lined up. We all line up to wash our hands with soap and water before eating lunch in-class, and we are experts at masking. Nobody ever complains, and the kids are great at reminding each other before we come inside.
Our recesses have been going well, despite having a few challenging recess zones in a row. We are on week 3 of pavement and very much looking forward to getting our turn at the structure next! As I've said before, our class has been just amazing at understanding the challenges of these less interesting zones and making the best of it. We have talked about fun things we can do and have brought out some sidewalk chalk, did a group game of hopscotch, learned some skipping games and some students brought colouring or other activities from home. I taught the class a game called 'Soldat', where we stand in a circle pretending to be soldiers, and try to catch the ball when it is tossed our way, but not flinch if the leader tricks us! Before playing we talked about the challenge of elimination games and how we would handle being "out", as it will happen to almost everybody. We had no problems at all, and the game became so popular that I've actually observed a group start up their own game independent of me, when I gave them some balls to use during recess. I like taking advantage of our DPA time to play group games, not only for community-building, but also to teach proper use of the equipment I have for our class, so that I can then give it to students to use during their long lunch recess when I'm not with them.
In class, we have recently assigned classroom responsibilities. The kids are excited to have a special job that they are needed for - these are things that help us take care of our materials, stay safe and save us time. The jobs include holding the door, giving the sanitizer, pushing in forgotten chairs, checking that we are not leaving crayons on the floor to be swept away and more. Ask your student what their current job is. We will switch every day 1, just like our recess zones.
Another initiative that we have just begun is our jeton system. Les jetons are little counters, like bingo chips. When I hear students speaking in French, I give out a jeton. Each student has a personal jeton jar to keep these in. When a student has earned 5 jetons, they can exchange them for a bigger one (it's like money). There's a long exchanging story, but eventually we can earn a school dollar. Two school dollars is enough to "buy" a prize. I hope this will be motivating!
In French, we review our letters and read syllables and high-frequency words each morning, and we continue to add more poems and songs to our repertoire. Recently, we began learning the song "Aux Champs-Elysées", a famous French song by Joe Dassin. I have changed the lyrics a bit to make a shorter, simpler story, but so far we mostly just know the catchy chorus! We do some kind of writing each day, whether it's working on printing, making word cards, writing in our journal, or working on a special project. Currently, our project is writing a short story about a time when we went somewhere special. Students are writing where they went, what they saw and what they had fun doing. Ask your student where they are writing their story about!
In math, we have been spending all our time really working hard to learn our number words in French - not just being able to count out loud by one, but also be able to hear a number word and understand what it represents (e.g., draw a group), write our numbers with words and symbols, compare numbers and now skip-count. We are making this fun with a bean bag toss game that we enjoy, where we all count together. Keep practicing at home!
In science, we are continuing to talk about seasonal changes. We waited patiently for a sunny day to trace our shadows with chalk in the morning and again in the afternoon. We noticed that they were pointing different directions! This taught us something about how the Earth turns. Last week, we worked in groups to create 3D seasons using all kinds of craft materials. We focused on working nicely as teams - listening to our group members - and we did self-evaluations after to think about how we did. Later, each group presented their season and we said what we like about each one. We understand that these can't come home, but please enjoy the pictures!
This week we talked about how animals handle the cold Canadian winters. There are 4 main options that animals can do - please ask your scientist what they are! We played a great game as well where we pretended to be squirrels preparing for winter, but then when I called out an animal name, we had to do a specific action (fly, curl up and sleep or super-hero pose) to show what that animals does for winter. This weekend, I invite you to show your scientist some of the special features of your home that help keep us cool in summer and warm in winter. We will be talking about this next week!
Last week our school celebrated Orange Shirt Day. We had several conversations about why this day exists and students had some important knowledge and experiences to share. We listened to a message from Phillis Webstad, the actual woman who had her orange shirt taken away as a child, and listened to the book she wrote about her experience. We spent some time also talking about our land acknowledgment and why it is important, and how this is connected to residential schools. Our students participated in these discussions thoughtfully, and it was clear that many had learned about these issues at home as well. To mark this day, we painted rocks using orange, of course, and the medicine wheel colours: white, yellow, red and black. Some students included words such as l'amour and paix (love and peace). I gave these a coat of glaze so that the paint will last, and students brought these home. They are welcome to keep it, display it, or leave it in a park for others to find and enjoy.
This weekend, many families are celebrating Thanksgiving. We took some time to share and write what we are thankful for, and what we think we are doing this weekend. Students said that they are thankful for their parents, their families, the Earth, air, water and trees, and the food they eat. We also made a cute little turkey decoration to add to your celebration.
I wish you a lovely long weekend with your families.
See you Tuesday, Tamara
