Who we are - Week 2
We began to delve into our first unit for the year this week. We started with a challenge for the students to make a folded piece of paper the same as mine. They were allowed to look at the paper from any angle, but could not touch the paper. While they were trying to make it I recorded some of the comments that I heard the students say as well as filming them. After 10 minutes we looked at the list of comments and watched the video and wondered if these would help us to complete the task.
This was a difficult challenge and many of the students found it hard to complete. After hearing our responses and watching ourselves we starting talking about Growth Mindset.
Growth Mindset is the study of Carol Dweck she believes:
If you have a growth mindset, you believe that with work, practice, and perseverance, you can improve – whether it’s your academic performance, or any other skill. (Those with the opposite, a fixed mindset, believe that our intelligence and talents are predisposed, and either you were born with it or not.)
Thanks to the great work of Stanford’s Carol Dweck, we know that not only is the growth mindset accurate, but those who hold these beliefs actually improve more than those with a fixed mindset, which makes it so essential for our kids!
Full article can be found here https://www.oxfordlearning.com/growth-mindset-tips-for-parents/
During the week we watching video clips on Growth Mindset and tried to develop our understanding of what this means. On Wednesday we had a go at rewording our fixed mindset statements into growth mindset statements. We still have some work to go in fully understanding this, but we are defiantly on our way!
Essential Agreements
Over the last two weeks we have developed our essential agreements. The students created these and have all agreed to follow them this year.
Community Development Grade 2 had our first Community Development for the year. Once a week all of Grade 2 will come together to participate in different activities. This usually have a focus on creativity and linked to our unit of inquiry. This week we introduced this to the students and they had the choice to participate in making jigsaw puzzles, construction, paper folding and board games.
We started Module 1 in math. Please see the newsletter for more information on what this module is about. In class we played different number sense games, completed worded number problems and discussed different problem solving strategies.
Marshmallow Challenge
On Thursday we completed the Marshmallow Challenge. The students were placed in groups. Each group had 20 spaghetti pieces, 1 roll of masking tape, 1 piece of string, a envelope and 1 marshmallow. The task was to create the tallest freestanding structure which supports the marshmallow. Our focus for the challenge was cooperation. After completing the challenge each group wrote 6 word reflections.
Our 6 word reflections:
"The marshmallow was way too heavy"
"We tried our best, it's fun"
"We need to have a recipe"
"Challenging with other people, horrible challenge"
"It was fun and very hard"
"It's hard to make it stand"
"the project was fun and hard"
"It was so very much hard"
Assembly
We had our first elementary assembly of the year Friday morning. We welcomed Akari, Leah and Seb to the school and learnt about our new house teams. The students loved receiving their new house t-shirts. We also met for our first team time with all of Grade 2 on Friday.
During the week we watching video clips on Growth Mindset and tried to develop our understanding of what this means. On Wednesday we had a go at rewording our fixed mindset statements into growth mindset statements. We still have some work to go in fully understanding this, but we are defiantly on our way!
Essential Agreements
Over the last two weeks we have developed our essential agreements. The students created these and have all agreed to follow them this year.
Community Development Grade 2 had our first Community Development for the year. Once a week all of Grade 2 will come together to participate in different activities. This usually have a focus on creativity and linked to our unit of inquiry. This week we introduced this to the students and they had the choice to participate in making jigsaw puzzles, construction, paper folding and board games.
We started Module 1 in math. Please see the newsletter for more information on what this module is about. In class we played different number sense games, completed worded number problems and discussed different problem solving strategies.
Marshmallow Challenge
On Thursday we completed the Marshmallow Challenge. The students were placed in groups. Each group had 20 spaghetti pieces, 1 roll of masking tape, 1 piece of string, a envelope and 1 marshmallow. The task was to create the tallest freestanding structure which supports the marshmallow. Our focus for the challenge was cooperation. After completing the challenge each group wrote 6 word reflections.
Our 6 word reflections:
"The marshmallow was way too heavy"
"We tried our best, it's fun"
"We need to have a recipe"
"Challenging with other people, horrible challenge"
"It was fun and very hard"
"It's hard to make it stand"
"the project was fun and hard"
"It was so very much hard"
Assembly
We had our first elementary assembly of the year Friday morning. We welcomed Akari, Leah and Seb to the school and learnt about our new house teams. The students loved receiving their new house t-shirts. We also met for our first team time with all of Grade 2 on Friday.
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