November 30, 2018

Hello Families, 

We had a great week! We finally started constructing the landforms for our community. Since collecting data about which landforms are most important in our community, we determined our community would have a river, a lake, and a mountain range. Then, students worked in groups to design blueprints for where the landforms should be within our community to provide the best possible quality of life. They considered factors such as access to transportation, safety (ie. landslides, floods), and wild animal habitats. Here are the blueprints made by each group:

Each group had the opportunity to present their ideas to the class about the location of their landforms. Next, we had a whole group discussion and decided on a layout for our community. We voted on all decisions that were made and decided to make it look like this:

You can see the mountains we built and added in the above picture! We also took turns painting the cardboard base. We decided to put our landforms on the outside, so we have lots of space when we are ready to start building our community, and to keep our community safe from potential natural disasters. To help with your understanding, our cardboard community is almost 6 feet tall, so this was a huge job that took most of the day yesterday!

We also had some students create some really tricky patterns today to quiz you at home! Here are some pattern cores, and they want to see if you can figure our what ATTRIBUTE is changing in the pattern? Hint: attributes that may be changing include: color, size, shape, direction, number of holes, etc. 

A reminder that we are going on a walking field trip to Nickle Junior High School on Monday, December 3rd. The walk is about 60 minutes (30 mins each way) so please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the long walk. We will only be going to Nickle for part of the morning and then it will be a regular day after we return. 

Enjoy your weekend!

Lindsay Brown

Updates

Hello All, 

Here is some information from LBS:

• T-Shirt Sales have been EXTENDED to December 5! Order your T-shirt on the order form sent home or linked here:https://tinyurl.com/yd5o5vve Look on the bottom right under ‘Resources’

• School Council request: Donations of Halloween Candy! Send to school office or bring to Winter Concert.

Don't forget - Scholastic orders for November and December are DUE on Friday, November 30th. 

THANKS!

November 26, 2018

Hello Everyone,

A Note Regarding Scholastic Orders:

I sent home the December 2018 Scholastic Flyer today. Both the November and December orders will be due on Friday, November 30th. This way we can ensure all parcels have arrived at LBS before winter break. Again, if you'd like any orders to be kept secret please inform me via email and I'll let you know when the parcel has arrived instead of sending it home with your child!

Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to attend our November Learning Conferences. It is always a great opportunity to connect with families and share current learning. I hope everyone found their conference experience informative and it provided opportunities to continue your learning at home.

Last week we started to think about the blueprint for our communities. Students worked in small groups to draft where they thought the landforms should be in our communities. This prompted lots of inspiring conversation about the impact of these landforms. Some students decided they should put their community inside our mountain range, in order to keep it protected. Other students were wary about having the river too close to our community, incase of a flood (which would compromise our quality of life). After the blueprints were made, each group had an opportunity to share to the class their design and reasoning, and we will work together to determine the best design for our whole class community. I am hoping we will be able to begin our construction of landforms this week :).

We have also been learning about a strategy for spelling, syllable spelling. Each syllable of a word must contain a vowel! This has been tricky to learn, but we will keep practicing. On the other hand, students have really grasped onto the understanding of long and short vowel sounds! I am hoping to start a more formalized spelling program in the new year for those students who are ready.

Today we began to extend our understanding of growing patterns with some small group lessons on the bead chains. These are a great tool for students to build skills of counting on and skip counting. We have to borrow from the bead cabinet in Ms. Green's room but they will be a responsible work choice for the remainder of the week. In addition, we will be moving on to targeting skip counting in the math curriculum!

Enjoy your evening,
Lindsay Brown

Shut the Box!

We play a really fun math game at school called Shut the Box!

It is a really easy game to play at home, and your child should be able to teach you how to play. This is a great game for targeting numerous mathematical skills, such as recognizing numbers at a glance and addition and subtraction. Here's an overview of how to play:

To play "Shut the Box", you need 2 dice, and cards 1-12 (they do not need to be the same suit).

Start by laying out the cards in order, face up.
First player rolls both dice.
First player can turn over the card that matches either the sum (+) or difference (-) of the dice.

Most of the grade 1's are just working towards identifying the sum right now, but feel free to gauge the readiness level and include the difference as well!
We are working towards automaticity of basic facts, but our entry strategy for developing these skills is being able to count on (start with the largest number and count on the other dice amount) and count back (start with the largest number and count back the other dice amount).

For example: if 4 and 5 are rolled, the player can turn over 9 (5...6,7,8,9) or 1 (5...4,3,2,1).

