casa
Casa Update
We have seen a great interest in work with the bead chains among our third year students this week. Work with the bead chains offers a beautiful progression from counting and number recognition, to skip counting, to multiplication, and finally to an understanding of squares and cubes. It also offers the opportunity for the student to persevere and explore their capability through a seemingly daunting task...especially when they reach the 1000 chain! In the picture above, these two students…
Casa Update
This term our casa students have been participating in a new physical education program. Our first unit focused on space, directions, and body awareness. Through games and activities such as red light/green light, tag, and freeze dance, students have learned to identify, maintain, and use space adequately while demonstrating an understanding of paths of motion. Our second unit focused on locomotor skills. The learning focus of this unit was to develop an understanding of basic concepts of…
Casa Update
This week in Casa we have seen children making beautiful floral arrangements. This Practical Life activity requires many steps and an extended period of concentration, while also allowing the child to embellish his or her environment. We have also noticed many of the math materials being chosen. Materials such as the addition work charts and the memory game of numbers give the children the opportunity to master operations and also extend concentration over a longer period of time.…
Casa Update
We have seen an explosion of writing in the Casa classroom this week. In the Casa classroom children are introduced to the movable alphabet (large individual wooden letters) when the child is able to identify a number of sandpaper letters. This Language activity gives further practice with linking letter sounds with letter symbols, and initiates word building. In order to build phonetic words, the child uses the skill of analysis to decipher the sounds in words. An exciting leap into…
Casa Update
Halloween was a key feature in our classroom this week, and we enjoyed learning all about pumpkins. We also saw a strong interest in the bells throughout the week. Children are born with the ability to hear, but the ability to listen is learned. As children develop the ability to listen, they build the foundation for analysis of language and communication as well as learning proper enunciation and context. Activities in the Practical Life area, such as responding to a bell and the silence…
Casa Update
What a full week we had in Casa North! On Wednesday we had a wonderful day out at the RBG. The children loved going on a nature walk, seeing wildlife, and especially feeding the chickadees! We finished our day on the beautiful natural playground. Despite having a holidcy and a field trip, the children still experienced beautiful work in the classroom. The older children have enjoyed practicing their cursive writing which is a wonderful example for the younger children of what is to come.…
Casa Update
Casa students have continued to show great interest in the puzzle maps this week, as well as the flags. A favourite activity has been matching the flags. This activity has led to spontaneous conversations among the children, discussing countries they have lived in or visited, and countries in which they have family. A conversation was overheard between two younger Casa students as they matched the Canadian flag.Student 1: "This is Canada's flag. I live in Canada."Student 2 (with excitement):…
Casa Update
Puzzle maps and flags have been popular activities in our Casa classroom this week. Spontaneous presentations on cleaning have been popular, as some of our older students have been showing an interest in caring for their environment. French songs have been popular in class, and you may hear your children singing 'Pomme de Reneitte, pomme d'Api" at home this weekend. They have also been enjoying reading a french story about apples with Mme. Murati. At circle time, the children have enjoyed…
Casa Update
All of our students, new and returning, are now in class after a staggered entry and settling into a nice rhythm. Our new students are beginning to receive presentations with the materials, and returning students have returned to working with materials that they have missed during the summer months. Recycling has been a topic of interest in the classroom this week, and was discussed along with a story about recycling at circle time. Mrs. Kennedy, Miss Boyle and Mme. Murati have been…