“What are you doing in Math today?” the VP inquires of my grade 5,6,7 and 8 students. “We’re playing games.” “You’re playing games?” “Yes, we always play in math.” The assessments gathered from these classes provide me insight of where everyone is in their learning. My experience with assessments are that individual conversations to understand […]
Play-Based Learning
Play-Based in Primary
At the start of October, I began a full year assignment at a new school teaching Grade 1/2. After teaching Kindergarten last year, I am overjoyed at the opportunity to teach these grades. I am looking forward to “following” the early learning continuum from a Kindergarten environment into primary, and the opportunity to bring along my […]
Digital Breakouts
Escape Rooms have been all the rage as of late. Over the past couple of years, I’ve learned about and used breakouts in my classroom to engage students and as a tool in assessment for and assessment as learning. Essentially, it’s a Google Slides presentation or a Google Site where there are links to different […]
A Tree-Mendous Learning Opportunity
Outdoor learning is becoming an increasingly important and celebrated element of the Kindergarten program. As more and more teachers are beginning to embrace true inquiry and play-based learning, time spent outdoors is becoming a focal point of the Kindergarten day rather than a “break from the learning”. Outdoor time IS the learning. My Kindergarten […]
Drama in the Classroom: The Good Kind
When thinking of drama as a subject in our curriculum, it is easy to think of it only as a skill that can be learned and mastered. There are a lot of fundamental concepts that we teach – role play, character, relationship, time and place, tension, focus and emphasis. Our students love creating scripts, making […]
Organizing the Flow of the Day
We have clocked in three months in our kindergarten class so far, and on the whole, my ECE partner and I feel there are some really strong aspects of our day – the outdoor learning blocks at the beginning and end of the day, for example, and weather permitting, outdoor time in the middle of […]
Here we go with the snow
Monday morning, we went to school in the first blizzard of the year. It was bitterly cold, and the wind howled around, blowing the 20 centimetres of snow into small drifts. Was there ever a question that our outdoor learning block at the beginning of the day would be cancelled? I am not comfortable just […]