Learning Sessions in Armstrong
Successful math and literacy workshops were held at Armstrong Elementary School (AES) on Wednesday, January 8.
Principal Val Edgell explained that after school, AES hosted a “Box Cars and One Eyed Jacks Literacy games session” with teachers and then, in the evening, two sessions of Box Cars and One Eyed Jacks math sessions for parents were held.
A group of 20 teachers from Armstrong plus two guests from other schools attended the literacy session. These games use alphabet tiles and dice and are great ways to reinforce the phonemic concepts taught through other literary resources used by SD83 teachers including Heggerty (a phonemic awareness curriculum) and UFLI (a systematic program that teaches students the foundational skills necessary for proficient reading).
“Teachers have already started to put their new learning into action, playing these games in their classrooms,” added Edgell.
The evening sessions focused on teaching math games to parents so they can play at home with their kids. The games reinforce basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division strategies. Parents learned how a number of games can easily extend past the basic math concepts into fractions, integers and more. Research has shown that playing games is one of the very best ways to move towards fluency in math. “The parents had lots of fun and many positive comments have been received with parents saying they went straight home and played some of the games with their kids.”
Parents from AES, Highland Park Elementary, and Len Wood Middle all participated in the evening sessions, with the event being sponsored by the Parent Advisory Councils (PACs) from all three schools.
Jane and John Felling are the owners of Box Cars and One Eyed Jacks and are highly sought after presenters throughout North America. They do a combination of in-person workshops as well as virtual online sessions. “We are very fortunate to have been working with John and Jane for close to ten years in our district,” commented Edgell.
These sessions illustrate some of the the work being done towards school learning plan goals to help improve student literacy and math skills. This also falls under the district’s strategic pillar of Intellectual Development, with schools providing opportunities to develop critical and creative thinking skills as well as engaging learners through innovative opportunities. Read the District’s Strategic Plan here.