The first player continues to roll the dice, turning over cards until they can't turn over any more cards.

The cards that are left showing are the added together and that is the first players score.

The cards are turned back to face up, the dice are now passed to the second player for their turn, following the same process.

The winner is the person with the LOWEST score.

I hope you enjoy this game at home!

Ms. Brown

LBS Clothing

SHOW YOUR LBS PRIDE!!!

Great for school spirit days, fun lunches, special events, assemblies or just everyday wear!

Sample t-shirts are in the front hallway to try on for size and style.

T-shirts = $10.00 (youth)  $12.00 (adult)

Baseball style = $20.00

Parents and Teachers can show their spirit with an LBS Polo = $25.00


***Orders due by Friday November 23^rd,2018***

Growing Smiles Fundraiser - orders due soon!

Dear Parents,

Growing Smiles is the Lake Bonavista Improvement Society's current fundraiser and the order deadline is approaching quickly. You can order a variety of Poinsettias, Holiday Planters, a beautiful Wreath and an Outdoor Planter.

To order visit: https://lakebonavistaschool.growingsmilesfundraising.com or return the paper order form to the school by November 22nd. Orders will be ready for pickup on December 3^rd between 2:45 and 6:00 pm.

The funds raised by LBIS in previous years have gone to items such as Robotic Kits, Gym Equipment and Field Trips that enrich all our students’ experiences. Thank you for supporting our school.

LBIS

November 19, 2018

Hello Families,

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the sunshine this weekend! Here's some of our recent learning:

1. Community - We are working on a large interdisciplinary unit of study surrounding the idea of community. Currently, we are looking at various landforms, and using data collection to determine which landforms would be best to have in the community we are constructing. Landforms are important in communities because they impact quality of life! We are beginning to learn that landforms impact our access to food and water, our feelings of safety, and our hobbies and interests. We want landforms in our community that will provide us with the best possible quality of life!! Our next lessons will include the Montessori Land Form Materials, and soon we will begin the construction of the landforms within our communities. Eventually, we will connecting this social studies curriculum to science topics also.

2. Sorting and Growing Patterns - We used book creator on the iPads to create books about how we sort in the real world! Students were given the opportunity to explore different ways we sort in our school, and then match photos to voice recordings to share their understanding. This project was very well done, and students were able to identity that sorting helps us to organize our world. We are also beginning to look at growing patterns, and have identified different patterns that grow by 1's, 2's and 3's. Students are creating and extending these patterns, before recording them in their workbooks, using a variety of materials such as patterning blocks and Montessori beads.

3. Writing and Reading - We are working on identifying vowels and syllables right now. We started by building our own names with unifix cubes, making the vowels a different color. Then we talked about when Y is a vowel (when he makes the sound of a vowel, ie. E or I). This will eventually assist as a spelling strategy when writing. In small group work, some students are also working on identifying short and long vowels, and building reading strategies around the different vowel sounds.

I still have lots of open spaces for Parent Teacher Conferences this Thursday, November 22 from 4:00pm - 8:00pm and Friday, November 23 from 8:00am - 12:45pm. Please book if you have not already done so!

Take care,
Lindsay Brown

We're Visiting our Big Buddies!

Hello Families,

On Monday, December 3, 2018 we are going to walk over to Nickle Junior High School to visit our big buddies, and assist them with the editing process for the book we have been working on together! The trip will also allow us the opportunity to explore their school community and the Lake Bonavista community.

We will be departing LBS around 9:00am and returning between 11:00am and 11:30am. If you'd like to be a parent volunteer for this trip please send me an email (librown@cbe.ab.ca). Reminder, this is a walking field trip so please ensure you are dressed appropriately, the walk will be approximately 30 minutes each way.

Thanks!

Lindsay Brown

Book Fair - Please Help!

Dear Parents,

Thank you to all that have been available to volunteer for the book fair. We are still in need of volunteers for the following times:

WEDNESDAY 8-11:30 AND 12:30 - 2:30 (AT LEAST ONE MORE VOLUNTEER IN EACH SLOT)

THURSDAY EVENING FROM 3:45-8:00 - 2-3 MORE VOLUNTEERS

FRIDAY MORNING 8:00- 1:00 2 MORE VOLUNTEERS

Contact your classroom teacher if you are available for any of these times. 

Thank you for your support.

