Week #3 is complete! I can’t believe how well everyone is settling into routines and helping one another. As I observe them during shared activities and independent work, I am amazed at their level of skill, understanding and perseverance. It is a testament to the foundation that has been laid before. I just wanted to say thank you to all you do to support your children with their learning journey.
I am amazed on a daily basis with their writing and math skills. They are remembering to use the letter sounds and are learning some “heart” words (we need to learn them by heart) to help them create beautiful sentences. We wrote about our favourite foods and what we would put in our soup.
We broke bread together this week as we shared stone soup and fresh buns. Many thanks to you all for your food contributions! We had such a variety, I can’t even remember them all. We threw pretty much everything into the pot with the three round smooth stones and waited in anticipation of our first bite. The timing was a little behind what I had planned, but it worked out perfectly as they were able to enjoy some soup after coming in from their chilly recess break. There’s nothing better than warm soup to warm us up. Many thanks to our parent volunteer, Nancy, who washed, cut, chopped and pretty much made the magic happen. We appreciate you!!
Listen to the story! Stone Soup
YUM!
YUMMY, YUM YUM!
Before cooking the soup, we tasted many of the veggies that we brought in. I was so proud of their adventurous spirits. We graphed our results. Ask your child about the new foods they tasted and about the foods you did or didn’t like as a child. You may be assured that if you put onions in your soup, they will eat it. We learned that onions make the soup sweet, even though they are a bit spicy to eat raw. We also learned that some veggies, like turnips, may taste sweeter before they are cooked.
Wow! What wonderful patterns everyone made in math.
We used loose parts as well and the students took their own pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't get them uploaded from the other phone, so I'll have to share them next week.
A couple of trips to Green Park this week allowed us to enjoy the fresh air and look for fall changes. We learned a new game called “Capture the Creature” and we collected leaves for leaf rubbings. So much fun!! Next week we will learn a new technique for leaf rubbings and maybe try some leaf creations.
Another highlight of our week was hoop dancing with Elder Shirley. She is such a kind and sweet soul. She shared some of her indigenous culture, artifacts and teachings with us and spoke in a way that our littles could understand. Each session ended in movement and dancing. What a blessing it was! Ask about the sweet smell of the smudge. Ask your child about “Lemon” and the moss bag. Ask about the blankets and the stuffies. Ask about the jingle dress and the beautiful beaded jewelry. We left the gym each day with joy in our hearts.
It was so nice to see so many of you at the Open House/BBQ and for conferences as well. I hope you found joy in sharing our classroom with your children. I know they were excited to share our space with you.
Please do let me know if you would ever like to pop in to join us in our learning. We are open to having you come in if you have your CBE police clearance approved. We will be planning field trips soon, so don't put off applying for your clearance if you haven't yet.
We have lots to look forward to this coming week.
Tuesday – Picture Day
Thursday – Orange Shirt Day (Shirley told us that in lieu of an orange shirt, it's perfectly okay to wear their favourite shirt to empathize with Phyllis, whose shirt was taken from her)
Thursday - Pizza Day
Friday – Truth and Reconciliation (day in lieu of Sept. 30) – no school
