Tag Archives: ask me

And then it was May!!

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Hi Everyone!!

Just like that we are headed into May! Wow!!

-I hope you all enjoyed the production of We Are Monsters last week!! So much goes on “behind the scenes” for these musicals to take place and all the hard work by students, staff and parent volunteers is greatly appreciated! Those catchy songs are still in my head!!

-Our 30 Day Outdoor Challenge is in full swing! This past week we: did our observation stations with 122 & 126 (twice), had Yoga with Murray, Phys.Ed with Mr. Strachan, writer’s notebook time, math and a scavenger hunt! I’m excited to see what this week will bring for us! Please remember to dress for the weather. We are going out rain or shine!

-The 30 Day Outdoor Challenge is the Ask Me question for this week too! Continue to track the time you spend outside before/after school. What kinds of things are you doing? How does committing to more time outdoors make you feel? Let me know by either posting a comment on Seesaw or writing a comment in the Home Reading folder

-We are looking forward to a more ‘normal’ week at school! Last week was full of interruptions and special events. This week we will go about business as usual!

-Reminder: The Grade 4 Book Club (Flora & Ulysses) will meet tomorrow at lunch in Room 123. We will provide a little treat for the group, however feel free to bring your own treat if you’d rather. Please be mindful of allergies when you pack your lunch as we have students with dairy, egg, nut, kiwi and fish allergies within our group

-May Book Orders have been sent home. Please have any orders you’d like to make sent in (to me or through the Scholastic website) by May 8

-On Friday we are having our first of 3 “We Belong” vertical group activities. An email was sent on about a special request for the May 4 meeting:

-There is no Day 2 this week so that means no Genius Hour. We will however be sharing our projects with our buddies on Thursday to help them get started on their own Genius Hour journey!

-Our 30 day pledges have been very well received! The WSD has been sharing our project which has helped the tweet I made to promote our project reach more than 1500 people! Great job guys!!

-Run Club starts on Tuesday, May 1!! If your child showed an interest in joining they were sent home with a note on Friday. Please sign and return that note ASAP. Need a note? Just ask! If you’re interested in joining us (walking, running, helping with supervision) please come out! Hope to see you at 8:10 Tuesday morning!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

AND…

#GoJetsGo

Option…wear white/jets gear on the above dates!

Until next time,

Danielle

Happy Earth Day!!

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Hello Everyone!

I’m so excited to be writing this as the sun is shining and the temperature is on its way to 18 degrees! It looks like a perfect day to celebrate Earth Day!

Here is a little recap of the past 2 weeks at school and a glimpse of what to expect this week. I needed a little blogging break last weekend. I had “Winnipeg Jets brain”!

-Our 30 day pledge posters and sign up sheets are on the bulletin boards and people have already started to sign up! The students did a great job creating their posters and we are very excited to make a difference within the Montrose community! The WSD twitter account saw a post I made to spread the word about our action plan and they were inspired by our efforts. They asked if they could post that information on their account!

Take a look! WSD Twitter “moment”

     

They also included a few photographs that Murray posted about our inquiry morning last week! Great job Room 123 and Montrose kids 🙂

-The Ask Me question has to do with the calendar that was sent home earlier last week. If you are in Grade 4  you will remember this from last year and if you are in Grade 3 you may have noticed us doing this last year…it is our 2nd Annual 30 Day Outdoor Challenge! The ‘school version’ begins on Monday and the ‘home version’ begins when you see fit! At school we will spend at least 30 minutes per day outside. We will play, read, explore, work, whatever we decide to do! At home you can use the calendar to track what you’ve been up to. If you wish to share photos please do! You can email me or send photographs through Seesaw or Instagram. Have fun 🙂

-The inquiry morning with 122, 126 and Murray was very interesting! We had a lot of objects put out for students to write down their wonderings and things that they noticed. We also had a book browse and a Maker challenge. This will kick off our next inquiry study about plants, soils and the connections to all living things 🙂

The Seesaw reflections that the students did really helped me see the direction they’d like to take the inquiry. Some of the common themes are bees, planting seeds, compost and hybrid fruit. I bet we can come up with some fun ways to learn about these exciting topics 🙂

-We finished The Wild Robot by Peter Brown! It took us 12 school days…that’s pretty amazing! I’m happy to report that the class really enjoyed the book, even those who didn’t like it at the beginning! It is a good reminder that sometimes  you need to keep reading. If you give up on a book too early you might just miss out on something that you could really enjoy! We are currently reading A Boy Called Bat by Elana Arnold. April is Autism Awareness month and we are reading this book to remind us about some of the things Lori shared with us about Autism. It is a great book and I look forward to continuing reading it this week!

-We are almost finished our Time for Times book and we have completed our Mental Math Dictionary. The students are working hard learning their multiplication facts and knowing that if they do not know a fact that they can skip count, start from a fact they do know, turn the fact around (3×9 can be thought of as 9×3 so you only have to double 9 and add one more group).

