Beautiful Days! Monday and Tuesday

Monday and Tuesday

Journals - On Monday we wrote in our journals and then later we looked at and discussed what a 1, 2, 3, 4 journal writing page would look like. On Tuesday we compared our journal writing with the 1, 2, 3, 4 samples and tried to guess what our writing level was. If it we didn't think it was a 3 or 4, we tried to add more details and edit to make it better!

Gym - On Monday we practiced our hand-eye coordination and tried to get a "rally" going - serve, return. On Tuesday after we warmed up, we tried using real rackets with soft tennis balls and played a game. We subbed on and off, so there was lots of space to try and return the ball!

Carpet Connection - we sat in a circle and everyone got a 100 chart. Then with partners we gave them a math problem they had to try and solve like "Find 37. Now add 6." We could say, "Can you give me an easier one please?" Or "That's too easy. Can you give me a harder challenge?" We are going to practice with 100 charts for the next while to look for number patterns and give us another strategy for our mathlympic challenges. We can google "100 chart" at home and practice too!

Library - Today was Library! Some of us forgot our books in our backpacks or desks. Mrs Kidd and Mrs. Armour said we needed to wait until next week if we forgot because it was our responsibility to remember to put them into our library bin. Mrs. Armour reminds us at the beginning of the day and before we go to gym and it is on our daily calendar. That means we can keep our books and read them again!

Mathlympics - Ask us what events we did and what our challenge was yesterday and today! Did we have to count to 100? by 5's, 10's? Did we have to write a number sentence or use adding and subtraction? Or measure? Were we helpful to our teammates? Did we cheer everyone on?

Quiet reading time - Mrs. Armour said we did FANTASTIC during quiet reading time today. We all had our book bins on our desk and were quietly reading so well we didn't want to stop:) Yay! We love reading!

Aspen Trees - Monday - we used charcoal and white chalk to colour our Aspen tree sketches. "Just a dab" and a "one finger smudge" with the black to make our trees look realistic. Colin wondered if the art charcoal was the same as the charcoal that comes from an underground mine? Someone could research to see how art charcoal is made! Tuesday we added a background - we could choose to make it an evening sunset, morning sunrise, or blue sky. Ask me how I colored my background with pastel or chalk.

We have new jobs this week. Logan, Jared, Samantha, Lily and Colin are helping with Blog. Thank you!

Logan and Colin have shared their pet pictures with us. Samantha, Lily and Jared can share their pet pictures or favorite animals this week or next week. If you have a real animal to share, you can talk about it at "share time" and then share it outside at the end of the day if it works with your parents. 

Because Saturday, March 17th is St. Patrick's Day, we thought we should WEAR GREEN and celebrate on Friday. If you have any Irish background, please share with us so we can celebrate this part of your family culture!

Pictures from last week!

                               SKETCHING ASPEN TREES IN WHISPERING WOODS

                                                    ARTISTS OBSERVING DETAILS

                     OUR COUNTRIES POSTERS and MEDAL COUNTS FOR MATHLYMPICS

                                          Logan sharing all about "Marble" - his pet fish

                       Colin sharing about his 2 pet cats who have very different personalities

                                                 The blog team having "Tea with Teach"

Thursday and Friday

Hi! On Thursday we practiced our printing with white boards. Mrs. Armour read out a word and we tried to do our very best printing, thinking about the shape of the letters, whether they are "upstairs" or tall letters (ask me which letters are tall) or "basement" letters (ask me which letters go in the basement) or "main floor" letters (Which ones are these?) Learning the shape of the words helps our brains remember how to spell them.

In Gym we played "Don't throw your junk in my backyard!" with poof balls and rackets. Every team had to "clean up" their yard by hitting the balls over the net. When Mrs. Armour finished singing the song, she blew the whistle and then everyone stopped and we counted how many balls were in our yard. The team with the least won. We played it a few times and then practiced our overhead serve and our hand-eye coordination. Practice is making better!

We had a short Library today because we missed it on Tuesday with our field trip. Then we went to our next station for Mathlympics. Some of us find the "counting on" a bit tricky so we will have a mini-lesson with our 100 charts on Monday. If we think of a game board like snakes and ladders that might help us understand better. Counting on means starting from wherever we are, not going back to zero and not counting that spot. So if we are on 23 and we get 6 points where will we end up?

Thursday and Friday - We worked on our Animal Research. We are learning to be experts in our animal, so are reading for details in books and on iPads if we need to find a few more details. Ask us how we are labelling our pictures with details about appearance, food and habitat.

Thanks Colin and Logan for sharing about your pets! It is fun to hear and see what they look like and hear about their personalities!

Fresh Air Friday - we discussed sketching Aspen trees. To be artists we need to learn to sit quietly and just look for awhile and then take our time to sketch the details so it looks more realistic, less like a cartoon drawing. We don't need erasers when we sketch because we use light pencil strokes so we can change the look as we draw. We went to Whispering Woods with our Art journals and found an Aspen tree to sketch. It was so nice to be out in the snow without freezing our hands and face!

Mrs. Armour will be adding pictures over the weekend, so keep checking the blog!

A tax receipt is coming home in our backpacks today. Please check for these. 

A few of us still need to return the yellow forms to say what our plans are for next year. Thanks for returning these on Monday!

Have a great Chinooky weekend:)

Wednesday

Yesterday we had a great time on our field trip to Bella Concert Hall to listen to the Royal Canadian Artillery Band. Here is some information about them.

