Busy Building

Busy Building and having a lot of fun in science :)

Never give up on your dreams...

This is a great time to reflect on the year so far. Christmas music playing (actually the Frozen soundtrack, go SEE IT), kids drawing winter scenes to decorate the gym or working on fun crosswords, word searches or Christmas math booklets and just enjoying the company of their fellow students.

We have worked very hard this year on becoming a tight knit group. Like a family we have little bumps along the road but they always serve as an example of what we need to work harder to keep from happening again.

The kids are very excited about their concert and do an amazing job with their songs. Looking forward to it finishing up and the 2 weeks to spend recharging and getting ready for the rest of the year. It is crazy to think we are already almost half way done. This year is flying by. It is true what they say about time flying when you are having fun.

I am continually amazed by the empathy and compassion and love that my students show for each other almost all the time. With the busyness of the holiday season the kids start to get a bit crazy and forget how much they care about each other. This week there has been more bumpy rides than smooth ones but then today a student came up with her picture of Rudolph with the caption "Never give up on dreams" It was exactly what I needed to flip the positive attitude switch.

So grateful for these amazing 8 year olds.

Learning every day together. I couldn't ask for a better job!

Merry Christmas.

Mr.G

Spiderman, Flying carpets and Mathamagicians

So this week has been very busy. Christmas is in full swing and skating has begun. The kids love all the snow on the ground and have been building gigantic snow forts and even when it is minus a million want to go outside. Great math day today with the kids really showing understanding of adding two digit numbers. Lots of mathamagicians in training. We had a lot of fun yesterday looking at various cultures and their celebrations. I will post some pictures later on. Great story of the week, 2 students decided to help a boy over come his fear of skating and spent the entire day working with him on the ice and by the end he was skating in the middle with them. Very awesome. Yesterday during culture day the kids were asked to write something down they learned about other countries. One of my students said, "In India they have buildings like castles...and flying carpets!" ...So close. This morning we rocked out to the original spiderman cartoon theme song. Great way to start a morning. Have a great day :)

Cheers,

Mr.G

Snow snow SNOW

Quick post today, had two days under feet of snow so no school. Got back and all the kids wanted to do was play outside. It is minus 30 in the wind and they still just wanted to play in snow...I don't get it. They have written me persuasive paragraphs on why I should like winter. I look forward to reading them.

-Mr.G

It is already December. What a crazy year it has been so far.

This has been a great year so far and a lot of fun. Here are a few pictures I hope to get a lot more up as we go forward :)

Have a great week.

Mr.G

Something Special

I LOVE TRIBES FRIDAYS. Today we talked about Wishes, Being Special and Cooperation. Some of the wishes were very touching (one wished that my house would sell) and others were cool (wishing to be an animal or live in Florida forever). For our being special activity I asked each student to think of something that makes them special. We had a lot of fun responses. One child however claimed that nothing makes them special and without a second passing one girl shot up her hand and said, "You are my neighbour and no one else can say that" Another a few minutes later said, I have another one for him, he is a really good hockey player" The boy who was once looking very discouraged beamed with a huge smile after that compliment. There is something about kindness being put out without solicitation that really makes for a great day!

I also got to read to a student today that is not very often inclined to do so and it was so fantastic. He even told me about the book after and told others, it was awesome.

Happy Friday

Mr.G

If today was any indication

We are going to have a fantastic week. Today was brilliant, actually let me correct myself, the students were brilliant. In math we tried a little activity to see where we were all at in addition and more specifically mental math. So many different ways to solve the problem were presented all individually unique and all correct. I had a room of 20 mathamagicians all working towards a common goal and all sharing their strategies and ideas with each other. It was a great tool to see where we needed to go next and they loved it.

In Social Studies we had a great conversation about Free the Children and Doctors without Borders. It was amazing seeing the kids talk and think among their group shocked that there are people in the world who would require these groups to improve their quality of life. We are looking at raising money for the Philippines and this was a great way to spark their desire to help. One student even told me they are donating money instead of getting tons of presents this year because they have enough stuff already. Great way to start the week. Hope yours was just as good.

Mr.G