This lesson started out in the library with Mrs. Randall, our librarian, reading a story, Be A Bridge by Irene Latham and Charles Waters.
After a short discussion, students thought about what they could do, today, to be a bridge. They recorded their ideas.
Next, students engaged in a STEM activity in which they needed to use the provided materials to build a bridge that would span the river.
In our classroom we have 4 community agreements:
We have taken a lot of time to establish these rules so that our classroom is a safe and positive place for all to be. Today we completed an art project to “seal the deal”.
We talked a bit about hand shakes and how some people show their agreement to a deal with a handshake. So, we decided to put our hands on our Community Agreement board as a symbol of a handshake.
First students traced their hands. Then they used a variety of lines, shapes, and designs to make their hands unique. We talked about how the designs they used can reflect their personalities and show a variety of feelings. Then, students used markers, water and paintbrushes to paint their hands.
The last step was to reflect on the agreements and think about which ones were the most important. We came to the conclusion that they are all important!
We have established 4 agreements to make our classroom community a safe, positive environment for all!
We engaged in chart writing, drama skits, a tower of scenarios, and role-play as we explored each one and established it’s meaning. Then we moved on to an art project to symbolize our agreement to adhere by these.
First, students traced their hands and outlined with a Sharpie.
Next, they added their names, a heart, and designs to make the hands personal.
Then they used water, brushes, and markers to paint the hands.
The hands are now posted in our classroom to remind us everyday that our classroom is a
We are so fortunate to be able to engage in a learning buddies project this year. We have partnered up with the grade 5 class. Once a week we get together to engage in reading, games, and cooperative play. The grade 5’s have the opportunity to build their leadership skills as they tutor the K’s and the K’s benefit from one-on-one learning. The amount of talk and smiles that we have observed tell us that this is a successful project!
Thank-you so much, grade 5’s for going on this learning adventure with us!
This week we spent a lot of time exploring the concept of diversity and thinking about how we can work and play together to make others feel good. We read the book: The World Made a Rainbow. The students realized that the colours came together to create something that made people smile, even when we couldn’t spend time together.
We then listened to and sang the song, “A Rainbow World” This song was a great way to introduce the idea that we all look different but when we come together we can be something great-just like a rainbow! Here is a video of another group of students performing the song!
Students all made a rainbow to display in our class. They used cutting and gluing skills.
Students used their drawing and writing skills to create a mural about working and playing together.
Then, students explored the concept of diversity further as they played with dolls representing children around the world!
With two more stories we made self-to-text and text-to-text connections, further exploring the idea of celebrating our differences and how we become something amazing when we come together!
It was time to do some writing! Students participated in a sharing circle, “What makes you special?” The students helped me to write some ideas to complete the sentence, “I am special because…” and then they got to work with independent writing.
It all came together with one bulletin board, “Each one of us is UNIQUE, but when we get TOGETHER the picture is COMPLETE!
The students had a lot of fun with this project! We started out brainstorming ideas of what we would need to create a pizza parlor in our classroom. Students came up with ideas for pizza toppings, types of pizza, restaurant names, menus, and jobs. The construction began!
We read a lot of pizza themed books along the way. One of our favourites was, “Every night is Pizza Night!” Not only did it spark discussions about pizza, we talked about a lot of new foods too!
Once the construction was over the play began. Students trained to be chefs, waiters, hosts, and customers. Students learned a lot about manners, questioning, organizing, and drama skills. A lot of fun learning was had by all!
Today we started to read a story about feelings and actions. We got to the page with the big word “Responsible” on it. Students talked about things they do at home to demonstrate responsibility.
“I make my bed.”
“I clean my room.”
“I help my mom.”
“I snuggle with my stuffy.”
“I eat my dinner.”
So I asked the question, “What does responsibility look like at school?”
This is what we came up with:
Students then signed the poster to show that they agree to be responsible in our classroom.
This December we are focusing on Kindness. We began with a blank tree. Students cut out and decorated 14 ornaments to decorate the tree – one for each school day in December. Each morning we turn over another ornament and read the message. Each message inspires us to carry out an act of kindness.
Below is a digital version of our tree that you can enjoy with family at home!
This week we have been reading the story, “One Big Pair of Underwear” written by Laura Gehl and Tom Lichtenheld.
The students enjoyed the humorous pictures and language as they listened to it the first time. The next time we read it they thought about the message in the story. Many students expressed empathy as they realized that some of the characters were being left out and didn’t feel happy. Students made connections to the Zones of Regulation that we talk about everyday in our classroom and decided that some of the characters were in the Blue Zone. Many students felt as Matthew did, “I feel bad about that!”
Students then had the opportunity to be word detectives. They grabbed a clipboard and pencil and hunted around the room for words and pictures from the book and recorded what they found. This provided students with practise writing words and letters and also helped them to retell the story.
Over the past couple of weeks we have been working on a media project involving the concept of kindness. Students first attended a musical presentation by Erroll Lee in which the concept of kindness to others and the environment was the focus.
Then, we explored the concept of a meme. Students used Adobe Spark to use images and words to present a message of kindness. Below are some of the finished projects.
