Wear Purple or Blue on April 4th

Thursday April 4th is Wear Purple or Blue Day at CJP. Like Orange Shirt Day in September and Pink Shirt Day in February that is held to bring awareness to First Nation reconciliation and Anti-bullying, Wear Purple or Blue Day is to bring awareness to Epilepsy (purple) and Autism (blue). Families are encouraged to have a conversation with their child about epilepsy and/or autism, as both impact not only members of our Captain John Palliser community but people around the world. Traditionally Purple and Blue days occur separately but this year will be honoured jointly as Purple Day occurs while students are on Spring Break. 

Please consider joining us in raising awareness by wearing purple or blue (or both colours) clothes on Thursday April 4th. 

Here are some websites that you may be interested in visiting: 

http://www.purpleday.org/index.html

https://www.autismspeaks.org/world-autism-month

Soapstone carving - Inuit Art

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As we finish our unit studying the Inuit people and where they live, students were able to experience a traditional form of art, 'soapstone carving'. Today we had a chance to look at real soap stone and a real carving of an inukshuk. We talked about how this stone felt, and looked and what it would be like to carve the actual stone.

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Students were then able to use their soap and a popsicle stick to carve their own creation of a polar bear. It was a really fun experience!



Thank you for your donations of soap. Because many students brought extra (and Mrs. Halsall also brought extra), students will be able to have a second chance after the break to try and carve another polar bear. This will be a choice during our Montessori work period.

Thanks again for supporting the learning in our classroom!

Looking at Art

Since we have been talking about the importance of water, I chose 5 paintings with water as its subject for our art critique.  We looked at the pictures deeply following the criteria above.  We challenged ourselves to be detailed and thoughtful.  Instead of just saying I see lots of blue, we discussed the shades, whether the colours were dark or bright and the mood the colour gives. We also examined what emotions the painting stirred in us.  Some of the paintings made the children feel calm and peaceful, while others made them feel worried or happy. 

Salmon coloured notices

Parents please ensure that you have filled out and returned the salmon coloured notices, which report whether your child is returning to CJP next year.  The office is busy staffing the school for September and needs an accurate enrolment count. Thanks for your help.

25th World Water Day on Friday!

Today we talked a bit more about the importance of water.  Room 2 has a good understanding that water is important for living systems, our bodies and habitats.  We thought about the idea of conservation.  The word conserve was new to many.  Students brainstormed that to conserve means - -to protect
-to keep safe
-to not waste
-to save

We talked about how lucky we are to have clean water to our homes as many people to not have an easy to access source of water and need to walk great distances each day to get water to meet their daily needs. 

We talked about ways we use water at school:
-flushing toliets
-washing hands
-cleaning desks/floors
-drinking
-painting

...and also ways we could possibly conserve water.  We realized hand washing was the way students probably use the most water.

We did a little experiment about how much water we can save by changing small habits.  We made some simple instructions on how to wash our hands...using our handing washing song to ensure we scrub enough.  We measured the amount of water we used if we didn't turn off the tap.  Then we followed the exact same procedures, but turning off the water after we wetted our hands and then turning it back on to rinse.  We noticed we could save 18 cups of water!!!! That is a lot. 

The children then made posters to tell others in our school about World Water Day and to give suggestions to others on how they could conserve water.  THINK about ways you use water in your home.  How could you conserve water?  (We discussed that turning off the tap while brushing our teeth would conserve water like in our handwashing experiement!)

We also did some good problem solving using pattern blocks.  We pretended we had a mystery bag with pattern blocks in it.  In total the bag had 15 sides.  The kids worked on the possibilities of what combination of shapes could be in the bag.  Kids started noticing patterns, as they worked through the pattern, used their doubles for adding and made great observations.  Kids realized that 15 was an odd number, so that each combination had to have a triangle in it. 

Sunshine and Puddles

With the weather this week, there is going to be a lot of ice on the school property in the early morning that will turn to puddles by mid afternoon.  Students have been reminded to watch carefully for slippery areas, walk like a penguin and wear footwear that is safe and suitable for wet weather (running shoes are not recommended).  Many students had a chance to try out their winter boots in the giant puddle in the compound. All students were cautioned to stay out of the puddle if they didn't have waterproof boots. You might be very surprised to learn just how waterproof your child's boots are. 

