Hello Everyone!

Happy Leap Day! I always think about those with birthdays on February 29 and imagine how exciting it must be to celebrate your birthday on the actual day every four years!

I am also excited for March to be here as I feel like the beginnings of Spring are in the air! This Winter hasn’t felt too long, yet it’s always nice to have Spring to look forward to!

We’ve been busy over the past few weeks and as always…have lots of exciting learning opportunities coming up!

-We had a wonderful time in the forest with Mr. Barret Miller! He has a wealth of knowledge and we are so fortunate to have made this connection with Barret and will be making arrangements for him to either meet us in the forest or at the school again soon! Last week Barret talked to us about our local forest and its inhabitants. He helped us to track some animal prints, see how old a tree was and reminded us of our impact as part of the people who share the forest. He also reminded us of how lucky we are to live in a city with so many natural spaces available to learn from and discover.

-Our “official” fractions investigation has come to an end for now! Although…we will continue to infuse fractions in natural ways in all aspects of our learning! Some students continue to be challenged with counting by halves and quarters and ordering fractions. We will continue to support these learners at school and encourage you to check in with your children at home as well! This also applies to addition and subtraction, especially when questions require regrouping. As we dive deeper into multiplication we will focus less on concepts we have previously focussed on, but not stop practicing them entirely as we still want students to be able be confident in their skills.

-Our animal research/informational writing projects are well underway! The research portion is done and about half of the students have completed their first drafts. This writing will reflect their learning from our Common Learning Times and the features we delved into (Openings, Closings, Listing vs Layering and “TAP”ping into voice). I will be helping the students with their writing as they need, however will not be doing a final edit of their work as I often do. As students finish, they will be writing a narrative piece which will include the animal they’ve studied. I will edit this writing with the students and we will have an opportunity to see self edited vs teacher edited work. These will be some of work pieces that the students will share at the up coming conferences.

-Conference notes will be going home on Monday and need to be returned ASAP as we will be coordinating the conferences this week. You will receive your time with your child’s report card on March 9.

-Our “First Chapter Fridays” have been going great! I really love doing this with the students. I think we will continue for March and then see if we want to switch gears after that!

-We are about half way through The Wild Robot! I hope your children have talked about the book at home, and if not ask them what they think! Roz is a robot who ended up on an island after the cargo ship she was on crashed. She was turned on accidentally by some curious otters and has had to learn how to adapt to the island and live among the plants and animals. I can’t wait to share the rest of the book with the class…and maybe the sequel!

This upcoming week will include some “ketchup” work on our animal projects (writing and art) as well as…a more in-depth look at multiplication. So far we’ve learned how to relate skip counting and repeated addition to multiplication and how it is more efficient to use multiplication, and “factor X factor=the product”. The grade 4s are recalling some facts they learned last year and the grade 3s are excited to learn facts of their own!

We will continue to talk about healthy habits, the most current version of Canada’s Food Guide and using nutritional labels to learn more about what we are eating. I made a suggestion to the students that this weekend they take a food like: crackers and look at two nutritional labels and try to decide which one they think is the healthiest option to eat. When we ere looking at the Froot Loops label we noticed that we have to look at the serving size as the nutrition is based on that amount!

We will also get outside with Erin and practice some Friluftsliv in our own schoolyard! It will be a great week ahead!

Until next time,

Danielle

Good Morning Everyone!

I just wanted to do a quick post as the upcoming week is very busy and I’d like everyone to know what to expect!

-Monday: This is our final session of Common Learning Time. We will also be working on some of the projects we have going for Book Clubs and be doing a fraction check in to see what our progress is like and what skills need more attention.

-Tuesday: Begin animal project research, share Zoo field trip design projects, record our February Writing Samples , prepare for Valentine holder construction and start a craft with Ginny!

-Wednesday: Valentine holder making, guest artist in Performing Arts, school assembly, “ketchup”

-Thursday: MTYP performance in a.m. and field trip to Assiniboine Forest in p.m. (12:30-3:20)

-Friday: Heart Healthy Valentine’s Day! (See below for more details), Contemporary Dancers performance @2:30

Heart Healthy Valentine’s Day…

As we talk more about healthy habits we have decided that we can put this into practice for Valentine’s Day. Although it’s nice to have treats (as proven from the Bake Sale on Friday) it also feels good to be mindful of our eating habits! We have decided as a group to make health our priority on our Heart Health Valentine’s Day “party”!

To do this we will:

-be eating foods that contain natural sugars like fruits and veggies to help fuel our healthy bodies and reduce our environmental impact (from less packaging, etc.)