-We Are Monsters! It is the week of our school musical!! Tomorrow afternoon (Monday) is the dress rehearsal. Students are asked to dress and do their hair as outlined in the emails that have been sent by the costume committee. Jocelyn has also sent a reminder email on Friday! The performance times for Wednesday, April 25 are at 10:00, 1:30 and 7:00. Please wear your outfit and have your hair done on this day too. I have a parent volunteer to help me with make up on Wednesday morning. I’d love a second set of hands if anyone is able to join us. The stage is nearly set and looks great! I cannot wait for the show! Still need tickets? I’m pretty sure the evening show is sold out, but there are tickets available for the morning and afternoon performances 🙂

That’s it for now. I hope you enjoy your Earth Day. I’m headed to the park with Hudson and later I’m going to a special Earth Day Yoga class. I look forward to hearing  how you celebrated!

Until next time,

Danielle

#GoJetsGo

April Snow…Just Has To Go!!

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Hi Everyone!

I’ve heard that April showers bring May flowers, but this April snow just has to go!! Anyone else think we’d have more signs of Spring by now? I had this nice picture in my mind that I’d go away for Spring Break and come back to puddles instead of snow hills. Oh well…it’ll happen when it happens I guess.

I enjoyed hearing about everyone’s breaks. Whether you went away or relaxed I’m sure it felt great to take a bit of a break. Now that we are back it seems impossible to think that there are less than 3 months before summer break begins. We have so much to learn and discover until then and we aren’t wasting any time!!

Here is a recap of last week!

-We started a new book called The Wild Robot (by Peter Brown)

We have mixed reviews about the book so far (we are about 100 pages in). Some kids are really enjoying it, some are waiting to get “hooked”, some have expressed that it isn’t their favourite. I’m so glad that kids are comfortable enough to share their true feelings. I am not offended nor do I take it personally if kids don’t love the books I choose to read to them. I’d love for every kid to fall in love with every book I read and recommend, BUT it just isn’t realistic. I do put a lot of thought into what I choose to read and the kids totally understand why I chose this one. Have them share what’s happening so far!!

-The grade 4 Book Club is in full swing. If you are having difficulty finding a copy of


please let me know and I’ll see what I can to do help. I think I’ve had a chance to reach out to all the kids from 123, but I know students from other classes were having some trouble finding a copy. We have 21 kids on our book club list! This is more than expected…so there is a bit of a book shortage in the city! Reminder: we meet once, on April 30, at lunch, to meet/eat and discuss the book!!

-Book Clubs with 122 and 126: This is part of the Ask Me question for this week (posted on Seesaw). We have 73 students split into 12 groups that are led by 6 adults! The students seem to be excited about doing these book clubs and let me tell you…I am too! We meet for an hour on Days 1 and 3, then can use a half hour on Day 5s as a work/‘ketchup’ time. Ask your child about the book they are reading, who is in their group and who their book club leader is, etc. We will meet until the end of May and this will replace our WTW sessions. Therefore there won’t be spelling words coming home on a regular basis anymore. We will be doing spelling in other formats for the rest of the year.

-Multiplication Fun: We’ve been having some fun with multiplication this week. Some of the work we’ve been doing includes crack the code puzzles, games and creating our own “colour by number” sheets (multiplication version). It’s a fun way to learn basic facts and students can work on facts at different paces and challenge themselves as they are ready. 2 digit multiplication will be next for those students who are ready. (Below is an example of the type of puzzle we’ve been doing, but is different from the actual puzzles we’ve been solving. It is one that I found online  from https://www.math-salamanders.com/).

-Earth Day Inquiry: I shop a clothing line called 10 Tree (Disclaimer: this is by no means an endorsement for 10 Tree) and was sent an email about an Earth Day initiative. The email was a really neat idea that I wanted to share with the kids. Turns out they liked it too. I’d like to share it with you as well because it serves as the inspiration for our next inquiry project. We are in the planning stage but hope to have our newest (interactive) bulletin board up and running soon!! We plan on using the following ideas (AND 8 more of our own) to inspire our school community to make a pledge and make a change for 30 days! We have been talking a lot about changes we’d like to see and how we also need businesses to make initiatives to help people to become more aware. #BeTheChangeYouWishToSeeInTheWorld

Ten Tree Pledge

-The Twitter!: I had many things to share via Twitter with the kids. We had a great time scrolling through my “likes” and seeing what happened around the Twitter world while we were on Spring Break!

-Book order was sent in on Friday and should arrive next week

What’s Coming Up Next!

-I am away on Monday morning for PD (but will still be in the building). We have a substitute who is new to the school and I expect to hear lovely things from her upon my return. Please show her a warm Montrose welcome 🙂 #BAM

-Swimming lessons for Grade 4s start on Wednesday. The kids are divided into two groups. Half of our class is going with 122 in the first session and the other half is going with 123 in the second session. The first group will eat lunch a per usual and the second group will eat lunch when they return. Please send your child to school with everything they will need for the pool. As for the grade 3s…we will think of something fun to do 😉

-We will try again with Genius Hour this week (also on Wednesday). Last week we had some challenges with remembering how to be active listeners and how to demonstrate expected behaviours. I look forward to seeing a positive change this week 😊

-Book Clubs will happen on Tuesday and Thursday morning (9:30-10:30)

 

-In the next few months we have a LOT of birthdays coming up. I’d just like to remind families of allergies that we have in the class and in the school. Please be mindful of kids with allergies as you decide if you’d like to bring in a treat to celebrate a birthday. We want all students to be able to take part in all class activities and student safety is our top priority. Bringing a birthday treat is not mandatory and many students do not bring in anything at all, so please do not feel like you have to send something in. We’ve also been talking a lot about products that have extra (wasteful) packaging and therefore we are encouraging families to consider this before providing a snack. We are challenging families to send in snacks that contribute as little waste as possible (which also relates to snacks with the most Heath benefits…fruit, vegetables, etc.). Thanks for your cooperation!

