Blackfoot Nation: Buffalo Artefacts

Today the students explored a Glenbow Museum kit of cultural items used by the Blackfoot in the past.  The Blackfoot people depended greatly on the Bison for not only food, but for weapons, tools, clothes, shelter and everyday household items.   150 years ago, there were no Superstores to buy things.  The people living in the Plains needed to find, build and problem solve to meet their needs.

Today we examined the artefacts, and made observations about what materials they were constructed of and predictions on how they were made and how they were used. 
Our guiding questions:

Look at some of these photos and discuss some of the questions from our poster.  Items on a cloth together are connected.  

2nd Great Lesson

Today we did the 2nd Great Lesson.  We explored how the first life came to Earth.  After our powerpoint, the children looked at specimens to explore the difference between vertebrates and invertebrates, made fossils with playdough, sequenced pictures of lifeforms and explored our Montessori timelines. 

Google Maps is FUN!!!

This morning we explored google maps.   We started zoomed out as far as we could to look at the satellite pictures of earth.  Slowly zooming in, we looked for landforms and landmarks we could see. -First we saw oceans, rivers, islands, lakes 

-Next we noticed provincial borders, towns and roads

-Then we spied farmers' fields, buildings and bridges

-Then we zoomed right into our school and found the playground, discovery gardens and the compound

What natural landmark is just north west of our school that you can see in this picture? You can see it from many places in the city.

We sorted our discoveries into natural and man-made features

It was super fun looking at downtown and changing our view so we could see how tall the buildings are. We had some interesting discussions about how our city has changed.  Natalie told us that the Calgary Tower was no longer the tallest building..... how else has it changed?

Then I zoomed in on this location.  I told the students that this was a VERY important place in Calgary's story.  The kids even learned a fancy (adult word) for two rivers joining.  We will be exploring the story of Calgary.  Just like we are looking at our classmates timelines on their birthdays, Calgary also has a timeline of its own.  

Monthly Math Games

 

 

Celebration of Learning!

Hello Families,

This Thursday (tomorrow) is our Celebration of Learning! Students and teachers are excited to share their work and learning with you. Classrooms will be open from 6:15 to 7: 45 pm. Families are encourage to visit their child's classroom any time during the allotted time frame. Please allow for at least 30 minutes to spend looking at your child's work and projects. Don't forget to check out all the bulletin board's outside of the classrooms too. In room 2, children will be sharing:

-Ozobots

-A building project of the Three Little Pig's house from science

-A piece of writing with a rubric

-A Montessori literacy activity

-Some math games/activities

We are also encouraging families to visit the lost and found for missing items. It is also a great time to check to see if your child's indoor shoes still fit. Don't forget to check out the Scholastic book fair in room 10. All proceed go directly to our school library.  

We look forward to celebrating with you this Thursday!

Writing Expectations

    

We have bee working hard to improve our writing skills. We met as a group of grade 1s and then separately as a group of grade 2s to create these writing rubrics. These writing expectations are posted in the classroom, with teacher-made exemplars for students to self-assess their work. We've been working hard to accurately assess our work. On Thursday, when you come for our celebration of learning, students will have their writing journals and the writing expectations to share with you!

 

Health and Life Skills checklist

Last week and this week we have reviewed the zones of regulation and talked about our relationship skills and independence. Students have self-assessed their skills in the classroom. We (teachers) have also assessed them. Please talk with your child about this checklist coming home and then sign and return it. If you have questions/concerns please contact us.

Book Fair

Tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday afternoon, students in room 2 will have the opportunity to visit the school book fair. Please feel free to send money, either day.
The book fair will also be open to families on Thursday evening at our celebration of learning.

Celebration of Learning

This Thursday is our Celebration of Learning! Students and teachers are excited to share their work and learning with you. Classrooms will be open from 6:15 to 7: 45 pm. Families are encourage to visit their child's classroom any time during the allotted time frame. Please allow for at least 30 minutes to spend looking at your child's work and projects. Don't forget to check out all the bulletin board's outside of the classrooms too. 

We are also encouraging families to visit the lost and found for missing items. It is also a great time to check to see if your child's indoor shoes still fit. Don't forget to check out the Scholastic book fair in room 10. All proceed go directly to our school library.  

We look forward to celebrating with you this Thursday!

Crazy Hair Day

November’s “CRAZY HAIR” Spirit Day – Tuesday Nov. 19th  

On Tuesday November 19th, students and staff are encouraged to get creative with their hairstyle, in support of creating school spirit and to celebrate Crazy Hair Day. This might mean that students may style their hair in a different way than normal, or perhaps add decorations to it. Or maybe they will temporarily change its colour or wear a wig. We can’t wait to see what cool and creative ideas you come up with on Tuesday. 

Ozobots and 2D shapes

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Students are exploring 2D shapes by drawing pathways for our ozobots to follow. Next week we have our celebration of learning so you can see these tiny robots in action!