-only drink water from the fountain or reusable bottles to help hydrate our bodies while also considering the environment

-get outside and being active to get our bodies moving

-spend time being mindful to keep a healthy mind

-be mindful of things we can do to be more environmentally friendly (keep lights off when possible, consider how much and which paper we are using and trying to reuse instead, try to walk to school instead of driving, etc.)

I will put a post on Seesaw so parents can use the comment feature to “sign up” for a snack if they are interested 🙂

Until next time,

Danielle

Hello Everyone!

It seems like so much has happened in 123 since my last post! Care for a recap?!

-We are soooooo close to finishing Shout Out To The Fitzgerald-Trouts! My prediction is we will finish by Thursday! Today we learned about Kimo’s disappointing pole vaulting attempt and now Toby and baby Penny are MISSING! This would be a great time for a conversation with your child about their thoughts about today’s chapters and predictions for how the story will soon end!

-We are over half way through our current Common Learning Cycle with 122 and 126! So far the students have rotated through two writing crafts and done one session with their third. We are aiming to finish this cycle on February 11! Ask your child about what they’ve been learning in their writing groups!

-We are learning a lot about fractions! Here are some things we have covered and will cover again over the next two weeks! You may want to give them a try at home too!

• Where we see fractions in the real world
• That fractions are equal parts of a whole and that being equal is very important!
• Referring to the numerator (when referring to the number of pieces eaten/shaded/lost etc.) and denominator (when referring to the number of parts of the whole)
• When an objet or set is shared in two it is called halves, shared in three is called thirds, in four is called quarters or fourths, etc.
• Naming compatible fractions…if I ate 1/3 of the chocolate bar then what fraction is left?
• Counting by 1/2 and 1/4s

Next week we have some fun…and tasty fractions to experience 😉

Mathantics-Fractions are Parts

-Students who have some “Add’Em” books to complete have brought them home today (Thursday) and I’d be happy to have them back on Monday. We’ve been working on these for awhile and it’s time to finish up!

-We’ve had two “Mindful Mondays” and two “Thankful Thursdays” so far this month! We are pretty used to mindfulness in 123 because we try to take time to practice mindfulness on a daily basis. Taking the time to be in the moment, focus on our breathing, sitting with our thoughts and feelings and slowing down are great tools to have in our toolbox as we live in a fast paced world. We learned about #BellLetsTalk day on January 29th and the impact that talking about Mental Health has on ending the stigma around Mental Health Illness.

Other classes have been inspired to talk about Mental Health and have found some wise words to share with us all…Thanks 125 for these inspirational and beautiful words 🙂

Today for #ThankfulThursday the focus was on people we are thankful for. 

The students have been sent home with a blank card. Their task is to create a thank you card for someone they are thankful for and give it to them. Maybe they’ll see them in person or need to pop it in the mail. Maybe it’s for someone they see everyday and maybe it’s for someone who they don’t see very often. Maybe it’s for someone that they don’t even know well such as the mail carrier, the dentist or the local barista at Starbucks (that’s who I should bring a card for!). It feels good to get a card, but it also feels good to give one! Let’s spread kindness and gratitude 🙂

-We’ve finished all of our Canadian art AND take a look at this amazing bulletin board display!! There are nearly 100 piece of art up on display!!!

-We had an amazing trip to the zoo to learn about animal adaptations and how human impact affects animals and their habitats

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Now we are working within a small group to go through the design process to: empathize with an animal from the zoo, define a question to a problem we have discovered, ideate ways to solve this problem (one we could do on our own which would be a small impact, one we could do as a society which would have a greater impact and one that is “out of this world” which might be completely impossible, but sometimes those impossible ideas become actual ideas), create a prototype of the solution an then test our our prototype and find ways to be critical thinkers! We are right in the middle of this…so stay tuned for photos!

-We had an incredible visit from Allie this week! She taught us so much about animals of the North, how people of the North live and how they use and respect animals and about how human impact affects how animals live and prosper. She had some pretty fascinating artifacts. I’m sure you’ve already heard all about Allie’s presentation 🙂 Thanks for visiting us in 123!

-Two of our grade 5 friends (Room 123 alumni!) have initiated a school bake sale to help the animals affected by the wildfires in Australia. If you are able to send in some baked goods please fill in the green sheet that was sent home yesterday (unless it has been left in your child’s mailbox. In which case you can let me know if you would like to make a donation and what you would like to send in as that donation!).