-Whiteout!!! Let’s support our Winnipeg Jets and wear white during the playoffs! Whether you are a hockey fan or not, you might feel yourself getting into the spirit that the community the Jets brings to our city. #GoJetsGo

Have a great rest of your weekend!

Until next time,

Danielle

Spring Break!!

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Well…we’ve made it to Spring Break!!!

I hope you all have an excellent break. I know some of you are going on vacation and others are staying close to home. Whatever your plans are…please enjoy them to the fullest! I’m looking forward to visiting with my family for a few days while I bring my fur baby to my mom’s. After that I’m headed to Toronto to visit a friend and catch a few Blue Jays games AND was lucky enough to get tickets to see the Jets play the Leafs. We will meet up on April 2nd and share stories 😉

Spirit Week was a pretty big success this week at Montrose! I think my favourite part was seeing everyone dressed up on Tuesday for the Masquerade Ball! Although I do love that we had some “Fancy” PJs today (since our kids usually do Fancy Friday and didn’t want to change their tradition)! What are your favourite Spirit Week moments?!

We finished Magic Misfits this week! We talked about doing the sequel (Magic Misfits 2) for our summer book club, but unfortunately I found out that it isn’t released until September 25th. I’ll find another book for us to read over the summer! Speaking of book clubs…you were sent an email invitation for Grade 4 students to join a book club with Mrs Ko Heinrichs and myself. If you are interested in joining please let me know. We are reading Flora and Ulysses by Kate Di Camillo.

You can start reading anytime and we are meeting to discuss on April 30. Sorry Grade 3s. We can only take one grade at a time. Maybe next time 🙂 Our next read  aloud selection is called…The Wild Robot

I hope you enjoyed some of the Seesaw posts this week. I LOVED the post about what makes you happy that the kids did on International Day of Happiness. My goal is to do more posts like that where it is a selfie video reflection. They are really powerful messages. The environmental maker we did with 122 was also really fun. The inventions were well thought out and so much fun to see come to life! I showed the following videos to the kids (and posted one on Seesaw for you to see). They were excellent conversation starters and helped serve as inspiration for some of our inventions!

https://twitter.com/amazlngnature/status/974595678058856448?s=21

https://twitter.com/bbc/status/974978692177911809?s=21

When we make positive changes to the environment…we make life better for everyone (including plants and animals)!

Looking to make a change over Spring Break? You might want to take part in Earth Hour!

Also…please remember to make choices that impact the environment in a positive way when you are on vacation. I think sometimes we forget the routines we have in place at home and do things that we wouldn’t normally do just because it’s “easier”. What can you do? Say no thank you to straws, bring and use reusable water bottles and coffee cups, reuse towels in the hotel, recycle, etc. Be mindful of other people’s communities. Take care of them like you would your own 🙂

That’s it for this week! Enjoy the break. Don’t forget to do  the Ask Me question…read, play outside and make sustainable choices!

Until next time,

Danielle

#GoJetsGo

#LetsGoBlueJays

Feeling Lucky 🍀

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Top of the Morning To You & Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I want to start off by thanking you all for coming to our “Celebration of Learning” and our annual Student Led Conferences! It was great to see so many families interacting and sharing a love of learning. The kids are always so happy to show their parents, siblings and grandparents where we work, what we create and the work they are proud of. I was so excited to hear parents describe their children with words like: artist, innovator, creative, problem solver, persistent, kind, caring, full of potential, etc. I’d describe the kids in this class with those same words 🙂 I’ve watched all the video reflections and made a comment for each of you! I also want to thank you for taking the time to create the Seesaw reflection. It will be a great memory in your child’s digital portfolio.

This weekend we will NOT do a formal Ask Me question. Enjoy the weekend reading a good book and get outside to enjoy this beautiful sunshine! That’s my plan anyway!!

What’s up for next week?!

It is Spirit Week! Please check the calendar that was sent home with the students (on Thursday) and/or your email for details on the events of the week!

-Monday is School Spirit Day

-Tuesday is Fancy Tuesday

-Wednesday is Role Model Day

-Thursday is Crazy Hat/Hair Day

-Friday is PJ Day

-On Monday we will teach our buddies from 124 about how to code the Spheros. Since the time we are able to work with 124 is during our regularly scheduled Genius Hour time, we will make adjustments in our schedule to accommodate that (it won’t be cancelled…just moved to another time, probably 1:00-2:15 and we will pause for French).

-We will be makers this week! Our plan is to use what we’ve learned about animals/habitats/human impact, etc. to create art, models, green screen and incorporate other ideas that the students have to demonstrate our learning through the 4Cs! It should be a super fun week

-We will finish up our WTW study and make some changes for term 3. Stay tuned for more details on that!

