Monday, March 14th, 2016

It was a bit of a challenge for Old Mrs. Zwack to get up this morning after the time change!  Once we were together at school, all was well!

We started the day by ensuring that we all had a great book to read when the Drop Everything and read bell rang throughout the day.  Our students were amazing!  We worked on Daily 5 writing and tried to add in some Triple Scoop words into our work.  Next we worked on our handwriting, adding the letters v, x, y, and z to our growing list of letters.  Kartik has figured out that we have 6 more letters to learn!

Mr. Demman worked with us to expand our understanding of Triple scoop words and we started a short descriptive piece of writing about a trip to Mars.  We   also had French with Mrs. Kenna and worked on learning the names of various fruits.  See how many you can share with your parents!!

Good Afternoon Friends,

What a great start to our Reading Week.  Our afternoon started off with Spencer honoring his bet with Mrs. Bowles, they bet on the Coyotes and Flames game and as you can see from the picture Mrs. Bowles won!

Spencer this looks great on you!

Mr. Demman teaching a math lesson.

During the lesson we had our first Mystery Reader. Thank you to Mrs. Lowder for coming in and sharing the book Boy Soup.

During math we looked at the order of numbers in a multiplication equation.  We explored how the order can change the Multiplication Story we.  Our stories certainly were different when we moved the numbers around.  I think we found a 14 legged animal and a dinosaur with 18 horns...

The engineers are now ready to put their structure in place!!!  They have been busy coming up with ideas as to how to generate electricity.  There will be some exciting conversations and activities right around the corner.

The scientists are planning a website about what we have learned.  We want to share our thinking with everyone. We are looking at pictures, videos and writing about how important a job we have to survive on Mars.

In gym, we added some new skill to our existing skill.  We played a game of Pivot Tag that kept us moving and passing as much as we could to avoid those that were 'IT'.  We then took those skills and played a game of Circle Keep Away where the person in the middle tried their very best to keep the rest of us from scoring baskets.  Red faces mean great efforts!

1.) If you would like to have your picture taken with your favourite book, please bring order form or a note and the $5.00 tomorrow. IT will be the last day for photographs.
2.)  Tuesday is PJ Day and Book and Movie Club
3.)  Please bring back all pledges and donations by Thursday.
4.)  Parent Teacher Interviews are on Thursday Evening and Friday morning.



Write a multiplication story problem using what you learned from Mr. Demman today.

Tuesday, March 8th, 2016

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Today we worked well on our Daily 5 and everyone did their best to review their Word Work to prepare for the quizzes on Friday.  Please remember to review your word categories at home and to practice at www.spellingcity.com.  Our focus lesson today during our Read Aloud  was about gathering clues to "infer" meaning from the story.  We learned that we need to be detectives and pull from clues given by the author. Inferring requires deeper thinking and making connections.

After Read Aloud, snack and a quick break outside in the sun, we began working on a "top secret" project.  Students, please explain what we did and why to your parents.

What a busy afternoon we had.  It began in music. We worked on our pre-recorders and we are really learning a lot with Mrs. Jones.

In math today we broke into our groups.  With Mrs. Bowles we are continuing our work on division. We are extending our learning by challenging ourselves with numbers of our own choice.  The group that is working on The Great Divide: A Multiplication Journey, are choosing some amazing numbers. They are also learning that even numbers can be split and odd numbers cannot without a remainder. The Doorbell Rang group encountered some difficulty with how to divide the tray of cookies.  We are currently illustrating our understanding of a plate of 72 cookies and adding the division equation to our work.

With Mr. Demman we are applying ideas that we have collected from Amanda Beans Amazing Dream.  We walked around the school and capture real-world evidence of our multiplication arrays using iPads.  The group working with Anno's Mysterious Multiplying Jar are busy preparing their projects through a variety of unique ideas.  We captured a some great images of your learning.

Mr. Demman continued to read Auggie and Me, there was a connection made between the story and The Amazing Race.  We found out that Mr. Demman was actually in an episode of the Amazing Race Canada, the first season.  He played in the band when the contestants were in Calgary at The Ranchman's.

In gym, we played a dodgeball game.  Many were sweating.



1.)  Read A Thon pledge forms and information went home today. All pledges are due back by next Thursday.
2.)  Reading Week Picture Order forms went home today.  Students if ordering must bring money and favourite book by Friday please
3.)  Student Led Learning Walks Wednesday (surnames ending A-L) 6:00- 7:30 and Thursday  (surnames ending M-Z) 6:00 - 7:30
4.)  Please sign up for Parent Teacher Interviews next week if you haven't done so already.


