A Caring, Curious Classroom

We had a variety of activities, lessons, and follow-ups happening in Morado this month.

Students enjoyed frosty mornings on the playground and clear days outside for playground time and specialists.

Through lessons and follow-ups, students continued to work on understanding and identifying structures in nonfiction and what they can do for the reader. Such practice generated self-chosen research projects on teepees, maple syrup-making, chameleons, Europe, World War I, and dogs/foxes/wolves.

Children learned what an antonym is and followed up with practice throughout the week from antonym drawers on the language shelf. Many students completed their winter math assessment  (others will do it in the week ahead) using our Track My Progress math assessment tool. It's just one of many tools to give us a window into how students are progressing with their mathematical understanding. 

We had a peace circle activity to appreciate individual differences and strengths in each other. Students started out by deciding which animal they wanted to be (from a choice of Lion, Eagle, Turtle, Chameleon), and then in small groups identified strengths in their chosen animal, as well as a list of reasons why they didn't want to be the other animals. Students shared what they came up with and we followed with a discussion about the individual strengths and differences in all of us. We were impressed with the level of engagement and discussion, and the activity provided a helpful platform to refer back to at various points later in the week. 

A Morado parent shared his interest in chemistry by demonstrating how to separate the oxygen from hydrogen peroxide. Students heard terms such as catalyst and endothermic versus exothermic reaction, and were full of enthusiasm and curiosity throughout the entertaining demonstration. The demonstration is sometimes referred to as "Elephant's Toothpaste" because of the foam that comes out of the bottle during the reaction. We look forward to more chemistry demonstrations from him in in the months ahead. 

As Hopelink donations came in this week, small groups of Morado and Turquesa students helped sort and count donations each day.

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