Feb 22, 2013

Have a great break!!!

Feb 21, 2013

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school.  We will be celebrating in the afternoon.  If you  would like to sign up to help out click here.  For homework tonight please go to the Pinky Dinky Doo Website.

For Word Work we did the eam and ee word families:

In Language Arts we did the Nursery Rhyme Old Mother Hubbard.  We had lots of fun with the Nursery Rhyme today.  We read it on Tumblebooks and even played one of their games (you can click here to go to the FMPL website to access Tumblebooks).  We also watched a fun investigative report done by Kermit the Frog into Old Mother Hubbard and her bone.

In Health we talked about the Meats and Alternatives Group.  We found out that you should have 2-3 servings from this group every day.

In Art we did snowflake art using white glue and sugar.  Check them out:

In Social Studies we read the story David's Father by Robert Munsch about a little boy who moves to a new house.  We then created a graph showing the number of houses everyone has lived in.

Have a great night!

Feb 20, 2013

For No Excuse Words today we did Rainbow printing:

For word work we made ow and are words:

In Language arts we continued with our rewrite of the Three Little Pigs.  As a quick review of the story before we began writing we watched the following:

In Computers we began playing PBS Kids Island.  Each child has there own account.  The login info is as follows if you would like to try it out at home:

                email: ae2056@fmcsd.ab.ca

                Password: ae2056

In Math we continued working with the hundreds chart.  Today we made our own charts and colour coded them with the counting by 2's, 5's and 10's counting pattern.

Have a great night!

Feb 19, 2013

I hope everyone had a great Family Day weekend!

For No Excuse Words today we used our words in sentences:

For word work we made the following words:

In Social Studies we talked about what it's  like to move to a new place.  Whether it be a new home, new neighborhood,  new city, or even a new country.  We watched the story "From Far Away" by Robert Munsch online.  To watch it at home click here.

In Language Arts today we read the story of The Three Little Pigs.  After reading it we created a list of important words in the story: 

We also talked about ways you can start a story as an author:

Over the next couple of days the students will use this information to help them rewrite their own version of the 3 Little Pigs.

This afternoon we went and checked the school science fair.  Some of the cool projects we saw were:

1. How to Operate a Robot
2. Volcanoes
3. Ooey Gooey
4. Puppy Paw Prints

Feb 14, 2013

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

For Word Work today we created lists of old and one words.

Boston Pizza was very generous and donated the pizza today as the owners also had a connection to the family.  Therefore, I'm going to take the money I planned on spending and donating it in our class' name to the William Kristman Trust that has been set up.

Have a great Family Day Weekend!

Feb 13, 2013

At our Ash Wednesday Liturgy today we celebrated our shooting star Will:

For No Excuse Words we did a code breaker:

In LA we talked about St. Valentine.  We watched this little clip:

In Math we practiced skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's to 50.  Then using stickers we used our grouping skills to demonstrate.

Have a great night!

Jan 12, 2013

First off, a couple of important items:

1.  Our Ash Wednesday liturgy is tomorrow, Wednesday, February 13 at 8:30 am.  Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.  To honour Will's memory, students are encouraged to dress in green and black, Will's ski team colours.  This was suggested by 2 of Will's close friends, and we think it is a beautiful and appropriate way to honour Will.

2. For Homework tonight and tomorrow night please take a look at the blue social book in your child's kanga pouch.  Please take a some time to answer the questions on at the beginning of the book (parents can do the writing).  please have the books back to school no later than Thursday February 14th.

What's for supper?  How about pancakes? Today is Shrove Tuesday!

The long build up to Easter is called Lent. The day before Lent begins is called Shrove Tuesday. 'Shrove' means being forgiven for wrong-doings. It happens on a different date each year depending on when Easter is. This year Shrove Tuesday is today, 21 February, 2012.

Another name for Shrove Tuesday is Pancake Day. Long ago this was a day for feasting and having a good time. People would go to church to confess the bad things they had done and would be 'shriven' or forgiven before the start of Lent. Since rich foods such as eggs were forbidden during Lent, one way of using them up would be to make pancakes.

Many people still make pancakes on Shrove Tuesday!  In France and the United States Pancake day is called Mardi Gras which means 'Fat' or 'Grease Tuesday'.

Tomorrow begins the season of Lent.  The first day of Lent is known as Ash Wednesday. Ashes are something that are left when something is burned. Christians use them as a symbol of being sorry for things they have done wrong and want to get rid of forever. In many Christian churches there are special services where the vicar or priest makes the shape of a cross with ash on the forehead of each person. The ashes come from last year's palm crosses which are burned and mixed with holy water.

If you are available, please feel free to join us for our Ash Wednesday Liturgy in the Gym tomorrow at 8:30am.

