We hope everyone had a wonderful summer and is ready for a great school year. We are very excited to be back and to guide our students through this beautiful learning journey.
This month has been a time of settling into a new grade, with new expectations, routines, teachers, and classmates. For many students, it has also meant joining a new class and getting to know new peers, some of whom are slowly becoming friends.
During these first few weeks, we have focused on getting to know one another, establishing routines and expectations, and assessing each student’s level so that we can meet them where they are and support their individual needs. As the students have become more comfortable with the routines and the environment, we have gradually introduced the independent work cycle and are slowly working toward completing the full three-hour cycle.
We have also begun building a sense of responsibility and community within the classroom. Students were assigned classroom jobs, including maintaining the shelves, feeding the guinea pigs, and preparing snacks. These responsibilities will rotate every month, giving everyone the opportunity to contribute to our classroom community in different ways.
After reading No, David! by David Shannon, we held a class meeting to create our classroom agreements for the year. The students then wrote and illustrated the agreements, after which we all signed them and added our fingerprints as a symbol of our commitment to them.
Returning students were also assigned buddies to help welcome and support their new classmates. Throughout the month, we have talked about and modeled grace and courtesy, practiced gratitude, and explored how each of us contributes to being part of a larger community.
Together, we have also brainstormed different strategies for solving everyday problems and meeting our needs independently. What can we do if we have a conflict? We can go to the Peace Table and talk about it. What can we do if we have too much energy? We can use the choice necklace and step outside for three minutes to do some jumping jacks. What can we do if we need to use the toilet? We can check whether the toilet necklace is available, take it, and go to the toilet. What can we do if we are hungry? We can check whether the snack table is open and enjoy our five-minute snack. And what can we do if we feel overwhelmed? We can use the noise-canceling headphones and/or go to the Calm Corner to practice some self-regulation exercises or enjoy some quiet reading.
These are just some of the strategies and activities we have introduced this month! We are sure that, if you ask your children, they will be able to tell you even more about what they have been learning and practicing.
This month, we also celebrated the International Day of Peace. We first talked about what peace means and how each of us can contribute to creating a more peaceful community. We then gathered with the entire Elementary community and added our individual feathers to a giant dove. Each feather represented our own contribution to peace, creating a beautiful symbol of what we can achieve when we all work together.