February 23, 2018

Dear Parents,

It has been a short but busy week in Rooms 1 and 2.  In Math, we practiced our 3D Shape song every day to get ready for Friday's assembly.  We celebrated the hundredth day of school  and we played various Math games to get ready for Thursday's Math night.  One of the featured games is called Salute.  The other was a game to help children learn to add doubles quickly.








In Science, Ms. Cvach's class has been building roller coasters to help Jack get down off the beanstalk more quickly, and Mrs. Kenna's class has been building towers so that Rapunzel can move into a nicer place!







We have been following the Olympics and are very excited that Canada is winning so many medals!  The children have been practicing Olympic sports in the gym.

It looks like we will finally go to the Cross Conservation Area next week for our field trip!  Please read the email we sent to ensure that you and your child are prepared.  Forms need to be signed and returned on Monday.  Thank you for your patience!

Here are a few more pictures from our week:





Our words of the week next week will be:

• with
• at
• come
• thing
• go

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Cvach
Mrs. Kenna

February 9, 2018

Dear Parents,

This week in literacy we had a new mystery word for our "making words" lesson.  The mystery word was "keyboard" and we were able to make a lot of 2, 3, 4 and 5 letter words!



We practiced making rhyming words with our words of the week.  On Friday we had a spelling test.  Ask your child to show you how he/she did.  We will not have any words next week due to our short week, however the week after Family Day we will be learning the following:

• be
• car
• how
• make
• not

This week we began learning about the Olympics.  We have been playing Olympic sports in Gym and have been reflecting on things we are good at.  Here are a couple of examples:

In Social Studies, we have been learning about a young Blackfoot man named Api-Kai-ees.  He loved to run and gained a reputation for being swift on his feet.  This talent landed him a very important job as a messenger who would run messages between villages.  Foot races were very popular at the time (1800's) and Api-Kai-ees became a runner.  They renamed him Deerfoot because he seemed to run effortlessly without pain or struggle like a deer.  Can you think of some places in Calgary that are named after him?

We have also started learning about our community of Cranston.  We looked at Google Maps and found our school and other places in our community.  We also showed the children where Ms. Cvach and Mrs. Kenna live!

In Math we have been preparing for our Assembly on February 23rd.  We will be singing the 3D Shape Song.  Parents are invited to attend.  Once the time is finalized, we will let you know.

In Math we also learned a new addition strategy.  When adding 2 numbers that have one number in between, you can just double the in between number to find the answer.  For example, when adding 4+6, the number in between is 5, and 5 doubled is 10!  That makes finding the answer a little easier.

In Science, we continue learning about building things.  We have been building strong structures with marshmallows and toothpicks.  Ask your child the trick to making a structure strong.











Here are a few more pictures from this week.



Unfortunately, our field trip to the Cross Conservation Area had to be postponed once again due to inclement weather.  We will re-book the trip for either Feb. 26, 27 or 28.  Once we do, we will let you know and send home a brand new permission form for you to fill out :-)

Have a lovely weekend.  Try not to get lost in the snow!

Ms. Cvach
Mrs. Kenna

Feb 2, 2018

Hello parents! Happy Ground hog Day!

We are really enjoying our "building things" inquiry study. The students have been learning what makes structures strong, what are the requirements of a base, and how 3 D shapes relate to buildings. We have created structures in small groups and today we analyzed what worked well (and perhaps what did not). We will continue with our building knowledge next week. 



 
 





Our words of the week next week are: 
of     nice      that      do   you

Napi and the Big Rock : Last week Mr. Scout came in to share this Blackfoot story. This week students retold how the Big Rock of Okotoks came to be. We then wrote out the story in our own words. This is a great literacy activity because students can embellish with juicy words and it is a way to sequence story ideas without having to make up a story of their own.

We have also begun to examine "Where in the World are you from?" Thank you for having those conversations with your children. It has been fun looking at the world map and learning about our families.


Math problem solving 
We gave the students the following problem: There are 10 people at a building center. Some are boys and some are girls. How many boys and girls are there? Show all possibilities. 

We had many different responses to this problem as students showed their thinking in many ways. At this point, we wanted students to think of a strategy to ensure they found all the ways. ( make a chart, draw a picture, write equations, use blocks etc.) This is an example of how our math facts can be applied to a real world situation.

We continue to represent 2 digit numbers daily with a focus on how many tens and ones make up bigger numbers.  











More information about our field trip will be sent in an email next week! Enjoy your weekend!

Friday Jan 26

Hello parents, 

Thank you very much for taking the time to attend our conferences this week. Our students have been working really hard and are proud to show off their progress.

