We did this heart map art and writing project! There are lots of heart map templates available online. We kept it simple with pencil crayon and fineliner, but you could also get out the paints for this! The focus of our writing was on adding interesting details!

We also did a grateful hearts activity. I had students cut out a paper heart for each member of their family and write a reason that they are thankful for them.

We kept our actual Valentines Day celebration simple. Students decorated paper bags (using stickers that a parent kindly donated) and handed out cards, then had some free time in the classroom. I was surprised that not many students brought Valentines to hand out! But they still seemed to really enjoy the afternoon. 

We had fun writing about our families! Again, we worked on adding interesting details. 

We also created Family Day cards. I printed out small yellow circles, white petals, and small white circles. Students cut out and colored a petal for each family member. Then, they glued a white circle on each petal and drew a picture of their family member. Finally, they glued the yellow circles on top as the centre of the flower. Simple and cute! 

I printed off shirt templates on pink paper and students decorated them and wrote kindness/anti-bullying messages. We did this in library. 

Also, we read The Kindness Quilt by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace and created our own kindness quilt! Each student drew an act of kindness on a small white square of paper and wrote a description. Then, they glued their white paper on a piece of origami paper. Finally, we put all of their squares together to make our kindness quilt! 

In January, we created our maps of good memories - inspired by this lesson from Adrienne Gear's blog. We followed up on this by writing about our maps. Again, this was a good opportunity to practice adding details to our writing. 

Inspired by Mme Marissa's blog, we wrote land acknowledgements! I created this template for students to use as a planning sheet. As part of this activity, we watched this great video that explains land acknowledgements in a simple and ago-appropriate way. It's so important to teach our students about truth and reconcilation not just on September 30 but all year long, and writing land acknowledgements can be a powerful way to do so. 

I have added a block to our day that I'm calling "Routines". I schedule this for after recess or lunch when our EAs on their break, since most of the activities are ones that the students can do relatively independently. 

These are the activities I do at this time:

1. Spelling - Refer to the September blog post for a description of our spelling routine. We have now completed the Dolch Grade 1 words and are ready to start the Grade 2 words. There are two levels of the Measured Mom resource I use, so I have students who scored 13/15 or higher on the pre-test do the harder version of the worksheet, while the students who scored 12/15 or lower do the easier version. The harder version requires students to use the targeted word in a sentence, which gives me an opportunity to offer students feedback on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling of other words in the sentence - this is the value of the activity for students who already know how to spell the words. The easier version of the sheet involves a kinesthetic activity (cutting and pasting the graphemes in the correct order) and also requires students to distinguish between the target words and other words that are visually similar. 

Our amazing Resource Teacher and I have split up the Grade 2s and 3s for math. I'm teaching the Grade 3s and she's teaching the Grade 2s. This has been a GAME-CHANGER! I cannot recommend it strongly enough. This is worth organizing even if it's only once a week or for part of the year. If you can't organize this with your Resource Teacher, you could try to make this work with another classroom teacher who teaches the same split grade as you. Working with only half the class has made it so much easier to differentiate and make sure each student is getting appropriate challenge or support as required.

With the Grade 3s, I have worked on the following:

1. Numbers to 1000 - We did lessons 7 to 10 of this resource. (Although it's sold as a Grade 2 resource, the final lessons are aligned with Grade 3 curriculum in BC.)

2. Fractions - We did lessons 9 and 10 of this resource. (Same note as above re: curriculum alignment.) My students especially enjoyed the fractions puzzle activity! We also did this fraction name activity which is free on TPT. 

3. Addition within 1000 - We started by adding hundreds (e.g., 100+800=900), then hundreds and tens (e.g., 490+210=700), and are now working on adding hundreds, tens, and ones. Instead of teaching the standard algorithm, I've taught students to use the following strategy:

281 + 258

Add the hundreds: 200 + 200 = 400

Add the tens: 80 + 50 = 130

Add the ones: 1 + 8 = 9 

Add the hundreds, tens, and ones: 400 + 130 + 9 = 539

We are still working on this! Some students have got it, but some need more practice. 

We've started learning all about physical and chemical changes to matter! We're using this resource from Poet Prints Teaching. These are the lessons we have done so far:

1. We learned about physical changes using a reading I had Microsoft Copilot generate. Students wrote three things they know (after reading) and three things they wonder about physical changes. Then, they colored the cover sheet that is included in the resource linked above.

2. Same lesson as above but focused on chemical changes

3. We watched this YouTube video. Using information from the video, students completed concept webs about physical and chemical changes.

4. We played a vocab matching game and did a reading and response sheet about physical changes from the resource linked above. Then, students recorded three things that they have learned about physical changes based on the unit so far.

5. We did a reading and response about chemical changes and students recorded three things they have learned.

6. We did a reading from the unit about changes to matter in real-life. Then, students drew and labelled four examples of physical changes.

7. We watched this video. Students drew and labelled three examples of chemical changes. 

8. We created an anchor chart including a definition, evidence, and examples of physical and chemical changes. Then, students wrote in their journals about the differences between these two types of change to matter.

Next month, we will continue exploring this concept by doing some hands-on experiments! 

This is a sexual abuse awareness and prevention program that in our district is mandatory for teachers to teach and for students to participate in. This month, we did four lessons (one each week):

1. Intro lesson - Students did a worksheet that asks them to draw a self-portrait and complete the following sentences: "I  like that I am...; I keep myself safe by...;"I keep myself healthy by..." I was surprised by how much my students enjoyed completing this simple sheet! We also watched this video about consent - such an important topic! 

2. We learned about five reasons for touch: fun (e.g., a piggyback ride), caring (e.g., a hug), safety (e.g., lifting someone down from somewhere too high), cleanliness (e.g., a parent helping a kid wash their hair), health (e.g., getting a vaccination). We looked at images of these different types of touch and categorized them. 

3. We learned about online safety. Students LOVED this online resource from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. We explored this as a class (I projected from my laptop), but you could also have students use their individual devices if you have them. 

4. We discussed assertive communication - saying "No" with a strong voice and body language.