Busy week! Lots of things are 'due' this week: 
1. Lego entries are due by Friday to the Library. 
2. Scholastic Book Orders due on Friday
3. Jump Rope for Heart forms (with sponsorship money) are due by Friday!
4. Talent Show forms are due by Friday

Permission forms for our Community Clean-Up on April 21 went home yesterday. Please sign and return them by April 20. 

Language Arts

Writing-we are reviewing the 'Magic of Three' and using three different sentences to build suspense in our story. 
Phonics-words containing 'wr' as a beginning blend and how these words don't pronounce the 'w' sound

Daily 5 Read to Someone-continuing "The BFG" by Roald Dahl (almost done!)

Spelling-the words this week are in the 'Spelling Words' tab at the top. Test on Friday!

Math

Over the next few weeks, we are going to exploring Measurement. They will be using comparison words (bigger, smaller, lighter, heavier, more, less, etc) to compare items, using standard and non-standard units to measure, measuring items by weight/size/length, and using a calendar to compare days of the week and months.

Science

We will beginning our 'Boats and Buoyancy' unit this week. The students will explore a variety of materials and predict (and test) if they are buoyant. We will be looking at the various parts of boats and why they float. 

April 4-8, 2016

Welcome back from Spring Break! Hopefully you all had a wonderful and restful break with your family! I know the students all came back and were bursting with stories about their time off!

As of today, we have 57 full days of school left in this school year! I can't believe it has gone by so quickly...but we still have so much to cover!

During the month of April and May, we have a HUGE math push happening in our class. We are doing math practice (basic facts) every day. The students are practicing on a few new math sites: XtraMath and 10monkeys.com. Each of the students has their own logins and passwords so I can track their progress. These sites will be used in addition to Mathletics. 
If you would like to know your child's login/password so they can access these sites at home, please let me know! (Note: 10monkeys.com is only accessible from 7am-2pm as it is a challenge among multiple Canadian schools.)

As there are so many different activities happening over the next few weeks, please check the 'Coming Up' tab at the top to see the calendar. I will be updating this fairly often to keep you in the loop, but don't hesitate to contact me about upcoming events. 

This week:
-Friday is PJ and Pancake day-kids can come to school around 8:05am to have a pancake breakfast. Students are also able to dress in their PJ's for the day. 
-Lice Check is happening on Thursday and Friday this week
-Jump Rope for Heart fundraising is happening now! Packages were sent home a few weeks ago and we are encouraging students to raise money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. 
-East Elementary's Lego Contest is accepting displays until April 15. Final winner will be announced on April 29. Winner will receive an awesome prize from Lego Canada.

Language Arts
Writing*-The students will be writing about their Spring Break (or a favorite trip they have taken). We will be planning, writing, and editing these pieces this week. 
Phonics-words that contain consonant digraphs (of sh, th, wh, ch, ck)
Spelling-Words this week have a vowel with an 'r'; er, ir, or, and ur 

Daily 5 Read to Someone-continuing "The BFG" by Roald Dahl (almost done!)

Spelling-the words this week are a review of the past 5 lessons. Test is on friday. 

*We are going to have a heavier focus on writing for the remainder of the year. The students are going to write, edit, and submit one story each week. Sometimes this story will be one of their own creation, and sometimes it will be in response to a picture (picture is shown and they write about the events surrounding it). We are encouraging students across the grades to write all of their ideas down, edit their writing, add to their writing, print legibly, and build their stamina. 

Math

Over the next few weeks, we are going to exploring Measurement. They will be using comparison words (bigger, smaller, lighter, heavier, more, less, etc) to compare items, using standard and non-standard units to measure, measuring items by weight/size/length, and using a calendar to compare days of the week and months.

Science

We will beginning our 'Boats and Buoyancy' unit this week. The students will explore a variety of materials and predict (and test) if they are buoyant. We will be looking at the various parts of boats and why they float. 

March 14-18, 2016

There is quite a bit going on this week! Library is on Thursday (please make sure their library books are returned this week so they can take out new books for Spring Break!). 

Friday is going to be a busy day: scholastic book orders are due, hot lunch, spelling test, assembly at 8:45am in recognition of World Down Syndrome day (wear CRAZY socks), and its 'wear your favorite jersey' day. 

Language Arts
Writing*-This week the students will write a story about a St Patricks Day picture prompt. The students will plan their story, write their story, and be exposed to editing this week. 
Phonics-words containing 'y' as a vowel

Reading-finishing up the book 'The Mouse and the Motorcycle'

Daily 5 Read to Someone-continuing "The BFG" by Roald Dahl (almost done!)

