Holiday fun!

Today we had a relaxing and fun day! Students got to wear their pj's all day to watch a movie and participate in Christmas activities. During our work period today, students had many crafts and building activities to choose from: making a card; beading a candy cane; cutting/creating a snowflake; building patterns; making santa/elf craft.

Tomorrow is our last day of school before the winter break!

AMAZING JOB Room 2!

Mrs Wacker is so proud of the students in room 2.  They did a fantastic job presenting in our December learning assembly.  Not only did student do a great job singing and acting, they also were very good audience members while the other students presented. 

Today was my last day this week as Mrs Halsall will be in the class on Thursday and Friday.  I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a wonderful winter holiday. 

See you in January!

Don't forget that tomorrow is PAJAMA DAY!  Have fun!

Our Assembly Is Tomorrow!!!

The children in room 2 are very excited for their learning assembly tomorrow afternoon.  Parents are welcome to come watch the assembly.  It will follow the afternoon recess, starting at about 2:55-3:00pm.

Today we did a rehearsal in the gym with the grade 5/6 classes for our assembly.  We will be doing a choral poem, performing our skit and singing Must Be Santa with the grade 5/6s.

Please have your child practice their lines again tonight.  Most of them know what they have to say.  Now our focus is on saying them in a big, loud and expressive voice.  Talk about where they should pause and which words they should emphasize.  Most children need to work on SLOWING down and speaking much LOUDER. 

We have our animal headbands ready at school.  If your child wants to wear a colour that matches their animal, that would be great.  For example, the rabbits grow white fur in winter to help them camouflage, so if the rabbit wore a white t-shirt it would look good. 

We will have another practice in the gym tomorrow with our movements and set up before our performance tomorrow afternoon.

We had fun at Huntington Hills Community Centre trying out curling on the real curling sheets.  The children practiced using their brooms down the length of the sheet and played a couple of games  pushing the rocks into the house.  They were heavy!!!!!!!

Community Library Trip

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Today we had the chance to go visit the library and be toured around by the librarian. She told us all about the programs and gave us a program guide to take home - have a look at what programs are offered over the break. We also had the amazing opportunity to look at how the book return works - she showed us how the books are sorted by a machine and what happens when we return books. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to sign out any books but we encourage you to take some time over the break to visit the library or at least do some reading on your own at home. Mrs. Halsall will be sending home a reading challenge on Friday.

Practicing our scripts

Hello parents,

Your child has brought home a script from our play.  It would be super helpful if they practiced the words they will be saying.  During our assembly, I told the children it is not important if they say their lines exactly how they are written. What is important, is that they know the animal they are talking to, and the idea of their script.

For example, Briauna needs to tell Geese winter is coming and that it is time to fly down south to warmer places.  It does not matter if she says, "Hello Geese, winter is coming."  or "Hey Geese soon it will be winter "or "Geese!  Winter is on its way."

Right now, most children are reading their lines word for word.  Practice you lines, but then take the script away and have them practice just saying it.   You can start by giving key words.
ie.  Geese .      Winter .     Fly .     Work on SLOWING DOWN, stretching out key words, and adding expression.  Some creatures say two things in a conversation.  Have an adult/sibling practice being the other character to help your child know when they say their lines.

Talk about the  ellipse ...  these three (or more dots) mean to pause andto add expression to the words that follow.

We made headbands of our animals with our Buddies to wear.  Kids could try to wear a plain colour that matches the colour of their animal.  We discussed that no one needs to buy anything to wear.  Our headbands do the job. 

Digital Citizenship

Today we reviewed the importance of being a good digital citizen. We created a class contract and everyone signed saying we agreed with the terms. Students understand the importance of using technology for learning purposes and understand if they are not abiding by the contract that their privileges will be taken away.


Understanding and knowing our doubles is a great mental math strategy that we can use to solve addition and subtraction equations. Today we created a doubles booklet with the equations and pictures. The pictures should be clues to us to remind us the answer of specific equations. Over the break, practice these double equations with your child to improve their math fluency and accuracy.

Clubs next week

Leadership Club has been busy planning mini events for students in the school. Leadership students will be hosting sessions from December 17-21, 2018. The club information is as follows:

Monday December 17:

• 2:35-2:50pm - Reading Club for Gr 1 -3 in Rm 10. (No reading club in the library)

On the last day of reading, we are going to get the kids to write holiday words they know to go with the story.

• 12:10 – 12:35pm-  Arts and Writing for Gr 1-3 in Rm 8.  

Tuesday December 18:

• 2:35-2:50pm – Math games for Gr 1-5 in Rm 9
• 2:35 – 2:50pm – Technology for Gr. 1-2 in Rm 8. How to draw and design on the I-Pads.

