December 16, 2019

Hello Families, 

I hope you were all able to enjoy the wonderful Winter Concert put on by the students at Lake Bonavista School! They always do such a lovely job at spreading holiday excitement and joy. I know the concert is a highlight for many students in Room 11! 

Caroling
This week we have opportunities for families to join us for caroling in the gym, if you're interested we will be caroling on Tuesday, December 17 at 12:45PM, Wednesday, December 18 at 8:30AM, and Thursday, December 19 at 12:45PM. 

Winter Celebration
On Thursday, December 19th in the afternoon we will have a small celebration to end the 2019 year as a group! Students are invited to wear holiday sweaters for this event. If you'd like to provide plates, napkins, or snacks for a group of 22 students that would be greatly appreciated. Also, if you'd like to come and join us for treats and celebrations you're more than welcome, just come through the main office anytime after 1:15PM and join us in the classroom!

Current Learning
We are working hard at wrapping up a few important pieces of learning before going our separate ways for the winter break. The biggest piece of this work is around the Memory Museum. Last week, students used their 5 senses to recall the memory that is connected to their museum artifact. Using their visual journals and palm prints, we brainstormed and documented the memories through words and pictures. From here, grade two students (along with a few grade ones) turned their brainstorming into sentences to reflect the memory artifact information cards that came with the museokits (as seen in previous blog posts). Thus, the final product for some students will be a written artifact card. For other students, they will orally share their memories from the visual journal page, and I will help them document by acting as their scribe, to ensure success for all students. I am hoping to have the memory artifacts returned by Thursday so they will be home over the break!

Here are the pictures of our Memory Museum.

We continue to work with our big buddies to complete our animal artwork that incorporates sketching techniques, giving and receiving effective feedback, repeating patterns, and self-assessment of work.  Today, students moved to their good copy work and shared how they would implement the feedback they received about their drafts. This is another piece of work we are hoping to have completed before the break. Here are some pictures from the work today, the improvement between drafts is really evident which shows students were doing an excellent job at incorporating their feedback and revising their work to make it better!

We brought our "On the weekend I..." journal writing back in time today... to 100 years ago!! We learned from the museokits that 100 years ago, there were no pencils and erasers to write with! Instead, all students had to use what is called a "straight pen" and ink for writing. We practiced this in our own version using skinny paintbrushes and black "ink" (paint). Students had to create their own lines in their journals to write on and then paint their journal entries, you may have seen evidence of this work on SeeSaw. While this was happening I told them it needed to be completely silent work like in the schools of 100 years ago... needless to say this brought on lots of giggles and laughter from the kids!

Last, here are our math puzzles from today. We are still working with doubles facts but in a different way!

Important Dates:

Wednesday, December 18 - last library session for stuents in Room 11, can take a book home for the holidays

Thursday, December 19 - Last day of classes for students, holiday sweaters

Monday, January 6 - School resumes

Take care, 

Lindsay Brown

Tickets and Scholastic

Hello All,

Winter Concert
Yesterday, the Winter Concert tickets were sent home with the oldest child in your family. Please note that ALL people attending the concert require a ticket, including babies. If you require additional tickets please contact the office to be entered into the raffle to get extras.

Please arrive at the school at 5:40PM on Thursday, December 12, and your child can come down to the classroom.

Scholastic
Scholastic orders are due this Friday, December 13 at 3:00PM. If you'd like your order to be secretive (ie. Christmas presents) please let me know via email and I can package them up to keep them a secret from your child.


Take care!
Lindsay Brown

AARCS FUNDRAISER

AARCS Fundraiser

Rooms 12, 16, 13 and 4 are doing another fundraiser this year to raise money for the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS). During the daytime and evening winter concert shows on Thursday, December 12th, we will be selling homemade Crunchy Tuna Cat Treats and Wowbutter Banana Dog Bites. Each bag will cost $3 and all proceeds will go towards AARCS to help ensure the animals in their care have their basic necessities this holiday season. Please bring cash if you are interested in purchasing treats for your own pets or as a holiday gift! Thank you for your support!

If you have any questions please email Ms. Midgley (lemidgley@cbe.ab.ca) or Mrs. Ireland (hlireland@cbe.ab.ca)

December 6, 2019

Hello Families,

We have had another busy and exciting week exploring with the grade 1 and 2 Muesokits from Glenbow Museum. Last week, we explored kitchen tools from the past (about 100 years ago) and looked at artifacts making connections and comparisons to what is currently in our kitchens at home.

