Monday 29 February 2016

February 29

Happy National Cupcake Day!  This event was a huge success.  There were so many cupcakes donated that we will be selling them after school today.  Wow.  Great job families and thank you for your support.

Today is February 29.....it's a special day kids...Do you know why?  Please post your answers on the blog.

This morning we talked about our weekends and then we went on a re-fresher tour of the Learning Commons.  Please remember to return all library books.

This morning we worked with Mrs. Bowles on our Math Daily 3.  The grade 2s learned a new game called Double Dice addition.  To play this game, you have 2 different coloured die, you roll each one to make a double digit number and then you roll them again to make another double digit number and then you add them together.  This is a great game to play at home.

The grade 1s continued to work on solidifying their facts to 10.  They played a game with the power of 10 cards called "How many more to make 10".

During Writer's Workshop, we learned how to re-tell events.  We worked on writing and re-telling an event that happened this weekend.

In gym we played a game called Popcorn Basketball.  This was so much fun and we were all a sweaty mess.

At the end of the day we worked with our buddies.  It was our final day of videotaping for our assembly next friday.

Have a wonderful evening.

Friday 26 February 2016

Cupcake volunteers



Cupcake Volunteers for Monday February 29th!

Thank you for volunteering to assist on Monday February 29th!  Parents will be dropping off their cupcakes first thing in the morning.  We will gather in the staff room at 9:00 am to begin organizing the trays of cupcakes.  Please sign in through the office prior to 9:00.

Each volunteer will be assigned a classroom to sell the cupcakes and gather the money.   Once each child has had an opportunity to purchase a cupcake, we will reload the trays and offer a second one prior to lunch break if they have brought another loonie.

cupcake day on Monday

Please post the following blog post to your blogs daily until Friday. Thank you so much for your help:
Monday February 29 is National Cupcake Day!
Cranston will be celebrating national cupcake day in support of the Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Alberta SPCA).
As a part of our Community Building work at Cranston School, students will have the opportunity to purchase one cupcake on Monday February 29th for $1.00. All of the proceeds will be donated to the Alberta SPCA. 
Please have your child bring exact change ie. (loonies,quarters). We do expect that there will be extra cupcakes and students will be given an opportunity to purchase a second cupcake later in the day. A huge thank you to the volunteers who are donating cupcakes for Monday.

February 26

Thank you to all the amazing families who came to our Tanga Art Sale last night.  I completely understand if you were unable to attend last night (families are busy) but would still like to purchase your child's art, you may do so.  Please send $10.00 to school next week.

Today was another amazing Friday.  We had 2 rounds of daily 5 and we also worked on our "discussion texts."  Next week Mr. S will be working on writing projects that have to do with re-telling events.  This will be awesome.

Today in math we worked on Math Writing as a group.  We worked on "today's number" and the kids could choose to represent 12 or 31.

After this we moved onto Math With Someone.  I have attached a picture of all the expectations for the students and teachers during Math Daily 3.  Please continue to talk with your child about these expectations.

Monday is National Cupcake Day.  If you would like to purchase a cupcake, please bring $1.00 to school.

Have a wonderful weekend.  

Wednesday 24 February 2016

February 24

Be a buddy not a bully day was awesome. Thank you to Sophee who made a wonderful pink buddy cake.  I have a attached a picture for all of you to enjoy.

This morning a group of grade 2's worked on making a video using the green screen.  They are reporting on things they have learned about avalanches from their guided reading group.  Good job Ruby, Sophia and Noah.  All students will get a chance to do a green screen video in the next few weeks.

During writer's workshop, we continued to work on creating discussion texts.  Tomorrow Mr. S. will brainstorm with the class other topics they can "discuss".

Today in math we worked with Mrs. Bowles on Math Daily 3.  We learned 2 new games for Math by Myself.  These games are called In and out and Race to ____.

In gym we are working on our basketball skills.  We ended the day off working with our buddies on our video for the upcoming assembly.

Have a wonderful evening.




Tuesday 23 February 2016

February 23

Welcome back Mr. S.  We are so happy you are back and looking forward to our time together until April 22 when you will be fully qualified teacher.  

Just a reminder that tomorrow is Anti-bullying day.  Please wear pink if possible.

Thursday is our Tanga Art sale from 6-7:30.   Our projects will be displayed in the Link hallway right outside of our classroom door.

Grade 2's are working on double digit addition.  Here is the process we are following.

53+21
53 + 20 = 73
73 +1 = 74
or 
50 + 20 = 70
3+1 = 4
70+4 = 74

These are only 2 suggestions.  If your child creates a strategy that works for them and they are able to get the right answer ...... that is great!  All I ask is that they are able to represent their thinking.  

