Week at a GlanceWeek of November 25-29
Week of November 18-22
This week we are very busy preparing for our upcoming math, science, and social studies test. We have been going over the study guides and answering practice questions. We have also been enjoying listening to and presenting Islamic stories for our Storytelling Week. Mash Allah the kids are doing a wonderful job! Today, Grade 1 discovered the wonder of creating paper snowflakes. Once they started, we could not get them to stop. When the paper ran out, they ran to the tissue box and started making snowflakes out of the tissues! Subhan Allah! Tomorrow, we will also spend time talking about bullying and we will make a friendship chain, a class pledge and even a cheer to help us remember not to bully! Sr. Maimoona's BlogTuesday, November 26
Today was the first day Sr. Mona and I split the class into two groups for Language Arts and Math classes and I really enjoyed working with the kids in a smaller group. In the morning I took half the students upstairs to our classroom in the library for Language Arts, while Sr. Mona taught Math to the rest of the kids in the classroom. In the afternoon we switched groups. With smaller groups of 15 and 16, I really felt I had an opportunity to give more personal attention to each child. We started the Social Studies test today. Because it is an oral test, we could not get to each child today and we will have to continue testing tomorrow. So far, I am very impressed with their answers. Today after salah, we had a special visit from Sunny, Sr. Waheeda's daughter Sarah's cat . We are very grateful to Sr. Sarah for taking the time to bring Sunny in. He looked so cute in his handmade knitted sweater and hat, and the students really liked the cat and dog stickers that they received from Sr. Sarah and Sunny. Before Sunny left, he received more fan mail than a rock star; Grade 1 students showered him with cards that had cute cat drawings and expressions of love and thanks! For some students, it was their first chance to pet and hold a cat and they were very excited, but also scared. I especially enjoyed watching Zackria pet the cat so gently with a huge smile on his face. I was happy that they got an opportunity to see a cat close up in real life, because I had observed the other day that some of them could not tell the difference between the dogs and cats that were on their math test. As an educator I know that textbooks and worksheets are necessary for learning, but I am a strong believer that it is the experiences that the child has that will make the biggest impression and will be most memorable. Monday, November 25
Today was a very exciting day in Grade 1. We began the morning with looking at our new goldfish and being grateful for our new electric pencil sharpener. It's funny to watch the kids 'ohh' and 'aww' while watching the pencil shavings drop down from the pencil as it was getting sharpened. Wonder is a beautiful thing and something that we adults tend to lose as we get so wrapped up in our own busy lives. We took our Science test today and I was so proud of my students. MashAllah, even though the test was two periods, the kids were able to stay quiet and focus on the test. Next time, I need to make a test that requires less writing. It was a bit much for them. However, as I glanced at their papers, it looked like they did really well, inshallah. Next we practiced our Anti-Bully Chant and the kids seemed to really like it. Then I passed back the Math and Spelling tests, and I was so proud that most of the class earned Level 4 on these tests! Takbir!! Finally, I took the students upstairs to the library and showed them on the Smart-board how to use our new online reading program Raz-Kids. I can tell they can't wait to get home to try it out for themselves. I hope this new resource will encourage the kids to read, help them become better readers, and make life easier for everyone (including the parents). Documents
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