Merry Unbirthday Tomorrow!

So our class actually doesn't have any July, August, or September birthdays- however, in connection with the whole school Unbirthday acknowledgement we will celebrate everyones birthday tomorrow! All students can bring in a special snack treat for themselves to enjoy as a mini birthday celebration.

Another reminder about tomorrow nights special movie night- Trolls! Doors open at 6:15 and all donations will go to the playground fund. There will also be drinks and snacks for sale at the concession. It would be a great kickoff to Spring Break! No school from March 23-April 3

Rollerblading Fun and Upcoming Events

The students loved inline skating and did such a fantastic job!! Going into skating, we came up with 2 things that couldn't be said during the experience- "I can't do it" or "This is easy". I was so impressed with how students persevered and improved their skills over the 3 hours of skating. There were some pretty epic falls but students just got right back up, brushed themselves off, and kept going. Everyone was successful in being able to stand up on their own and glide. They also learned how to stop properly using their brake and fall as safely as they can. After watching the students for a day, I couldn't resist joining them skating for the last 2 days- after all I couldn't let them have all the fun! Mrs. Jordan's class and our class were joined up together on Friday.

In Math, students learned a new addition strategy- counting on with a number line. Many of them were familiar with counting on by 1's (as we used a similar strategy with the hundreds chart) but we tried to skip count on my 10's and 1's using the number line. For example if they were trying to calculate the equation 36+24 then they would draw a line and start it with the number 36. After that they could add 10 to get 46, another 10 to get 56 and then 4 more to 60. We will continue to practice this strategy as well as the others we have already learned, to add 2 digit numbers up to 100. 

For writing, students are working through their plans for their pourquoi stories- they have now decided on their animal character, the setting (the landform in the arctic), the adaptation they are going to explain, and the problem in their story (what happened to their character). We will complete our entire plan this week and will hopefully have our beginnings done by Wednesday. 

In Social Studies, students have been asking some very interesting questions about how Inuit people lived in the arctic in the past. Some of the questions that were asked on Thursday and Friday were "How long did it take to make their jackets and clothing?" "What animal fur did they use for different items of clothing?" and "what fur kept them dry or the warmest?" Students began to explore resources to find some answers to their questions. We will also explore traditional food, shelter and language in the next few weeks. 

Reminder that this Thursday and Friday (March 23 and March 24) are professional development days so there is no school, and Spring Break goes from March 27-April 3. There is also a special movie night on Wednesday March 22. The movie Trolls will be playing with the donations going to building our school playground- it's recommended $10 per family which is a great deal! 

March 13-17

Inline skating starts on Wednesday this week! The students are so excited! Our inline skating times are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 9:15-10:15. If students have their own helmet (like bike helmet) they can bring them. All equipment including rollerblades, helmet, elbow pads and knee pads will be provided and are mandatory regardless of ability level.

Friday, March 17 is an early dismissal day so students will be dismissed at 11:30. It is also St. Patrick's day so students are encouraged but not required to wear green for this fun spirit day.

We will continue to explore the cold arctic and the Inuit people who live there. Students are learning about how both animals and humans survive the freezing winter temperatures and are beginning to understand how where you live impacts how you live. The kids have discovered that Polar Bears have 2 layers of fur, one that acts as waterproof type coating and another that has hollow tube hairs that store the heat inside. Other animals such as walrus', seals, and whales have thick layers of blubber that help . Students participated in a science experiment where they compared how cold cold water felt with their bare skin and with a blubber coating on their skin. They concluded that the blubber really did work as a protectant coating to keep them warm.

The class is focusing on writing Pourquoi stories about Arctic animals. We are writing a class story about how the Walrus got its long tusks and students are in the middle of planning their own story using a graphic organizer to ensure they complete all the required details.

We have started a new Math schedule. 2 days a week we will focus on learning new skills and develop our number sense, 1 day will be centers and math games to practice basic facts and increase logical reasoning, and 2 days will be spent working on a project that involves a variety of math problem solving tasks. The project is to plan a Birthday Party! We used the book Moira's Birthday by Robert Munsch to get us started. In this story, Moira ended up accidentally inviting her entire school to her birthday! This required a lot of cake and pizza.