-This week’s Ask Me question has been posted and ready for business! This will be a great checkin to see the growth in your child’s reading. Check the Seesaw post for more details! I’ll be participating as well 🙂

What’s Coming Up in the Next Two Weeks-ish

-Next week is the Jack Frost Challenge! We will be trying to spend a little extra time outdoors. Maybe this is a good motivator for you as a family too! What can you do outside from February 2-8?! Wednesday is the day the Jack Frost Challenge encourages students to walk to school. Anyone interested? We will also be doing some activities as a school on Wednesday. Stay tuned for more details from Mr. Strachan and Erin!

-We will finish up our Ecosystem Book Clubs next week and come up with some displays to share our learning with each other and with you too!

-Wednesday is Global School Play Day!! A few weeks ago the students of grade 3/4 wrote letters to us teachers trying to convince us to let them participate in GSPD! Persuasive writing sure can be a great way to convince people to do something you want to do! We will be having a day of learning through play and figuring out what our play has taught us! I’m hoping someone is wanting to play boardgames with me!!!!

-We will be doing more design thinking when we plan out what to create for our Valentine’s Day holders! Once we set the criteria and draw out a design with our list of materials, we will let you know what supplies we may need from home! Students are welcome to bring in cards for their classmates for Valentine’s Day, but are required to bring in one for ALL 23 other students in room. As always I encourage people to use up the leftover cards from years past or make simple cards that can later be recycled. Ginny has a craft up her sleeve for us to do as her gift to 123 🙂 We will also be talking about healthy habits a bit more over the next two weeks, so we are going to plan out a really healthy Valentine’s Day…so hold off on those treats! P.. If you have any nutritional labels from food packages that you would like to send in we will gladly take those off your hands for a mini-inquiry project!

-During the week on February 10-14 we will have many guests at Montrose! We will be celebrating the Arts through storytelling, drama and dance!

It’s pretty awesome being part of the Montrose community! #BAM!!

That’s it for now…but at things come up I will send you a Seesaw announcement complete with all the details you need to be “in the know”!

Until next time,

Danielle

Hi Everyone,

Well we’ve been back in school for two weeks after our winter break and it hasn’t taken long to get back into the swing of things! Here is a little about what we’ve been up to and what we have planned for the next few weeks!

-We have done lots of writing practice including our mid year narrative, persuasive and information samples. Our focus is about organization-making sure we have a beginning, middle and end as well as inserting some voice-to make our writing sound like us! To help with this task we will be doing another Common Learning session with 122 & 126. Starting on Monday we will have the students rotate between 4 writing crafts (Beginnings, Endings, List vs Layer & TAP into voice). The students will be in the same groups they were in for our September rotations and will get two 60 minute sessions with their teacher leader before moving onto the next writing craft. Once we have finished the 8 lessons we will rewrite the information sample we have already written and see how the students were able to make improvements to their own writing.

-We are about 1/3 of the way through the final Fitzgerald-Trouts novel! There have been many good inferences and predictions happening as we read as well as stopping to learn new vocabulary and have discussions about word choice. There are so many benefits and teaching moments that take place during read aloud time. I already can’t wait to read our next book…The Wild Robot!

-We started a new Friday tradition! I came across another teacher who does “First Chapter Fridays”. This is where you read the first chapter of a novel and talk about whether or not the author has “hooked” you or not and if you are interested in continuing the book on your own. I think this will be the theme of our Ask Me question for a bit. Make sure to share your thoughts via our weekly Seesaw question! I’m hoping this activity will help the students to be inspired to make connections from what they read to what they write and how grabbing the reader’s attention right from the beginning can be a great tool to use as a writer. I’m also hoping it will help students who are stuck with choosing books to read.

-Our Canadian artist study has been going well. So far the students have completed 3 works of art and will finish their fourth this week! I haven’t been great at taking photos lately…but here are a few samples from similar work from a few years ago!

-Our inquiry focus for the next while is Habitats and Communities. To help springboard our inquiry we are going to the zoo (on Thursday, January 23). I sent a Seesaw message earlier in the week and the blue field trip note has been put in your child’s mailbox. Please make sure they are dressed for the weather as a large portion of the day will be spent outside.

-This is also helping to inspire us for our class Genius Hour project. We are going to be working through the Genius Hour process by working together and learning more about the impacts of the wildfires in Australia. The koalas have been of particular interest to us and we are looking for a way to help after they have been injured and their habitat has been lost.

