September 25-29, 2023
Terry Fox Run
We started our week together with a story called "Brave" to inspire us in our Terry Fox run. We also used our 'must-do' time to learn about 6 star cutting and used scissors as a class for the first time and then coloured our very own Canadian flag to cut out. We worked hard to remember the rules we learned about our scissors and laughed hard at Mrs. Sutherland pretending to have "chicken wings". Practicing cutting at home would be very valuable for Kindergarten students and we will be sending home a 6 star cutting visual next week!
Both morning and afternoon teams had a chance to run laps in the field near our classroom for the Terry Fox run. In the afternoon we also went over to the big field to cheer for our friends and siblings in the older grades....everyone was working so hard and persevering to do their best!
We learned last week Terry Fox is a Canadian National Hero who started running across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He ran for 143 days and went through 10 pairs of running shoes! We know some students in our school right now are hero's overcoming challenges like Terry...so many of us chose to wear yellow t-shirts to support Childhood Cancer Awareness.
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| Afternoon Team cheering on Grade 1-3 students! We saw some siblings! |
On Tuesday we read a story called "My Heart fills with Happiness" by an Indigenous author named Monique Gray Smith, about a girl whose heart fills with happiness when she thinks of her family, important traditions and special events that are celebrated in her culture. We learned that Indigenous people have lived on this land for many many years...long before there were cars and houses. We learned that they lived in tipis and followed the buffalo to survive. Their life on this land was very different than how we live now and we will learn more about their language and culture. We had a wonderful discussion about what fills our hearts with happiness...and then drew a picture with our own ideas. We called it a story response and our teachers wrote down the words we wanted to record along side our pictures:
"My heart fills with happiness when I play with my brother"
"My heart fills with happiness when my Mom reads me a bedtime story"
"My heart fills with happiness when I am in nature"
"My heart fills with happiness when I do must-do"
"My heart fills with happiness when my Grandpa holds me"
"My heart fills with happiness when the snow comes and I build a snowman"
"My heart fills fith happiness when I see my Dad. I love my Dad."
"My heart fills with happiness when I bake cupcakes with my Mom"
Buffalo Directed Drawing
"Ee Nee, Buffalo, What do you see?"
On Wednesday we continued learning about Indigenous culture. We visited a special part of our school where a huge buffalo mural is painted. Our teachers told us the story of the artist who came to our school a few years ago and gifted us this special artwork along with some buffalo teachings that will help to guide our work this year and beyond.
We read a story by some Grade 1 students from a school near by ours that inspired us to try and draw our own buffalo. We completed a directed drawing of a buffalo using special art markers and we feel so proud of our efforts! Even Mrs. S was nervous to try, but we decided we would just do our best!
On Wednesday, our morning team had a special invitation to go and listen to Grade 6 students perform in their music room! We happily accepted! Both morning and afternoon teams will get special opportunities to foster community within our school!
On Thursday we acknowledged orange shirt day and read a book called "With our Orange Hearts" from Phyllis Webstad. We learned that she is an Indigeous person who was not treated with respect. She was sent away to school with other Indigenous children to learn a new language and could not see her family every day. She was not allowed to wear her favourite orange shirt (a gift from her Grandma) when she got there and instead she had to wear a school uniform. She writes books about her life to help people understand how important it is to learn from each other, tell our family stories and treat each other with love and respect. While what we discussed was developmentally appropriate, the children learned that Orange Shirt Day has an important meaning. Every Child Matters and Indigenous people and culture are important. We made our own orange hearts to remind us to treat each other with respect and kindness...stay tuned for our final project results!
Playground Time!
We have been loving the beautiful weather and spend time outside each day! PLEASE label your child's belongings-
outdoor shoes, hoodies, jackets and outdoor accessories with their name!!!
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who attended our open house sessions over the last two weeks- we had incredible turn out and are very appreciative of your support of our program!
NEW!! Our classroom now has an account within the Scholastic Reading Club!
We have no expectation for families to place orders, but wanted to share our class code just in case, as we can earn points toward book purchases for our classroom when families place orders!
Our classroom code is: RC210876
Check out the digital flyer for October here:
Mrs. Oster: rdoster@cbe.ab.ca
Mrs. Sutherland: klsutherland@cbe.ab.ca
Mrs. Wiskar: mjwiskar@cbe.ab.ca
