Hello Everyone!

This weather seems more like Fall to me! It might be a stretch…but I’m hoping with a few warm days my grass will dry and I can cut it one last time!! Think it’s possible?!

We had a shortened…but great week. Let’s take a look back at what happened in 123!

-Due to some unforeseen circumstances we didn’t do Common Learning Times this week. No worries though, we will pick things up again next week!

-We played in the snow until it literally was all used up in the field! Now we have green grass with bits of random snowfalls spread around the field!!

-We continued to work on place value in math and did practice within our place value books. One of the things we are learning about as we do practice pages is that we NEED to read the instructions! Most of the errors throughout the week came from simply neglecting to read and follow the instructions and examples. We’ve been trying to associate the importance of reading the instructions to how we follow recipes when we bake or steps to build things.

-We completed our initial assessment of the first 100 Fry spelling words. I am currently working on individualizing each student’s word list. On Monday I will give the students their list and we will establish our routine and expectations for practicing words at school. I will also be posting their word lists to Seesaw to you are able to work on practicing the words at home as well!

-Leah came in to do her first lesson with us about being “Social Detectives”. She also introduce “Super Flex” to us. Super Flex is inside all of us! It serves as a reminder that we have the tools and strategies to deal with the “Unthinkables” who come to visit us sometimes! More to come next week! Leah will come back again soon and see what we’ve learned from the Super Flex story!

-We ended up going to Pam Am Park for a little Friluftsliv Friday! As we’ve learned from last week…we need to take advantage of the good weather when we can!

-I made an “oopsie” and accidentally deleted our Alphabet Alliteration Poem 🙁 Good things we are great poets and were able to write another one together! This time we saved it, printed it AND wrote it out for our poetry bulletin board! This is part of the Ask Me question this week! Choose a letter and write a line of your own to share! First word=Adjective, second word=noun and third word=verb! Have fun!

Looking ahead to this week!!

-Common Learning Times will be on Monday and Wednesday

-We will begin our spelling routine, also known as Word Work!

-Monday we are making…..fossils!!! Please read the Seesaw Family Announcement sent on Friday to see what we are up to!!!

-I think we can finish Bat and the End of Everything!

-Wednesday is Global Take Me Outside Day and we are celebrating as a school by doing our annual fundraiser! This year’s fundraiser is the Outside-a-Thon! The Outside-a-Thon will take place on Wednesday afternoon. The pledge forms went home on Friday and the details are all on the note! We are motivated to win the grade 3-6 class prize!!! Go Team 123!!!

-There is no school on Friday!!

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy the sun and warm weather!!!

Until next time,

Danielle

Hello Everyone!

Well my Thanksgiving plans changed in a hurry! Instead of going to the family cabin in Ontario and closing it up for the year I am here at home thankful that I haven’t lost power and that I don’t have to drive anywhere for the foreseeable future! It can be challenging to remember to show gratitude at times like these, but I still am trying to put things into perspective so remind myself that things could be much, much worse.

Besides getting more snow than October should ever get, we did do a lot of fun things at school this week!

-Mrs. Duncan, our amazing sub, was in for me on Monday and wrote some Boom-di-yada poems/songs for Thanksgiving. The Boom-di-yada song/video  is one of my favourites. Maybe we should work with it more this year!

-We finished our second round of our Common Learning Times with 122 &126. That means we are half way through our first cycle! Next week we will only have Common Learning Time on Thursday and will finish the round the following week

-We started Bat and the End of Everything, but haven’t read too much yet. We didn’t want our friends who were away yesterday to miss out, so we will wait until Tuesday to continue!

-We have read You Are a Social Detective and look forward to working with Leah on Tuesday. She will be helping us realize that we are all social detectives and have the power to have a growth mindset. Some of the language we will be using is “expected” and “unexpected” behaviours. Stay tuned for more info!!

-Alena and Patrick both came to talk to us about rocks and minerals! It was great having experts come in and share their passion. We wrote them both thank you letters to show our appreciation since they volunteered their time with us. That is something we often do. Saying thank you goes a long way with building relationships with people 🙂

-We continue to work on place value and building number sense. If you feel your child could use another reminder, or you haven’t watched the video yet, maybe check out the Math Antics video on Place Value (ignoring the commas!)

