Happy New Year! I have heard wonderful stories from your holiday break. From the sounds of it, this crew knows how to make the most of a two week break. I am glad that everyone had time to rest, play, and connect with family and friends, and am also very happy to have everyone back in our "J3T Home!" Last week we hit the ground running, filling each minute with great learning. Here's a look at what we were up to, and what we will continue this week, as well. LITERACY: We read the book: One Day in the Tropical Rainforest, an informative fictional narrative that tells about the efforts of one brave boy to help save the McCaw Rainforest. The children were fascinated with all of the animals. This book connected with the previous learning, so the children were able to take the thinking deeper to see the connections between the animals and the role they play within the rainforest. Now the children are busy wit becoming experts about one animal, which they are creating a shadow puppet figure for. We will use those puppets to tell the story using the Asian art of shadow puppetry. For tech integration, the children are also creating a ComicLife story about their particular animal. This week, the children will deconstruct a report of information to create their own criteria for an effective piece. They will use this to craft their own report about a biome of their choosing. MATH: We continue our work with multiplication, and have added in ratio and scale. Ask the children about our investigation with Antonio and measurement! Please be sure that your child is reviewing their multiplication facts each evening. By now, the children should have mastery of the 0,1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7 times tables. We moved onto the 8's today, and watched this fun video to help us remember the facts. SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING: With the return from break, we have started with the Happiness Habit: BUILD INTO RELATIONSHIPS. The children had a wonderful conversation about why we call it : "build into relationships" instead of just "make friends" or "be a good friend." I was so impressed that they understood that you don't just make a friend and it's all good, you have to do things all the time to help make that friendship/relationship grow and stay strong. As Alexandra said: "You have to add to it, brick by brick." We talked about the idea of love languages, and how everyone hears and speaks love differently, and so we need to learn about others and do the things that they can hear as love. You will notice that this is one of the homework assignments. If you are interested in learning more about this concept, I highly recommend the book: The Five Love Languages . This week, we will be talking about building trust in a friendship. I will be using Brené Brown's ideas from Daring Greatly, which you can get some idea of in her talk: The Anatomy of Trust. DATES TO REMEMBER: Monday, January 18: NO SCHOOL: Martin Luther King Day I have been busy writing reports, reflecting on your children as learners. It is great to see how much growth they have had over the term, and to be able to identify new goals for them all as individual learners. Thank you for your continued trust and support along the way! Yours in Learning and Growing, Ms. Erin M. Threlfall
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
SnapshotsA peek at life inside of J3T , curated by Ms. Erin M. Threlfall Archives
June 2016
Categories |