The Learning Page

What Have We Been Learning?

Over the last two weeks, you may have heard your child talking about Learning to Learn. 

Classroom routines can positively affect students' academic performance as well as their behaviour. This is why we spend the first few weeks each year adopting a consistent  routine in each class and across the school.

Once taught, routines are daily activities that students are able to complete with little or

no teacher assistance, such as lining up or putting all their resources away at the end of the day. A routine helps inform students exactly what to expect, what is expected of them, and what is acceptable behaviour. Routines also help to create smoother transitions between activities and therefore allow fewer opportunities for disruptions to occur.

In addition to routines, students learn positive behaviour-, work-, social- and effort-based habits. The Big 10 covers the essential habits that we want to build at a school-wide level. Each day during the Learning to Learn period is spent diving deeply into what each habit looks like and feels like.

Example Activities

Big 10 Number 3: When learning about Big 10 Number 3 (Be safe around others), students learn strategies to help when there is a problem outside. Students explore the High 5 Problem Solving strategy. This is:

1. Ignore the behaviour
2. Move away
3. Say "Stop" politely
4. Say "Stop" firmly
5. Tell a teacher

Students complete a range of year-level appropriate tasks including role plays, practising outside, recording the strategies on paper for future reference and more.

Big 10 Number 7: When learning about Big 10 Number 7 (Smile and use your manners), students in our younger grades create their own class book with examples of which manners to use in different settings. In older grades, the impact of manners is discussed and tested on each other. Students also learn about what the word 'sorry' means. They discuss when people have said sorry and what actions might need to accompany the word in various settings.

A big focus has been on Big 10 Number 8 (Get along with others; be helpful, kind and caring). This is vital in forming strong class communities where children feel safe and happy. We have been particularly pleased to see students reaching out to our newest SMPS students through our new buddy-based Orientation Process.

We have been so impressed by the calmness and positivity that students are demonstrating as they learn routines and habits that will set them up for success this year.