A week at Museum School

We are back at school tomorrow after spending a week at the Glenbow Museum School, which is part of the Chevron Open Minds Program.  It was amazing!

The class learned an amazing amount about noticing details, making connections, and thinking critically.   They wrote poems inspired by art, then turned those poems into paintings, they wrote creative fiction inspired by artifacts in the Warrior exhibit, they used their knowledge and abilities to guess the purpose and usage of "mystery objects," they went behind the scenes to look at a variety of interesting objects in the museum storerooms (baby shoes, kitana blades, Patty the Dog, iceboxes, carpet beaters - so cool!), and chance to curate their own "mini-museum" as a completion activity on Friday, using artifacts from Alberta's past.  It was an amazing week and we are so thankful that we were able to attend. 

They enjoyed learning about the history of Stephen Avenue, sketching historic buildings from different angles including from the +15 walkway, visiting City Hall (they thought the old City Hall was much prettier than the new one), and visiting the Famous Five Monument in Olympic Plaza. 

This is an event that will inspire us at school for the entire year, and beyond.  Thanks to Michele and Marnie at the Glenbow and the entire Open Minds/Campus Calgary Team!

First Week of School = Complete!

I've recently begun reading an excellent teacher blog written by my friend Shivonne, and I'm going to take a cue from her.  I'm going to start blogging more often, and if those are shorter posts, at least I'm posting! 

My new class of grade 4 students and I had a great first week of school and I'm excited to dig in to some great inquiry learning as we get to know each other better.  We spent some time working on community building and making good choices.  We've read some great books, including my absolute favourite The Three Questions by Jon J Muth, inspired by Leo Tolstoy.  We also talked about how "Fair isn't always equal" and we watched the classic video Animal School by Raising Small Souls. 

Looking forward to next week!

School starts tomorrow!

I am so excited to be back at school tomorrow!  I've been back for a few weeks, moving things, getting things ready, setting up my temporary classroom, but tomorrow...tomorrow, the kids arrive and things actually get started. 

I like to prepare for school by doing all of my housework, prepping meals and lunches, and making sure that I can completely focus on school and my new kids for the first entire week.  I'm excited to get going - good luck to everyone starting school tomorrow!