We have got right back to work today after our short break. We began with starting with some math learned about on yesterday's PD day. We did our first 'Math Talk!' There is a lot of research to show this type of directed math conversation is very good at increasing our number skills. Ask me about the different hand signals I use and what they mean.

We have also been practicing our reciprocal teaching roles and are almost ready to begin practicing our 'grand conversations' more independently. As you read with your child over the next few days help them practice the different roles.

As well, we have been finding out about Evelyn Glennie and reflecting on how hearing affects quality of life. After agreeing that music has a positive impact on many people's lives we listened to the work of Evelyn Glennie who is a percussionist from Scotland. We all thought she was amazing. Then we found out that she is deaf! We ended the day with many questions that we hope to find answers to. Just how does she know if she makes a wrong note? Unfortunately time was against us so we ended the day with many more questions waiting to be asked. We all agreed that the first day back went very quickly!

Housekeeping:

7:15 am - (7:30am if roads are very snowy) Student Led Conferences for those who could not make it on Thursday

8:30 am Friday Grade Three Assembly. All are welcome!

Student Led Conferences

What a great afternoon/evening I had meeting families for Student Led Conferences. I enjoyed playing with younger siblings with the multi link cubes. It's great to see the toddlers being exposed to school and getting familiar with the place they will eventually learn in. By the time they are old enough  to officially join the school, the transition will be so much easier as they will be so familiar with the school. So thank you for bringing them in with you! Much of the time I just stood back and proudly admired how the students showed their parents what they have learned and why they have learned it. It's always lovely to see families interacting and enjoying our learning environment together. I feel very fortunate to work with such positive and caring families. 

I enjoyed my Friday getting my First Aid Recertification and look forward to going on our first field trip on February 27th. I will be looking for 2 volunteers, so keep this in mind as you plan your month. Of course, volunteers will require current police clearance.

Housekeeping:

January 29th - no school PD

Wednesday: 7:15am - 8:00am Alternative Student Led Conferences for students who did not attend on Thursday

Friday 8:30 - 9:15pm Friendship Assembly (grade threes are presenting!) All families welcome

Friday Movie Night: Coco begins at 7pm, with doors opening at 6:15pm

Mindfulness and Student Led Conferences

Mental health is a very important issue. We are very lucky to be in a school that recognizes this. Through mindfulness, we are learning to manage our feelings and emotions. We have quite a few strategies to draw from but we are always open to learning some new ones...














In class, we have been learning more about 'tapping.' We have used tapping before in class but have added a verbal component to it. We have mostly all found it useful to decrease our negative feelings. It also gives our wiggly bodies a chance for movement. Ask your child to go through a cycle of tapping with you - it might even help you too! We created this anchor chart to help us remember what to do. Students (and teachers) are encouraged to use this strategy as needed to self-regulate through the day.

Housekeeping:

I still have a couple of parents who have not signed up for student led interviews. Please email me at your earliest convenience so we can arrange a mutually agreeable time for you to see your child's work.

Thursday, Jan 25 –  This is a regular day for Grades 1 – 4. It is NOT an early dismissal day for them. Student led conferences in the evening. STUDENTS NEED TO COME TO SCHOOL CONFERENCES WITH THEIR PARENTS!

Friday, Jan 26 – NO SCHOOL FOR ALL STUDENTS

Monday, Jan 29 – NO  SCHOOL FOR ALL STUDENTS

The highlight of this week was Flex Friday. Students got to work with other students from Kindergarten to Grade 4 and visit with another teacher to learn about their passion and take part in activities.

Of course, my passion is horses! Above is my horse, Ace. Students in my group learned the safe way to approach horses as well as how to groom and care for them. All the students came back from their sessions with lots of stories to tell and things to show. We all agreed it was a lot of fun!

Just a reminder that next week's conferences are Student Led so please be sure to bring your child to conferences with you. As you see them in action while they work through the tasks and share already completed work with you (with learning criteria posted for you to see), you will be able to see for yourself what areas of work are strengths for your child and where their challenges lie. More than  that, students really enjoy having you be part of their learning environment. If you have not managed to sign up, please email me directly so we can work something out. 

In writing, we have been looking at different types of sentences: Ask me to give an example from each type.

We have been practicing changing from one type of sentence to another. By becoming more fluent at using different types of writing, we are giving ourselves more choices when we write.

We have used this skill when thinking of answers to responses to the story, The Red Bicycle. This book touches on many topics from Social Studies, such as needs versus wants, quality of life, charities and transportation. We hope you will enjoy reading about our thoughts and how they might have changed as we read the book together. Ask me if a bicycle is a need or a want and why.

Tone of the criteria for our journal responses was to avoid using the starter, 'I think the book will be about ...' or 'I predict this book will be about ...' As a class we generated some alternatives. I think you will agree they are much more interesting. Over the course of the next few weeks, the students will be given less scaffolded help as they become more independent at generating their own ideas.

Housekeeping:

Please return your report card envelope to the school so we can help reduce waste and save the school money by using them again at the end of the year.

Please sign up for conferences if you have not already done so. I will be available to take additional people for a half hour after the official end time and on Wednesday after school, from about 3 - 4pm. If you could not get scheduled into an official slot, then email me and we can arrange something that works for both of us.
I apologize for the inconvenience but I am writing out a field trip proposal and teachers have to have up to date First Aid Certificates and mine needs to be renewed so it is worthwhile:)

January!

In math, we have continued work from before Christmas and have added arrays to our multiplication toolbox. Ask me what an array is and how it can be used to find out the answer to a multiplication. We are now able to show multiplication sentences in many ways (see below). This gives us a much deeper understanding of what multiplication means, rather than simply knowing a memorized fact.

