We have been having an amazing time with our money unit in school. Of course, students are LOVING their paycheques and shopping at the store, but they are also really enjoying the discussion and activities we have been doing around earning, saving, and spending. This week, we have been focusing on spending habits. It's very interesting to watch the students different reactions after they have been paid. Some spend their paycheques as soon as the money is in their hands. Some, spend a little and save the rest. Very few save their entire paycheques. On Tuesday, we discussed the idea of spending habits and the term "living paycheque to paycheque". We put up this scale and had the students self-identify where they felt they fell on the scale. Then we had a great discussion about wants vs. needs and how adults need to balance their wants and needs in the real-world. Student then got to practice it themselves with an art collage activity. Then today, students learned an important but not so pleasant lesson about the downside of living paycheque to paycheque. After our lesson, students were introduced to the scenario of a special event coming up in their lives; something that cost money but occurs between paycheques. They want to participate but if they have spent all their money, they won't get to participate because they can't afford it. So when the students were told that for the rest of class they could play Prodigy but only if they could pay $10 for the privilege, some students were pretty upset to find out they didn't have enough money. Some creative solutions were suggested (e.g. returning items to the store for a refund, borrowing money from a friend, etc) but ultimately, those things were not allowed because I really wanted them to understand the lesson behind this activity: living paycheque to paycheque is not always a wise thing to do. Plus, borrowing money is a dangerous habit to start. There were many disappointed faces and a few tears but I feel the message of the lesson really sank home and I have a feeling some students might be changing some of their spending habits after payday next week.
I encourage you to have a conversation about this activity with your child. What message did they take away from the lesson? What are your own spending habits like? Are they similar or different from your child? The earlier we speak to children about money and spending habits, the better. Have a great day Mrs. Vieira
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Monday, April 16th - New spelling list goes home - Wheelchair basketball starts and runs all week. Please wear gym shoes Tuesday, April 17th - KM club - Literature Circle Meeting: A Bad Case of Robots and Silverwing Wednesday, April 18th Thursday, April 19th - PE. Please wear gym shoes Friday, April 20th - Spelling Test - Library. Please bring all library books back to school - Literature Circle Meeting: The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Charlotte's Web - Scholastic Order due Have a great week Mrs. Vieira Thank to to everyone who was able to send their child to school wearing either a jersey or green and yellow. The support is amazing to see. We did have a discussion in class about the tragedy and watched the video Tom Cochrane made of his tribute song for the Humboldt team. You can find it HERE. Some emotions came out during the video and discussion and we talked about how it was alright to feel whatever emotion they were feeling at the moment and to not be afraid to talk to an adult or someone they trust about how they are feeling. We talked about all the different ways people are handling their emotions, such as leaving the hockey sticks outside, donating to the GoFundMe page or organizing events such as Jersey Day. Your child may have questions or concerns about the Humboldt tragedy and that's ok. Feel free to have whatever conversation you feel is appropriate with them. In other news, students received their new literature circle books today. Most are excited. A few......are not. :) There are 4 books we are reading this term: Charlottes Web, A Bad Case of Robots, The Mouse and the Motorcycle and Silverwing. More information about meeting dates and expectations can be found HERE. Also, on Tuesday we completed an amazing art project inspired by Roy Henry Vicker's artwork in the book "The Elders are Watching". Click HERE to check them out. They turned out AMAZING! Have a great rest of your week, Mrs. Vieira It seems I'm a little slow getting back into the swing of things! I've completely forgotten about updating the blog and sending out the Week at a Glance! My apologies. Please find attached the Week at a Glance
Wednesday, April 11th - Field trip forms for Municipal Day at TOL due today - No Spelling Words this week Thursday, April 12th - PE. Please wear gym shoes - Wear a Jersey in support of the Humbolt Broncos - Library. Please bring all library books back to school (different this week due to Heritage Fair) Friday, April 13th - Payday for students - Early Dismissal for Collaboration @ 1:30pm Have a great rest of your week. Mrs. Vieira Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our poetry slam today! We actually ran out of chairs, so many families members attended! The students were so excited to share their poems they have created this term. They did such a wonderful job! Here are some some photos from our slam!
A big THANK YOU for everyone who was able to come by for Student Led Conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. It was a really great opportunity for our students to show off everything that they have worked so hard on this term. I hope you were as impressed as Mrs. Anderson and I are by their work. In case you missed it during Student Led Conferences, I wanted to share with you some photos of the latest project students completed in Social Studies. Last term, students learned how to research and take notes and learned all about a specific Aboriginal culture in Canada. This term, students started the term by learning about a different Aboriginal group than they originally did their project on, then researched all about a different Aboriginal group from a different location around the world. Finally, students had to compare and contrast the two different Aboriginal groups using a Venn Diagram. I was VERY impressed by the level of thoughtfulness and thoroughness demonstrated by many of the students during this project. They were very excited when they found out two groups that lived so far away from each other, could have some things in common. They were equally fascinated by some of the cultural differences they found. Did you know that the Qucheua people from South America traditionally eat guinea pigs?!?!? Good thing Mikey and Boomer don't live there! As always, feel free to come by Division 14 to see what's happening.
We had quite the adventure on Monday. Unfortunately, Mrs. Anderson had to stay home on Monday and miss our field trip. But fortunately, I was able to come in instead. The Loafing Shed Glass Studio was located in Port Kells on The Parkes property. The artist showed us 3 different methods of creating class art. First, he showed us how to make an under the sea themed paper weight by repeatedly adding liquid class to different kinds of class bobbles. It was fanscinating to watch him shape the hot ball of semi-liquid class using just a steel rod and wet newspaper! Next, the artist showed us how to create a candy dish using a blowing technique. We were all really surprised by how quickly the shape changed. He made it look easy but we know that that skill took 30 years to master. Finally, he showed us how quickly he can make something like a marble. We have a lot of students in our class who use marbles during free time to play a version of beyblades they created so they were really excited about this. They were a bit disappointed when they asked if they could have it and they found out how expensive they were. But they were pretty excited to find out that Mrs. Vieira purchased one for the class. :) It’s was a really amazing field trip, one that I’m very lucky I got to attend. Mrs. Anderson was REALLY disappointed that she missed it. Some of the students even commented that it was one of the best field trips they had every been on. Feel free to check out their website:
Monday, March 12th
- No Spelling words this week. - Field trip to glass blowing studio. 10:30am – 2:45pm Tuesday, March 13th - Class photos - KM club Wednesday, March 14th - Early dismissal at 1:45pm - Student-led conferences. 2pm-7:30pm (Dinner break 5-530pm) Thursday, March 15th - PE. Please wear gym shoes - Early dismissal at 1:45pm - Student-led conferences. 2pm-4:30pm Friday, March 16th - Payday for students J - Library. Please bring all library books back to school - POETRY SLAM!
Have a last week of school Mrs. Vieira You are hereby invited to Division 14’s Poetry Slam.
On Friday, March 16th, 2018, room 117 at James Kennedy Elementary will be transformed into a Poetry Café. Students will be reading poems they have created during the school year. Drinks and small snacks will also be served. We will be beginning at approximately 1:45pm to approximately 2:45pm. Snacks and drinks will be provided before and after the slam. All parents, grandparents, guardians and other family members are invited to the Poetry Slam to hear some truly remarkable poetry. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mrs. Vieira at [email protected] Hope to see you there Division 14 |
All about Mrs. VieiraI'm new to JKE and new to the school district but I've been a teacher in B.C. since 2008. I love art, animals and my family, which includes my daughter who is 1 year old. Archives
May 2018
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