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!