This Week's work - November 23-27

 It has been a beautiful week to be taking our learning outdoors.  Here are some of the ways we have been exploring our learning in our indoor and outdoor environment:

In Language Arts, we have been working on responding to literature.  Students have listened to a story read by the teacher and written a response about what the story makes them feel, what it reminds them of, and what their favourite part was.  I hope that everyone will have an opportunity this week to go into the google classroom and celebrate their child's work in this area through our celebration of learning.  Please remember to fill out the survey here once you have done this activity with your child.

Our Science work has been centered around using our senses to collect information about our environment.  We listened to the story "The Listening Walk" and then did a listening walk around the school to collect the sounds that we could hear.  We also did this activity during our walk in the coulee.  We were amazed at the variety of sounds we heard.  If you would like to listen to this story with your child, you can find it here.

We have been using our senses of sight and touch to document the growth of our pumpkin plants.  Students have done an amazing job of creating a scientific sketch with labels and short notes in their visual journals.  These plants will come home today and we encourage students to continue to care for them at home.  They will need transplanting to a larger container as soon as possible.  We have also provided a few extra seeds to each student in case they wish to plant again at home.

We were excited to meet with Saa'kokoto this week and hear a new story.  Originally, we were supposed to go to the coulee with him, but due to current restrictions, we switched to an on-line meeting.  We are hoping to go back to in person meetings with him in the future.

Of course, our trip to the coulee was a real highlight of the week.  Students participated in observational experiences, a "See, Think, Wonder" activity at the tipi ring, and an opportunity to do some sketching.  This work provides students with a rich shared experience which helps us connect our classroom work with what is happening in the real world.  It also allows us to develop our descriptive vocabulary in a meaningful way.

In Math, we had our very first written assessment.  This was a brand new experience for our students, but it gave us some great information about what students could demonstrate about their understanding of patterns, numbers, and counting.  Next week, students will bring this home for you to see.  I ask that you review it with your child and sign it.  I would like you to return it to me in the blue folder.

We needed some time this week to finish our patterned artwork that we began last week.  The patterned fish and eels turned out amazing!  My class really enjoyed the chance to explore their math patterns in a more artistic way.

Note - Following Tuesday's announcement, we are busy planning our post-break on-line work.  Our school has PD on Friday December 18th, so our last day of classes will be Thursday December 17th.  Following the break, we have PD on Monday January 4th.  Students will be expected to attend school on-line Tuesday January 5th-Friday January 8th.   If you are requiring help with technology in order to have your child attend school online, please email me as soon as possible or tell me during our upcoming conference.  I can then make arrangements to get your family the support you require. 

Reminder - I have been asked to remind families that the playground areas are closed before and after school.  This is done so that there will be less chance of large groups gathering in our schoolyard spaces.  We are also not allowing students to bring stuffy animals or toys to school as this is a high contact item that can cause problems around our covid protocols.

Upcoming

November 25 - December 4 - Celebration of Learning available in the google classroom

November 28 - Booking for Conferences opens in PowerSchool

November 30 - Home Reading Exchange

December 3 - Early Dismissal (12:40) -Conferences Begin - Home Reading Exchange

December 4 - No School for students - Conferences

This Week's Learning - Nov 16-19

I am really excited about how much growth I am seeing in student work this week.  I gave everyone a chance to show what they knew how to do with some independence and they all rose to the occasion.  Here are some of the work we were exploring:

In Math, our ongoing work with patterns took us to exploring how to use colours to create patterns and then record the pattern using letters.  We also demonstrated our understanding of the core of the pattern.

Another Math challenge this week was working on an open ended word problem.  This is a problem that has more than one solution.  Students used their counters and drew pictures to find possible answers.  This really shows their level of Mathematical thinking.

In writing, we are working on using a new rubric to guide our work.  Students are looking at examples provided and identifying which one looks most like their own writing.  They are then looking at the next step to set a goal to improve their work.  We look forward to sharing this work with you next week in our Virtual Celebration of Learning.