Raz Kids

Dear Parent or Guardian:
Your child has access to award-winning digital resources through Kids A-Z, Learning A-Z's website created for students. After your child logs in, each website your child's teacher has subscribed to is shown. Your child can work on assignments or select other resources for reading and writing practice.
Website Resources for Your Student
RAZ-KIDS - ebooks and eQuizzes at just-right reading levels
* Access resources on mobile devices by downloading the Kids A-Z app from the app store. Data rates may apply.

Kids A-Z Login Instructions
Step 1: Go to www.kidsa-z.com
Step 2: Enter or choose the teacher's username, jhalsall0 

Step 3: Your child finds his or her username on the class chart,
Step 4: Your child enters his or her password (as shown on the paper that went home) 

How to Register for and Receive Progress Reports
If you would like to receive activity and progress reports for your child and send him or her messages, you can register for parent access from your child's teacher. Once the teacher approves access, you can view reports and send your child messages by clicking on the parent link at the top of the screen at www.kidsa-z.com.  After your child logs in, click on the green parent button at the top right of the screen and enter your email address.

This message is the notice about Raz Kids. This is another form of home reading. There are many books at your fingertips using this program. Students are registered at their just-right level for right now in the school year. If your child reads a lot, they will move levels quickly (this does not directly transfer to what we're seeing/reading in the classroom). This is simply another form of reading and access to many other books.

Access usernames and passwords have been sent home in the communication folders.

Have fun reading together!

Montessori Work Period and Number Concepts

  

Students are exploring number concepts throughout the day and during Montessori work period. In our classroom there are many different levels of learners - we have students working on recognizing numbers to 20, numbers to 100, numbers in the thousands; we have students counting to 100, skip counting and ordering numbers. We are beginning to explore addition and subtraction as well. Many of our grade 2 students are working on dynamic addition/subtraction (adding and subtracting with carrying over, to 100) whereas, grade 1's are working on more simple addition and subtraction equations. Please talk with your child about their understanding of numbers and adding and subtracting.
Count while you're in the car, going grocery shopping, setting the table. Add and subtract while you're doing the dishes, folding laundry, waiting for swimming classes to start. In any downtime, take the time to work on numbers with your child.

 

I can sort building materials.

 

Today we gathered all of our donated building supplies (thank you) and started sorting. Students are determining how to sort the materials based on their use.
Next week, we will start building a house for one of the three little pigs. A house that will have to stand the test of wind power (so the big bad wolf doesn't blow it down). Students are thinking about which materials would be best to build such a structure. Talk with your child about the process of building and how they'll decide what/how to build. Talk to your child about his/her ideas and help them develop a plan.

Assembly and Ozobots

Today we had our Remembrance Day assembly. Students were very respectful and it was a lovely assembly to recognize the importance of this day. We hope you spend time together this long weekend.



We also worked with our buddies today to explore the Ozobots. Students will have the opportunity to share these robots with you at our celebration of learning in a couple weeks!

art rubric

Please have a look in your child's folder for their Diwali fireworks art.  It came home Wednesday.  Please keep the art at home and return the rubric.  Thanks!

Patterning assessment

Students are bringing home a patterning assessment today. It is a glance at how they're doing with creating, extending, and describing repeating patterns. There is no rubric attached. Please look through the document with your child and talk about their patterns. Sign and return the form at your earliest convenience.

Shapes in our environment

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Today we started talking about 2D shapes. We identified a variety of familiar 2D shapes. We noticed that 2D shapes are present in our environment, everywhere, so we went on a hunt to find them. Students chose 4 shapes and explored our classroom to see where they could see these 2D shapes as part of 3D real-life objects

Please remember, tomorrow is our school-wide Remembrance Day assembly and there will be no school Monday.

Tools for numerical literacy

Today we looked at number lines and hundred charts as tools for adding and subtracting.

We talked about how when we move right on a number line the quantities become greater and as we move to the left the quantities become lesser.

Some number lines have labelled increments, while open number lines are blank and the learner add the numbers they are working with.

One hundred charts increase and decrease by one as we move right and left like a number line.  When we travel up and down the columns we add and subtract ten.
7 , 17, 27, 37, 47.......      62, 52, 42, 32, 22, 12...

Thanks for all the building supplies sent in so far.  Keep them coming, we will be able to make some great projects with them.

REMINDER:  Remembrance Day assembly on Friday and no school on Monday.

Building materials needed!

 
Today we played with LEGO and it was awesome! We're starting our Building Things unit and science and need your help. We're going to be building a variety of things so we'd like to ask for you to send in some recyclables. We brainstormed a list of materials that we thought would make great building materials. Please see our list below and contribute what you can. We'll start collecting right away. The sooner we get the materials, the sooner we can start building!

Science Test

This science test went home on Thursday last week. It's very important that you sign it and send it back. If you have questions or concerns, please contact one of the teachers.