Community 81

Thank you to all those parents who came to our school Literacy Night last night. I enjoyed seeing you and talking with you about your child. Another busy week. On Monday's PD day I went with several other teachers to visit potential field trip sites.  My favorite site was the Chinook Honey Company.  This place is located just outside of Okotoks and it offers some really awesome programs.  I left this place feeling so excited about the possibility of a trip there in the Spring and a potential Bee inquiry.  Families are welcome to visit the Chinook Honey Company on weekends.  It's a beautiful location. Math: We are still working on multiplication.  We are learning about repeated addition and skip counting to solve multiplication questions.  Please ask your child how they would solve 2x5. Art: We are currently working on a tree art project.  Some students have finished and their artwork is up for viewing.  Inquiry: We are very close to finishing up our first google slide

GENRE of the Week: This week is going to be slightly different in that we will be focusing on exploring a style of music rather than one artist. Looking back at the artists we have been working with over the past couple weeks, one might notice that they each have one thing in common: all have roots in The Blues. This week we will be enjoying the song writing of old Delta Blues characters such as Robert Johnson, to the Chicago electric styles of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and finally, the late great B. B. King. One thing is for certain, the majority of popular music from the last 60 (or more) years can somehow trace roots back to the blues. 

Today was our first Club Friday.  Everything went off without a hitch and sounds like the kids had a tonne of fun. We also started working on a fall art project.  This involved a lot of tape ripping. We also started to paint the backgrounds but will have to finish next week. Yesterday we started talking about patterns.  We reviewed repeating and growing patterns.  Next week we will be moving on to multiplication. In writing we have been working on adding details to our sentences.  These details include the who, what, where, when and why.  Please have your child demonstrate this activity to you. Everyone got new Words Their Way words this week.  Your child should have brought these words home to practice. We have been talking about animals during inquiry.  Yesterday we learned how to put our research onto a google slides presentation.  This presentation can be accessed at home.  Please have your child show you how to do this.  If your child chooses to work on this project at h

Happy Friday Families.  Here is all the amazing things that have been happening in Room 81 this week. 1. Terry Fox Run on Thursday was amazing! 2. During inquiry we have been looking at a variety of pictures that show how difficult it can be for some children to get to school.  We have been talking about the things We see, the things we think and the things we wonder about what is going on in the pictures.  Next we will be moving on to a Science unit about Animal Life Cycles. 3.Math - This week we finished up our work on Data Analysis.  We will re-visit this unit later in the year. 4.  Writing - we have been working on creating climbing stories.  These are fiction stories that have a distinctive beginning, middle and end. 5. Word Work - everyone received their words their way words this week.  Copies of these words will be sent home next week for extra practice.  We have learned a few different activities that we can do with our words. One of them is called Blind Sort.  Pleas

Happy Friday. I wanted to say thank you to all the wonderful families I met with over the past 2 days.  I learned so much about your children and I feel even more privileged than ever to spending my days with your child. Just a reminder to please send in the Parent Volunteer Questionnaire. This past week has been very busy.....as usual. We have started to learn about coding.  Our first activity was Coding Unplugged.  Here's how this worked:  One child went out in the hall, the other child watched a quick video of a person dancing, the child comes in the classroom and the one that watched the video had to describe how the other child had to move. Some of the moves were to raise your arms, step forward and lean to the side.   This was a good introduction to coding and the kids realized how specific they have to be. We have also started TUSC-The Ultimate Speaking Club.  The students will each be assigned different jobs in our club (jobs will change every couple weeks).  Thei

Happy Friday Families.  Alexa would you all to know that you may now sign up for parent teacher interviews that are on Thursday September 21 from 4-6:16 and Friday morning from 8:-11:45.  Thank you for this reminder Alexa! Art:  This week we finished our sketching portraits.  They are currently hanging in the hallway outside our classroom. Reading: We have started guided reading this week.  We have added 4 strategies to our CAFE menu: check for understanding, back track and read again, flip the sound and voracious reading.  Please ask your child what voracious mean. Writing: We have been working on writing our memories and stories about summer adventures.  We have also been working on writing about topics that we are experts on.  Some of these topics include: animals, math, gymnastics, family and food.  Our writing process currently consists of 1.Choose a topic 2. organize your ideas 3. write an interesting first sentence 4.write your story 5. write a closing sentence Next