Earth Day

This week we have been learning about Earth Day.  We read books and talked about what we could do to help our environment.  We made Earth necklaces out of plasticine and went outside today to clean up our school courtyard.  Thank you to Mme Andrea (Jack's mom) who came in to read to us today!

The Integrated Arts Visit 3 and Team Spirit!

Yesterday was our last visit with Mme Cheryl.  We got to make our real medicine wheels!  We wrapped metal hoops with leather, twisted coloured pipe cleaners to create the four sections, and added beads to signify the seven teachings.

Mme Andrea's Grade 3 class also came by and led us in a 'Go, Jets, go!" chant.  It was wild and wonderful!

At the end of the day, Mme Jan (Diora's grandma) read us a Dr. Suess book about sharks.  The message was valuable: that we are more of a danger to sharks than they are to us.

Assembly and I LOVE TO READ!

Yesterday we had another guest reader in our classroom.  Thank you to Mme Elizabeth (Sam's mom), who popped in yesterday to share a hilarious story with us.

We also went to the gym yesterday to watch a jump rope demo team called The Beaumont Bouncers.  They were awesome and we were encouraged to yell and cheer for all of their amazing tricks.  It was a very rowdy assembly!  What fun.

The Integrated Arts Visit 2

During our second visit with Mme Cheryl, we revisited the importance of the circle and built our own medicine wheels out of paper.  We talked about the significance of the four colours (yellow: sunrise, black: earth, red: sunset, white: sky) and traced and cut shapes to build our circles.

The Integrated Arts Visit 1

On Friday we welcomed our aboriginal arts artist, Cheryl Alexander, into our classroom. We began our visit by learning about the importance of the circle.  Next we got to touch and explore with some aboriginal artifacts.

We also had a special guest reader.  Sadie's Ama, Carol, came in to read us some stories for I Love to Read month.  She gifted each of us with a small seashell.

We are Bucket Fillers!

Your child may have come home from school today talking about buckets.  In class, we read two very good books (How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath & Mary Reckmeyer and Have You Filled a Bucket Today?  by Carol McCloud) which explain a simple concept using a bucket as an analogy for empathy.  The idea is that everyone walks around carrying an invisible bucket (yes, even animals - the kindergartners were adamant about this point!) and "it's purpose is to hold your good thoughts and good feelings about yourself."  The books explain that you feel happy and good when your bucket is full, and you feel very sad and lonely when your bucket is empty.  The kids are learning to be BUCKET FILLERS by showing love to others, by saying or doing kind things, helping others, or even by simply smiling at someone. We have realized that by filling others' buckets, we also fill our own, because it feels good to make others feel special.  We have also learned that BUCKET DIPPERS are people who empty other people's buckets by making fun, saying or doing mean things to others, or ignoring others.  They try to fill their own buckets by dipping into others' buckets but this never works - they are always left with an empty bucket.  In class, we will talk often about what we are doing to fill our own buckets and others' buckets.  If someone is being a bucket dipper, we call it that, and discuss how we can help fill up that person's bucket. 

In all my teaching years, I have never found an analogy that explains these concepts as well as the bucket.  It really appeals to children of this age and makes sense to them.  You can support these ideas by asking your child each day if they did anything to fill up someone's bucket.  Ask them how full their bucket is and how it got that way.  It is also important to ask if they were a bucket dipper.  I have found that students who were previously unable to recognize their own negative behaviour are more able to, when given this context.  You can also remind them that Mme Katie has a bucket that gets filled or emptied each day by her kindergarten students.  The kids are always all very nice to me, but I sometimes use it to highlight specific behaviours, like being helpful, listening to others, and using 'inside voices'.  My bucket gets filled when children are respecting rules and respecting each other.