Category Archives: Values

Discussing our value word – Appreciation

Circle Time, Class Work, Values

In our Circle Time today we focused on the value word of appreciation. We asked each other ‘2, 4, 6, 8, who you do appreciate?’ These are the people we appreciate and why:

We then focused on how we show that appreciation for others. We decided the main thing was saying two small words that have a big meaning… THANK YOU! We also said being kinder to people, saying nice words (praise or compliments) and being interested in what someone has to say were all ways of showing we appreciate someone. This week Miss Williams has challenged us to show appreciation to three different people.

Growth Mindset

Class Work, PSHE, Values

This half term we are focusing on the behaviour for learning of perseverance. In our lessons we have learnt all about what a growth mindset is and how we can apply it to our learning. We have also been working with different partners and learning from each other. Scientists have proven that if you think you can do something you are more likely to be able to do it. This positive talk is an important part of having a growth mindset.

This week made ourselves some positive vocabulary cards. We then had some challenges to try and meet to practise using our growth mindset vocabulary. Look at our photos and see if you can work out what we were doing! The challenges really were very challenging! Some challenges we met and some we never, but the most important thing was we never gave up trying and thinking positively. Some of us even want to try them again tomorrow in Golden Time!

Listening

Class Work, Values

Today in Circle Time we focused on listening – one of our behaviours for learning. We played a game where we had to practise passing the tambourine around the circle as silently as possible. It was very tricky! We then listened for 1 minute inside and 1 minute outside and made a list of all the things we learnt. It was interesting how different children heard different things. We decided some children are about to close out certain noises like coughing and shuffling. We thought these children must be able to learn more as they are less distracted. We went around the circle and thought about why it is important to listen in school:

Discussing our value word – Honesty

Circle Time, Class Work, Values

Today in Circle Time we shared our thoughts about our value word of honesty.

Tell us about a time when you were honest:
Dayne – I was honest when I spilt milk on my brother’s x-box.
Ke Xin – I was honest when I hurt my brother by accident.
Taya – I had to be honest when I ate all the chocolate.
Kerris – When it was snowing I threw a snowball at my brother and I was honest when Mum asked me.
Kai – I was honest when I hit my sister.

Why is honesty important?
Esmay – It is important because some things can be dangerous so you need to tell the truth.
Scarlette – It is important to be honest because if you lie you will get told off.
Amelia – If you lie it might have consequences for other people.
Brooke – It’s not good if you lie because you will get it trouble.
Shona – It is important to be honest because you might feel sad if someone else gets into trouble for something you have done.

Perseverance

Class Work, Values

Today we thought about how we put our perseverance into practise! We talk about the important of persevering all the time but we don’t always apply it to our learning. That is what we have been focusing on this week. We are really improving!

Perseverance really is key Toucans. Not just in theory… but in practise! Well done and keep trying.

Connections in our brains

Class Work, Values

Today we focused again on our behaviours for learning (particularly perseverance) and growth mindset. We learnt more about how the brain works and watched a video about how we learn and make connections in our brains.

Our challenge this week was to work as a team to make a free-standing tower that was at least one metre tall. We really had to persevere! We used our growth mindset talk to help us keep going.

In the end none of the groups quite managed to meet the challenge but every group had a good idea and made a good start. Next week we are going to try to put all those good ideas together and see if we can persevere and succeed.

Discussing our value word – appreciation

Class Work, Values

Today for our class assembly we focused on our value word of appreciation. We have already thought about the people we appreciate like our friends, teachers and families. Today we focused on what we should take the time to appreciate about our world. We listened to a song called ‘What a wonderful world’ and looked at some beautiful images of the wonderful world we live in. We decided we sometimes take our world for granted but there is much to appreciate. We all decided we would take a moment before tomorrow’s check-out to find something new to appreciate so we can share ideas together.

Growth Mindset

Class Work, Values

Our new behaviour for learning to focus on this term is perseverance. We discussed what it means and the importance of it. We have a poster in our classroom that defines it as ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.’ We could all relate this to times we had struggled but then been successful.

This linked nicely to something new we were learning about – a growth mindset. Miss Williams showed us a picture of an origami penguin and gave us a piece of paper. She asked us to make it. We had no instructions or help and really no idea where to start! These were some of the comments we made as we worked:

Is that right?
It’s really hard!
I think it goes there. What do you think?
This is so hard. I’ll never do it!
Oh dear. It doesn’t look very much like a penguin.
It’s too hard.
I’m struggling.
I think I’ve done the best I can.
This is my best try.

None of us managed to make a penguin.

We then started to learn about how our brain works! It was very interesting to find out that scientists have proven that with a ‘growth mindset’ anyone can achieve. We learnt that people who think they can do something and are willing to try then fail will be more likely to succeed than people who think they cannot do something. We looked back at the comments we had made and tried to figure out which ones showed a growth mindset and which ones didn’t.

We then read a quote from the famous basketball player Michael Jordan:

We decided that with instructions and a bit of help and practise we might be able to get better at making an origami penguin. We realised this is also how we learn in school. We tried again and some of us were successful. Most of us had got better but it still wasn’t quite right. BUT we told ourselves ‘I can’t do it… YET!’ We are going to try and be more positive with what we tell ourselves when we have challenging times in class and we are also going to keep practising that origami penguin until we can do it.