Have brush....make art!

The students thought about who lives in their house.

Using that information, each student made a glyph.

It's a funny word that means using a non-verbal symbol to tell information.

This is the chart of how we showed she lives in our house.

Maybe you can find your family?

The students started with themselves and pasted a white square to their

house to show that why lived in their house.  They added dad (red), mom (purple),

brothers and sisters (green and blue) and pets (brown).  No one in the class

had a grandma or grandpa living at their house.  

It was a great way to see information without using words!

I'm not sure why so many of our creative projects have

involved painting in the last few weeks.  The week before,

the students had chosen a colour to paint their canvas.

I tried to find a variety of ways to draw the word 

"Joy" onto their boards.

They then got to choose another colour to paint in the letters.

They were patient as I delivered the different colours

to their classmates and then they carefully

painted in the letters.

Our school district's theme this year comes from

1 Peter 3:15

Choose Joy

The reason for our hope

The canvases will sit above each little artist's coat area for the year.

It is not always easy to make the CHOICE

but it is easy to find JOY

in watching these little ones

enjoy their life at school.

What!  More painting??

Wait until you see what it becomes!

Make a mark! We celebrated International Dot Day!

Peter Reynolds wrote a great inspirational book for children.

It is all about how one should not be afraid to 'make a mark.'

Watch the video to hear the story.

For many years, teachers have been celebrating 'International Dot Day'

as close to September 15th as possible.  It gives our students a chance to

see that they too can do great things if they try.

It is important that my 'littles' know that they can do hard things.

Using paper squares in the colours of their choosing, and a pair of

scissors, they cut circles, without drawing or tracing first!

They layered the circles and signed their work (another important lesson,

which is 'be proud of what you do...)

I am super proud of their efforts and more importantly, they are too!

We worked on the alphabet after listening to, and then finger pointing

as the story was read again and again, the Bill Martin Jr. book

"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom"

The students were given alphabet stickers and were

asked to put them in order onto their 'coconut' trees.

It was easy to tell which children still need to work on

 knowing how the letters in the alphabet go.

We worked on a number of 'dot' activities during the week.

Each of the activities were fun for the students, but they gave me

a chance to watch and see who can listen, follow directions, is independent,

and who needs support.  These are activities that allow me to

do some assessment that will guide my teaching over the next few 

weeks.  Even 'fun' is learning!

The students made three books this week that focused on some

of the sight words that they will be spelling on Friday.

They are being encouraged to point under a word as they track

from left to right, developing the early reading skills that are

needed.

Colour is a great assistant and so the students used three colours 

and three different ways to identify the three words on these

pages that were part of their sight words to learn this week.

Next Monday is the beginning of the season of Autumn.

Using the 'dot' idea and some fall-is colours, each student created

a bright and colourful tree.

The first week of school..September 2020

Choose Joy

The reason for our hope

1 Peter 3:15

This is our school district's theme for the 2020-2021 school year.

How appropriate!  We could choose negativity, despair, unwillingness to adapt because of the 

situation that the world is facing BUT

Our God tells us that we need joy!

I asked all the littles to tell me what brings them joy after reading this lovely book by Corrinne Averiss.

I took their photos on the first day of school and their words and photos are welcoming them into the classroom.  You will see a photo from earlier last week, before I had met them all, showing how the door

into the classroom looks.

Every classroom has a sanitizing station at the door and the kiddos are quickly adapting

to what they need to do to help keep them safe.  They understand that wearing a mask means

that we care about others and that by wearing a mask you are keeping others safe.  THANK YOU

for sending your child in a clean mask everyday.

Door to the classroom (Room 111)

We are doing our best to be as far apart as we can be.  Each table has two littles at it.

The blue bin is for their own supplies because AHS says we cannot share.  The light blue bin

is the 'tidy tub' so when they cut and have little papers to recycle, they go in the bin, thus

there is less moving around the classroom.  I wash tables every morning, they wipe their tablespoon with

a school provided wipe before snack and before lunch.

David is such a beloved book character!  We read these two books

during the staggered entry days.

The students followed my verbal directions and watched each step as I drew

David, on the SMARTBoard.  Step by step, they too drew David and they are

on display in our classroom.

The classrooms on the main floor are extremely luck to each have a working sink.

The students wash their hands before eating snacks and eating lunch.  They noticed how

many soap bottles I have lined up for their use.  The red cup covers the water fountain

because AHS has told us that we cannot use them.

Thank you for sending a water bottle that meets my criteria.  That means that the

water comes out through a straw, like the one on the left or has a spring loaded

mechanism, the the one on the right.  This helps avoid the accidents that can happen

in backpacks (and yes, we have had one of those already) and the ones that happen

in our classroom (not yet....but you never know!)

The type of water bottle that I would kindly ask you to avoid is the type

that requires you to completely take off the lid, or that if it was put on it's side, the water

would spill out.  Could you please choose a different bottle to send with your child, if

this is the type you have been sending?  I would appreciate it!

I like to avoid the tears that go with water spilling all over on their tables.

We have a morning snack.  I ask the children to choose a fruit or vegetable if possible.

Could their snack not be put into their lunch kit?  We are trying to avoid too

many students in the hall at a time (social distancing) and if your child has to unzip the

lunchkit, find the snack....or choose because there are yummy things and they want to

eat them all....it means that instead of 10 minutes, the whole exercise is taking 25 minutes.

My own social distancing attempts to avoid touching the students' food.  These littles often

need help with opening their containers.  I sanitize all the times that they do, so please know

that if they need help, I won't say no, but it might be helpful if each student can open their

own containers.  Many of them do not know how to open a prepackaged cookie or cracker bag.

Perhaps this is something that you can help them learn how to do at home.

I will always help, but I really want to be careful to ensure that they stay healthy.

One last thing...the system I use for blogging has gone through an update since I last used it in March,

so it doesn't look as colourful as it used to.  I will look into trying to 'spiffy it up' this weekend.