I’m looking forward to seeing what the kids will create this week. As always we will post to Seesaw and Instagram so you won’t miss out on any of the fun!

Reminder for Grade 4 Students: please return the permission slip for the swimming program on Monday if you haven’t already done so. Thanks!

Have a great weekend!

 

Until next time,

Danielle

March Madness!

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Hi Everyone!

Happy weekend! Today I am going to share a quick overview of our week and give you some details about next week at school! Next week might feel a little like “March Madness” as we prepare for Student LED Conferences BUT we will have lots of great learning to share with you come Thursday and Friday…we promise not to disappoint!

Recap!

-Our Literacy Circles with Room 122 have come to an end. We had a lot of fun learning about different ecosystems and are ready to share what we know with each other and with members of the school community. Each group has made a poster that will be put up just before conferences! The art piece that the students have created are very neat as well…but you’ll have to wait to see those too!

-We are still reading The Magic Misfits and will finish by Spring Break for sure!

-March is Nutrition Month! I know that many of the kids enjoyed tracking what they ate last weekend. Feel free to continue this activity. I can print off more copies of the tracking sheet for those students who are interested! During these lessons about nutrition we need to remember that it is our goal to educate and to make positive changes in our health, but not to shame or judge others for what they are eating.

-Multiplication is going well…I woke up singing the ‘Multiplication Mash Up’ the other morning!! On Friday we used games, flashcards, decks of cards, whiteboards and manipulatives to practice basic facts. The kids chose a partner and worked on addition, subtraction or multiplication to try and develop recall for facts. They had a choice of partner and activity. Some kids even invented their own games. I always like math sessions like this because the kids learn so much from each other as well as put their math skills into practice. Next week we will use LEGO as a manipulative and see what the class can come up with! Hint: Think arrays!

-We are always trying to use proper mathematical language so I post a changing “Math Word Wall” to help remind students of the proper terminology. Our newest terms are factor and product. Check with your child to see if they can tell you what that means!

-We have finished talking about contributions from Canada’s North (for now at least). It was fun to see what kinds of things we have or use today that originated from Indigenous cultures!

-The book order has been submitted and the books should arrive sometime next week!

-The Ask Me question this weekend is about writing about what you have read this weekend (in the Home Reading folder). I’m always so interested to see what the students are reading at home. From the Home Reading folders I can help make suggestions of reading material based on interests of the kids (to help other students choose books to read). Reading a series is great. It’s also great to take a break and read books that are not challenging. We do however, need to strike a balance of what we read and learn to love a variety of reading material.

We didn’t make our goal of keeping reading logs up to date in February and March isn’t looking much better. There are students who are always logging and I appreciate that so much! For some other students when I don’t see anything written it makes me wonder if you’re reading at all. It’s so important to develop regular reading habits, despite how busy we are with activities and special events. Fostering a love of reading now can last forever 🙂

I found this Tweet from the National Council of the Teachers of English and thought that it was fitting to share. I really encourage families to have a Read Aloud time with stories as we all as chapter books. It’s such a great way to develop literacy skills!

-Our animal research is complete!! We will take the notes we’ve made from doing research and organize them into sentences and paragraphs in our own words. We will also give credit to where the information came from. These informational writing pieces should be ready for you to read at conferences!

Next week!

Speaking of conferences…I have a checklist for each student to keep track of things that need to be ready to share with parents. This will help to keep each student organized as we continue to work on time management and accountability. Also-since we will be seeing you soon there might be a lull in Seesaw posts (to make sure some of our learning is something we haven’t shared with you yet). As always…thank you for your Seesaw comments. We really love the “likes” and hearing what you have to say about our learning. Guess what?! You will have a Seesaw task to do with your child at conferences! It’s a reflection piece! We are going to post some “talking points” for you to think about before conferences begin and then families will create and post a video to Seesaw during the conference that will become part of the students’ online portfolios!!

-We are borrowing some new technology from the WSD! On Monday we are getting Spheros…which are like “coding balls”. Our goal is to learn to use them and create a game that families can play together during conferences!

-We will continue to use Twitter as a way to learn more about animals, their habitats, adaptations for survival and the impact humans have on the environment. There are so many great examples on Twitter about the things we are learning about. The kids LOVE looking through what I’ve “liked”. I was against Twitter a few years ago. I guess it’s because I didn’t understand it or how it could benefit me as a teacher. I’m so glad that I developed an open mindset! There is junk to sift through of course, but the conversations based on the ‘good tweets’ we’ve had and the questions that have come up are so valuable. When I find something “cool” or “unusual” or “surprising” I actually can’t wait to share it with the class!!

-WTW Test Update: All students from Ms Solomon’s groups and Helen’s group have a test on Monday. Students were all reminded (more than once) to transfer their words over to their Home Reading folders. I hope you were all showing great responsibility and are ready for Monday!

Enjoy your weekend! Have fun reading!! I’m headed out to pick up a new book that might just become our next Read Aloud choice!! (Any guesses on what it might be about?!)

P.S.- Report cards go home on Monday. You will also receive your conference time. It is written on the pink sheet that you wrote your preferred time on. Only one copy of the pink sheet is sent home, so if it isn’t with your child’s report card then it has been sent home with a sibling!

