Thursday December 19, 2013

YAY!  We made it!

Today's learning tasks:
- Carol Singing
- spelling quiz
- Student of the Week sharing, DOJO review and next student
- Learning Commons: chapter book selection
- 'Wall Ball'
- Seasonal skit performances
- PIZZA lunch
- Pajama movie afternoon

Reminders:
- no school tomorrow (PD Day for teachers)

Join your neighbours for some SKATING and hot chocolate!

When: Saturday, January 4th between 1:30pm and 3:30pm

Where: The skating rink in Vista Heights just North of Valleyview Road

Who: Anyone who likes to skate, or who likes hot chocolate, marshmallows and

visiting with neighbours.

For more information, please call the Crossroads

Community Association at (403) 277‐6201

 


Ask your child:
- which movie they enjoyed this afternoon
- how they think they did on their spelling quiz today
- which book they have chosen to write a book review on

Homework:
- finish reading your chapter book (novel) in preparation for the Book Review (due the first Thursday we return from the break)
- work on completing all 6 Alberta Region paragraphs (checklist and rubric in green Social Studies duo tang)


ENJOY the holiday with your family and we'll see you in the New Year.  First day back to school is Monday January 6th!

Wednesday December 19, 2013

PHEW!!! Just ONE MORE DAY!

Today's Learning Tasks: 
- designing props and costumes for Winter Skits
- Holiday Bingo
- Fitness Centers + Wall Ball
- Grade 1 Buddy interviews - ipod recordings

Reminders:
- PAJAMA, PIZZA + MOVIE Day tomorrow *ALL students will receive a FREE (anonymously sponsored) pizza lunch - so DO NOT bring your lunch and stay to eat
- spelling quiz tomorrow
- Winter skit performance tomorrow morning

Ask your child:
- how they earned DOJO points today
- how they recorded their voice on the iPods
- a strategy they use during 'wall ball'
- what chapter book they have chosen for their book review

Homework:
- all students should be finishing up their "Alberta Regions" paragraphs (due during the first week back)
- all students should be reading a chapter book (novel) *at their level* during the break
           - good copies of book reviews will be due on the first Thursday back from the break

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Today's learning tasks:
- Holiday caroling in the gym
- Phys Ed (fitness centers)
- Math (addition / subtraction review, test)
- Winter skits rehearsal

Ask your child:
- what props they hope to make tomorrow for their winter skit
- how they earned DOJO points today

Reminders:
- no school on Friday (PD Day)
- PJ Day (Thursday) – wear appropriate pyjamas to school (clean and covered PJ’s please)

           - you MUST wear snow pants if you wear PJ’s (or pants to put overtop for                                   outdoors

                                -you can bring a stuffie (not too big)

-Pizza lunch (Thursday) –everyone gets a free pizza, juice and a bag of chips and you can stay at school for lunch

- winter skit performances on Thursday morning
- bring all props and costumes for rehearsing

Homework:
- nightly reading, math facts practice and spelling (quiz on Thursday)
- script practice, prop making
- S.S. - Alberta Regions paragraphs.  These will be due the first week when we return, so please encourage your child to be working on them each night to avoid a heavy homework load.  Criteria checklist and rubric in the green duotang to guide work.
-  "Seasonal Book Reviews" due Thursday January 9th (please READ your chapter book/novel this week and over the holiday, so you are ready to complete the assignment during the first week.  Please check your child's blue duotang for the criteria checklist.  If your child would like to complete the assignment over the holiday break, this is fine too.

Monday December 16, 2013

Today's learning tasks:
- Gr. 6 Outdoor School sharing - campfire songs
- Word work: alphabetizing winter words
- spelling: new words
- Wake n Shake movement + breathing and stretching
- Buddy work: completing our Comic pages on hibernation
- Alberta regions: paragraph writing
- Winter skits

Ask your child:
- to sing a campfire song they learned from the Gr. 6 students
- about the role they play in our Winter skit
- how they earned DOJO points today

Reminders:
- no school on Friday (PD Day)
- PJ Day (Thursday) – wear appropriate pyjamas to school (clean and covered PJ’s please)

                                - you MUST wear snow pants if you wear PJ’s (or pants to put overtop for                                            outdoors

                                -you can bring a stuffie (not too big)

-Pizza lunch (Thursday) –everyone gets a free pizza, juice and a bag of chips and you can stay at school for lunch

- winter skit performances on Thursday morning
- bring all props and costumes for rehearsing

Homework:
- nightly reading, math facts practice and spelling (quiz on Thursday)
- script practice, prop making
- S.S. - Alberta Regions paragraphs.  These will be due the first week when we return, so please encourage your child to be working on them each night to avoid a heavy homework load.  Criteria checklist and rubric in the green duotang to guide work.
-  "Seasonal Book Reviews" due Thursday January 9th (please READ your chapter book/novel this week and over the holiday, so you are ready to complete the assignment during the first week.  Please check your child's blue duotang for the criteria checklist.  If your child would like to complete the assignment over the holiday break, this is fine too.

