On Friday, October 28 we will be having our annual Fall Fun Day. We plan to do many team-building activities including pumpkin carving, games, and a team lunch. We ask that each student bring in $5 to cover the cost of pizza from Jimmz. (Students can also opt to get school lunch or bring lunch from home if they prefer.) You can send in cash or make a check payable to CBMS. We are also sending a link to our sign-up genius to request donations for our varying activities that day and some added lunch items. Click here to donate. Email Melinda at manderman@huusd.org with any questions about donations. Thanks in advance for your support.
Student Supply Reminder
Students should have earbuds or headphones with them at school each day. These were on the supply list we sent home this summer. We have just a few pairs of backups for children who may not have their own. Please make sure your child has theirs with them. Thanks for your support!
Curriculum Updates
Exciting News: We will be starting our first official Science and Social Studies units on Monday. Students will be with their Core 2 teacher for their first unit and then in roughly 6 weeks they will switch and will participate in the other unit. More to come about this next week as we get started!
Social Emotional Learning --Never Ends:)
Since the start of the year, we've used that 3rd core chunk of time for building the foundation of how our team will function together for two years and hopefully also provide them with skills that they will carry with them for a lifetime! We still have so much more work we will continue to drip feed throughout the year but it is evident in the way the children are sharing and functioning that they feel our team is a safe and welcoming space for them. Here are just a few examples of what we worked on this week...
One, we focused on Community. What that means. What type of communities they are a part of and the roles and responsibilities they have within their communities. How their uniqueness enhances a community. How the ways that we are different can also cause conflict within a community. Students brainstormed times they have had conflict in their personal lives and at school. We talked about how getting to know people and building trust helps us to understand others and have empathy. Trust is an important part of a community. We then gave them language and strategies for conflict resolution that they can use. Students practiced using these strategies with common school-based conflicts that they identified such as people arguing during soccer at recess. Yesterday the students shared that they feel they have the language they can now use to help them resolve conflict. Again, this is by no means work we are finished with as conflict will continue to arise but it provides the students with a common framework and language they can default to.
Two, because we will continue to have LOTS of discourse on our team, across subject areas, we are explicitly teaching communication skills. We started with the importance of eye contact. Students participated in several experiments where they gave their classmates varying degrees of eye contact and then reflected on how the various interactions made them feel. We will continue this work next week and beyond as we build their effective communication skills.
History, Holidays & Multiple Perspectives
On Wizards, we want students to understand the complexity that is history and its connection to the present. The first instance of this was explored just recently. We like for our students to know why we get holidays off from school and the history of our federal holidays. So when things are timely and relevant, we discuss them and learn more.
This past Monday was Indigenous Peoples' Day. Students participated in several lessons learning the history of how Columbus Day came to be even though he didn't actually discover America and the Italian American immigrants who needed a hero when they faced discrimination upon arrival into America in the early 1900s. Students then also learned about Columbus's horrific negative impacts on Native Peoples.
When we learn about these tough historical topics, we create space for an open dialogue about the multiple perspectives surrounding any historical event. Students also develop their critical thinking skills. Yes, Columbus was a brave explorer AND he also enslaved Indigenous People. Both are true.
Analyzing history through this lens allows students to come to understand that humans are complex. That no one person is all bad or all good. That depending on who you ask, you might get a different viewpoint. Our job is to LISTEN to each other and have civil discourse around the topic while supporting our opinions with evidence. In the end, students were asked to defend their claim of whether they think we should be celebrating Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples' Day. They then had to defend their thinking with evidence from what they learned. Also, a cross-curricular, lifetime skill.:) We encourage you to have a discussion with your child about the varying perspectives on this particular topic.
Throughout the year, we will keep you informed about the nature and topics of our discussions so that you can follow up at home.
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