Happy Family Day Long Weekend Everyone,
Remember, tomorrow (Friday, Feb. 18) is a PD day and Monday is the Family Day holiday.
This week, we sought out some great stories and moments from your children’s teachers. Enjoy!
(Here’s one from today: lunch was a quiche-type entree and one student said, “It looks like pie.”
“You’re right it does. Do you like pie?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your favourite type of pie?”
“Cake pie, with candy on top.”)
Toddler
In the toddler community, Grace and Courtesy is continuously on display. The children look out for one another, ask about their classmates when they are absent, and genuinely enjoy spending time with one another. One thing that I find particularly special is how much they enjoy helping each other (and the teachers) during mealtime. Snack and lunch are exciting times in our classroom and the children really light up at any opportunity to assist. Whether it is handing out plates or bowls, or distributing water to their friends, it is a task done with pride and consideration. After our meal is finished, some of the children love to accompany their teachers in sweeping the floor and wiping down the table, while others love to deliver our lunch cart and dishes to the kitchen. As you can imagine, toddler lunch can be a messy affair, so there is always plenty of work to be done!
One student also likes to help me when we are getting ready to go outside for recess or at the end of the day. When it is time to put boots on, he always brings me my boots before putting on his own. Very cute and very much appreciated. — Mr. Davis
Ms. Covic made banana bread for each class today and a student asked her if she had made it for them. She said yes and he both said “Thank you,” and signed it to her as well.
Casa North
We know from Albert Einstein that “play is the highest form of research,” which aligns very much with the pedagogy and sensorial exposure we aim to provide in the Casa classroom. Our students are playful, purposeful, and explorative every day at school — we work hard to prepare an environment that is safe and inspiring so their thoughts and ideas can be valued and made reality.
Because we encourage such exploration in our classrooms, it’s hard to name the amount of funny quips and conversations we hear in a week — it’s a lot!
That said, I am reminded of this past week when, after our daily small group lesson with the farm animals (learning the male, female, and baby names of each farm family), a student (with the most serious face) told me, “You know, I haven’t really told you before, but I can speak bird, you know.” Matching the same seriousness back (of course), I asked if she’d like to share it with me, to which she said, “Well it’s sort of easier when they speak to me first, and there’s no birds in the classroom!”
Also, over the past month, we have had consistent declarations from two of our students claiming they want to be artists when they grow up. We have presented Art Cards, and added additional Modern Art examples and books to the classroom to support their interest. This past week, one of these students took out Colour Box 3 — a box of many colour tablets, 8 per colour family, to be graded from lightest to darkest — but upon finishing, his work got bumped by another student and mixed up. I watched as his purposeful work was ruined, and waited for an upset response, but sure enough, he ran to the Art Cards on the shelf, shuffled through them quickly, as I watched on. He returned with a photo of Bridget Riley’s “Nataraja” and started maneuvering and skewing his bumped colour tablets more to match the famous masterpiece. He found art in his ruined effort — what a fabulous moment! — Ms. O’Sullivan.
Casa South
While a child was holding a dropper for colour mixing he excitedly said, “I suck it up, it disappears, it’s magical!”
His expression & joy was awesome! — Mme Perazo
Elementary
History in the early years is currently focused on ancient Egypt! The students have been excited to learn about the geography of ancient Egypt and the Nile River. We have begun exploring Egyptian mythology, hieroglyphics, and monuments. To help us understand the daily lives of the ancient Egyptian people, the students participated in a role-play of Egyptian society. The youngest members of the our class have been hard at work on a variety of activities, from writing poems about our hands to creating a diorama of ocean creatures. Upper level students have continued with their work of essay-writing and body system research, and were very excited to dive into the world of integers with adding negative and positive numbers. — Marissa & Michelle.
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