Place Value Video

Here is an example of a Place Value Chart…for fun we call it a PVC!

In the above photo, the number 123 is written in its standard form. There are non standard ways to represent it too…

For example: There could be 12 groups of ten and 3 groups (Expanded as 120+3=123) of one OR 123 groups of one (expanded as 0+0+123)! See if your child can show you how to make a “PVC” and fill it with the standard form and a few non standard forms. In order to know if we’ve done the non standard correctly, just expand the numbers and see if it equals the original value!

-We wrote a great Alphabet Alliteration Poem to share…but someone forgot it at school (whoops). We took ideas from the poems we were working on independently and combined them to make a fun poem! This was a good exercise because the model was to use an adjective followed by a noun followed by a verb and it offered the students a chance to either learn or be reminded what those were!

Example:

Angry Alligators Argue

Bossy Bears Bite

Chatty Chickens Chirp

-We played outside for Friluftsliv with Erin and it was sooo fun! I think being with the students made me accept the snow a bit more. It was mild out and perfect snow for building! Now to remember to dress for the weather!

-We did another spelling “check in” for the Fry List (most commonly used words). This time we did List 1, words 26-50. For any student who made errors, I have posted the words to Seesaw. This allows you to see what words we will be working on at school, but also to give you a head start if you want to practice at home. Once we have the first 100 words assessed, I will generate a personalized spelling list for each child. Then we will work on this at school (and hopefully you will want to at home too). Afterward, I will be able to reassess each student. Since these are commonly used words we are asking that once we learn them they belong in our “No Excuse” word bank. We should be able to spell these words correctly on a consistent basis. The goal is to have the grade 3s complete the 3rd Hundred list and the grade 4s complete the 4th Hundred list by the end of the year! More info to come after all the initial assessments are done!

What’s Happening Next Week?

-Tuesday is School Photo Day!!! (There has not been an order made, but the N/K classes usually go first)

-Wednesday is our “Kick Off Assembly” for the Outdoor-a-Thon that is coming up soon!

-There is no Friluftsliv with Erin or library scheduled for this week as there is no Day 4 on the school cycle, but we will go outside on Day 1 (Wednesday) for our teacher led Friluftsliv gym time! I do believe that Phys. Ed. classes will be outdoors on Tuesday as the gym will be used for school photos

-We will assess the Fry words 51-75 and maybe even get 76-100 done too. Once we have those word lists established you will receive a copy for home and a list of ideas you can work on if you need some assistance!

As always if anything comes up I will let you know via Seesaw.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Until next time,

Danielle

Hello Everyone!

We’ve made it through another busy and amazing week!!

Here is a recap of what went on this week at school! It is my hope that by knowing what’s happening at school, the connection between home and school becomes and stays strong and you have plenty of things to talk about at home!

-Monday was Orange Shirt Day. We continued our conversations about the meaning of wearing orange and posted our thoughts on the bulletin board outside of the room.

-It was a bit too rainy on Monday, so we did our Terry Fox Run on Friday. Ask your child who they ran for and why we will always run to support Terry’s dream.

-We’ve started Round 2 of our Common Learning Time with 122&126. I’m excited to work with all the students in 3/4 and continue to build community through teaching as a team!

-Our Petroforms field trip was great!! The bus ride was long and a bit bumpy at the end, but it was also very worth it! It was amazing to hear our guide Ron’s stories and to see and feel the history of our beautiful surroundings. We did some great follow up stations on Thursday to help move our learning forward 1) Rock Representation Art 2) Petroforms and Poetry 3) Field Trip follow up and Wonderings. Stay tuned for a new bulletin board with some of our work!!

-We’ve finished Bat and the Waiting Game!! Take a look at this week’s Ask Me question on Seesaw to share your thoughts and also to let me know if we should continue reading the series!

What’s Happening Next Week…

-Book order is due on Monday. If you have an order please get it in ASAP!

-We will do our second and third lessons in our Common Work Time

-We will either continue to read about Bat or start a new read aloud book

-We have a guest speaker coming to talk to us about rocks and minerals!!

-We will put up our new bulletin board about “Petroforms and Poetry”

-We will continue working on writing poetry!

-We will talk about gratitude and things we are thankful for as we head into Thanksgiving weekend

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Until next time,

Danielle

Happy Weekend Everyone!

