First Week Done!

It may have been only 3 days but it was enough for all of us! What a shock to the system!

Having said that, it has been a lovely week and I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know everyone better. 

Beegu

Every class has used Beegu by Alexis Deacon as the launch of our whole school focus on the theme of Belonging.

In Dosbarth Sgwarnog, we have utilised the story as a launchpad for several different activities across a variety of subjects. 

The children initially thought about what "Belonging" means to them, and created spider diagrams of everything they associated with belonging. This included where they felt they belonged, but also how it made them feel when they felt like they belonged. 

The children were then challenged to imagine that a new child or Beegu had arrived in our class and consider how we could make them feel like they belong. The learners worked in groups to create a Welcome Pack. There some lovely ideas included that I hadn't even considered, such as a welcome letter/card, rules and routines. I was very impressed with the teamwork shown within the groups and the creativity on display. The learners were also free to choose how they presented their work, either digitally or on paper. 

The learners also generated a question matrix, where they had to consider a variety of questions that a partner would answer. Some of the questions could be retrieval questions and found directly in the book, but others were deeper thinking questions, that were more open ended and required their partner to justify their response. 

Highlight of the Week!

The best activity of the week was definitely our blind fold trail. Learners had raised how having a physical disability can cause some people to feel excluded and feel like they don't belong. As a result, I set them a blindfold trail challenge. Learners had to work with a partner to navigate a course with different obstacles. The 'guide' was not allowed to touch their blindfolded partner and could only use their words. Many of the children voiced their frustration as the 'guide' if their partner didn't follow their directions. This led to a great discussion about the importance of clear instructions. 

The main takeaway though, was this idea of empathy. The idea of putting yourself in someone else's shoes and seeing not only how they would feel, but also what you could do to help. 

Empathy will be a key focus throughout the course of the year, but particularly in our focus on belonging. 

Please see pictures on our main class page!