Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Spring weather! Well, we've said, "Bye-bye Birdies" to our Inquiry and I think the children learned a lot about birds' habitats, their diets, their young, and fun facts. We saw a video of an Ostrich running (and even chasing a jeep!), hummingbirds in flight, and watched as the baby bald eagles have grown and are starting to stand up in their nests. We learned about the life cycle of a chicken, all about the size, shape and colour of eggs, and put our "Ducks in a Row" by putting words in the correct order to make a sentence, then writing the sentence down. We wrote about eggs in some egg art that is displayed in the hall. The children found it interesting that eggs come in so many different colours, from white to blue to brownish colours with spots, and all the way to black (Emu). We also did "Home Tweet Home" math by helping a bird go home by adding up numbers, and learned how to read and sort our Bird Facts/Not Bird Facts folder. We also completed the booklet "All About Birds", which has all the fun facts about the birds we learned about. We wrote about our favourite birds, why we like birds, and drew our favourite bird. Blue Jays, Owls, Hummingbirds, Penguins, Flamingos and Ostriches were favourites (Go Jays!). The kids also had fun sorting the birds we learned about in groups of "Angry" birds and "Scaredy" birds. All the children's wonderful work went home in Friday's white bag. I hope you have fun listening to your children tell you all about birds!
As a follow up to last week's rain, we wrote about why we like/don't like rain. This work is on display in the classroom.
This week's Popcorn Words are HE and SHE. Last week's words were BIG and RUN. The homework for this weekend is to do the mini books for those words.
A big Thank You to: Megan's family who collated the Scholastic order forms; Avery's dad and Adam's dad who were Mystery Readers; Izzie and Sophie for bringing in bird toys to talk about, and Martel's mom who helped with Computer Lab.
Next week we'll start two new Inquiries, on Measurement and Backyard Bugs.
I hope you have a terrific week!
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Week of April 6-10
Dear families,
I would first like to say a big thank you to our Parent Volunteers who helped the children make their papier mache eggs at our Spring Craft Party: Elizabeth's mom, Christopher's mom, Olivia's dad, Stella's mom, Matthew H.'s mom, and Anderson's mom all gave their time and energy to making the party fun for the children. Thank you so much! The eggs look beautiful! I sent them home with the balloon still inside so they wouldn't break in transit and so you could put chocolates in them if you wish.
Thank you as well to Martel's mom who helped get the computers ready for the Computer Lab class, and thank you to Martel's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week!
This week we learned about eggs and the children had fun cracking the (empty) ones and looking inside. We learned that many other creatures aside from birds lay eggs: turtles, fish, some sharks, lizards, frogs, insects. Chloe brought in a tiny bird nest and Theo brought in a big bird nest and a photo of an owl they spotted on their street. Thank you for sharing those with your friends. We also learned about Feathers and about the three different kinds of feathers a bird has: down, to keep them warm, contour feathers in between the body and the outer feathers, and larger and strong wing feathers. We also talked about all the things we use feathers for.
We also learned more about our first two birds - the owl (a bit of review from first term), and the duck: their habitat, diet, what their young are like, and fun facts. The children are making Flip Books with words and pictures about those facts.
The children also enjoyed colouring their eggs with a "magic" crayon and dipping them in food colouring, then decorating them with gold or silver paint. They look beautiful! Anything the children do with their hands assists their manual dexterity and small motor skills which in turn assists their writing and drawing skills. They did a great job weaving ribbon in their Easter baskets as well!
The children also had fun gluing mini marshmallows on a bunny face and then they counted them and wrote the number.
It was an exciting week on our bald eagle's nest live cam, because over the weekend the eagle had caught a fairly large black furry creature (a bear cub?) and brought it to the nest along with several large fish. The parents are still sitting on their chicks to keep them warm but for the first time they left them alone for a short period of time since the weather was warmer. Lots to learn!
We also started practising our new April words and your child received a copy in this week's white bag. Our new Popcorn words will be BIG and RUN.
I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Easter/Spring weekend!
I would first like to say a big thank you to our Parent Volunteers who helped the children make their papier mache eggs at our Spring Craft Party: Elizabeth's mom, Christopher's mom, Olivia's dad, Stella's mom, Matthew H.'s mom, and Anderson's mom all gave their time and energy to making the party fun for the children. Thank you so much! The eggs look beautiful! I sent them home with the balloon still inside so they wouldn't break in transit and so you could put chocolates in them if you wish.
