'How lucky am I to have something so special, that makes saying goodbye so hard. ' Winnie the Pooh. @WestminsterCent

A summer update: Our monarchs emerged. And we got a puppy. 😍

Thrilled to be collaborating with MsGraham on an exciting #earlyliteracy project this week! Grateful for a professional community that listens to my ideas and jump to join forces in support of our Ss and families. N Commisso TVDSBLiteracy TVDSBKindergarten

Spending our morning checking out #Dorchester’s new #DreamPark. Delighted to see such an inclusive and accessible space. Thames Centre

Today was a day of new beginnings as we prepare our classrooms and our souls for our curious new learners tomorrow. Thank you @Wilsonb7171 for reading this beautiful mentor text this morning. So excited to be joining the riverheights team!

We have been focusing on building relationships with our Ss and discussing our families. Following some mentor texts, we all drew our families in a ten frame. One student remarked, “Wow! Everyone’s family is so different!” Yes, little one; you’re right.

An update to our visual schedule- photos of our students in their space during each part of our day. We are consciously ensuring our students see themselves reflected in their environment. What changes have you made to your learning space to reflect your learners?

New visuals are up to help our Ss to regulate during playtime. We co-developed a plan for the number of Ss invited to an area and used student input to decide on a quantity that felt appropriate. The students voted, debated, and agreed on the new addition to our space.

We have been working hard on creating calming spaces as a proactive strategy. Following explicit teaching about feelings and strategies for self-regulation, we want Ss accessing this space before they are escalated, not after. How can we shift from reactive to proactive?

Woah woah woah! This is absolutely brilliant! Thank you for sharing!

Students are invited to sign into our classroom by placing their magnet on a feeling face (co-created with student facial expressions). Some Ss returned to this space later in the day to move their magnet. “My feelings changed. I was mad but now I’m calm.”

Are you verbally prompting your Ss through their routines? Try this: simple, co-created visuals at Ss level. The more consistently we provide accessible visual supports, the more independent our Ss can be! Ss don’t need to look for an adult and can consult their environment.

One of our students with exceptionalities loves to jump. So, we have introduced a trampoline into our space. We were asked, “How do you keep the other Ss off of it?” My response: “We don’t.” It is now a universal support in our room. #necessaryforsomegoodforall

Encouraging, teaching, and normalizing various methods of functional communication so that ALL of our students can communicate effectively with one another. This means teaching the entire class to become communication partners. TVDSB Speech-Language Pathology Services SpecialEd_tvdsb

Re-thinking Reading Buddies - In addition to reading together, our #kindergarten students have been playing games with a focus on #soundwalls and #phonologicalawareness with their Grade 3 buddies riverheights! Today’s challenge was letter soundTic Tac Toe. #rethinkliteracy

Eeek! It has officially launched!

CVC word chains were a huge hit today during our small group learning. Feeling grateful for such a fabulous #literacy portfolio with so many great Grab n Go resources. Thank you TVDSBLiteracy

We learned so much about the importance of keeping our water systems clean riverheights during our Stream of Dreams™ presentation yesterday. Ss are excited to see their special fish up on our fence this spring.

Blending and segmenting cvc words and using our sky grass ground paper to write it. “This one goes all the way into the ground like a worm.” TVDSBKindergarten

I Spy… A dynamite educator team. While one educator does the Heggerty routine with the class, another is supporting by modelling GoTalkNow sound wall cards for a student who is learning to use AAC. So proud of this team! riverheights