September 8-11

Another Great Week of Learning in Room 10! 

It has been another great week in Room 10! We have been busy learning, creating, sharing, and getting to know one another. Our classroom has been filled with stories, conversations, hands-on learning, and opportunities to build our independence and sense of community.

Language Arts – Words, Sentences and Stories

This week, we have been working on developing our reading and writing skills through a variety of meaningful activities.

Our

Grade 1 students have been practising printing their letters and words legibly using our sky, grass and dirt handwriting language. We have also been listening carefully to words to identify their initial and final sounds. We used these sounds to help us build, write, and label words.

Our Grade 2 students have been taking their writing one step further by working on adding more detail to their sentences. We have been thinking about how we can make our writing more interesting by adding information that helps our readers understand our ideas. We also reviewed the importance of capital letters, punctuation, and spaces between words.

Our Grade 1 students were introduced to some of these punctuation conventions as well. We are learning that writers use punctuation to help their readers understand their ideas.

Social Studies – Learning About Ourselves and Others

As we continue getting to know our classmates, we have been learning more about the things we each enjoy.

Students wrote about their likes and interests and then looked at what they had in common with their classmates. This gave us an opportunity to discover that although we are all unique, we can also share many interests and experiences.

This connects beautifully with our Social Studies learning as we explore identity, belonging, relationships, and our classroom community. We are beginning to recognize and appreciate both the similarities and differences that make our classroom a special place. We have also enjoyed reading many different stories about what brings us joy. These stories have provided opportunities for us to talk, share ideas, make connections, and think about the things that make each of us happy.

Next week, we will continue exploring the idea of identity by taking a closer look at our names. Our names are an important part of who we are and can tell us something about our identity and our connections to our families and communities. Students will have opportunities to explore their own names, share what their names mean to them, and learn more about the names of their classmates. We will use this as another way to celebrate the uniqueness of each member of our classroom community.

Explore: My Name

We invite families to take a little time together to explore the story behind your child's name. There is no expectation that every question needs to be answered. Rather, we encourage families to choose the questions that are meaningful to them and have a conversation about what makes their name special.

You might wonder:

• What are you wondering about your name?

• What is the story of your name?

• Who named you?

• Were you named after someone?

• What culture or language is your name from?

• What is special about your name?

• How does your name connect to your identity?

We look forward to hearing the stories and learning that make each student's name unique and meaningful. 

Mathematics – Collecting and Representing Data

Our mathematicians have been busy collecting data about our classmates!

We learned how to use tally marks to organize information and then used our collected data to create and interpret bar graphs. We asked questions, gathered information, compared quantities, and looked for patterns in our data.

One interesting discovery was that December has the most birthdays in our classroom! 

We are learning that mathematics can help us organize information and make sense of the world around us.

Buddy Time

We met with our buddies again this Friday and had a wonderful time learning together.

This week, we had the opportunity to teach our buddies the game “Before and After.” Students enjoyed taking on the role of the teacher and explaining the game to their older buddies. We also spent time reading stories together, sharing books and enjoying time with our buddy community.

These experiences provide wonderful opportunities to practise communication, cooperation, leadership, and kindness.

Dot Day – Art Inspired by Kandinsky

We are also getting ready to celebrate International Dot Day on September 15!

To begin our celebration, Room 10 joined Room 9 to learn about the artist Wassily Kandinsky and explore how he used circles, lines, shapes, colour, and pattern in his artwork.

Inspired by Kandinsky's work, we created our own unique dots! Each student had the opportunity to experiment with shapes, patterns, and design while creating something that was uniquely their own.

Our artwork will be displayed for everyone to enjoy, so be sure to take a look when you come to our Open House on Thursday, September 17. We can't wait for you to see our creations!

Montessori Learning in Our Classroom

Throughout all of these activities, students have been developing their ability to work independently, make choices, collaborate with others, care for our classroom environment, and contribute to our community.

We are continuing to practise being kind, respectful, responsible Montessori learners who care for ourselves, others, and our place.

It has been another great week of learning, friendship, creativity, and joy in Room 10. We are looking forward to all that the coming weeks will bring! 

Have a wonderful weekend!