April 4

Happy Monday!  Just reminder that all students at Cranston School will be participating in our Annie musical.  Students who do not have a specific part in the play will still be involved as a member of the choir.  We are performing on Tuesday May 3.  Please plan to have your child available to perform that night.  I have posted on my previous post, information about Annie the link to Mrs. McBride's website.

Gymnastics started today.  We learned all kinds of new body positions.  Some of them included a stork stance, straight stand, straight sit and straddle sit.  

In math we continue to work on 2d and 3d shapes.  We started working on a problem this afternoon which was quite challenging.  Here is the word problem.  I have 3d shapes in my basket.  Altogether they have 8 faces.  Which shapes do I have?  Please post your answers on the blog tonight so we can talk about it tomorrow.  

We had Roots of Empathy this afternoon and we started to make a nursery rhyme book for Nova.  This is perfect timing as we are going to be talking about Fairy Tales in writing starting tomorrow.  

I will be away on Friday as I will be going for Therapeutic Crisis Intervention training.  Mr. S will hold the fort down with a substitute teacher named Mr. Chapman.  

Family Movie Ticket information went home today.  Please return as soon as possible as this event traditionally sells out very quickly.

Have wonderful evening.

Annie Kids - Very important

Annie Kids

Parents, our class is participating in the the production of Annie Kids on Tuesday  May 3.   There is an afternoon show at 1:30pm and an evening performance at 6:30pm.  Please note that the tickets are issued in a first come – first served basis.  As stated on the order form, there is a wait list for both afternoon and evening tickets if you may require more than your allotted number.   All students were given a copy of the lyrics required to practice for the musical.  Please encourage your child to take some time to practice at home.  We appreciate your support of our music program and are excited to share "Annie Kids" with all of you!

Here is the link to Mrs. McBride's blog/website where important information about Annie is posted.

http://cranstonmusic.weebly.com/blog

March 31

Annie tickets were sent home today.  Please return as soon as possible as they tickets are available on a first come first serve basis.

We have started reading one of my favourite novels.  It is called Charlotte's Web.  This book ties in perfectly with our Small Flying and Crawling Animals unit.

Here are some pictures of the kids working hard comparing insects and other small crawling critters.

In writing we are working on comparing 2 different things.  Many students are currently comparing the similarities between winter and summer.  This writing project ties in nicely with our current Science unit.  

Today in math we started talking about and comparing 2d and 3d shapes.  Our next step will be to sort shapes using 2 different attributes.  We have finished talking about how to read a calendar (for now).  Please please practice this skill at home with your child.  Ask them questions such as:  How many is 2 weeks from today?   How many days was 1 week ago?  What day of the week will it be in one week etc.  Thank you for your support with this.

Mrs. Kinsman read us a book today called Going Places.  Tomorrow will officially be her last day.  We sure will miss her but we wish her good luck at her new school.

Next week we will be starting an inquiry project about bees.  This is going to be a lot of fun.  Stay tuned for more details.

Also, please check out our website.  I have added some new photos.

Gymnastics starts on Monday.  Swimming starts on the 18.  April 22 is Mr. S's last day :(  and also Sophia's birthday :).  I know Mr. S is going to miss us. 

Have a wonderful evening.

P.S.  Don't forget that tomorrow is April Fool's Day :)

Welcome Back

Great first day back after school.  We had an amazing time hanging out with Canada's most decorated Olympic athlete Cindy Klassen.  Not only is Cindy an amazing athlete she is truly a genuinely kind and caring person.  We spent part of the afternoon making thank you cards for Cindy.  I know she will appreciate them.

We have started talking about Small Flying and Crawling Animals.  This is one of my favourite units in Science.  It is a great time to start this as Spring is here and many little critters will be starting to move about.  

Next week we will be starting gymnastics.  Swimming starts on April 18.  One more swimming permission form will be coming home soon.

Have a wonderful day!

March 14

Today was our first day of our Reading Week festivities.  We celebrated by dropping everything and reading numerous time throughout the day.  Don't forget to wear your pajamas tomorrow.  No stuffies please.

At 9:00 tomorrow we will be watching Alexander's Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day.  Should be fun.

Pledge forms are due on Wednesday.

We started our talking about our wonderful weekends.  Sounds like everyone was very busy.

Today during Writer's Workshop we continued with our non-fiction writing projects.  We learned some new words today which included: Diet, Habitat, Appearance and Enemies.  Many students used these words to help them organize their writing.

In Math we continued to work on reading calendar and we also talked about Mathletics.

Have a wonderful evening.

March 11

That was an amazing assembly.  Thank you to all the parents who joined in on our celebration.  We knew we would bring Mrs. Kinsman to tears.  Thank you Cameron for being prepared with the box of kleenex.

This morning we had 3 guests in our classroom who came to observe us working during Daily 5 (they are from another CBE school).  I heard over and over from these teachers how amazing my students are.  They could not believe how well they work independently.  They even told me that there grade 3/4s could not do what these grade 1/2 students do.  I am so proud of these kids.

Today during writing we working on Non-Fiction description.  We chose a non-fiction topic, made a web of facts and then wrote a short paragraph.  We will be working on this over the next few weeks.

We are still working on reading a calendar and relating the number of days to a week.  Any extra practice at home would be great.

Have a wonderful weekend.

March 10

Wow!  What a windy day.

Very Important:  Tomorrow is our assembly. It starts at 11:10 not 11:15.  It is a short presentation of about 20 minutes.

Just a reminder that tonight is the final night of our Student Led Learning Walks. I will be attending tonight's event.

Next week is Read A Thon week.
Monday - D.E.A.R - drop everything and read.
Tuesday - Pyjama Day and Book and Movie Club.
Wednesday is Buddy Read - we will be reading with Ms. Handelsman's class.
Thursday - Mrs. Kinsman will be reading to us.

Please return gymnastics forms as soon as possible.  Also, swim forms were sent home today.

On the post prior to this one I attached a link to a calendar game we have been working on as a class.  Here it is again.

http://www.abcya.com/calendar_word_problems.htm

Have a wonderful evening.