How is this week over already?! Today was a special day as we recognized National Truth and Reconciliation Day for the first time. Some of us have been donning our orange shirts all week, but it culminated in a special friendship ceremony today. All of the students went outside and formed a circle around our school as we reflected on the mistakes of our country's past in regards to Residential Schools, in particular, and about how we can do better and make sure everyone feels like they belong! We also participated in a school-wide project called "Bricks of Belonging". Students were asked the question, "How do you know that you belong?" or "How do you know that you're important?" They drew their answers on a "brick" that was added to our wall to create a mural for the school. We have spent some more time exploring colours this week with a special science experiment. We made hypotheses about what would happen to the clear jars in the picture below... It turned out that one of our hypotheses was correct! The water in the clear jars became a mixture of the two colours surrounding it! In Math, we have continued to practice our French counting with the Ks focusing on numbers 1-10 and the Grade 1s focusing on numbers 11-20. Madame introduced us to the game of number BINGO, which we will play once every week to reinforce a whole variety of skills. With BINGO, we learn to recognize French numbers said out of order, but we also develop all kinds of secondary skills: - vocabulary for "I won!", "I only have ____ left", "I still need _____" - working memory, as we practice looking at the number on the board and then holding the image in our brains while we search for it on our BINGO cards - coordination, as some of us learn to draw Xs on our cards and stay in the lines - resilience, as we learn to accept defeat Later, some of us will move to using cards with the numbers written out in word form when we are ready! Extra photos for fun!...
Congratulations to our Kindergarten friends who not only made it through their first full week, but also their first 5 FULL days of school! That is no small thing! We have been tree detectives this week, noticing that their leaves are changing colour and that we have so many different varieties of trees on and around our school grounds! We have been focusing our investigations specifically on Douglas Fir trees and how to identify them using three important clues - cones, bark and needles. The cones have a special legend that helps us to distinguish them. Ask us to tell you about it! We found some other intriguing cones around the school property and into Spirit Square so we are looking forward to picking a new tree to investigate next week. We are starting to work on identifying our numbers in French from 1 to 20. For Grade 1s, this is review, but many of us are still needing to practice identifying them in French without counting up, and we are also working on writing them so they are facing the correct way. In our Kindergarten/Grade 1 buddy pairings, we worked on writing out the numbers in chalk. And then as a class, we created a natural numbers poster to display in our classroom! Our French vocabulary is expanding every day! We are even starting to write in our journals with some help from Madame. Grade 1s are learning to write full sentences, while Kindergarten students are just working on one word at a time for now. We had a special visitor this week - the Hulk!! We are learning about our feeling words in French and have been discussing how our anger can sometimes take over us and we become like the Hulk - loud and ready to fight! We need to have strategies to help us calm down when we go "full Hulk". A highlight this week was cheering on the "Cops for Cancer" as they rode by on their bicycles. We were so excited to be out with the whole school, clapping for them and giving them high-fives! We've also been working hard on our "Art Cards"! These will go home soon and can be ordered as greeting cards (for Christmas or birthdays), mugs, Christmas tree ornaments, and much more! Stay tuned! We've been learning about colours! Lots and lots of colours! We loved doing "science" this week by taking turns mixing coloured water using eyedroppers. It was so fascinating to see which colours would result in the various mixtures that we concocted, all starting from just the 3 primary colours. In other news, we're learning that Madame is just a little bit strange. When we try to emulate her, it turns out something like this... And some extra pics, just for fun...
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood,” Fred Rogers Welcome to K/1! In our class, we love to learn through play. It's amazing how much more your brain and body can absorb when you're fully engaged in a task. And for that reason, we work our finger muscles (for increasing our writing stamina!) by feeding tennis ball monsters, digging in play-doh, and creating beaded bracelets and necklaces. We discover concepts like patterning through music and puzzles, and science through real-life observation and investigation. We learn about nature through scavenger hunts and outdoor exploration, and we will come to discover our personal limits through challenges both indoors and outdoors. We also learn about empathy by being gentle with animal friends, and by practicing sharing with our peers, even when it's hard to do. There is so much fun to be had on our learning journey! We can't wait to bring you along for the ride. Check back here weekly for news and pictures of what we've been up to.
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