How can it be the first week of October already???? September has flown by and the Super Kids are into the swing of things. We have been busy learning routines and have even welcomed two new students this past week.
The Super Kids have been busy learning about how scientists use their senses to help them observe and study the world around them. We used our sense of sight and a magnifying glass to observe our school community close up. We used our school’s outdoor classroom to share our findings. Did you know that our school has a fossil wall? Looking at it up close with magnifying glasses was a huge hit!
“I Spy” centers had the Super Kids exploring their sense of sight. They did this by playing the game spot it, using magnifying glasses to look for hidden letters, sketching their eyes using a mirror , and searching I Spy books.
Have you heard of International Dot Day? It’s a day that many classrooms around the world celebrate in September inspired by the children’s book, “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. It’s a story about how a girl didn’t think she was an artist and how she get unstuck, tries, and even inspires others. It’s about sharing your mark on the world.
To celebrate making our mark on the world we had a dot day! The class came into the room with dots on the floor. We started the day with an epic game of rock, paper, scissors. The class was divided into two teams, they had to hop on the dots, and try to win the battle. If they did then they took their opponent to their line. It was a great way to start our dot filled day.
rock, paper, scissors battle clip
Activities included:
Dot math (domino adding)
Connect 4
10 frame math games
Button sorting
Ipad dot animation
Kandinsky inspired pastel dots
Calder inspired dot sculptures
Wassily Kandinsky and Alexander Calder were artists that used circles and dots to create their masterpieces. We looked at them closely to find the different circles and colours.
Kandinsky
Calder
The day was filled with fun, laughter, and lots of learning. 🙂
As you know, our federal election took place in September. Explaining elections to 5 and 6 year olds can be a bit challenging. I tackled it by greeting the kids at the door with an election sign in sheet. Each student had to print their name to register to vote. Then they had to watch commercials for chocolate chip and Oreo cookies. These commercials were trying to sway their vote just like political ads do on tv. Then they each took their turn behind the voting booth to fill in their ballot just like their adults were doing that same day for the government election. We invited the other adults that work with us to come by our classroom and vote in our election while the polls were open. The library staff, Mr. Brain, Mrs. Styles, Mr Poirier, and Mrs. Vankoughnett came to vote with us. The votes were tallied and Oreo won by 3 votes!!
Buddy reading, independent reading, guided reading, and home reading have all started in the Super Kid’s classroom. Word cards have been sent home with sight words on them. These words are the most common words that are found in our beginner books. One students yelled out yesterday, “Mrs. Didyk I can read this book! I’m a reader!” 🙂 Practicing daily at home helps with your child’s confidence and reading development. Thank you for your home support.
Truth and Reconciliation Day took place on September 30th and was deemed a day that schools would close by our provincial government at the beginning of September. Many school observed the day on September 29th. That day was already scheduled as our school’s picture day a long time before the announcement of Sept. 30th being a no school day. Our school observed the day on October 1st. The class had rich discussions on honouring what makes us unique and celebrating those differences. We wrote about how people should treat each other and how we can learn from mistakes of the past so they don’t happen again. We talked about how I didn’t learn about this part of Canada’s history in school and how it is important that they do. We also talked about how rocks have a special meaning to the original peoples of Canada. The Indigenous people consider them to be living things that have lived a long life full of stories. We painted our special rocks orange and wrote special words on them before we placed them, one by one, in our reconciliation garden in front of our school.
I look forward to all the adventures awaiting us in October. Take care. 🙂
