Weeks Twenty-Eight and Twenty-Nine: Growing Minds and Growing Bodies


Posted by Savannah Barker on May 08, 2019 at 2:43 PM

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It is hard to believe that we are approaching our final month of school for the 2018-2019 school year. The Early Learners have grown so much, in many different ways, since they set foot in the classroom in September. They have become more confident readers and writers, creative thinkers, empathetic friends, and more. In addition, there are more birthdays in spring between the Early Learners and Grade 1-2 students than all of the other seasons combined! It has been an exciting time of celebrating, connecting, dreaming, and most importantly playing together. Enjoy the photos from the past two weeks.

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A and O try to figure out how to make the microscope work (to the point that something is visible through the lens). They choose a mix of items to test on the tray, and find that they are most successful when the items are brightly coloured.

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A shares her ideas for a living window in the Linden library with her classmates. They practice giving supportive and specific feedback to A before she spends some more time on her design.

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O is showing us which number "won" the math game Roll and Add. This is a great game for students to practice both dice-reading and addition. Each student rolls two dice and adds up their amounts to find the sum. They place a counting chip above that number and the first number with chips to the top wins.

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Today is A's birthday and she is FIVE! Despite the excitement of one's birthday, A finds some time to relax and play calmly at Drama.

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A, the firefighter, is making an important call to the community and shoos me away. I guess I was distracting her from the call.

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O checks out the classroom sprouts this morning. We can't believe how much bigger the zucchini sprout is than the beet sprout.

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O adds some final touches to her artwork of the sun, the moon, and the stars. 

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At Math this morning, N designs some subway trains and uses them to transport the kids to the school. She explains that a lot of the kids are already in class, and excited to have their classmates join them.

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A shares a special birthday treat with the Early Learners and Grade 1-2s during morning snack time. We also got to read a portion of one of A's favourite books from home, which is the birthday tradition in our class.

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O and N play together with their toys from home during morning recess. 

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G (in grade 8) is leading our Yearbook All-School today and helping the girls paint watercolour backgrounds for their class page in the yearbook.

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A and G (grade 1) have a picnic snack break during their trip to the park with Phys. Ed.. What a beautiful afternoon to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine, playing with friends, and risk-taking on the playground.

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A is spending her morning centre time at the Art and Light centre, and she is determined to make N a birthday gift. First, she draws out her plan and then she picks out the materials to start creating.

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We are having a big discussion this morning about cities, provinces, and countries, as well as mayors, premiers, and prime ministers. The girls pulled out the world map and started looking for flags that were familiar to them. 

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N and A are playing Connect Four together, which is another math game that focuses on addition practice and strategies. Each girl is trying to get four in a row after rolling two dice each turn to make a sum.

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A has chosen "work on writing" time to start her literacy centres. Last class she drew the picture and now she is adding in the words for the story. 

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A has chosen "listen to reading" time during literacy centres. We are starting to use a new app on the class tablet, Epic Books, which allows the students to choose an audiobook to listen to on their own. It is a great activity for the girls to hear a variety of vocabulary and practicing listening comprehension.

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N and A are "reading to someone" - they sit EEKK (elbow, elbow, knee, knee) and choose a book that they can read together.

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It is May 1, Linden's Day of Action. The elementary students are learning together for the day. This morning's learning is centred around the question: What do you want your city/province/country/world when you are 18? As a group we talked about the levels of government and their responsibilities, and then the girls collaborated on designing a city, province, or country that they want to live in when they are 18. There were many, many fantastic conversations around values, priorities, roles of girls and women, and respecting the environment for years to come.

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The "city" group is sharing their design with the rest of the students. Some highlights from their collaborative effort were: lots of plants and trees, electric vehicles, free healthcare, education for all, accessible spaces, a "Homeless home", female mayors, and more.

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A is proud of the jewellery box that she made using a recycled cereal box, a plastic bag, playdough, and tape.

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A and N are building a castle house together. There is a group of "kids" over for a birthday party and only a couple of parents at the house.

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On our hike through the ravine N and O spot a worm on the path. We think that it's come out of the ground because of all of the rain that we've had lately.