Another busy day yesterday, and my focus was on visiting the primary classes. Our primary students have been as busy and as active as the intermediate students, and they are doing a variety of interesting and fun learning activities.

So, what have the students been doing this week? Many things: printing, Vincent Van Gogh art, French vocabulary, listening centres (I liked Petite Bête, Grosse Bêtise), les sportes d’hiver, read aloud in the library, dancing (following and creating patterns, square dancing), singing, math vocabulary, time, art that is “a little bit abstract”, grammar, book exchange, using dictionaries, singular and plural, New Year’s resolutions, math facts, words with short u, using agenda books, fishing for vowels, matching shapes, …

Some classes start their day with a question. Yesterday the students in one class were asked, “What are the words for cube, cone, cylinder and sphere in French?” I love it when children are asked to find something out on their own, and are provided with the tools to find answers or solutions to problems. Sometimes we are too quick to give answers, and this does not foster the ability to learn for themselves.

“Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire.” ~ William Butler Yeats

I look forward to seeing the many “fires” that we can ignite in our students.

Take care