What is something that you have learned from doing our Math and Literature Projects?

Monday March 7, 2016

This afternoon the room 80 engineers prepared the surface of their Mars landscape in preparation for our structures.  We discussed the qualities and variations of the planets surface that we have come to know through images viewed from a variety of resources.  Very exciting and a great effort by all the engineers.  After a quick clean-up we joined our friends from room 79 to work on our Math and Literacy projects.  We are continuing to explore the connections and discoveries between our stories and math facts.

We made a number of connections during our read aloud including some interesting moments to the Amazing Race.  Thank you for your contributions during our time for sharing.

In Phys Ed. we applied many of our newly acquired basketball skills including dribbling, passing and shooting.  We really got a workout from our passing relay where we worked as a team to move the ball through he hands of each player running the entire length of the gym.  Fantastic efforts were made to keep that ball moving!!!

Reminders:

Please sign up for your Parent Teacher Interviews taking place next Thursday evening and Friday 8-noon.

Our Student Led Learning Walks take place this week on Wednesday and Thursday.  We hope to see you there one of those nights.  Our students are eager to share their Math Learning with you!

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Mrs. Zwack was very happy to be back at school today!  She had taken a few days to spend with her daughter in Vancouver to celebrate her 24th birthday!  On Wednesday, both Mrs. Bowles and I were at a workshop.  So, it is wonderful to be back with the students in the classroom!

This morning, we started with music and practiced our pre-corders.  A reminder from Mrs. Jones that all students should have their pre-corder in their backpacks each day for music class!  It is difficult to learn to play an instrument when it is at home!!

Next, Miss Hadala taught a wonderful lesson on the difference between facts and opinions.  She had students doing some careful thinking and discussing to determine which statements were which in a fun game situation.  Thank you to our friend Kartik for keeping careful track of the tally scores for us!

After read aloud and a sunny outdoor movement break, we polished up our presentations about schools around the world for tomorrow's assembly.  The students have worked very well together to create skits to demonstrate their learning and we look forward to sharing these with you tomorrow morning.

This afternoon flew by.  We started off working on our math projects for the Student Led Learning Walks.  Each group is working very hard on their learning through literature.  All of the books that they are working with are great to help us learn about multiplication and division.  Some of us worked on division story boards.  Many of the students are really challenging their thinking with large numbers, more complex problems, and deep thinking.

In our science inquiry, we first looked at the landing of Cmdr. Scott Kelly in Kazakhstan after being at the International Space Station for over 340 days.  We then moved off into our two groups. The engineers took all of the supplies that they have gathered and laid out them as they would when building  their Mars complex.



The engineers have been changing and adapting their prototypes for their structures based on the new knowledge that they have gained.  In fact their first drawing look nothing like what they are planning now.  This is very exciting and this is how engineers work in the real world today.  The scientists continue their work as botanists.  Today we are learning to better understand how transpiration works.  We did an experiment reviewing the scientific method.

In gym, we continued our work on dribbling and shooting. We played bulldozers and builders on ball control during dribbling.  The last part of our class time, the students worked on adapting their shooting skills to be accurate.

We finished off our afternoon with looking at what we know, what we have learned, some of our wonders and where we are going with our science inquiry.  Students wrote about their experiences.


1.)  Room 79/80 assembly at 11:15 tomorrow.  Parents please join us.
2.) There will not be a community nature walk tomorrow.





After your lesson on fact and opinion today,  please tell me one fact about Mars and one opinion.

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2015

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Zwack were both being learners at a workshop today.  We miss you terribly and really wish we were there with you all.

We know you had a great day and showed our guest teachers that you are an ambassador for our classroom as well as our school.

Happy Wednesday!  The weather may not have been as nice as yesterday, however were busy both inside and out.  Mrs. Redwood and Mr. Demman joined us for our routine of Daily 5 and guided reading.  Many of the guided reading groups are now looking to start new adventures with different books. Congratulations!

After guided reading we had our nutrition break and read aloud by Mr. Demman. Following that, we quickly tidied our room and headed outside for a body break – a little cooler than yesterday, but still a great day to be out!

When we came back in Mr. Demman read “Petey and Pru and the HullaBaloo” by Ammi-Joan Paquette. Through this story we discovered new, juicy and descriptive words that helped us with our Triple-Scoopword brainstorm.  We worked in small groups to change Single-Scoop words into Triple-Scoop words that we can look back to when we our practicing our writing.

