October 31 to November 4

 

It was a very wintery week and the first opportunity for many students to begin building their independence in getting themselves ready to enjoy the outdoors.  This can be a very tricky process for some students as they learn which way to pull up their snow pants or pull their coat sleeves over their mittens.  Please help your child to be successful (and be able to get out to recess quickly) by having them independently practice putting on their outdoor clothes.  If you need assistance in getting winter gear, please call Ms. Calhoun in the office by November 7th.  This is also a good time to remind everyone that a pair of indoor shoes are needed to help keep the learning spaces within our school clean and dry.  

We had a very busy week - Halloween celebrations, a new student joined our classroom family, a fire drill, and a lockdown practice!  Here's a look at some of our Halloween activities.

Reminders:

Monday, November 7:

• Last chance to contact the office about assistance with winter gear.

Wednesday, November 9:

• Library Book Exchange Day

Thursday, November 10:

• Remembrance Day Assembly - we are collecting non-perishable food donations for the Veterans' Food Bank

Friday, November 11:

• Remembrance Day - NO SCHOOL for students

Monday, November 14:

• In-School Field Trip with the Glenbow Museum.  An educator from the museum will be bringing in Inuit artifacts to share with students as part of our social studies curriculum.  If you are interested in volunteering (from 1pm to 3pm) in the classroom during this experience, please send me an email

• Parent Teacher Conference Booking opens up (conferences are on November 24th and 25th).  Book early for best selection of times

October 24 - 27

 

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate. The first one said . . .

This week we have been working on a shared reading of the poem, Five Little Pumpkins.  Each day we work together to chorally read them poem, focusing on the rythm and expression of the words.  Repeated readings of the same passage allow students to be exposed to the same words over and over again and helps them to build the brain pathway connections that are needed to store words for automatic recall (these words become sight words as they are instantly recognized by sight, no sounding out needed).  Choral reading helps students to develop skills needed for reading with expression.  They begin to understand that an exclamation mark means to add extra expression to their voice or that a question mark means that the reader raises the pitch of their voice at the end of the sentence.  Ask your child if they can read the poem (don't worry if they can't!).

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate. 

The first one said, "My it's getting late."

The second one said, "There are leaves in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care."

The fourth one said, "Let's run and run and run."

The fifth one said, "I'm ready for some fun."

"Wooo" went the wind and out went the light.

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

I Can Describe an Urban, Suburban, and Rural Community

We have been learning about different types of communities and are showing our understanding by illustrating a page in our visual journals.  Students are expected to think about the different things they might find in each community (e.g. highrises, transit buses, animals, plants) and density in which they would find them (are there several houses or is their one building in a large landscape?).  We will have a chance to finish these up next week.

I Can Describe Different States of Matter for Water

This week students had fun exploring the different states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) in water.  A highlight of this was trying to turn a solid (ice cube) into a liquid.

Literacy:

Grade 1 Phonics: F, K, L

Grade 2 Phonics: ey (key), oa (boat), ow (snow)

High Frequency Words: was, for, on, are

Reminders:

Monday, October 31 - 

Halloween: students are invited to dress up in their Halloween costumes for the day.  Please save overly scary costumes for home and please keep any accessories that could be very easily lost at home.  We wouldn't want any sad trick-or-treaters for the big night!

Wednesday, November 2 - 

Library Book Exchange Day

Thursday, November 10 -

Remembrance Day Assembly

Friday, November 11 -

Remembrance Day - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS

October 17 - 21

 

Brrr!  What a shift in the weather!  This weekend was a nice reminder from Na'a (Mother Earth) that we will need to be prepared at school for the cooler weather.  Please help your child to remember to bring hats, mitts, and warmer, water resistant footwear to school.  Students will also need a clean pair of indoor shoes to wear within the classroom.  It is also really helpful if items are labeled so we can help misplaced items find their owners.

I Can Use of My Sense of Sight to Look Closely at Natural Artifacts / I Can Use a Variety of Mediums to Create Art

This week we had a chance to look closely at some of the natural artifacts we have been collecting when we have been out on the land.  We carefully worked on sketching what we saw and then took an opportunity to use some watercolor paints to add even more details by mixing and trying to match shades, shadows, an mixed color.

I Can Explain the Processes of the Water Cycle

We have been expanding our learning from last week's field trip by looking at the water cycle in more depth.  After learning the words 'evaporation', 'condensation', and 'precipitation' we worked in small groups using the loose parts to make models that showed our understanding.

Literacy

This week's high-frequency words: you, that, it, he, she

Grade 1 Phonics: g, e, h

Grade 2 Phonics: ay, ea, ee

Looking for ways to help your child practice high-frequency words at home?  This week students used playdough to build the words.   Students weren't told which word to build, instead they were given clues to make them think about which word they needed to build (e.g. "build a word that has three letters but only one sound" or "build a word where each letter represents one sound and is easy to sound out")

Reminders:

Wednesday, October 19 - 

Library Book Exchange Day

Friday, October 28 - 

Non-Instructional Day, No School for Students

Monday, October 31 - 

Halloween: students are invited to dress up in their Halloween costumes for the day.  Please save overly scary costumes for home and please keep any accessories that could be very easily lost at home.  We wouldn't want any sad trick-or-treaters for the big night!