In this project, students will not be inviting the whole school but will be going through the steps of organizing an imaginary party for a set number of people. Some students will be inviting smaller numbers (like just their family), some will invite a few friends and family and some students may invite their whole class. It is important that students are working with numbers that will challenge them but not be too difficult to build their knowledge and understanding. We started with creating their invitations and brainstormed what information is required on an invitation. Kids were amazed at how much math is a part of our everyday lives like dates, time, address' and phone numbers. Because it's an imaginary birthday party, we said that students could use their home address and phone numbers on their invitations to allow them to practice learning them. It also allowed us to have a great conversation about not sharing personal information like this online or with strangers. Next we will be brainstorming what supplies are required at a birthday party and start calculating the costs of supplies like plates, cups, napkins, etc.

Great Field Trip

It was a great morning down at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary! It was pretty chilly for our nature walk and we cut our time outside down because of the cold. I'm so proud of how well the kids did despite the wind chill- they were troopers! Many chickadees were very interested in what we were doing out there! Inside the sanctuary, students had the opportunity to learn about how animals have adaptations that help them to survive the elements. Hibernation, Migration and Adaptations were the key ideas discussed. The main building of Inglewood is full of interesting animal information and even has examples of these birds and animal bodies/replicas for students to see up close. In our program, the classes got to feel coyote and muskrat fur as well as examine bird skull replicas to identify differences in beaks based on what the bird uses its beak to do. I'm sure your child is tired tonight- field trips are so exciting but can be tiring!

Field Trip Tomorrow!

Don't forget... tomorrow is our 2nd field trip of the year to the Bird Sanctuary.  We are all so excited for the morning. We will be leaving the school right after 8:00 in order to get to the Bird Sanctuary in time, so please ensure that all students are on time tomorrow!

Here is the approximate schedule for the day:

½ of group at ‘Surviving the Seasons’ program ½ of group on ‘Nature Walk’	9:00 – 9:45 am
½ of group at ‘Surviving the Seasons’ program ½ of group on ‘Nature Walk’	9:45 – 10:30 am
Departure from Bird Sanctuary to School	10:45am
Arrive back at Ken Taylor School	11:15am

We will be outside for part of the morning on a walk of the sanctuary.  As the walk is an important part of our morning, we will still participate in it, but we will watch the temperature carefully and if it is too cold, we will cut our walk shorter.  Keeping this in mind, please ensure that students are dressed very warmly tomorrow with good boots, snow pants, mittens, hats etc.  

Great Week Ahead!

We have a great week of learning ahead of us! Please make sure that your child is dressed warm on Tuesday for our field trip to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. Half of the morning will be spent in a classroom on site and the other half (45 minutes) will be spent outside doing a nature walk. Because it's a half day trip we have to use the most of our time and we won't be able to take snacks to the bird sanctuary with us. Hopefully kids can have a big breakfast before they come to school to hold them over until lunch :) 

Wednesday March 8th is fun lunch if you were able to order it. 

Writing

In writing, we have been reading and learning about the story structure of "pourquoi tales". Pourquoi means 'why' in French and these stories typically attempt to explain why or how things are the way they are (such as animal traits or natural phenomenon like thunder or rainbows). Students are enjoying hearing stories like "How the tiger got its stripes" and "How the elephant got its long trunk". This week we will start crafting our own pourquoi stories about an animal of their choosing that lives in the arctic. They get to choose what animal feature/characteristic they would like to explain and imagine what that animal used to look like 'long ago'. While their stories will be fictional, they will also have an opportunity to research the actual scientific aspects of their animal's adaptation. 

Social Studies

We have finished up our focus on the diverse landscapes of our communities in Canada and will now be exploring the people, cultures, and traditions of an Inuit community, an Acadian community, and a Prairie community. To start we will focus primarily on the people that live up north in Nunavut. We are looking at what early life was like and how people survived the extremely cold winters and lived off the land and animals. Students are beginning to understand how important animals are to the Inuit culture and will be exploring how this culture honours and utilizes every element of the animals that sacrifice their lives for human survival. 

Science

We are jumping into our unit on Hot and Cold Temperatures and will be using our Social Studies topic of the Arctic to get started. Students will be excited to do an experiment this week to discover how marine arctic animals can stay warm.