Passing Notes

Notes from a Parent/Teacher to Parents and Teachers

Apr
22

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Ms Whitworth’s Top 5 Activities for Earth Day:

Category: Curriculum Connections at Home, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a Comment

(Our guest blogger has taken over the Earth again!  Read on to find out her Top 5 ideas to celebrate Earth Day.)

 
On Sunday April 22nd 2012 we celebrate Earth Day and it’s the perfect opportunity to show the Earth how you care about it. Its goal is to recognize the non renewable qualities of our Earth and to help promote awareness that we, as a society, need to take better care of what we DO have, while also teaching the next generation that there is fun to be had WITHOUT a lot of materiality needed. Below you’ll find some activities to promote a healthy Earth, healthy child, and healthy society for many future generations. Check them out and try them out for Earth Day and then you can continue teaching your child about how to lessen his/her carbon footprint all the way through the year!   Check out these activities and try them out to show Earth why it’s special to you!

Top 5 Activities for Earth Day:

1. The Foot Patrol


Make starting to walk to school with your kids a good opportunity to discuss ideas surrounding the environment and nature. Take a look at flowers starting to grow in gardens. Use this walk as an opportunity to discuss the carbon cycle (in simplified form of course) regarding what trees and plants do for the environment. If you live close to the grocery store, school, or work start walking on short trips. This not only provides a good exercise routine, it also helps to reduce needless pollution by vehicle emissions.
2. Hyacinths, Daffodils, Tulips, and ferns...
This weekend take a trip to the local flower shop and grab a few bulbs to plant. Make a spot in your garden or have your child take care of a small plant in your home. Talk with your child about how often to water it, why plants need water, how plants get energy, and share with them the responsibility of looking after something. Having a plant in your home gives you the added benefit of better health. Having your child take care of something living, something small like a plant, also relates to the grade 3 Science and Technology curriculum where they learn about the plant cycle in the Growth and Changes in Plants unit. Planting a garden or enjoying simple plants also helps relieve adult stress and has been proven to be therapeutic as well as another great form of exercise.
3.  Shower Power:

It takes all of five minutes to install, but can save you a ton of money! Buying a showerhead where it either reduces the amount of water coming out or has a shut off valve so you can turn off the water when you’re lathering up is a great way to help the environment! It is simple, cost effective, and helps reduce use of such a precious non renewable source that is getting more depleted every day.

4. Fans of the Fan

Buying a simple fan will help circulate air, it can help with cooling in the summer and moving heat around in the winter. It will likely reduce energy costs for parents, but also the installation can be used as an opportunity to discuss the workings of the fan’s motor. This can provide real life connections to the pulleys and gears unit in grade 4 Science and Technology. Talk with your child about how the motor works and what you need to do make a machine work. Saving money, making connections, and spending time with your children -what better way to spend the day?
5. The 3 R’s: Recycle, Repurpose and Revamp


If you are into arts and crafts, take any old materials you may have that are about to get the kick to the garbage and turn them into fun ideas for your child to make and use. You can take old newspapers and decorate a journal to your personal tastes, use cardboard or CD’s to make a bill organizer, melt some old crayons to make candles(with adult supervision of course), or take clean non-BPA-lined cans and decorate them to hold your child’s school supplies. The old saying, “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure” really does apply in this sense. You can have fun making cool designs while using materials that normally would have been sent to the landfill. It’s also a great way to have some fun and relieve some stress. Help to teach your child that just because it has one use that has been fulfilled does not always mean that its shelf life is over.

5. Neighbourhood Clean-up

Help make your neighbourhood a better, cleaner, greener place. Together with your child, plan a neighbourhood party! Ask your friends and neighbours to help pick up any trash that is floating around. Provide them with garbage bags, gloves, and a central location to meet when all the area is covered. Get your child to help with the planning, purchasing any supplies, and following through with ways to keep your neighbourhood cleaner. Use this as an opportunity to teach them about the money needed to buy the things, how to buy environmentally friendly supplies that will decompose, and the effort and organization it takes to gather a bunch of people. Take a park in your area, the block, or any type of area you want and help to make it a little bit cleaner and make Toronto (or where ever you live) a more beautiful place you’re proud to call home!

Other ideas to reduce your energy use and carbon footprint all through the year

 

  • turn the water off when brushing your teeth
  • get a shower head/nozzle where you can turn off the water during your shower when you aren’t using it (such as when you’re shampooing up your hair!)
  •  turn off your lights, or get timers to set the lights when you want them o
  • wash clothes in cold water and hang them out to dry instead of using a dryer
  • invest in a programmable thermostat to reduce your heat consumption when no one’s home
  • try AutoShare, buy a greener car or take transit when you need to travel longer distances
  • use the washing machine or dishwasher during low usage hours to save money and reduce the demand for water
  • get your paper bill statements transferred to e-bills so you don’t have to waste useless paper

 

Try to think of more ideas on your own. Have a little competition with your child to see who can be the ‘greenest’ during the month of April , May, June, …

 

Signed,

Your Friendly Neighboorhood Teacher, Miss Whitworth

 

Mar
9

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What your child’s teacher needs to know about your life

Category: Tackling Tough Issues Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

No, not the sordid details of an affair or your caloric intake for dinner.

