The first few months of school have seemed like a blur to be completely honest. I’m not sure how it’s almost winter break. Come to think of it, the last few years have actually been a blur with teaching though a pandemic. Coming to school each day and getting to spend my day with your children always makes my smile.
The 50th day of school was celebrated with a 50s themed day. Students were welcome to come dressed in 50s inspired clothing. The day was spent doing 50s day math activities, playing twister, hula hooping, bowling, enjoying root beer floats, and even making real Mr. Potatoheads!
Each student’s family was given a little homework. Pick a family tradition that your family has and write it down together. Each student shared their tradition with the class. Some traditions included pizza Fridays, the moon festival, Diwali, movie nights, cottage summers, Christmas waffles, and much more. The kids really enjoyed sharing with each other. Hanukkah was celebrated at the end of November and our class learned about that holiday and some of the traditions associated with it. We played a math dreidel game and built our own lego dreidels that spin.
This month the Super Kids have been exploring through a gingerbread inquiry unit. This unit has been focussed on the different versions of the classic tale of the gingerbread man running away from its bakers and getting eaten by a fox. Who knew there were so many different versions! We compared and contrasted the versions and created a grid on our classroom wall showing our understanding. Each version had a different setting, different characters, and some gingerbread people got away.
We explored our senses with some gingerbread inspired centers. Students rotated through centers where they had to use their senses to determine what the item was. All items were linking to the holidays. Examples were sprinkles, marshmallows, and peppermint.
The Super Kids tried a new skill…sewing. Thanks to one Super Kid’s mom, who provided us with the materials, we were able to sew our own gingerbread stuffy for our holiday tree. It took a lot of patience, but the kids were so proud of themselves and couldn’t wait to take their creations home to share with their family.
Next we created our own pastel gingerbread art projects to create “Gingerbread Lane”.
All this gingerbread learning led to a baking day complete with chef hats! We spent the day baking gingerbread cookies and building graham cracker houses. It was a day full of learning, We became “food scientists”. Taking different ingredients and putting them together to make something delicious is science and math. The class measured and did some quick calculations when the recipe called for a measurement spoon that I didn’t have. We had to use another tool and double it.
Our class has created several art projects this month and a few are in a special bag under many of their trees for their families on Christmas. I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but one part of the gift involved our hands and feet! One project I can mention is our reindeer art. This direct drawing lesson was a big hit. We first practiced on our whiteboards to make sure we got the steps before working on our water colour paper.
These past few days before winter break has had us busy with some exciting STEM challenges. Students were challenged to create both a boat that could take the gingerbread man across the river with recyclable materials and a bridge to get him across. Some of their designs had to be modified, but through some quick thinking everyone was able to complete the challenges. 🙂
Today we created some jingle bell mazes and challenged our friends to complete our tricky games.
I want to wish all of my Super Kids and their families a very happy holiday. Enjoy the time together and I look forward to seeing you in the new year. Take care.
Mrs. Didyk