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

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! 

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. 

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. 

 

Approximately 14,400 seeds! We will be eating these on Monday. 
 

 
 
 

 

I hope everyone had children who were tired and slept well after yesterday's field trip. I know I was exhausted after a day outside! Make sure everyone goes to bed earlier for the rest of the week - I could tell everyone (including myself!) was a little slower and sleepier today. 

We still got lots done today! We picked pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, and did lots of estimations of measurement. 

 
 
 
 

Lynn Canyon Trip

What a fun time today! 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 

Dear parents,

A reminder that we are going on our Lynn Canyon nature walk field trip tomorrow, October 25^th. We will be spending most of the day outside no matter what the weather. It appears rain is in the forecast, so please make sure your child is dressed for the weather (gum boots, rain jacket, rain pants, gloves, toque). Umbrellas are not an appropriate option for this field trip. Also, please make sure that lunch is easy to eat on the go.

If your child is having photo re takes done, please send an extra change of clothes. The will have a chance to change when we get back to school. We will do our best to fix their hair before they have their pictures taken.

          Thanks,

                   Mme Jessica

Thank you to everyone who came to the conferences last week. I love sitting down with the kids and seeing what they really want to work on this year. There are lots of plans in place and I will be putting together any packages that we decided to use this week and next. 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our field trip to Lynn Canyon. We are going rain or shine and it is unfortunately supposed to rain. We will be outside all day so please have your child dress in dumb boots and rain jackets. For this field trip, umbrellas would not be appropriate. We need to have hands-free as we will be doing lots of fun activities!

The kids won all of the pieces to their puzzle for hard work, good listening, and treating others respectfully. In brief, they have been following our class contract very well!

Tomorrow, Friday October 14th, we will have a pajama or costume and stuffy day, and will watch a movie in the afternoon (with the option to do other activities if they don't want to watch).