October 6, 2022

 Hello Families, 

We are officially one month into the school year and things continue to go well. This week we have been focusing specifically on place value and ordering of numbers, editing and revising written work, and continuing with our Wishtree novel study which connects to plant learning and building. 

It is important to note that the new mathematics curriculum includes numbers up to 100,000 for grade 3 students, and place value with decimal numbers for grade 4 students. This is a jump in expectations in comparison to the former Program of Studies. We also learned Place Value Yahtzee this week, I'll upload the game sheets on here if you'd like to have your child teach you how to play over the weekend!

Extra Spicy - decimal

Mild

Medium

Spicy

Thanks so much for all of the materials that have been sent in this week to support with the construction of our tree! We started the planning and construction of a base this week from the tips we learned from collaborating from Mrs. Cooper's class. 

Here's a rough outline of some of the things we do weekly:

- Monday-Friday opening task which includes one brain warm up for numeracy and literacy

- Tuesday afternoons - outdoor learning with an Indigenous focus and emphasis on plant learning and journaling, please ensure your child is dressed for the weather on Tuesdays!

- Wednesday afternoons - "workshop" - teaching a new journalling technique and book exchange in our school learning commons

- Afternoons are usually dedicated to our science and social studies learning, while mornings are for math and reading/writing tasks

- Outdoor phys. ed. daily (weather permitting) with Ms. Kassam's class

- Outdoor 1km run daily every morning

Here are some photos from the week:

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!

Ms. Brown

September 29, 2022

 Hello Families, 

We are still celebrating the incredible success of our whole school Terry Fox sharing assembly last week and the LBS Open House! We added the kilometers ran by the whole school during the Terry Fox run to our current distance and ended up at 1,118km from St. John's in a beautiful place called Truro, Nova Scotia. 

In writing, we are working on creating news articles to capture the success of the assembly and run last week. We learned that news articles are non-fiction texts that include the following elements:

If you were able to attend the Open House, I'm sure you noticed all of the amazing student work we have done in the first month of school! As we move forward, we have started reading the novel Wishtree, where the narrator is a tree.  This is connected to our future learning about plants and our Indigenous focused land-based learning. As a step towards reconciliation we spent time outside in the garden and observing trees this week while participating in smudges and sit spots. We also attended an awesome assembly by our little buddy class about Indigenous ways of knowing.

Why do we smudge? 

■ We smudge to clear the air around us. 

■ We smudge to clean our minds so that we will have good thoughts of others. 

■ We smudge our eyes so that we will only see good things in others. 

■ We smudge our ears so that we will only listen to good things about others. 

■ We smudge our mouths so that we will only speak well of others. 

■ We smudge our whole being so that we will portray only the good part of our self through our actions. 

Smudging is always voluntary.

Smudging allows people to stop, slow down, and become mindful and centred. This allows people to remember, connect, and be grounded in the event, task, or purpose at hand. Smudging also allows people to let go of negative feelings and thoughts. Letting go of things that inhibit a person from being balanced and focused comes from the feeling of being calm and safe while smudging. 

Smudging Protocol and Guidelines Smudging Protocol and Guidelines for School Divisions 2019

In math, we are learning about balancing equations and looking at place value with numbers up to 100,000. We have been playing games and practicing skills to develop both of these skills. We also continue to look at distance through our, now, 10 minute daily running across Canada. 

Art Cards:

 

Have a wonderful weekend, 

Ms. Brown

Orange Shirt Day

 Lake Bonavista School is proud to be honoring Orange Shirt Day on Thursday, September 29th. We encourage all students to wear orange in support of this important event. 

Terry Fox Assembly

 Hello Families, 

We would like to formally invite you to attend our school Terry Fox sharing assembly tomorrow (Wednesday, September 21st) at 12:40pm. We haven’t welcomed families into our school for a few years, so please take note of the following:

- If you would like to attend, please enter and sign in at the main office and make your way down to the gymnasium

- You’re welcome to stay and complete the Terry Fox run with us afterwards (approx. 1:10-1:45pm)

- You will not be able to visit the classroom or other parts of the school at this time

- Seating in the gymnasium is limited, and depending on visitor attendance there may be standing room only

- At this time, we are only inviting family members of Room 2 students

If you are unable to attend, I’ll do my best to record the assembly video and share it on Google Classroom. At this time, I am unsure about the rules around sharing videos of students but I’ll keep my blog updated when I find out more. 

Thanks for supporting our learning!

Ms. Brown

September 16, 2022

 Hello Families, 

We spent most of the week getting prepared and organized for the whole school assembly we are hosting on Wednesday, September 21 at 12:40pm! This week we worked in groups to continue our Terry Fox biography research and create a slide show to share with the school. Below are some slides made by the students. I will make the slides accessible in Google Classroom for you to view at home with your student when they are finalized. 

