May 31st

Hi Parents,

This week in writing we read the story "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle and retold the story in our own words. We have really been enjoying reading Eric Carle's books. We also continued to work on our writing with free writes during literacy centers.

In math this week we learned about 2D and 3D shapes. We reviewed the 2D shapes that we knew and discussed how when we put 2D shapes together they make 3D shapes. We were given time to explore with plastic shape nets that can be connected together to make different 3D shapes. We also learned that 3D shapes have properties called faces, edges, and vertices. We built 4 different 3D shapes with our plastic shape nets: cube, rectangular prism, square based pyramid and triangular based pyramid. After building the shapes we worked with our groups and then as a class to count the number of faces, edges and vertices in these shapes. We also did this with the sphere, cylinder and cone. We couldn't build these shapes but we were able to use blocks to help us find their properties. Lastly, we discussed how shapes are all around us in our world. We went on a hunt around our classroom and school to find examples of real life items that are these shapes.

We continued to work on our words of the week through literacy centers and word work.

In science this week we went out and drew our Spring tree. We made predictions about how we thought it might have changed since winter and then we went outside to sketch our tree and see how it had actually changed.
We also finished our animal research this week with a fun facts page about our animals. Then every group had an opportunity to come to the front of the class and share some of the things they had learned about their animal.

We had our last two in-line skating sessions this week. We really enjoyed in-line skating and everyone showed so much improvement in their in-line skating skills! It really was amazing to see how much they grew in 4 sessions!

In art this week we started our new animal art project. We will be learning to draw, with the help of Art Hub for kids, all the animals that we have been researching in Science . This week we started with the Red Panda.

We also finished our read aloud of "Zac Power: Thrill Ride". Next week we will be starting our last read aloud story of the school year.


Reminders:

Our leadership club has decided to help the environment by teaming up with Crayola. Crayola has a recycling program for their markers so that they do not end up in the garbage but are recycled instead. If you have any dried up Crayola markers at home feel free to bring them in, We will be boxing up all the Crayola markers we collect and sending them to Crayola to be recycled. We are planning to count how many we have collected on Tuesday June 4th.  So if you have any at home please send them in by Tuesday.

The students in Save the Ocean Club are holding a bottle drive to raise money and awareness to support ocean health. Proceeds will be donated to the Ocean Legacy Foundation, a Canadian organization that supports ocean health initiatives. A trailer will be parked in the parking lot for bottle drop-off from Monday June 10 until Friday June 14. In lieu of bottles, cash donations can be dropped off at the office. We would appreciate any donations that you have!  

Monday June 3rd is our Michael Mitchell Canada is for Kids Concert at 1pm. 

Wednesday June 5th is Fun Lunch 

Thursday June 6th is Cranston Day. Students are encouraged to wear Cranston School colours of blue and white or wear their Cranston gear. 

May 24th

Hi Parents,

This week in writing we each shared about what we did over the long weekend. It sounds like everyone had a great time! We also continued to work on our writing through literacy centers.

Through literacy centers we are continuing to work on our reading, writing, word work and reading comprehension.

In math this week we reviewed addition and subtraction and discussed what strategy works best for us when solving addition and subtraction questions. We also continued to practice these skills through math centers and with our grade 2 buddies, who came up with questions for us around the school outside with chalk. We had to go find their questions and answer them.

We continued to work on our words of the week we have learned this year.

In science we continued our animal research. We found out more about our animals habitat and the food they eat. We created a page in our visual journal for each of these things to show what we have learned.  We also continued to observe our bean seeds. The experiment did not work out exactly as we thought but we had great discussions about why we thought some grew and some did not, even when some of them had the same things added to them. For example, we only had one of our soil, light and water bean sprouts grow. We also learned that when seeds have too much water they can become moldy and that really smells bad!

Reminders:

Next week we have our last two sessions of in-line skating. We will be skating on Tuesday May 28th and Thursday May 30th. Don't forget to bring your  helmet and make sure you have socks!

Our leadership club has decided to help the environment by teaming up with Crayola. Crayola has a recycling program for their markers so that they do not end up in the garbage but are recycled instead. If you have any dried up Crayola markers at home feel free to bring them in, We will be boxing up all the Crayola markers we collect and sending them to Crayola to be recycled.

The students in Save the Ocean Club are holding a bottle drive to raise money and awareness to support ocean health. Proceeds will be donated to the Ocean Legacy Foundation, a Canadian organization that supports ocean health initiatives. A trailer will be parked in the parking lot for bottle drop-off from Monday June 10 until Friday June 14. In lieu of bottles, cash donations can be dropped off at the office. We would appreciate any donations that you have!  

May 16th

Hi Parents,

This week we started new literacy centers. We continued to have a listening to reading center, a writing center and a Raz-Kids center, but we added two new centers. The first one is to help us practice our words of the week, it is called Spelling Battleship. Each student must pick 5 words of the week and put them on their battleship board. They are then trying to find and sink their friends words. We also added a making words center, where students are given 5 different mystery words to choose from. They then have to see how many 2-letter, 3-letter,4-letter, 5-letter and 6-letter words they can find, as well as trying to find the mystery word that is made up of all the letters.

In writing this week we read the story "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle. We then worked together to retell the story and then students went and retold the story in their own words.

In math this week we continued to practice our doubles, addition and subtraction skills through math centers. We also had a new problem to solve this week: "There are 19 bears at the zoo. Some are brown and some are black. How many of each colour could there be? Show as many different answers as you can."

