Wow, did this week ever go by fast! Our week was jam-packed with many exciting events happening, including Mother’s Day art activities, school dances, and our school’s first ever Creativity Fair!

The Creativity Fair was a huge success. The goal for the school’s Creativity Fair was to build projects using recycled materials. For my class, I decided to give my students a theme to base their project around. Since we are studying Fairytales, I asked my students to build a house, which would be inspired by The Three Little Pigs story. I left the criteria very open yet I was still surprised by the variety of houses that came into the classroom on the day of the Creativity Fair. The students did an excellent job and were definitely creative in their projects. Many students put in special features in their houses, such as solar panels, a fish pond, a lookout base for the pigs, and gardens! In the afternoon, our class visited other classes to see their projects. The Grade 7s and 6s held an Entrepreneur Fair in the gym where they sold items made out of safe, recycled materials.

Besides all of the fun activities going on, this week, we have been focusing on SEL approaches in the classroom. As I mentioned last week, we introduced fidget toys. The fidget toys have been going well for the most part, though students do still need reminders of what the rules are when using them. I introduced Brain Breaks into the classroom this week! I made a Brain Break jar with some popsicle sticks that has some quick yet fun activities on them. I am slowly introducing the activities to the students. This week we did Simon Says and Mingle, Mingle, Group! I got all of my ideas from simply Googling Brain Breaks. I am hoping to incorporate a little bit of technology in the Brain Breaks as well, as I begin to get more into it.

Until next week.