Friday, November 30, 2018

week 13

Wow, how is it already December?  As of today, we have been in school for 60 days already!  Where has the time gone?

It has been another busy week!  The students worked very hard on their dance routine, and it was great to see all the parents who were able to make it out today for the performance!  Our students definitely have some skills!!!

We are almost done reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and are thinking that it would be a great idea to watch it on movie day on December 20th!  We can't wait!

In math we have been looking at even and odd numbers and are moving into looking at money and the value of Canadian coins.  Did you know that you can tell if a number is even or odd just by looking at the ones place?  Then all you have to do is find out if that number in the ones place is even (every one has a buddy) or odd (one of the ones is lonely).  Ask your child to show you what they know.

In writing we have begun working on a holiday story!  We have used a visual organizer to plan our story, and we are now using a story board to draw out the events in order.  Over the next few weeks we will be using our pictures and expanding writing skills to create awesome stories that we will share with you!

We have been developing our sense of our community from small to large.  We started with self, then family, then Cranston, and now Calgary.  Next week we will be looking at Alberta and Canada, and how those communities effect how we live.

Next week:
We will be looking at how coins are counted, and how many cents makes a dollar.  Students will be experimenting with different ways to put coins together to create the same amount.
Students will be working on expanding their ideas for their story writing, and looking at how they can use their words to help the reader "see" the story in their heads.


Sunday, November 25, 2018

week 12

Hello families!  Sorry we have not sent out a blog in a few weeks.  Here is an update of what we have been working on.

In writing, the students did an amazing week of Remembrance Day writing about the importance of remembering and what peace means to them.  The students were very insightful and have such big hearts.  Then we read a few different books from the Black Lagoon series, and the students used a writing organizer to plan their own Black Lagoon books.  They took their ideas and put them into book form, and did their own illustrations!  They look so good, and the students are so proud of them!

Both classes have been practicing editing for capitals and punctuation.  This is a very important skill to have.  Students need to be able to go back and review their writing and edit their own work.

In math the students have been focusing on getting a deeper understanding of place value.  They learned about what a digit is, and that a one digit number is in the ones, a two digit number is in the tens, and a three digit number is in the hundreds.  Students learned how to use base ten blocks and a place value chart to record numbers.  They learned a game called Target Number, where they used a place value chart, base ten blocks, and dice to try and reach a number before their partner did.  This was a great practice grouping ones into tens and being able to move that ten into the tens column, which will help their understanding of larger addition that is coming up.

We have been focusing on different types of communities, and how communities can be different sizes.  From small to large, our communities are self, family, community, city, province, country, and world!  We have now completed our self and family, and are moving into our community of Cranston and the different things it contains to help us work together and live happy and healthy lives.

We have done some amazing art!  Both classes did a Remembrance Day display, and Ms. Secord's class did a Ted Harrison art project with Mrs. Brace, our substitute.  Your children are so talented!



This week:
- we will continue to work on our editing skills, and do another story writing activity.  The students will now look at using triple scoop words in their writing to help the reader be able to visualize their stories better.
- we will be working on our problem solving skills on open ended problems (a problem that has more than one answer).  The website https://mathbeforebed.com has some great ideas for you to try at home.
- we will be looking at Cranston and thinking about how our community contributes to our way of life.