-Time change is happening this weekend…don’t forget to  “Spring” your clocks forward an hour!

Until next time,

Danielle

Oh Deer!

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Hi!

I just had to share my view from my dining room window… (as well as get my Cherry WTW group to think about homophones!)

I ended up with 7 of them in the yard! It’s a nice view and reminds me of how serene it is out here BUT at the same tone I need to remember that too many deer can mean the addition of a scary predator! About two weeks ago a coyote ran through the yard! That was the first time a coyote has been in the yard (that I know of)…and hopefully the last! Studying animals and their habitats has me thinking about things differently. There is a reason that coyote was in the yard. Does it have something to do with a high deer population so close to the city, are they becoming less afraid of human activity, has there been a habitat loss and the coyotes are on the move?! I’m always on the search for tweets, photographs, cool facts, news stories, connections, human impact stories to share with the class. It is my hope that these types of conversations are happening in your home  as well 🙂

Here is a recap of last week at school…

-We spent an hour each day working in our Literacy Circle/Ecosystem groups with 122. Ask your child what’s he or she is studying and what they have learned so far! We will spend the next week finishing the book as well as the independent projects that go along with it. We have a fun art activity planned once we finish learning about the ecosystems!

-We still have about 7 more Green Screen projects to record and post. Thanks for your patience. We WILL get them all finished!

-We made it outside twice this week for gym class! It has been so beautiful and I love it so I’m crossing my fingers this forecast of a storm is incorrect…or perhaps it will miss us!

-We watched some videos and discussed multiplication and why we would make the change from addition to multiplication. Don’t worry if this is new for you. We will be doing lots of practice! I recommend listening to the Multiplication Mash Up that I posted to Seesaw the other day!

-We talked about Canada’s North in relation to art, culture, language, animals, climate, food, population, the creation of Nunavut and more! I love that we understand that people live in the North (despite the cold, the high cost of groceries, long and dark winters, the distance to large cities, etc.) because of culture and language. The culture of Canada’s North is unique, interesting and important. These are things that make people feel at home. It is important to pass on stories and traditions to keep culture alive. I have yet to travel anywhere in Northern Canada… but one day I will get there!

-Wednesday was Pink Shirt Day (Manitoba participates in two Pink Shirt campaigns each year). Kindness Matters. You Matter. We ALL Matter!

 

-We’ve had two Genius Hour presentations and they were both great! It sounds like more students are ready to present on Friday (our next Day 2)

We were treated to some amazing movies!!!

A working clock!!! How “time-ly” since we’ve been working on telling time!!

-MTYP performed The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe at Montrose! It’s so incredible that they can perform such detailed plays with only a few props, costumes and actors. Job well done MTYP!

The Library has new furniture! As our Library transitions to a Centre for Inquiry and Innovation you will begin to notice some changes! The new furniture arrived on Thursday and needs to last a long time. We talked about what we need to do as a school to care for this new equipment and use it as it is intended to be used!

-Ask me this weekend is to do another food log. This time we will try and follow the guidelines set out by Canada’s Food Guide. Choose one day (Saturday or Sunday) and eat well! Afterward, write a response in your Home Reading folder about this experience. I look forward to eating well and comparing the experience with everyone on Monday!

Link to Health Canada

What’s coming up next week?

-More Literacy Circles with 122 (all week, an hour a day)

-Yoga and Library on Monday!

-Thursday, March 8 is International Women’s Day. Something we will chat about 🙂

-Book orders are due this week

-Friday is Genius Hour (come prepared to work on your project)

-We will also start to prepare for Student Led Conferences…no hints quite yet 😉

-If the weather cooperates we will continue to go outside for gym on Days 2 and 6 (if not more!)

One last thing I wanted to share with you…

I came across these stats online (Jane Baird’s Twitter account @janebaird123) and wanted to talk to the kids about it.

I read to the kids daily (unless there is a conflict in schedule) and as I’ve said before…it is my FAVOURITE time with them. I can read books that are more challenging because we take the time to learn new vocabulary, to explain concepts, to make connections, etc. I get to model accuracy, how to self correct, fluency and expression. We have discussions that demonstrate comprehension. The kids learn from each other’s predictions, questions and wonderings. I let the kids relax. They don’t have to sit if they don’t want to. I want them to be comfortable, it’s how I like to be when I read. If you aren’t reading to your kids, I suggest you give it a try. They aren’t too old. They love it! They want you to read to them (I asked and there were many hands up!). Take turns reading or model reading like we do in school. Read a favourite you had as a child or find a new favourite together. There are so many impacts from reading (writing, vocabulary, spelling to name a few). If you aren’t already doing so…make time for daily reading 🙂

Have a great weekend and GoJetsGo!

Until next time,

Danielle

 

 

Jam Packed “Half Week”!

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Hello Everybody!

I’ve decided that this week was more like a half week! Let me explain that! No school on Monday, half the class absent on Tuesday and Wednesday, Winter Fun Day all afternoon on Thursday and a pretty regular Friday! I think if you add that up it left us with a “half week”! Don’t get me wrong…that time we had together was very well spent!

Let’s Recap!

-Green screen projects are about 2/3s completed and we’ve posted the finished projects on Seesaw. I love the parent comments!! If your child doesn’t have a video posted yet, it is likely because he or she was absent at some point of the week or we simply ran out of time. Don’t worry…more are coming! Thanks to the students who have taken on this leadership role. Your enthusiasm is greatly appreciated!

-Research projects on our animal/habitats is going really well. I think we could use one more day of research and then can start writing about our animals and where they live!

-We have found some really great tweets about animals, habitats, adaptations, human impact (positive and negative) and natural disasters. It’s my hope that your child shares some of this information with you at home!

-WTW was a bust this week! We cancelled on Tuesday since 25/73 students were missing (and a teacher and an EA!) and on Thursday it was Winter Fun Day. Tests will happen on Monday…for sure! Please review the words since it has been awhile!

-Grade 3s started their Mental Math Dictionaries. Ask your child what it means to “Use 10 as a Referent when Estimating”

-We are making progress with telling time! Please continue to practice at home. Ask your child what time it is and how many minutes until the next hour. It will help them build confidence with telling time and it only takes a few seconds!

-It was Support Staff Appreciation Day at Montrose! We are so fortunate to have an amazing team of clerks, EAs and custodians. Room 123 kids each made a personalized card for each of the support staff to thank them for their hard work. A kind word can go such a long way 🙂

-We had a lot of fun learning how to read nutrition labels. The kids are learning what those labels mean and I wouldn’t be surprised if they start looking at everything in your cupboard or tell you when something is healthy/unhealthy! They may even want to measure their portions out! Please let it happen if you can 🙂 I’ve compiled what we learned and what we brainstormed with Anna a few weeks ago and put it up as the beginning of a new bulletin board!

-This is a nice lead in for the Ask Me question (as also posted on Seesaw). This week’s question asks students to keep a food journal (either Saturday or Sunday). Write down all food that is eaten for the day and record it in the Home Reading folder. Don’t “fake it” and just eat super healthy to impress the teacher 😉 Be honest! We are going to do an activity with this information next week!

-Thanks to everyone who helped create our Olympic themed bulletin board AND to everyone who stopped by to take a look. This has been one of our most successful boards to date! I noticed so many students, staff and parents check it out and talk to each other about Canada’s performance at the Olympics!

Let’s see how many more medals we can get this weekend! Let’s shatter our previous record count!

Some things we’ve learned through the 2018 Olympics:

-How Canada is viewed by other countries

-How the media plays a role in how we receive and interpret information

-How much Math there is in sports! Some of us got very good at reading and understanding decimals as we watched replays of bobsledding, skiing, figure skating, etc.

#GoCanadaGo

Here is the plan for next week…

-Helen and I have planned another round of literature circles for the students. It will run similar to what we did with Rocks and Minerals, but this time it will be about habitats/ecosystems. We will have mixed groups with 122. When you aren’t working with your adult (Helen, Ginny or myself) you will be doing some fun activities with your group members (including “What if you had…animal” art, food chains and ecosystem posters). This will run from Monday to Friday!

-We couldn’t read Magic Misfits with so many of our friends missing…so if you were away don’t worry…you haven’t missed any of the book! We will pick up where we left off next week!

-We will continue our healthy lifestyle inquiry next week as well. I wonder see where it’ll lead us?! One thing for sure is we have discovered a great math connection (that was very evident when looking at portion size). Reading the labels has helped us with fractions, decimals, repeated addition, multiplication, division and percentages! I love making math connections to our everyday lives 🙂

– We will look at some more Inuit culture and language next week and look at this resource I found on Twitter. We will also look more closely at the map of Canada and what is considered Canada’s North.

Inuktut Language Month

-Genius Hour will take place next Thursday (March 1st). Please be prepared to work on your project.

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the beautiful weather (that has been forecasted anyway)…and #GoJetsGo!

Until next time,

Danielle

Louis Riel Weekend!!

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Hi Everyone!

I’m not sure about you…but after such a busy week I’m super excited it’s the long weekend! I hope you all have a chance to relax and spend some time outdoors. That’s my plan anyway!!! Oh…and read. I just started a new book and I’d love to finish it this weekend!!!

Here is a recap of our busiest week yet!!

-Genius Hour is still going strong. Some students are almost ready to present their first project! As students finish their projects they will share and start a new inquiry! The next Genius Hour work period will be on Wednesday. Please come prepared to work!!

-The Circle of Life performance was truly amazing. I hope that those of you were able to attend enjoyed it as much as we did. Seeing things come together was such a neat experience. Now I know what 1000 kids on stage looks like! Thanks to Ms V for all her hard work. She did an awesome job teaching us 17 songs with coordinating actions. That is quite a feat!!! I’m also pleased to report that your children were fantastic Montrose ambassadors. They did everything we asked of them and more! Great job remembering to arrive early, wear the black shirts, hair up and pack a lunch!!!! #BAM

-We had a fun, yet relaxed Valentine’s Day! The students came up with so me pretty fun valentine holders and showcased the 4Cs as they created and executed their plans! We made kindness cards for each other, exchanged cards and had a few treats. I opted out of giving traditional cards and put up a picture of a heart I found in nature and wondered what the reaction would be…to my surprise the class told me I brought enough joy to them and they didn’t need a card. How sweet! I’ll take it 😉 !!! A few students chose to make their own homemade cards and some wrote their name in handwriting. Good job everyone!

-Winter Fun Day was postponed again. The weather hasn’t been kind to us 🙁  I’ve heard it might be this upcoming Thursday and will confirm that later on this week.

-Art with 122: The art looks amazing. Anyone who has missed or not completed a task will have a “make up day” sometime very soon!

-The green screen project with Murray is…what should we say…a work in progress! We have 3 videos completed BUT we have a few students who know how to create these mini movies (which contain the love letters to our favourite food) and they will work with all the other students to finish those up next week! These will be posted to Seesaw…you are in for quite a treat!

-We are about 70 pages into the Magic Misfits. The kids seem to like it so far and we hope to read more next week!

-The Ask Me question is posted on Seesaw. I’ve attached the blog link again so you can access this easily and get some ideas. Basically the kids and I thought that after a busy week it was fitting to write our Top 3 Things About the Week! Please write the responses in the Home Reading folder!! Speaking of which…no luck in bringing the Home Reading folders more regularly in February 🙁 Sometimes I don’t see folders for weeks and weeks. I like to know what the kids are reading at home so I can make suggestions for reading material, have them make reading suggestions to other kids, see if regular reading is happening and the folder is a great tool for taking notes back and forth between home and school. It’s a communication tool that helps keep things organized. Let’s put forth a better effort in using our folders for these purposes. Also, if you haven’t  updated your monthly reading graphs please do so. It’s much, much, much easier to record the monthly reading IF we are current with the daily recording. Please remember that the students are more than capable of recording their own data and being responsible for bringing the folders daily.

What’s Up for Next Week?!

-No school on Monday (Happy Louis Riel Day)!!

-Tuesday: Students in Helen and Ms Solomon’s WTW groups have spelling tests. They were asked to transfer their words this week and in case they have forgotten I have attached the word lists to Seesaw. The cherry group has a test on Thursday (unless there is Winter Fun Day) and the word lois has also been sent via Seesaw. The actual list and instructions of how the test will be done will be sent home Tuesday.

-Math: Some students have brought home some subtraction work to complete or correct. Grade 4s are to do any 15 questions per page of the subtraction and Grade 3s are asked to do 8 questions per page! Please have the books ready to hand in on Tuesday!!

-Time! We talked about what we know about time and here is what we came up with…

Some students are able to tell time easily and some cannot yet read the clock. Check in with your child this weekend to see what your child knows about time! It seemed like a good “time” to bring my this up since the Olympics are on and we need to know what time it in in Korea!!

Here are a few flashcards and a new magnetic clock we have at school to help learn how to tell time (not to be confused with ‘times’ which is actually known as multiplication;)

-The grade 3s will start working in their Mental Math Dictionaries and start to do multiplication this week. So far we know that multiplication is repeated addition. It is easier to learn how to think of numbers in groups than it is to skip count. It is also time saving AND sometimes in math we look for shortcuts and get to be “lazy”! Choosing to multiply instead of skip counting and doing repeated addition is one of those opportunities!! Being able to skip count by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s will be very helpful for now. Need some practice at that? Spend a few minutes each day skip counting on paper or orally!

-The grade 4s will continue to work in their Mental Math Dictionaries with Helen. They will also review subtraction and work through some reminders for multiplication before they jump into some new concepts.

-For health we are ready to talk about the food groups and learn to read nutritional labels. Please send in any labels you can so we have an assortment to choose from. We will talk about calories, vitamins, serving size, etc. We will also talk about what kind of nutrition athletes need in order to train and compete!

-On Tuesday we will have some time in the lab to do some research for our animal/habitat projects. IF you have your recording sheet at home please bring it back to school. Throughout the week we’ve seen some cool tweets about animals and the impact humans have on their life. I’m attaching a link that Helen found that has some good information on many different animals! Feel free to check it out!

http://www.arkive.org/

That’s it for now!!! Have an excellent weekend!

#GoJetsGo

Until next time,

Danielle

 

Be Prepared (aka Track 7)!!

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Hi!

The theme of this week’s blog post is to be prepared (which is also track #7 on the Circle of Life song list 🙂 ). Next week is a busy week and I just want us to all be in the loop! Reading this week’s blog IS the Ask Me question for the weekend. No other action is required (which was well received by the kiddos!).

So…here we go!

Monday: Day 2

-Today is a pretty normal day! It is Genius Hour from 2:30-3:30! Please be prepared to work on your project and check in with me to talk about what your next steps are. That way I can update any information that I need to about projects, offer suggestions if students need that and also get materials that we might be lacking in the room

-We are also sending home the shirt that students need to wear for the WSD production of the Circle of Life. It is super important that ALL students wear this shirt to school on Tuesday (for more information on the Circle of Life read the “Tuesday” section of this post 😉

Tuesday: Day 3

-Students must arrive to school at 8:40 because we are being picked up for the Concert Hall at 9:00

-What to wear: dark bottoms, black Circle of Life/Wildebeest shirt (provided by the school and sent home on Monday), dark shoes. *Girls are asked to wear their hair in a high ponytail so we can see the back of the shirt during the “Stampede” song. Please use some sort of hair product that helps keep the hair up all day

-Students will be at the Concert Hall all day and will return to Montrose to be dismissed at 3:30 as per usual

-Please send a lunch that your child can easily eat while at the Concert Hall. There is NO access to a microwave nor will there be extra cutlery, etc. Students all need to bring a refillable water container as well. (*Students will bring their backpacks with them to hold lunch bags *Litterless lunches are best)

-There are NO tickets available for the dress rehearsal and afternoon performance. The audience will consist of students from schools around the division

-There are NO extra tickets for the evening performance. Each student has been given 2 tickets to be used as you choose, but everyone in the audience needs their own ticket (no holding small children in your lap, etc.). It is rush seating (doors open at 6:30). Please refer to the map you received in your info packet when dropping your child off at 6:15. It is a stop, drop and go zone! Teacher volunteers (like myself) will be wearing orange shirts and will guide the students into the building and to where they need to be. Outfits are the same as the earlier shows

-The kids have been practicing for months and are ready for the show! I can’t wait to see how it has all come together 🙂

Wednesday: Happy Valentine’s Day! (Day 4)

 

-We are going to be tired today! The plan is to keep the day pretty low key!

-We will do a mini maker activity in the morning where students can create their own Valentine card holder. Please bring your own supplies (including a box if you need one) to make the holder. We have the “standard” supplies like glue, tape, paper, markers, etc. But we do NOT have any boxes collected or special Valentine themed decorations. I’d like students to work from a plan, so at some point between now and Wednesday please create a plan. I know I said you don’t have to write anything for the Ask Me question, but it’s an option to sketch there if you’d like. There may be some time on Monday to plan, but if you want to get that done this weekend I think that would be a great idea! CARDHOLDER “MUST HAVES” 1) an opening for cards 2) your name that is easily noticed

-Yoga and Music are happening as per usual

-We will also each make a “kindness card” for someone in the class (like we did in December). It makes us feel so good to be kind!!! On Monday each student will choose a random name and make a card for that person which they will give on Wednesday

-We’ve talked about using random supplies and making cards or using all the random leftover cards from throughout the years as valentine cards this year. This is NOT a requirement, but an alternative to purchasing new cards. It’s up to you! I’m just always up for promoting ways of reducing and reusing!

-We’ve also talked about making sure we know all the kids names in our class. All students have assured me that they a) still have the name sheet a student sent home to each student with their name in Hawaiian or b) can remember each student and will not forget that we have 25 students in the class. 3 students are going to be absent but I’m sure they’d love a card when they return!

-I’ve suggested that students sign their name in handwriting/cursive if they are able to. We’ve started to do some handwriting in class and doing a signature 24+ times is great practice! This is NOT mandatory…just a suggestion

-Some students have asked if they HAVE to hand out cards. The answer is no, but if you decide to hand out cards then you must to ALL students

-We will hand out cards in the afternoon and watch some Planet Earth videos to see what we can learn about animals and their habitats!

-Treats…we are keeping things really simple, so if you’d like to bring something please let it be healthy and easy. I’d appreciate knowing if you are planning on sending a snack so I can see what is coming in. Thanks in advance!

-We are also going to be doing some writing about our favourite foods THEN using that for something fun with that with Murray on Friday. Start thinking about your favourite food AND how you could describe it in a way to make someone else want to eat it!!!

Thursday: Day 5

-Art with 122 in the morning (FYI: Grade 4s will be painting)

-Winter Fun Day in the afternoon (as far as I know and will confirm this later on next week)

Friday: Day 6

-Phew…at this point we might be exhausted! Today will be pretty “normal” except our surprise fun activity with Murray 😉 Then you’ll get a long weekend to recover!

Other FYIs:

-No WTW tests this week since we actually won’t be even meeting in our WTW groups! Tests will take place the following week

-Some students have chosen to bring their animal/habitat inquiry projects home to work on. This is okay with me, but please bring in the information recording booklet on Monday. I am asking students to write point form notes that we will use to write an informational piece after we complete our research. I am also asking that they write down the name of the websites they are using so we know who to give credit to. Today was our first research day! There was a buzz of excitement in the air for sure. One thing to note is that if a student chose an animal like “bear”, they need to decide what kind of “bear” they are going to research because there are many types of “bears” and they have different types of habitats. I tried to check in with everyone, but if you notice that your child’s topic is not specific, please continue that conversation at home 🙂

-The February book order has been sent in and should arrive next week!

-Olympic themed bulletin board!

It’s a blank canvas! Students have volunteered to do some work on the bulletin board from home! The vision so far is…the sport symbols in Olympic colours, the mascots, the rings, a podium, gold, silver and bronze medals (to keep track of our medal count). Some things that no one has volunteered to make are: a big Canadian flag, flags from countries who are competing, any info on athletes, a schedule of events, the torch or info on Pyeongchang! If you’d like to create something for the board…please do!!

-I hope there were excited kids after Global School Play Day on Wednesday. We are working through getting all our reflections posted on Seesaw! If you get a chance to comment on your child’s Seesaw posts please do! We all love to hear what parents have to say about what we do and learn at school. It’s a great way to build that home/school connection

I think that’s it!! If not…we’ll be in touch!

Enjoy your weekend….Go Jets Go!

Until next time,

Danielle