Monday, November 30

WE started our morning by talking about our Work on Writing choice during Daily 5.  This is where students select Writing as a choice in D5 and write on self-selected topics.  We have a writers' Notebook for this writing and today we spent some time reading through our work to date.  We had a checklist of things to look for and then rated ourselves on each skill as: Not often, Sometimes, Most of the Time.  We will share these with you at interviews next week.  Each student then selected a writing goal to work on over the coming weeks.

This morning we all received new Words Their Way words with our groups.  We will be working on these in class and a copy of the new words have also been sent home.  Please remember to cut them apart and practice sorting and reviewing the spelling patterns by using spelling city.com or any method you prefer.  We do not expect a big amount of time doing drill and practice!  The test for these words will be Friday, December 11th.

We made up our missed session with Jeff Stockton this morning after snack and read aloud.  We are getting closer to our performance date on December 17th and are building up our performance skills!

Mrs. Bowles was away today at a workshop.  She was working with other teachers and sharing ideas and work of our students.  I shared your KidBlogs.  Thank you to those who wrote their paragraphs about "Is there a dinosaur in your gas tank?"  For those of you who haven't written then paragraphs - please look at what you need to do:

We have finished our inquiry on "Is there a dinosaur in my gas tank?"  This weekend I would like you to sign into KidBlog. You were all given your log in information so we shouldn't have any problem getting into the site.  

https://kidblog.org/class/bowleszwack/login

Your assignment is:

Write a paragraph about the inquiry and your findings.  I have added some sentence starters that will help you create your sentences and guide some of your thinking.  You do not have to use all of them or any of them.  Your paragraph needs to talk about what you thought in the beginning of the inquiry before we did our research.  What did we do that helped you understand about oil in Alberta.  What was interesting?  What did you learn that you didn't know before?  Finally, talk about how you would answer the inquiry question - what do you think now about "Is there a dinosaur in my gas tank?" What made you change your mind if you did change your mind?  or Why didn't you change your mind?  

You can also share any other information about what you learned in your paragraph as well.  I can't wait to read your thoughts.

Some sentence starters that you might want to use are:

I believe that.....

It was interesting when...

At first I thought....

I know now that...

I was really surprised to learn....

Based on what I learned...

Did you know that...

Now I know....

In math we explored how creating shapes on our Geoboards assist us with real-world applications such as construction, engineering, and art.  We challenged ourselves to discover connections between  these applications and pattern rules.  Mr. Demman can draw an amazing bridge, but needs to work on his car a little bit.

Mrs. Bowles' math group worked on skip counting today with Mrs. Buchanan.  You were making the connection between skip counting and patterns.  I am looking forward to having you share your work with me tomorrow.

In our science inquiry, you continued your work on planning for our trip to Mars.  What we need to take with us is very important and we have to make sure that everything we take is important to both our trip as well as living on Mars.

Mr. Demman led you in gym today.  I know that you worked hard built your PE stamina and had fun. I would love to hear all about it.

I am excited to be back with you again tomorrow.

Things to Remember:

1.)  Christmas Movie Night - ticket orders are due
2.)  Please read the KidBlog assignment in yellow above.  Make sure if you have not written your blog paragraph please do so today.
3.)  Families Helping Families - we will be collecting gifts until this Friday - please look at the list below and see if there is anything can add to this special gift package:

 – Uno game and toothpaste

towels for the family 

 – large blanket
– Janga Quake + gift card

-  4 towels/washclothes for parents
- "Tenzi" dice game for the family
- 3 Geronimo Stilton Books and Kinetic Sand kit for 9 year old boy
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and adult coloring book/pencils for 11 year old girl.

* craft supplies and a graphic novel for the 9 year old boy

* an adult colouring book and an adventure novel for the 11 year old girl

* socks for the mom and the dad

* some baking supplies for the family 

 –  adult - colouring book

-  a Junior Canadian Trivia board game

Question of the Day:

Tell me about your day.  Please finish the following sentence starters:

1.)   Today was..... because....

2.)    I learned....

3.)  The most interesting thing we did today was...

4.)  Tomorrow I would like to talk about .... in class because...

Have a great evening!