February 27 - March 3

 

Puppetry Residency 

Over the last two weeks students have been hard at work in our puppetry residency.  Students have enjoyed creating shadow puppets and coming up with stories during the residency.

We have also started to create som "crankies" as a form of storytelling.  These simple machines tell a story through sequenced drawings made by students.

  Thank you so much for the volunteers who have been coming to help out.

Pre-Service Teacher

I'd like to take a moment to introduce you to Ms. Kehoe.  Ms. Kehoe is a student at St. Mary's University who is working towards finishing her education degree so she can become a teacher.  She is with our class daily until mid-April.

This week she designed a lesson for students to make 'structures' (house, barn, and garages) using toothpicks and marshmallows.

Literacy

This past week we worked on learning the different sounds represented by the -ed ending.  Students learned that it can sound like a /d/, /t/, or schwa /d/.  -ed sounds like a /t/ when it is added to a word where the last sound is unvoiced (ex. sniff).  It sounds like schwa /d/ on words that end with d or t (ex. land or shift).  All other words have a /d/ sound at the end.

High Frequency Words:

their, there, do, how, other, about, can, said, there, each, which

Reminders

Wednesday, March 8

 - Student Learning Assembly at 9:30am

- Library Book Exchange

Thursday, March 9

- Parent Teacher Conferences 4pm to 7pm.  Book through MyCBE

Friday, March 10

- Parent Teacher Conferences 8:30am to 12:30pm.  Book through MyCBE

- NO SCHOOL for STUDENTS

January 30 - February 10

 What a beautiful week of weather we just had!  We took full advantage of the warm weather, sunshine and smaller class size to go out and walk around the school yard and community garden with Ms. Rowland's class.  During our walk we stopped and took a few moments to work on sketching what we saw to the North, East, South, and West.  

I Can Use Construct an Object Using a Variety of Materials

Students were challenged to build a representation of a groundhog popping out of the ground as an intro to our Building Things unit in science.  

I Can Represent One Half

As part of our wrap up into our exploration of halves, students were asked to create a work of art using strips of paper that were cut into halves or quarters.  This was a great chance to see who understood that fractions had to be equal pieces but could be represented in different ways (a square could be cut in half making either two rectangles or two triangles).

I Can Tell a Story with a Beginning, Middle, and End

This week we had a chance to work on our oral language skills by creating a story with the loose parts.  Students were asked to listen to another group and to also share their own story.  This allowed students to ask clarifying questions of the story tellers to help the storytellers ensure they didn't leave out important information.  We also worked on drawing out the story with labels and many students have moved into writing the story with their own inventive spellings.

I Can Communicate Through Art

As a group, students were working on literally communicating through art.  We have made a banner to share our message at our upcoming assembly (more details to come).  Students used crayons and watercolors to create a watercolor resist of their letter.

Reminders:

Tuesday, February 14 - 

     Valentine's Day

• Students can choose to bring in cards to exchange with their classmates.
• Wear red and/or pink today!

Wednesday, February 15 -

  

      Library Book Exchange Day

Thursday, February 16 - 

      Teacher's Convention - NO SCHOOL for STUDENTS

Friday, February 17 - 

      Teacher's Convention - NO SCHOOL for STUDENTS

Monday, February 20 - 

     Family Day - NO SCHOOL for STUDENTS

January 16 - 20

 

This was a busy week this week with lots of teacher visitors as I worked individually with grade 1 students to complete provincial assessments.  So I'm afraid I didn't end up taking any pictures. 

I Can Develop Listening Skills / I Can Sequence Main Ideas in a Story

This week students started listening to me read the short novel, "My Father's Dragon".  This short novel is a great way to help students develop their listening and comprehension skills.  As we are reading each chapter, we stop, talk about, and draw key moments.  Using longer texts is also a great way to help students develop their prediction skills over the course of a longer narrative.  Ask your child what Elmer packed into his backpack and what do they think he'll use the items for?

Reminders:

Wednesday, January 25th - Library Book Exchange Day

Friday, January 27th - Early Dismissal at 12:41pm

Monday, January 30th - Report Cards available on MyCBE

Friday, February 3rd - Non-Instructional Day - No School for Students

January 9 - 13

 Welcome Back!

It's so great to see everyone after the break - I hope everyone had a chance to enjoy their time off!  We had a busy start back this week.  Just a reminder that this week students were allowed to sign out two library books.  Our library book exchange day is on Wednesday.

I Can Move and Be Physically Active

This week were incredibly fortunate to partake in the Rocks and Rings residency.  Everyone had a lot of fun and we may even have some future curling stars in our midst.  

I Can Identify How Landforms Affect Communities 

This week we started our mini-booklets to illustrate our learning about different geographic landforms.  Students are able to use their illustration books as a stepping off point to help the share their learning in greater detail using oral language.

Maker Space

Reminders:

Wednesday, January 18th  - Library Book Exchange

Friday, January 20th - Early Dismissal at 12:41pm

December 19 - 22

 

What great questions to reflect on as we head off on our winter break!  These questions of reflection were brought to us from Elder Saa'kokoto as he shared teachings on the winter solstice through a video recording on Wednesday, December 21st.  

I will also take this as an opportunity to remind you that Ramsay School will be closed from Friday, December 23rd to Sunday, January 8th.  School will reopen a regular schedule on Monday, January 9th.  I wish all of you the happiest of the season with lots of time to cherish your family, spend time together, and get some much needed rest.

This past week we spent time in finishing up some projects and reviewing material from the last several weeks.  We also managed to squeeze some fun in as well!

