We've had so many highlights this week! For starters, a group of our Grade 1s joined with some former Middle School students of Madame's to present to Pitt Meadows City Council about the importance of being kind. Their goal was to have City Council pass a proclamation declaring February 9 to 13 as official "RAC Week" (Real Acts of Caring). This took SO much courage because the students took turns standing at a podium, speaking to a large group of adults behind a huge desk...and with an extra audience behind them! Madame was so proud of them for their bravery and their willingness to do something out-of-the-box! We were so honoured to meet the Mayor and to have City Council post about us on their Facebook page. Stay tuned for news of all of the kind things that our entire class will be doing during that week! We did a bunch of brainstorming together and are beginning to form a plan! And for our whole class, one of our favourite moments of the week was going on our 2nd ice skating trip. We trudged to and from the rink in the rain, but didn't complain at all! Madame wasn't supposed to be skating because of her concussion, so some boys offered to push her around instead. Today we got to go to our Big Buddies' class to try playing some arcade games that they made out of recyclable materials. The whole thing was inspired by an adorable story of a young boy named Caine who created an entire arcade out of cardboard. (Watch the YouTube documentary here). Our students had a blast going to all of the different stations. Who says you need technology to have fun?? Even Madame got in on the action and set a new cardboard foosball record! (yeh, yeh). It was a wet one today so sadly, we were confined indoors for both recesses. But our little bodies need to MOVE! So after lunch, Madame took us outside for a lap around the school. On our way around, we found that the tree boxes were flooded and the water had created small islands. It was just too tempting to resist. Madame apologizes if we came home with wet socks and shoes! Friday was also our first "magasin" day! We got to use all of the nickels we've been saving to buy stuff at our class store. (We earn nickels by speaking in French, by doing our daily chores well, and by doing kind things for others without expecting anything in return.) But before we can make any purchases at "le magasin", we must first donate one nickel to charity and use one more nickel to pay rent on our "houses". Some students managed to resist the allure of all of the store items and actually PURCHASED their homes today (for $0.25). This means they will no longer have to pay rent each week. Aiden even began purchasing multiple properties so that other students will have to start paying HIM rent on a weekly basis. (...future entrepreneur!) We are learning how to count by 5s to create $0.10, $0.25, $0.50 and $1.00. Many of us are already beginning to do this independently! Another new system that we've added recently is our French-speaking incentive program. Everyone's face has been made into a reposition-able sticker and placed on a large map of Canada, which serves as our game board. We all start in B.C. and as we speak more and more French independently, our face gets moved to the next province. Each time we advance to the next province, we receive a provincial badge to tape into our black home folders. Madame is so pleased with all of the French we have been speaking lately, even creating all kinds of original sentences - not just the ones that we have practiced. These are the badges that we earn... Each time we move to the next province, Madame removes our badge from the plastic sleeve and puts a new one in there for us to strive for. Once we reach the Territories, the last game spot on the map, we earn the status of "Petit Prof" (Little Teacher) and get a special bracelet to wear. We become official French helpers of the class.