-We have just begun a unit on fractions and will be doing some lessons about fractions and decimals over the next few weeks. If you would like to extend this practice to something you can work on at home some of the things we are noticing are: some students are challenged by sharing ways we use fractions in our everyday lives (for example-sharing food in equal parts, when baking, etc.), naming fractions of sets (if I have a set of 12 cookies and I ate 6 what fraction did I eat?), counting by 1/2s (1/2, 1, 1 1/2, 2, 2 1/2, 3…), counting by 1/4s (1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 1, 1 1/4, 1 2/4…), naming compatible fractions (If I shaded 1/2 of the shape what fraction of the shape would need to be shaded to make 1 whole?). Some of these concepts are new for the students and for some of them it is a review. I simply wanted to share what we are working on in case you wanted to practice at home too!

-Other things to note! During this week’s practice of sentence editing and contractions I added in some extra details in the instructions section! Following instructions, both written and oral, seems to be an area we require extra practice with. To make sure students were reading the instructions, I had asked them to write their first and last name at the top of the page. Several students were asked to go back and read the instructions again as it was clear that they had only written their first name. We will continue to work on the importance of reading and listening to instructions and how that is connected with knowing what is expected of us. However…the other thing that surfaced is that many students were not able to spell their last name and did not know they needed to use an uppercase letter to begin the last name too. Take a minute and see if your child is able to spell their last name on their own (with an uppercase letter)!

*Book orders were due yesterday, but as I only had one order I will leave it open until Tuesday, January 21.

*Monday is a library day…please bring in any books you have at home. There are many overdue books that should be returned ASAP 🙂

I think that’s it for now. I’ll be back in a few weeks with more updates from 123!

Until next time,

Danielle

Good Morning Families!

Brrrrrr….it’s a cold one out there today! I hope you have things to do that make you feel warm and cozy today!

What a busy time of year! Here’s a recap of what happened this week and a glimpse of what is happening next week…our final school week of 2019!

-Thank you so much for your support for this year’s concert! The kids did a GREAT job, don’t you think?! We did some sharing on Friday and the kind words you shared with your children really put smiles on their faces. A huge thanks to Erin and her student teacher Ms. Samantha for all their hard work and dedication 🙂

-Book Clubs are over! This week we will make crafts during our Common Learning Time with 122 and 126

-Our math groups with 122 are going well. We have a few more sessions and then will revamp some of our targeted instruction in January

-We are almost done the second book about the Fitzgerald-Trouts! We will for sure finish by Friday, but maybe even sooner!

-We are making and exchanging cards with each other. Each student will draw another student’s name and make a card for him or her. On Friday we will exchange the cards!

-On Friday we will celebrate the Winter Solstice by participating in some outdoor activities! Please dress for the weather as we will be outdoors for the majority of the afternoon 🙂

-Please send in any outstanding library books. If books need to be renewed for the holidays we can get that done this week!

Next Week’s Plans…

Monday-

This will be a fairly regular day for us. If it’s warm enough we will try to go outside for our gym time, but if not we will use the gym. We will have math with 122 and will try to finish up our Space Invader (Super Flex) projects

Tuesday-

Craft day #1 with 122 & 126 and Northern artist study!

Wednesday-

Sing-a-Long in the gym with the whole school (9:15-9:45 ish), final math group with 122, card making.

Thursday-

Craft day #2 and Northern artist study!

Friday-

Card exchange, Sing-a-Long @1:15, Winter Solstice afternoon!

Have a lovely weekend!

Until next time,

Danielle

Hello Families!

Two weeks left of school in 2019…how did we get here so quickly?!
This week went by in a flash!! Here is what we’ve been up to!

-The books have been read and now the “book clubbers” have been busy working on projects that we will share with the larger group on Wednesday and Friday this week! I know what my groups have been busy creating and am looking forward to seeing what everyone has decided to do to share their learning!!

-A major part of this Common Learning Time with 122&126 is about reading comprehension. This is a friendly reminder to do regular check ins with your child as he or she reads. If they are reading to you/with you then have a quick chat about characters, problems, solutions, or have them predict, connect or retell! If your child is reading on their own then still make some time to check in. Sometimes we think that they understand the story and all the words they read, but upon further investigation they actually really need a bit more support in order to fully understand.

-We have been working on math with our friends in 122. Ask your children about what they’ve been learning in these math groups!! Hint: math language and review, mental math strategies, reading instructions and designing a game for others to play (depending which group they are in)!