Our "Making Words" lesson this week had us using the letters:

                                     a  e  p  r  n  s  t  t

The children were asked to use these letters to make 2-5 letter words, then to use all the letters to make the mystery word.  The letters were sent home, so that you can do this activity together

In math we focused on 2 D and 3 D shapes this week. Ask you child to show you how to turn a square into a cube or a circle into a sphere. We learned how to make our shapes “3D” in our visual journals. We will continue to explore other 3D shapes next week and continue our work with math problems.

 

FIELD TRIP INFO

BRRR .. It is expected to turn chilly next week. There have been questions about whether we will cancel. We would love to be able to go if possible however if the weather is too chilly, look for an email as we will decide and let you know.

Our new words of the week for Jan 29-Feb 2:

see      was     here    very   us

Story telling in Literacy

Our vice principal, Chris Scout, was in our class as a guest speaker to share the tale of  Napi and the Rock. It is a story that has been told and retold over many generations of the Blackfoot  people to offer an explanation about how the big rock in Okotoks came to be. We talked about how tales were often used as entertainment to explain interesting wonders in nature before modern science came along. We look forward to re-telling this story next week and watching a video about the big rock as well. 

In Social Studies, we are looking at changes that happen over time and how Calgary came to be. Visiting Ann and Sandy Cross gives us a peek at what Cranston looked like 200 years ago. As we learn more about Indigenous people and new settlements, we will be asking the students to inquire about their family roots and heritage as well. Where does your family or relations come from originally? 

Children in the class are building a book! They all created a page to contribute as we learn about homophones such as "see/sea" and "pear/pair". 

January 19, 2018

Dear Parents,

In Math, we have been focusing on higher level thinking with multi-step word problems.  Children are given a problem to solve that requires several steps.  Some problems can be solved using pictures while others can be solved using blocks or other manipulatives.  Some problems have only one answer while others have several solutions.  Ask your child to try solving a word problem that is similar to one of the following:



In Literacy this week we added 5 new words to our no excuse list of words that all the children need to be able to read and spell.  Please practice these words from time to time.  The new words for next week will be:

• in
• me
• good
• but 
• have

We are now up to 30 words! We used some of these to complete a "guess the missing word" activity.

This week we began to learn about homophones, words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.  Check out our pairs of pears!

We also did a "Making Words" lesson using the letters  a  e  e  h  l  l  s  s.  The children were asked to use these letters to make 2-5 letter words, then to use all the letters to make a mystery word.  The letters were sent home, so that you can do this activity together.

We have begun talking about our upcoming field trip to the Cross Conservation Area on February 1.  We have looked at photos of the area in all four seasons and have begun learning about some of the animals that live there.  Ask your child what he/she has learned about Meadow Voles, Deer and Hares.  We will be comparing the way the land looked before and after people settled in and around Calgary.

We still need a few more volunteers.  If you are able to join us on the field trip, please sign up on the Blog.

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Cvach

Mrs. Kenna

January 12, 2018

Dear Parents,

Welcome back to you and your children!  We hope you had a restful winter holiday :-)

In Literacy this week, we wrote in our journals and practiced adding detail to our work by writing more supporting sentences.  Students should be writing several ideas to support their topic sentence.  We continue to emphasize the importance of leaving spaces between words and using end punctuation.  Students should be beginning to use upper and lower case letters in the appropriate places.



Students continue to learn 5 new sight words each week.  We now have 20 "no excuse" words on our word wall!  We use the words we have learned to guess the missing word in a passage, or to make new words by making words that rhyme.

big

little

all

fun

get

The following photo is a picture of our Making Words lesson.  Ask your child to make some 2-5 letter words, culminating with the final mystery word that uses all of the letters.




Our story of the week is called The Mitten by Jan Brett.  Ask your child to retell the story.



In Math, we are reviewing the basic 2D shapes and adding more complex shapes (quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons and octagons) into the mix.  We read The Greedy Triangle and watched how the triangle changed every time a new side was added.



In Science, we continue to work on Seasonal Changes combined with The Five Senses as we study the changes that have occurred since the beginning of the winter season.  We will continue to discuss our observations of living and non-living things during this time of the year.  On February 1, we will be going on a field trip to the Cross Conservation Area for a program called Winter Walkabout.  8 volunteers will be required.  We will open extra spaces on the volunteer sign up shortly if you are interested in helping us on that day.

Also in Science, we are learning about how guide dogs help people who have lost their sense of sight.  Each child will bring home a guide dog stuffy with a few activities to complete at one point in the next few weeks.




Here are a few more pictures of things we did this week:



Have a wonderful weekend everyone! 

Ms. Cvach
Mrs. Kenna