September seemed to fly by! The Super Kids have been busy getting used to their new classroom, new routines and making new friends. Establishing our classroom community has been my top priority. We read “Our Class Is A Family” by Shannon Olsen to help with this process.
After reading the book we created our own classroom family promise. We decided that our classroom needs to be a safe place where we can try our best, where it’s ok to make mistakes, and we all support each other to achieve our “yet”. What does that mean. Well, we all have a “yet”. Something we are working on learning. Something we can’t do independently yet, but we will in time. Everyone’s “yet” is different, but we are here to help our friends grow and cheer them on. We create our own classroom family poster with our promises and we all signed it.
We promised to:
- Include others
- Treat each other kindly
- Support each other
- Learn from our mistakes
- Be bucket fillers
What is a bucket filler? Just ask a Super Kids! A bucket filler is a person who does kind things for others and helps other feel good. In turn, it helps them feel good too. Check out the book I read to the class explaining bucket filling to the class.
Establishing how our classroom community, our expectations for each other, and the language we were going to use to express our feelings, was so important. This has really helped with recess and peer conflicts that naturally happen in primary grades.
The Super Kids have jumped into the routine of reader’s and math workshop. Both workshops are rotations where students rotate to different activities related to literacy during reader’s workshop, or numeracy during math workshop. The system is the same, but the activities are different. During this time, groups work with me in small groups.
Dot Day was earlier in the month and the class was excited to do dot themed activities. “The Dot” is a book by Peter H. Reynold that inspires kids to make their mark. The Super Kids had a blast exploring different dot themed activities and creating a dot collaborative art project with the other classes in our wing of the school. Twister, Connect 4, the light table, dot day interactive art, and domino math are just a few of our activities.
Part of our “All About Me” inquiry is to learn about our bodies. Our five senses help us understand the world we live in. Scientists use many tools to help them understand the world around them too. We used magnifying glasses to help our sense of sight explore our school’s surroundings including the fossils in the stones that our school is built out of!
After learning about the parts of the eye and how the eye sends messages to our brain, we create our own models of an eyes out of plasticine. As a Super Kids what the parts of an eye are and what their functions are.
Have you heard that Mr. Tiger has gone wild? This is a charming book about being yourself and it’s ok to be different then others. After reading it, the Super Kids created their own Mr. Tigers using a variety of art media. This art project involved a directed drawing lesson, using pastels, watercolour painting, and collage. It tooks us a few days, but the kids are so proud of their Mr. Tiger’s! We hung them up on our bulletin board and on our door. 🙂
Yesterday our classroom and school recognized Truth and Reconciliation day. Since we don’t have school on Sept. 30th, which is the actual day, we had our discussion on the 29th. Students were welcome to wear an orange shirt to school. Our classroom discussed what the day is and how it’s important to recognize the day. Mme. Meg, our teacher librarian, read a story to us through Teams. She read to many classrooms in our school at the same time. The story helped us understand the meaning behind the day. Thank you Mme. Meg. We also painted rocks orange and wrote words on them in recognition of the day. The kids came up with kindness, remember, caring, promise to remember, you matter, etc. We headed outside to the front of our school where we circled the reconciliation garden that was build a few years ago and each took turns placing our rocks inside.
It’s hard to believe that October starts tomorrow! For those of you that have children in my class, look for a new classroom newsletter and calendar in your child’s home reading bag on Monday. Take care and enjoy your weekend. 🙂
