Well…some how we’ve made it to the end of the school year. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this has been the most challenging year in my 21 years of teaching! My class of kids were wonderful! Teaching through a pandemic with restrictions, constant changes to who I was actually teaching, and just trying to make the experience feel as safe and warm as I could for my students was a lot to say the least. Knowing that I was responsible for these children’s health along with their development as a learner, was a huge challenge. Having such a supportive cohort of teachers and administration really helped. We were in this together.
Every kid that I had the pleasure to teach this year, has a special place in my heart.
The Super Kids
Students who went to learning from home school
Students that came back from learning from home school
The new kids that joined me in May during code red aka “The New Crew”
We have had to pivot a lot this year, but these amazing kids have taken in all in stride. Their ability to adapt to wearing masks, social distancing, losing friends to remote learning in a day, making new friends, adjusting to a new remote teacher…the list could just go on and on. I’m so impressed with them and I tell them all every chance I get!
This past Wednesday I got to see ALL my Super Kids together again. My remote kids and my in person kids met for a year end celebration through TEAMS. We waved, cheered, drum rolled our accomplishments, and just laughed together. I had tears in my eyes when I turned around and my in person kids did too. They just missed their friends, but were so happy to see them again all together!
Thank you parents for entrusting me with your children. As a parent myself I understand the stressful situation this year has been for parents. Thank you for your support at home through this year. I get to go to work each day and watch kids discover that they can take a risk, try new things, make mistakes, create friendships, and develop their love of learning. What could possibly be a better way to spend my day?
Over the past few weeks the critical worker students aka “The New Crew” have continued to dive into learning experiences and further develop their new friendships. We continued our Eric Carle author study and even tried his technique of painting tissue paper to create our own very hungry caterpillar mural with Mrs. Rempel’s class.
Have you heard of Jackson Pollock? He was an artist who created modern art.
The class loved learning about how he used house paint to create his art. I shared some pictures of his artwork from my visit to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. We even watched a video explaining his techniques before trying to make our own.
We gave our finished projects to our dads for Father’s Day along with some homemade BBQ rub. We mixed a bunch of spices in the hall and we had many teachers commenting on how good it made our school smell. 🙂
The class became entomologists by learning about insects and how they are similar and different. Each student picked an insect to research and with the help of the Pebble Go website created their own research project and poster.
Thank you to the Saper family for donating painted lady caterpillars to our classroom! We were so excited to watch their life cycle and watch 5 butterflies hatch right before our eyes! We released them at our outdoor classroom, but we first closed our eyes and made a butterfly wish before each one. The kids spontaneously clapped. Mrs. Rempel’s class joined us for this special event.
Learning about butterflies and other insects naturally lead to several art experiences where we used different art media to show symmetry and our understanding.
Last Friday we “Unlocked Summer”in our escape room challenge! The class completed a series of challenges throughout the day to get to the end of our game board. Challenges included a flip flop math challenge, the beach ball challenge using a balloon, the sand castle challenge using an art hub video to follow to make their own art piece, the popsicle making words challenge, the palm tree math challenge, the pool noodle STEM challenge, and the sunshine challenge that had the class signing each other’s sand pails. Detours gave us summer themed movement breaks. The day was so much fun and the class asked to start it all over again when we finished! 🙂
This past Monday our 1/2 cohort teachers that were remote teachers throughout code red, organized a fun field day for the CWS students. Activities included Canada Day activities, outdoor fun, outdoor story time, a workout class, and a paper plane challenge. The class had a BLAST!
I want to wish all of my students and their families all the best as they move into their next school year. I”m so glad that I could be a small part of your child’s life. Thank you again for your support. Take care and have a wonderful summer!
