Monthly Archives: March 2018

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