Wednesday - Birthday, Buddies and Chowder!

Today was Max's birthday so we started the day by saying "Happy Birthday Max!" and what we appreciate about him:) Thank you for the special treats!

We then read over the Corn and Potato Chowder Recipe and talked about the ingredients and how it's important to follow the steps - then we decorated our page. Next, we went to the "Art Station" with Mrs. Hamby and learned about Still Life Sketching - ask me what was on the table to sketch. Our last station was in the kitchen cooking with Ms. Boyer - ask me if I remember the 6 ingredients that were in the chowder! We will do the same 3 stations tomorrow, but will be making Zucchini Bread - yum!

After recess we met together in Room 2 and did our final tally of all our vegetables! What a lot of counting practice!! Ask me which vegetable had the highest tally! (See picture below if you forget).

At lunch there was Run Club. Mrs. Armour reminded us that we were walking with our Big Buddies after lunch recess in case we wanted to skip this week, but some of us still wanted to run! It was nice enough that most of us ate outside at the picnic tables. (FYI - A reminder that Run Club is every Wednesday - we run at 12:05pm one or two laps around the "big Terry Fox 1km loop" and then eat lunch together). If you have a green Dr. Coffin Cares sweatshirt/t-shirt, we like to wear it Wednesdays to feel more like a "team" - this is all optional. 

After lunch we met our Big Buddies from Room 6 and together we walked two laps to practice for the TERRY FOX RUN on Friday, September 28th. Then we "chowed" down on our chowder! It was really good and some of us even went back for seconds...ask me if I liked the chowder.

We had Music today - ask me what we did in music!

We just had time to read Dragons Love Tacos - A Sequel  and then it was home time! Thanks Joel for bringing in your book!

REMINDER - THURSDAY is LIBRARY DAY - thanks for bringing back your books - we are looking forward to the BOOK FAIR - so many books, so little time:) We will browse and write down our wishes just in case you would like to buy us a book when you come for FACE TO FACE CONFERENCES from 4-8pm Thursday or 8-12pm Friday. Thanks for all those who have signed up - we are looking forward to showing you the Clubhouse!

An Occupational Therapist came for a visit yesterday, Mrs. Carpenter. She read us a great book about Listening Larry and told us about Whole Body Listening. Did you know that research tells us that where our eyes are focused is what our brain in thinking about. Ask me to show you what "whole body listening" looks like!

Enjoy some pictures from the last couple of days!

 We did a "fav veg" survey - just in case you wanted to know - Red Pepper Rocks!

Everyone did their own "mini-graph" to practice

And here's the final tally of ALL the vegetables...

                                            Here we are starting out with our Big Buddies...

                                                           Walking down the hill....

 Mmmmm - that Corn and Potato Chowder smells so good!!

                                                  Yes, please!! I'll have some more!

                                                        Just like camp...cleaning up!

Monday, September 17th

Today is Monday so we started with pictures for our journals and then wrote about our weekend. This is a time when we practice printing from left to right, using finger spaces between words, and write sentences that start with a capital and end with a period.

After recess, the grade 2's had reading time and the grade 1's will have printing time. Today the grade 1's learned warm up shapes to help get our hands, fingers and brains ready to form letters. We drew circles, squares and X's. Did you know these are all the shapes we need to make all 26 letters? We also talked about "alphabet house" and how some letters go upstairs (b,d,f,h,k,l,t), most stay on the main floor (a,c,e,i,m,n,o,r,s,u,v,w,x,z) and some go into the basement (g,j,p,q,y). We will make a chart to remind us. 

Ask me what kind of letters are in my name? (Main floor, upstairs or basement letters?)

For Math time, each group had a basket of vegetables that we had to sort, count and make into a graph. There are some pictures below - it was fun!

The sun came out so we practiced our big "Terry Fox lap" outside and then played a game. 

Then we had music. 

REMINDERS: The Book Fair is set up in the Learning Commons. For Library time this week we will be able to look at the books and make a wish list to give to you parents. 

When you come for FACE TO FACE CONFERENCES Thursday 4-8pm Friday 8-12pm, 

maybe you can buy something for us. That's so we don't need to bring money.

(please book for Thursday or Friday or email Mrs. Armour if you need to book a different time.)

Friday, September 28th Terry Fox Run 

Fresh Air Friday - Harvest Time!

 Today we started with Big Buddies in the Library - we are paired up with Room 6 (grade 5/6) this year. Ask me if I remember my Big Buddies name and what we read.

 We divided up into groups to dig, carry veggies to the washers, washers, dryers. If it wasn't our turn to help with harvesting, we were finishing up our bug centres.

 Mrs. Hamby and a couple of our Moms braved the cold to get set up and dig! Thanks so much!

                                                          Our first batch of carrots!

We are so thankful for our Harvest of vegetables!

What's your favorite?

Have a great weekend! Stay cozy and enjoy reading!

REMINDERS: Thursday, September 21st 4-8pm and Friday September 22nd 8-12pm 

we will have Face to face conferences so you can meet and visit with 

Mrs. Armour and see our Clubhouse. No regular classes on Friday.

Wednesday

This morning during bug centres we learned some interesting facts - here are two...

            Did you know that the ladybugs are hibernating because it's below 15C?

            Did you know that drone bees die when they mate with the queen bee?

The red group was at the drawing/raised rubbing station - it was fun! 

After lunch we continued work on our portraits and added eyes, eyebrows, noses and mouths using buttons, pipe cleaners, poms poms and yarn. It is interesting how much they are starting to look like us!

