Today you are receiving a note about an upcoming workshop from Scientists-in-Schools. Scientists-in-Schools workshops are a phenomenal opportunity for all students - it's like a field trip, but in the classroom. The visiting Scientist brings tons of materials and resources that we don't have at school, sets up engaging, hands-on activities and, in my experience, usually covers an entire unit in one half day, and in a way that children love and can understand. We are very fortunate that the Parent Council is covering the entire cost of this program this year, so this amazing workshop will be completely FREE!
This year I have arranged a workshop for our new science unit on Materials and Everyday Structures. It's not one I've done before, so I'm excited about a new experience and lots of learning for me as well as the class. The workshop will take place Tuesday February 3rd from 12:45-3:30pm.
We will need 5 parent volunteers in order to make the workshop run smoothly, and we will probably need you from 12:25 until the end of the day. Please return the bottom portion of the note, or email me by Tuesday the 20th, if you are interested and available to help out. I'll confirm shortly after that. Thanks!
I am also sending home our January social skills rubric. Our activity today involved working with a group to plan and paint a mural. The trick was, each group had only 4 paint colours and 2 paint brushes for all 4 artists. We were focusing on sharing, taking turns and solving problems using nice words. I was impressed by the cooperation I saw between group members and how everyone took turns and used what they were given without complaining. I planned this activity specifically because we've been running into some problems sharing our markers between our desk groups. We don't have 20 pinks or 20 turquoises, so even though we have plenty of markers and even more pencil crayons, sometimes we don't have exactly what we need right away. It would be worth talking about how well the turn-taking went today, and how we can be just as kind and patient when we need or are waiting for a marker, pencil crayon, book, toy, eraser or anything!
In other cool news, Area 24 is fortunate to be partnering up with Mlle Segreto's 5/6 class for weekly reading buddies. Our buddies will visit us every day 4 and help us with our reading. It is such a benefit to developing readers to have this one-on-one attention. In the spring, our reading buddies might become computer buddies and help us with setting up a password and doing some simple tasks on the school laptops.
Due to schedules and space, we will only work with part of Mlle Segreto's class at a time. At the moment, we are working with the grade 5s. Sixteen students (4 reading groups) from our class will work with the grade 5s while the last group of students with me. Every week we will rotate so that everyone gets time with me and lots of time with their reading buddies. Here is what reading buddies looked like yesterday:
Ask your reader how we sit to read with a partner, who their partner was and what books they read!