When I woke up at saw that it was only 1 degree out this morning I thought about how I am not prepared for the weather to change! There are parts of fall that I love….the layers, the scarves, digging out some of those warmer clothes and boots that have been packed away, but the brisk mornings are hard to get used to! I will need to be extra motivated to take Hudson for a walk before school moving forward! However, it turned out to be a gorgeous fall day and I hope you were all able to enjoy it

Let’s take a look at what we did at school this week:

-We are more than half way through Bat and the Waiting Game AND one of our students found out there IS a third book in the series! We will have to see if we want to read Bat and the End of Everything as a class, or maybe we’ll have a mini book club within the class. I do know that reading and discussing our read aloud books has helped the students to understand and appreciate other people’s differences. I have noticed students being more active with including others in their play and some kids are forming a “kindness club” at recess to check in on kids who look sad or lonely.

-We’ve had our first two Common Learning Sessions with 122 & 126! Our third and final session of the first rotation will take place on Monday. Round two was planned for Wednesday, but with our upcoming field trip we will have to reschedule!

-Thank you for getting field trip permission slips signed and returned so quickly! We are hoping that the final slips will be returned on Monday and we will be ready to go for Wednesday!

-We had our first visit to the library! Our library time will be on Day 4 at 9:00, so please have books that need to be returned ready to go for then (or before). There are a few students who need to return books from last year. Please take a look at home and see if you can find them! I’ve spoken to each student who has outstanding books and they all seem to know where the books might be. I can also print out a copy of the missing books if that is required.

-We are continuing our work with place value and representing numbers in standard and non standard ways. Want to practice at home?!

Give your child an amount of money to represent (example: $547 OR $5.47). Ask them how they could make that amount using the fewest amount of bills/coins (standard) and then ask them other ways they can represent that amount of money (non standard).

Example: $547 could be represented with five $100 bills, two $20 bills, one $5 bill and a toonie (standard), but also with four $100 bills, five $20 bills, four $10 bills and seven loonies (non standard)! 

Example: $5.47 could be represented with one $5 bill, one quarter, two dimes and two pennies (standard), but also with two toonies, five quarters, four nickels and two pennies (non standard)!

Give it a try!

-We wrote some Haiku poems about Fall (while being outside for Friluftsliv with Erin) and about any other topic we wanted (the next day in class). Haikus are fun to write and serve as a good reminder about syllables! Can you write a Haiku poem together at home?! Just remember

Line 1=5 syllables

Line 2=7 syllables

Line 3=5 syllables

Autumn

It’s finally fall

Leaves are changing and falling

Fall is here to stay!

-We had a fantastic Friluftsliv Friday! When the students wrote me a persuasive letter a few weeks ago I told them I would read them all and choose to do something I was persuaded by! The most persuasive letter was a visit to Pan Am Park with room 122! Friday was a perfect day to head over to the park! The students had a blast playing on the structure. We also spent time with Erin exploring with dance outside. It is really important for us to spend lots of time outside and understand that we can learn a lot while we are out there! We use the outdoors as an extension of our physical school building and will never take our outdoor space for granted 🙂 *This is what our Ask Me question on Seesaw is all about this weekend. Be sure to check it out and post your response!

-You may have noticed a few extra Seesaw posts this week! Each month we post (or try to post) a reading and writing sample on Seesaw. This serves as a portfolio piece because we can see and hear the growth we make as we learn and practice our skills. It is really important for students to read orally. If they only read in their head they will not know when they are making errors. Hearing the students read might help you decide if what they read is not at an appropriate level, or if they need to work on fluency or expression. Have a listen on a regular basis!

What’s happening next week…

-Monday is our annual Terry Fox Run! (Please see the email Jocelyn sent out last week for full details.) We are asking the students to donate $1 to the Terry Fox Foundation…so if you are able,  please send in your donations on Monday. If you’d like to join us please feel free! The run will take place around 11:15/11:30 and last until about 12:00. On Friday we had a discussion about Terry and how his determination has led to amazing things for cancer research. Terry Fox will always be a Canadian HERO!

Terry Fox Heritage Minute Video

-Monday is also Orange Shirt Day. On Friday we read The Orange Shirt Story and When I Was Eight and talked about the reason we have Orange shirt day. We talked about what Truth and Reconciliation means and the very important message that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.

