Determination

Cross-country

Another couple of athletes working 

sure hard in their races!  Even though

it was a bit sloppy out there, these

two fellows came across that finish

line with huge grins on their faces. 

They illustrated one of our school

values:  finding joy. 

Social Emotional Learning

Social Emotional Learning

Division 4 was really lucky to have some help from Ms. Lia at the very beginning of the year teach us some great strategies for helping us to develop our self-regulation strategies.  As adults we do this all time and we're not always aware that we are using strategies that we've developed on our own.  As educators, we now feels it's incredibly important to help our students learn to self-regulate (be in charge of their brains, bodies, and emotions) throughout the school day.  At school, all staff members are working hard to develop a common language about social-emotional learning (SEL), so you might hear your child talking about expected and unexpected behaviours, or the size of the problem.  Or you might hear your child talk about the zones: blue, green, yellow, and red.  Being in the blue zone might be feeling tired, sick, sad, etc.  Green is the optimal zone for classroom learning where one is focussed and calm.  Yellow is a zone where one could be overly excited and red could be where you feel angry or frustrated  its important to remember that its not bad to be in the red or yellow zone  sometimes its absolutely essential that we are in those zones.  Every classroom already has many strategies in place to help kids with their own learning.  We are working on a common language as our school does so much learning together as a community.

Sea Crows

Sea crows

This lesson has become a favourite tradition at the Annex.  We start the year with an amazing field trip to the beach to scavenge for found treasures to build our own sea crows (scarecrows of the beach!).  After reading a wonderful story, Sea Crow by Shannon Stewart, we plan and design our own sea crows at school and then head off to the beach to create real sea crows.  The big idea in the story is that the main character has worries and she is able to overcome them using her own strategies.  We use this story because it is so easy for all of us to connect to it.  Connecting is one of the most important reading comprehension strategies that we can teach our students.  Connecting happens when you find yourself saying, "This reminds me of….. and I understand how the character (s) feel because I felt like …"  Division 4 is working on making connections while they read or while they are being read to.  

"In a galaxy far, far way," a school blogger has finally escaped!  I have no excuse for not keeping Div. 4's blog up to date so after reflecting on the goal-setting process with the students in division 4 this past week, I set my own goal of getting the class blog up to date.  That's my first step.  After that, I will try to post something once per week.