Thursday December 12, 2013

We are looking forward to tomorrow!!

Today's learning tasks:
- Student of the Week sharing
- 'Wake n Shake' movement- Quest Rehearsal -polishing our movement and voice
- Music - continued work with recorders
- Winter Art: tissue paper landscape
- more Quest rehearsing
- continued work on art

Ask your child:

- if they brought home any "wait list" tickets for a show

- to recite some lines from our classes' piece

- *we are in need of 10 Nintendo/Play station (pretend) props for one of our scenes.  if your child could make some out of cardboard and colour black, we would greatly appreciate it!*

- how they earned DOJO points today

Homework:

- nightly reading and math facts practice
- Spelling practice (quiz tomorrow)

Reminders:

- Gr. 2/3 Digital Champions Club is CANCELLED tomorrow due to the QUEST Theatre performances.  Students will have the opportunity to share the Read + Write Gold program with classes next week.  Watch for new Digital Champion clubs beginning in January.

- Math test coming up on Tuesday, December 17th.
- Purdy’s Chocolate Orders have arrived!

                -you can pick up your order from your child’s classroom

                -after the Quest performance on Friday, December 13^th – is an ideal time!
-  Quest Theatre Performances Schedule (Friday, December 13th):

1:30	Performance of Virtues
6:10	Students Return to School - Classrooms (with parent/guardian)
6:30	Performance of    Virtues

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Today's learning tasks:

Quest Rehearsal - Our practice for the Friday performances is coming along very well. Great ideas from our students and collaboration with Quest professionals!

Math - Grade 3 (Addition with multiple digits - Intro.), Grade 4 (Subtraction with 4-digit numbers)

Science - light & materials (Opaque vs. Transparent vs. Translucent). Refraction of light Intro - we experimented with water and made some excellent observations.

Ask your child:

- are they getting excited for this Friday's Quest performance?- how does a liquid such as water affect how objects appear to us?
- are they going to bring in one of the following props tomorrow or Friday to help make our performance great ? (i.e. kitchen apron, red or green hat/toque)

Homework:

- nightly reading and math facts practice
- select students have math "exit ticket" to complete at home

Reminders:

- Gr. 2/3 Digital Champions Club is CANCELLED this Friday due to the QUEST Theatre performances.  Students will have the opportunity to share the Read + Write Gold program with classes next week.  Watch for new Digital Champion clubs beginning in January.

- Math test coming up on Tuesday, December 17th.
- Purdy’s Chocolate Orders have arrived!

                -you can pick up your order from your child’s classroom

                -after the Quest performance on Friday, December 13^th – is an ideal time!
-  Quest Theatre Performances Schedule (Friday, December 13th):

1:30	Performance of Virtues
6:10	Students Return to School - Classrooms (with parent/guardian)
6:30	Performance of Virtues

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Today's learning tasks:

Wake & Shake - although our gym is occupied by Quest Theatre this week, we had a good movement workout in the classroom.
Quest Theatre - we had fun working toward our performance on Friday!
Math - Grade 3 (Estimating), Grade 4 (Addition with 4-digit numbers)
Science - Testing light transfer with different materials

Ask your child:

- what types of materials they tested with light? what happened?
- what have they been working on during our Quest rehearsal time?

Homework:

- nightly reading and math facts practice

Reminders:

- Quest theatre forms must be signed and returned (with ticket requests for Friday shows) by tomorrow morning!
- Math test coming up on Tuesday, December 17th.
- Purdy’s Chocolate Orders have arrived!

                -you can pick up your order from your child’s classroom

                -after the Quest performance on Friday, December 13^th – is an ideal time!