Well, this week went a little differently than planned! Madame didn't manage to get many pictures because of Wednesday's "snow day", followed by her two-day absence, but we still managed to get in a few stories from the week in between putting on our myriad of snow gear...then taking it off...then putting it on again... The warm blanket was a hot-ticket item. And here we are taking the classic photo head tilt to the extreme... We forged ahead with our classroom economy this week and were bursting with excitement over getting our very own class piggy banks. Madame even let us colour our names with colourful permanent markers. In Science, we began our mini unit on solids, liquids and gases. Madame taught us a big kid concept about her "atom" friends who hold hands to make molecules. The molecules make up most of the objects around us. When two Hydrogen atoms join hands with an Oxygen atom, it makes a water molecule! Lots of water molecules tightly packed together make a SOLID. Water molecules further apart make a LIQUID. And water molecules much further apart make a GAS. We went outside to play a game where Madame would yell: "Solide!" and we all had to run together and get as tightly packed as possible. Then she would yell: "Liquide!" and we would spread apart. Harrison became "the knife" (le couteau) in this game and had to try to cut through all of the molecules. We noticed that it was really hard for him to get through the group when we were in "solide" formation, but easy when we were "liquide" or "gaz". Young Max, who Madame sometimes suspects is actually a 30-year-old man in disguise (in absolutely the most endearing way), really seemed to grasp the concept and spent his free time drawing out and adding to Madame's initial diagram. Way to go, Max! On Friday some of us enjoyed dressing up as "twins" for "Twin Day" and in the afternoon we enjoyed a school-wide assembly all about perseverance and how important it is to just keep trying. We even got to watch a fun video about it: Aaaand we're back! Two weeks off from almost everything school related, and yet... everyone readjusted much better than Madame was expecting! Hooray! We kicked off our week by making 2020 crowns. On the back, we pasted the individual goals that we made on our Term 1 report cards. These are like our "New Years resolutions" and wearing them on our heads for the day was a good reminder of what we want to continue working on. Our focus in Math this week has been learning about nickels and skip-counting by 5s. You can listen to the kids sing our Pink-inspired counting song here. This is all lead-up to the big debut of our classroom economy next week. Students will each be given classroom jobs that they must complete (thoroughly) in order to receive their daily payment of a nickel. Nickels can also be earned by speaking French without prompting, by being helpful, or by being caught doing something kind. At the end of the week, students will be able to spend their nickels at our classroom store (le magasin) where they can purchase various treats and toys to keep. BUT... before they can buy anything, they have to do two things: 1. Pay rent ($0.05) 2. Give a portion of their money to charity ($0.05) The students' cubby baskets act as their "houses" in this living version of Monopoly. They each picked an image of a familiar place around Pitt Meadows to stick to their baskets. In order to continue housing their personal items in their baskets, they will have to begin paying rent next week. BUT... if students save up $0.25, they can PURCHASE their house and henceforth avoid those pesky rent payments. After they've purchased their own home, they can even choose to purchase somebody else's home so that their tenants will have to pay rent to THEM each week. (Can you say "residual income"? Cha-ching!) Of course, Madame has not been using such fancy terms in class, but we are beginning to wrap our heads around the concepts. Madame says that it's a bit like listening to the instructions for a game - the easiest way to understand is just to dive in and begin playing, which is what we will do next week. The charity that our class voted to support with our weekly giving is one that will help the poor Australian animals being effected by the wildfires. Madame has told us that she will match any classroom donations that we make until June and we will then send the money to Australia. The organization we will use is called NSW Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service Incorporated ("WIRES"). Madame is very proud of all of the suggestions the kids made for places and organizations to support: Children's Hospital, foster children, planting trees ("because we need them to live!"), etc. In the end, we voted on which one the students most wanted to support right now and Australian animals won the day. We were super pleased that the weather cleared up for our weekly walk to Hoffman Park! On our walk, we excitedly pointed out all of the places that we recognized from the little cards that we stuck to our cubby baskets in preparation for our classroom economy launch next week. We found the library, the police station, the rec centre, City Hall... Much fun was had in the forest, with all kinds of games and new discoveries. And sticks. Lots of sticks. We are beginning a new tradition while we're at the park - forest sing-alongs! Madame carted her ukulele all the way there, only to find that sadly, the cold temperatures temporarily stretched the wood and strings such that it was horrifically out of tune by the time we began to sing. So, that idea will be shelved until Spring. A capella it is! Thanks to Kelsey S for the photo and video below, and to both her and Justin for chaperoning! Today was extra special with SNOW! We were SO excited about it at the beginning of the day, begging Madame to go outside. But by lunch time, we were begging to do work rather than go outside. Apparently wet clothes aren't fun to put back on. Next on the wish list... a classroom dryer.
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