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!

Friday, November 27th, 2015

Good Morning Friends,

I am sorry that the blog didn't get out to you until this morning.  The busyness of life doesn't seem to end during the school day.

Yesterday was another great day of learning, sharing, inquiring and having fun in our classroom. Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Zwack were in meetings for the first part of the morning and you had the opportunity to work with Mrs. Gates, Mrs. McBride and Mr. Demman.

When Mrs. Bowles returned to the classroom, we had our Nutrition Break, read some more of Wonder, and read the blog.

Mr. Demman led our Naturalization Inquiry today.  I don't know how we get so lucky with the weather but it was just beautiful for our Friday outside work.  Mr. Demman, helped us make the connection between the mapping work we are doing with Mrs. Zwack and our community walk.  We learned how to use an old fashioned compass and walked to the pond area.  In the park we used the compass to help us create a map of the area.  We located north and the other directions and then added the major landmarks of the area.  Like usual we ran out of time before completing our work and we will continue on our next Friday outside time.

As promised here is your homework for the weekend.  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....

1.)  Write your Science Inquiry paragraph that was explained above.

2.)  Families Helping Families - final date for bringing in gifts will be next Friday - December 4th

Here is what we have so far:

- Uno game and toothpaste

 - towels for the family 

 – large blanket

 – Janga Quake + gift card

 - towels/wash clothes for the family and we are picking up a toy for each of the kids.

- 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

 some baking supplies for the family 

 –  adult - colouring book

Please let me know if you have posted your Science Writing into KidBlog

Thursday, November 26th, 2015

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Andrea if you are checking the blog - we want you to know that we hope that you get better soon! We can't wait to have you come back as we have many, many questions for you.  When we heard about you having appendicitis we had to find out what that meant.  We learned a lot!  We learned that most people who have appendicitis are under 35 years of age.  You are under that age. That the appendix is 1.3 cm by 8 cm.  That appendicitis can hurt!

With Mr. Demman we transferred our knowledge from working with charts to exploring pattern ideas on Geoboards!  We discovered similarities between charts and Geoboards as well as a few differences.  We looked at the blue prints making connections between geoboards, shapes and mathematics.

With Mrs. Bowles we shared our patterns from yesterday. It was interesting because we all didn't make the same patterns using the beginning
2, 6, ___, ___, ___
Some people made a repeating pattern and others made an increasing pattern.

In our science inquiry, Mrs. Bowles got us a little of track.  We started talking about what we need to take to Mars and we ended up watching a video about astronauts celebrating American Thanksgiving on the International Space Station.

In gym, we continued to play pillow polo and floor hockey.  Congratulations to Taiya in Mrs. Peterson's class who scored two goals and said,  "Today is the best day of my life!"

Things to Remember:

1.)  Family Movie Order form went home today - first come first served
2.)  Families Helping Families: What we have so far:
3.)   Uno game and toothpaste

towels for the family 

 large blanket

 Janga Quake + gift card

 towels/wash clothes for the family and we are picking up a toy for each of the kids.

(there is one other family who emailed a donation but I lost the email - I think it was Zabrina)

Question of the Day:

1.) What would you say or ask Andrea if you could?