Grade 1's have been working on domino addition.

Today we started working on writing a "discussion text".  Our topic of discussion was "Children should not do homework".  This was the title of our discussion.  We then came up with arguments for and against this.  We started talking about our opinion and how it is also important to see things from another person's "point of view".  

At the end of the day we had Roots of Empathy.  We talked about being sad and what things make us feel better.

Have a wonderful evening.

Friday 19 February 2016

February 19

Happy Friday!  

Just a reminder that our Tanga Art Sale will take place next Thursday from 6:00-7:30.  All our pieces will be available for $10.00.  We are raising money for a school in Tanzania Africa.  In the past our funds have purchased a new roof, repaired the floor and bought school supplies for both teachers and students.  

Today we read part of a book called Ready or Not, Here I Come.  This book is about a group of girls who are playing hide and seek and are looking for the quickest way to count to 100.  We are reading a variety of math literature as we get ready for our Student Led Learning Walks in March.  The theme of the evening will be Math and Literature.  

February 29 is Buy A CupcakeDay.  Cupcakes will be available for $1.00.  We are raising money to support programs at the SPCA.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Wednesday 17 February 2016

Happy 100th Day!!

Oh my I cannot believe it is the 100th day of school.  I am very happy with what we have accomplished thus far in the year.  We are well set up for the last 5 months.

Today we celebrated 100 day.  We made a post card and a 100 day collage.   We also learned what an acrostic poem is and each student wrote one using the word "HUNDRED".  I was so impressed with the ideas they came up with.   Tomorrow we will work on a few other 100 day activities as we did not get to all of them today.

Our assembly has been changed to March 11.  We have been working hard on 2 songs and a video with our grade 3/4 buddies.

All parts for the Annie Musical have been filled and Mrs. McBride will be letting us know by Friday who has landed each role.  Stay tuned :)

Next week some exciting things will be happening.  Mr. S (our student teacher) will be returning for a 9 week practicum.  With my guidance he will be teaching 90-100% of the time.  Next week I will be teaming up with Mrs. Bowles to introduce a new way of teaching/organizing math lesson sin the classroom.  It is similar to Daily 5 but this program is called Math Daily 3.  This way of teaching math is new to us and that is why I have asked Mrs. Bowles to help introduce this program.  I am super excited for this to get started.

Have a wonderful evening.


Thursday 4 February 2016

February 4

What a great day.  We have been working very hard preparing for our Peace Assembly.  We are learning a new song called Don't Laugh at Me.  Here is a link to the video and lyrics.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7Dej4Gfkmc  We are also in the process of creating a video to go along with our School Song.  

Wednesday February 24 is Anti Bullying.  We are asking all staff and students to wear pink in support of ending all types of bullying.  www.erasebullying.ca

I also want all families to know that I will be away next week.  My Uncle passed away very suddenly on Tuesday and I will be traveling back home to Manitoba to attend his funeral.  Mrs. Amy Mann will be teaching my class for the entire week.

Monday February 8 we will have a Lion Dance presentation in honour of Chinese New Year.  

Wednesday February 10 is Carnaval.  Please dress appropriately for the weather.  Not sure if we will have snow or not but we will adjust accordingly.

We will have our Valentine's celebration next week.  I have not yet decided which day but I will let you know very very soon.  Here is a list of all the kids in our class in case you are planning to give our Valentines: Trevor, Hanna, Jamie, Grayson, Eden, Cameron, Kale, Liam, Dexter, Sophee, Hayden, Reid, Kaitlyn, Finnah, Ruby, Noah, Madyson, Sophia, Grace, Landyn, Mathew, Yahia.

Have a wonderful evening!


Wednesday 3 February 2016

February 3

Can you believe it is almost half way through the school year.  On February 17 we will celebrate the 100th day of school.  

This morning we went on a half hour winter walk.  This is an initiative celebrated by many schools throughout Alberta.  It was beautiful morning and we enjoyed our time outside.

This morning we also had a presentation from Laura Oh who is a Speech and Language Pathologist who works at Cranston School with many students.  Today she talked about Good Communication Skills.  We learned how to use an appropriate rate of speech and volume, to always look at the person we are talking to and how important our body language is.

In math we started talking about shapes.  We looked at a variety of shapes and played a "Guess the Shape" game in partners.  Please ask your child how we played this game.  

At the end of the day we started to explore our Magnet centres.  

Book orders have been sent home and are due on Monday.