Dear Parents,

I'm putting the final marks on report cards and this round is particularly tough. It's hard to move from a descriptive perspective in Kindergarten, where I'm describing what students can do, to a more evaluative stance in Grade 1, looking at their successes against a fixed bar.

There are C's and D's going home for some students, because the effort and engagement are honestly there, but sometimes the skills aren't quite yet.

I feel like I've prepared families for those grades with the feedback on progress reports, but I do look forward to touching base about what next steps might be--because it is early days yet in their school careers.

That being said, this week we're focusing on:

Health--Students are learning some of the less intuitive parts of the food groups, like how nuts, beans, and potatoes fit into the Canadian Food Guide. We're also learning about how to look at nutrition labels. I've sent home a scavenger hunt homework assignment due next Monday and we'll be continuing to discuss in class.

Math--Looking at shapes and symmetry and identifying shapes. We played a musical game today with shape names.

Language--Still working in our 4 reading groups. Students continue to make solid progress in their reading. Skittles performed The 3 Bears for us yesterday and many students helped us read a new book called "I am NOT a Dinosaur" about some of the different creatures that also lived millions of years ago. My favourite part is the timeline in the back.

Social Studies-- We started off the week talking about many students' experiences at the Women's March on the weekend, and particularly now, I think it's important to create an activists stance and talk as directly as possible to government. We'll be sending our letters to Trudeau's office by early next week and hoping to get a response.

That said, there's a lot of variation in writing speed and proficiency amongst the class. I'm working to ensure that everyone is successful.

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

Hugs and Persuasion

Dear Parents,

It feels like forever since I've posted, but that's what a good break will do. Hopefully, you feel just as fresh and ready for new challenges.

This week in class, we've been finishing up our Measurement Unit from before the break and beginning the new Geometry unit that will take us up to report card time.

Today's measurement test was a little stressful for students. Even though we'd practiced the vocabulary this morning and I'd told them what was on the test, a new context (and probably the afternoon time slot it fell into) was challenging. No matter, we'll come at it fresh again tomorrow.

Yesterday by contrast, was one of those days in the classroom you dream about. I felt like students were excited and engaged by the partner work we did in math and hearing all the names of those never heard polygons, the nonagon, the decagon, etc. inspired a few to create the Hug-a-gon. It's the shape you create when the entire class joins in a group hug. Too cute?

We also are bridging up to writing some letters about some issues, so we're really working on means of persuasion. On the way to their Dental Screening yesterday, I had them brainstorm some ways they could convince me to brush my teeth.

A: They'll all fall out! It's good for you to brush your teeth!
B: Everyone has to brush their teeth twice a day!
C: Don't you want to do what you're supposed to do?
D: People won't want to get close to you if your breath is stinky.
E: If you brush your teeth, then I'll brush my teeth with you!
F: I have a toothbrush that sings and tells me when I do a really good job brushing my teeth. Maybe you should get one too.
G:Do it or else I'll be mad!
H: Please, just brush your teeth.

At the end of this highly hypothetical scenario, I was totally convinced.

We talked a lot about how #7 is not the best strategy, but that and #1 seem to be their go-tos. (Also begging, which never works).

Today, I made them use this list to convince me when some of them wanted to stay in for recess this afternoon. Hopefully, they'll continue to use their newfound powers for good.

I've also started a new read aloud book called "The Best Mistake Mystery" by Sylvia McNicoll, which is about a boy who solves mysteries by making mistakes and walking dogs.  The author is local, from Burlington.

Happily, the cover artist is also local. So local that she's made a map of our neighbourhood. (I used this map on the test as a point of reference ---you can find the artist Tania Howells' site here, with a variety of other interesting maps.)

I'm also doing an art activity based on map making. Here's my partially finished example:












And here's the online tutorial I based it off of:

Kathy Angelnik's Neighborhood Art Project

About 2/3's of the class did their stamping in small groups while the class was doing the test, so more on that to come.

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan