Grouptime events

Communication is the word this week. In this grouptime activity the children explored different ways of staying connected with our friends apart from playing.  Earlier on in our unit, Luka suggested that he likes to write letters to his friends. What a great way to give and receive friendship! The children tried different ways of communicating with their friends in school. Some wrote letters via snail mail, sent emails, and we played the telephone game to dramatize what it is like to be talking to a friend on the phone.  We talked about the importance of manners, being polite and use of kind and friendly words. Tai sending an email to Alfie Jeffrey calling a friend Orin's letter to Natalya Today the children went for a walk to the nearest mailbox to send the special notes to their dear friends. Unfortunately, Luka was away last week when we started the activity. We'll make sure he gets to send his note too. 

Comments about Jean`s feelings I like ice cream, I like tea I want Francine to jump with me! Orin: ``This is the part where Jean is not mean anymore!`` We give and receive friendship in different ways and it's in these ways that we create a deeper connection with one another. The story of "Mean Jean: the Recess Queen`` by O`Niel helped the children better grasp the idea of giving and receiving of friendship.  We learned that by showing kindness and care we can win anyone's hearts even those who may seem "mean" or unfriendly to us in the beginning. We made a list of how we can express friendship with one another and they said that showing love and kindness, inviting someone to play, saying sweet words like "I like you", sharing and hug+kisses are ways of giving  friendship.  We discussed how these friendly behaviour can make us feel and we carefully looked at how ``Mean`` Jean`s attitude has changed when she was given fri

 Human graph: asked the Wind group what they think about Judy & Orin's comments oil & water experiment Tallying our ideas. In this grouptime we addressed a couple of comments earlier on in our unit.  In the week of our formative assessment, Orin suggested that: "friends are not allowed to get angry at each other"; and Judy said that: "friends should not fight with each other". I was curious about how the others feel so I asked if they agree or disagree with their peers. Most of them think that feeling angry and fighting is not ok at all because it makes them feel more sad and upset when a friend is angry. Then I asked if they ever ever disagreed or fought with a friend or felt angry. They all said "yes"so I wondered and I challenged them...if they feel they are "not allowed to fight and feel angry towards a friend" why does it happen or why do we feel that way sometimes? Orin just said: "because, we just do...I