Phyllis Webstad Orange Shirt Day Presentation Video

-Wednesday is FIELD TRIP DAY! Please remember that we are leaving at 8:45. Students should arrive around 8:35 (the classroom will be open then) and make sure to use the washroom before we go. The bus ride will be long…but worth it! If we need to, we can make a bathroom stop along the way. Students will need to bring their backpacks and wear clothing to be outside all day. We ask that students bring a litter-less lunch so the impact we make is as little as possible. This will be my first visit to the Petroforms AND I’m very excited 🙂

-We will continue working with 122 & 126 for Common Learning Times. After 3 sessions the groups will rotate to a different adult and work on a different target (for another 3 sessions).

-The October book order will be sent home next week!

I think that is all for now!

Have a wonderful weekend 🙂

Until next time,

Danielle (& Hudson)

Good Morning Everyone!!

It was great to see so many new subscribers to the blog site. Welcome to our weekend meeting place!

This Week At School:

-We had our first opportunity to meet our grade 1/2 learning buddies. Throughout the year we will do many different activities with our buddies such as reading, writing, outdoor learning, games and more!

-We’ve been having a great time learning about the Performing Arts with Erin. Performing Arts includes music, drama and dance. As a FYI we are using the term Performing Arts instead of Music

-We finished A Boy Called Bat and started on Bat and the Waiting Game. The students voted via the Ask Me question on Seesaw and 100% of the vote went to reading the sequel! I think we are all excited to see what happens to Bat’s skunk kit named Thor. We wrote book recommendations to people we thought might enjoy reading about Bat too. This is a good way to practice our persuasive writing skills!

-We have been working on understanding place value. For some students this is a review and for others it’s a new concept. To help solidity these concepts we watched a Math Antics video. Whether this is the first, second or even third time seeing this short tutorial there is something new or something to be reminded if. *Note: “Rob” talks about using a comma to separate numbers, but we talked about how in Canada we do not (we leave a small space instead). Math Antics has many different videos that are helpful to explain Math concepts if you are interested in checking them out. We like to use some of them throughout the year! *Link to video is above!

-We finally finished our Inquiry Log covers!!! The students are excited to show you them at Meet the Staff on Monday evening! We will also post the pictures to Seesaw later on next week (after you get a chance to see them in person!)

As you can see we’ve had a busy, but great week!

Whats Happening Next Week:

-Monday is Meet the Staff! Hope to see you there 😊

-Tuesday is a Friluftsliv day with Erin. The forecast looks like rain, so be sure to dress for the weather. We intend to go outside unless there is a safety risk due to the weather.

We like to say..

-We should get through quite a bit of Bat and the Waiting Game this week. The class is interested in writing a letter to the author, Elana K. Arnold, to see if she has considered writing a third book. However, the end of the book might give us a clue whether there could be another book coming, or she wanted the story to end after two books. We will see!!

-The 3/4 team is starting our Common Learning Times. This is where we mix up the students in the three classes and rotate the groups through different targeted areas of instruction. We will do math from 9:30-10:00 and ELA from 10:00-10:30. Our targets this session are: patterns, equality, representing numbers and mental math strategies and writing traits (ideas, word choice, conventions and presentation). This first session will take us to about the end of October. I’m looking forward to building community between the 3/4 students and teaching staff!

-Our poetry unit will continue and we will explore different styles of poems. I’m always impressed by our young poets!!

-Our first inquiry about rocks and minerals and their connections to the earth will begin soon!

Have a great weekend!

Until next time,

Danielle (and Hudson!)

Hello!

If it is your first visit to the class blog site…Welcome! If you’ve visited before…Welcome back!

This is just a quick post to let you know what to expect on the blog…

-I try my best to post each weekend about the week ahead

-This is a place for us to connect between home and school, where I can go into a little more detail

-I like to post helpful links, photos of our work, but since it’s an open site I will not include photos of the students

-The blog acts as a portfolio for myself as well! I can look back on what we’ve done from year to year

-It is an opportunity for me to demonstrate purposeful writing for the class

If you would like to subscribe to the blog and get an email notification when there is a new post…please feel free! It would be great to read the posts as a family as it can act as a conversation starter about things happening at school!

Until next time,

Danielle

Good Morning!