Thank you as well to Martel's mom who helped get the computers ready for the Computer Lab class, and thank you to Martel's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week!
This week we learned about eggs and the children had fun cracking the (empty) ones and looking inside. We learned that many other creatures aside from birds lay eggs: turtles, fish, some sharks, lizards, frogs, insects. Chloe brought in a tiny bird nest and Theo brought in a big bird nest and a photo of an owl they spotted on their street. Thank you for sharing those with your friends. We also learned about Feathers and about the three different kinds of feathers a bird has: down, to keep them warm, contour feathers in between the body and the outer feathers, and larger and strong wing feathers. We also talked about all the things we use feathers for.
We also learned more about our first two birds - the owl (a bit of review from first term), and the duck: their habitat, diet, what their young are like, and fun facts. The children are making Flip Books with words and pictures about those facts.
The children also enjoyed colouring their eggs with a "magic" crayon and dipping them in food colouring, then decorating them with gold or silver paint. They look beautiful! Anything the children do with their hands assists their manual dexterity and small motor skills which in turn assists their writing and drawing skills. They did a great job weaving ribbon in their Easter baskets as well!
The children also had fun gluing mini marshmallows on a bunny face and then they counted them and wrote the number.
It was an exciting week on our bald eagle's nest live cam, because over the weekend the eagle had caught a fairly large black furry creature (a bear cub?) and brought it to the nest along with several large fish. The parents are still sitting on their chicks to keep them warm but for the first time they left them alone for a short period of time since the weather was warmer. Lots to learn!
We also started practising our new April words and your child received a copy in this week's white bag. Our new Popcorn words will be BIG and RUN.
I hope you are enjoying a wonderful Easter/Spring weekend!
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Week of March 30-April 3
Dear families,
This week and next we are learning all about Birds and Spring! We are listening to real bird calls (Audobon Society), learning about what birds are, parts of birds, what they have, can do, eat, where they live, what they do, and how they make nests. We are continuing to watch live cam of a Bald Eagle Nest in Pennsylvania, and this week the eggs hatched and two little chicks emerged! The children were so excited! We are watching as the male and female take turns bringing fish to the nest and feeding the little ones. We are also writing about what we see happening in the nest.
The books we are reading about Spring and Birds are fiction and non-fiction (mostly non-fiction).
Speaking of nests, the children are making a nest themselves! Some of them are finished and have gone home already. They first put "mud" (brown paint) in their bowls, then put sticks and twigs around the sides and bottom. Then they placed softer items such as dried grass, soft leaves, pussy willow, and lint in the nest. Finally, they glued both halves of the egg shells they brought in "("Are they real?") and we put a little chick inside. A very special THANK YOU to Iris and her family who are sharing the Robin's nest they found with us. We are looking at it and eggs carefully in the Science Centre with magnifying glasses.
We will be focusing on 10 different types of birds in the next little while, in this order: owl, duck, flamingo, chicken, hummingbird, ostrich, penguin, blue jay (Go Jays!), peacock, and woodpecker. I picked up some beautiful feathers this weekend and will add them to our Science Centre. We'll learn what the different kinds of feathers are for and how birds fly. We will also be learning more about what eggs are and about the life cycle of a chicken.
We are talking a lot about the Signs of Spring and I have posted the children's ideas in the hall bulletin board. We also worked on our beginning and ending sounds of words starting and ending with the letters in S-P-R-I-N-G. The children drew a picture and completed the sentence "I know it is Spring because..." Te children also made a very cute card called "Happy Spring." The cards are drying and will go home next week. The All About Birds inquiry folder will go home when we are finished.
In our painting centre, I cut the large pieces of easel paper into large egg shapes and added a lot of white paint to each of our colours, making Easter/Spring colours. The children did a lovely job painting the eggs, and they are on display in our classroom and in the hall.
In our Building Centres we are doing something new: I found large photos of about 20 famous landmarks (such as the Tour Eiffel, the Taj Mahal, the Banff Springs Hotel, etc. and the idea is to be the builders - to copy those buildings using blocks, lego, Treo. They are doing a terrific job!
The Popcorn words for this week were HAVE and SAW. Please add the words to your child's home folder.
The children did a terrific job at the Sharing Assembly, singing the song M-A-R-C-H ( a copy of which will go home). Congratulations to Sabrina, Luca and Sophie who received awards for Honesty.
My students also enjoyed seeing a performance in the gym about Hansel and Gretel by the Shoestring Opera, and they wrote about why they enjoyed it so much.