This week, we have the One Room Schoolhouse kit. We have explored and deepened our understanding of life in the past by making mind-maps about what is in a school, sharing our ideas, and adding information and then talking about how things may have changed since 100 years ago. Today we learned more about the artifacts and documented using a Venn Diagram.

We also talked about the difference between math strategies and math materials and made an anchor chart to support our understanding. Last week, students were learning and practicing their doubles facts through the games that were shared on my previous blog. This week we spiced things up by implementing doubles facts, along with other strategies into word problems. This was a surprisingly challenging activity for the majority of students. They also completed a self assessment after completion. Here is what that work looked like:

Dec 3, 2019

Doubles Word Problems:

Itzy and her twin sister Zoey have all the same toys. Each of them has: 

8 markers	4 dolls
6 coloring books	16 stuffed animals

Mild

How many markers do Itzy and Zoey have ALTOGETHER?

Medium

How many markers, dolls, and coloring books do Itzy and Zoey have IN TOTAL?

Spicy

How many markers, dolls, coloring books, and stuffed animals do Itzy and Zoey have IN ALL?

Personal Reflection: I chose work that is “just right” for me – Yes / No My work is organized and easy to understand - Yes / No I used an efficient strategy or strategies: ________________________________ Next time I will improve my work by: ____________________________________

To improve this work in future, we will complete a "math conference" next week where different students will share their strategies for organization and problem solving so we can learn from one another. Then there will be a parallel task to see how new skills and ideas are implemented after the peer learning takes place. Here is the work that will be shared at math conferences:

In addition, with our big buddies in Mrs. Morden's class, we have been learning new sketching techniques called Pen Sketching Techniques. We were inspired by the cute Telus holiday animals to create artwork alongside our buddies where we can implement different sketching techniques as well as demonstrate our understanding of patterning and our growing understanding of providing one another with effective feedback. Here are some pictures of the students hard at work practicing their newly learned techniques:

Please note that anyone attending the Winter Concert on Thursday, December 12th needs a ticket! Even babies count as people who require tickets. If you need extra tickets please notify the office so you can be entered into the lottery. As a great alternative we also offer daytime shows at 9:30AM and 12:45PM. Our class will be participating in the 9:30AM show. 

Also, next Friday, December 13th is a school wide PJ DAY for everyone who would like to participate! :)

Enjoy your weekend!

Lindsay

Winter Concert

Hello parents!

Our Winter Concert is just over a week away!

Students performing in the 6:00 show (rooms 3,5,6,10,11,12 and 16) need to arrive at school at 5:40 pm on Thursday Dec. 12. 

Students performing in the 7:30 show (rooms 2.4.7.8.9.13.17) need to arrive at school at 7:10 pm on Thursday Dec. 12.

Students in Grades 1-4 can wear what they like to the concert.  No hats/novelty headbands please so we can see everyone’s smiling faces when they are on the stage! 

Thank you for your support, the students are excited.

Julie Kawchuk

Jrhayneskawc@cbe.ab.ca

PS. We are looking for donations to decorate the gym, we are in search of:

• Wrapping paper – sufficient to wrap large and medium sized boxes
• Scrapbook paper appropriate to make snowflakes

:) 

November 27, 2019

Hello Families,

I have a whole bunch of new math games for you to add to your home collections! Unfortunately, we are on a very limited supply of paper to print the games here at school, so I will attach them to this blog in their largest format for you to print at home :).

PIG:
The first game is called PIG and it practices tallying. Here is a video explaining how to play, https://youtu.be/ZJVVh_mb_x4, please start the video at 3:17 to get directly to the PIG game! Also, there is no real need to print the scorekeeping sheets, scrap paper or a mini whiteboard would be a great substitution for children to create their own tables for scorekeeping. The second version of this game (also featured in the video) is a little easier and practices counting on for friends who are still learning numbers up to 100.

DINOSAUR DOUBLES:
This game only required various different colored objects to use as chips and a dice. This game works with practicing doubles with sums up to 12. To download this game, please right click the image and "save to downloads", you can print from there.


SLIDES AND LADDERS:
This game and the next one are a little trickier as they work with sums up to 20. To download this game, please right click the image and "save to downloads", you can print from there.

DOUBLES DASH:
To download this game, please right click the image and "save to downloads", you can print from there.

Doubles facts are important because they are facts that we just have to know to build fact fluency!

ART FELT:
Yesterday was a wonderful day supported by Kerry from ArtFelt! The students were able to create 3D shapes from wool which was a really interesting process. Thanks so much to all parents who were able to support our learning!

Take care and stay warm!