Spelling-the words this week are a review of the past 5 lessons. Test is on friday. 

*We are going to have a heavier focus on writing for the remainder of the year. The students are going to write, edit, and submit one story each week. Sometimes this story will be one of their own creation, and sometimes it will be in response to a picture (picture is shown and they write about the events surrounding it). We are encouraging students across the grades to write all of their ideas down, edit their writing, add to their writing, print legibly, and build their stamina. 

Math

We are continuing to work on our Addition and Subtraction to 18, except now we are mixing up the information and trying to comprehend what the question is asking to determine which sign (+/-) to use. 

Our focus this week will be on adding/subtraction using the '1 or 2 more' method and counting on or counting back. We will also be using the strategy of 'making 10' which allows the rearrangement of numbers to make 10 and add on. For example: 8+5 could be rearranged to make 10+3. This will be an alternate strategy for the students to use (and will lead into double digit addition/subtraction). 

Science

We are wrapping up our science unit "Exploring Liquids". This week we will learn about more properties of water through an experiment using paperclips and a cup of water. The cup will be filled with water (right to the top) and we will predict (and test) the number of paperclips that the cup will be able to hold without spilling over. 

We are also going to test the various ways of drying a towel. Our last experiment will be exploring a variety of items (cloth, glass, cardboard, styrofoam) and their ability to absorb water. 

March 7-11, 2016

Two five day weeks are upon us. With all the snow falling (then melting) we are encouraging parents to send an extra pair of pants and socks for your child. Our class has been pretty good with staying out of the puddles/mud, but it doesn't hurt to remind them. 

Language Arts
Writing-We are going to have a heavier focus on writing for the remainder of the year. The students are going to write, edit, and submit one story each week. Sometimes this story will be one of their own creation, and sometimes it will be in response to a picture (picture is shown and they write about the events surrounding it). We are encouraging students across the grades to write all of their ideas down, edit their writing, add to their writing, print legibly, and build their stamina. 
Phonics-final blends (blends that appear at the end of words, ex. tent, plant, skunk); words containing 'y' as a vowel

Reading-Chapter 5 of 'The Mouse and the Motorcycle'

Daily 5 Read to Someone-continuing "The BFG" by Roald Dahl

Spelling-this weeks' words are all contractions. We discussed how we use these words in informal writing and what the apostrophe means. I explained it that we use the apostrophe as a letter that we do not write. For example, in the words "let us" we replace the 'u' with an apostrophe and don't write it. It's like a shortcut. 

Math

We are continuing to work on our Addition and Subtraction to 18, except now we are mixing up the information and trying to comprehend what the question is asking to determine which sign (+/-) to use. 

I have introduced daily math journals as well. They get a question every day that they get a mark for (usually out of 3 marks) where they have to read the question, use a picture to solve the question, provide the correct answer, and write a sentence. This is building multiple skills including comprehension, explaining thought processes, and responding to questions. 

Science

Our 'Exploring Liquids' unit is going awesome! The students are loving all the different properties that we are learning about. This week we are testing dissolving. We are going to explore a variety of elements (water, sand, snow, salt) to see if they will dissolve in water. 

Feb 22-26, 2016

Important information was sent home on Monday Feb 22. Please check your child's agenda for these documents (permission form for Meditation Program, verification sheet and other documents to confirm your intent to attend East Elementary in 2016-2017) and return them by Friday Feb 26, 2016. 

Wednesday Feb 24 2016 is Pink Shirt Day. We wear a pink shirt to show that we are taking a stand against bullying. I encourage each and every student to wear a pink shirt (or an item of pink) to support our schools' initiative. 

Language Arts
Writing-separating sentences into the who/what (noun) and doing/describing (verb) and making edits to sentences that are missing capital letters and punctuation; we will be discussing word referents (alternate words to make a sentence stronger and more appealing)
Phonics-compound words, r blend words

Reading-Chapter 3 of 'The Mouse and the Motorcycle'

Daily 5 Read to Someone-continuing "The BFG" by Roald Dahl

Spelling-words this week are 'c' and 'ck' blend words; we discovered that words that contain the letter 'c' make a ssss sound (race) or a kkkk sound (became) and sometimes they blend as a ck to make the kkkk sound (stick). 