Literacy Committee

Arts Commons - Postponed

Hello families, 

We are sorry to inform you that our field trip to the Arts Commons has been postponed. We had submitted the Arts Commons to be approved as a field trip for LBS and unfortunately it was not approved by the date we expected. We sincerely apologize to all of our wonderful volunteers who had offered to join us on this trip and to all of our students who were very excited about this learning opportunity. We are all very disappointed. Our trip has been rescheduled for May 23, 2019. 

Thank you so much for your understanding.

Grade 1/2 Teachers

Letter Formation Resources

Hello Families,

Here is some information from our school Occupational Therapist about learning letter formation! If you'd like a PDF version feel free to send me an email and I'll forward it along :)!

Remembrance Day Assembly

Remembrance Day

Dear LBS Families,

This Friday, November 9, grades 5 and 6 are hosting a Remembrance Day Assembly.

We invite you to join us at 10:45 am. At approximately 11:00 am we will stop for a minute of silence.

If you don’t have a poppy, we will have poppies available and are happy to accept donations that we will pass along to the Legion.

Hope we see you there!

November 7, 2018

Hello Families, 

Wow! Time is certainly flying by... it's hard to believe we are already in November! I am looking forward to the new concepts and topics we are starting, one of the biggest ones being community!

We are looking at the idea of community through an interdisciplinary approach. Right now, we are in the beginning phases of our community exploration. On Tuesday, we created a KWL chart about community. The K's are things we already know about community. The W's are things we want to know about community. The L section is currently blank, but it will contain what we learn, and we can add to it as we develop a deeper understanding. 

We also spent some time looking at Google Earth, and identifying various elements of physical geography such as hills, mountains, and rivers. The next step will be to use the Montessori Landform Materials to classify and identify other landforms that are not in our physical environment (ie. islands, shores, etc.). This is just the beginning phase, our final product will include cross curricular ideas from social studies, science, and mathematics! 

In addition, we are continuing to deeper our understanding of the patterning and sorting mathematics curriculum. This week, we are focusing on patterning word problems, where students can show their understanding of how the elements in patterns change, while developing number sense to identify that the last number in a set identifies "how many". Students are working with materials, and recording their answers in their math journals, with emphasis on the organization of their work. Here's our sample problem about repeating patterns from today:

We used these three cute and hilarious photo prompts for our writing work today. This was an extension of the MindUp work we have been doing about labelling emotions and feelings. The students thought these animal photos were really funny:

After selecting their favorite photo, they responded to the question, "How is this animal feeling? Why?" There was a mixed range of responses, but it was amazing to see the students being able to label their understanding of a wide range of emotions, while responding to a fun and creative writing question!

A new Scholastic order went home yesterday, the order due date will be November 30th. Please let me know if you'd like to keep any ordered materials secretive for holiday gifts and I am happy to assist with that! In addition, each first grade student in the school will be given a book today as a gift from "The TD Grade One Book Giveaway, a program from The Canadian Children's Book Centre".  These are yours to keep! :) 

The Parent-Teacher conference booker will be open this Friday, November 9th, at 4:00pm for you to schedule a conference time! 

Also, our library schedule has changed and after this week we will be visiting the library on Wednesday mornings! Furthermore, we have a Remembrance Day assembly on Friday morning. 

Have a  great week!

Lindsay Brown

Book Fair

Dear Families,

We are pleased to be hosting another Scholastic book fair this year during Parent Teacher Conferences. The book fair will be open for purchasing from 

4:00 pm-7:45 pm Thursday Nov. 22 and 8:00 -12:45 Friday November 23. 

Your child will have an opportunity to view the book fair on Wed. Nov. 21 and Thursday Nov.22 in the morning.  They will not be purchasing any books on the previewing days.

 

We are looking for parent volunteers who would be interested in helping set up the book fair, as well as some parents to help with the book fair while it is running.

 

If you are able to volunteer during any of the time slots below we would greatly appreciate it! Please email Pam Green with the time and day you are available to help at pngreen@cbe.ab.ca. 

You will receive a confirmation email from Mrs. Green with more information.

 

Tuesday, November 20th – set up Time to be determined

 

Wednesday, November 21st  - all day previewing for students

 

8:00am - 11:35am (2 volunteers needed)

12:25 pm - 2:35pm (2 volunteers needed)

 

Thursday, November 22nd 

 

8:16-11:30am (3 volunteers needed) Previewing for students

 

3:45- 8:00 pm (4 volunteers needed) Purchasing for families 

 

Friday, December 2nd 

 

8:00-1:00 (3 volunteers needed) Purchasing for families

 

Thanks, 

Literacy Committee