Our Social Studies work has been focused on how to make ourselves and others feel better through acts of kindness.  We read the books "How Full is Your Bucket" and "Have you Filled a Bucket Today" to help students develop their understanding of how acts of kindness can make others feel better and that it makes us feel good too!  Students demonstrated their understanding through drawing pictures and writing about things that they can do for others.

 Upcoming

Monday November 23 - Work with Saa'kokoto - Home Reading Exchange

Tuesday November 24 - Trip to the Coulee

Wednesday November 25 - Virtual Celebration of Learning - Information coming next week

Thursday November 26- Home Reading Exchange

This Week's Learning Nov 9-13

With Remembrance Day being this week, our focus on learning has been on developing our awareness of the world around us.  Here are some of the things we have worked on:

We have continued to develop our understanding of Remembrance Day and ways to express our appreciation to the members of the military that have served our country.  This has included sharing stories related to peace and war, such as "Finding Winnie" and "The Butter Battle". Students appreciated being able to view the slideshow of members of the military who are/were related to Tuscany families and to show their respect through participation in our Virtual Remembrance Day Ceremony.  We hope that our friends and family members were able to view this ceremony and that everyone was able to take some time on Wednesday to observe this special day.

In Language Arts this week, we have been working on extending our beginning reading strategies.  These are some of the ways we use to solve unfamiliar words in the texts that we are reading:

Eagle Eyes - Look at the pictures for clues

Lips the Fish - Make the sound of the first letter to give you a hint

Stretchy Snake - Say each sound slowly, stretching it out so you can hear the word

We have nearly finished reviewing the sounds of the consonants and vowels and are using our sounds and our sight words (list words) to help us read simple text independently.

We have spent the past few weeks in Phys. Ed. working with scoops and balls both in the gym and outside.  Students have been able to explore throwing and catching activities and to develop their hand-eye coordination.

Our pumpkin seeds from our jack-o-lanterns were successfully germinated over the weekend, and students were able to study, sketch, and plant them.  We will be making observations over the next few weeks and learning about what plants need in order to grow.

Our Math this week has been focussed on how to represent numbers in a variety of ways.  We have been using our beaded number lines to show two digit numbers and explore the way our number lines help us to see the groups of 5's and 10's inside a number.  If you would like to make a beaded number line at home, you can find out how by clicking this link.

Our Virtual Book Fair is now available for everyone.  Our book fair sales are one of the ways that our school raises money to buy new materials for our library, so please consider supporting this event.

https://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/Tuscany/about-us/news-centre/_layouts/15/ci/post.aspx?oaid=122c2b5d-a175-4fdf-afcd-cfc8552fcb17&oact=20001

Upcoming

Monday November 16 - Home Reading Exchange

Thursday November 19 - Home Reading Exchange

Friday November 20 - PD - No School for Students

Our Learning This Week - November 2-6

 

Mrs. Hamm’s class has welcomed a student teacher Mr. Muir.  He is working primarily with Mrs. Hamm’s class, but the students in Mrs. Batchelor’s class may also work with him from time to time.  He started on Monday and will be with the class for the next five weeks and he is expected to return in the spring for another eight weeks as well

We have had a return to some beautiful fall weather this week, which helped us get out and observe and discuss what is happening in the fall season.  Students worked to complete their Signs of Fall page in their visual journal to include what plants and trees, animals, and people do in the fall.

Last week, we worked on sketching and comparing pumpkins and counting seeds.  This week, we have been taking a closer look at the seeds and are germinating them.  Then we will be planting them in order to learn more.  Students are excited to look at the world from the perspective of a scientist and to hone their observational skills.

In math, we worked on counting collections and finding a way to group objects and count them in the matching way.  Some students chose to group and count by 1’s, 2’,s 5’s and 10’s.  Students then recorded their thinking with the focus on recording with accuracy.  

