Dear Parents,
Some service announcements:
1. I've sent home checklists based on Environmental and Animal Rights activism, which are two areas students indicated they were interested in following up on. Some of the items are probably controversial, but they're based on my conversations with activists in those arenas and our class discussions. Your checkmarks and conversation will facilitate ours, so please do return for Thursday, if at all possible.
2. We are really excited about the upcoming book fair, hosted by Another Story bookstore. I personally love this bookstore because they have high quality books and look for a range of perspectives and voices. This will run on Monday from 2:30 - 6:00 pm and Tuesday from 2:30-6:00 pm and after the Grade 2-6 concert from 7:00 to 8:00 pm.
3. Another issue students cared deeply about was Poverty and Homelessness. Coincidentally, we are asking the community to help us decorate a Giving Tree, with socks, mittens and/or gloves for those less fortunate.
4. The deadline for school letters to Santa is ...tomorrow, so I fear that this will not be happening as a school based activity. However, if you're interested, Santa takes letters from individual families up until December 14th. All the information you need to get started is right here.
On an academic note, I reconnected with one of my favourite teacher resources today (Project Wild is a great conservation focused education program if you're a teacher looking for ideas). We had a nice think/pair/share discussion of several dilemmas. Sample topics today: How to approach a family who litters in the picnic area, What to do with a baby deer you find stranded in the woods, and What to do about the bald eagle next where you want to build a house. It's great to see the little minds solving problems and beginning to think more deeply about their relationship with nature. I'm leading them towards a more complicated role-playing scenario in the next few weeks.
I also sent home a graph based on November's weather. Most students said they wanted to see more snow this month. I'm not sure I agree. I also scaled back on how much framing I did: some students did well, but others had difficulty using the scale or titles effectively. It's a work in progress.
Sincerely,
Ms. Goegan