Formed in 1899, The Royal Canadian Artillery Band is the oldest professional military band in Canada. With a complement of 35 full-time musicians, the band takes pride in its role of providing musical support to Land Forces Western Area and Canadian Forces.

As musical ambassadors, The Royal Canadian Artillery Band regularly represents Canada in performing across the country and around the world.

The music we hear in a movie is called the soundtrack. The RCA Band played some songs from a few movies. Ask me which was my favorite!

Today we practiced "eye-hand" coordination during gym time. Ask me how many times I hit the "poof ball" in a row...did I get better? Then we practiced serving over hand against the wall and then to each other. 

Ask me which Mathlympics event I was at today and how I did. 
After lunch, we got some new "book bins" We chose 5 "good fit" books to keep in them, so during Quiet Reading time after lunch we can just grab our book bin and find a quiet spot to read. We will change our books every week.

Today in Music we finished our posters for the Orchestra. Ask me how many instruments I can name.

Mrs. Wilkins came in for the last 30 minutes of the day while Mrs. Armour had a meeting with Mrs. Polski. She said we listened really well as she read her really cool book about Larry the Loon!

Tomorrow is Fun Lunch. Thank you to our parent volunteers! If you did not order lunch for your child, you might want to send along an extra something special in your child's lunch.

We missed Library because of the field trip. Mrs. Kidd says we can exchange our books tomorrow! If you still have books at home, remember to put them in your back pack.

March 22nd is the last day of learning before Spring break. 




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Monday

At the Leighton Art Centre we were able to observe all of these antlers and guess which animal they had come from. The reason they are mostly grey is because they have been outside in the summer and winter and are old. Ask me if I remember the animals that the antlers came from and what are the differences between antlers. 

Animal Research - we started our animal research booklets today and drew a picture of our animal and wrote about its APPEARANCE. We talked about describing our animal to someone who has never seen it before using interesting language about SIZE, SHAPE, COLOUR, and if it has special parts like claws, scales, spines, wings. Ask us about the appearance of our animal.

Gym - We have started Tennis-like games in gym. Today we used plastic small rackets and puff balls to practice eye-hand coordination and hitting them over the net. We played a game that you had to keep hitting the puff balls over the net until Mrs. Armour blew the whistle and whichever side had the LEAST puff balls on their side won. 

Mathlympics officially started today! Ask us which event we were at and if we won any medals. We have 9 team events and then closing ceremonies. After we have been to all the events, we will be able to go back to the events that we didn't get a medal and see if we can work towards a bronze, silver or gold!

Thanks so much to Max's mom who donated some new books to our classroom library! We are excited to read them. Mrs. Armour read one today called Polar Bear vs Grizzly Bear - Who Will Win? It was a good one to learn about appearance. Ask me about the size of both bears and how big their claws are.

Ingmar threw the ball for our Share category and hit "PETS and favorite animals". Please let us know if your child has any animal allergies in case someone is able to bring their pet to our classroom. We will only share between 3:00 and 3:30pm so that our pets can visit and then go home. Students are also welcome to bring pictures of their pets or favorite animals to share. 

CARMEN, JARED, COLIN, LOGAN can share this week (If there is a certain day that works better for you to share, please email Mrs. Armour so we can schedule you on that day - otherwise we are flexible!

TOMORROW IS OUR FIELD TRIP TO BELLA CONCERT HALL AT MOUNT ROYAL UNIVERSITY FOR THE MORNING. WE WILL EAT LUNCH WHEN WE GET BACK TO SCHOOL. PLEASE WEAR YOUR COFFIN CARES SHIRTS/SWEATSHIRTS or something GREEN or BLUE so all the teachers can find us easily in the big group! THANK YOU!

FUN LUNCH THURSDAY MARCH 8TH if you ordered it. Parents are welcome to come and volunteer to hand out lunch and eat with your child here in the Clubhouse. Let Mrs. Armour or Marike, Ingmar's mom know if you can volunteer. Thank you!

MARCH 22nd is our last day of learning before SPRING BREAK. No school for students on Friday, March 23rd. The first day back is TUESDAY, APRIL 3rd. Please let the office or Mrs. Armour know if you plan to leave early or be away longer than these dates. 

Fresh Air Friday in Pictures

                                                      We love our Big Buddy Time -
                                         ASK ME WHAT I DID WITH MY BIG BUDDY

                       Heading outside to play "Where is my family?" Animal sound game -
                                                ASK ME WHAT SOUND I MADE

                                                                    So much snow!!!

                                                       We found our animal family!

                                                     Gathering in the Whispering Woods

Leighton Art Centre Pictures

 Leighton Art Centre - this used to be a school house and they moved it here to be a craft room!

 It was really a picture perfect day!! No wonder the Leightons decided to buy this property!

 This was the Leightons house - it is now an art gallery. Ask us about the pictures we saw and who Rojo was.

 The windows are from the "great room" where we sat and heard some stories about the Leightons.

                                                     Lunch time - fun snow time

                                          Playing in the woods during Lunch break

 Time for our artists to get to work - Yarn art - we designed our ideas in our sketch book first.

                         Working hard with colored yarn - over, under, over, under - it's a pattern!

                                Did you see our creations? Some of us brought some yarn home to finish
                               our weaving.

Colin thought these reminded him of "Dream catchers"