Friend 2 Friend Presentation

These last two days of sunshine have been amazing and apparently it is supposed to continue on for the rest of the week. YAY! We've definitely taken advantage of the sunshine and spent some extra time outdoors during our gym block.

 

Personal Fitness

 

We are also right smack dab in the middle of our personal fitness unit for physical education. We are working on improving our stamina during our personal fitness centre rotations. Here are a few pictures that show some of our personal fitness activities. 

 

Friend 2 Friend Presentation



Today we were very lucky to have a few special visitors from the Friend 2 Friend Social Learning Society. The program they presented today in class works to foster understanding, acceptance and empathy between individuals with autism and their peers, while introducing prosocial communication strategies to enhance peer social relations and reduce bullying. The students watched a short video presentation, learned the seven friendship tips, and finally role-played with some puppets to demonstrate their learning and understanding. The presentation was extremely engaging and fun. We will definitely be doing some follow- up activities over the next month.  

 

Spelling

Don't forget that Friday is a Professional Development Day, therefore students will not be in class. Our weekly spelling quiz will take place on Thursday and we are focusing on the r-controlled spelling pattern - or and -ore. Our spelling lists are now available on spellingcity.com/singha. Spelling city is a great opportunity to practice your weekly words in a fun and engaging way. 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - OH MY!

If you read our last post, you would know that we just completed our informational writing unit. Our final drafts are complete, along with a cute craftivity, and are now on display in the hallway. Don't they look amazing!

 

Here is a close-up of one.

 

Lion and Tigers and Bears - OH MY!

 

Our new Language Arts theme is "Fairy Tales". We started reading "The Wizard of Oz" and we are absolutely loving it. This is the version we are using for our class read aloud times.

 

 

This story has provided a lot of opportunity for discussions about friendship. Today we took our discussions a bit further and practiced our conversation skills by learning appropriate ways to "join in" when we see a group of friends playing together or maybe even other students we may not know.

 

First, we learned, discussed and reviewed the steps needed to appropriately join in and play with others. We kept with the "Wizard of Oz" theme and called it...

 

 "Follow the Yellow Brick Road - Steps to Joining In".

 

 

Second, we discussed positive and appropriate ways we could respond and created a reference chart for future discussions.

 

 

 

Next, the students were partnered up and provided a scenario that would cause then to want to join in. Here are a few of our scenario cards.

 

 

Then, together in pairs, the students brainstormed a joining in statement along with a positive response on a conversation bubble activity page.

 

Last, the students role-played in front of their classmates, acting out each of their scenarios.

We will continue with our "Wizard of Oz" friendship theme tomorrow with some more writing activities that I will be sure to post.

 

Liquids and Solids and Gas - Oh My!

 

Oh My! was exactly what I was thinking when I decided to complete some messier experiments in matter this week. At first I was worried that the mess would be too much but the students were awesome and even though there were a few shrieks of excitement, it was well worth the end result.

 

On Monday we read a  Dr. Seuss story called "Bartholomew and the Oobleck". 

 

 

This story is about some ooey, gooey green goo that a king orders from his royal magicians. After reading the story, we made our very own oobleck. It was a sunny days so we decided to take the experiment outside and have a little more messy fun.

 

 

 

 

Today, we experimented with ways to blow-up a balloon using baking soda, vinegar, a small bottle and of course a balloon. We used our super scientist knowledge to form a hypothesis, complete the experiment and then discuss our observations. The look on their faces says it all.

 

 

 

 

We had so much fun, I will definitely be searching on Pinterest for some more fun experiments to try out before Spring Break!

 

Hope you enjoy your evening!

-Mrs. Singh