How can it be possible that I’m sitting down to write the final blog post of the year?! It feels like yesterday that I was writing the year’s first post!! Well…regardless if I am ready for this or not, the end of the year is here! Thank you for being so supportive throughout the year and being partners in your child’s learning journey. It’s been a great experience whether we met three years ago when I retuned to Montrose, met two years ago when your child entered room 123 or met this year. I feel honoured to be part of every student’s learning experience. Farewell to the families moving on and see you soon to the families who will return in the fall.

Have a safe, relaxing and rejuvenating summer!

Things to Know!!!

-Monday:

-Our amazing artwork is complete, displayed and ready for a gallery walk! On Monday morning we will be revealing the 290 piece of art that have been put on display in the library along with the main attraction…our collective piece!

-The art will be left on display for the afternoon as well because this is the time when parents will be invited to come see what we’ve done (I honestly can’t wait to see/hear/feel people’s reactions). Mr. Stefaniuk’s retirement assembly is scheduled for 2:30 in the gym and afterward parents are invited to join us for some cake in the library and also have a chance to say farewell to Mr. Stefaniuk himself. We in Room 123 would like to thank Mr. Stefaniuk for his encouragement and support for as long as any of us have been Montrosians. He has always believed in our potential and holds high expectations for us all. Once a Montrosian…always a Montrosian 🙂

-We will be doing our final “ketchup” items for our growth portfolios. Anyone who is finished will continue to work on sharing what they’ve learned about their country, helping with tidy up jobs and working on a “promotional video” for our new grade 3s about what to expect in 123!

Tuesday:

-We are planning on going to the splash pad with 122 & 126 in the morning. The only thing holding us back is the weather forecast. If it’s raining we will try again either on Wednesday or Thursday morning. Please send your child to school with a swim suit (or something they can get wet in), a towel and anything you think they will need for the splash pad. If your child does not want to use the splash pad they are able to use the play structure (or both) and if your child would rather read or sketch they can do that instead.

-In the afternoon we will perform our final 4 Robert Munsch plays

Wednesday:

-In the morning we will see what needs to be done and when we are all caught up we will enjoy each other’s company while we still can 😉

-Grade 6 Farewell is at 1:30

Thursday:

-The morning is open

-In the afternoon we have “Meet your new teacher/classmates” for the students at from 1:00-1:30 (ish) and our annual awards ceremony at 2:20

Friday:

-We will be doing a whole school Canada Parade around 10:45 and dismissal is at 11:30

That’s the end of the year for you!!

*This is the idea I mentioned earlier about Summer Writing! I thought it might be a fun way to get students writing over the summer months! I’ll be sending home a note with more details!

SUMMER WRITING BINGO!

How many of these writing activities can you do this summer? Can you get a line, an X, 4 corners or even a blackout?!

*I’ll also be sending home details about our optional Summer Book Club. Just as a quick reference: July: Shout Out for the Fitzgerald Trouts (book 3)…Grade 4s read the first 2 with me last year. We will read all 3 next year! August: The Problim Children: Carnival Catastrophe (book 2, released on June 25). If you plan on joining us in reading either or both of these books please subscribe to the blog to get email notifications for new posts. If I am able to use Seesaw over the summer I might switch to that, be I cannot remember when access to this current class gets canceled for me.

Okay…I think that is all for now 🙂

Take care!!!

Until next time,

Good Morning and…

To all the Dads out there who do so much for their kids… we thank you! Have a great day!!!

Also..Happy Marathon Morning to many of you! I can’t wait to hear about your experience running. Next year I will try to be a more mindful about selecting my personal days so I can be there too. I hope you had a great run (since this post won’t reach you until after you’re done 😉 )

.

Here is a quick overview of this week’s adventures!

-Monday: We are painting (part of the special surprise to come next week!). Please wear appropriate clothing for painting 🙂

-Tuesday: We are headed to Gimli! If you are planning on coming, but haven’t let me know if you are taking the bus or driving please do so ASAP so I can add you to the list. I hope the forecast remains as it is right now!!

Please dress for the weather, pack a nut free and kiwi free lunch and snack(s), bring LOTS of water, have a hat, sunscreen and bug spray (as you require), a blanket or towel to sit on if you like and anything else you think is important to bring. We will have different station options throughout the day, however this is NOT a swimming trip. Have any last minute questions? Let me know!