In addition, with the warm temperatures expected, the ice will be turning to slush and water as the day goes on.  We are asking students to bring an extra pair of pants and socks in their backpacks to change into in the event they fall and get wet.  Being wet is a natural consequence to wadding into the large puddle after being cautioned to stay out if you don't have proper footwear. At least a change of clothes will make things a bit better.

Best in Show!

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Today we had a chance to share our opinion writing and our collections with our buddies. First we shared the writing and then we worked with our buddy to self-evaluate our work. We used the rubric that we created and compared different aspects of writing - for example, did I use capitals? Was there an introduction and conclusions? etc.
Now we're starting a new opinion report. We have chosen a book in our book bag and we're writing about why it is the best book in our collection.
Ask your child which book they chose and why they chose it? Talking about it will help with our writing.

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Food Prices: Calgary vs. Iqaluit

  
This week we have been comparing food prices of Iqaluit, Nunavut to Calgary, Alberta. We looked at current flyers that advertise the prices of food and noticed that food prices in Iqaluit are much higher than in Calgary. We then discussed possible reasons why there could be such differences. Talk with your child about why things are more expensive in Northern communities, compared to where we live.

Students were given a budget today and were then asked to 'go shopping' in each community (Calgary and Iqaluit). Using approximate food prices they had to spend all their money and see what they could buy, given their budget. Students were very engaged in this activity and it would interesting to ask them what food they bought and if they noticed any differences between what they could buy in each community.

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What is guided reading?

Every week we read with each student in our class. Guided reading is bigger than 'just reading'. Every week, we specifically choose books that are at the appropriate level and focus on one skill. 'Appropriate level' means the level of book is not too hard that it causes frustration but it's not too easy that the child is unable to practice his/her skills.
Today I worked with a group reading level H. The book that I choose had rhyming words. The is the second time meeting with this group, reading this book, so today we focused on the rhyming words. Students went through the book and we identified the words that rhymed and wrote them on a little whiteboard. Students were able to hear the rhymes and then see how the words were spelled. Afterwards, I introduced a language lesson, focused on rhyming words. From here, students will take this skill and practice the lesson during Montessori work period. They will be able to solidify their understanding of rhyming words at their own pace.
How can you help? Ask your child about their guided reading books. What skills are they working on? What language lessons relate to the books their reading? Simpler things you can do on the go: sing songs, recite nursery rhymes, identify words they see in public and come up with similar words that rhyme or start the same or end the same. The more we talk about our reading and language and what we're learning, the more connections will be made.

Homework!

Next week students will try out the traditional Inuit art form of carving. We will be making Polar Bears. Each child will need their own bar of Ivory soap. (other soaps don't work as well for carving). Prepare the soap ahead of time (click attachment below) and send in a plastic bag with your child's name on it. 

To cut the soap successfully you can try a small steak knife (adult job). Please cut it as shown in the example so your child can have successful carving project. 

Thanks for your support!

Movement and Dance

Today, Mrs. Taylor demonstrated some moves for everyone to attempt. Over the next week, students are working on creating a dance to a song that they've chosen. We've been working on dance and different types of movements over the past couple weeks so now is their chance to put some moves together and choreograph a dance. This is a great way for students to collaborate and learn how to work together as a team!

Monthly Math Game

A little late, but here it is - the math game for February. A math game you can play at home with only a deck of cards. I sent a paper copy home with all students too but you can refer here if the paper copy gets misplaced.
Have fun!

Current Writing Expectations

Today we completed our rubrics for our current writing expectations. Posted in our classroom, all students are now aware of the expectations for opinion writing. You can refer to these when practicing any writing at home, as well.
Today we created interesting introductions that grab the reader's attention. We also worked on elaborating on the details of our writing - why our item won best in show!
It's important to remember that writing an entire piece of writing is difficult to complete all in one sitting. Many our our finished products are worked on over 4-5 days. This provides students enough time to collaborate with their peers and work on expanding their ideas without becoming frustrated with the mechanics of writing.




We also continued with our arctic exploration today. We reviewed the Inuit artifacts that were introduced to us at the Glenbow Museum. We talked about what each item was made of, how it was use, and who used it.
What do you think these are??

Stop that leak!!!!

Children brainstormed ways to fix a leaky cup today in our Science exploration on what kids a materials make good containers for liquids.