We used the criteria to make our own 'Multiplication Monster.' Its eyes are an array. Give me a multiplication and ask me to follow through the criteria and find my answer in multiple ways.

Next week we are using shapes to give us our numbers to multiply with. Your child will need to know what a polygon, quadrilateral, triangle, parallelogram, rhombus, pentagon, hexagon, octagon, rectangle and square are. You can practice naming these shapes at home.

In social studies, your child has chosen a country that they are interested in researching. Ask them what country they have chosen and which continent it is in. We thought it was important to find out about different counties as it tends to be that when we don't know about something that we have negative thoughts. (This also relates to our read aloud). We talked about being respectful of things that were unfamiliar to us. We agreed that so long as a country's traditions and culture did not hurt anyone then we should respect their beliefs even if we did not believe it or want to do it ourselves. This was an important discussion to have prior to researching. It would be great if you could continue this discussion at home.

We also had a good discussion about digital citizenship and what to do if we see an image or words we do not like on our screens. With technology being so accessible to children, these are important discussions. Long gone are the days when there was only one computer at home and it was housed in a very public area. At school, we do have a lot of filters that block inappropriate content and students always work with computer screens visible to teachers but it is still important to learn how to monitor our own behavior.

It was very interesting to watch a few videos about traditional dances and see food from the different countries.

One of the students in the class brought in two very detailed cardboard creations. The pictures do not do them justice! The class was very impressed. Children have the best imaginations! We watched a video about Cain's cardboard arcade. If you have the chance, Google it and see it for yourself.
The first creation is a movie theatre, complete with adverts and main film! The second is a concession truck. See what you can build at home with just a few pieces of cardboard.

Housekeeping:

• Don't forget to read every day at home!
• Bring back report card envelopes
• sign up for student led conferences
• popcorn days on Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th.
• Fun Lunch on Jan 19th (Order deadline is Jan 13th www.healthyhunger.ca)

Photos!

 Here are the photos as promised!

We generated ideas, based on the criteria of 6 arms and having symmetry.

We chose our best idea to create, using the limited amount of resources we could take.

I don't know where the colored sticks came from! But that's okay. They look great!

 Hopefully we followed our plans carefully!

Every snowflake looked different: 

Today we compared them to ourselves. We are all beautiful, on the inside and the outside. We are all unique, with our strengths and our challenges, and we embrace that.

Fun Fact: Did you know that each snowflake starts with a piece of grit, dirt or some other particle?

Welcome Back!

Firstly, at the very end of the day I decided to take a picture of the Engineering Process snowflake display to add to the blog. After I did that, I must have left my phone at school because when I finally got home, my phone was not with me. So apologies for that. I will upload photos tomorrow.

If you look at the above paragraph, you will see transition words, such as 'Firstly' and 'finally.' We worked on transition words today. We made an anchor chart to show words good for the beginning, middle and end of a piece of writing.

We then orally rehearsed the procedure for making our snowflakes, using the transition words, which make our oral explanations (and writing) more smooth.

This is the Engineering Process:

First we looked at the work of Snowflake Bentley. Ask your child who he was and what his passion was. 

We then asked what snowflakes had in common. We found out they have 6 'legs' and are symmetrical.

Next we used our math problem solving skills to work out how much of each resource each child could have, based on the resources we had. We used rounding skills and skip counting to help us. Ask me how many each child can have if we have 100 items. More importantly, ask me how I worked the problem out.

Then we generated lots of ideas of what our snowflake could look like, using the resources we had. Some people found it challenging to generate lots of ideas and wanted to stop after just one or two, but lots of ideas are important in the Engineering Process.

We then selected our one best idea to create a snowflake on paper. Some people learned the hard way that evaluation is important before glue is used. At least they recognized first hand why this is important and that their creation had not quite met the criteria! Most could articulate what they could do to improve their design. So lots was learned!

Now go back through the explanation and have your child point out the transition words used. Maybe they can even suggest improvements!

Photographs to follow!!!

It has been a great start to the new term! We have worked really hard and played really hard! Thank you for sending your child to school with warm clothes, a good night's sleep, a full belly and a great attitude!!

Housekeeping:

Home reading has started again. Every child should have a book in their backpack. Remind them if they do not. It is very important to read every day with your child. All books need to be kept in a plastic bag so if you have the library book bag at home be sure to send it to school so they can take a book out on Thursday. No plastic bag means no book! This protects our valuable books so that they can be enjoyed for many years.

A reminder that anything of value or valuable to you or your child should be left at home. Anything lost or missing is your child's responsibility. If your child ever comes home with something that does not belong to them should be investigated. Swapping is not allowed at school because it causes too many issues. In our class we have had  discussions about finding things. We agreed that if it was not bought by the child or the child's family then it does not belong to them and should not be kept. Even something of very little monetary value could be very precious to someone. Reinforcement of this at home would be very helpful.

Student Led conferences are on the 25th January. This is an opportunity for your child to take you through work samples so you can see what sort of work they do in school and how their work matches against the learning criteria. It is very important that you arrange to come with your child, therefore! Please book a slot early, so you get the one you want. I will not be at conferences on the Friday as I am doing my first aid recertification (so I can take your child on field trips!) I will be arranging an alternative time slot so all students have the chance to attend. That will probably be on the Wednesday 24th from 2:30 - 3:30pm. 

It's almost time for a school! I hope you all had a peaceful Christmas break and were able to do lots of fun family things. I am excited to start the new school term! As a family, we are all beginning to get back into routine by going to bed earlier and getting back into the habit of reading every day! The start of the new term can be tiring for students so I have an Engineering Challenge organized for the first day back, so that should be a fun activity for the afternoon. I look forward to seeing you all on Monday. Remember to dress for the weather as I think it's going to be very variable:)