-Our Friday Fanny Fundraiser went great!! Thank you for your donations! Fanny (and the 10 other gifts for seniors) will be delivered next Friday after school. Service learning projects offer so much learning for our students. On Monday they will look at a photograph I took of all the money that came in and figure out how much it was!

-We have been working on a collaborative bulletin board project. All students in the class haven shared their ideas and now anyone who is interested in putting it all together is working hard to get it all displayed for the concert!

What’s Happening Next Week…

-Monday: Last Book Club maker day!!! Students will finish up and get ready to present on Wednesday or Friday! Bulletin board work continues and so does our latest art project!

Tuesday: Math with 122 in the morning and concert dress rehearsal in the afternoon! The rehearsal will begin at 1:00 and will take as long as it needs to in order to go through the whole program! I’m soooo excited to share what our class has been working on AND see what the other classes are going to share! Students are expected to wear their costume attire for the rehearsal. Reminder: Room 123 is asked to wear dark (black is preferred) top (long sleeve if possible), dark (black is preferred) bottoms and comfortable shoes. We are no longer using “extras” to supplement the costumes as we feel as though the black will best most effective to convey the movements!

-Wednesday: It’s Book Club sharing day!! It’s also our last chance to finish up the bulletin board! We will do Friluftsliv at the end of the day so dress for the weather! If it’s too cold we will make alternate arrangements. *See this week’s Ask Me question regarding Friluftsliv!

-Thursday: It’s show time!! Concert times are: 10:00, 1:30 and 7:00. Please wear your costume attire as you did on Tuesday! If you don’t already have your tickets please get your orders in ASAP. The evening show sells out quickly and last minute tickets are often not possible to get. Please do your best to get to the 7:00 show as partner and group movements are challenging if students are missing.

-Friday: We will keep things pretty chill after having such a busy day on Thursday! We will finish up the Book Club sharing and other than that things can be a bit flexible!

One last thought:

The book order was a quick turn around this month. We realized that they are busy at Scholastic at this time of year and the orders may take a bit longer to arrive. I’m going to wait to put in the order until Sunday at 6:00 pm so it will get processed first thing Monday morning. If you are going to make an order and are using the online ordering it’ll be easy (it goes into my account and I receive a notification). If you want to pay by cheque just send me a message and I’ll send the order for you and you can send the cheque in on Monday! Also-if you need any orders kept as a surprise for a gift then please let me know and I’ll make arrangements with you to have it picked up instead of sending the order home with your child!!

Have a great weekend!!

Until next time,

Danielle

Good Morning Everyone!

Did last weeks seem so long, yet so short to anyone else? Funny how time can feel that way sometimes!

Here is a peek at what we did last week and what’s coming up this week 🙂

-We had 3 Book Club sessions and have completed reading our books! Throughout the process of introducing Book Clubs (to some and revisiting them for others) we have been focusing on comprehension (understanding what we are reading). Reading the words on the page (decoding) is only one part of reading and it is really important to understand what we’ve read. We have practiced this in many ways such as:

-Making predictions (at the beginning of the novel and in the middle): What do you think will happen? Why do you think that what happen? When we use the clues in the book to make a prediction we are actually making an inference. Our predictions do not have to be right, but they are not a wild guess either

-Wondering: What are you wondering about? Why did the character _______ do_______? How will they solve the problem? Why did they make that choice? We make wonderings all the time and might not even realize it! We took some time to talk about that and then put our wonderings on paper and share them with the group

-Connections: Making connections between the text and ourself, to other text, the world around us and to media help us to deepen our understanding of the story and also of what the author is trying to convey

-New Vocabulary: The students were asked to write down any unfamiliar vocabulary as they read and we began each “meeting” by sharing these with each other and explaining what these words meant. It was really important for us to do that and remind the kids that it’s okay not to know some of these words (how to pronounce them or know their meaning), but we should take the time to learn them!

-Retelling: Being able to read a paragraph, a page,  a chapter, or a entire book and being able to retell the main parts of the text to others is a great way to check for comprehension. If the students are not able to retell what they’ve read, they either do no understand or they are simply reading the words and not thinking about the text at all

-Reading with me! I read with each student during the past week and then listened to their retelling of the page they read and talked about a connection with the book. By doing Book Clubs with more adults we are able to keep our group sizes smaller. We (the 3/4 team) would like to thank Murray, Stacy and Ginny for helping us out with Book Clubs during our Common Learning Time!

We aren’t quite done yet! We will spend the next 3 sessions to plan and create a mini maker project that we will share (during the last week before the holidays) with the other students in Grade 3/4. Don’t worry…we will have videos and photos to share via Seesaw!

