Friday 29 January 2016

January 29

Happy Friday Families.  Looking forward to spending some time outside while the warm weather lasts.

We had a fabulous day.  We started our day with Daily 5.  We have been working on goal setting this week and many kids have uploaded their goal into IRIS along with other artifacts.  You are able to log into IRIS at home using your child's CBE ID number and their password is the last 4 digits of their ID number.  Please have a look on IRIS..  The website can be accessed on the Cranston School Webpage.

This morning we had an assembly based on bravery.  It was wonderful.  After our assembly we learned about Chinese New Year which is happening on February 8.  We are in the process of making a fire works art project.  Fire works are a very important part of the Chinese New Year celebration.

Just a reminder there is no school on Monday.  It is a professional development day for teachers.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Tuesday 26 January 2016

January 26

Ok so it has been a few days since we wrote in the blog.  I am so sorry about this.  We have a lot of catching up to do.

We are finishing up working on our Past Inquiry projects.  I hope to have the kids present early next week.  We are moving on to magnets.  Magnets are a lot of fun because we do many hands on centre activties.

In writing we are working on a couple of different things.  We continue to focus on "showing not telling"  our stories.  We are trying to keep our readers interested and awake (According to Noah).  We want our readers to be able to create a picture in their mind using the words we write.

In Math we are working on creating survey questions that have 2 to 4 choices.  For example:  What is your favourite animal?  dog, cat, hamster, rabbit.  After we have asked 10 kids (we keep track using a tally) we then graph our results and write a sentence describing the data we collected.  For example, there were more people who liked dogs than cats.

We will be hosting a school assembly on February 19.  All parents are welcome to attend.  Will let you know of the time as the day comes closer.

Also, we will be going swimming in April for an entire week.  I need your help!  I will need approximately 3 volunteers per day and this must include one male.  Please please keep this in mind.  I will be posting more information with the exact dates in the very near future.

We have been working very hard in gym.  Reid says " my legs are burning from all the push-ups".  The kids have been coming back very sweaty after gym.  

We are in the process of reading a book called The Best School Year Ever.  

Question of the day:  Parents please ask your child if they remember what is means to use a tally.  They can show you how to make a group of 5.


Tuesday 19 January 2016

January 19

Today in gym we ran the beep test.  This was very very difficult.  The kids had to run from one in to another (on the other side of the gym) before the beep sounded.  If you missed the line before 2 beeps in a row, you were finished the test.  Wow!  The kids did great.

We are still working on the reading strategies look for the parts you know and look for little words in big words.  During writing, we continued working on adding triple scoop words to our projects.  

In Math we finished our survey questions and wrote one sentence about the data we collected.

At the end of the day we worked on our inquiry projects about the past.

Tomorrow is fun lunch.

Have a wonderful evening.


Monday 18 January 2016

January 18

So glad it finally warmed up outside and it is nice to see the sun shining.

Today during Writer's Workshop we talked about Triple Scoop words.  We created a list of amazing words that will help keep our reader's attention.  We choose triple scoop words for the nice, little and big.  If you have any triple scoop words that you would like to share with others, please post on the blog.

Today we talked about the following word families: am, ame, eam, are.

This afternoon in math we started to talk about graphs.  We made survey questions that required a yes or no answer.  Tomorrow each of us will ask 5 kids in the class our survey question.  We will keep track of how many kids we ask using tallies.

Today baby Nova visited and it was the highlight of our day.

Fun lunch is on Wednesday.

Have a wonderful evening!

Friday 15 January 2016

January 15

Today our report cards went home.  They are in your child's backpack.  If you have any questions about your child's report card please do not hesitate to email me.  Please remember that we are using anew 4 point grading scale.  A 2 is achieving basic grade level expectations.  If you see a 2 on your child's report card, this does not mean below grade level.  I am so proud of all the students in Room 73 and the accomplishments they have must thus far.  Keep up the great work team!  Have a wonderful weekend :)




Tuesday 12 January 2016

January 12

What a great day.  Looks like the snow is beginning to melt.  Yay!

Today during writer's workshop, we made a list of non-fiction topics that we can write about.  We are still working on writing a fact followed by a detail.  

The word families we worked on today included an, ain an acing.  We talked about c sometimes saying sssss.

