October 30 - Day 39

Today we . . .

"We went to music.  We were singing two Halloween songs." - RA

"We did choir at lunch (some of us) and we did gym.  We played a new game tag called 'Witch Tag' where someone is the witch and then two people holding pumpkins unfreeze them."  - SW

"We did science.  We tested goo to find out what it is.  We wanted to know if it was a liquid." - MW

"We counted seeds from pumpkins in math.  Pumpkin A had 551 and Pumpkin D had 591 seeds." - AA

"We did math.  We wrote down the number of seeds that we thought were in there."  - OV

Grade 1 - First Set of RED Words

RED Words

These words that are being sent home are what is known as RED words.  These words are SIGHT words.  They don’t follow spelling or syllable patterns and are not decodable using phonics.  Students need to learn how to read and write them through memorization. 

For right now, I am only asking that students and families work on being able to read them.  This will require repeated practice as it requires memorization.  We will also be working on them in the classroom.  New lists of RED words will come home periodically. 

If you like, you can cut them apart and use them like flash cards.  I would also recommend that you have your child help point out these words to you while you are reading to them or when they come across it in the ‘real world’.

I	the
my	you
said	your
are	be
of	no

October 29 - Day 38

Today we . . .

"We went to the library for maker centers." - AC

"We made spooky Halloween trees in art." - AA

"We made scary pictures of trees." - RA

"In math we were trying to make 5 and 10." - MW

"Today pictures are coming home." - NS

"Today RED words are coming home." (for grade 1) - AZ

"RED words are words that are hard to sound out." -AA


Tomorrow is a zippy folder check day.  Zippy folders at school in the basket will get a prize!

Lunch time choir starts for kids who signed up.

Tomorrow we are going to do messy stuff in math and science!  Dress to get dirty!

October 28 - Day 37

This morning students continued our exploration of liquids by exploring surface tension and cohesion.  Students learned that some liquids, like water, have a strong surface tension that allows some items that would normally sink to rest on top of the water.  

Surface tension allows pepper to float on the top of water, but when we the surface of water is touched by a soapy finger the pepper is expelled to the edges of the plate.

The strong bonds of the water molecules at the surface allows us to over fill the glass.   

Students replicated this result by using an eye dropper to drop beads of water onto a penny. 

We followed this up by dragging beads of water across a piece of wax paper with a toothpick.  We could drag them along and form bigger beads of water.

In math, we looked at the difference between guessing and estimation.  Students were asked which of our 4 pumpkins was going to have the most seeds inside.  Most students picked the one we had already determined which one was the biggest - pumpkin A.  When asked why, most students explained that the biggest pumpkin should have the most seeds.  Students were then shown a small cup and a large cup of beads and asked which one had the most beans inside.  Most picked the largest cup for the same reason.  However, when we looked inside the cup we saw that the small cup was full and the large cup was empty.  We learned that estimations are rough judgements of a quantity based on observation.   Students then worked in pairs to estimate beans or beads in a cup and then they checked how close they were by counting them.  Students in grade one worked with items up to 30 and students in grade two worked with items up to 150.  

If you haven't already done so, please return your child's choir permission slip if they are interested in joining the lunch time choir.

October 25 - Day 36

On Friday students met with their grade 5/6 buddies for some shared reading.

We spent some more time with our four pumpkins and students added some comparative vocabulary to their understanding of size.  In their visual journals, students carefully sketched what they saw and how each pumpkin was different before add labels to identify which was biggest, smallest, and in-between. 

After recess we stayed outside for Fresh Air Friday.  We planted some tulip bulbs that were donated to our class from the Liberator Tulip Program supported by Ag for Life.  These tulips were donated as "thank you" from the Dutch Liberation 2020 Society.  They will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Netherlands Liberation in the spring of 2020.  You can find out more about their plans here.

We then went inside and learned about a boy in Calgary, Cade, who is about to turn 7.  We learned that he has been very sick and is hoping to get a lot of birthday cards for his birthday.  We then worked on making cards for his birthday.  I will deliver the cards to his teacher on Monday and she we will take them with her when she visits him on his birthday.  If you're interested in learning more about the story, here is what was featured on CTV news.

October 24 - Day 35

Hello All!

Today we had an exciting day -

We practiced rotating through literacy centers today.  Our game for the day was sorting some nomenclature cards for some of the small crawling and flying things we have been learning about.

Our letter of the day was our last vowel, U.  If interested, parents can find all of the songs we have been using to help us learn letter sounds here.

In math, we continued our investigation of pumpkins and worked on how we could quantify which pumpkin was the biggest.  We first explored how we could measure height, length, and weight.  Each group came up with their own measuring system and as a class we discussed the importance of using the same system so that we could accurately compare the pumpkins.  We then standardized our measurement system by using snap cubes and string.  We also decided that our pumpkins were too big to be weighed on the balance and used a scale instead.  Grade ones are expected to be able to demonstrate an understanding of measurement by comparing and ordering objects.  Grade twos are expected to compare objects by length, width, and mass using non-standard units to make statements of comparison. 

Here's some of the conversations that were overheard . . .

"I think it was two pounds, or three.  It's probably as heavy as my sister.  She's one."

"How do we test the weight?  Do we get one of those weight thingies?"

After our visit to the library, students helped with a demo on the properties of liquid.  So far we have learned that liquids can be poured and that they take the shape of the container that they are in. 