As scientists, we used our background knowledge about what materials absorb liquids and which materials repel liquids.   We looked at our "paper test" we did last month where we explored what paper, paint adhered to best.  Since the paint did not absorb into the tinfoil or the wax paper, some kids choose them to line their cup.  One group, placed their cup inside a bigger plastic cup, while another group decided to put raincoat material on the bottom.  Mrs. Wacker thought that plastercine would be a good barrier, but after only a minute the water penetrated through and started leaking.  We quickly discovered paper and even cardstock quickly got very weak when wet and started to leak.  The tinfoil looked at first like a good container, but it leaked during the lunch hour.   We also discussed the purpose of a cup and some other considerations we needed to account for, like cleanliness and function.  We thought of containers we use in our daily life and what materials they are made of and how they are used and what some of their pros and cons are.

-metal water bottle: study and waterproof but heavy and expensive to make

-dixie cup:   light, cheap and waterproof due to waxy coating but not very sturdy (good for single use)

-glass cup: waterproof but fragile and can be dangerous if broken 

-plastic water bottles: pretty inexpensive and durable...probably why there are so many!

-styrofoam cup:  inexpensive, waterproof, insulated....but not great for the environment, that is why coffee shops do not use them very often.  Starbucks uses coated paper cups to be more environmentally friendly. 

-ceramics cups: heavy and fragile....need to have glazing on them to be waterproof.   

To clean up our mess, Mrs. Wacker enlisted the help of her hairdryer.  The children thought this was kinda crazy.  (We talked about how "unexpected behaviours", like using a hair dryer at school, can put us in the yellow zone and make us very excited or even silly.)   We took some calming breaths, then discussed how the heat and blowing air of a hair drying can help evaporate the liquid water to water vapour.  We disucssed how we use hair dryers, clothes dryer, fans and even clothes lines to help us speed the process of drying things.  

We also had a chance to finish our Arctic Monoprints.  Today we were able to borrow some rollers, which helped us apply the paint more smoothly and evenly on our printing blocks.  They look fantastic!  

Arctic explorations

Today we carried on from our field trip at the Glenbow with some Inuit inspired art.  Printmaking is a form of art which is currently very popular in the Arctic, especially in the Cape Dorsett area.  The Inuit people have been carving bones, and tusks for thousands of years, but have only been introduced to print making since around the 50s.   Inuit prints often depict their daily life or arctic animals. 

Our class created a monoprint to represent Arctic culture. We created a reduction style art block made from Styrofoam.  The art block can be used repeatedly, however a monoprint is a single impression made from a reprintable block.

We also looked at other artists like Andy Warhol, who use the concept of repetition, printing an image multiple times.  In this picture, Warhol has repeated an IDENTICAL image of his face only altering the colours.   

We also added some different shaped rocks to our inukshuk centre.  The children found the first set of rocks challenging to build with.  The new rocks were described as flatter and thinner and easier to stack.  

During Montessori work period and morning meeting we have been talking about the characteristics of shapes.  Children are noticing attributes like:

-the number of sides

-the number of corners

-the length of sides (all sides are the same length in regular polygons) 

-the types of angles (acute, obtuse, right-angled)

-the relationships between the sides (parallel sides, divergent lines)

During our explorations we are less worried with remembering the names of particular shapes, but learning the concept that shapes can be described by their attributes.  

Kids are making interesting discoveries, that shapes can have more than one name. 

For example a square can be called many things.  It is: 

-a rectangle

-a quadrilateral

-a four sided figure

-a polygon

-parallelogram.... 

For some kids a square is a square, because it has four sides. For others, they are also deciding it is because all the corners have right angles.  Others have noticed that all its sides are the same length.  The closer children examine the shapes, they discover the attributes that make it different from other shapes.  (A square is a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square because its sides are not all the same length).  What shapes are around your house? What do you notice about them?

                                                                                                            

Glenbow Museum

Today we learned how to slow down, look deeply and read the vocabulary of art - line, shape and colour - in one of Glenbow's many art galleries. Using all of their senses, students collaborated in small groups to create a floor collage using materials that support their exploration and understanding of these concepts. Students were given a word and had to create a masterpiece that expressed that feeling. Here are the examples of the floor collages that we made:
Thrilling


Beautiful


Happy


Playful


Scary



Today we explored Inuit culture through discussions about food, clothing, shelter, animals, beliefs and values. Using authentic Inuit artifacts, students investigated and came to conclusions about what these objects are, how they were made and what they were used for. Here are the objects: 
Have these discussions at home too, see if you can determine what they are and what they're made of. Each group only had a chance to investigate one object. We will continue the exploration on Friday.