I Can Work Through Challenging Math Problems with Perseverance 

This week we worked on a very tricky problem in math were students were asked to figure out how many different combinations of wrapping paper and ribbon could be made with the given materials.  This involved a lot of hands on moving of materials, and a lot of double checking our work to look for duplicates.

On Wednesday we had a chance to openly explore several math challenges during centre time.

Reminders

Thursday, December 22

• Pajama Day and Favorite Book Sharing Day
• Last Day of Classes before the Winter Break

Friday, December 23 - Sunday, January 8

• Winter Break - No School

Monday, January 9

• First Day of Classes after the winter break

December 12 - 16

 Brrrr, we're in for a cold week this upcoming week!  Just a reminder that students can come right away on days when the temperature is below -20 with the wind chill.  Ms. Yasin will be watching the door by the field and opening it up for students.   We also remain inside for recess when it is very cold.  However, should the weather warm up to even -19, students will go outside to play so it is important to still send their winter gear.

I Can Make Observations and Record Data During a Science Experiment to Help Me Make a Conclusion

This week students conducted a timed trial to discover what makes ice melt faster.  Each team added salt, rock salt, baking soda, and sugar to ice and observed what happened over time.  We discovered that salt helped the ice to melt faster.

I Can Use What I Know About Doubles to Help Me Recall Math Facts That Are Near Doubles

We worked on near doubles facts this week.  Near doubles are double numbers with one or two more.  For example, 4+5.  If we know double four is eight that can help us to instantly know that 4+5 is a double four plus one more.  Our goal, for the end of grade 2, is to have instant recall of these facts.  

We practiced by playing a game where we had to roll a die, double it and then add one more.  We had a game board so we could work with a partner and keep track of our rolls.

I Can Explain What Makes a Healthy Snack / Lunch

We had our virtual field trip with a dietician from Save-on-Foods.  We learned about about Canada's food guide and what elements make up healthy snacks and meals.  Did you know you should eat a dark green and an orange fruit/vegetable everyday?  Ask your child about Go, Glow, and Grow foods.

Reminders

Monday, December 19

• Red and Green Day

Tuesday, December 20

• Holiday Hat Day

Wednesday, December 21

• Holiday / Fun Sweater Day
• No Learning Commons

Thursday, December 22

• Pajama Day and Favorite Book Sharing Day
• Last Day of Classes before the Winter Break

Friday, December 23 - Sunday, January 8

• Winter Break - No School

Monday, January 9

• First Day of Classes after the winter break

December 5 - 9

 

Wow, it's been a busy few weeks!  It's hard to believe that our winter break is only nine school days away!  We have so much planned over the next couple of weeks and we will be really making the most of each minute of learning from now until then.  We have an exciting project coming up and I am hoping that you may have a few things at home to help us out - I am looking for pieces of styrofoam and bubble wrap.  Please send these in with your child if you have any to spare.

I Can Build an Understanding of Mental Math Strategies

We have been working with double facts over the last week.  Students have caught on quickly and many are able to instantly and accurately recall the sum of doubled numbers.  We will continue to build doubles this week as we talk about doubling a number and adding 1 or 2.  Our goal is to be automatic with number facts such as 7+8,  5+6 (double 7 +1, double 5 +1), etc.  And as always, it's always a great idea to continue to work on remembering our ten pairs!

I Can Count to and Identify Numbers up to 100 (grade 1) / 1000 (grade 2)

Students are continuing to build their understanding of our number sense by exploring place value and patterns with the base ten number system.  We will be moving quite quickly on this and a great way to bring this work home is to count loose parts or counting collections.  A counting collection is simply a group of items that children can count.  The strategies they use, organizing by 2s, 5s, 10s, etc. helps them to build their automaticity with skip counting and recalling numbers.

I Can Appreciate the Work of Artists / I Can Use Color to Show Areas of Light and Shadow

Students looked at the work of Canadian Group of Seven artist Lawren Harris before creating their own iceberg pictures with chalk pastel.

I Can Create a Story

This week students worked on their creative story-telling using loose parts.  First students built a story then they told the story to a friend.  Once the stories had been shared, drawing a picture in their notebook was the next step before they worked on writing in their journals.

Literacy:

Grade 1 students have completed all the letter-sound correspondences of the alphabet and have been working on solidifying their confidence in reading CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words within a passage.  They have also been working on identifying the elements of a sentence (capital at the beginning, end punctuation, a 'who', and a 'doing').

Grade 2 students have been working with Ms. Yasin as they continue to build their understanding of more complex vowel patterns (ex. aw, au, oo).  

Reminders:

Monday, December 12

Last day to accept Alexandra Christmas Hamper Donations – The Alexandra Centre Society is an organization that offers many programs to families in the Ramsay and Inglewood area including a Christmas Hamper program. This program is extremely important to families that find themselves in need of extra support over the Holidays.

If you are able to contribute, please send any of the items mentioned below to the school in care of your child before December 13, 2022. Thank you for your generosity.

• New Socks for all ages
• Gifts and toys for children (including teens)
• Gifts for senior citizens
• Non-perishable food items
• Grocery store gift cards (any denomination)

Wednesday, December 14

• Library Book Return - students are asked to return their books prior to the winter break

Friday, December 16

• Virtual Field Trip with a Save-On-Foods Dietician

Monday, December 19

• Red and Green Day

Tuesday, December 20

• Holiday Hat Day

Wednesday, December 21

• Holiday / Fun Sweater Day

Thursday, December 22

• Pajama Day
• Last Day of Classes before the Winter Break

Friday, December 23 - Sunday, January 8

• Winter Break - No School