Thank you so much to the Parent Volunteers this week: Lauren's mom was Mystery Reader and Martel's and Matthew C.'s moms helped out with Pizza Lunch. Thank you so much for your time and energy.
The March Scholastic Order is due on Tuesday. Thank you.
This Wednesday will be our Spring Craft party in the afternoon. Thank you in advance to the parents who are volunteering! It's going to be fun!
Just a quick note about scooters: For safety reasons please leave them in the area inside the MAIN FRONT school doors. Thank you.
I hope you are having a lovely weekend! It's supposed to be 11C on Thursday!
This week and next we are learning all about Birds and Spring! We are listening to real bird calls (Audobon Society), learning about what birds are, parts of birds, what they have, can do, eat, where they live, what they do, and how they make nests. We are continuing to watch live cam of a Bald Eagle Nest in Pennsylvania, and this week the eggs hatched and two little chicks emerged! The children were so excited! We are watching as the male and female take turns bringing fish to the nest and feeding the little ones. We are also writing about what we see happening in the nest.
The books we are reading about Spring and Birds are fiction and non-fiction (mostly non-fiction).
Speaking of nests, the children are making a nest themselves! Some of them are finished and have gone home already. They first put "mud" (brown paint) in their bowls, then put sticks and twigs around the sides and bottom. Then they placed softer items such as dried grass, soft leaves, pussy willow, and lint in the nest. Finally, they glued both halves of the egg shells they brought in "("Are they real?") and we put a little chick inside. A very special THANK YOU to Iris and her family who are sharing the Robin's nest they found with us. We are looking at it and eggs carefully in the Science Centre with magnifying glasses.
We will be focusing on 10 different types of birds in the next little while, in this order: owl, duck, flamingo, chicken, hummingbird, ostrich, penguin, blue jay (Go Jays!), peacock, and woodpecker. I picked up some beautiful feathers this weekend and will add them to our Science Centre. We'll learn what the different kinds of feathers are for and how birds fly. We will also be learning more about what eggs are and about the life cycle of a chicken.
We are talking a lot about the Signs of Spring and I have posted the children's ideas in the hall bulletin board. We also worked on our beginning and ending sounds of words starting and ending with the letters in S-P-R-I-N-G. The children drew a picture and completed the sentence "I know it is Spring because..." Te children also made a very cute card called "Happy Spring." The cards are drying and will go home next week. The All About Birds inquiry folder will go home when we are finished.
In our painting centre, I cut the large pieces of easel paper into large egg shapes and added a lot of white paint to each of our colours, making Easter/Spring colours. The children did a lovely job painting the eggs, and they are on display in our classroom and in the hall.
In our Building Centres we are doing something new: I found large photos of about 20 famous landmarks (such as the Tour Eiffel, the Taj Mahal, the Banff Springs Hotel, etc. and the idea is to be the builders - to copy those buildings using blocks, lego, Treo. They are doing a terrific job!
The Popcorn words for this week were HAVE and SAW. Please add the words to your child's home folder.
The children did a terrific job at the Sharing Assembly, singing the song M-A-R-C-H ( a copy of which will go home). Congratulations to Sabrina, Luca and Sophie who received awards for Honesty.
My students also enjoyed seeing a performance in the gym about Hansel and Gretel by the Shoestring Opera, and they wrote about why they enjoyed it so much.
Thank you so much to the Parent Volunteers this week: Lauren's mom was Mystery Reader and Martel's and Matthew C.'s moms helped out with Pizza Lunch. Thank you so much for your time and energy.
The March Scholastic Order is due on Tuesday. Thank you.
This Wednesday will be our Spring Craft party in the afternoon. Thank you in advance to the parents who are volunteering! It's going to be fun!
Just a quick note about scooters: For safety reasons please leave them in the area inside the MAIN FRONT school doors. Thank you.
I hope you are having a lovely weekend! It's supposed to be 11C on Thursday!
Friday, March 13, 2015
Week of March 16-20
Dear families,
We finished our unit on Oceans and all the children's wonderful work went home in Friday's mail bag. The children have practiced reading everything they worked on, so I hope you will ask them to share what they learned with you! A family field trip to the new aquarium downtown would be a perfect ending to this unit! Some of the children's work is on display on the bulletin board and will go home after the March Break.
