Sunday, December 10, 2017

Taiko Drumming, Science, Writing, Snow Clothes, Kindness, Solstice Celebration...

I hope you all have had a great past couple of weeks, everyone! There's a lot here, folks, so please bear with me.


First off, have you seen a more psyched group of castle builders? These friends worked during the better part of their free time over the past few days to build this latest creation. We've been talking a lot about kindness and what it looks/sounds/feels like. The kids had an interesting take on the difference between kindness. They said:

"Being nice is when someone needs help and they ask for it and you help them. Kindness is when you notice someone needs help and you help them without them asking."

It was profound in its simplicity and its directness. They have been watching videos regarding the topic of kindness and the idea of sending out kindness boomerangs: When you put out kindness, it helps other people be kind too. Sometimes the kindness comes back to you quickly, other times when you least expect it or most need it. There's no telling. What is true, however, is that being kind makes the world a better place. That fact never changes. We will be doing a kindness mailbox system this week and we will be making sure all children get a piece of mail. We'll be doing some name-drawing in our class to ensure that it happens.

In science, we have been continuing our exploration of the senses and have wrapped them all up except for touch, which we will be looking at this week. The kids especially liked our exploration of taste, as I used some sweet water, salty water, plain water and apple cider vinegar. The kids blind taste tested them all and had to determine if they were sweet, salty, plain or sour. We didn't do bitter on this trial. Some are more straight forward than others. I challenge you all to try it out yourself. We will be moving into our study of states of matter (solid, liquid, gas)  next. We had another great visit by our 4 Winds friends and did a great lesson on predators and prey. We've been referencing the lesson as we've been talking about our senses (how did predators and prey use their senses to help them?). It has been a great connection to keep drawing from.

In writing we have finished our "Show What You Know" writing pieces. The kids were asked to write a shorter version of their personal narrative stories without the help of a teacher. They were able to use all of the same graphic organizers as well as their work books to help them. We will be using the writing rubrics from my writing page on the blog to score them. I'll send home a copy when we are all finished. Should you be interested in finding out more about your child's work, please let me know when they come home. I'll say it again, but it is important to remember that these writing pieces are a one-day snapshot of their learning. It is important to recognize it as such. On a more regular basis, their daily literacy writing is a much more accurate guide to how their writing is progressing independently, and one I reference much more regularly when thinking about their progress.

Jen Campbell, our amazing Art teacher (among many other jobs!) here at school has once again scheduled an amazing Artist in Residence. We are lucky to have Stuart Paton, founder of the Burlington Taiko drummers, here to teach us about the culture of Taiko drumming as well as some sweet drumming moves. The culminating performance will be Friday, December 22nd, at 2:00 in the gym. Check out more information at: http://www.burlingtontaiko.org/index.php

Working from that, we will be having our solstice celebration that Friday before our performance. We will be celebrating from 1:00-2:00. We do a candle lighting ceremony where the kids make some wishes for the coming year. We'll have some small snacks afterwards as well as some time to get some excitement out before we go to the gym for our performance. Therefore, we will not be sugar loading beforehand, so please refrain from sending in sugar snacks should you be asked/volunteer to bring something in.

PLEASE TAKE NOTE: We will be starting our  new winter clothes guidelines starting on Monday. There was a note in the school newsletter but I want to make sure you all see it here. The kids need to have a dry pair of indoor shoes, boots, snow pants, jackets, gloves/mittens and hats every day. We are trying to make sure kids are prepared to be in the weather every day. This time of year can be tricky to dress for and we want to make sure the kids all have what they need. If there is any article that a student forgets, we will have a small collection of clothes in the room to borrow from. That said, there aren't enough pieces of clothing for everyone.

Phew... I think that's it. If I missed anything, I apologize. This time of the year is busy, busy.

I hope you all enjoyed the snow over the weekend. I am looking forward to lots more!

Best,

Ben