For our demo, student helpers came up an mixed red and blue food coloring into honey, measured out some blue dish soap, colored some water green, measured out cooking oil, and colored rubbing alcohol red.  The liquids were carefully poured into a glass and it resulted in a rainbow.  I didn't remember to take a picture of it before the students asked if we could mix it all together to see what would happen. 

Oct 23 - Day 34

Today we ...

We went to other classes and gave papers to other kids in the class to see which pumpkin they thought was biggest, A, B, C, D?" - RG

"We sorted the cards (votes) and made tallies for which pumpkin was the biggest.  Tallies are groups of five." - AA

"We took the tallies and drew pumpkins.  A big pumpkin means 5 people and a green leaf is for one." - RG

Grade 1 students had the opportunity to practice counting numbers up to twenty as they counted the results from each class.  Grade 2 students continued building their understanding of data collection and creating graphs to represent the data.

"Today we did music.  We learned a lot of hand symbols and practiced our music." - JGRS

"We played a new game called, 'Sharks and Minnows' in gym." - SW

Today we read with our grade 5/6 reading buddies!

We spent some time working on story workshop - our writing is coming along nicely!

We also spent some time learning about different areas of the brain - the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the hippocampus.  We learned that the prefrontal cortex is the wise leader of our brain, the amygdala is the security guard, and the hippocampus is the keeper of memories.

Today was Fresh Air Friday and we went outside for a nature walk for gym.  We brought along some clipboards and spent some time sketching what we observed.  Some of the students will be even bringing back some of the artifacts they collected!

We also had a fire drill today - we all did really well.

October 17

Today we had a very busy day!

Before our field trip we worked on the letter "M" - wow, did we find a lot of 'm'-words!

We had an unexpected change of plans on our trip to the music center - the artist was detained in Lethbridge and the concert was cancelled.  Instead we had a chance to tour the exhibits to complete a scavenger hunt and watch a demonstration of the Kimble Theatre Organ.

In the afternoon we revisited the water cycle in science and added the vocabulary words - precipitation, condensation, and evaporation to our understanding.  Students rebuilt the water cycle out of loose parts and added arrows and vocabulary word to our creations.

October 16

Today we . . .

"We did music and took pictures of ourselves.  We did the song, 'Hello Everybody'". - AM

"In music we played 'poison dart frog'." - SW

"We did pumpkin math to learn which pumpkin is the biggest.  Pumpkin A is the biggest." - AA

"Today at gym we played 'don't throw your trash in my backyard'." -RG



Students are well in the swing of Story Workshop and each child has a specific skill that they are working on (for example, spacing in between words, making sure each word has a vowel, or editing their work for periods and capitals). 

We continued our review of letters and their sounds.  Today we looked at the letter 'R'.  Grade 2 students are continuing to write their own alliterative tongue twisters for each letter. 

I also introduced five new sight words as no excuse words for our writing.  They are:

a, am, I, is, the

In science we explored states of matter through some hands on exploration and observation of ice, water, and steam.

In math we started in inquiry into the concept of "biggest" by looking at several different pumpkins.  We will continue this work by trying to quantify how we know something is the biggest and by collecting and displaying data on the opinions of others in the school community.

Today was also our first day with Ms. Courtney at music!

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Thursday) is our new library book exchange day and that we will be attending a concert at Studio Bell in the morning.

October 15

Just a reminder that tomorrow is picture day!

October 8 - Day 25

Another busy day!

Students worked on math centers while I worked with a small group on guided math.

Then we practiced making our way through literacy centers.  As of right now, our literacy centers include word work, reading leveled books, Raz Kids on the ipads, a listening center, and a game center.  Our center time will focus on strengthening our reading skills.

Today was our Maker Space time in the learning commons - the kids always love this time!

We did some in-class dancing for gym.

In social studies we started looking at how we each fit into the world - where we live, our community, our city, our province, and our country.  We will be working on a multi-day project in our visual journals to help show our understanding.  Stay tuned!


I also sent the permission forms for our field trip the the National Music Center next week.  I did find a couple on the stairs after school so please email me if your child's forms didn't make it home and I will send another copy.

October 7 - Day 24

Today was a busy day!

Math Centers
We started off with math centers.  Students worked in small groups practicing some of the skills and concepts around patterns that we have been working on over the past couple of weeks.  During center time I will meet with small, targeted groups in a guided math session where I might review and reinforce a concept,  clear up any misconceptions, or challenge kids to push their mathematical thinking.

Story Workshop
Before we started story workshop, we talked about the differences between walking and climbing stories.  Walking stories tell the reader about an event and climbing stories have problems that need to be solved. 

Story workshop has been a wonderful opportunity for me to work one-on-one with students on a variety of outcomes that are specifically targeted to where they are in their writing.  For example, I might discuss spacing between words with one student and then work with another student to develop an understanding of when to apply the various long A spelling patterns.

Health
Today we talked about the difference between equal and fair.  Ask your child about my first aid skills and where I put the bandaid on their imagined injury.  We learned that treating everyone equally doesn't mean that everyone is getting what they need and that we all need different things to be successful.

This is a picture we looked at:


We also read the story, "The Invisible Boy" by Tracy Ludwig.
  Ask your child why Brian was invisible for most of the story.

Science

In continuing the work we started at Ralph Klein Park, we worked on understanding the water cycle and how it works.  After we reviewed it, Students were asked to use the loose parts to create a model and explain how the water cycle worked.  Here are a couple of examples: