Our class culture

About my beliefs about our learning community

I hope that you find this post enlightening and that it helps explain the cryptic things that children sometimes say at home. 

In our class, I try and foster an environment that helps children develop to be critical and creative thinkers. I try to create a physical environment that gives the students different areas to choose to work either with others or on their own. They are welcome to work anywhere in the class. However, if it is a math block, we all work on math or writing block, we all work on writing for the whole block which is a bit different from a Montessori experience.

Deep learning and thinking takes time and trial and error. That being said I pay careful attention to the mood of the class and am very mindful of their stamina as little people. When it is time to stretch or move or play outside, that is also a part of the class culture. We leave our work and take a break together.

We use a lot of hands on materials to make sense of the learning then record our ideas on paper. The focus of the class is to think, come up with ideas  and share ideas. That being said, to encourage generating their own ideas and develop those ideas, I try to avoid an "I'm done" culture. I rarely ask questions that have 1 answer and I regularly ask "Who can add on to that child's answer?". When they are writing or working on a math learning opportunity, I encourage the students to build on to their ideas and discoveries for the whole work block. I try to support the children during this work block and talk with them to guide them to bigger more detailed ideas.
That might include:

1. adding more detail to a picture that supports their writing
2. adding "What's next?" to the writing they have already done
3. using the same materials in math a different way, such as counting by 2 then counting by 5 or adding the groups together.

I am also teaching the students "Thinking Routines" which help them to deepen their thinking from the obvious answers to deeper ideas. We have used 2 of these routines over the last week. One is "See- Think- Wonder".

We read a book called "All are welcome here".  I showed the class a picture and asked them to identify what they saw in the picture of the classroom. After several answers, I asked what they thought was happening, which brought out lots of new ideas. Finally I asked them what they wondered about the picture which brought out a new level of ideas and predictions about the people in the picture and those they felt were missing. 

I hope this explains more of what goes on in the room during the day. 

The rocks you kindly made for your special person!

Ed Inform

Ed Inform is a digital portfolio that I use alongside this blog and the 2 Report Cards that you will receive. In the digital portfolio I will include pictures, video and audio samples that demonstrate the learning that your child engages in during class time.

In my opinion, the report cards give you a summary of the learning that your child has mastered while the portfolio shows the learning in progress. It also gives you an opportunity to touch base with me immediately about ways to support or extend the learning at home.

I will send home a permission form this week and as soon as I have your permission, I will get you access to see the math sample that is ready.

If I have your permission from last year, please just let me know you will be participating again this year and I can upload the samples as I still have your permission forms from last year.

Things you can do at home:

1.  Let your child have unstructured time to play. At this point in the year, they are very tired and need play time to process all that has happened in the day.
2. Have crayons and art supplies on hand and encourage time to draw and colour. This helps to process their day and it supports writing. In the primary grade (through grade 3) we often start with a drawing to facilitate writing and generating ideas for writing. 
3. Count in French, especially higher than 30! There are links to videos that have the French counting words under the tab "Songs we are singing" at the top of the page.