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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