Leadership and Inquiry

Hello Parents!

I'm not even sure where to start this week - we've been busy! We had fire drills, fingerprint missions, and freezies for Friday Spirit Day. We're learning how to sort our garbage into the recycling (and trying to remember that mom and dad probably don't want it to come home), and we're learning how to be good friends. We opened the sand centre (HA is on a building site), the paint centre, the writing centre (KA is practicing her numbers) and the Bible centre (GR is making plants that God made on Day 3). 

                              

We also had questions come up about building and balancing? How far off the table can we push it before it falls? What if a train goes on it? What if there is an earthquake (shake the table)?

                                

The next day, CA came back with KI and JA and
made a solution for the earthquake and balancing.

One of our biggest learnings this week was on student responsibility in the classroom - student jobs, our mission statement, and our classroom agreement (these take the place of teacher-directed class rules. The students created these so they are doubly responsible to uphold them).

Their names are on those stickers and they could choose two jobs to be interviewed for.    

Students put their thumbprint/handprint on these documents after saying yes, they were going to try to do this. We talked about how using habits and being a good leader takes practice, no matter who you are. So when we make a mistake, it will be an opportunity for us to learn. Part of being a leader is using what you are good at to help the people around you. After students decided what jobs to apply for, they had an interview with me (spread over a few days whenever we had a few spare moments). Students came and sat at a table with me and told me why they wanted that job and why they would be good at it. I will send a copy of these home once the jobs are trained and finalized. They will have these jobs for the term.

You may have noticed that not a lot of paper came home this week. We are hands-on learning!

Practicing the letter T with loose parts like buttons and wood slices.  

              

Setting the foundation for data management skills later in life - sorting. First with the colour rule, then size. Some also decided to sort by shape or feel.

             

                

This age group is full of curiousity and the desire to use their five senses to explore - so when we learn in Kindergarten, including our letters and numbers, we do so in a very tactile way. Plus it's lots of fun!

I'll end with some info on inquiry - I'll use that term a lot this year. It means that if students show a particular interest, we encourage their exploration, their wonderings, and discovery, and ask lots of questions about how God made the world. The pictures below are two student directed activities - it's leadership in their own learning.

1. Several of the students became involved in a theatre play - they made tickets, decided where the movie screen was, set up seating, drew boxes of popcorn, and played it out. There was so much interest that I gave them a bin and an option to make it a centre for learning play time - KA made a sign and made it official. This centre has been rich in social learning for our class - having fun with new friends and negotiating disagreements and norms.

2. Finally, a heads up for next week - be prepared to hear about snails!!! We found a baby in our aquarium, and discussed it as a class - we want to learn about snails. We will ask questions together and search out the answer. Below is a sneak peak at the learning space that students will see on Monday. The bowls will be home to some snails for us to observe.

This post was long - thanks for reading through it! Have a wonderful weekend!

From your kids: