November Review

Belonging and Contributing: This month we spent a lot of time developing and exploring our dramatic play centre, the supermarket.  Students developed families and went shopping, playing their respective roles of shopper or worker.  Students collaborated in the creation of this centre and they continue to play cooperatively at this centre.  This month also brought Remembrance Day.  We discussed the fact that we all live in Canada and that we celebrate the people who fought in wars for us to be safe here.  We worked together to create a work of art, using apples and paint to make poppies, that we gave to the older grades for their assembly.
Self-Regulation and Well-Being: This month we continued to implement our zones of regulation.  We continue to move ourselves through the zones as our zones, moods and emotions change and teachers and students regularly conference about steps that can be taken to return to the green zone.  Students are learning to identify strategies that work for them, such as talking to a friend who has hurt their feelings, finding a new place to sit if they cannot focus on the carpet, or identifying when they need a snack or when they need to go to the bathroom.  All of these little pieces fit together to ensure that students are healthy and happy at school which is always our number one priority!
Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours: We began exploring measurement this month.  We started by learning how to identify more and less through different strategies such as counting, using a tens frame or number line, sorting into groups and comparing size, weighing materials, stacking materials, lining them up or using our fingers to help us count.  We then moved into comparing size and weight in more detail and we continue to have several discussions about measurement and different strategies we can use to solve a problem. We frequently discuss the fact that we are mathematicians, putting on our math hats and growing our brains! 

In whole group and small group learning, as well as during play, we have been working on our knowledge of the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they represent.  Some students have demonstrated this knowledge orally, while others have incorporated writing into their journals, art pieces, labels for the dramatic play centre and self-authored books.

Problem Solving and Innovating: This month students showed a particular interest in building.  We introduced the idea that you can plan a building like an engineer would, and students worked off of plans either provided or self-created to construct towers, castles, racetracks, and more!  Sometimes students were faced with problems while they were creating such as collapsing bridges or the absence of a particular piece they needed to create their masterpiece.  In these cases, students learned to problem solve and adapt, using different pieces to make the same shape or altering the plan to include more pieces to ensure their structures were sound. 

Students also got quite creative this month, designing puppets and putting on puppet shows.  As they explored the idea that puppet shows can be preplanned, as well as what makes a good puppet show, they began to practise scenes in order to get it “just right” and began incorporating known French vocabulary and French songs into this play.  As educators we are always proud when students begin to independently incorporate French into their everyday lives, here’s hoping we can continue to inspire them in this way in the months to come!