With the growing population of our world some sources of protein, like meats, will be more and more difficult to sustain. This could be one solution…
Watch the video and in your comment share:
For this Thursday’s provocation, watch this video, and leave a comment. I would love to read some writing of this, as a small moment, from the fox’s point of view!
Here is a word cloud of our discussion so far
Below is a word cloud of people’s thoughts from yesterday’s video provocation about how “Love has no Labels”.
A few classes across the school have taken to sharing provocations. Questions, images and videos that beg for a reaction. Today we offer you this… Parents, students, please have a look and leave a comment with your thoughts. What do you think?
What a great cook out! Students were very excited to meet their buddies and get out into the woods. Luckily, the weather cooperated and both 5R and 2M got to connect for the first time while roasting sausages, and more than a few marshmallows, in the beautiful woods on our ZIS doorstep. We’re looking forward to many more adventures and learning with our second grade buddies throughout the year. Many thanks for your support! Enjoy all the photos of the day in this album.
This morning we were chatting in 5R about how to make connections with our buddy class, Ms McCaughan’s second graders, and to celebrate our first five weeks together. One suggestion that got a lot of enthusiasm, was having a sausage campfire lunch!
Having discussed the idea with Ms McCaughan, here’s the plan…
This Thursday, September 22, we will not be having our normal lunch routine. At 11:30 we will meet our buddy class for the first time, and head out into the woods behind the school to a campfire site together. We will build a fire, cook our sausage lunch, share some desserts and other foods, and enjoy a couple hours in the woods together. We will return to class for 1:30.
Here’s what we need from you…
FOOD
If there is a problem with this please let me know as soon as possible and we will problem-solve together.
Additional foods, like marshmallows, other desserts, easy vegetables (like baby tomatoes, vegetable sticks etc.), bread rolls, potato chips, mustard, ketchup etc., as well as paper plates and utensils, would be welcome in small amounts, to share. The students suggested a sign-up sheet for this. There is no requirement that anyone bring additional foods, I’m sure we will have enough. If you would like, you can sign up here.
One last food note… Please don’t send anything other than sausages/hot dogs to cook over the fire. We won’t be able to do steak or chicken legs this time! 🙂
WEATHER
At the moment the weather looks good for Thursday. This may change however. If on Wednesday evening the forecast looks really wet for Thursday, we will cancel for this week and reschedule for an upcoming week. Please keep a look out for a blog post on Wednesday evening if we are cancelling. If we are not cancelling, there will be no update.
Of course, we will be in the woods for a few hours. Please ensure your child has appropriate clothing for this. Mosquito repellant may be smart, and clothes/shoes that can get dirty would be good.
As always, please ensure your child has a water bottle with them to take into the woods. A good-sized snack is a good idea as well.
KEY POINTS in this post:
Thanks for your support! It’s going to be a great celebration!
The title of this post seems to go against everything we’ve been led to believe about supporting our children and students to be the most successful they can be. We want them to believe in themselves. We want them to feel capable of taking on challenges, but a growing body of research tells us that we may be doing just the opposite with this kind of praise.
The title of this post was the title of an op-ed piece written by Salman Khan, creator of Khan Academy, published in the Huffington Post some time ago. In that piece Salman goes on to give an overview of a concept in education called the “Growth Mindset”. In short, having a “growth mindset” means believing that intelligence, and ability to learn, aren’t purely genetic, or fixed. That the brain is a muscle in many ways like all the others, something elastic, that when exercised can strengthen and grow.
Khan Academy, has been experimenting with this concept and attempting to apply this research through little experiments like placing growth mindset statements next to math problems. A statement might read: “When you learn a new kind of math problem you grow your math brain!”. According to Carol Dweck, the Stanford University researcher who’s published widely on the topic, “Students who saw these growth mindset statements solved more problems correctly, took more units and mastered them, and got more problems correct in subsequent units, even when they weren’t seeing the statements.”
Khan Academy recently launched their #YOUCANLEARNANYTHING campaign in support of cultivating growth mindsets in students. This video is a nice introduction:
The big question for us at ZIS, of course, is what are we doing with our students to promote this clearly powerfully important idea? Are we telling students they’re smart? That they’re not smart? Or celebrating their efforts, their struggles, and that they can learn anything…
Dear 5R families,
You are invited by Katy and Mandy, 5R’s class parents, to our class’ first Coffee Morning. The first event will take place on Wednesday, September 14 from 9am at Schoenegg. Coffee with a view!
For some people it’s just another day, but for others Photo Day is a big deal. Regardless of which describes you, it’s good to be prepared. This year 5R will be having our photo days as follows:
Individual Photos: Wednesday, August 31
Group Photo: Friday, Sept 2
Now, what am I going to wear…?
One other note… Please remember to collect and bring, or send in your materials for your Writer’s Notebook. Want the details? Click here.
Thank you all for joining us on Monday night. For those who were there, and those who weren’t able to make it, I’ve included the presentation shared. Much of it was really visual “cue cards” for what I hoped to speak about, but some important links are contained as well. I really enjoyed sharing the vision of Grade 5 with you, and am more than happy to answer any questions I can.
Warm regards, Jamie