Dear Parents, Happy week of gratitude! Though I know that Thanksgiving can be a time where we debate historical accuracy and the stories not told around this holiday, I see it as a wonderful time to pause and reflect, giving thanks for all that is good in our lives and the world. At times such as now when the world is in watch, it is especially important that we take the opportunities provided to celebrate those whom we love and all that we have. I wish you and your family a relaxing, joy-filled time when you take a moment to express gratitude, break bread together, and sit in quiet reflection. As I reflect, I know that I have so much to be thankful for, not the least of which is this wonderful community of learners (and their parents) who help to remind me of why I became a teacher. Let me share with you a recent moment of : WOW! I AM SO LUCKY TO BE WITH THESE LEARNERS!! By now, I hope you heard about our exciting lesson last week in which we asked the question: How can we use data to plan for action? To help the children better understand how great questions can lead to useful data, and how analyzing data can clue us in on problems and possible solutions, we took a look at the work I used to do on the Buduburam Refugee Camp. Specifically, we zeroed in on the day in the life of Bakayoko, a young refugee child who captured my heart. During this lesson, the students had the opportunity to create a pie chart showing Bakayoko's day. Then we analysed the chart using our Visible Thinking Routine: See, Think, Wonder to answer the flowing questions: What do you see in the data about Bakayo's day? What does this make you think about his life and the problems he faces? What does the data make you wonder? What solutions do you wonder about? The students made keen observations, and identified some key problems for Bakayoko. Just look at some of the things they said! As the students identified issues, we were able to also identify ways that different organisations worked together to resolve some of the issues. The children saw the Global Volunteer Network (my employer) worked with the local NGO Children Better Way as well as UNICEF, UNHCR, WFP, World Vision, and Save the Children to make it possible for Bakayoko to attend school, have access to clean water and food supplies as well as medical supplies, and helped to solve some big problems all so that the children could have the opportunity to be children who play and learn. This lesson truly helped to solidify the work we have been doing to identify how organisations and individuals can work together to solve problems in the world. It also helped the children develop stronger questions to guide their service projects and support their arguments being made in their persuasive writing pieces. This was a lovely opportunity to see truly integrated learning in action. I wish you could have been here to see how enthusiastic they were, and ON FIRE! Some of the children asked that I share the powerpoint with you so that they can help explain everything to you, so here it is! Moving ahead, the students will be putting their service learning projects into action, publishing their persuasive writing pieces, and officially closing this unit, though we hope that the learning and attitudes gained stay and incite action in our next unit of study, which will also bring us into new writing and reading genres- but more on that next week...
MATH: We kicked off our new unit today when investigation began with the context of a grocery store. Students looked into how grocery stores and markets around the world organise merchandise, and developed an understanding of the key vocabulary term: array. On Tuesday, students will view illustration of fruits and vegetables arranged in bins, packages of paper towels piled in stacks, six-packs of water bottles, and other things in a grocery store. Although the objects represented could be counted by ones, the arrangements naturally invites repeated addition, skip-counting, and doubling strategies as well as the language of grouping--for example, 8 groups of 6 is equivalent to 4 groups of 12 which is equivalent to 4 groups of 6 plus 4 groups of 6. (Fosnot, Catherine. Groceries, Stamps, and Measuring Strips: Early Multiplication. In Contexts for Learning Mathematics from Mathematics in the City, City College of New York.) This unit takes us into the concept of multiplication, making the connection that multiplication is an elegant and efficient way to represent multiple groups of something. I have asked that the students take pictures of grocery store arrays over the break. If you could send those in either electronically or printed, we will use those in class to support our studies! Dates to Note: Nov. 25th, 26th, 27th: Thanksgiving Break Dec. 10th: Photo Retake 6:00-8:00 J3/J4 Winter Concert (arranged by the music department) Dec. 21st – Jan 3rd: Winter Break (classes resume on Monday, January 4th) That's about it from me this week. If you are traveling, be safe. Enjoy your time together. Take a moment to breathe and be calm, opening the opportunity to take stock of all that you have around you. Yours in gratitude, Erin M. Threlfall
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SnapshotsA peek at life inside of J3T , curated by Ms. Erin M. Threlfall Archives
June 2016
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