Today we started talking about magnets.  We learned the words attack, repel and polar.  We worked on a page in our visual journals which represented things that are or are not magnetic.  We also watched a Bill Nye the Science Guy on Magnetism.

After lunch the grade twos worked on a difficult math word problem.  It was awesome!  After some struggles we finally came to terms with the fact that sometimes things are hard and this is good because it means we are stretching our thinking capacity.

At the end of the day, we worked on our Past Inquiry projects...... If I lived in the past!

Have a wonderful evening.

Just a reminder book orders are due on Friday.

Monday 11 January 2016

January 11

Sure glad to see the weather is starting to warm up.  Sounds like everyone had a great weekend with many kids playing hockey.

This morning during guided reading, I worked with a group of grade ones on words that have "ture" at the end.  We learned that these 4 letters usually make a sound something like chur.

During writer's workshop we continued to work on our non-fiction pieces.  Today we learned that every time we write a fact it most be followed by a detail.  Here is an example.  Bears are mammals. (now we must write a detail).  Did you know that mammals have fur on their bodies, are warm blooded and give birth to live babies.  Any extra practice at home would be greatly appreciated.

This afternoon in math, the grade 2's, worked on subtracting 10 from a double digit number and the grade 1's worked on subtracting a number from 10.

In gym we played floor hockey and then we had Roots of Empathy with Mrs. McKechnie.  What a great day!

Have a wonderful evening.

Friday 8 January 2016

January

I am so sorry.  I just realized I have been posted our blog on my old blogger account.  Yikes.  Will put this weeks blogs on this post.  So sorry≥

January 8 Dear Families,

Next week we will be working on our past projects in full force.  This is not a project that needs to be done at home.  We will do the entire project while at school.  Please continue to send in your shoe boxes and recycled materials.

We had 2 rounds of Daily 5 this morning.  During Writer's Workshop we continued on our descriptive writing pieces.  Please remember students, the difference between an opinion and a fact.  Also, remember when you are writing about a non-fiction topic, you must provide details that are important.  Pretend as though your reader knows nothing about your topic.

In Math today, the grade ones worked on addition with 2 sided counters and the grade 2's practiced double digit addition.  They were adding 20 to numbers.  

Book orders went home today.  They are due back next Friday January 15.

Have a great weekend.  Stay warm!

THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016

January 7

We need your help parents!  We are starting our social studies inquiry project. The students in Room 73 are being asked to represent what they have learned about the past.  Our statement for guiding our project is "If I lived long ago....".  Some kids have decided to represent their learning of the past using a diarama. We are looking for any small shoe boxes that we could use of this project.  We will also accept any other recycled materials that may be helpful.

Thank you for your help and have a wonderful evening.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2016

Happy Wednesday Families!  Today was a very very busy day.  We started our day with 2 rounds of Daily 5.  After this we talked about different text structures in books.  We looked at a variety of fiction and non-fiction books.  We learned that fiction books are kind of like humans: different on the outside but the same on the inside.  All fiction stories have a beginning, middle and an end.  Then we looked at non-fiction text.  We learned that there are many different types of non-fiction books.  Today we specifically talked about Descriptive Writing.  During Writer's Workshop we divided our page into 4, chose a non-fiction topic and wrote 4 facts about that topic.  We had to discuss the difference between a fact and an opinion.

We had music today and then after lunch we did making words.  We focused on the families at and ate.  We made a word with 7 letters.  Ask your child if they remember what this word is and how to spell it.

Today in math we learned how to make double digit numbers and add a group of 10 to that number.  Some grade ones were able to do this while others continued to work on adding single digit numbers together.

At the end of the day we continued to talk about our upcoming Social Studies inquiry project.

Have a wonderful evening.

MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 2016

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a restful happy holiday.  Thank you so much for all the wonderful gifts that were given to me before the break.

Today I spoke with the kids about expectations for the next term.  I reminded them that in about 6 weeks we will be half way through the year and we still have a lot of work to do.

Today we talked about all the amazing things we did over the holidays.  Grayson's mom had a baby girl.  So exciting.

We had one round of Daily 5 and then some free writing time before we headed off to music.

After lunch we did Making Words and then we moved on to Math.  We are currently working on using double 10 frames to help us with our basic addition facts.

After gym, we did our blog and then talked about what kind of project we will do to finish up our social studies unit on the past.

Have a wonderful evening!