This week the students focused on improving their descriptive writing by including details such as speech, sound, similes, vivid verbs and onomatopoeias. They have shown great improvements, even when comparing day to day work.  We have been practicing starting with a ' barebones' sentence from our story plan:

We then brainstormed ideas around the features we know make interesting work:

We then crafted the ideas into our paragraph:

 

This was shared work; we all worked together to create this paragraph. The ideas came directly from the students. Is it messy? yes! Creativity is not neat and tidy but don't you think our work improved from that first sentence? The students are now busy writing their own stories with more independence. Next week they will have a chance to write their own story from scratch, all by themselves. Ask your child what we make sure to include in our work and have them give you some examples!

Here are a couple of examples of student work:

In math we have been tackling problem solving, finding multiple solutions for a problem, utilizing different methods to solve the same problem, AND multi-step problems.

Here is an example of the type of problems we have been solving. Maybe you can make up some of your own questions at home:

The answer to a problem is 16. What is the question?

7+ 8 = 15.

How many ways can you arrive at this answer?

Show your thinking.

We have begun our journey into the inner ear in science, and are starting to understand how vibrations are key in the process of hearing. How many parts can your child name?

 

In social studies we are continuing our discussions about being a global citizen, now focusing on education and the rights of a child.  Ask your child for reasons why some children are not fortunate enough to be able to attend school.

  

Finally - here’s a sneak peak of Ken Taylor’s most recent art installation completed by the entire student body last Flex Friday!

First Flex Friday!

Well, after a hard week writing our first paragraph of our rock story, which had to include onomatopoeia, vivid verbs, juicy words and dialogue, we had a fun ending to the week. All the classes split up and reformed into classes with students from K - 4. Together we looked at the work of  Kandinsky

The older students then acted as great ambassadors to help the younger ones produce their own Kadinsky style circles. Each child produced one circle, with some drawing on purple paper and some on white. The squares will be combined together to make a huge mural. The purple squares will form the word 'HEART!' We look forward to its installation in the Embassy area.

It was a great way to make our invisible strings reach to more people. I really hope that the students strengthen these connections over the next weeks and smile at their new friends as they meet in hallways or out playing.

Global Citizens!

National Child Day provided an excellent opportunity to begin to explore The Rights of a Child. This fits very nicely with needs and wants and our responsibilities as a Global Citizen to show compassion for those less fortunate than ourselves. We have explored what it is to be Canadian and that pride in our country is great but that it is a fine line to feeling better than other countries. The class decided a that feeling of superiority would lead to our Invisible Strings being broken (the text we started the year with). They thought this would lead to us not wanting to help people from different countries. As one student pointed out, we are lucky to be born into a country without major problems and we did not really do anything to be born in the place we were. I was most impressed by the depth of conversation and feel grateful that our future generation show such generosity of spirit.

To further highlight how the actions of one can impact others in different countries, we thought about who would be impacted if we dropped a single piece of garbage in Evanston. The class initially thought it would just be the local wildlife. We then watched a video about the Pacific Garbage Patch. We were horrified and we are going to be much more careful about our use of plastic. We thought that we might try to use more re-useable containers as well as be more mindful about not dropping litter. If you have not seen a video, get your child to show it to you. Just Google 'Pacific Garbage Patch'. Have a conversation about how you do/can do your part to be kind to the Earth and be a Global Citizen.

Housekeeping:

Movie night link:

https://kentayloroffice.blogspot.ca/

Please disregard this message if it does not apply to you.  Your child will be bringing home an invoice for any outstanding school fees you may have.  These fees can be paid online using your MY CBE account.  https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/MyAccount/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fmyaccount

Please feel free to contact the office if you have any questions

Thank you!

Barb Rocca
Administrative Assistant, Kenneth D. Taylor School

Calgary Board of Education | cbe.ab.ca

t | 403-817-3504

Hello Parents/Guardians:

Please remember tomorrow Friday November 17^th is a PD Day – no school for any students! 