October 11 - 14

 

What a wonderful week!  We packed in so much and took full advantage of the gorgeous weather by going up and visiting the park around the community garden on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to continue to make observations using our senses around the season change.  We also had a wonderful field trip to Bow Habitat Station and I would like to thank the parent volunteers who came with us and helped to make it a memorable day.  

I Can Talk About the Water Cycle and Its Importance to Living Things:

I Can Count Objects and Sort By a Variety of Attributes

During our time in the community garden, we also spent some time collecting natural artifacts.  Students were asked to collect a variety of fallen leaves and then were asked to work with a partner to create categories to sort them into.  Students chose a variety of attributes such as color, shape, size, texture (supple or crunchy), and even if it had been snacked on by an animal or insect.

Literacy:

This week we introduced the words:  a, and, in, is, I

These, with last week's words (the, on, to), will be words that students are expected to read with  automaticity and fluency and spell correctly while writing by the end of the school year.  

Grade 1s worked on the sounds for B, C, and D in phonics.

Grade 2s worked on the sounds for er, ir, ur, ai in phonics.

Reminders:

Wednesday, October 19th - Library Book Exchange Day

Thursday, October 20th - School Council Meeting

Friday, October 28th - Non-Instructional Day, No School for students

October 3 to 6, 2022

 

What a beautiful holiday weekend!  I hope everyone was able to spend some time with family and enjoy the gifts given by mother nature.  Our class has been thinking about the things we are grateful for and we are definitely grateful for the beautiful weather as we take our learning outdoors.   

I Can Explore the Changing Season with My Senses / I Can Find Warm Colours in the Natural Environment

We had a chance to head outside the green space next to the rink with Ms. Rowland's class.  We worked with our partners from the other class to match fall colors to paint swatches.  This activity leant itself nicely to talking about warm/cool colours and to talk about complementary colours.  

This was a great opportunity for students to build their relationships within a larger learning community and learn to negotiate and make compromises in a learning task.  It was also a good chance for us to sharpen our observation skills and our capacity to learn from the land.

I Can Use a Variety of Mediums to Create Art

This week we spent some time reflecting on the things we were grateful for and how we could show gratitude for those things.  Then we worked on completing a drawing of a tree coloured with pencil crayon.  We focused on how to add detail and show texture using line and colour.  Afterwards, we used watercolour paint to make leaves that represented the things we were grateful for.  

Buddies

This week we also had a chance to meet with our Grade 4/5 buddies from Ms. Elder's class.  Students worked together to create a disguise for turkeys to avoid Thanksgiving.  Our work was based on the story linked below.

Turkey Trouble

Reminders:

Monday, October 10th - Thanksgiving - No School

Wednesday, October 11th - Field Trip to Bow Habitat

Thursday, October 12th - Alternate Library Book Exchange Day

September 26 to 29

 Every Child Matters

This week we engaged in some important learning about National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the impact that residential schools had on those who didn't go home, survivors, their families, and communities.  Most of our learning centered around picture books and the stories that were shared in a developmentally appropriate way for young children.  

We started with the story "Stolen Words", and while not an actual account of a survivor's story, it helps students to make connections to one of the impacts of residential school (the loss of language) and helps them to build empathy around the deep loss.  

We also read the story, "Shi-shi-etko".  In this story, Shi-shi-etko is counting down the days until she has to return to residential school.  As she does so, she spend her time with family and in the outdoors around her home.  She works on collecting  elements of nature that contain important memories of home and she collects them into a memory bag.  These memories and their connection to home helps her endure her time away from her family.

On Thursday, we read two stories, "When I Was Eight" and "Not My Girl".  These stories, written based on the authors experiences, help students to understand the harsh realities of residential schools and how children were treated there.  They also help students understand that the impacts of residential school and the loss of culture were not limited to the actual school, but often followed students as they returned home.  After reading these two heavy stories, students were given the opportunity to engage in some mindful coloring and any questions or concerns from individual students were addressed.

For the afternoon, we headed outside to learn on the land as part of our commitment to reflection and reconciliation.

We also spent some time this week thinking about a Canadian Hero and his impact on cancer research.  Some of our learning consisted of watching a video about his life and reading a story told from the perspective of his best friend, Doug.  Afterwards, we reflected on the motto from this year's run, "I'm Not a Quitter" and created a visual journal page of things that were hard for us and who were the people there to support us.  Later in the morning we joined the other students in the school for a run.

Reminders:

Wednesday, October 5

• Picture Day

Friday, October 7

• Professional Development Day - No School for Students

Monday, October 10

• Thanksgiving - No School