We finished the art for our contribution to the Remembrance Day Ceremony Video and invite you to watch the link that will be sent out closer to the day.  Students will be watching the video on Tuesday to participate in the ceremony.

As a part of our COVID 19 adjustments, we have been learning how to sign O Canada instead of singing it.  Here are the links in case your child wants to practice more at home prior to Tuesday.

Link to "O Canada" showing ASL https://youtu.be/26P5WCWooP4

Link to teaching process for "O Canada" https://youtu.be/2c0O11TmYx4

Link showing how to sign the word 'us', as in all of us command https://youtu.be/UFwvPv3PUqQ

We have focused on using Google Classroom this week.  Everyone accepted the link in their gmail and now is going into the classroom to explore different links and word work learning tasks.  We introduced some very simple Jam Boards which is a part of google suite.  Students have begun to explore turning in an assignment by submitting it.  This is ongoing learning and you can check it out with your child at home, it is not expected to be completed at home at this time.  This is an opportunity for students to explore getting on the computer, get into the google classroom and gain confidence using these tools as a part of our daily learning environment at school.  Your child’s gmail address and password can be found in their show and share book.

Reminders:

Nov 9: Home Reading Book Exchange

Nov 10: Remembrance Day Ceremony

Nov 11: No School

Nov 12: Home Reading Book Exchange

Link to Scholastic online flyers - No Due Date for ordering online and delivery to your home.

https://cdn.coverstand.com/63079/678106/8469dbf4cfedf41aa3aa0e67604ec008acde6727.1.pdf

Sharing our Pumpkin Fest Virtually

Mrs. Glowacki and Mrs. Gainor have created a video of our Pumpkin Fest for everyone to enjoy.

Please click here to watch the video.

Have a Safe and Happy Hallowe'en!

Our Learning This Week Oct 26-29

 This week has been an exciting week with lots of learning!  

In math, we started off with making patterned chains using halloween colours.  Student’s tried to be creative with making more complex patterns like ABCC, AABCC, etc.  Then we explored some measurement with several pumpkins in our classroom.  We ordered them from biggest to smallest, guessed which pumpkin would have the most seeds, then counted the collection of seeds for each pumpkin.  We grouped the seeds into fives and tens and recorded our learning in our math journals. 

We completed a variety of writing tasks throughout the week: writing about our weekend, a jack-o-lantern journal entry, and our halloween costumes.  The focus was to add more details and lengthen our writing.  We have also focused on printing the letters G and C. It is great to see how many connections they are making daily to our learned letters, their sounds and words they know that make those sounds.  Students are also very excited to be moving forward in their sight word list found in their show and share book.  Being able to read those words at the snap of a finger without sounding them out, will support them with progressing in their daily reading development.

Students watched an artist to learn how to draw a pumpkin (website: Art hub for Kids).  First they practiced in their drawing books, and then they sketched our actual pumpkins by drawing the shapes they saw which included the dents and scratches as they saw them.  We also made a piece of halloween art using crayon resist and mixed our own colour of orange to apply over the crayon picture.  

Thank you to everyone who participated in carving pumpkins for our pumpkin patch.  I hope that everyone has a safe and happy halloween. 

Next week, we will be working on a project for our Remembrance Day virtual assembly.  Students will be recorded holding a piece of their own art and telling what peace looks like to them.  Their name will not appear on the video, but their faces will be a part of the presentation and this will be shared families for our Remembrance Day ceremony.  This presentation is covered by the consent for use at school document you filled out at the beginning of the year.  If you have any questions or would prefer that your child not be recorded, please email me before 5 pm on November 2nd.

Reminders:

Saturday October 31 - deadline to provide the school with any service photos for Remembrance Day - please send them to me by Saturday at noon so that they can be added into the short video remembering our personal connections to our service members.  Students will view this at school during our learning about Remembrance Day.

