Sept. 20 - Has it been 2 weeks already??

Well, it's the start of the third week of school so it's time to get this blog rolling!

A lot has happened in the past two weeks! Everyone was very excited to be starting school on the first day of school and that positive atmosphere has really been showing in the classroom!

First day of school survey

The first few weeks of school are all about getting to know one another and building on routines that will carry us throughout the school year. We have been practicing our oral communication as we students get to know one another and interview each other.

A couple of students' interviews

Our language block starts off slowly but develops throughout the school year as we start to build our reading and writing stamina. We started off the year practicing reading on our own and staying in our spot without moving for one minute, but by the end of this week we'll be up to 3 minutes (not including the time we spend reading as a class or listening to reading on Raz kids).

In Math and in Language, we have spent a bit of time beginning to co-create classroom alphabets and number lines as reference points.

In math, we have been learning about repeating patterns and students have had the opportunity to create them on their own and in a group. We've also been practicing our active listening skills and knowing when to add details. We had a leader cover up their pattern and need to explain it to the other students. I overheard detailed descriptions ("it's like a staircase going down") and a lot of positive communication ("Can you please slow down?" "Can you say that again?") from the students.

In art, we have started the year by looking at all the different things that you can do with a line. The students showed many different ways to create a line and then we named them as they used them in their art. Their were quite a few race tracks appearing out of our line art over the past few weeks!

This week we will be continuing to identify patterns in math - looking at numerical patterns and different ways to make repeating pattern (with a bit of music involvement!) - and continue to open new language centers. Stay tuned as the blog will now be updated weekly throughout the school year.