Important Message from Mrs. Kinsman

CRANSTON SCHOOL NEEDS 7 BABIES FOR ROOTS OF EMPATHY

We have 7 families signed up so far to participate in the Roots of Empathy program for this school year, and are in need of 7 more. Babies who are 6 months or younger are ideally suited to participate as 'baby teachers' in this most worthwhile program. Babies and and their parent(s) are asked to visit the school for a half hour per month to be present in classrooms with students, teachers and a trained Roots of Empathy Coordinator. We are need of babies for Mrs. Richardson, Ms. MacEwen, Mrs. Grummett, Mrs. Rumpel, Ms. Weldrick, Ms. Klein, Mrs. McEvoy and Ms. MacMillan/Mrs. Sedgewick's classrooms. If you have a baby in this age range, or know someone else who does, I encourage you to consider joining us once a month!  You do not need to have a child attending Cranston School to participate or be a resident of Cranston community - all babies are welcome :)

If you would like more information or to sign up for this fun-filled program, please contact Susanne Jones at the office, 403-777-6267 ext '0'.  We are hoping to begin the program the last week in October so please register as soon as possible.  We love our Baby Teachers!

Thank you!

Mrs. Kinsman

October 7

This morning we worked very hard on our writing.  We added stories to our house illustrations from yesterday.  We have also added a few new sentence starters to our list to include In the distance I heard and The air was filled with the smell of.

This afternoon we worked on our calendar activities.  We have started to talk about reading dates on a calendar and how do you figure out when a date is a week away.  Please show your parents how to figure this out.  Show them when it will be a week from today and how do you know.

In math we learned a new word.  It is inequality.  Today we compared number sentences and had to decide if their are equal or not equal.  Please ask your child to show you the sign that represent inequality.

Just as we were about to start snack time, they called us for pictures.  We headed off to pictures and then to Dance.  After this we had time to finish our snack and work on some science activities.  

Just a reminder about our Drumming performance on Friday at 2:15.  Also book orders are due on Friday.  No School on Monday.

On Friday we will be singing O Canada at 9:20.  Please send your permission forms to school tomorrow if you have not already done so.

Question of day? What was the word texture mean?  Please post your answers on the blog.

October 6

What a wonderful day.  We had 2 rounds of Daily 5 this morning. The grade ones continue to work on the following reading strategies: Point to each word as you say it, look at the pictures, look at the first sound and look for any parts that you know.  Grade twos are working on comprehension strategies which include making predictions.  We are also talking about contractions.

During writer's workshop this morning we listened to a story called A House for Hermit Crab my Eric Carle.  We watched this book being read on YouTube as an introduction to adding details to the stories we write.  In this story, Hermit Crab starts with a plain shell and adds more and more objects to his home to make it more interesting and beautiful.  Much like details do to a story.  After we listened to this story I drew a square on the board and told the kids this was a house.  Each one came up an added a detail.  After this they drew their type of house in their journals.  Tomorrow we will do the writing that goes along with this picture.

We worked on the following word families today: as, an and ash.  Please ask your child how they know when a word belongs to a certain word family.

After lunch we did calendar and then practiced the games we learned yesterday.

During gym we worked cooperatively with small omnikin balls.  This was fun!

At the end of the day we finished up our visual journal pages about protecting the senses.  We were suppose to finish this yesterday except we got talking about the internal lockdown practice we are having on Wednesday October 15. So today is officially the last day for this senses activity :)

Picture day tomorrow.

Please send back the orange O Canada performance permission form by Thursday.  Thank you!

Have a wonderful evening.

October 5

Happy Monday everyone!  Sounds like we all had a great weekend.  Many kids went to see Hotel Transylvania 2 this weekend.  The movie was awesome.

This morning we worked on using a story organizer to help us during Writer's Workshop.  We are thinking about who our characters are, where the story takes place and what happens (usually a problem followed by a solution).  Here is a picture.