-We’ve been working on doing the traditional algorithm for addition and subtraction! The students are actually quite excited to pull our their mini whiteboards and get practicing! We will have some practice books to start this upcoming weeks and make sure we fully understand the concept of regrouping! When students have a deep understanding of place value it really helps with the algorithm. It is also so important to know the basic facts . When students know their facts it takes a lot of the thinking time out of doing the math problems. If your child is still working on recall for fact fluency I suggest doing some flashcards for a few minutes a day to help build their skills and confidence!

-We’ve been working on Mental Math quite a bit at school. I have designed 3 different practice opportunities, each with a narrowed down focus on specific strategies. We have done this in October/early November and again at the end of November and the students are so pleased when they compare how they’ve done. We use a timer, but the timer increases in time instead of counting down. As the students finish they write down their time. They also write out the facts they need to practice and name the strategies that we’ve used on that particular task. Their goal is to increase their accuracy and decrease their time each “round”. This way they are not feeling like they are competing with each other. They want to make improvements in their own work. If they get the same amount of questions correct, but do it in a minute less time, then that is an improvement, etc.

-On Monday we will do some Math groups with 122. We have created 4 different groups which focus on something different, but each student is placed to target a specific goal. We will do this 6 times until Winter Break and see how it worked out!

-On Thursday I sent you all a Seesaw message about “costumes” for the Winter Concert. Thanks to those who replied back to let me know you received the message. This helps me to keep track of who I might need to communicate with in other ways to make sure that everyone is “in the know”! Reminder: Dark top (long sleeved preferred, but short will work), dark bottoms, shoes they can dance in and the rest of the outfit will be provided by the school. *Black is great, but anything dark will work *If we need to turn clothing inside out that is fine too

Students need to wear this on December 10 for dress rehearsal and December 12 for the 3 shows (10:00, 1:30, 7:00)

Ticket information was also sent out this week!

-We are about 70 pages into the second Fitzgerald-Trouts book! I wonder if we can finish before the holidays?!

-We’ve written persuasive letters about our ideas for a fundraiser for our Senior’s gift. Although the students might have forgotten all the “ins and outs” of writing a persuasive letter (which we will practice again soon!) it does seem like the majority of the group wants to watch a movie, eat popcorn, drink hot chocolate and wear PJs. The good news is…I can make that happen! On Friday, December 6th in the morning we will watch a movie and have all trimming stated above! Students may bring one stuffy as well. We are asking students to bring in a loonie or a toonie to cover the cost of Fanny’s gift (warm socks, hats, mitts scarf and cookies). If anyone wants to take care of the popcorn (pop it for us and bring it in) or have some hot chocolate they want to donate please let me know. If not, no worries. I am trying to remember that sometimes people want to help out these ways and I should offer 🙂

-Our trip to the library was really fun! It was nice to see so many students with library cards and also nice to be able to get new cards for a few students. This is the first time we’ve down this with out learning buddies! I love doing a variety of activities with our buddies. They really do look up to our students and it’s nice to make connections and create leadership opportunities.

-This week’s Ask Me question is…to spend some time outside and let us know what you’re up to AND to leave a comment on the photos I will post from our Assiniboine Forest field trip earlier in the month (sorry for the delay)

Until next time,
Danielle

Hello Everyone!

Here is a quick look at what we’ve been up to and what’s coming up for the next week!

-We are LOVING the Fitzgerald-Trouts and should be able to finish next week!!! I’m so glad that the students enjoy our read aloud time. In fact, many of the students say it’s one of their favourite things to do in class. It is also my favourite thing to do with the students! Sometimes we forget how much kids enjoy being read to once they are able to read on their own. Reading to the class offers an opportunity to model what good readers do, develop new vocabulary, create comprehension (understanding), make connections (text to text, text to self and text to world) and exposes the students to books that they may.not have chosen on their own. If you aren’t reading with your child at home…consider doing it! This will give you a chance to listen to your child read, give your child a chance to associate you as being a reader and you will make wonderful connections just like you did when they were young and listening to storybooks!

Once we finish the first Fitzgerald-Trouts I am confident that the students will want us to continue the series!