Lent lasts for 40 days (not including Sundays). It is the time when Christians prepare for Easter by thinking of the things they have done wrong. It is a solemn time which reminds them of the time in Jesus' life when, after giving up his work as a carpenter, he began to teach people about God. Jesus prepared for this by spending 40 days without food alone in the desert.

Lent used to be a time for fasting or going without food as Jesus had done. Nowadays many people give up a favourite thing they enjoy like sweets and often give money to charity.

The colour purple is linked to Lent. In some churches the altar is covered with a purple cloth, the pulpit has a purple 'fall' and the vicar's garments are purple.

Purple is chosen for two reasons. One it is the colour associated with mourning and so it helps Christians think about the sadness of Jesus’ death. The other reason is that purple is the colour linked to royalty and so it celebrates Christ’s coming as a King.

For No Excuse Words today we had fun doing a spelling scramble.

For Word Work we created lists of oke and ive words:

In Math we continued to practice our counting skills.  Today we talked about using different strategies to count large groups of objects.  The first strategy we used was crossing out:

The second strategy was grouping:

We then combined these two strategies in order to do the following questions in our math book:

Have a great night!

Feb 11, 2013

We started our day today with a prayer:

For No Excuse Words practice today we put this week's words in alphabetical order:

In Math today, we started the numbers to 100 unit.  In this unit, your child will be exploring some important mathematical concepts about numbers to 100.

The learning goals for this unit are:

• Read and record numbers to 100.
• Count sets in different ways.
• Group by 2s, 5s and 10s.
• Count large collections of objects (up to 100).
• Skip count by 2s, 5s and 10s.

In order to help your child reach these learning goals try some of the following learning activities at home:

• Show your child a page between 20 and 50 in a book.  Have them count on from that number or count backwards from the number.  Now try a page between 50 and 100.
• Gather up 50 objects.  Have your child group them in different ways (groups of 1, 2, 5 or 10).  Have them count or skip count to 50.  Try again with 100 objects.
• Collect egg cartons and cut the last section off of each carton so that you have 10 “containers” per carton.  Collect small objects and use the egg cartons to practise counting (e.g. 3 cartons full and 2 left over: 10, 20, 30, 31, 32.)
• Select a number between 20 and 100.  Ask your child to draw the same number of objects.  Help your child circle groups of 10.  Ask “How many groups of ten?  How many are left over?”.  Try with groups of 5 or groups of 2.

Today we began by working together to create a 50 chart:

In Social Studies today we read the book Then and Now by R. Thompson.  We talked about how the word then means the past.  We then came up with some great "Now and Then" sentences.

1. Then I was in kindergarten.  Now I am in grade 1.
2. Then I was a baby.  Now I am a big kid.
3. Then I drove a Jeep.  Now I drive a quad.

Have a great night!

Feb 8, 2013

Don't forget to send in those pennies for our school penny drive.  All the money goes towards the church and building a school in Africa.

For word work today we created ay and ale words:

In Math we continued reviewing addition and subtraction.  We really focused on word problems and trying to decipher if they are addition or subtractions.  Here is a great link to various websites that allow you to practice this skill:  http://www.kidzone.ws/math/wordproblems.htm#gr1wp

In science we finished up our Colours Unit with a quiz.  Please review it when it comes home.

Have a great weekend!

Feb 7, 2013

First off, we do have school tomorrow.

Tonight’s Writing Homework:

We will be doing a writing assessment about a favorite object.  To help your child with this task please do the following:

• Have your child choose a small object that is important to them

• Have your child describe the object.
• Discuss where your child got the object.
• Discuss with your child why the object is important to them.

Please send your child’s object to school in a plastic bag with their name on it on Monday.

In Language arts today we read "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".  We watched a fun version of the rhyme:

We also came up with some fun facts about spiders:

1. Spiders can be hairy. (Allie)
2. Some spiders bite. (Alex)
3. Spiders store food in their web. (Rylie)
4. Spiders can climb walls. (Mason)
5. Spiders have eight legs. (Mia)
6. Spiders can be different. (Mohamad)
7. Spiders are not insects, they are arachnids. (1E)

In Science we continued to talk about the colours in the rainbow and about how rainbows are made.  That is, as white light is refracted through moisture in the air it splits into the colours of the rainbow.  We then demonstrated this using prisms and flashlights:

Finally, we did a fun new DPA today and the student's wanted me to share:

Have a great night

Feb 4, 2013

Our spelling words this week are:

1. it
2. he
3. for
4. orange
5. three

For word work we made the following words.

In Religion we read Deuteronomy 32:11

In Math we continued to review addition and subtraction.  We played a fun game of addition and subtraction snakes and ladders:

In science we talked about how to make the colour black.  We did a fun experiment where we put a black dot on a piece of filter paper then dripped water on it.  We found out that black is made up of all the colours of the rainbow.

Have a great night!