Hi!!

I’m not sure about you…but I feel like this week has flown by! However, it might just be because we did a ton of great things!!!!

Let’s start with that! The “Ask Me” question for this weekend is to parents to “Ask me about my busy week!” Have a conversation about some of things we did this week, then students are asked to “Write the top 3 things I learned”. We talked about how this does not mean writing things like “math”, but instead writing something more specific about the math like: a strategy they might have learned or a concept or a tool. That shows more about what they “learned” versus something that they “did.” Need some conversation starters? Read on to get some reminders of what we did this week at school!!

*As a class we talked about tallying up the September minutes for Home Reading. Please take some time to help your child add up all the minutes he/she has read this month and then graph it in the front of the home reading folder. Reminder: September ends on Saturday, so don’t add Sunday’s minutes into that! If we keep up with recording the minutes read each day it makes this monthly job A LOT easier! Can your child try this task? Can you support them? Try to turn it into a learning opportunity rather than just doing it for them. Just like the recording process. Allow it to be part of their routine to record the title, amount of minutes read and weekly questions. It helps them take ownership of the task.

*Your child may have brought home word cards in their Home Reading Folder. These are Words Their Way sorts. Students in my group AND Helen’s group are having their spelling assessments on Tuesday. The other groups will send their words home once they are ready to move onto the next sort. Please take the time to have your child sort the words and tell why they are sorted that way and also review the spelling pattern to help them be prepared for the assessment.

-Field Trip to Mariash Quarry: Monday’s field trip to the quarry was super fun! It was a little chilly, but the sun came around as we were searching for fossils 🙂 We learned some facts about the quarry and what once existed there, we learned facts about rocks and minerals, did some investigations, went on a scavenger hunt and of course…went fossil hunting!

These are some of the fossils we saw!

-Meet the Teacher: Thank you to all the parents who were able to make it to Meet the Teacher on Monday night. It was a great turnout! I hope you enjoyed the mini tours that your child took you on…they were so excited to show you where they spend so much of their time and some of the work they’ve been busy doing so far. Please come visit again! We are always excited to have parents come and help out 🙂

-Nature Art: On Wednesday we used the rocks and fossils that we found at the quarry as well as some other pieces of nature to create some really beautiful artwork. We were inspired by Andy Goldsworthy. I’m so happy with how all of them turned out. I think that doing this each season will turn into an amazing year long project!

-Terry Fox Run: Thursday was the Terry Fox Run at school. We learned some facts about Terry’s life, his sickness, his idea to make a difference, his determination, his success, his legacy.

Terry Fox Heritage Minute

Some of the amazing facts we learned are: that Terry was born in Winnipeg and has family that still lives here! He was diagnosed with cancer when he was only 18 years old. Terry started his journey and the Marathon of Hope in St. John’s, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980. He ran 42 km each day (a full marathon). Terry’s journey ended in Thunder Bay after 143 days and 5 373km…his cancer had spread into his lungs and he passed away just before turning 23. The first annual “Terry Fox Run” started in 1981. in 1992 the Terry Fox run became a worldwide event. As of 2016 $715 million has been raised for cancer research in Terry’s name. Want more facts? Check out the Terry Fox Foundation for more information!

-Orange Shirt Day: Orange Shirt Day takes place each year on September 30. Today we all wore orange at school. We had 100% participation which is AMAZING! New to the idea of Orange Shirt Day? This Orange Shirt Day video is a great introduction to why we are wearing orange. We also read the story called When I Was 8, which is an adapted version of the story Fatty Legs. From the story and the video we were able to generate some really important conversations. These kids really understand that #everychildmatters. We talked about the importance of language and culture and how Canadians are on the path to truth and reconciliation. Residential Schools are part of our history and we need to know what happened in order for something like that to never happen again. I was really impressed with the class today 🙂

-Math: This week we continued to work on some number concepts and the idea of place value. We are talking about the difference between standard and non-standard form and how you can change a number from standard to non standard but the value of the original number remains the same! To prove that it is still the same value you can write it out in expanded form.  Need more? See examples below.

This is something you can definitely practice at home. Give a number (could start at a 2 digit, 3 digit or 4 digit), have your child write the standard form then challenge them to see how many different non standard forms they can come up with and prove the value is the same by showing the expanded form!

What’s Happening Next Week?

-More place value! It is necessary to understand place value for so many other parts of math so please practice at home if you are able to 🙂

-We are doing our first Number Talk…stay tuned for more information on what that looks like!

-We will do another Letter to Danielle. This is where students write to me about their weekend, something they are looking forward to, questions they have, a book they are reading or just something they’d like to share with me. I read them, correct for spelling and grammar then write them back!

-We will continue our Rocks and Minerals Inquiry and gather more wonderings and questions to help guide where the inquiry will lead us!

-We will finish our first Read Aloud book and jump right into the second one! Note-my intention is not to read the second book about the Fitzgerald-Trouts, but to start a new book. I have been known to be swayed by the students to continue a series…so we will see!

-We are going to be looking at some wordless picture books and starting some poetry writing

-AND we are going to brainstorm some Manitoba animals and choose one to study throughout the entire year to compare where and how it lives throughout the changing of the seasons!

Have a fantastic weekend. I hope you get a chance to enjoy the beautiful fall weather.

Until next time,

Danielle