-Common Learning Times Round: Target #1 is complete and Target #2 has begun! After targeting patterns, representing numbers, equality, mental math, conventions, presentation, word choice and ideas….the students have shown growth in their math and writing skills. Our new target is on comprehension and really making connections between what we read and what we have experienced. Each student is in a Book Club! We have 10 Book Clubs in total and have 5 adults leading the groups. The students have met with their Book Clubs twice now and will continue to do so every Day 2,4,6 from 9:30-10:30 until the winter break. During our first session we really wanted to focus what a Book Club is and what each member’s responsibility is within the Book Club. Students have time at school to read and complete tasks, but if they are unable to complete the tasks within the time provided they will have to take the books home to read. One of the most important parts of being in a Book Club is to keep up with the reading so that when we meet and chat about what is happening then everyone is “on the same page”. No reading ahead and no falling behind. This will be a good opportunity for students to practice responsibility with making sure their book is where it needs to be as well (taking it home means bringing it back :))

-Our time with rocks and minerals is coming to an end! We celebrated by doing a “fossil hunt” on Friday with our friends in 122 and Erin. This was a great way to integrate what we’ve been learning about inside and taking it outside. Our learning space is so much more than just 4 walls of the classroom!

-Wednesday was World Kindness Day! We talked about what we could do at school and at home to add a little kindness to someone’s day. We also talked about how kindness should be spread each and everyday and not held to just one day a year 🙂

#SpeadKindnessLIkeConfetti

#It’sCoolToBeKind

-Room 123 students have decided to call the interesting words we use in speaking and writing “MAGICAL WORDS”!!! This is part of your Ask Me question for the weekend…what are some of your favourite “Magical Words”? These aren’t things like spells or manners, but words like saying meandered instead of walked or describing someone’s look as fierce to help paint a picture!

-Thank you soooooo much for your fundraising efforts! I’m very proud that we brought in the most pledge money and will get to play board games against the teachers! Hmmmm…on that say will I be a 123 member or a staff member?!? More details about a date for the games to come!

-Just a reminder that report cards and conference appointment times will be sent home on Monday. If you are unable to make the time that you had previously selected or were given, please give Jocelyn a call to reschedule. My Thursday evening is VERY full. I think I have 15 appointments with one 15 minute break to grab something to eat. Please arrive on time and keep our appointments to 15 minutes so we can keep on schedule. Thanks! *Also-reminder that this is a tri-conference, meaning that it is a conversation that includes student, parent(s) and teacher. Students will have a selection of a few pieces of work to show you so we’ve had to not post some things on Seesaw so they’d be a surprise!!

Have a wonderful weekend! Enjoy the mild weather and sunshine 🙂

Until next time,

Danielle

Hello Everyone!

We’ve had a super busy week and are preparing for another busy week to come! Read to see what we’ve been up to and what’s happening next week!

-Baby spider plants have been repotted in repurposed milk cartons and have been added with a pretty cute spider! I hope they all made in to their new homes safely!!

-We have completed 17 green screen projects to represent ourselves as Super Flex and 3 more are waiting to be green screened. We are waiting for the final few background illustrations to come in so we can finish the project. If you have not completed your green screen background please do so we can get the green screen set up again and finish up.

-We are in our final round of Common Learning Times for this cycle! We will finish up on Wednesday and then redo our initial diagnostic assessment. The following week we will begin book clubs with 122 & 126 during the same time slot on Days 2,4,6.

-We are working on Mental Math strategies and developing instant recall for basic addition and subtraction facts. Have flashcards at home? Check to see if your child is able to name these basic facts in three seconds or less!!

-We are also learning more about Canadian provinces & territories and their capital cities as well as where they are located on a map of Canada! The Ask Me Question for this weekend is to do some research on a province or territory (with the exception of Manitoba as we did that one together!). Check Seesaw for more details!

-Now that Hallowe’en is over we will be focussing on Remembrance Day and peace. The schools Remembrance Day assembly will take place on Friday, November 8. You are welcome to join us at 11:00 if you are able.

-Did you know that the carpets are getting taken out at school?! Room 123 is scheduled to have ours done on Wednesday and Thursday (Nov 6&7). We will be spending our time in the library and the MPR as well as in the great outdoors!!! *The 3/4 team is going to Assiniboine Forest on Wednesday, November 6 in the afternoon! We will leave shortly after 1:00 and return just before 3:30!! You will get a reminder early next week, but please know that students are asked to dress for the weather, bring a snack and a bottle of water. We are looking forward to our first Friuluftsliv forest exploration of the year!!!

Have a great weekend and don’t forget about the time change!!!

Until next time,

Danielle

Hello Everyone,

I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather while it lasts!

