Monday, September 14

 Hi parents,

We survived our first Monday of the year! It actually was quite a good day too.

In the morning, the students watched a video that taught them a bit about Canada's national sports, Hockey and Lacrosse. We went outside and did a quick "nature walk" around the field, making observations about the weather and seasonal changes, and predicting the ways in which the field will look different in a few weeks.

The students wrote about what they did on the weekend in their journals. After that, I introduced the class to 'spelling practice', and we brainstormed some 'at' and 'ar' words. I showed the students how to practice their spelling words by writing them out in their spelling books. As I mentioned in the post yesterday, practicing at home is always encouraged! 

As students become more confident with spelling, they also become more confident with writing. In my experience, many students who are 'reluctant writers' are just nervous about making spelling mistakes. Spelling Practice is a great way to overcome this nervousness by giving kids the foundational skills they need to spell words from memory, or attempt the spelling of unfamiliar words.

In the afternoon, the class continued to work in their Math duotangs, and we focused on the number '7' today. Just like with spelling, I am trying to make sure the kids have a solid understanding of basic numbers before we start learning things like addition and subtraction. I've been really impressed by their work so far, so we might get to move on to more complicated topics earlier than I expected!

Have a nice night!

Zac

PS: If you've been following the blog, I would really appreciate if you could leave a comment on this post. My 'view counter' always shows up as zero, for some reason, so I want to make sure everyone has been able to access it. Thank you!