We also learned about Jellyfish and Starfish, and more facts about sand and seashells, for example that we use sand for making glass, bricks, concrete, sandpaper, even nail files. Needless to say I brought those items in from home to show the children and I think they found it interesting! I also brought in some large scallop shells to add to the class collection and the children were quite interested in how animals make shells and use them for shelter, too. A special thank you to Megan for bringing in a real starfish! Thank you to Christopher as well for bringing in shells and coral from his trip to Turks and Caicos, and to Izzie and Claire for bringing in ocean animal toys.
Our class will be watching a presentation by the Shoestring Opera on March 24 in the afternoon, in the gym. I'm sure the children will love it!
We also had fun playing "Fish Sticks" and "Fish Out of Water" numeracy games with Goldfish crackers - counting them and adding them up, then eating them of course!
We also finished our author study on Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish books, and the children make a colour-by-number rainbow fish of their own. The children played a fun board counting game called "Shark Attack." Playing board games reinforce numeracy skills. The children also made a pirate treasure map look old by painting it with strong cold tea. They also read and coloured a little book on safety; they recognized the "skull and cross bones" from a pirate's flag, and were reminded never to touch anything with that symbol on it at home.
Our new popcorn words were GO, and TO. The next ones will be HAVE and SAW. Please continue reading with and to your children over the March Break. They have come so far and I am so happy with their progress! I have sent home new journals for everyone. I hope the children have lots to write about over the holidays. I look forward to reading them and seeing their drawings!
Not to forget the upcoming St. Patrick's Day (which takes place over the March Break), we made a little leprechaun and wrote about him/her, and about what we would do if a leprechaun gave us gold. Cute! For homework I sent home a mini St. Patrick's Day word book.
At the next sharing assembly on March 24, Sophie, Sabrina and Luca will be receiving certificate for Honesty. Well done!
On Friday, the children participated in a recording of "O Canada" and wore red and/or white.
The next Scholastic Book Order is due on April 30. I will submit the March orders at the end of the month.
That's the news from Room 166. I hope you have a very restful and enjoyable March Break. It will officially be Spring when we come back!
We finished our unit on Oceans and all the children's wonderful work went home in Friday's mail bag. The children have practiced reading everything they worked on, so I hope you will ask them to share what they learned with you! A family field trip to the new aquarium downtown would be a perfect ending to this unit! Some of the children's work is on display on the bulletin board and will go home after the March Break.
We also learned about Jellyfish and Starfish, and more facts about sand and seashells, for example that we use sand for making glass, bricks, concrete, sandpaper, even nail files. Needless to say I brought those items in from home to show the children and I think they found it interesting! I also brought in some large scallop shells to add to the class collection and the children were quite interested in how animals make shells and use them for shelter, too. A special thank you to Megan for bringing in a real starfish! Thank you to Christopher as well for bringing in shells and coral from his trip to Turks and Caicos, and to Izzie and Claire for bringing in ocean animal toys.
Our class will be watching a presentation by the Shoestring Opera on March 24 in the afternoon, in the gym. I'm sure the children will love it!
We also had fun playing "Fish Sticks" and "Fish Out of Water" numeracy games with Goldfish crackers - counting them and adding them up, then eating them of course!
We also finished our author study on Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish books, and the children make a colour-by-number rainbow fish of their own. The children played a fun board counting game called "Shark Attack." Playing board games reinforce numeracy skills. The children also made a pirate treasure map look old by painting it with strong cold tea. They also read and coloured a little book on safety; they recognized the "skull and cross bones" from a pirate's flag, and were reminded never to touch anything with that symbol on it at home.
Our new popcorn words were GO, and TO. The next ones will be HAVE and SAW. Please continue reading with and to your children over the March Break. They have come so far and I am so happy with their progress! I have sent home new journals for everyone. I hope the children have lots to write about over the holidays. I look forward to reading them and seeing their drawings!
Not to forget the upcoming St. Patrick's Day (which takes place over the March Break), we made a little leprechaun and wrote about him/her, and about what we would do if a leprechaun gave us gold. Cute! For homework I sent home a mini St. Patrick's Day word book.
At the next sharing assembly on March 24, Sophie, Sabrina and Luca will be receiving certificate for Honesty. Well done!
On Friday, the children participated in a recording of "O Canada" and wore red and/or white.
The next Scholastic Book Order is due on April 30. I will submit the March orders at the end of the month.
That's the news from Room 166. I hope you have a very restful and enjoyable March Break. It will officially be Spring when we come back!