In terms of our run across Canada (2km a day), we are still in Newfoundland, however we have now collectively covered 583km. Some students have began seeking challenges in their runs and adding another 0.5km or 0.33km during the designated times. This has led to learning about fractions and decimals! We have also been working on completing the Alberta math assessments all week. 

Arguably the most exciting part of the week was when we got to meet Olympic marathon runner Trevor Hofbauer! In the spring he set a record as the fastest Canadian to have ever run in the Boston Marathon! Send him luck as he races in Vancouver this weekend.

We welcomed his expertise and generated questions to ask him to support with our inquiry. Our questions included:

- why did you want to start running?

- what kinds of mental exercises do you do as a runner?

- how do you deal with pressure before a race?

- what do you learn when you lose?

- what keeps you motivated?

Trevor taught us a lot about the importance of learning from our losses and staying disciplined. We also learned that he first became interested in running at school during a run across Canada challenge kind of like ours!

Here's a note from the Active Living Committee about the Terry Fox run next week:

Lake Bonavista School is proud to be participating in this year’s Terry Fox School Run. Our run will take place on Wednesday, September 21 at 12:40pm following Room 2’s sharing assembly. Let’s get our fundraising going and show everyone how we can “Try like Terry”! To donate: https://schools.terryfox.ca/LakeBonavista. Together, we can all make a difference. 
#terryfoxschoolruns #tryliketerry @terryfoxfoundation 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Brown

September 9, 2022

Hello Families, 

 

The first week and a half in room 2 have been wonderful. It seems like our new class is getting along very well and many students have made lots of new friends! We are working together to understand new routines and expectations to support learning. 

We begin each morning with a daily writing and math task before transitioning into our Montessori work period. This has been a very successful routine for students during our soft entry time. 

 

We will have a busy September as our class is leading the Terry Fox learning assembly on September 21st! We are so lucky to be back to "in person" assemblies this year. The new Alberta curriculum includes biographies, so we are working as a class to research and write a biography about Terry Fox that we can share with the school on assembly day. Additionally, we are running or walking 2km daily (broken up into 1km segments) to follow Terry Fox's journey across Canada during his marathon of Hope. We even brought our little buddies in grade 1 and 2 on one of our 1km's! 

We have been tracking our progress on a classroom map and Google Maps, we began our route in St John's, Newfoundland, and as of today we have almost made it to Gambo, NL. This has been a fun way to learn about measurement, and view the geography of various Canadian communities. 

Additionally, we drew a portrait of Terry Fox this week without any pre-teaching/learning. Throughout the week we are learning how to draw realistic parts of the face. We will apply these newly learned skills to draw a more accurate and realistic Terry Fox next week and be able to compare how our work has improved. 

    

Please note the Feastival information below:

Take care!

Ms. Brown

Meet the Teacher 2022-2023

 

SPORTS DAY!

 We are so excited to be able to host a Lake Bonavista School Sports Day in 2022! Sports Day will be taking place on Friday, June 24 from 8:30am-12:15pm. On this day, students will begin in the gymnasium for a pep rally and then travel with their class and their neighbouring class outside to participate in group activities and games. Parent Council has generously provided healthy snacks all students to enjoy for the end of the day!

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Wear athletic clothing and shoes

• Pack a water bottle and snack (we will have two snacks this day)

• Please wear sunscreen and bug spray

• Despite the forecasted rain, we will be moving forward with Sports Day unless there are thunderstorms, please dress accordingly

Thanks for your support!

Active Living

June 17, 2022

 Hello Families, 

Wow! It's hard to believe we are in the homestretch of the school year with only 7 days left for students! Everyone has been doing a great job staying focused on work despite growing excitement for the summer break. 

Over the past few weeks we have been looking at elements of story writing and character development. This week, we generated the plan to write our own stories, this work will continue on into next week. We have also been looking at division using materials to support the making of equal groups and continue to practice extending, creating, and representing increasing and complex repeating patterns. 

We had the wonderful opportunity to experience the full life cycle of a butterfly over the past month. 

  

We will be releasing the butterflies on our walking field trip on Monday. 

Stem Challenge 

Ms. Brown and I thought it would be a great way to end the year with weekly stem challenges. This weeks challenge was to sink a marshmallow in either oil or water. Day 1 of the challenge asked students to predict what would happen to the marshmallow in oil and in water, students then tested and planned their design for a sink jacket. Day 2 of the challenge asked students to build and test their design (the fun part!). Day 3 of the challenge asked students to reflect and improve their design. 

Each groups design was super unique! It was great to see the collaboration and team work throughout the process.

 

 Important Dates

• Walking Field Trip - Monday, June 20th (weather permitting) 
• Release of the butterflies! 

• Walking Field Trip - Wednesday, June 22nd (weather permitting) 

• Fun Lunch - Extreme Pita  - Thursday, June 23rd 
• order at: https://healthyhunger.ca/index.php?error=1002

• Report Cards Go Online - Thursday, June 23rd 

• Sport Day! - Friday, June 24th 

• Last Day of School - Tuesday, June 28th 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Brown