Thursday, May 12

 Hi parents,

Sorry to keep dropping the ball on blog updates! I will do better moving forward.

Today was a great day for our class.

In the morning, the students did a multi-step mini-research project on minerals, using the Gemstone / Mineral Index found here: https://kidsloverocks.com/educational-resources/gemstone-mineral-index/

They then wrote brief paragraphs about a mineral or gemstone of their choice, using a combination of poetic smilies and factual vocabulary to describe their selection. The students worked well together and spent a solid hour working on this task without getting distracted.

We've been learning how to skip from the Grade 4/5 students in Mrs. Mumford's class, and today, I'm happy to report that every student felt they'd made progress since we started earlier this week. That's what it's all about!

In math, we are revisiting Montessori materials like the Golden Beads and Coloured Bead Bars to do subtraction and addition. While these materials may not be an efficient as traditional algorithms, they do an amazing job of helping students understand the processes involved in traditional algorithms, so when they go back to using those, they'll have a new appreciation for them. I realize that Covid robbed many students of the opportunity to use certain Montessori materials in Grade 1 / 2 and I want to make sure they don't miss out.

We're starting to read the third Secrets of Droon book, which has made some students very excited and others not so much. This will be our last Droon book of the year and I encourage anyone who has really taken to the series to look at Value Village, Goodwill, and the public library to find more books! They are typically a perfect reading level for Grade 3 students.

Have a nice night!

Zac