Thursday December 20:

• 2:35-2:50pm – Arts and Writing for Gr. 1-3 in Rm 8. Repeat session from Monday
• 12:10 – 12:35pm – Intramurals for Gr. 4-6 in the gym

Polar Bear Club is for Gr 1-3 students on a Blue Dot day. This means that on days that it is colder than -20, if students are appropriately dressed and have written permission from parents, they will be invited to play outside instead of having indoor recess.

Making Our Mural

Today we were super busy making our mural. Children used photos, pictures from books and plastic models to help them create animals for our Alberta Winter Forest Mural.  Thanks very much to our crew of students that helped finish painting our background at lunch so we could start glueing our animals on it. Kids really thought a lot about the foreground and background and the sizing of their animals.

 We also wrote our script for our play.  We adapted the story Time To Sleep by Denise Fleming.  We are excited to present it next Wednesday at our assembly.

It looks like our pictures didn't download so I will add them on Friday when I am back at the school. 

Community Library Trip

Tomorrow (Thursday) we will be going on a walk to the community library (located almost next door to the school). We'll be leaving the school after lunch (1:15) and returning before recess (2:15). Students will have an opportunity to explore the library and see what the facility offers. If your child has a library card, they are welcome to bring it along and sign out a book to bring home.

Rocks and Rings

Today was our last curling class in school. Students were able to play against other teams and keep score. Next week, we'll take our skills to the Huntington Hills Curling Rink. We are all super excited to see how we need alter our skills once we're on ice.
Don't forget to send a helmet for next Tuesday so students can participate!

The most important part of a community...

The most important thing about winter is...

Today we talked more about winter and changing seasons. We read a book, called the Important Book. It follows a pattern and describes a specific topic. We modelled our writing off this book. Together we brainstormed all the important things about winter and then each student crafted their own version of the most important thing about winter!

Warm Feet for the Street

The Me To We Club, is collecting stuffed stockings for the Warm Feet for the Street Project.  If families want to participate, read the information sheet below and bring in your stocking to school.  They are being collected outside the office. 

Thanks for your generosity!

Community Building Project

Today we finished building our community. Students thought of many small details to add - fire hydrants, tree, bushes, bike racks, cars, etc. Students have worked for many weeks and all feel quite proud of our accomplishments. Ask your child how they participated; why we included specific features of our community.

Over and Under the Snow

Today we read the book Over and Under The Snow by Kate Messner to help us learn to create a plan for our winter landscape mural.  This multi-disciplinary project is helping the children learn about the parts of a landscape picture and spatial concepts like the:
-horizon
-foreground
-background
-perimeter
-area
along with their seasonal changes unit in science.

After reading our book we added new animals to our How Animals Adapt to Winter Chart, learning charts are great ways to sort and organize information.  Children then chose animals that they want to draw and paint to add to our mural next week.  When we chose our animals we thought about "landscape accessories", like logs, stumps, trees, water bodies, caves, lodges, aquatic plants, ground cover that our mural will also need. 

Today's book taught us how many animals live under the snow for protection from predators and for warmth.  We talked about how snow has many air pockets in it between the branches of the flakes which traps the heat. 

To prove that snow has air spaces we filled a cup with snow at recess and are noticing that as it melts it takes up less space, since the melted droplets to not have spaces between them. 

We can't wait to finish our collaborative art mural next week!!!  Ask your child about the animal they plan on adding to our mural.  You can even look at pictures of their animal on the computer.  Ask them: What their animal will be doing?  Hibernating?  Hunting? Huddling to stay warm?  How will they show that?

Fiction or Fact in Storybooks?

Today we read a couple of storybooks about hibernation along with a non-fiction video on the subject.  We noticed that authors often make story themes about real creatures and some of their true habits, but most of the story is fictional.  When reading A Loud Winter's Nap ,  we discovered true information- Tortoises hibernate in winter while some other creatures like rabbits, squirrels and beavers are up and about.  We also discovered a lot of fictional parts- Tortoises do not sleep with pillows and stuffies and talk with the other animals.  It reminds us to think critically when reading about what parts are true and what parts are made up by the authors. Author's often have animals behave like humans!  We have started our discussion about how we are going to present information about how animals survive  winter at our December assembly.  We decided we might make a skit, so we were looking for inspiration in some fiction books. 

We had lots of fun curling again with our Rocks and Rings residency.  Don't forget to send back your permission slip for our curling trip on the 18th.  

Check your backpacks!

   
Today book order went home. Please remember that I will not be accepting any money into the class - please ensure you input your order online. All orders MUST be placed by Friday, December 7.

Also, students will be going curling as part of our physical education curriculum. Please sign and return all forms.

Please ensure you are checking the communication folders EVERY night and removing all notices each day - especially the word work words that are coming home weekly!

December is a busy month, please ensure you check the right hand side of this blog so you are aware of all the dates!