Lindsay Brown

Pokemon Cards

Hello Families,

We have been having some ongoing difficulty around Pokemon Cards coming to school on non-card club days. Please note cards are not allowed to be at school or in backpacks any day other than Thursday. If/when cards come to school on Thursdays for Card Club, please ensure all cards are contained in some kind of package and/or binder and have your child's name clearly attached. All cards need to be handed in at the beginning of the day on Thursdays and will be stored safely by Mr. Link.

Thanks for your understanding and support!

Lindsay Brown

November 19, 2019

Hello Families,

I hope you have had an opportunity to schedule your learning conferences! Please remember we have learning conferences this week on Thursday evening from 4pm-8pm and Friday from 8am-1:30pm. A school messenger email was sent out to all families with information on how to book a conference time.

Over the last few days you should have received a picture on SeeSaw of some student math work using pattern blocks. This is a follow up task to the data collection we completed last week. Here are the questions to help guide your understanding. Please ask your child to share their counting strategies with you and explain how they reached the total, this will reflect their understanding.

Objective: Skip Counting, Addition Strategies, Working with Numbers up to 100, 2D Shape Recognition

Different pattern blocks have different values. 

Shape	Value
Trapezoid	1
Triangle	2
Parallelogram	5
Hexagon	10

Mild:

Create a picture where the triangles equal 20. Show your counting on SeeSaw.

Medium:

Using as many different shapes as you can, create a picture where the total is 50. Show your counting on SeeSaw.

Spicy:

Using as many different shapes as you can, create a picture where the total is 100. Show your counting on SeeSaw. 

Here are some photos of our classroom activities and tasks recently:

Our gratitude journal covers turned out amazing! 

We were experimenting with how we can use pattern blocks to create other pattern blocks! The trickiest part of this work was showing our understanding on paper :). This led us into our first math conference of the year. 

We have some artifacts from the Glenbow Museum to support our inquiry about memories and the past! Yesterday, we made guesses about what each artifact could have been used for. This is a milk jug :).

We have been using the parachute in gym! Today we played a super fun game of "shark attack" :). It allowed us to practice our drama skills too, haha. 

Also, I am still looking for at least two parents to assist with Art Felt on Tuesday, November 26th at 8:15am! :) Please let me know if you're available.

Take care, 

Lindsay Brown

Memories

Hello Families,

This was sent home with all students today:

Dear Families, 

Your child is on the hunt for an item that will support writing about memories, and develop a classroom “Memory Museum”, as part of ongoing classroom inquiry. Will you help your child select an object that is:

-      personally meaningful to your child

-      have a story behind it (perhaps your child got it and why it is special)

-      be of little monetary value (in case it gets lost or broken)

-      be easy to carry

The object could be a refrigerator magnet from a special vacation, a rock from a family camping spot, a ticket stub from a favourite movie or sporting event, a picture of someone or something important or a card or letter from a special person. We’re going to be writing stories about why these objects are special. The object will be returned to you at the end of the activity.

Thank you for your help. I look forward to sharing your child’s writing with you once it is complete. Please send your artifact by Thursday, November 21, 2019.

Sincerely, 

Ms. L. Brown

Volunteers

Volunteers Needed for Book Fair 

We are still in need of volunteers for our upcoming book fair.

We are pleased to be offering a book fair again this year over Parent Teacher Conferences. 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. 

Tuesday, November 19th – (set up)

• 9:00 a.m. (2 more needed)

  

Wednesday, November 20th (previewing)

12:30pm - 2:35pm (1 volunteers needed)

Thursday, November 21st (previewing and evening purchasing)

8:15- 11:30am (1 volunteers needed for previewing)

12:30pm - 2:35pm (1 volunteers needed)

Friday, November 22nd (purchasing)

8:00am-1:00pm (3 volunteers needed)

November 12, 2019

Hi Families,

In your child's mail folder this evening, please find a sheet titled, "What Memories..."

This activity is kick-starting an inquiry that will lead our work over the next couple of months. Being able to identify and describe personal memories will be an important part of future components for our inquiry. Your support with this activity is greatly appreciated.

Please take some time over the next few days discussing different memories, and support your child in recording one for each area on the sheet.

Your child can record in pictures OR words, it is not expected that they do both. If recording in pictures, please assist your child in developing pictures they will be able to speak to once back in the classroom.

It would ideal if your child could return their sheet on Friday, November 15, 2019

Additionally, all grade one students were given their grade one book today! This is yours to keep, this years book is really interesting as it is a dual language book! :)

Thank you for your support.

Lindsay Brown