After Lunch, Mr. Demman taught us the multiplication game called “Circles and Stars”. In this game we roll dice to make our multiplication math sentence such as: 3 x 2 = 6.  We learned to explain this as 3 sets of 2, or 3 groups of 2 equal 6.  We had so much fun that many of us didn’t want to stop.  After all the excitement we really needed to take another nutrition break.

During Science inquiry, the Scientists went to the greenhouse to record observations regarding their current experiments and made predictions that surround new questions.  The Engineers we quite busy sorting their materials and evaluating the resources that they have available to them to start the construction of their structure.  Once the items were sorted, we built a model prototype.

The day was wrapped up with our Wednesday dance class where everyone chanted and danced – we were moving the entire time!  Fantastic energy!!

Just another friendly reminder…If you require props for your Social Studies skit, please remember to bring them in on Thursday.

Have a great evening!!!

1.)  We are performing in the assembly on Friday. Please invite your parents to come and share our learning.  We will be moving into the gym at 11:15 and hopefully we will begin before 11:30
2.)  Due to the assembly we won't be able to go on our Community Nature Walk Friday.

3.)  We will be welcoming parents to the school for our second round of Student Led Learning Walks.This time, we will be showcasing work from Kindergarten to Grade 4 related to the common theme ‘Mathematics with Literature connections’.  The purpose of Student Led Learning Walks is to make learning visible for everyone as we share what the goals, words and expectations of curriculum look like as they come alive across all grade levels.

·         If your child’s last name begins with letter from A - L please attend on Wednesday, March 9^th 6:00 -7:30 pm.

·         If your child’s last name begins with the letter from M -  Z please attend on Thursday, March 10th from 6:00 pm-7:30 pm. 

·         If you are unable to make it on the assigned evening you are welcome to change nights. 

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     Please tell us about the day.  What is one of the things that you learned?  What was a memorable part of your day?  What made you smile today?

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

First Day of March
Would you say it came in like a lion or a lamb?

Another productive day!  Hard to believe that it is only Tuesday.  The morning began Mrs. McBride teaching us Music where we rehearsed songs for our upcoming assembly.  Things are really coming along and we sound fantastic!  After Music, Mr. Demman read "The Sandcastle Contest" by Robert Munsch.  He guided us through a comprehension strategy called Make a Picture or Mental Image which is a comprehension strategy that helps us become more involved in our reading, listening and writing.  We drew pictures in our journals of the moments we had visualized after hearing the story.  The class was so engaged that you could hear a pin drop!

During our Daily 5, we continued with some of our guided reading groups and practiced our new reading strategy - Make a Picture or Mental Image.  After snack, we went outside for a body break and the weather was beautiful.  When we came back inside, we quickly joined Mrs. Peterson's class and jumped right into rehearsing skits for our Social Studies inquiry that we will be performing at Friday's assembly.  Just a reminder...if you require props for your group, plan to bring them with you tomorrow.

We started off our afternoon with music with Mrs. Jones.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Bowles was unable to get there to see what was happening today.

In Math, The Doorbell Rang Group and the Great Divide:  A Mathematical Marathon  group worked on the math in our books.  We discovered that there was more than just division and that we can use many different kinds of operations ( =, -, X and ÷) to find the answers.  We also made the connection between division and fractions. Who knew all of this stuff can be connected?  We started to document our understanding in a Freyer Model. Get me to explain what this is?

In our science inquiry, the scientists (botanists) looked at proper scientific method.  From our observations yesterday we decided to do an experiment with our growing bean plants.  We wrote out our experiment just like a scientist would with:  a title, a question, procedure, prediction  and (hypothesis).  Tomorrow with Mrs. Redwood we will continue our work on scientific method and we will write out our daily observation and create a labeled diagram of our observation.

Room 80 Science Engineers are preparing to turn their blueprint shelter plans into reality.  We have been discussing the most important parts of our structures.  We are also working on a plan to help us use our materials in the most efficient way.

The final part of our day in gym we looked at shooting skills. Mr. McDougall showed us the proper way to shoot and we got time to practice on the hoops.



1.) Mrs Bowles and Mrs Zwack will be away tomorrow at a workshop. Mrs. Redwood will be subbing.
2.) Friday will be our assembly with Mrs. Peterson's class and our Spark friends.  If you would like to come and check out some of what we have to share, please come at 11:15.



We need some help in our science inquiry.  Can you find out what the ground is made of on Mars?  Do you think we will be able to dig down into the ground?