Check out what one of our SK students created today on our light table as she made connections to the things she sees out of her window. It was truly wonderful witnessing her attention to detail, focus and imagination come to life as she created such a beautiful picture!

"This is the tree and it has a hole in the middle."

"This is the beehive and the bees are buzzing."

"This is the sky."

"This is a clock so people know what time it is."

During our End of the Day Meeting, we celebrated G.B's creation by tweeting about her work and showcasing a picture of her artistic design to her classmates on the SmartBoard. Here are some of the wonderful compliments given to her by her friends:

E.S.: I really liked how she added a lot of detail and she took her time when she made her picture. I like all the colours too. 

M.P.: I really liked how she made her picture. It's pretty. 

J.S.(SK): I like how you made the leaves falling and made a hole in the tree.

Here is a video of G.B. explaining her beautiful light table creation:

Thank you to G.B.'s parents for letting us post the captured video! We truly love celebrating our student's learning and highlighting their work on the blog!

We Can See...All Around the World: ECOO 2013

Please join my inspiring colleague Angie Harrison (@TechieAng), a Full Day Kindergarten teacher in York Region, and I as we engage in a conversation about ways to use Global Projects in the classroom at this year's ECOO 2013 Conference!

As mentioned on their website, "ECOO is a voluntary organization for teachers, by teachers. The breadth and scope of workshops make it the perfect destination for self-directed professional development."

The following is a captured description of our session:

In our session, we will highlight our We Can See Project and talk about ways we connected with classrooms and educators around the world.

(http://wecanseeprojectsharingspace.blogspot.ca) 

Come and learn how you can take this simple concept and create an engaging Global Project to meet the needs of your classroom in any grade! 

Feel free to click on the following link to read more about the ECOO 2013: Bring IT Together Conference (http://bringittogether.ca)

A Look Inside Our Classroom...

The start of a new school year always brings forth the feelings of excitement, new insights, ideas and possibilities! Designing our classroom environment into a learning space that embraces all of those feelings is something my wonderful DECE, Heidi Theis, and myself were looking to accomplish yet again as we embark on our second year together as a teaching team! This entire process is one that automatically builds in professional reflection, as we began to rethink, repeat, and remove particular elements within our classroom set-up. Even though the mountain of furniture piled together on newly waxed floors was intimidating during the last week of August, we always view the process of setting up our classroom environment as a way for setting the tone for our school year! We want our classroom to elicit the same feelings of excitement, new ideas, wonderings, and endless possibilities within our students, and for them to enter into our classroom each day eager and motivated to learn! 

The following pictures capture our learning environment as it was set-up for this 2013-2014 school year! 

Over the course of the first week, many exciting things emerged as our students began to feel comfortable and gained familiarity with the materials, learning spaces, and routines within our classroom. From rocket ships and swimming pools being built in our Building & Constructing Area to students recording what they see, think and wonder about the snails in our classroom, we have truly seen our classroom come to life now 

that are students are a part of it! 

 

We truly can't wait to see how our students continue to help make this learning environment their own and we look forward to sharing our journey with you!