Happy weekend, division 2 families! I hope you are enjoying the sunshine! Here are a few highlights from last week…
On Friday, students were invited to explore a selection of quotations about learning. Each student chose one quote that spoke to him or her and then found a quiet space in the class to think about the meaning of the quote and identify personal connections to it.
Then, after instruction and modelling of some reading and oratory skills, students rehearsed their quotes aloud 10-15 times, working on their fluency, expression, and phrasing. They experimented with reading their quotes in monotone voices, without attending to punctuation. They also practiced being overly dramatic and speaking with exaggerated singsong voices. Then they practiced saying the quotes for one another in partners and small groups using conversational voices that felt energized yet natural. Eventually we created the above video to capture our learning and to share with families.
What else happened last week? We had fun getting deeper into our unit on fractions, decimals, and percent. We seem to frequently make lots of connections between fractions and food—the students most enjoy thinking of how fractions can be used to make equitable distributions of things like candy, cake, and pizza! Ha! Students also took home their “Fractions Fortune Teller” games to practice with families.
As well, since this past week was the week before I submitted report cards to the office for processing, there was a fair bit of catch up work for students: presenting book talks, doing math quiz rewrites, math meetings, fixing up portfolios, and working on puppets and puppet shows. The puppet shows have been hilarious—such a creative, fun part of the day!
“Fun fact”: I have now submitted the report cards for our class for term 2 to the office. It took me about 26-hours to write them, spread out over the last two weeks of evenings and weekends—so my family will sure be happy to have me back and present in their lives! I write longer report cards because I believe it’s important to not only “report” on students, but to try to capture a snapshot of their wonderful qualities and contributions as a time capsule for them and to shed light on the details of the kind of learning division the students are experiencing. I hope these reports and blog help families to feel connected and to have richer after school conversations at home.
Thank you for you checking in on this blog and for watching the dialogue videos this term—I hope you have enjoyed hearing the sweetness of these creative, critical thinkers in our class as they work through big ideas in discussion. This is a time in the world when it helps to focus on the moments of learning, optimism, and joy—it’s a privilege to see your children create these kind of moments everyday.
Inquiry Ninja 