A really exciting day. The students in this class love being role models. Many students have leadership positions within the school. Some students have been asking about getting “a buddy class”. We decided instead of having one buddy class- we would offer to be buddies to any class. Our class put it out to the whole school that any class would be welcome to come by our room to see our recently hatched alevins. Alevins are baby salmon who are still holding onto their yolk sack. Division 15 took us up on our offer! We spent a little bit of time in the morning working on our graphic novels (Grasper!) but after that we got busy preparing for the arrival of the Ks and 1s!
I facilitated the preparations and supported the students in planning all kinds of details:
-where the students would sit (we decided they might like the carpet inside the bleachers because that area was the most similar to their classroom)
-what kind of voices we should use when talking to the Ks and 1s (slow and soft voices, a loud room might scare them)
-how to help someone in kindergarten with printing their name or other words (tell them they are doing a good job- or let them trace your writing-)
-how to make a skit of the salmon life cycle seem funny to younger children (we thought about using objects they were used to- like using a lunch kit to represent the yolk sac!)
-how to get the students to pay attention to us and know we are ready to start (I taught the students a criss-cross-applesauce song I knew so that they had something to get the K/1s attention)
After all the basics were planned one group of students asked to stay in at lunch to decorate the room in a special way for the Ks. I helped the group get organized. We put oil pastels in small cups and even decorated the tables with small rocks, shells and glass beads to represent the bottom of a river.
The Ks and 1s may have learned a lot about salmon, but the grade 5 students did a lot of learning too! Every student was incredibly kind and gentle when interacting with younger students. The student’s planning and organization skills were excellent. I was very proud of the students.
Favourite moment: A K student gets really excited, one of the students in my class notices and brings over a glittery sensory bottle for the student. “Here you can shake this and then watch it, it will help you calm down”
This sounds like it was a great experience with wonderful leadership opportunities for your students. The sensory bottle given to the k student clearly exemplifies how much your SA values the students and is working to help them develop their SEL skills!