We have been reviewing some letter combinations and the sounds they make through lively letters.  We have been talking about ir, er, and ur.  Please ask your child the story I told to help them remember the sound these letter combinations make.

After lunch we worked on calendar activities and then moved on to math.  We played 2 different games.  The first game practiced adding 10 to a number and the second game worked on subtracting a number from 10. 

After gym we worked in our visual journals on a senses page.

On Friday we are participating in a singing celebration.  Canada's flag turns 50 years old and we will be recording the kids singing O Canada.  A permission form has been sent home.  Please return on Thursday.

Also just a reminder that Picture Day is on Wednesday.

One world drumming concert is on Friday.  The Hope hallway will be performing at 2:15 - 2:55pm.  Hope to see you there.

Have a wonderful evening.

September 30

Who can believe that today is the last day of September.  Here is some important information.

- Terry Fox run on Friday at 10:30
- Book orders for October went home today and are due on Friday October 9.  We will have our special snack right after the run.
- Home reading is in your child's backpack.  Please return every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for new books.  
- Your child's mathletics sign in card is in their book bag.  Today we learned how to sign in and create a character.  If you have any questions about this program please email me.

Today we had a visit from Constable Mattice from the Calgary Police Service.  We talked about how our senses keep us safe.  Please, please (Kaitlyn asked me to say this) post on the blog one way that your sense help keep you safe.

Have a wonderful evening!

September 29

We had a great morning.  We continue to work on building our stamina during Daily 5.  We have added writing to our job choices and within a week or so we will add the final job of Word Work.  Last year's kids especially like word work as it often involves games.

During writer's workshop today we continued to work on using sentence starters.  Please remember to post your ideas on the blog so I can add them to our list.

This morning we also worked on a visual journal page with Mr. Soulliere's class.  We decorated the page with all the things we know about addition.

After lunch we did calendar activities.  Do you know how many days we have been at school so far?  This is question we keep track of using base 10 blocks on the smartboard.

After this we went to One World Drumming.  It was a surpasses to Mrs. Sloane so we had to move fast.  It was so much fun!  

Today in gym the kids said they had a lot of great exercise.  Sounds like they were moving a lot as I seen many red faces when I went to pick them up.

At the end of the day we talked about how to protect our senses.  We watched a quick video and then we worked in our visual journals.  We will finish this activity tomorrow.

Just a reminder that Friday is our Terry Fox run at 10:30.  Please be dressed for the weather and do not forget your water bottle.

Please post your answers to the question of the day: What does the term Friendly Facts mean in math?  Do you know your friendly facts?  Can you practice them with a family member?

Have a wonderful evening.

September 28

Today we talked about he lunar eclipse that happened yesterday evening.  We also watched a short time lapse video of the lunar eclipse.

This morning we talked about our wonderful weekends.  It sure sounds like we were all quite busy.  Glad to see so many of you made it out to the Fall Fair.  Fingers crossed that someone from our classroom wins the new car.

This morning during Writer's Workshop we learned to use Sentence Starters.  Here is a list of the ones that we have used so far:  Suddenly right before my eyes....., Looking closely I noticed......, I was surprised to see......, I stared at. If you can think of any more awesome sentence starters please post on the blog and we will add them to our list.

We had music this morning!

After lunch we worked on calendar activities and then we had math.  We reviewed some old math games and then we learned about subtraction.  Our goal is to learn to connect addition and subtraction.  We played a fun mystery subtraction game.  Please have your child talk to you about this game as it can easily be played at home.

After math we went to gym and we learned 3 new exercises: cross jacks, plank jacks and trunk twists.  Please have your child demonstrate these 3 exercises.

At the end of the day we played senses bingo.  I read a story to the class and each time they heard a description that used one of their senses they had to cover it up on their bingo card.

Question of the day?  Please post your answers on the blog.

What is the answer to a subtraction question called?