Give Thanks

Leading up to Thanksgiving, we're spending some time this week on the theme of gratitude. We began today with The Thankful Book by Todd Parr. The kids loved this book! It's both silly and sweet. Everyone shared thoughts on what they were thankful for. Then, everyone represented their idea with a drawing in their journal. They practiced writing the date and the word "Thanks", as well. Then they dictated a sentence to myself or the EA. We also reviewed our Fall Leaves poem to discuss some colour words and the colours of leaves in fall. Each student coloured a leaf, told me something else they were thankful for, and I wrote the words for them. The leaves will complete our fall bulletin board. :)

I was so impressed on how well they worked in their journals today. It was only their second time this year!

Here is an example of a student journal entry.
 

We also reviewed last week's lesson on the importance of raising your hand and waiting your turn to speak. We will keep on working towards defeating Blurt Out Blue! The Speech and Language Pathologist had also introduced the idea of whole body listening, so I found a poster online to share with the students so that they have a visual to remember what whole body listening is all about!

 

In math, we worked on creating and representing snap cube patterns. It was Week 4 of our Pumpkin Observation today, too! They are finally starting to turn orange. We also learnt some new songs from Action Songs Kids Love, read Pinkilicious, practiced making letters out of play-doh, tried to find multiple ways to send and receive scarves during Phys.Ed, rescued TWO spiders (I do not know where all of the spiders come from! It seems like we are returning spiders back to nature every day!), worked on some turkey colouring sheets, and there was even a short lived wedding ceremony during our free choice centers! I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of the bride and her reluctant groom. Overall, it was a great start to a productive, fun week! I'm looking forward to what Wednesday and Friday have in store.