Leadership Day and more!

What a week! One of the students today said that rest time was her favourite part of the week... that is not usually a listed highlight!

Despite the business of Leadership Day and Pedal for Hope and all of the "mixed-up day"-ness of our week, we still had time to discover and explore with eachother...

... and work on literacy and math, particularly real-life applications of both

We used one to one correspondence to count in number games, and begin simple addition skills as we added up numbers on dice. 

We practiced our shapes, number formation, and counting applications as well...

We also made number books which combined writing and helped us practice ordinal numbers (students were given instructions for first and second pages).

We prepared for Mother's Day - moms are so special and we loved reading stories and making our art!

 

We also had Pedal for Hope... for those of you who don't know, these police officers cycle for several weeks to different places raising money for cancer research. Part of the proceeds from our BCS Spirit Run will go to Pedal for Hope. They came in, did bicycle races with some students (and teachers) and a no-hands icecream eating contest! For more info on the cause: pedalforhope,ca

And I will finish with a few comments on the main event - Leadership Day! However, I won't go too detailed, since you will get a first-hand taste at Tuesday's Celebration of the Leader in Me.

Leadership Day is an interesting event for a teacher - we plan and prepare and encourage and assist, and then we step back and let them shine. Every one of the students had a role, either in the class or out. We had multiple songs to sing, as a class, with Grade 1/2, and with the entire school body. Two students shared our class mission and their own WIG. Kindergarten greeted, introduced themselves, explained the habits (especially Habit 3), defined "impact" and basically rocked it! We practiced and practiced and practiced and their hard work paid off. As we spent some time reflecting afterwards, it was wonderful hearing how their confidence had grown through the process, and their understanding of how they used the "tools" God gave them to be good leaders.

One of the biggest mindsets that I keep an eye out for in the primary grades - not only for the students themselves, but also for us adults - is the idea that these kids will have an impact "when they grow up," and that they "will be" leaders. Leadership Day for our class really enforced the message that we have been discussing all year - that they are leaders now, that they have impact now; God has given them tools and abilities that impact their families, their schools, their communities, right where God has put them. 

I don't think I could be more proud of the work they put in and the growth that I saw over this process. This is authentic learning for life. It was fun to celebrate their leadership together!

   

Have a great weekend!