Learning Community

Building Community in Junior A

In Junior A we have been intentionally and collaboratively building “Our Place to Grow and Thrive” throughout our Set Up program. In Inquiry, through small group, interest based creative play we have been naming, labelling and practising the skills we need to learn and play cooperatively with others and identifying our strengths as we collaborate with others. Digging deeper, we will be exploring how we can use our interests and strengths to contribute positively to our communities and we cannot wait to get our student led clubs up and running. 

Themes of community, identity and belonging were interwoven as we set up our communities of writers and readers in Literacy. Students have been sharing their interests, passions and experiences through their writing, learning about how writers get feedback and ideas from other writers and students will soon be adding their own published texts to our classroom libraries. Students have enjoyed using their reading preferences and interests to build our libraries and constructing rules and expectations for library use. In Numeracy, students have participated in lots of paired and small group counting, place value and problem-solving activities, sharing their understandings, thinking and strategies with their peers.

Here are some comments from our Junior A students about what excites them about school:

• I like spending time helping the preppies because I want to make them feel comfortable. Noah, JAA
• I like P.E. because we run and play memory tag and it is fun. Khadijah, JAB

• I like making new friends. Jayda, JAB
• I liked the counting legs activity in maths. Sajid, JAA
• I have enjoyed writing about my favourite things. Amal, JAA
• I liked the Spooky Scary Skeleton dance in Hip Hop. Hasin, JAA
• I like keeping the school clean so it can be shiny and tidy. Elif K, JAA
• I like problem solving in maths because it is a challenge. Phoebe, JAA
• I like writing and everything because it is fun and I like my homework. Mihriban, JAB
• I like my new friends and my classroom is the best. I like P.E. and ART and maths. Zara, JAB

Building Community in Middle B

In Inquiry, we have been learning about the meaning of rules and laws and why we have rules and laws. We have been engaging in activities to deepen our understanding of the importance of rules and laws and how they help with peace and conflict within the world. We had the opportunity to share our understanding, thinking and wonderings about the rules and laws around us. 

In Numeracy, we have been learning about using our knowledge of number facts to solve number sentences. We have been writing and recording numbers in words and symbols. We are learning to use the place value chart to help us to explain the value of the numbers.