September 21st to September 24th

Thiis week we began our centres inspired by the book, "How To Be An Explorer Of The World".  The students were engaged in a variety of activities including photography, sketching and classifying items on a criteria of their choosing. 

In math, we continued looking at patterns and began working on mental math strategies.  Please look at the home journal this week to see how your child is doing with his/her basic addition facts.

The students did an incredible job using mirrors as a tool in the creation of self portraits. They worked on blending a variety of colours together to get the right tones for their skin, hair and eyes.  It was hard to believe how close the portraits resembled the individuals.

Please remember that swimming begins on Monday. We will leave the school at approximately 9:50 and return a little after 11:30. We will have time for a small snack before leaving for the pool, as well as following swimming when we return to the school.  Swimming is an exciting and exhausting time for the students. Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered.

September 14th to September 18th

Thank you very much to all the families who came out for conferences this week. It was so wonderful to have the opportunity to meet and learn more about your children. 

This week, we worked on writing "How To's". We worked on putting each step into a paragraph and on beginning out paragraphs with vocabulary that shows sequence such as; first, next, then and finally. The students wrote on a topic of interest to them. Some of the ideas used were; How To Draw An Excellent Elephant, How To Be An Amazing Goalie and How To Make A Delicious Vegetarian Pizza. 

The highlight of the week was definitely taking part in the Beakerhead Atomic 13 challenge. We received a massive roll of aluminium foil and the task to collaborate as a group using the foil to make a creation to fit the theme, "Things Are Larger Than Life".  We brainstormed a variety of ideas and came up with the idea of nature. It was incredible to watch the students work together and to see ideas evolve as the students collaborated.

The Terry Fox run was a great success.  In class, we read an article written in 1981 on the impact of Terry Fox. We them represented ideas and feelings in our Visual Journals. 

The students are bringing home their home journals and swimming forms today. 

Enjoy your weekend. 

September 8th to September 11th

We had a fantastic second week of school. It was nice to get into our routines.  We begin each morning with a read aloud. We have started with a variety of picture books centred on respect, kindness, working together and being ourselves. Some of our favorites have been, "Woolbur" and "Enemy Pie".

This year, our class is looking at the big question, "How To Be An Exlporer Of The  World?"  We worked in our visual journals, generating ideas about what we feel an explorer is.  The students came up with so many fantastic ideas. 

"An explorer is someone who is brave and not afraid to face fears and face trouble." A.H

"An explorer is someone who looks toward the future and believes it can happen." B.S

"An explorer is a person who brings inspiration to the world." K.W

We wrote recipes as a fun way of sharing about our summer holidays. We shared the different qualities and activities that we felt were most important to our vacations.  We then brainstormed different measurements and directions used in recipes. Some of the ingredients in our recipes were: six cups of adventure, a boatful of lake water, a scoop full of playing outdoors, an unimaginable amount of ice cream and a dash of hiking. The recipes definitely gave me a little inspiration for my next holiday!

This week, we began our first set of math centres.  A number of the centres are game based and cover a variety of concepts including patterning, addition using mental math, as well as ordering and comparing numbers.  We also began looking at different patterns and did an activity called "Input Output". Have your child show you some examples of their own. 

September 1st to September 4th

Welcome Back!

We had a wonderful first week back in our new school year. It was so good to see so many familiar faces. We feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with so many students for a second year. We have also enjoyed getting to know those students who are new to us.  We truly have a fantastic group of students!

The focus of our week was on getting to know one another and on working together to build a positive classroom community.  One of the favourite team building activities was, "Saving Sam" where the students worked with a partner to save a gummy worm by getting him into a lifesaver using only paperclips.  They so worked in groups to move cups into a pyramid formation using strings and a rubber band. It was wonderful to watch the students work together, communicating their ideas while listening to the ideas of others. 

Thank you for a great first week. We hope you have a fantastic long weekend.