Kindergarten Numeracy

Submitted by: Riviera Cianflone and Bailey Englot This lesson began with students using a directed drawing tutorial to draw a spooky, or decrepit, house. They then wrote their own real estate listing to attempt to “sell” their spooky house. Students were creative in their word choices to make their houses more appealing to a potential buyer. They spent lots of time finding “juicy” words to help enhance the effect of their writing. This activity highlighted various art skills like using fine lines, shading, contrast and outlining. This activity was a wonderful addition to the Halloween spirit of the season.

By Linda Hong and Breccan Wilson Shamrock School In our Grade one-two classrooms, we created a 3-D diagram of the eye as part of our Five Senses unit in science. Follow the steps below to create these amazing diagrams with your students! Materials: White cardstock, manilla tag, black construction paper, pink tissue paper, skin tone markers, water colour pencils (or other medium), black marker 1. Pre-trace and/or pre-cut the following pieces, depending on your students’ abilities. a. White cardstock circle with a slit to the middle (for the eyeball) b. Smaller white cardstock circle for the iris, trace a glue stick lid for the pupil c. Half sheet of manilla tag with an eye shape traced on it d. Banana shape on manilla tag for the eyelid e. Rectangle on black construction paper for the eyelashes 2. Have your students study their irises in a mirror and use water colour pencils to draw and paint them. 3. When they are dry, colour the pupil with a black marker. 4. Colour the skin around the eye and the eyelid with Crayola colours of the world (skin tone) markers. 5. Cut out the eye shape. 6. Make the 3-D eyeball and iris by making a slit to the centre and overlapping one side slightly to make short cones. 7. Glue the iris onto the eyeball. 8. Fold the edge of the black paper and cut to the fold to make eyelashes. Curl them around a pencil. 9. Assemble all pieces as in photo. 10. Use pink tissue paper for the tear duct. 11. Mount on cardstock and label.

By: Shaye Demke Another school year is in full swing, and I find myself continuing to question and wondering if my math instruction and learning opportunities are meeting the needs of my students. As someone who struggled in math as a student, I find math to be a subject that I also find challenging to teach. On November 15, 2023, I attended Sarah Melo's "Becoming a more confident math teacher" professional development afternoon. So many topics were covered in a short afternoon including structuring a math lesson, ensuring all students find success, quick ways to accurately assess students, how to bring in math language through conversations with students, how to build students confidence and so much more! Sarah touched on so many different entry strategies for all grades and ability levels. She also has a really great website, melomath4kids.ca where you can find so many videos demonstrating her techniques. Some other free websites that she suggested include “3 act math task” at gfletchy.com , estimystery, polypad (virtual math manipulatives) and so many more! If you have never been a part of one of Sarah's sessions, I strongly suggest it. I walked away from the afternoon feeling empowered, ready to adapt my teaching methods, and prepared with all the amazing resources and recommendations she had! Thanks MAME for supporting my professional development!

Submitted by: Bailey Englot Grade 5/6 Teacher, Shamrock School After a few years of using a visual timer that kept getting dropped and banged around during daily classroom life, I came across a website called classroomscreen.com and it has been a game changer! It is free to use though you can purchase a subscription for it which would allow you to save the screens you create. In addition to the beautiful backgrounds you can choose, some of which are even animated, you can add different widgets such as a timer, a volume scale, add an image, include a list or other text, create a timetable, show a clock, use a randomizer, create a poll, add a video from online, and much more! I haven`t even explored all the options but I use this tool every single day in the classroom. The fact that there is a free version makes it that much better. I hope you find it as helpful as I have!

Submitted by: Verna Bridges Marion School

Submitted by: Suzanne Simpson

At our working retreat and AGM, our next year executive roles have switched up a little. We are pleased to introduce some of the core executive and their roles with their summer TBR list: Co-Presidents: Chairing our meetings, answering your questions, and assisting with guiding MAME forward! Bailey; Middle Years Multi-age Educator Professional Choice - Productive Math Struggle: A 6-Point Action Plan for Fostering Perseverance Personal Choice - Lessons in Chemistry Jessica; Middle Years Multi-age Educator (and our ghost blogger!) Professional Choice - Keeping the Wonder: An Educator’s Guide to Magical, Engaging , and Joyful Learning Personal Choice - Marple: Twelve New Mysteries Secretary (and PD Funding Chair) Keeping us all on track and recording meetings as well as helping to supply our members with funds for projects and PD Charlene; Student Services in multi-age school Choice - The Birth House by Ami McKay Treasurer: Dealing with all things monetary for MAME Michelle, Early Years Multi-age Educator Choice - WAYI WAH! Indigenous Pedagogies, an act for reconciliation and anti-racist education by Jo Chrona Conference Chair: Helping to organize and coordinate our fabulous volunteer team to provide you with relevant PD on MTS PD Day! Jenn, Music Specialist and Multi-age Educator Professional - new artists and albums to introduce new music in the fall! Personal - the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich PD Outreach Co-Chairs Helping our members connect with additional professional learning opportunities Krista, Student Services in Multi-age school Professional - Take Care by Jennifer Lawson Personal - Untamed by Glennon Doyle Kaitlyn, Middle Years Multi-age Educator Professional - Teaching to Transgress by Bell Hooks Personal - Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari Webminder Taking care of the website and working to provide online access to information for our members Lisa, Early Years Mutli-age Educator Professional Choice - Uncovering the Logic of English: a Common-sense approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy by Denise Eide Personal Choice - Five Little Indians by Michelle Good

By: Jennifer Herdman, Linda Hong, and Breccan Wilson The Grade one-two team at Shamrock School would like to send a huge thank you to MAME for approving our Special Projects Grant applications. We were able use the money to help supplement our teaching including purchasing the supplies for hatching chick and duck eggs, going on two field trips, and purchasing some incredible books that connect with the grade two science unit for Growth and Changes in Animals and health unit for healthy eating. Below we will include a look at hatching with tips and things to consider, a description of our two field trips and a review of three of the books we purchased.