Friday, February 21, 2020

Friday, February 21, 2020



Hello Parents/Guardians! 

W.O.W (Words of the Week) Words: 
  1. when
  2. were
  3. them
  4. ask
  5. an

Weekly Highlights:
  • We read the story, The Mitten by Jan Brett, then created our next winter inchie art piece. First, we coloured our background with markers. Next, we glued colourful tissue paper to create a collage.  We then cut out a mitten shape from our colourful collage and glued it onto our background.
  • To celebrate the 100th day of school we read “Centipede’s 100 Shoes” and we weighed, measured, built and counted 100 items.
  • We also celebrated the 100th day of school by thinking about what our life would be like at 100 years old.  Some of the things we brainstormed were: where we would live, who our family members would be, what we would look like, what we would be doing such as still working or being retired, and how we would pass the time.  We then used these ideas to write our own piece about our life at 100 years old and make a portrait of what we might look like at 100 years old.
  • This week we practiced reading and solving word problems related to addition.  When reading word problems, we looked carefully at the language to tell whether we would be adding or subtracting.  Some of the words that tell us we will be adding are: join, sum, altogether, or more.  We practiced using the words part and whole when describing a number sentence.  Addition is: part + part = whole.  Subtraction is: whole - part = part.  We also practiced making addition and subtraction sentences related to a visual and started learning about fact families.  For example if there are 2 black circles and 6 white circles, we would have the following number sentences:
    • 2 black circles + 6 white circles = 8 circles
    • 6 white circles + 2 black circles = 8 circles
    • 8 circles - 2 black circles = 6 white circles
    • 8 circles - 6 white circles = 2 black circles
  • To help students improve their fluency with addition and subtraction it is important that they can quickly and accurately count forwards and back.  Here is a video that you can use to practice counting to 100: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGetqbqDVaA
  • In Social Studies we continued learning about Community and the different landmarks within our community.  We also learned about different landmarks throughout Calgary.  We then created our own class book using inspiration from the book Knufflebunny by Mo Willems and the pigeon character from Mo Willems’s Pigeon series. We each wrote about a different landmark that the pigeon character visited.  Some of the places the pigeon visited were: The Calgary Tower, WinSport (previously C.O.P), Simons Valley School, Tim Hortons, the Calgary Zoo, and the Telus Spark Science Center. We drew our own Pigeon to visit the places we wrote about. 

Reminders:
Glenbow Museum:
Our field trip to the Glenbow Museum is this Tuesday, February 25th! All of the kids are very excited to be going. Here are a few reminders for our trip:
  • Pack a healthy lunch - kids are often hungry so please send extra snacks
    • We are not bringing backpacks, so please send a lunch bag that is easy for your child to carry.
  • NO NUTS or food that may contain nut products
  • Pack a water bottle
  • Leave snow pants/extra mittens/hats at home
  • Be on time!  We will be boarding the bus at 9:15am.  We will not be waiting for students who arrive late to school.  
  •  
Parent-Teacher (Student) Conferences:
 There has been a change to the times for the March 19th and 20th Parent-Teacher Conferences. Thursday, March 19th will be a short day with dismissal at 1:30 (like a usual Friday). Appointment will be available from 2:30 – 4:30pm and 5:30 – 8:00pm. On Friday, the appointment times will be from 9:00am – 12:30pm. You will be notified when conference times open for booking.

Toys & Gum at School:
Please remind your child that toys should be left at home, and that we do not give away or trade toys at school (particularly pokemon cards).  
Please also remind them that gum should be left at home.

Ask Me About:
  1. What landmarks do we know in Calgary?
  2. Read, read, read!! 
  3. Please have your child write 4 number sentences for the visual below into their communication book (2 addition sentences and 2 subtraction sentences)





Saturday, February 15, 2020

February 18 - 21


Hello Parents/Guardians! 
NO SCHOOL Thursday Feb.13th , Friday Feb.14th, and Monday Feb.17th.  
Please enjoy your long weekend! 
Classes resume on Tuesday February 18th.

W.O.W (Words of the Week) Words: 
  1. her
  2. some
  3. as
  4. then
  5. could

Weekly Highlights:
  • This week we continued discussing the theme of kindness. We talked about how we can extend kindness not only to our friends and family, but also to our community. We created kindness cards, by writing notes to a community member. Some ideas from our notes were, “I hope you have a good day at work,” “You are beautiful,” or telling jokes. We then worked with our grade 5 buddies to complete a guided drawing of two hugging hearts. We ended our week by going for a walk through the communities of MacEwen/Sandstone to deliver these cards in mailboxes. Thank you to all the volunteers who came on our walk with us! 
  • We learned how to give compliments. First we practiced, by going around the circle and giving compliments to our classmates, such as, “I like your hair today,” “I like how you always try your best,”  or “I like how you are a good friend.” We then created complimats, by writing kind notes to everyone in the class.  We will continue to look for opportunities to compliment our classmates each day.
  • In math, we learned about subtraction this week.  Students learned that subtraction means taking away or breaking apart a group.  Students learned to use pictures to represent a number sentence.  They drew pictures and crossed out the amount they were subtracting. They learned that when you subtract you always start with the largest number and your answer should be less than what you started with.  When subtracting you start with the whole, subtract part, and are left with part.  To prepare for subtraction we have been practicing counting backwards from a variety of numbers between 0 and 20.  Here are some videos that we used to practice counting backwards this week:
  • We enjoyed the nice weather and went skating twice at the Community Rink. Despite some falls, the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves and were sad that they couldn’t stay out longer!  Thank you to all the volunteers who helped make this a great experience.

Reminders:
100th Day of School
Our class will be celebrating our 100th day of school on Tuesday, February 18th. Please help your child collect a small baggie containing 100 objects (i.e. paper clips, lego, cheerios, popcorn seeds, etc.) to bring to school Tuesday. We will be using them to count and sort.

Glenbow Museum:
If you have not yet paid for the field trip the cost is $20.00.  Please log into your Power School account to pay this fee.  If you have any issues with payment please contact the office at 403-777-6660. 

Toys & Gum at School:
Please remind your child that toys should be left at home, and that we do not give away or trade toys at school.  
Please also remind them that gum should be left at home.

Ask Me About:
  1. Complete a random act of kindness with your family.
  2. Practice counting:
    1. Forwards 0-20
    2. Backwards 20-0
    3. Counting on from a variety of numbers forwards and backwards. Eg. Start at 11 and count backwards: 11, 10, 9, 8…, Start at 8 and count forwards: 8, 9, 10...
  1. Read, read, read!! (If all students return their home reading on Tuesday they will receive a pencil and a bookmark.)



Dear Parents/Guardians, The GREAT PICK UP Just a reminder to check the Simons Valley School website for designated times of when you ...