Second Week of School - Thanks for another sensational experience!
Dear Families,
Wow! We've already completed our second week of school! Time flies when you're actively engaged in your learning and having FUN! The energy of our staff and students continues to be happy, healthy, and SAFE. I ensure you, this will be an ongoing goal for us :)
Thank you to the families who have taken the time to check out my last blog update! I recognize it was a lengthy one, but please know the information that I do provide is pertinent to what your child's actively learning and doing at school.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to have a face to face Meet the Teacher BBQ at the end of the month, however, I hope my blog with serve as an effective window into your child's weekly experiences with me in grade 3 :-)
With my last post, I received some positive feedback from parents and students which made my day! I will continue providing you all with updates and highlights each week!
Reminder, my blog is accessible by visiting our School Website and I will also email you Friday's when I post it as well ;)
Nottawa Spirit Wear Fridays:
Thank you to ALL the staff and students who participated in today's Nottawa Spirit Wear Day! It is so wonderful seeing everyone displaying school pride.
I know I may be biased, but we truly have one of the most REMARKABLE school communities around!! It is such a JOY to my days to connect with parents/grandparents at the end of the school day. I love hearing about your experiences and sharing about how our day went too.
Brain Breakfast:
This week, I provided students with math warm-up activities called "Brain Breakfast" which link directly with the math expectations. When students arrive to class each morning, they quietly get out their folders and complete 5 assigned math questions. This gets students brains alert and ready (like our breakfast foods do for our bodies) for the day's math lesson! See sample below.
We always consolidate (think, share, and discuss our strategies) as a class afterwards to check for understanding. I provide specific feedback and strategies for students to help them "bump up their answers" (refer to "'How Am I Doing photo) to make it a level 3 or 4.
Through this process, I gain valuable data to see students' progress with their stars - "what they did well" and arrows - "what they need to improve upon for next time."
The completed sheets will be in your child's agenda after the weekend (Monday's). Your child will bring home this week's sheets on Monday evening in his or her agenda bag. Stay tuned!
Please sit with your child at some point during the school week and go over their answers and have them explain some strategies or new learning from this work. Thank you so much for your support in our "Brain Breakfast" program!
Math:
In math, we are learning about ourselves as capable math learners and that everyone can learn math. This school year, there will be an emphasis on creating positive math mindsets. In doing so, I showed the video below which shares with students "YOU CAN LEARN ANYTHING" as long as you set your MINDSET to it :)
As a teacher, I want to help your child feel success and that they can achieve their best in math no matter what! This will be an ongoing theme and one that will require effort and hard work. I believe in my students and their abilities. Together, we can DO IT!
Check out the math lesson we completed below (pictures). Please ask your child how he or she solved the "Jumping Joey" math task.
Accountable Talk:
As we get more and more into our academics, students will have a daily opportunity to work with their think, pair, and share partner(s). When we work together, we can achieve MORE. The goal is for students to use ACCOUNTABLE TALK (chart below).
Please ask your child what this LOOKS LIKE! SOUNDS LIKE! FEELS LIKE!
As we've participated in this, students are adding more and more ideas to our class chart (see above) which is wonderful!! Perhaps your child has contributed an idea, please ask them :)
As a teacher, I'm not looking for a silent classroom, but one in which we are 'buzzing' about the topic we're learning about! Check out the photo below of the boys and girls in accountable talk action!
International Dot Day:
This week, we celebrated International Dot Day which encourages CREATIVITY, COURAGE, and COLLABORATION! Many students are familiar with the story which is great, its' message helps inspire self-expression!
We used the book as a tool to set a goal or goals and think about the following question: 'HOW WILL YOU MAKE YOUR MARK?'
As I read through and provided feedback to students' work, my heart soared with JOY because many wrote about ways to help end bullying, accepting people as they are, using resilience when faced with a challenge, never giving up even when it's difficult, etc ...
Please take a moment to celebrate and honour your child's International Dot Day writing piece when it comes home :-)
The Talking Stick:
Did your child come home this week and share about our Talking Stick experience? If so, great! If not, that's ok too!
Talking Sticks are used by many Indigenous tribes when they have council meetings. The ideas of the Talking Stick is to respect each other's opinions and viewpoints during important meetings where things are discussed, or agreements need to be made. Unless you were holding the Talking Stick, you wouldn't interrupt or speak, but wait your turn.
Below, you will find our class family in our first Community Circle. We will always begin and end with offering our gratitude to Mother Earth by using the Algonquin word 'MEEGWICH' which means gratitude / thank you.
I would like to acknowledge Cooper for beginning this week's meeting by sharing about his discovery at forest school!
During the time you are listening, you are to pay careful attention to what's being said so that you don't disrespect others when they are sharing their thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
The interesting part about this Indigenous tradition is that it is taught to children at a very young age. Around three is the age they learn to be respectful of each other's points of view.
It's a great exercise for respecting each other's VOICE. The Talking Stick is an excellent tool to emphasize respect and patience for yourself and others.
In class, we will be making a regular routine to use the Talking Stick to emphasize that WE ALL HAVE A VOICE, IT NEEDS TO BE HEARD (one at a time).
Ainsley:
I absolutely LOVE when students make connections at home to what we're learning in class :) That's exactly what Ainsley did!!
Ainsley's aunt Erin wrote Fergus & Delilah. It uses the power of story telling to change a generation's view on special needs. Its premise is to help ALL CHILDREN FEEL A SENSE OF BELONGING.
This picture book follows a little girl through her first day at a new park. The story shows children that everyone is ‘wired’ a little bit differently and that everyone needs a friend to play with at the park or in the school playground.
This meaningful read aloud is an engaging, fun, and whimsical children's book to create a more social and inclusive environment for ALL.
Thank you Ainsley for bringing in the book to help us remember the power of being caring and inclusive to everyone no matter their intellectual, social, and emotional needs. I can see how proud you are to be part of a family who values, accepts, and celebrates others as they are :-)
Tessa:
Thank you Tessa and family for lovingly providing kleenex boxes and paper towels for our class. When Tessa presented this to me, I was so touched!
I really appreciate your generosity and kindness. These supplies will come in handy for us all!!
Mindfulness:
This video takes you through what being in the PRESENT MOMENT means. #Mindfulness is all about living IN the moment. We live in an age of distraction and spend the better part of our lives planning over the future or ruminating over the past.
"One of life's sharpest paradoxes is that our future hinges on our ability to live in this very moment. We're living in a world that contributes in a major way to mental fragmentation, disintegration, distraction, decoherence," says Buddhist scholar B. Alan Wallace.
Life unfolds in the present, this moment is very powerful! This video's quest is to bring the wonderous "moment" to you so that you can cultivate a sense of awareness in you.
This MOMENT just needs to be STILL and you can feel the SILENCE within. All you need to do is "breathe"...
Growth Mindset:
Meegwich,
Ms. Gill
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