Fees were due on November 15^th please access your MY CBE Account to pay these:

https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/MyAccount/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fmyaccount                                          

***We have had several close calls with our students and parents being in danger of being hit during our morning drop off and afternoon pick up times.  Please, please, slow down when driving close to the school.  With the winter conditions more time is needed to keep everyone safe – we would much rather give a late slip than have to deal with a tragedy!***

Here is your weekly Dispatch for November 20^th – November 24^th     

Monday November 20th 

• National Child's Day - wear a blue shirt to school

• It is the right of every child to be safe!

 Friday November 24^th

• PM Kindergarten
• Fun Lunch
• Poinsettia order forms due

Barb Rocca
Administrative Assistant, Kenneth D. Taylor School

Calgary Board of Education | cbe.ab.ca

t | 403-817-3504

This week we have been working really hard to not use 'jail words' in our written work. Instead we are choosing plausible vivid verbs instead. For example we would no longer write the following:

The man walked through the hospital door. His leg was sore.

Instead we might say:

The man limped through the hospital door.

Help me practice by giving me some sentences with the word 'walk' in them. I will transform them for you!

We have just seen our rocks that from the rock tumbler. They are no longer rough and jagged. They look so shiny and smooth!

They will be the central focus for our next piece of creative writing! Watch this space!!


Housekeeping:

Photo re-takes November 15th
No school November 17th
Christmas Market November 18th
Poinsettia Fundraiser - running until November 23rd
Popcorn Days November 28th and 29th

Poinsettia Fundraiser

Dear Parents and Guardians, Last week, The Fundraising Association sent home our latest fundraiser. Until November 23rd we will be selling beautiful poinsettias, Christmas wreaths and arrangements. Last year this fundraiser was a great success!  For each item sold the school receives $7-9.  These funds will be used for such things as the playground, technology for the school, books, school presentations and other school items for the classrooms.

Tonight we have a challenge:

Can we feel sound?

As we prepared for Remembrance Day, we had a long think about what peace looks, feels, sounds and feels like(with your heart). We liked our ideas so much that we made pages for a book. I liked the pages so much they are on display outside our room. Here are some examples. 

 This is the wreathe that we made:

After the sombre but beautiful ceremony, our class created a Found Poem. We did this by collecting words and phrases that we heard as we listened to each other speak. We then wove them into a poem. This time we all worked together to create one poem, which really captured the essence of the day.

This week we had our first session in the Maker Space. We started by reading the book 'Ish.'

This is a great book that helped us to understand that perfection is not always needed and trying to be perfect can be stressful and spoil our enjoyment. It is the process of doing that we can enjoy and be relaxed about. We all had such a lot of fun creating bear traps, fish, something silly and just playing with paper. All students were very engaged and complained when we had to leave! I got some great photos. If you do not see your child over the next few weeks, it is because I do not have consent. If you decide you want them included, then you can always get a new form and have it signed. There is no pressure to do this but I just wanted to give you this opportunity.

Big Changes this Week!

This week was very exciting. We welcomed our student teacher, Mr. Waters into our class.  Having an extra teacher in the class means that students can get even more extra attention. We are keen to teach him about our vocabulary 'Rev Ups,' show him how we have learned how to make our writing detailed, interesting, specific, show and don't tell!!! We hope he will be impressed by our writing! Mr. Waters will be with us until Christmas and then again early in the New Year.

Yesterday we had a visiting scientist. He is a geologist who showed us many cool rocks and minerals including real gold! He also showed us Fool's Gold that looked much more like gold! It was so interesting that Mrs. Njie forgot to take photos! Is this the real stuff? Ask your child!

Today was our first day with only 21 students in our class. We were very sorry that some students left us in order to make this possible but we know that they will really enjoy their very own small class. A smaller class will make it easier to conference with every student on a regular basis. This will help boost our learning even more. We will soon be doing a lot of mixing in grade three so we will get many opportunities to see our friends:)

Mrs. Njie has been conducting reading assessments. She has been asking us how often we read at home. A surprising number of students confessed that they only read once a week at home! This is just a gentle reminder that reading should be a daily homework practice. The following visual helps to explain why it is so important. There is a HUGE difference between the number of words read a year depending on whether you read for 1 minute, 5 minutes or 20 minutes a day. Apologies for the quality of the image but do take the time to have a good look. The difference between 20 minutes a day and 1 minute a day (let's say, once a week) is the difference between reading 1,400,000 words a year and 3,000 words a year. Imagine this over a few years!!

