January 23

What a fantastic day today! Students worked so hard on writing their good copies of their Nunavut land write ups. These will accompany their Arctic artwork on display for upcoming events at the school. In social studies we have been looking more specifically at the maritime provinces of Canada. The class has noted some key differences between Alberta, Nunavut and the Maritimes. Ask your child to describe what they have discovered so far in regards to the landforms, animals, and climate of these Atlantic provinces and how they compare to Alberta and Nunavut.

In Science, we continued to talk about the water cycle. Students watched first hand what happens to water when it is heated (by a kettle) and we discussed the concept of evaporation and steam. Everyone thought it was hilarious when they watched my glasses fog up but it also allowed them to better understand the process of condensation. We also held up a pot lid for the steam to condense on and students were surprised that the steam then turned back to liquid and started to drip back down like rain (which helped in our understanding of precipitation). With a partner, students looked through and read a variety of books on the water cycle and shared some of their interesting findings with the class. For example, Sarah shared that over 151 000 litres of water evaporated back up into the sky every year. Ethan noted that precipitation can come in the form of snow, sleet, rain, hail and fog.

Math was super enjoyable for the students today. We continued to work with place value using numbers up to 100. With a partner, students played Race to 100. This is a game they could even play at home (they would just need to draw pictures instead of using the manipulatives). One person rolls the dice and then gathers the units (ones) that would match. Next person does the same thing. Once a person has 10 or more units, they need to regroup them into a rod (tens). They learned that each place value can not have more than 9 as a digit. It took some practice but students really started to understand as they played. This element will be crucial when adding and subtracting numbers because the regrouping principle must be concretely understood before they can accurately do it in their head or as an algorithm. Here are some pictures of students at work:

Don't forget to sign up for the student led conferences on February 2nd and 3rd. There are spots for 4 families at a time and Thursday night is filling up fast! You can also schedule a time separately from that if you would like to discuss anything in a more private or uninterrupted way. If you would like to meet with me at a different time please email me at ljstewart@cbe.ab.ca and we can arrange a time.