We had our second session of in-line skating this week. It is definitely a tricky skill to learn but we are all trying our best and not giving up!  We do not have any in-line sessions next week, but have two the following week on Tuesday May 28th and Thursday May 30th.


In science this week each student was given a bean seed to put in a plastic bag and observe grow. For this experiment students were give the choice as to what they wanted to give their seed. Some chose to have all three things they need: soil, water and light. Other students choose to take one to two of those things away to help us answer the question: "Will the seed still be able to grow?". Some students choose to do just water and light, others chose to do just light, and another couple students decided to do soil, water and no light. Every bean will also have air, another important part of plant growing.  On Wednesday, a few days after "planting" our seeds we did an observation in our book of what our seed looks like on day 3 of our experiment. We will be documenting our observations throughout this experiment. 
We also continued with  our animal research that we began at the zoo. Students were put into groups based off of the animal they are researching and they were able to talk as a group to discuss what they had learned so far. They also got to go on the resource "PebbleGo" to help them find out more about their animals. They added this information to their note taking sheet from the zoo. We also started to record our information into our visual journals. We made our first page "Appearance" where we drew and labelled a diagram of our animal and then wrote a description of what it looks like. It's almost like we are creating our very own non fiction book about our animals in our visual journals! 

Here is the link for the site PebbleGo 
https://www.pebblego.com/choose

Reminders: 

Friday May 17th is a PD Day. No School

Monday May 20th is Victoria Day. No School

Wednesday May 22nd is Fun Lunch

May 10th

Hi Parents,

This week was filled with lots of fun and new experiences!

We had our field trip to the zoo on Tuesday, it was a chilly day but still lots of fun. Students were able to research and learn more about the animal they have chosen. Each student got to do a program around their animal and had time to go to their animal's exhibit to do their own research.

In writing this week we wrote about our time at the zoo: what we saw, what we learned and what our favourite part was. We also took some time to write about what we loved about our mom's in preparation for Mother's Day on Sunday.

We continued to work on our literacy skills through literacy centers and continued to practice our addition and subtraction skills through math centers.

This week was our first in-line skating session. Many of us had never done in-line skating before. It was definetly tricky but we are excited for our next session on Tuesday.
A reminder of the dates and times of our in-line skating sessions:
Tuesday May 14th-10:35-11:20
Tuesday May 28th-9:50-10:35
Thursday May 30th-8:20-9:05

This past Monday was Music Monday. We gathered together as as school and sang the Music Monday song, we also learned and reflected about why music education is so important.

We also had our Paint Day on Thursday, another great event planned by leadership. We were taught by Mrs. Kenna and Ms. Thomas on how to take care of our paint brushes and they also taught us some painting techniques when using water colours.

We also created some special Mother's Day crafts this week in art. I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day this weekend!

Reminders:

Tuesday May 14th is our second session of in-line skating

Thursday May 16th is our Volunteer Tea

Friday May 17th is a PD Day. No School

Monday May 20th is Victoria Day. No School

Wednesday May 22nd is Fun Lunch

May 3rd

Hi Parents,

This week in honour of Hats off for Mental Health day we focused on our emotions and how they affect our mental health. We read four different stories "The way I feel", "When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really, Angry", "The Invisible Boy" and "When Sophie's Feelings are Really, Really Hurt". We also watched the video "Kids want to know: Why do we lose control of our emotions", I have put the link for this video below. We discussed how it is okay to feel mad, sad, happy, proud, etc.  All our emotions are okay,  but it's how we deal with them. We discussed strategies that we can use to help us deal with our emotions and we also discussed how we can help others. We then wrote about our emotions using the prompt: "I remember a time when I felt...."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKuoH8CkFc

In math this week we started new math centers to help us practice our addition and subtraction skills and help us learn our doubles.  We also practiced our problem solving skills through a math problem: "The class planted 20 sunflower seeds. Some grew into plants and some did not grow. How many grew into plants? How many did not grow? Show all of the possible answers."


Our words of the week this week were: our, than, were, which
We are now done our words of the week and will use the rest of this year to practice all the words of the week we have learned throughout the year.


In science this week we continued learning about plants. We learned about the different stages in a plant life cycle and then created our own plant life cycle. We then went more in depth into one part of the life cycle: the seed. We discussed the different parts of a seed and how they help a plant grow, then we drew and labelled a seed diagram.
We also learned about wild plants and domesticated plants. We learned what "wild" and "domesticated" mean, then we brainstormed in groups what examples of wild and domesticated plants would be. We discovered some plants can be both. We then put all out ideas into  a Venn diagram.
Lastly, we practiced using our knowledge of what plants need to grow by creating our own garden. We first used a resource from learnalberta.ca, which helped us to create a garden together and figure out some of the things we might need.  The students then went and created their own gardens in their visual journals.

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/tlfcse/index.html

Reminders:

Monday May 6th is Music Monday. The whole school will be getting together to sing the Music Monday song Mrs. McBride has been teaching them.

Tuesday May 7th is our field trip to the zoo. Please make sure your child is wearing appropriate clothing for the weather, has a snack and lunch and a water bottle.

Wednesday May 8th is our first sessions of in-line skating. Please make sure your child has socks and brings their helmet, if they have one.

Wednesday May 8th is Fun Lunch