Friday, December 19, 2014

Joyful Learning

This is a time of year when the hustle and bustle of the holiday season can make it hard to maintain a focus on teaching and learning. At Dryden, however, it makes me feel so joyful to see so much learning taking place!

In fourth and fifth grade, I got to sit in on some fascinating reading lessons and discussions for science. One group was reading and discussing whether microbes were a "friend" or "foe". Another group was reading and learning about carnivorous plants.



In art, our students were treated to choosing stations to use media of their choice.


School Resource Officer, Rick Veenstra, visited the third grade classes, and talked to them about Bully Prevention.

In gym class, students eagerly took on the Healthy Heart Challenge. Mr. Gries created an obstacle course that follows the course of blood through the heart, so that children can learn how the heart works.


Our multi-age classes have been learning about Chinese culture. As part of of this experience, they tasted a variety of Chinese foods and wrote creative, mysterious fortunes on slips of paper for fortune cookies. They are researching the Great Wall of China, learning about their history, people, animals and much more!


One of our fourth grade classes spearheaded a winter coat drive throughout the school. Students' posters and morning announcements inspired many to donate to those in need.


The Dryden PTA coordinated a memorable Winter Wonderland for our students! Older students were paired up with younger students to work on crafts, play games and learn some dances. It's always so heartwarming to see our older students be such positive leaders and role models!






The fourth grade musical was a highlight of the week. The students sang, danced and played instruments to a variety of seasonal songs. My favorite was "Celebrate with Joy!" The chorus was "Celebrate what you celebrate with joy!" What a powerful, positive message of inclusion and acceptance for all of our students, families and staff!


We are heading into a two-week winter break. May this be a time of joyful celebration for you and your families. On behalf of Dryden Elementary School, we wish you a happy and healthy 2015!






Thursday, December 11, 2014

It's a WONDER-ful Life!

As we take in the joy and wonder of the holiday season, I imagine how our children would benefit from a never-ending "season" of wonder. Wondering leads to meaningful exploration and questioning. Learning to ask meaningful questions is at least as important as finding the answers. The pursuit of finding the answers to one's questions often leads to deep, rich learning, and of course, more questions.

As we incorporate more opportunities for Personalized Learning, we are cultivating a culture of wonder for our students at Dryden. Some ways you may see this happening include students recording their thoughts in a Wonder Journal or posting and sharing them on a Wonder Wall. The Wonderopolis website (watch this video) is a great forum for children to explore and share their wonders.

Learning how to ask good questions requires instruction, practice and feedback. In order to ask good questions, we make students aware of the need to first have some understanding of the topic, perhaps even do a little "presearch". It is difficult to ask meaningful questions when we know nothing about the topic.

Children learn to ask questions of different "sizes". A "small" question focuses on factual information, a "medium" question may be more analytical in nature, and a "big" question will be more open-ended and focus on creative thinking and evaluating. Often, we have to ask and seek answers to many small questions in order to address a big question.

The following question stems are great ways to start "big" questions:
Might...?
Should…?
Would…?
Could…?

We can help our children strengthen their questioning skills by openly sharing our own questions and wonders and by encouraging them to share their own. By tapping into children's curiosities, we find their deepest sense of motivation to learn, think creatively and take on challenges. It truly is a WONDER-ful life!