Did you ever think your child would be a published author before 1st grade?! Well this week the Primary Year 3 students achieved just that. As a culminating event for Writers’ Workshop the students wrote, edited, illustrated, and launched their ‘Me Books.’ The students presented and read their books to the special adults in their lives. Throughout the year, the Year 3 students work toward writing a story independently using a provided topic. During forty-five minute sessions of Writers’ Workshop on Thursday afternoons, the children receive mini-lessons relating to the writing process. Each lesson builds upon the previous, adding a new level of difficulty. This gives the children the opportun

Spring has finally sprung! At long last, we can shed the snow gear and enjoy more favorable weather outdoors. Spring is a wonderful time to further connect the children to nature and the outside world. Young children are so observant and fascinated by the outdoor environment. Outdoor play is an essential—but often overlooked—component of development and learning! Playing outside contributes to physical development and health as children practice and refine important gross motor skills like running, climbing, and jumping. A walk through the woods helps children with balance and equilibrium as they navigate uneven terrain. The outdoor world stimulates the senses—the sound of birds chirping, th

Perfect Strangers was a hit sitcom during the late 1980's where the premise of the series was a man from Europe moves to live with his Midwestern American distant cousin, in which they live and learn from each other through their cultural differences. This is the precise connection between Cricket and Baseball, as they are distant cousins from different continents. Baseball is America's favorite pastime sport and cricket is our older cousin that was born in England in the 16th century. Cricket spread to England's colonies and the legacy of this still lingers on. Former British colonies that are now top International Cricket Council member countries include Australia, Bangladesh, India, New Z

It’s almost here—Summer vacation! Students don’t need to be in the classroom to keep learning, and summer offers many great ways for them to extend their skills. Of all the academic skills, reading is at the core, and the relaxed days of summer offer a great opportunity to practice this vital skill. Some strategies to use with children of all ages are reading to, with and by. Reading to your child allows them to enjoy stories and information that may be in books that are too difficult for them to read independently. You can also listen to books on tape or podcasts together. Listening to stories requires the children to create pictures and visuals and this skill is key to reading comprehensio

Slithering through the grass, Prey, predator, golden fangs, Sink in juicy flesh. —Calum, Grade 3 April was National Poetry Month, and Elementary students enjoyed celebrating all month long. They spent time reading various poetry anthologies and learning about different tools that poets use to create interesting and engaging poetry. They searched for examples of poetic devices such as alliteration, similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia and repetition in the poems they read. They explored rhyme scheme and learned about the different patterns that occur in rhyming poetry. After having gathered all of this information about the art of creating poetry, students also tried their hand at writing a varie