It is hard to believe that we are down to the last week (and a day) of this eventful school year. I have a lot of news to catch you up with. Last week I created a detailed blog for your interest and enjoyment and then forgot to hit the publish button, so here is an update on our work:
In Language Arts, we have had several projects on the go. The one the students have been most excited about is our research into Cougars. We began reading non-fiction cougar books out loud in class and learning to record important information in point form. We then read some information from trusted websites and watched some informational videos. Our final source of information was one of the staff from the Calgary zoo, who met with us via video chat from the cougar habitat at the zoo. We got to ask our questions, hear about some amazing things that cougars can do, and we got to see the cougars roaming around their enclosure. It was an exciting event. This week we have been working to turn our notes into complete sentences. Once we have written our sentences in our writing notebooks, we began working on creating a google slideshow about cougars. This is a work in progress and students are at various stages of this work. We will be trying to complete this work in this coming week, but if you would like to see what your child has done so far, you can check out their work through the google classroom. The assignment is under Literacy Centres May/June. You will notice spelling mistakes and incomplete work at this stage. I am not worrying about that right now as this is a chance for your child to work independently to create some non-fiction text. It is about exploring the medium and learning to navigate the technology with confidence. If you would like to learn more about cougars along with your child, here are some links that you may enjoy, but please do not work on the presentation at home this weekend, as we will be doing some more of this work in class:
http://naturemappingfoundation.org/natmap/facts/cougar_k6.html
http://quietube7.com/v.php/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feavfdrhBwc
https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/facts/mountain-lion
Another big highlight for the week has been our final trip to the coulee. We had wonderfully scorching weather for the day, but the students did some amazing learning. We used our pencils and our bodies to help us measure objects in nature, did some sketching, and listened to Saa'Kokoto's a story about Okotok and Napi. We learned about a number of important plants in our native environment including the wide rose, which is currently in bloom, and the two most common trees in the coulee, balsam poplar and trembling aspen. Students learned to look at the leaves and bark closely to tell the trees apart and found out that aspen trees produce their own sunscreen. When we returned to school, students did some great writing about their experiences.
We wrapped up our skipping unit this week in Phys. Ed. I am so impressed at how the students have progressed with their individual skipping skills. They have also gotten very proficient at jumping the big rope while others turn. Many of them can now run in and run out of a turning rope, which is a tricky skill to master. Hopefully they will enjoy some skipping over the summer months.
Of course, with Father's Day coming up this weekend, we have done some writing and a special present for our dads. I have pictures of us working, but you will have to wait to see the results.
Our Math in the past two weeks has been about reviewing the concepts of addition and subtraction. Students have been challenged to show what they know and how they can calculate equations of addition and subtraction. Some students use counting forward and backwards, some use their number line or hundred chart, and some use blocks or counters to help them. By the end of grade one, students should be able to calculate addition and subtraction equations with numbers between one and twenty. We have also been working on open ended problems that have more than one possible solution. Students can draw or use objects to help them figure out solutions and then record them in an equation. This type of work allows student to develop flexibility with numbers.
As we come to the last week of school, we are getting ready to ensure that everything is collected and organized at school. We had our final library exchange last week and we are asking that all library books be returned as soon as possible so that we can begin our year end inventory. We did our last Home Reading exchange on Thursday and ask that all reading books come back to school on Monday, June 21 so that we can begin preparing the reading carts to be ready for our return to school in the fall.
The students have all really enjoyed their work with planting and growing things in our school yard these past two weeks. I have been watering all of the planters twice a week to make sure that our plants take root. During the summer, I could use some volunteers to help with the watering. I have set up a on-line sign up so that people can volunteer to come to school to water over the summer months. It is set up for one week at a time. If you sign up, you are promising to come to the school every 3-4 days if there has been no rain and water the plants. If Mother Nature provides the water, you do not have to come to the school. There is a water access right near the playground, so you can bring your children to play and do some watering at the same time. In order to access the water and equipment, I will contact the first volunteer in July and show them where everything is and how to get to it. At the end of the week, they will text the next volunteer and arrange a time to meet and walk them through the process. Thank you to those families who have already signed up for July and the beginning of August. We are still looking for volunteers for the last 3 weeks of the summer. Please consider signing up if you think you might be around during that time. You can find the sign up here.
