Week of October 10th

During these last few weeks, we have started to do our weekly community walks. This year, we intend to head outside for a community walk every Thursday afternoon, weather permitting. Research shows that learning in an outdoor environment has terrific benefits for our mental health; it helps to improve understanding for our more active learners and can help our students develop environmental awareness and a connection to the land. 

While outside and throughout the year, we will discover what the land means to us and recognize the deep, physical, mental, and spiritual connection to the land that is part of indigenous cultures. 

Our focus last week and this week was the importance of seed dispersal for plants to survive. We discussed how a plant can not survive without competing with other plants for water, space and sunlight. We participated in a fun activity where the students learned about seed dispersal by walking through areas of long grass along the river while wearing or holding cotton socks. Walking through the long grass or unkept area, we could find many different seeds. We discovered that because seeds cannot walk around and take their seeds to other places, they have to develop other methods to disperse ( move ) their seeds; the most common methods are wind, water, animals, explosion and fire. 

Our walks ended with our first opportunity to engage in a sit spot along the Elbow River on our way home. As the year unfolds, we hope to return to our sit-spots throughout the year. A sit spot is a favourite place in nature that is visited regularly to cultivate awareness, expand our senses and study patterns of local flora and fauna. It also helps us to practice and support mindfulness outside of the classroom. 

Our ten words this week that we reviewed in spelling. Please continue to practice these with our child.

So, will, make, like, into, time, two, more, these, number.