Sure sounds like everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.  I hope you enjoy our "How to catch a turkey" project.  I really enjoyed heading about everyone's weekend.

This morning I worked with a group of grade 2's discussing different types of homes in different parts of the world. The cool thing about these homes is that they can all be moved.  These grade 2's are making a "brochure" describing what they have learned.  Hopefully they can share with the entire class.

Today in Writer's Workshop, we talked about organizing our writing in a way that makes sense.  We listened to a story called Cookie's Week and we modelled our writing after this story.

Today we also worked on the following word families: at, an and ank.

This afternoon we did calendar activities and we created a cool Halloween attendance page.  

In Math today we talked about addition.  We worked on adding sentences while changing the order of the addends.  Please ask your child if it matters which order the addends are in.

We had gym today and then we worked on our I Am poems with our grade 3/4 buddies.  We have started to talk about revising and editing.

Halloween Howler forms were sent home today.

Please return home reading tomorrow.

Question of the Day?   Can you make a subtraction number sentence that goes along with 6+4=10? Please post your answers on the blog.

October 9

Happy Thanksgiving!  We worked on a fun writing/art project this morning.  I introduced procedural writing on How to Catch a Turkey.  We described how to catch a turkey using the words first, next and then.  We made turkeys using coffee filters.  Hope you think they are as amazing as I do.

This morning we sang O Canada.  We sounded beautiful.

Right after this we had snack and we worked very hard to finish our writing/art project before the end of the day.

Just a reminder the concert is at 2:00pm not 2:15 as I had written in previous blogs.  Sorry about the confusion.  Please be in the classroom at 1:45.

No School on Monday.

Internal lockdown practice on Thursday not Wednesday at 1:30.  We will be having a safety assembly prior to this lockdown with Cst.Mattice at 12:15.

Halloween Howler forms are on the weekly message sent out to parents.  Please return by October 19 if you are interested in going.

Question of the day: Can you name an animal that uses its senses in a way that is different than we do?  How do they use that sense to help them survive?  Please post your answers on the blog.  

October 8

When we came in the morning Mrs. Sloane worked with a group of grade 2 on guided reading. They talked about the a new word.  The word is narrative.  If you were in the my reading group, please talk to you parents about this word.  

During writer's workshop, we created a winter picture with a lot details and then we wrote about it.  We are doing an amazing job using sentence starters.

Before lunch we did Making Words and talked about the an and ack families.  During Lively Letters we learned what /ar/ says and a quick little story to remember what it says.  Please ask your child about this story.

We had a busy afternoon.  After lunch we had music and then we went straight to drumming.  After drumming we had gym and then worked with our grade 3/4 buddies on a writing activity.  

Book orders due tomorrow.  Drumming concert tomorrow at 2:15.  We are singing O Canada at 9:20.  Don't forget to wear red and white tomorrow.

Have a wonderful evening.

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.