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Week of March 9-13
It's hard to believe that there is only one more week of school until the March Break. When school resumes, it will officially be Spring! Many of the children have talked about their past or upcoming vacations to warm climates with beaches, so our Ocean Unit has been interesting to the children. I've learned a lot too! We want to spend one more week on this unit, and next week we'll be learning all about Sand (what it is, how we use it), seashells, and marine mammals. Look for additions to our hallway bulletin board! Our classroom bulletin board looks great with the children's "submarine windows" and writing about what they can see (what they drew) outside their window. This was simple pastel and watercolour and looks really effective.
This week we compared and contrasted the Great White Shark and the Killer Whale (without being scary!), using two hula hoops as a Venn Diagram and simple sentences about the animals that the children had to put in the correct place. We also practiced our three poems "Smiley Shark," "Lobster," and "Crab." The kids continued to bring in interesting things from their house: a shark tooth, a beautiful conch shell, books about the ocean, coral, shells, barnacles, sand from California, and photos. Wonderful!
We learned interesting facts about the Octopus and the Jellyfish this week, and watched a short video by Animal Planet. We also played a word game in which the children had to place three different letters in a submarine window to make a real word (i.e. sub, tub, rub) As well, the children came up with 25 different words hiding in the word S-U-B-M-A-R-I-N-E. Way to go! Writing them out is the SK homework this weekend. The Juniors played a upper and lower case letter matching game called "Fishing for Letters" with a bingo dabber. We also read "The Rainbow Fish" and started a mini book study on this wonderful book about getting along and being a friend.
Continuing on with our Popcorn Word work, the SKs tallied and graphed how many times they "spun" WHO, HAVE, CAME, ARE, WENT, and WILL. They also played a "roll and read" game with those words on paper cubes. The next popcorn words are THIS and WILL.
When we learned about mollusks, I brought in some real pearls for the children to see and also some plastic ones to compare.
Our science experiment about pennies in vinegar and salt continues to interest the children; we left the pennies in the mixture, and after about a week they started to turn dark again, and now the salt has separated from the vinegar is moving up the sides of the cup! There is also a blue colour in the salt from the copper oxidizing. We talked about copper a bit and how it changes to bluish green, and the children learned that we have copper in our houses, too.
We also had a mini lesson on oil and water not mixing with the roof repairs going on! The children of course wondered about the tar smell and learned that tar comes from oil and it is used on roofs so that water won't go through!
Thank you to our parent volunteers: Sabrina's mom (who I forgot to thank last week!), Tessa's mom, and Adam's mom. Thank you as well to Caden and Will from Mrs. Wilson's class who pair-share read to the children.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
This week we compared and contrasted the Great White Shark and the Killer Whale (without being scary!), using two hula hoops as a Venn Diagram and simple sentences about the animals that the children had to put in the correct place. We also practiced our three poems "Smiley Shark," "Lobster," and "Crab." The kids continued to bring in interesting things from their house: a shark tooth, a beautiful conch shell, books about the ocean, coral, shells, barnacles, sand from California, and photos. Wonderful!
We learned interesting facts about the Octopus and the Jellyfish this week, and watched a short video by Animal Planet. We also played a word game in which the children had to place three different letters in a submarine window to make a real word (i.e. sub, tub, rub) As well, the children came up with 25 different words hiding in the word S-U-B-M-A-R-I-N-E. Way to go! Writing them out is the SK homework this weekend. The Juniors played a upper and lower case letter matching game called "Fishing for Letters" with a bingo dabber. We also read "The Rainbow Fish" and started a mini book study on this wonderful book about getting along and being a friend.
Continuing on with our Popcorn Word work, the SKs tallied and graphed how many times they "spun" WHO, HAVE, CAME, ARE, WENT, and WILL. They also played a "roll and read" game with those words on paper cubes. The next popcorn words are THIS and WILL.
When we learned about mollusks, I brought in some real pearls for the children to see and also some plastic ones to compare.
Our science experiment about pennies in vinegar and salt continues to interest the children; we left the pennies in the mixture, and after about a week they started to turn dark again, and now the salt has separated from the vinegar is moving up the sides of the cup! There is also a blue colour in the salt from the copper oxidizing. We talked about copper a bit and how it changes to bluish green, and the children learned that we have copper in our houses, too.
We also had a mini lesson on oil and water not mixing with the roof repairs going on! The children of course wondered about the tar smell and learned that tar comes from oil and it is used on roofs so that water won't go through!
Thank you to our parent volunteers: Sabrina's mom (who I forgot to thank last week!), Tessa's mom, and Adam's mom. Thank you as well to Caden and Will from Mrs. Wilson's class who pair-share read to the children.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend!
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