"I want to acknowledge that I am currently on the unceded territory of the Katzie and Kwantlen First Nations..." On this "Orange Shirt Day", we have been reflecting on the Indigenous children that had to leave their families and go to schools far away, often forgetting how to speak their own language while they were gone. We learned, to our surprise, that our school is on what was once Katzie land! We have begun to practice a land acknowledgment in French and hope to recite it to our families and at an assembly at some point this year. We have also spent the days leading up to Orange Shirt Day learning how to do some Indigenous drumming! Last year, a young Katzie woman named Lilly Teare Cunningham from the Katzie First Nation came to our school and taught some of our classes a song that she had written in her people's language of Hul'q'umi'num', all about her ancestors. She gifted us the song so that we could continue singing it. ![]()
We learned this week about what it means to respect the drums since real Indigenous drums are made out of animal hides. Whenever an animal loses its life for our purposes, it's customary to thank the animal and to treat the objects made from it as if they were living things. We only place our drums upright, never upside-down. And we don't hit our friends with them or put them on our heads. In this case, the drums that we are using are not authentic Indigenous drums, but we will soon be able to use a set of authentic ones so it's important that we develop these habits now. Drumming also has the benefits of teaching us how to keep our eyes on the leader (Madame) and watch closely and quietly. As she changes the rhythm, we need to be aware so that we can follow. There are many self-regulation strategies that we can develop just from a simple drumming lesson! As an activity on Orange Shirt Day, we met with our Big Buddy class for the first time and made dream catchers! Dreamcatchers were originally created by the Ojibwe, but they have been widely adapted by other peoples. And while it would be cultural appropriation to SELL a dreamcatcher that is not made by an Indigenous artist, it is okay for us to MAKE our own for personal use. We loved learning about the idea that dreamcatchers would "catch" our bad dreams and had so much fun working and playing with our Big Buddies for the first time! Some of us even found our buddies again at recess to play and get piggy-back rides. We spent some time playing outside with other friends today, too! (Thank you, Mme P, for these photos!)... It was a musical kind of week because, on top of the daily drumming, we also had some mini impromptu piano recitals! Madame played "Bonne fête" (Happy Birthday) for Wyatt on the piano and then some of us wanted to show off our OWN piano-playing skills. We loved listening to several little performances. We definitely have some budding musicians! In Math this week, we took a closer look at a hundreds chart and noticed that it's FULL of patterns! We enjoyed trying to count to 100 in French and learning about the weirdness of French numbers. (The word for "80", for example, actually translates to "four twenties", and the word for "91" translates to "four twenties eleven"... we're doing Math just by saying a number!) We had fun working with partners to try different counting strategies and ways of adding numbers together. The "building corner" This may become a regular section of extra photos that we tack on at the end since this group seems to LOVE creating and having me document it for their families! "Send it to my mom!" is a regular phrase. So here you go, Mom. ;-) (...and Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa). Behold, the "tickle machines"...
This week has been all about setting and practicing our routines. We are getting more adept at completing our Math work independently, showing how to arrive at numbers of slowly-increasing difficulty. In French, we've continued working through our letter-sound review and have begun journaling with those letter sounds. We also had a lot of fun with a new "orthographic mapping" activity that Madame introduced. She calls out a word or sound and we have to try to write the sounds that we hear in the boxes. Some of us have started doing this activity one-on-one with Madame, as well. And the biggest development in French Literacy for us this week has been the kick-off of our home reading program. Madame has been pulling many of us aside each day to go through our flashcards with her and when she thinks we're ready to move to the next level, we get to honk a funny bike horn. The whole class stops what they're doing, sings a celebratory song, yells "Bravo!", and sometimes there are even high-fives and hugs involved. We're all on different flashcard levels, but Madame assures us that it doesn't matter! She brought out one of her marathon medals from Paris to show us and asked, "Do you think I got this medal because I WON the race?" Some of us thought that must be why, but then she explained that she was nowhere CLOSE to winning the race. Marathons are really long and they're hard... a lot of people give up, either in training or during the actual race. So if you cross the finish line, you automatically get a medal. It doesn't matter what the person in front of you is doing, or the person behind you. All that matters is getting to the end. Madame explained to us that it's the same with reading... It doesn't matter if one friend speeds ahead or one friend is getting there a little more slowly. What matters is that we keep on going and don't give up, even when it's hard. If we do that, we WILL be able to read by the end of the year! And that's definitely something to celebrate! And speaking of marathons, we spent some time talking about Terry Fox this week and his "Marathon of Hope." Madame was impressed with how much we already knew about Terry Fox, but we read a couple of books about him and watched a video to learn more. We also had a great time looking on Google Earth and Google Maps to find the country of Canada, where we are in Pitt Meadows, and how that compares with where Terry started and ended his run. We talked about how WE can be brave just like Terry! Extra pics... Many of these extras are the result of: "Madame, can you take a picture and send it to my mom??" ;-)
“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 Grade 1/2! In our class, we love to learn through play. It's amazing how much more our brains and bodies can absorb when we're fully engaged in a task. It's also during play that we learn lessons about sharing, develop strategies for talking through conflict, work on self-restraint, deepen friendships and even discover new ones, develop new interests, and so much more. We've begun doing some pencil to paper activities this week, including practicing our Math skills using different methods to show a number. We also really enjoyed making a "Math About Me" page. We learned that numbers are everywhere in our lives! Some of us also learned a new Math card game this week called "Garbage", which helps us become familiar with 10-frames and stretches our strategy skills. In French, we've begun reviewing letter sounds with the help of Madame's trusty "Mystery Box" (Boîte à mystères). Every day, we sing a song and then learn a new letter sound by taking turns pulling out items that begin with that sound. We also work on blending our new sound with all the previous sounds we have reviewed! We are very excited about our class pets - two guinea pigs named Biscuit and Pépite (Cookie and Chocolate Chip). Madame says they LOVE to eat vegetables and dandelions, but those things are special treats for them so we have to ask before we can give them some from our lunchboxes. BUT... we can feed them as much hay as we want throughout the day. More pics...
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