|
I hope this post finds you all well and taking care of each other as best you are able. Unfortunately at this time I have no good news to share with you about when schools might be reopening for students. Staffs have been asked to return to our buildings on Tuesday to discuss and begin to plan how we might go about delivering curriculum to children. Because the situation is changing so rapidly, all plans are fluid and subject to change. When I have more information for you I will post an update- hopefully next week. You can also check the School District 73 website for updates and they have posted some at home tips and activities for students. Until we meet again in person, please be safe.
When setting out expectations for a project with the children, Mrs. Farber and I seldom show them an example as they all want to make exactly what was shared with them and not create something of their own. With the catapult project we showed them pictures of a simple working catapult as many of them were unfamiliar with the term but did not show them how to make their own. The children had fun and did a great job figuring out how to use the materials given to complete a machine that would launch an object. We revisited the catapult idea again a week later but the second time provided a 'how-to' video and an expanded selection of materials to choose from and reminded them to revise their original ideas and improve upon them as needed. As so often happens when shown how to do something, most of them chose to try and make the exact same catapult from the video rather than playing and exploring with the materials and coming up with or building on their own ideas from the first session. Some of them had a difficult time expanding their thinking beyond their first try and others rose to the occasion and eagerly modified their catapults to make them bigger and better. We will continue to work on encouraging the children to change and rethink and tweek their ideas to improve on them as the year goes on.
 As part of our health and nutrition unit, we learned about brushing our teeth as a way to take care of ourselves this past week. Of course, this is a subject that Team Awesome is familiar with and they had a lot to contribute on the subject. We read some books, learned about bacteria in our mouth and plaque and did two experiments to bring home how important brushing and flossing our teeth regularly really is. Oh- and we listened to this song a number of times, but beware, it gets stuck in your head and will pop up at the most inopportune times and you just can't help but sing the chorus out loud. Crawford The Cat gave us a few pointers and we learned how toothpaste and tooth brushes are made as well. I hope that seeing why brushing is so important will help lessen the nightly arguments over taking care of our teeth.  We change our clocks this weekend which means spring is near. That also means that it is time to turn my winter lights off. I call them 'winter lights' and not 'Christmas lights'. I restrain myself and don't turn them on until the first day of December and turn them off the beginning of March- ergo, winter lights. Crazy, I know. But the winter days are so short and nights so seemingly never-ending and the lights are bright and cheery. Seeing them every evening as I walk up my street lightens my heart and makes the long darkness, if not more enjoyable, a bit easier to bear. So this weekend my winter lights will be the very last ones on my street to go out and usher in the longer spring days.
|
