Thursday, August 25, 2016

Back to School

Dear Elementary Parents & Guardians,

We've reached the end of our first 7-day cycle of the 2016/17 school year! Teachers have spent the first days of school getting to know the girls and providing time for the girls to get to know each other. Students are beginning to establish new friendships and reconnect with old friends. They're also getting to know some of our new teachers! Classroom agreements about positive learning environments are being created and in each classroom students are being asked to generate agreements about what a good learning environment will 'Look like,' 'Feel like' and 'Sound like' in the year ahead. Our goal is to create stimulating, challenging and supportive learning environments where students 'love to learn and learn to love'.

I came across mention of a Blog Post by Liz Evans, (Simple Simon & Company) in the Huffington Post. Ms. Evans, a parent and teacher shares that she found herself asking her own children every day after school, "So how was school today?" and everyday, she would get an answer like "fine," or "good." She found this wasn't telling her a lot and she wanted to know a whole lot! She generated a list of questions to ask her children and found they led to some interesting conversations and often to some entertaining answers and insights into how her children think and feel about school. Perhaps, try a couple of Ms. Evan's questions with your own daughter(s) when asking about her first days in her new grade. Have fun!

 1. What was the best thing that happened at school today? (What was the worst thing?)
 2. Tell me something that made you laugh today.
 3. Who would you most like to sit with in class? Why?
 4. Tell me a funny/new/weird word that you heard today?
 5. If I called your new teacher tonight, what would she tell me about you?
 6. How did you help somebody today?
 7. How did somebody help you today?
 8. Tell me one thing that you learned today.
 9. When were you happiest today?
10. Who would you like to play with at recess that you've never played with before?
11. What word did you teacher say most today?
12. What do you think you should do/learn more of at school?
13. What was your favourite part of lunch?
14. If you got to be the teacher tomorrow, what would you do?

A major goal we have across the elementary school this year is to maintain consistent communication with parents and guardians regarding school events and student learning. We will be sending out weekly updates each Friday with links to grade level blogs.