Halloween Week has come and gone! We have been busy doing lots of fun Halloween and pumpkin-themed activities leading up to Halloween on Thursday, including Halloween writing prompts in ELA, spooky addition color by the sum in math, and painting pumpkins in art. 

I had an ‘aha moment’ in ELA during our writing on Friday, reviewing our marking system and expectations and working through an exemplar with my students. The classic ‘I do’, ‘we do’, ‘you do’ worked well to set up my students for success and really motivated them to stretch their writing to really show me what they were capable of. 

Call me crazy, but during Halloween week I started integrated social studies and art project that involves multiple days of painting. My students are so excited to have the opportunity to be creative and I love that it is aligned with our discussions of Indigenous culture. I’m noticing a wide range of artistic abilities throughout this project. I really love seeing some students take risks when it comes to expressing their ideas this way, even though I can tell it is outside of their comfort zone. I’ll be excited when I can see their final product and display it on the bulletin board in the hallway.

Halloween was a whirlwind of fun. It was a typical day in the morning, rotating through our centers in both ELA and Math, followed by endless Spooktacular festivities. Many parents littered the halls, helping their children get changed and made up into their costumes. After lunch, we went on a costume parade throughout the school. As elementary teachers at CEC, we are very fortunate because the upper elementary students take on the task of creating a Halloween Fun Fair for the younger students. Our students were occupied throughout the afternoon playing games and winning candy. Everyone had so much fun!

I will be starting my 3-week block of full time teaching next week and to kick it off we have report cards and Student-Led Conferences at the beginning of next week. Report Card prep is no joke. It has been a busy couple of weeks making sure that projects are getting finished up and marks are in. I’m excited about Student-Led Conferences next week. I can’t wait to see my students showing off all they’ve learned to their parents. 

On another note, how can it really be November already? Internship is flying by!

Happy to have survived Halloween week,

Miss Philip