January 16, 2016

Last year, a number of teachers applied to take their students to Open Minds locations around Calgary for the 2018-19 school year.  They were thrilled to receive 8 spots which is perfect as there are 8 gr. 1/2 classes!  The teachers have already attended 3 or 4 workshops to prepare students for their experiences and we are excited to get the students going on their work toward those experiences!

Today the Kindness students found out where they will be going for their week long field trip, through Campus Calgary, Open Minds https://cbe.ab.ca/ccom/Pages/Home.aspx

The dates of the trips and request for volunteers will go home shortly.  All experiences are in the spring.

The Kindness Pod students have been divided among the three locations:
Vivo - Healthy Living School
Calgary Zoo - Zoo School
Glenbow Museum - Museum School (there will be two separate groups going here)

The teachers did their best to survey students to discover what their interests are and which program would be a best fit for them.  We did not take into account friendships as it is very important that they go to where their passion and interest is, as they will all have friends no matter where they go.  We have conferenced with the students and will not be moving students around any further as we have already begun our inquiry work to support the work we will do while we are there.

Here are some of the students' responses and questions:

I am going to Vivo for Healthy Living School and I am excited because there is a big pool.
Will we sleep there? - no, we will bus to and from each day during school hours.
I am going to the Calgary Zoo and I am excited to see all of the animals.  I'm most excited to see the Pandas.
Can we go to all different places?  No, you will go to the same location for all 5 days.
I am going to Vivo and I am really excited to maybe go in the Lazy River.
I am going to Vivo and I am happy with going there.  We get to do sports and activities.
I am going to the Glenbow Museum and I am very excited because it have very old things and some of them are Eric Harvie's things.  He started the Glenbow Museum.
I am going to the Zoo and I am so excited to see the Pandas there.  I'm going to bring my map.
I can't wait to go to the museum.  I like to learn about old things like arrow heads and old weapons for hunting and find out what happened to them.

This week is baby visit week.  The Kindness kids will or have already had their baby visit for the month.

The Red literacy group started a novel study, Jacob Two Two, and the purple group has started writing books.

The first group of students who were working with making movies this week on their iPads will get to present their films tomorrow.  If your child is exploring movie making techniques or trying out apps at home, please send the movie to a teacher from the pod to share!

Some of the students were working on triangle number problems https://mathforlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Magic-Triangles-Worksheet-1.pdf
and some students were working learning the mental math strategy, "Making Ten" through the game, Go Fish.  You can practice at home with a deck of cards today.  Partner cards are cards that you add together to equal 10.