October 1
October has arrived amidst cold weather and busy classrooms. We have entered into another of our busiest academic months! We will be having a few special presentations this month as well. First, on October 10, we will be having the Atco Blue Flame kitchen crew in to cook with us. I do not know what we will be cooking, yet, but I am excited for this cooking lesson and I cannot wait to taste the students' creations. The second special presentation we will be having is the Earth Rangers. I have never been at this presentation before, so I do not know what to expect; however, when I googled them, it looks super exciting.This presentation is on October 23. Also on October 23, we will be having Parent-teacher-student conferences. There will be a schedule sent out for you to sign up for your appointment time - please stay tuned for that information.
Please remember that there is no school this Monday for Thanksgiving, or Friday the 19th because of a PD day. Our Halloween festivities will be on the 31st, and more details will come as the day draws nearer. And, November 1st is a PD day so there is no need to worry about a crazy late night for students! I have not yet told the students this, but Friday, November 2, will be a candy free for all. I will allow the students to bring as much candy to class as you allow them to bring to school, and they can eat it throughout the day BUT this will be the only time they are allowed to gorge on their Halloween candy - I do not want to see it during class time again.
Please remember to offer fruit and cookie dough orders to everyone you know! Not only is the fruit of a high quality, but this is one of our Camp Warwa big fundraisers. The proceeds from this fundraiser go towards this event ONLY.
Here's what we have been up to academically:
Social: We have been learning all of the provinces and territories of Canada to help determine where in Canada Alberta is located. We have been practicing both the abbreviations for and the proper spelling of each province and territory. We will be having a quiz on the names and locations of all 13 on Friday. The students have been provided with blank copies of Canada to help them study at home. I will be fussy about the spelling on this quiz. Beginning next week, we will be working on the different natural regions of Alberta and how they contribute to the uniqueness of our great province.
Science: We are still in the Waste and Our World unit, and will be until near the middle of November. We have spent some time learning about packaging, both pre-consumer and post-consumer wastes, and biodegrading/decomposing of produce and animals. We have completed 1 experiment (how does biodegrading begin) and are almost finished another on whether or not all materials decompose in the the same manner. We will begin a third experiment tomorrow but we will have to wait for a month to make these discoveries. We are moving into discovering flow charts of how materials are taken from their raw state through manufacturing to disposal of the waste materials.
Math: Many of the students have progressed through at least 2 of the product levels of the Mad Minutes. Some of the students are now working as high as products of 64. This is great progress for October! Please remember to practice the multiplication tables at home to help your student progress. We have worked through patterns of increasing and decreasing sequences, t-tables and charts. We will be starting patterns involving time tomorrow followed by calendars on Wednesday. I am aiming to be wrapping up this unit by the middle of October - please watch for more information in the coming weeks as to a specific date for the unit final. We have been using Mathletics to supplement our course work. This program is directly tied to Alberta curriculum, and is a fun way to review and enforce the classroom learning.
LA: We have begun our 'formal' sections of reading. We have been focussing on inference. We read several small stories and then answered questions related to story that required us to "read between the lines" to answer. The students really seemed to enjoy this activity - I'm not sure if it was the task itself or the fact that they got to move about the room finding the various stories. We have been writing in our KidBlog almost daily, on a variety of topics. Ask your student to share his/her writing with you; they are very interesting.
We have been practicing keyboarding skills using Typing Club. Your student has access to both Tying club and Mathletics from any device that can be connected to the internet. Typing Club is easily accessed from the student's Google account, and mathletics can be signed into directly using the specific log in information for each student.
We are continuing to work with subject/predicate agreement focussing on tense.
We have also read the story "TURKEY TROUBLE by Wendi Silvano, and are using this mentor text to guide us in the lessons of friendly letter writing and persuasive writing. Please look for these on one of our bulletin boards when you visit for Parent-teacher-student conferences.
