We have been dancing our way through November! We are learning about rhythm, sequences, locomotor and non-locomotor movements, pathways, and more!
I thought we'd take a break from all the dancing and make a little "dance art"! How cute are these?! I am so happy with the finished product.
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Our new math unit is on 2D and 3D shapes. I find it difficult to teach a split class, especially in math! We are all at different learning levels and each grade has different outcomes they must meet.
In my last unit, I taught separate subjects and lessons to each grade. It was HARD! I was send off on grade to work at their desks while I gave instruction to the other grade on the carpet. I was constantly being interrupted by the working grade with questions, I wasn't able to walk around and prompt my students with higher level thinking while they worked and I was stressed! This time around I am going to try and combine my lessons to fit the needs of both grade levels wherever possible! The first week we talked about 2D shapes and went on a "shape hunt". And now we has begun 2D shape centers. They worked SO hard at them and I could really see the learning that was happening as well. This week we learned about some tough stuff. This week I taught my students about Residential Schools. We started with reading Shi-Shi-Etko by Nicola I. Campbell. It is a book about a First Nations girl who is spending her last days with her family and doing the things she loves before going to Residential School. We talked about what we would put in our "memory bag" if we had to leave home. The students also shared with me what they would take as their keepsake if they could only take one thing. It was hard for my students to invision leaving home at such a young age. Shin-chi's Canoe was the second book we read this week. Shin-chi is Shi-Shi-Etko's brother and this book is written from his perspective during his time at Residential School. This book talks about not being able to speak their own language, what they ate, and how they were treated. I could really tell my students were starting to understand the concept of what happened. "Miss Nestman is this real?" Yes. "Is it still real?" An activity that we did with after reading these books, was drawing ourselves and writing on our body all the things we like, we are good at, things we have, or things that are important to us. The students did this, and then I asked them to crumble it into a small ball. They were shocked! I then instructed them to rip the picture up. We discussed: "Imagine you've been taken away from yor family now and sent away to Residential School. Everything about you is no longer allowed. All the things you are good at, all the things you are to other people is not true anymore because you aren't allowed to be with your family and friends, all the things you believe are forbidden, and you can't even speak your own language. Even if you try taping your picture back together, it will never be the same again. Just like the children who went to Residential School, they are damaged and broken. All the things that made them special and unique are destroyed. Would t be hard to figure out who you were again if this happened? What if this happened to you or your friends? How could you help someone that had this happen?" If you want to find the lesson, I got the idea from thecanadianhomeschooler.com I know that this helped my students understand. They asked me questions and we talked about this dark history. Now... why would I teach grade 1's and 2's about Residential Schools? Because it is important! I want my students to grow up knowing the things that I didn't know about. I want them to be free of bias and open to discussion and open to reconciliation. My students are the next generation of people who can make this right! Our first step to reconciliation was making feather wreaths. Feather wreaths are created to honour children who attended Residential Schools all across Canada. Each feather is given a unique decoration to honour the children. We are all Treaty People!My latest social unit that I am teaching is based off of DR2.4 in the Saskatchewan curriculum. We started with having an elder come to our classroom. It was a great introduction to the unit and myself and the students still reference things that he taught us that day. We have dug deeper into First Nations culture and life before the settlers. We are now having meaningful conversations about treaties. What treaty are we on? What is a treaty? Why are we all treaty people? I am amazed at what these kids know! And they are excited to learn as well. I am also finding ways to talk about Residential Schools and the dark past of Saskatchewan history. How can I bring up such a topic with children as young as grade 1 and 2? With the help of Shin-Shi-Etko and Shin-chi's Canoe, I will able to tell the story to my students in a meaningful and age appropriate way. I don't want to be the teacher that skips the topic because it is hard to talk about. I think my students should learn from an early age. I want them to be the ones to educate the people around them. Although treaty education is the focus on this specific unit, I try to incorporate it into all of my subjects and classes. In art we having been using a gathering drum and learning about pow wows. We are also learning to dance in different ways and reading books about jingle dancers and more. The students are so engaged and want to learn more! In my latest science unit (animal life cycles), I incorporated treaty education as much as I could as well. We talked about the buffalo, respect for animals, and read Rabbit and Bear Paws: Respect! My goal is to incorporate treaty ed into other subjects where it might be "harder", like math and ELA! If you are a teacher and would like to see this unit or other cross-curricular lessons, feel free to leave a comment... I would love to share!! We Are All Treaty People!I am going into my last week of my 3 week block (full-time teaching). I remember going into education and thinking about how scary internship would be. And then I entered my pre-internship and I remember thinking, "I cannot teach full time!" I was SO nervous for my internship. But then when September came, I was prepared and excited and not nervous at all.
NOW I am finishing up my 3 week block, and with ease. I can do this!! And I love it! Finding a career is scary. It might have took me a while but now I know I am exactly where I need to be! 💜 Miss Nestman Halloween has come and gone now. This year I was a part of the ECRC and the elementary students planned a great fun day for the afternoon! One activity was cupcake decorating and a Halloween movie. Another was a "creepy fun house" - like a haunted house but less scary!! And the last was a carnival. Activities were set up around the gym and the students participated to win tickets which they could switch for prizes! I survived my first Teacher-Halloween!!!Mental Health Awareneas Week was celebrated by all grades in our school (K-12). It is important for our children to learn and be aware even from a young age. It definitely is done in different ways, but there was one thing that we could do together as a school, and that was to watch the movie Inside Out!
Inside out brought a lot of discussion into our classrooms. We talked about our feelings, our emotions, how they change, and how they work! How we all feel different emotions at different times of our lives, and that that's okay! Each day each teacher planned an activity relating to our grade levels and Inside Out. One of my favourites was discovering, drawing and writing about our "Personality Islands". Some of the students had school island, family island, creative island, honesty island, goofy island and more! It was a good way to get to know my students at a deeper level as well. Friday, I planned an art project! My first time painting with my grade 1/2's. How awesome did our Inside Out masks turn out?! Check them out here! Like I said- it's been busy! We had Seed Survivor visit our school and the grade 1's and 2's spent an hour learning about agriculture, what we grow and don't grow in Saskatchewan, more on where our food comes from, and just farming in general. We planted seeds and played interactive agriculture games.
We were very lucky to have a visit from Seed Survivor! We were very thankful and grateful to have an elder visit our classroom this week. He gave us great insight into First Nations world views and ways of knowing. The students loved the stories he shared and I was so impressed with the questions we had!
Let's start at the beginning.... I thought it would be fun and a learning experience to hatch chicks in our classroom! It fits in so well with the grade 2 life cycles science unit. Each day we kept track of the chick development by using our classroom chick calander, our own development calanders, and one of our favourite videos on YouTube "chick embryo development". Guessed what happened this week!You guessed it! Our chicks hatched. We could not contain our excitement and we love to check the chicks hundreds of times in the day! We also like thinking of new and creative names for each chick. So far we have Michael and Bullet Proof.
Learning about oviparous animals and life cycles by hatching chicks is something I hope to continue to do in my future classrooms. It really has been an amazing week! We will miss having the chicks in our classroom, but they will be off to a new farm to live a happy life! |
Miss NestmanWelcome to my internship blog! Check back to keep updated on the fun we have in grade 1/2. Projects, activities, and what's new will be posted here! Thanks for following :)
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