Thursday, November 26

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! 

After talking a bit about hibernation and other ways animals change their behaviours in the winter, we discussed the concept of 'shelter', and the different kinds of shelters animals find or make. I was really impressed by how many examples the kids came up with, which included beaver dams, beehives, caves, burrows, gopher holes, wasp nests, bird nests, and more! We talked about how typically, animals prefer shelters that are hidden from plain site, or difficult for other animals to enter. The students wrote down their own ideas about what qualities a good shelter had.

We talked more about bears, and hibernation, and watched a Kids Art Hub video that explained how to draw a sleeping bear. I'm hoping the kids can use skills from art hub videos to help them draw other animals too - for instance, the students noticed that a sleeping bear could easily be transformed into a sleeping reindeer by adding antlers and changing the ears.

I wanted to quickly mention something that happened today that made me feel incredibly conflicted. The students were having a hard time getting their work done because they were completely absorbed in a game they all seemed to be part of, which basically involved making their own pretend Smart Phones from paper. I'm not sure how this started but by the end of the day, I'd heard the words "my phone" about 1,000 times. At first I was kind of horrified because I had never anticipated having to confiscate phones from a grade 1/2 class, but then I started to realize it was kind of cool to see so many kids captivated by this imaginative game. They were also writing, drawing, and colouring harder than ever to ensure their paper phones had all the coolest apps. I hope that the kids continue to develop their imaginations even after they acquire non-paper phones.

We read "The Couch Potato" at the end of the day because the message seemed particularly relevant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSDnt30uJME&t=202s

Have a nice day,

Zac