Tuesday, January 27

Today was a great day and we got a lot accomplished!  The students were very focused and working well together.  Daily 5 continues to go very well and students are ramping up their independence which is a great way to get ready for Middle School in the fall.  We are going to focus on building these skills and creating confidence and self advocacy over the next 5 months.

Our book, Follow the Elephant, is such a great story and the students are really enjoying it.  We have been learning a lot about India through this story.  Students, please tell your parents some o ft. interesting things you have learned.  As well, we have learned a great deal from the characters in the story.  Ben is growing more aware of those around him and how his words and actions impact others. He is increasing his independence as well and is building new connections with his Grandmother.

Today we delved into the Right to Education for all children.  We read the book Every Day is Malala Day to introduce the fight that some children have to be able to attend school and learn.  We also watched the video of her speaking, at 16 years old, to the United Nations.  Malala went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in supporting girls going to school in her country and around the world.  Next, we watched the beginning of a documentary called On My Way to School.  This movie shows how many children have long journeys and face many obstacles to have the opportunity to learn.  We will be working through this together and having some great discussions going forward.

In math , we continued our work on estimating differences.  We reviewed the three strategies.  We worked  both on the whiteboards as well as using paper and pencil. Tomorrow we hope to get into the heart of subtraction.  Subtraction usually takes a little longer as it is a backward process that sometimes our brains get confused with.  This will be a real test for our growth mindset.

We were unable to have our inquiry today as we had a number of workers in the schools working on some of our doors and classrooms.  Mrs. Quilley's room was one of them, so we couldn't get our work on our water filtration systems completed.

In gym, we continued to work on our fitness. Mr. McDougall had us think of some goals that we could have for each of the stations.

Things to Remember:
1.)  Please read a bit of a good book at home.
2.) Mathletics - take a look at some of the subtraction facts.  This are a little difficult to build our speed but with practice we will all be pros.
3.)

January 27th is Family Literacy Day  across Canada

We hope you'll take part in literacy-building activities with the children in your life! Just 15 minutes a day can help develop long-lasting literacy skills in children and help parents and caregivers build positive, strong bonds with their children.   Here are some fun ways your family can mark Family Literacy Day "How was your day today?" Have your child write and share notes (sticky notes are always a big hit) or keep a journal about their day . . . and you do the same.    Have a game night Gather and play your family's favourite board games. Take turns reading the instructions, game cards or keeping score.    Lights out, talk on! After bedtime stories with your child, turn off the lights and stay and chat.  Review your home library! Check through your family's books. Choose some to reread. If you're ready to part with any, please donate them to Calgary Reads. They will help supply our yearly fundraising event, the CBC Calgary / Calgary Reads Big Book Sale or our Calgary Reads Book Bank that gets books into the hands of Calgary children who have few or none of their own.

Question of the Day:
Write what you think the question of the day should be. If you would like you can answer someone else's question of the day.