What your child’s teacher needs to know about your home life pertains to any changes that you or your family have encountered that may affect, – positively or negatively, – your child.

Recently, a friend of mine confided in me that he was at a loss.  How was he to understand the attempts of his son’s teacher to develop behavioural strategies for his JK-aged boy?  Imagine my confusion upon hearing about this very sweet, empathetic and gentle child being labeled as “behavioural”.  One shouldn’t go around slinging labels around without any thought.  The parent was beside himself wondering if he needed to get his son tested for some difficulty.  I inquired as to whether as a parent, he observed similar problems at home and at daycare, during play dates and with other family members.  You can predict that the answer here was a resounding, “no”.  So it seems that this new Junior Kindergarten student was showing huge “behavioural concerns” by not “following instructions, not playing like other children his age, and trying to be independent”.   My mind raced to figure out what changes in his life had occurred recently.  He had lost a soon-to-be sibling in the months prior to starting school and this was his first foray into school.  Those are HUGE life changes from an adult point of view, let alone a child’s perspective.  Imagine this scenario:  An adult who has a close family member who has inexplicably passed away and this person has also started a new job with new responsibilities, in a new environment and new co-workers.  Might this person have some difficulty adjusting? You betcha.  I’d say at the very least, many people, – children included, – react by trying to gain some kind of control over their lives, sensing that they have lost much.  Granted, not every child goes through such a life-altering experience such as loss at a young age, but there are some changes that your child’s teacher should be aware of if you want her to be on the look-out for any small or large changes in your child’s emotional, academic or social well-being.  This is especially true if the child has just started in that class and the teacher had very little contact with the child before the changes occurred.  In my friend’s case, it’s important to note that the father had already spoken to the teacher about it previously, but since the teacher didn’t know the child from Jack, she made the assumption that this child had always had some concerns.  Your child’s teachers need to be able to use various strategies to accommodate for children going through difficult times, and understanding the problem is half the battle.  Luckily, this dad is a great parent and understood the importance of creating a positive partnership with the teacher to get his son through the rough bumps.

Here are other changes to consider sharing. Whether they are difficult for YOU to discuss almost doesn’t matter; you can be general in your description, but believe me, your child’s needs you to speak about it’s potential impact.

  • The hardest, and likely one of the most common changes, is separation or divorce, and these come in as many varieties as shoes do, so this is a difficult one to tackle both as a parent and as an educator.  Family changes will affect the communication that your teacher has with both parents.  If the teacher is aware of these family changes, something as simple as sending out two copies of Report Cards or newsletters may help to create a sense of balance in a relationship possibly wrought with personal power issues.  It may help the child feel some relief to know that both parents are still considered to be important in their education.
  • Re-marriage and the merging of two families into one is another biggie, more because of changes in the family dynamic that affect all of the children and adults involved.  You remember:  every little action, has a reaction…
  • Financial changes can be embarrassing for some (unless it’s the 649 that you won), but there are children who won’t bring back field trip forms because they don’t want to cause undue burden on their financially-struggling parents.  Knowing that times are tough can help the teacher identify if the child can receive funds from the school, (which is confidential and always do-able).
  • Social changes that your child has gone through (like losing a best friend to an argument or having a friend move to another city).  As small as these changes seem, they are a great segway to generate discussion about your child’s emotional and social well being.  Teachers are keenly aware of their students’ social realm and can incorporate many activities and opportunities into regular classroom learning experiences that give chances for students who are struggling socially, to gain some social capital.
  • Discussing your personal health with a teacher may seem very scary and even inappropriate, but imagine the outcome of not letting your child’s teacher know that you are having health issues.  Sharing might help to explain the nuances of a child who seems withdrawn or even an escalation in student abseenteeism.  Yes, there are parents who cannot physically take their kids to school somedays, and some children who “parent” their own mums and dads when they’re very ill.
  • Frequent, recent or upcoming moves to new homes can be devastating for many kids and some children learn to avoid “attaching” themselves to friends thinking that they may soon be leaving them.

Finally, change is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, change is necessary for growth, however, if parents can confide in a trusted teacher in their child’s life, that educator will have more tools and strategies for your individual child.  Keep in mind that teachers have home lives and experiences as children that may actually help a child.

So there you have it, Tackling Tough Issues…all in a day’s work.  Oh yeah, and making for happier kids too.

Peace,

Daniela