We talked in class today about how we can build in reading into our busy schedules. Some students read on the way to hockey practice. Some students decided that before school was a good time. Some students said they would try to read when their siblings were watching 'boring' shows on TV. Other students said they would read before gaming and that gaming would be their treat for reading. Please help your child organize their time so that they can be achieving the daily read at home expectation. Remember that if they read with you then there are additional benefits as you can ask them about what they have read and check their high frequency sight word recognition (the words like, when, what, who etc that they encounter lots of times on one page).

Besides, reading is such fun! You can be any one you want to be, you can go any place you want to go , you can do anything  you want to do!

Housekeeping:

Photo orders due
Consider bringing a donation for Remembrance Day
Uniforms are welcome for the Ceremony (Cubs, Brownies etc)
Thank you for sending in healthy snacks and leaving the Hallowe'en candy at home:)

It's November Already!

Thank you parents, for limiting the amount of candy sent to school. The class has been remarkably calm despite a Tuesday evening Trick or Treating! We have had some great discussions around healthy choices - especially after I was kindly given a small box of Smarties from one of my students.  Some students were quite shocked that a teacher might eat unhealthy food!

A lot of us decided that treats are not necessarily a bad thing but should be eaten in moderation - and after eating our healthy choice so the sugar does not impact our bodies so greatly. We also decided that it can be very difficult to limit treats and we shared our strategies to ration ourselves!

We are reaching the end of our Rocks and Minerals  topic so the time came to see if our home-made sedimentary rocks worked! The results were varied with some rocks showing more erosion than others but we had good fun!

If you look closely, you can see the layers of sand and gravel!

The students were set a challenge. When working as scientists, we have often used models to help us understand concepts. For example, we used an egg to model the various layers of the earth. The students were shown a container of wooden beads, a melt craft and a wall of Lego. They had to say what each type of rock,  (metamorphic, igneous or sedimentary) each one modeled and why. We had some great answers, such as the melt beads were a good model for metamorphic rock because when you make the melt beads you use an iron which is both hot and presses down on the beads. Metamorphic rocks are formed through heat and pressure.

Ask your child to explain their choice and their reasoning! (They can also explain the downside to each model)

In writing, we have been busy trying to think of different ways to add more descriptive detail and vivid vocabulary into our work. We decided that the word 'walk' was boring and not very precise. Ask me what alternatives I could use instead!

In partner groups we wrote a short descriptive paragraph:

Housekeeping:

Monday - we have a visiting scientist to teach us more about rocks and minerals.

Photo Orders - Due November 8th

Here is the school's weekly dispatch - 

Hello Parents/Guardians

 

Our staff would like to express our sincere thanks and gratitude for the scrumptious and generous lunch that was delivered today.  Your kindness and support is very much appreciated.  :)

Please check out your child’s teacher’s blog on our website by clicking here:

http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/kennethdtaylor/teaching-learning/classes-departments/Pages/default.aspx

 

Our Field trip / Activity Fees have been uploaded, please access your MY CBE Account to pay these:

 

https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/MyAccount/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fMyAccount%2f                                                                

 

Here is your weekly Dispatch for November 6^th – November 10^th   

  

Monday Nov 6^th

·         Grade 3 In Class Field trip Scientist Visit

Wednesday Nov 8^th

·         Grade 4 In Class Field trip Royal Tyrrell Museum 

·         School Council / Fundraising Meeting 6:30 pm

o    All parents welcome to attend

Thursday Nov 9^th

·         Grade 4 In Class Field trip Royal Tyrrell Museum 

Friday Nov 10^th

·         AM Kindergarten 

·         Remembrance Day Ceremony 10:30 – 11:15 

o    All parents are welcome to attend 

  

Barb Rocca
Administrative Assistant, Kenneth D. Taylor School

Calgary Board of Education | cbe.ab.ca

t | 403-817-3504