We have had a few library classes in which I have asked the students to choose books that are both at the appropriate reading level (Can you read that book and understand it?) and of a length to last a week. Students have been experiencing some difficulty in book choices and I am often told, "I have a book at home that I am reading." While this is fabulous, I am also asking students to have 2 books here to read during read-to-self time or as a free reading book. Please remind and encourage your student to sign out books from our library that will help us achieve these goals. Also, books are signed out for a period of one week. Please be sure to return or renew them by their due date.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
Please remember that there is no school this Monday for Thanksgiving, or Friday the 19th because of a PD day. Our Halloween festivities will be on the 31st, and more details will come as the day draws nearer. And, November 1st is a PD day so there is no need to worry about a crazy late night for students! I have not yet told the students this, but Friday, November 2, will be a candy free for all. I will allow the students to bring as much candy to class as you allow them to bring to school, and they can eat it throughout the day BUT this will be the only time they are allowed to gorge on their Halloween candy - I do not want to see it during class time again.
Please remember to offer fruit and cookie dough orders to everyone you know! Not only is the fruit of a high quality, but this is one of our Camp Warwa big fundraisers. The proceeds from this fundraiser go towards this event ONLY.
Here's what we have been up to academically:
Social: We have been learning all of the provinces and territories of Canada to help determine where in Canada Alberta is located. We have been practicing both the abbreviations for and the proper spelling of each province and territory. We will be having a quiz on the names and locations of all 13 on Friday. The students have been provided with blank copies of Canada to help them study at home. I will be fussy about the spelling on this quiz. Beginning next week, we will be working on the different natural regions of Alberta and how they contribute to the uniqueness of our great province.
Science: We are still in the Waste and Our World unit, and will be until near the middle of November. We have spent some time learning about packaging, both pre-consumer and post-consumer wastes, and biodegrading/decomposing of produce and animals. We have completed 1 experiment (how does biodegrading begin) and are almost finished another on whether or not all materials decompose in the the same manner. We will begin a third experiment tomorrow but we will have to wait for a month to make these discoveries. We are moving into discovering flow charts of how materials are taken from their raw state through manufacturing to disposal of the waste materials.
Math: Many of the students have progressed through at least 2 of the product levels of the Mad Minutes. Some of the students are now working as high as products of 64. This is great progress for October! Please remember to practice the multiplication tables at home to help your student progress. We have worked through patterns of increasing and decreasing sequences, t-tables and charts. We will be starting patterns involving time tomorrow followed by calendars on Wednesday. I am aiming to be wrapping up this unit by the middle of October - please watch for more information in the coming weeks as to a specific date for the unit final. We have been using Mathletics to supplement our course work. This program is directly tied to Alberta curriculum, and is a fun way to review and enforce the classroom learning.
LA: We have begun our 'formal' sections of reading. We have been focussing on inference. We read several small stories and then answered questions related to story that required us to "read between the lines" to answer. The students really seemed to enjoy this activity - I'm not sure if it was the task itself or the fact that they got to move about the room finding the various stories. We have been writing in our KidBlog almost daily, on a variety of topics. Ask your student to share his/her writing with you; they are very interesting.
We have been practicing keyboarding skills using Typing Club. Your student has access to both Tying club and Mathletics from any device that can be connected to the internet. Typing Club is easily accessed from the student's Google account, and mathletics can be signed into directly using the specific log in information for each student.
We are continuing to work with subject/predicate agreement focussing on tense.
We have also read the story "TURKEY TROUBLE by Wendi Silvano, and are using this mentor text to guide us in the lessons of friendly letter writing and persuasive writing. Please look for these on one of our bulletin boards when you visit for Parent-teacher-student conferences.
We have had a few library classes in which I have asked the students to choose books that are both at the appropriate reading level (Can you read that book and understand it?) and of a length to last a week. Students have been experiencing some difficulty in book choices and I am often told, "I have a book at home that I am reading." While this is fabulous, I am also asking students to have 2 books here to read during read-to-self time or as a free reading book. Please remind and encourage your student to sign out books from our library that will help us achieve these goals. Also, books are signed out for a period of one week. Please be sure to return or renew them by their due date.
Have a great Thanksgiving!
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