Inspired Learners

Happy Tuesday :) We had our first day that actually felt- and looked- like Spring! Yay!

Our day began with free choice time, as usual. There was a lot of storytelling through Barbies, some exploration of weigh scales, and a couple of marble runs were set up. The real action began when I pulled out a toy cash register and fake money! Hopefully this will encourage some more focused dramatic play, which will also include some literacy and math skills. Already today, one of the first things that I heard was "First, we need to sort the money." Awesome! I have some menus and food order forms to introduce Thursday, so we'll see where that takes their creative minds.

 

In Science, we exploring floating and sinking. First, we did some experiments and then student's recorded some of their observations. Some student's remembered that we conducted a sink/float experiment with our pumpkins way back in October!

 

Sorting objects: Which float? Which sink?

 

For math, we read a non-fiction book called Math in the Store. We reviewed our previous activity about measuring weight. Then, students worked on a heavier vs lighter activity to show what they know about weight.

 

 

In the afternoon, we worked on our "This is me in April" drawings. Students looked at their past "This is me..." pictures, chose their favourite, and thought of a way that they could improve their work. After they finished, I had them do an assessment about letters, numbers, words, and shapes that they did the 2nd say of school. It is very rewarding to see the progress that they've made throughout the year so far!

 

We were invited to watch some skits on bullying by the Grade 8 and 9 students. Upon returning to our class, we had a discussion about bullying. I was going to read a picture book on bullying, but the class was so inspired by the older students, they wanted to come up with their own plays about bullying! They assigned characters, organized themselves, practiced, and then acted out their story. It was great!

 

Those are the main highlights from our day. Parent teacher interviews are after school the next two days and Thursday is our last day of classes before a week break! I am looking forward to some fun pre-Easter activities on Thursday. Chester won't be at school, though- he's off to Hawaii with our EA! We wish them safe travels. :)