Onward!

The school year is picking up speed! I can't believe it is April already!

Our writing has been growing in leaps and bounds!

My favourite part is the reflecting that can happen with the increased skill. This past week, after hearing the story of Easter from the view of a young Palestinian boys, students worked quietly in their journals.... Here are some of their thoughts.

JA: "This is what Easter is all about"

"Jesus died on the cross."

"Jesus died for us"

Easter is my favourite time of year to teach - the students listen with a receptiveness that is precious, and it reminds me every year why Jesus says to become as little children. It makes His love fresh for me every year.

We have also been working so hard on our Maud Lewis paintings! She has been called the painter without shadows, and students appreciate the cheerful way she painted her life, even though in reality, she had both significant physical and economic difficulties. She appreciated the little things in her world, and we have enjoyed learning that lesson from her!

We have also been learning about magnets - so much fun! We learned about the "force fields" of the poles, and how they are friends with the opposite poles but not the same ones. We also learned how to make a paperclip piece into a magnet by rubbing it on a strong one!

We are also having so much fun learning at our restaurant centre!

                                                    

PS. Be sure to check out the Fridge Door on Monday for important dates coming up in the next couple months!

Hearts and Friendship, Nursery Rhymes and Weather, Taller and Shorter

What a busy February it has been!

Valentines Day was so much fun! We decorated our bags, met with our Grade 3/4 buddies, 

build our creative skills by making Valentines, and learned about what being a good friend means!

In math we are studying measurement. The first part of this unit is learning the vocabulary. Bigger, smaller, shorter, taller, longer, wider, etc. What do you do with something that is tall but narrow, and you're comparing with wide but short? We are also connecting this to spatial awareness skills - what fits where, and what comes next questions.

Students are giving presents to the three bears, since Goldilocks messed up their things! They found big, medium, and small things to give to papa, mama, and baby bear!

                                                                       

Hickory Dickory Dock! The mouse ran up the clock!

JK and SK students did so well reciting their nursery rhymes/7 Habits!

They were encouraging to eachother, and although some were nervous, everyone did 

a wonderful job!

                                                   

We've also been learning about weather! I could have taught four different lessons on

Friday alone! When the snow started falling, we changed plans for the day and bundled up to 

go explore. We made a snow gauge to measure (linked to math) and talked about why we might want to know how much snow fell. We also talked about how snow crystals are found and enjoyed playing in a surprise snowstorm!

We also learned about wind and rain this week! We learned about how rain is formed and how the earth needs it. We took strips of fabric outside on different days to see what they looked like when it the wind was strong and when it was weak!

That's all for this post!

Have an excellent March break!

Math Brains and Birdfeeder Builders!

Hi all! It's been so nice to get settled back into the routine of school (with no snow days interrupting!) and it's been a fun few weeks! Since a picture is so much better at showing you what we're doing, I'll start with those!

Making Patterns

Number Sense Understanding, and Number Order

Working with Ten Frames helps students to quantify the meaning of each number, and 

puzzles are a fun way to remember the sequence of numbers!

Using our Building Skills to Make Strong and Stable Vehicles

The tailgate swings down!

They piled blocks on top to show how strong it was!

Students chose Wildly Important Goals (WIGS) this week - something

important they want to learn!

JO decided he wanted to read book bags! Parents, ask your student about their WIGS - you can also see them
at PT conferences this week!

Our new math journals are a great way to put our skills into practice!

Kindergartens use strategies like drawing pictures and using manipulatives to solve problems - in this case, how many mittens are on three students altogether!

We learned the names of 3D shapes (ones that "pop out" at us), and built with them!

Birds, Birds, Birds!

Thank you all for sending in supplies for our project!

To begin, students made a plan for what they would need and what their birdhouse would look like!

Next, they cut doors and windows, and used tape and primer to make it weatherproof.

Finally, they painted them, and came to Miss K to hot glue popsicle sticks on for roofs, and buttons on for decorations!

Then, we went outside, hung them up, and enjoy seeing what we were able to build for God's beautiful animals. We also made a book with some of the things we've learned!

We took time to reflect afterwards about what was challenging, what we were great at, and how it help to be God's earth-keepers! Students have added in thanks for the birds to our prayer

We also tried a new art project, our hardest one yet! We have talked about doing beautiful work, slowing down and doing it right, to our best! Kindergarten very much enjoyed this multi-step piece, and would cheer for every new bird that a student stenciled onto their art! If you're in the school for drop off/pick up/any other reason, I invite you to come in and look with your child!

Have a wonderful weekend!

New Year, New Learning!

Hey look, I finally wrote a blog post again!

As you know, we learned about building in December, and also have been working hard on our reading and writing. Our new project is an excellent way to authentically use all of these skills.

Below is the driving question for our project, and some answers that we came up with!

We made a plan to first do research on the life of birds, discuss the impact of winter, and then decide how to do something about it. 

Our Research

Students worked so hard on drawing scientific pictures of birds! They looked at reference pictures, added details of the habitat, and wrote their bird facts. As we progress in building our milk-carton birdfeeders (this idea!), we will also post our pictures in our school community before compiling them into a class book!

We have also learned much about 2D shapes, focusing on circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles and the properties of each (type of edges, sides, corners). Today we took that learning to make pictures. In this math exercise, I not only saw mastery of shape concepts, but also exceptional creativity, attention to detail, innovation, proactive choices in getting started right away, and the ability to problem solve (and not giving up) when something they had planned didn't work the way they thought!

As always, it is an honour to teach your children. Writing report cards has given me space to reflect on the amazing personalities inside each one of them. They bless me every day with their giggles, hard work, and delight in the world God has made!