-Wednesday/Thursday: Throughout these days we will be performing our Robert Munsch plays. There is no specific order and we will only be able to perform when all three classes have common times available. We are asking all students to be prepared with any costumes, scripts and props so they are ready to perform with short notice. At our final rehearsal some of the things we talked about were: staying in character, using a loud voice to project to the audience, where to be when your character is not in the scene and using actions and gestures to portray emotions. The performances will be awesome!

-Friday: We will be celebrating Summer Solstice Day at school! This will be similar to how Field Day or Jelly Bean Day has been run in the past. The forecast is improving for Friday, so let’s cross our fingers and hope we can spend a wonderful day outdoors.

Congratulations to the Toronto Raptors! I’ve watched more basketball in these past few weeks than ever before in my life!!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Until next time,

Danielle

Hello!!

We’re down to the final three…weeks of school that is! The end of the school year always brings mixed emotions. We all look forward to a break, yet room 123 will never look the same as it does right now. It’s important for us to slow down and enjoy each other’s company while we still can 🙂

Things To Know!!

-We have the winners of Friluftsliv BINGO!!!

126 won the visit to the splash pad with us!

124 won their choice of a scavenger hunt or obstacle course designed by us!

132 won cookies that will be baked by us!

All classes joined in on the fun, however 126 and both kindergarten classes were the ones who filled their cards and got a “blackout”. After doing the random draw we realized that we wanted all classes to receive a participation prize! We will do a little something special for all the kids involved which fortunately is the ENTIRE school!!

*This means that we will be headed to the splash pad with our 126 friends one day soon. Stayed tuned to Seesaw for a date. If you want to join us please let me know!

We did a teacher version of a challenge as well! For the 30 days we asked teachers to drink their hot beverages in a reusable cup. Ms Solomon won that prize (also by random draw!). Thanks Montrosians for taking steps for making our planet a better place for us to live and learn on!! #BAM

-Our “Forests in a Jar” have inspired our buddies in 124 to follow suit. We will pass on our knowledge to them on Monday! I love that we do much more than simply read with our buddies. We call each other learning buddies because we take the time to teach them things we know how to do. Kids teaching kids is a very powerful way to learn!

-Thanks for helping your children with spelling their unknown “high frequency” words at home. Once we know how to spell these words they be one part of our “No Excuse” word lists. Spelling common words properly should come just as natural as using an uppercase “I” as we write! Writing should be something students do outside of school just as they do with home reading! I have an idea about a summer journal…details to come soon!

-Okay…now for some exciting news for my grade 4 friends!!! AND one day it’ll also be exciting for the grade 3s, but for now they won’t really know what I’m talking about!

Esta Spalding has FINALLY released the 3rd book about the Fitzgerald Trouts!!! One of our friends from last year had it at the park when I was doing Friluftsliv with the 5/6s!!

It’s here at last!!!!

Does anyone want to read it?! I’ve ordered myself a copy but would be willing to offer a mini book club if the grade 4s want me to! Grade 3s…please do not read it! We will read the first two in the series and this one as well (as long as it’s good!!) next school year. The grade 4s have already read the first two AND we wrote to Esta Spalding and she gave us a sneak peek of this 3rd book!! It was pretty amazing!!

-We will still read The Problim Children Two this summer for those of you who are interested BUT it’ll be more of an August club since the book doesn’t come out until June 25 and we will need to give people some time to get a copy! I’ve already preordered my copy!!

-Congrats to the runners who represented Montrose at this year’s Fit Run at Assiniboine Park. You all did awesome!!! We are very proud of you 🙂

-Our Gimli field trip is just around the corner!! I think we have 8 parents coming! Maybe our families are just as excited as we are about Friluftsliv in the sand! I’m just making up a list of who is driving and who is taking the bus with us, so once you know your plan let me know! I’m also asking if anyone has a special talent or hobby that they’d like to share with us during the field trip. We can offer these options for the kids throughout the day. Ideas so far are: using a compass, mindfulness and painting rocks. If you have something you’d like to offer, let me know! That way I can get any materials that you may require. If you don’t…no worries. We will hook you up with a group or give you a supervision role once we are there 🙂

-We will be building LEGO cars soon and having “races” using forces that attract and repel to “drive” them. I’ve ordered new sets of wheels and axels, but some kids are asking to bring their own in from home. My initial response was no because pieces from home could get lost or mixed up. However, I’ve decided to leave this up to families to make the final decision. If you can label your pieces or have enough that if you make a donation to the class you will be okay,  then it is fine with me to bring pieces in from home. We will be designing the cars at school this week so please don’t make them ahead of time at home!