Math

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at Addition and Subtraction to 18. We are focusing on fact families (7, 2, 9 is a fact family). Here is an example of a fact family: 

2, 7, 9

2 + 7 = 9

7 + 2 = 9

9 - 2 = 7

9 - 7 = 2

Fact families demonstrate how number equations are connected and help us go back and forth from subtraction to addition. There is a relationship between addition and subtraction, and being able to identify this relationship will help the students find different techniques to solving tough math questions. 

Science

Our crystals are growing! It is pretty awesome to see the changes on a daily basis and have discussion about evaporation. 

This week, we will be exploring a variety of liquids (students will not know what the liquids are). We will be looking at smell, viscosity, color, and other physical properties. 

Then we will take the liquids and freeze them. Then we will look at the liquids and observe if the liquids changed smell, viscosity, and color. 

After that, we will set the liquids out on the counter for a few days to see if they evaporate. Once a few days has passed, we will look at the smell, viscosity, and color to see if they have changed. 

Social

We will be looking at occupations and natural resources of our 3 communities.

Feb 16-19, 2016

Hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing Family Day! We encouraged each student to go 'unplugged' from technology on Family Day. Each child was asked to record the number of hours that they went technology-free. I have received quite a few forms however all "Unplugged" forms need to be returned by Wednesday Feb 17. 

This Friday we have WINTER FUN DAY. Kids from Kindergarten to Grade 6 will be put on teams and go to 6 different winter outdoor activities. Please ensure that your child is dressed for the weather on Friday. 

Language Arts
Writing-1. annotating expository/informative piece of writing (finding the title/topic, introduction, body, main idea sentences, detail sentences, and conclusion); 2. sorting details and grouping ideas together in writing
Phonics-hard and soft g words (ex. game has a hard g sound, giraffe has a soft g sound), high frequency words (only, laugh, own, even, their, might)

Reading-Chapter 2 of 'The Mouse and the Motorcycle'

Daily 5 Read to Someone-continuing "The BFG" by Roald Dahl

Spelling-words this week are 'wh' and 'ch' blend words

Math

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at Addition and Subtraction to 18. Since we have been working on this a lot lately, it will be a quick unit. 

Science

I sent out an email and dojo message asking for students to bring in a glass jar for our salt crystals that we will be making. This will be a good experiment to witness evaporation and the formation of crystals. 

Our unit that we will be focusing on (until Spring Break) is Exploring Liquids. We will be doing 1-2 experiments every week to explore different liquids, viscosity, absorption, drying techniques, characteristics of different liquids, and differences between solids and liquids.

Social

We will be looking at occupations and natural resources of our 3 communities. 

Feb 8-12, 2016

I hope everyone had a fantastic long weekend! The teachers were at a Teachers Convention (various sessions focusing on different parts of education, curriculum, students, etc) and I got some really awesome ideas! I am so excited to implement them in our class!

This Thursday we have our Field Trip to Telus World of Science. The bus will be leaving right after morning announcements, so please ensure that your child is in the classroom before the bell goes. Students will also need a bag lunch and all items will need to be disposable (no plastic containers, thermos, reusable water bottles, etc). Some great ideas are: sandwiches, granola bars, fruit, yogurt tube, crackers and cheese, cookies, fruit snacks, etc. 

Our test on Hot and Cold Temperatures is this week and we will beginning our 'Exploring Liquids' unit next week. One of our first experiments is making crystals. Each child will need a glass jar to make their crystals in. The best kind of glass jars are Mason jars and pasta sauce jars, or any glass jar that hold more than 500mL.

With our warm weather lately, students are coming in wet from recess. If you would like to send an extra set of pants and socks for your child to leave in their locker, that might be a good idea.

Language Arts
Writing-building comprehension through questions and retelling. Students are going to read a story together then answer a series of questions and retell the story to develop different comprehension skills. 
Phonics-hard and soft g words (ex. game has a hard g sound, giraffe has a soft g sound), high frequency words (only, laugh, own, even, their, might)

Reading-Grade 1D, 2K, and 3S are going to start a ‘Reading Group’. Students from each class are going to be put together in small reading groups and read “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”. This will give them an opportunity to demonstrate their Daily 5 skills, group work skills, comprehension, leadership skills, and listening skills.

Math

We are wrapping up our Numbers to 100 unit and will begin our Addition and Subtraction to 100 unit next week. Although this unit has finished, it will continue throughout the rest of the year as we explore other numbers and equations.

Science

Our Hot and Cold Temperatures unit has finished and we will begin our Exploring Liquids unit next week. Please see the note above about bringing in glass jars to grow crystals.