Tuesday 29 November 2016

Here is a great article to explain about writing and how I approach it in our classroom. You can read it here
Just FYI there is no dictée this week. We are taking a little break before we go back and do words that they misspelled before. 

Monday 28 November 2016

We had a some very special visitors at school today!!



 
 
 

 

Wednesday 23 November 2016

We had such a busy day with science experiments today! 







 
 
 
 
 

Monday 21 November 2016

Ack! User error seems to be the most common problem with technology. I wrote a whole post and forgot to press publish. 

We will be doing a science experiment blitz on Wednesday. I need your help to make sure we have enough materials for each kid. If you have any of the following, please send it to school on Tuesday or Wednesday. 

- clean glass jars. Please make sure these never had nut products in them, as we will be eating out from some of these jars. 

- tin foil

- packing peanuts 

Thanks in advance! 

Wednesday 9 November 2016

The students came in this morning absolutely buzzing about last nights American election. It's a hard thing to know as a teacher when to talk about current events in the classroom and when not to. Children shouldn't be sheltered, but eight is too young to know all challenging things happening in our world.

I made the decision to speak to them about the election, but coming at it from a perspective of what life lessons we can learn. I didn't go into any details of allegations or exactly what was said. My hope is that you continue this conversation at home, as these things come up in day-to-day life, not just during election time.

I will try my best to remember all the points of the conversation and lesson, but nothing was planned. It was all organic. 

Here are some of the things that came up:

- it can be hard to see adults in our lives upset about things on TV. Sometimes, it's children's jobs to take care of the adults and give them an extra hug

- we practised how to say 'no thank you, that's not cool' two people who are saying things that we find it disrespectful. This came out of speaking about how politicians have different views and that we don't always agree with them. This is something students can use with any disagreement in their lives. 

- we spoke about how lucky we are to live in Canada, and all the wonderful things about our country including diversity, acceptance, and respect. It's not a perfect country but it's headed in the right direction. 

- we spoke about how boring the world would be if everyone was exactly the same, and why it's important to allow people from other countries into our country. This also falls into our socials curriculum, and learning that the aboriginal people were the first ones here and the rest of us are immigrants. 

- We spent a long time speaking about the power of positivity. It can be easy to have anything negative get stuck in our head and dwell on it. This can happen with anything… An argument at home, trouble on the playground, a bad dictée test mark. We spoke about ways to focus on what's going well in our lives, and to use that to push out the negative. I find this one extremely important for adults and children alike. We need to be taking care of ourselves, and it can be really hard to do if we are always focussing on the negative.

- I spoke about the concept of being the bigger person, and that you may find someone who has different ideas than you. It does not do anything productive to call this person names, or say bad things about them. We spoke about strategies to engage in conversations about ideas. 

I will admit I got a bit teary eyed speaking to them about all this. It feels like a lot of life lessons for young beings. 

I feel like there is more that we spoke about, but that I can't remember right now. It was a wonderful discussion with your children, and that was my way of positivity today. I came into work feeling worried and stressed this morning but hearing all the positive things that your children have to say, I am less worried for the future of our world. I know they will take good care of it. I encourage each of you to take time to yourself this weekend if you're feeling overwhelmed by the state of this world. Spending time with children can be just what's needed

Monday 7 November 2016

une colombe and Remembrance Day

On Wednesday, the grade 3s will be singing at our rememberance day assembly. You can get your child to practice the song along to this video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cdM3bz8OOMg

We asked student to wear black and white for the assembly, but red would be appropriate too. 

Just a reminder that there is no school this Thursday and Friday, and to send skating forms in ASAP. 

Merci! 

Wednesday 2 November 2016

Today, the first time reading books came home. There may be some level adjustments to do but it is somewhere to start! It is up to you and your child to decide when you switch books. 

Tuesday 1 November 2016

I hope everyone had a fun and safe halloween! I loved hearing their stories, and I was so touched when they thought of mme Chantal and I and brought us chocolates. I am set for chocolate for the whole year! 

As you hopefully noticed, there is no dictée this week. We will resume next Monday. 

Also, I will be away this Thursday and Friday. I have the amazing opportunity to work with a Special Olympics athlete at a conference together. If you want to check out where I'll be, you can read more here: http://www.coach.ca/-p159377

For those of you who don't know, I volunteer a lot of my time with special Olympics. If you want to know more, I love speaking about SO anytime! 

Today, we learned about Diwali celebrations. Here is a great link to learn more. http://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/whats-the-story-diwali/

We will also be learning about the day of the dead celebrations. Here is some info about it http://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/day-of-the-dead-and-the-sugar-skull/

On a side note, both these articles came from the CBC kids Facebook page. They have some awesome posts, so if you're on Facebook, they're a great page to follow.