Monday, November 2 - Home Reading Exchange

Thursday, November 5 - Home Reading Exchange

Tuesday, November 10 - Video of Remembrance Day Assembly will be available to families

Wednesday November 11 - No School

Our Learning This Week Oct 19-23

 Our cold and snowy weather this week has been a bit of a surprise, but we are nothing if not adaptable.  In addition to getting outside for regular recess breaks, we have also been taking our learning outside.  Here are some of the things we have worked on this week:

We started our week by finishing up our Kandinsky art from last week.  When we put all of our pieces together, they look amazing.  The colours make us feel calm, happy, and excited.

Our work in Health and Wellness this week centered around Zones of Regulation.  This is a system of classifying our emotions into colour groups.  Green is calm, focused, and happy.  Blue is tired, sad, or anxious.  Yellow is upset, fidgety, and impatient.  Red is very angry, upset, or out of control.  We then explored different strategies that we all can use to help us get to green when we are in one of the other zones.

In Math, we continue to investigate the numbers and how to count groups of objects, large and small.  This has included working on tallying, number writing, and a group counting collections outside.  

Students are becoming more accurate in counting objects and are keen to record their understanding in a variety of ways.

In Language Arts, we continue our work on letter sounds and printing lower case letters.  We have now reviewed more than half the alphabet and are using these letters to sound out short words and read and write them with accuracy. If you would like to see the letters we have covered to date and practice some printing and drawing with your child to reinforce these skills, please check out the google classroom.  I am also thrilled with how excited the students are about learning their list words.  These are the words that are glued into their show and share journals. They are the high frequency words that students need to be able to read by sight (without sounding out).  Knowing these words are key to helping your child progress with their reading.  Having your child practice reading them at home and look for them in their Home Reading books is a great way to support their reading development.

All of the students are excited by the number of snowshoe hares that are frequenting our school yard.  They are in the process of changing colour and we have been observing them and noticing how they use their colour to hide.  When they were brown, they blended in with the shrubs and grass.  Now they are beginning to blend in with the snow. Students also observed that they keep very still so that they are harder to see.  Observing our seasonal changes and the needs of animals to adapt to the environment is a part of our Science curriculum.

Students are excited about the upcoming holiday of Hallowe'en.  I plan to capitalize on this with a number of Math, Language Arts, Science and Art activities next week.  On Thursday, October 29th, students are encouraged to wear their costumes to school and we will be writing about the character we are pretending to be.  If your child does not plan to wear a costume, please let me know and I will arrange an alternate writing activity for him/her.

Many students have fond memories of last year's Pumpkin Fest.  Due to Covid restrictions, this year's Pumpkin Fest will be an outdoor event and it will be for students only.  We are asking families to bring their carved Pumpkin to school on Thursday Morning and drop it off in our classroom area of the Pumpkin Patch.  I will show the students the correct spot on Wednesday and we will have a sign indicating our class' area so that you will know where to display your pumpkin.  Students will have the opportunity to go out during the day to view all of the creations and then will be able to take their pumpkins home at the end of the day.

We also began our discussions with students about Remembrance Day this week.  We read the poem, "In Flanders Field" and made the poppies for our Remembrance Day wreath.  In the first week of November, students will be working to prepare something for our virtual assembly.  This will be something that the students in the entire school will view during November 10th.  We are creating a brand new presentation of family members of our community that have served in the military.  If you have a picture of a family member, past or present, who has served in the military, please send it in an email to kaglowacki@cbe.ab.ca  with the following information:  Name, relation to your student, when they served and where. (ex - Joe Smith, grandfather of Sandy Smith -Served in Canada in the 1970's).

Upcoming

Monday October 26 - Home Reading Exchange

Wednesday October 28 - Picture Retakes

Thursday October 29 - Home Reading Exchange - Pumpkin Fest and Hallowe’en Costume day

Friday October 30 - PD No school for students