Today we: had a great discussion about current events and their connection to racism. Black History Month has so many relative subjects and the students were so interested in knowing more about history and current events. We briefly talked about World War II and how it was driven by racism against Jewish people, and how it connects to Putin in Russia choosing to invade Ukraine for similar reasons (we gathered this from a video on the news aired today). Anne Frank was discussed and a few students have already read or want to read her book based on this discussion. We also talked about why the world gets involved in country conflicts and how this takes it from a war to a world war. It was amazing to see so much interest, and we researched so many things as we talked to make sure the facts we looked up were credible - this led to a talk about fake news, propaganda, and social media as well. It was very brief, and many things were brought up, I encourage parents to facilitate more discussions around these topics, but they will be learning more about them as they grow to junior high.
In math, we are perfecting our skills with our times tables by doing 5 minute drills first and reviewing with a number talk. Today we did the 3's and followed it up with a visual explanation of counting by 3's. We looked at all of the multiples of 3 up to 12, and we used blocks to show groups of 3. We discussed patterns we saw in the line up, and strategies to remember the ones we struggle with - such as referring to the closest multiple we remember and counting up from there. After, the class split off into groups and worked on two division word problems. They were encouraged to work together on strategies and to make mistakes to help get closer to the answers. We took it up as a class afterwards, and reviewed how to do long division which is just more practice using the times table charts. Some light bulbs really went off today!
The kids were thrilled to have outdoor recess again! They've been encouraged to dress appropriately for the weather, and not to count on blue days for every cold day. Hats, mittens, proper coats and shoes are important for playing in the snow. The exercise was definitely missed this week, so they were much less stir crazy with some movement and fresh air.
After lunch the students had music and P.E., so with the little time in between, they worked on their social presentations. Curling continued with Mr. Newton, and the students are learning the difference between a strong throw and a soft one. With curling, it is crucial not to throw so hard or it will not land on the circle, but blow past it, but they can hit their opponent off the circle! Competition was motivating and they had a lot of fun practicing their skills.
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