Run Club started today - we only ran one or two laps and then all ate together inside the Clubhouse - our bodies warmed up while we ran, but we are hoping for a couple more warmer Wednesdays!

The weather is continuing to cool off. Thank you for wearing warm coats with hats or hoods to keep our head warms - time for the mini mitts! 

Please check your email - for an important note from Saya Sanyal about the BBQ and to sign up to help. "This is a reminder that the Welcome Back Bbq will take place on Thursday, September 13th, from 5pm - 7pm.  Due to the impending bad weather, this event will take place indoors.

There are still many volunteer spots that need to be filled to make this event a success.  If you are able to commit to one of the tasks and /or shifts, please email Saya at sayantani.sanyal@gmail.com, or text at 403-889-9945, with your name. Thank you!

Tuesday

This week we are learning our new jobs around the classroom - thank you to the 6 who are helping with blog this week!
We started the day with new bug centres and will be moving to new ones each day.
1. Bug puzzles (including creating our own)
2. Bug books - so many interesting facts to read
3. Bug drawing - step by step sketching
4. Bug word search - learning to spell so many different bug names
5. Bug facts - using inflatable bugs with fact cards
Ask me which centre I started with and what I learned. Colin wanted to say he learned how to spell butterfly!

We wrote another survey in math - this one was an "either/or" survey question. We brainstormed as many insect and bug names as we could think of and then chose two to ask the question, "Do you like ______ or _______? Ask me which two I chose and if I remember which was more popular?

After lunch we worked on our "hair" for our portraits, using mirrors and friends to try and find the best match with wool, felt, twine and raffia for our hair.

We were just cleaning up when the Fire Alarm went off - we were all quite surprised but followed Mrs. Armour out to the compound quickly and quietly - it was just a practice Fire drill.

We had PE/gym outside today before the rain started but we did hear the thunder and saw the black clouds!

Parent Council tonight.

Tomorrow RUN CLUB is at lunch time.

Thursday is Potluck BBQ at 5pm.

Monday - Here comes the rain!

Today we started with drawing pictures for our Journals about what we did on the weekend. We discussed adding details, colour and filling the whole page to make our pictures interesting to look at. Then we shared our pictures and what we did on the weekend at "Carpet Connection". Usually sharing out loud about what we are going to write about helps our brains get our hands ready to print!

Grade 2's write the whole date (Monday, September 10th, 2018) and Grade 1's write the "mini-date" (Mon. Sep. 10th). Everyone starts with "On my weekend..." and then we try to add details about WHAT we did, WHO we did it with and WHERE we went. A few of us, including Mrs. Armour hiked up Nose hill this weekend.

After recess we tried to find "good fit" books to keep at our desk for quiet reading time. Ask me what a "good fit" book means. (Hint: think of Goldilocks....not too hard, not too easy...)

For Math we asked a few more of our friends if they liked our hobby and then we counted and practiced "tally" counting.

After lunch we had quiet book time and then worked on our portraits - choosing material for our shirts and cutting it out - that was tricky for most of us - and gluing it on. Some of us added a bow or some extra details. We are excited to get working on our hair and face this week.

It started to rain so we had PE in the gym today - we start with running laps and choosing a couple exercises while waiting for Mrs. Armour to get things ready. We will be running laps outside or in the gym to get ready for TERRY FOX RUN on Friday, September 28th. We will start collecting TOONIES FOR TERRY soon, so look around and see if you can find any at home. 

Then we played a game with hoops which is a little bit like musical chairs because Mrs. Armour keeps taking away a hoop every time. 

After PE we had Music with Mr. O'Reilly. Ask me what we did in Music. 

Run Club will start this Wednesday. Mrs. Armour and Mrs. Saunders and anyone from gr. 1-6 is invited to bring their lunch outside to the picnic tables and we will run laps together and then eat together. If you have a green Dr. Coffin Cares T-shirt or sweatshirt it's great to wear it on Wednesdays so we can look like a team!

REMINDERS THIS WEEK: Parent Council Meeting Tuesday at 7pm

                                                Welcome back Potluck BBQ Thursday at 5pm

Fresh Air Friday #1

What a beautiful day we had for our first Fresh Air Friday! Just a reminder that school hours are shorter on Fridays 8:40-12:15pm and we have inside recess because usually we are outside for most of the morning!

Today Mrs. Hamby read a book to all of us called Crickwing by Janell Cannon - ask me how Crickwing changed from the beginning of the story to the end. Then we moved to three stations to investigate and explore and observe - we are learning to be ENTOMOLOGISTS. Ask me about the stations where we wrote facts, observed ant hills, and tried to catch and explore bugs.
The fancy name for bugs is ARTHROPODA - see if you can remember that word and tell Mrs. Armour on Monday:) If you have about 6 minutes to watch with your family - here's a link to a cool video - even though it's about another city - it's interesting to see how they catch bugs.
http://www.untamedscience.com/phylum/arthropoda/

Thank you to all who have sent back forms all signed - if you haven't, thanks for sending them next week. 

We will all have new chores next week to learn and jump right back into our writing, reading, surveys and portrait making. There will be stations set up so we can have lots of time to keep our entomology study going.

We have Music with Mr. O'Reilly on Monday and Wednesdays at 2:30-3:15pm and our LIBRARY day will be THURSDAYS at 1:30pm so we will have our first one next week and look forward to checking out 2 books each week.

Enjoy this beautiful weekend.

                                           Ant hill investigation - "just observe and let them be"

                                                     Close up - they are working so hard!

                                                    Inside recess time with our new friends