In our classroom we love to celebrate our achievements - big or small. Here is a collection of moments we'd like to share!
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The new teacher for the Jarvis Traditional Supportive Learning program came to visit the classroom today. Her name is Ms. Rupinder Atwal. She has been teaching at Delview Secondary School in the Alternate program. She is so excited to have this opportunity to work with intermediate students and learn more about how to use positive behaviour supports in a classroom.
She plans to keep all the activities that make this classroom special - Classroom Cash, Direct Instruction programs, using the computer and even Palmeropoly! Ms. Atwal will also continue to write about daily classroom activities through this blog. It is good to know that the classroom is in good hands. Ms. Palmer will be in touch by email and Skype and will stop in and say hi to her favourite students whenever she can! Our salmon unit is not over yet! Students continue to explore and learn new facts about salmon. We read aboriginal myths, wrote stories and drew pictures. We continued our visits to Mrs. Lidke's salmon tank and were amazed at how the salmon were changing and growing. Students have learned about different way to fish for salmon including fish farming. They will finish up the unit by completing their Salmon Lap Books.
We like to think of positive affirmations as compliments or bucket fillers that we give ourselves. Our class read an excellent book called "Affirmation Weaver" from Stress Free Kids. In this story sea creatures show a young dolphin how to believe in himself by weaving a web of positive statements. Positive affirmations are also a good way to change red thoughts to green thoughts. After reading the story each student created a picture and wove their own web positive affirmations. They are beautiful and powerful! Valentine's Day was bittersweet for us all this year. We shared valentine's treats and cards. Today was the day that each student picked a stuffy (stuffed animal for those not from BC!) . Ms. Palmer collected these stuffed animals whenever she travelled. It just seemed right that they find homes with this years students. Friday February 21st will be Ms. Palmer's last day at Jarvis Traditional as she will be moving to Calgary to start a new position with the Calgary Board of Education and be closer to her family. It is hard to believe that almost five years have gone by since this classroom got started! Ever since we were invited to make weekly observations of the salmon tank in Mrs. Lidke's Grade 1 class, we have been working on a unit called Salmon in the Classroom. You can follow the link to see all the activities we have been doing. Students have been very interested and have taken many notes and done detailed sketches. Everyone is hard at work on their Salmon Lapbook to display their knowledge. Today we were very fortunate to have Jesse MacLellan, our school's aboriginal support worker, come in and talk about how BC's First Nations people caught fish in the past. He showed the class pictures of spear fishing, gill net fishing and weirs. He also told the class how the fish were preserved and cooked. Jesse spoke of the importance that First Nations people place on only taking as many fish as they need to survive and making sure that there are enough left for other animals. Jesse showed the class how to draw a salmon using an aboriginal style. He brought canvas boards and oil pastels for everyone. The results were amazing. Thank you Jesse for a very informative afternoon! Each year our school joins with others to celebrate reading during National Literacy Week. There were many activities throughout the week including visiting authors and everyone's favourite, pyjama day!
Art projects have been very popular in our class this year. I have found that student's are able to follow the instructions more easily after they have seen the finished product. The Smart Board has been invaluable. The latest painting project came from the Grade 2 Smarties website. The blog gave detailed instructions which I left up on the Smart Board after showing the students what the painting should look like. My students definitely gave them their own personal touches. I think that ours are very beautiful. This is the only bulletin board display where other teachers (and the principal!) have come in to tell us how beautiful the trees are. Thank you Mrs. Sandberg! December seemed to sneak up on us this year. We were still working on our Remembrance Day projects when all of a sudden it was time to prepare for the Christmas Concert. Our class joined with Mr. Hirose (Grade 4/5) and Mrs. Dhillon (Grade 3/4) to perform a song. It took many practices and rehearsals and our students practiced their self-regulation and singing skills. In the end it paid off with two wonderful Christmas concerts on Tuesday, December 17th. A special thanks to Nicholas for being the sound man! The snowfall on Friday morning turned our playground into a Winter Wonderland. As we have been practicing "Dressing for the Weather" everyone was able to play outside. We had finished the year with a Christmas party where students exchanged their Secret Santa gifts and then went off for a well deserved Christmas Break. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! Remembrance Day Memory ProjectRemembrance Day is always recognized at Jarvis Traditional School. I have always talked about my personal connections with my students. My dad was a navigator who trained in Canada and was then stationed and injured in Britain. He passed away 16 years ago and like many veterans did not very often speak of his experiences during the war. He did however preserve many items. This included his uniforms, boots, medals and all his training materials. This year I was privileged to be given my father's RCAF memorabilia. We have used these artifacts in many ways to develop an understanding of this part of history. We learned about how the penicillin which saved my father's life was developed. The history of the development of the wooden Mosquito aircraft was fascinating. My class was able to try on his uniform jacket, flight jacket and his fleece lined flying boots. My dad enlisted one week after he turned 18. We discussed how young he was to take on such huge responsibilities. My students often become excited about the use and destruction caused by fighting and wars. My hope is that by introducing real people they develop some awareness of the consequences. We used our "Red Zone" Think Sheets to analyze Hitler's actions and motives and talked about problem solving strategies that could have been used instead. Students worked individually or with partners to create posters and powerpoints on different items. They did a great job!
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