Yesterday was the Manitoba Teacher’s Society Professional Development Day (MTSPD Day). Each October all teachers in Manitoba are given the choice of PD they’d like to receive and learn from other educators, authors and public figures. Our grade 3/4 team chose to go to the Science Teachers Association of Manitoba (STAM) PD. Our day consisted of listening to our local meteorologist, John Sauder, speak about his job and also about climate change, doing a session with the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre, a session with Prairie Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and a session with the Science coach from Frontier School Division called Big Ideas with Superhero Science. It was a day full of learning and making plans for some of our upcoming Science themes.

What Happened Last Week At School?!

-We did two sessions of our third round of Common Learning Times. On Tuesday we will wrap up the final session of that round and then begin the final round on Thursday (yes we know it’s Hallowe’en!)

-We finished Bat and the End of Everything! That’s it for Bat…for now at least. We are unsure if the author is working on another book for the series, but we are moving onto our next series…the Fitzgerald Trouts!

*Please take a look at the Ask Me question this week as it is about our thoughts about the Bat books!

P.S.-I met an actual Saw Whet owl on Friday and had to share with your because of Bat’s school…Saw Whet School!!!

-We made and revealed our fossils! I hope you enjoyed the video reveals! The students are getting good at using our technology in the class as a way to community and share what we are doing at school!

-Wednesday was Global Take Me Outside Day and we sure did celebrate! It was chilly, but that didn’t stop us from spending about 2 hours outside together for our Outside-a-Thon! There is no bad weather, just poor clothing choices! Great job bringing in your pledges…we still have some time to get them in before the final tally 🙂

One of my favourite t-shirts! #GetOutside

-We read all about Super Flex and his experience with Rock Brain! We are just finishing up our backgrounds for a new green screen project….read all about it in the next section of this post!! The students are using the language we have learned from the Social Detective book and from Super Flex. We continue to refer to expected and unexpected behaviours throughout the day and also to some of the “Unthinkables” that come to visit. The project is going great so far and I  look forward to developing things further as we learn more about using the tools we need to be our own Super Flex hero!

-We have started our “Word Work” for spelling. Together as a class we created the document below. This will help us to be organized as we all have different spelling words. Once students have completed 4-6 tasks, and done a ‘pre-test’ with a friend, they can do their assessment with me. The next step will be to get 10 new words. The students might have these words ready to go because they had more than 10 errors from the First Hundred list, or they may need to move onto the Second Hundred words (which I will assess them on). Once we have learned the words they become part of our “No Excuse” words and should be spelled correctly in our everyday writing.

What To Expect This Week:

-New book orders will be going home this week!

-Monday we are doing a special Hallowe’en craft/project! A Montrosian grandmother from the community has gifted us spider plants to repot! Since they are called Spider Plants and since we have Ginny (the greatest crafter in the world!) we are making a spider craft to go with our plant! We will be using washed out milk cartons as our ‘pots’ as a  way to reuse materials. Hallowe’en is on a Day 6 and that is our busiest day of the school cycle, so we wanted to get this in early and not feel rushed on Thursday.

-On Monday we will also be starting our STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) time with Murray and one of the support teachers from the division. They will be working on coding with us! Our time slot is from 9:00-10:30 on Monday. We will have 3 sessions in total (once per cycle).

-We will be using the green screen to put ourselves in our Super Flex backgrounds! If your child brought home their background to finish, please send them back to school on Monday so we can begin the green screen process. On green screen days (Monday and possibly Tuesday if we can’t finish), students cannot wear green (or even blueish or yellowish green) clothing, or they will disappear in the photograph! Since Super Flex is really “US”, we are creating a background that has a Super Flex situation and then using the green screen to put “US” into the image! Some students have expressed an interest to bring in something to wear as part of their superhero persona (capes, etc.). That is fine with me (within reason-which we have talked about as a class), but am leaving the details up to you as a family.

-Hallowe’en Celebration…Students are invited to wear their Hallowe’en costumes in the AFTERNOON on the 31st. In the morning we have business as usual, except Mr. Strachan is turning the gym into….a haunted gym! After that the students have Performing Arts with Erin. In the afternoon the students have French at 1:00 and then we can do some celebrating in the class. We will have some treats that the kids are going to “mine”! Inside the treats there will be precious gems and the gems will be worth different values and they will have to determine how much value their treat has! This is connected to our Rocks and Minerals unit and also gives us a nice chance to have a treat together. For this celebration we are asking families to not send in extra treats as we will have our mining treat and some juice as a snack. We are not having a “party”, but infusing some activities throughout the day/week instead.

Have a really great weekend!

Until next time,

Danielle