December has been a very busy month. Can you believe tomorrow is the last day before winter break? The kids are PUMPED up about Santa. So I took the opportunity to talk about holidays and winter traditions.
First we of course had to talk about Christmas. We took a little "trip" around the world to talk about the traditions we get from other cultures. For instance the children learnt that we get the tradition of using an advent calendar and decorating a Christmas from Germany. We get the tradition of eating seafood on Christmas eve from Italy. We get the poinsettia from Mexico-we even read a cool legend about it. Check it out below!
After our talk about Christmas we decided to explore other winter holidays. We talked about Diwali, Kwanzaa, and Hanukkah. The kids were particularly interested in Hanukkah so I taught them how to play dreidel. Here are a few pictures below of the kiddos playing the game-they beg to play it now!
We finished up this fun unit today with another round of dreidel, a few presentations and a visit from Saint Nick.
Have a safe and happy holiday season! Merry Christmas/Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year too!
Today Mrs. Wallace was invited to join our math class and teach the children how to use a cool math tool called a rekenrek. The rekenrek, or arithmetic rack, was designed by Adrian Treffers, a mathematics curriculum researcher at the Freudenthal Institute in Holland, to support the natural development of number sense in children. Smaller versions consist of two rows of 10 beads. Larger versions with ten rows of ten beads are also available. Each row is made of five red beads and five white beads. This allows students to make mental images of numbers. Using 5 and 10 as anchors for counting, adding and subtracting is obviously more efficient than one-by-one counting. This tool provides learners with the visual models they need to discover number relationships and develop a variety of addition and subtraction strategies, including doubles plus or minus one, making tens, and compensation, thereby leading to automaticity of basic facts (K-5 Math Teaching Resources Website).
The kids used the rekenreks to make numbers, to show one more, two more, one less, two less and to practice their make ten facts. It was a cool tool to use and we will continue to use this tool over the school year.
Yesterday our class participated in the "Hour of Code". The 'Hour of Code' is a nationwide initiative by CSEdWeek and code.org to introduce computer programming to 10 million students and encourage them to learn programming. Our fantastic technology mentor, Mr. Robichaud, graciously agreed to come into our class and try coding with our kiddos. Here are some pictures of Mr. Robichaud working with the kids below. If anyone is interested in seeing the website the kids used feel free to visit code.org-we played the angry bird coding game!
We did it! Our kiddos kept the surprise party a secret for TWO WHOLE WEEKS! The day of the party a few kiddos stayed in with me to make decorations, set up food and collect presents. We had to get Mrs. Costello out of the room while we did this so Mrs. Dobbin and Mrs. Hierlihy, knowing that Mrs. Costello is a talented artist, arranged for her to do some painting.
So we were all ready to go. Everything was set up and Howie and Ewan were sent down to get her while the class hid for the surprise party. Well, Howie and Ewan returned without Mrs. Costello. Apparently Mrs. Costello thought she wasn't allowed to leave her painting station! I sent the two boys down there again. I had told the boys not to return without her. So they told her I was having a smart board emergency and to come quick. She came the next time around and we all yelled SURPRISE! She was completely surprised and the kiddos thought her reaction was hilarious!
I must say she held it together pretty good during the party. That is of course until she read our class book and we gave her a group hug. We had so much fun with Mrs. Costello and we hope that she visits us really soon!
You can tell Christmas is in the air because our classroom is just buzzing. I'm sure you all feel it at home. Luckily we have our classroom elf to help remind us to behave and follow rules during this very exciting time.
Meet S.J.-short for Santa Junior. He is a little trickster that likes to pull pranks on the class.The little trickster likes to hang from ceiling tiles, make a bed in our kleenex box and eat our pizza on pizza day! I think I may need to make a call to the North Pole to tell Santa about our naughty little guy's poor choices! I should probably make a call home to talk to Santa about S.J.'S spelling and capitals too...
The little guy is cute...but it looks like he needs to work on his 5 star sentences-especially his spelling and capitals!