I think that’s it for now! Have a great evening!!

Until next time,

Danielle

PS-I’ve jumped on the Raptors bandwagon!!

Hello Families!

It may be my personal days and I’m at the lake, but I can’t help but do a bit of blogging! However I am sitting on the deck with my Mom, throwing the ball for the dog, taking in the sound of the waves as they crash onto the beach and wondering when Layton and Haddie will make their way back here…so my blogging set up is pretty sweet!

If we thought May was busy then June is going to be extremely busy! We are in the final stretch of finishing up projects, assessing what we’ve learned and for some of the students, getting ready to say farewell. I’m looking forward to these next four weeks and enjoying the last time we will have with this version of Room 123!!!

Our Week at a Glance:

-Family life/safety has begun. We are asking that the grade 4 students do not share what they are learning about with their grade 3 buddies and that the grade 3s do not ask questions to their grade 4 buddies about what they are learning. It is best to leave the conversation and questions to  families and teachers during the sessions.

-The 3/4 students are already enjoying the Robert Munsch Reader’s Theatre experience! We will perform during the last two weeks of school, rest assured there is lots of time to practice and get props/costumes. IF students are bringing a script home (optional) they are asked to bring it back to school daily.

-We are doing a lot of review in Math and revisiting some of the concepts we have learned throughout the year to make sure we still understand how to do them. Division is going well and once again, the students who can recall their basic math facts for multiplication are finding that division is much easier than they thought it would be! Practicing basic facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division regularly really helps students’ confidence in math as well as their ability to extend their knowledge and work through more challenging problems.

-We have a very special art project happening at school…one we’d like to keep you in suspense about! Once we get closer to the “reveal” we will let you know 😉

-Our country study has hit a pause….we are hoping to get back to the lab next week and finish up some research so we can share what we’ve learned about countries around the world!

-Our outdoor days were amazing! On Monday the weather couldn’t have been better! A slight breeze, lots of sun and no bugs! Thanks to Murray and Ms V for doing Yoga and Music outside for us too! On Tuesday it was MUCH hotter out! Our “Forest in a Jar” protects with Tamara turned out great! We are so lucky to have had her come in and share her passion for plants with us! I’m hoping that by now the jars have made it home (we used them as inspiration for Friluftsliv writing first!). If not, please remind your child to take theirs home on Monday. I hope you love them as much as we do! I’m going to do my best to care for our class jar…with a little help from the kids and Ginny to keep it alive!

Things to Note:

-Having a hat at school is good practice for these hot days. We try to keep out of the sun, but a hat really helps to keep cool

-We advise the kids to drink lots of water to stay hydrated. If your child doesn’t have a water bottle at school, you might want to consider sending one in so they can refill it as needed (a reminder about taking it home to wash is a good idea too!)

-We have a field trip to Gimli coming up on June 18. I think I have two parents interested in coming with us (which I will confirm). We will send a reminder note home about what to bring etc. closer to the date

-As I was reading through the June newsletter last night I noticed it said Grade 3/4 were going to Assiniboine Park on June 19…that is a typo. We just have the Gimli trip planned

-Our 30 Day Friluftsliv BINGO challenge is coming to an end on June 5! Our class is providing the prizes for the winners so we will need to bake some cookies, set up an obstacle course or scavenger hunt AND head over to the spray park (at a date to be chosen once we know the winner has been chosen). I am so proud of our Friluftsliv Ambassadors in 123 🙂

-If anyone has a “favourite place” video to share with the class please send them in!!!

-I will be sending home a list of words that each student has spelled incorrectly from the Fry wordlists (1st, 2nd and 3rd Hundred). Some of these words may have been learned since those initial assessments, so they may no longer require practice. After each test I have sent words incorrect words, so families were able to practice after the test. I will reassess the students whenever we can find the time (as each student will need to be assessed individually)

I think that’s it for today. The kids are here and ready to play!

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Until next time,

Danielle