GoNoodle

You may have heard your kiddo talk about our brain breaks, GoNoodle or our monster Squatchy. Well let me clear up all of those terms for you. A brain break is like an energising time out. As you know most kids of any age have a hard time sitting still.I don't know about you but I still have a hard time sitting still! When the kiddos are getting too antsy and need some movement to refocus we do a brain break. A brain break could be doing a dance, stretching, deep breathing or doing yoga-it all depends on the mood of our kids.
GoNoodle is a brain break website that gives you access to free and appropriate movement videos. Each time our class completes a brain break from the GoNoodle website we get points. We trade those points in to raise our class champ.

You get to pick your classroom Champ character and of course we picked Squatchy Berger:

As you pick new brain breaks for your class, you earn points and can earn more class Champs!

So there you have it. I'll leave you with a video of our kiddos groovin' to "Awesome Rainbows".

 

Silly Spooky Skeletons

The pictures for the project are coming I swear! We are just waiting until..October. In the meantime I found a few pictures and a video I took of the kids working on their art projects. Notice how quiet it is-honestly you can only hear our "artist music" and cutting scissors. Check it out below.

I had to add this picture too-they were not working on their skeletons but Mrs. Costello taught the kids how to use leaves as stamps. It was pretty cool!

Goal Setting...as promised 3 posts ago (oops!)

We are slowly finishing up our goals. Mrs. Costello and I have been talking to the kiddos about what they want to accomplish this year. We will revisit these goals regularly to see if they have reached their goals and  make adjustments to the goals. Way to "begin with the end in mind" boys and girls!

I want to make a book. I want to whistle (you and me both Erica!)

I want to be "a" artist. I want to learn to braid.

Guess what? We are learning how to count money this year! :) Money is easily one of the Gr.2's favorite things to learn because who doesn't like money?

Howie made it to the wall of fame for his goals!

Our October Bulletin Board Art Project

 Our class is in charge of creating something spooky for the bulletin board in the main hall for the month of October...

...stay tuned to see what creepy artwork Mrs.Costello is creating with our kiddos!

Our "Ish" Art Portfolio's

 

Our class is so lucky to have our wonderful intern Mrs. Costello. Mrs. Costello is so comfortable teaching Art each Wednesday afternoon and the kiddos really enjoy her lessons. She introduced our class to a sweet book called "Ish". It has a wonderful message where a creative spirit learns that thinking "ish-ly" is far more wonderful than "getting it right". So we made Art Portfolio's that describe us and we didn't worry about being perfect-we explored our creativity.

 

 

Luke is "angry bird-ish"

Caroline can be "friend-ish"

Erica is "dance-ish"

Jayden likes all things "Mario-ish"

Goal Setting

Something I enjoy doing with each one of my students is goal setting. I sat down with each of the kiddos last week and we discussed things they would like to get better at this year. I had each student set two goals for the year. Many students wanted to learn how to add and subtract two digit numbers, many of my boys wanted to learn how to count money, some students wanted to learn how to use watercolour paint,  others wanted to learn how to tie their shoes.

We are still working on goal setting but once they are complete I will post a few pictures. Ask your child what their goal is for the school year!

Picture Day

Hello families!

Please be aware that Tuesday September 16th is picture day!

What a Week!

What a great first week! The kids are settling in nicely. They are a great group of workers and seem very eager to learn. This week  Mrs. Costello and I have been conducting learning style surveys and Math surveys in an attempt to get to know our little learners. All week we have been reviewing outcomes from last year. We have also been doing some pretesting on the kiddos so as we may differentiate their learning this month and all year.

Something I am very proud about is our class mission statement. The kids made it with very little help from their teachers. First our kiddos were put into groups of four. In their group they had to discuss the following question-Why do you think you are in school?

The kids had a lot of interesting conversations. Some kids think we are in school to have fun, to be better readers, to make new friends, and to learn all about Math. I then had the kids draw or write some of the reasons why they think we are in school on their group brainstorm sheet.

We then came together as a class and picked the top 3 reasons why we are in school. Our top three reasons why we are in school are...
1. To be smarter
2. To make friends
3. To be better readers


The kiddos then had to decide how we would do those things...we had to make a plan. What do we need to do to accomplish these three things?

Here is the final result of our hard work. Normally I would post more pictures of the kids working but I am still waiting to get all my student info sheets back-I need photo permission first!