February & March

Our class has been busy working hard during learning times and with their gross motor activities. We have completed our unit on measurement and have dived into number and shape, where each week we explore a number through songs, games and shapes. Our literacy activities have moved into a focus on books, including looking at the title, author, illustrator, setting and characters of a story. This term we will also be working with Thea's class to study the book "We Are One" by Jackie Azúa Kramer. Each week we will be exploring a different culture or country that is represented within our classrooms through art, cooking, music or dance. 

During our family literacy day, we were fortunate to have some of our class parents, and students from Strathcona Tweedsmuir School join our class as we explored the book "Snowmen at Night" by Caralyn Buehner. We read the story using sensory items, such as snow, iced cocoa, snowballs and hats, and then completed our own writing and art activity. Thank you to our parents and volunteers for your support, it was so fun having you in class with us. 

November, December & January

Wow! What a busy start to the year it was. Our students are enjoying their outdoor sit spots and are able to stay quiet for up two minutes to listen, feel and look for what is happening in the environment around them. As it turns colder, we will look to find indoor sit spots so that students can still observe the changes happening outside.

We also took a deep dive into the book The Grand Hotel of Feelings and examined our emotions in relation to the Zones of Regulation. Students were able to identify things that put them in each of the zones or made them feel certain emotions. We discussed the value in sitting with all of our emotions and then ways to come back to the green zone where we are happy, calm and ready to learn. 

As we move into our winter months, our learning will focus on rhyming for literacy and measurements for math. As well as the changing environments and the Canadian landscapes that we are fortunate enough to call home for science.

September & October

We are so excited to be back in the building after a long and hot summer! This year we welcomed Mutasm, Maliha, Richard, Ethan, Winter, Eliina, Rose and Izzy to our class, as well as Jane, Dina, Janey and Mary as our EA staff. For the first few months, our learning will focus on our classroom community, our emotions and beginning to connect with the land that our school sits on. This year our class will be participating in sit spots to watch the natural world unfold. To do so, each student will have a designated space around the school that they will go to each week to quietly observe and reflect on the plants and animals around them. We are doing this to build relationships with the land, as well as for staff and students to build relationships together. This aligns with the Physical Education and Wellness curriculum outcome of examining healthy relationships in learning and playing environments.