Friday!

Hi parents,

We had a good day today all around! The class did very well on their spelling quizzes, and then we did some more writing in our Days Of Christmas books. The students are putting in tons of effort this year! I hope it continues all the way to day twelve. 

Today, we were lucky to have access to a MuseoKit from the Glenbow Museum. A Museokit is basically a collection of artifacts and activities that gets sent to your classroom, and essentially transforms your room into a miniature museum! Today the students got to look at, discuss, and sketch a variety of kitchen utensils dating back to the early 1900s. We are going to be learning lots about Alberta's history in the coming weeks (and then more in the new year), and I thought this kit would be a great way to start things off.

The students made some insightful observations about the artifacts, before I'd explained anything about them, and they also made some great predictions about what each one may have been used for.

At the end of the day, I gave the students this open-ended math problem:

There are 20 ornaments on a Christmas tree. Some are blue, some are gold, and some are silver. How many of each colour could there be?

I asked the students to show three different solutions. It was interesting to see the approaches they took! Some students immediately saw it as an addition problem, while others drew a picture of the tree, and added some combination of the ornaments. 

I've noticed that open-ended problems can be quite challenging for students, because they get used to math problems always having one single answer. It's nice to switch it up and keep everyone thinking on their feet.

Adult Socks Needed!

I should have said this before, but adult socks will actually work a lot better for our craft next week! If you have already sent in children's socks, that is also okay, but the snowmen might just be kind of small. Sorry for any inconvenience that may cause! I am planning to bring in a bunch of extra socks too, so don't worry if you don't have any socks to spare.

Have a great weekend!

Zac