Thursday December 5, 2013

Today's learning tasks:

- Student of the Week sharing, S.S. - paragraph writing about the "Canadian Shield", spelling quiz, "Wake + Shake", recorder fun in music, French oral quiz, Gr. 1/2 buddy interviews, fun games in the gym with our special guest

Ask your child:

- to share his/her "Canadian Shield" paragraph (green duotang)

- how they think they did on their French and spelling quizzes

-  about Wake n Shake

- about the cool games they learned with Mr. Bennett

Homework:

 - complete the paragraph on "The Canadian Shield" (green duotang) refer to the paragraph checklist for criteria

- nightly reading and math facts practice

Reminders:
"CP Holiday Train"Anderson Station this  Saturday December 7, 5pm. Admission is a $ donation or non-perishable food item(s)for the Calgary Food Bank.
- December Newsletter: online version: http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b239/news.html 
- There are several families who have not booked a conference.  Please visit our school website to make an online booking for a student-led conference for tonight or Friday morning. A laptop is in the staffroom for your convenience.  Should you require assistance in booking  conference, please visit the office.

- no school tomorrow, due to conferences

Bonne weekend!

Monday Dec 8, 2013

WOW!  A winter wonderland!

Today's learning tasks:
Wake n Shake Movement
Introduction to QUEST Theatre (virtue assignment: patience + name game)
Gr 1 buddies - creation of HibernationComic Life comic pages
Independent reading
Spelling - new words
QUEST - movement in the gym
Picture Book Reviews

Ask your child:
- what their QUEST name and action was
- what hibernating animal they are studying
- if you were unable to attend conferences last week, please call the school to book a time

Reminders:
QUEST Theatre is here all week. *NOTICE in zippie* We are rehearsing in preparation of our final performances on Friday morning and evening.  Each student is obligated and expected to perform in both shows, although each family will only be able to view one of the two shows.  Families are encouraged to attend the Friday afternoon performance, as it is anticipated that attendance will be less than the evening performance.

Homework:
- nightly reading, math facts and spelling practice (quiz on Friday, this week)

Wed December 4, 2013

Today's learning tasks:  problem solving strategies in math, handball match, exploring websites, S.S. paragraph writing - rubric, exemplar, checklists "Boreal Forest"

More specifically,

Math - working on strategies for solving word problems with Grade 3's and 4's ("4- Steps"), and group sharing. Introduction to Math Centers (yesterday) - everyone really enjoyed this and had the chance to work on multiple math skills. 

Science - explored Light, Shadows, How We See, and the Earth, Sun, and Moon on an interactive website using computers. Everyone has something new to share that they learned!

Homework:

- nightly reading, math facts practice and spelling (quiz on Thurs)

- oral French quiz on Thursday (days of the week, months, greetings, #1-20, colours)

Ask your child:
- what the difference is between 'handball' and 'volleyball'
- to recite the numbers 1-20, colors, greetings and days/months in French
- about our class novel "The One and Only Ivan" - who is the main character and where does it take place?
- about our new virtue of the month "FAIRNESS".  How do they plan to model fairness?  What is the difference between fairness and equality.   Can they give you an example or 'fairness'?  'equality'?

Reminders:
"CP Holiday Train"Anderson Station on Saturday December 7, 5pm. Admission is a $ donation or non-perishable food item(s)for the Calgary Food Bank.
- December Newsletter: online version: http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b239/news.html 
- There are several families who have not booked a conference.  Please visit our school website to make an online booking for a student-led conference on Thurs evening or Friday morning appointment.  A laptop is in the staffroom for your convenience.  Should you require assistance in booking  conference, please visit the office.

- no school on Friday, due to conferences

Monday December 2, 2013

BRRRRRRRRR!!!!
 
Today's learning tasks:
- personal dictionaries, spelling lists, volleyball match, hibernation sentences for comic, Boreal Forest study (table), silent soccer match
Ask your child:
- to tell you about the Boreal Forest
- how they plan to study for this week's spelling quiz? (on Thurs)

Homework:
- nightly reading, math facts practice and spelling (quiz on Thurs)
- oral French quiz on Thursday (days of the week, months, greetings, #1-20, colours)

Reminders:
- no school on Friday, due to conferences
- tomorrow is the last day to order pictures - send form and $ with your child
"CP Holiday Train"Don’t miss Grammy award winning singer Sarah McLachlan performing at the annual CP Holiday Train at Anderson Station on Saturday December 7, 2013. This free concert will also feature The Tenors and Matt Dusk.  In support of the Calgary Food Bank and hosted by Peter Mansbridge, the event begins with the opening of the North Pole Station at 4:00 p.m. followed by the concert, which begins at 5:00 p.m.
Explore the North Pole Station and its family-oriented activities including Santa, ice carving and hot chocolate before the show begins.  Attendees are encouraged to take Calgary Transit to this event as parking is limited. The event is free, however attendees are asked to make a donation or bring non-perishable food items for the Calgary Food Bank.
- December Newsletter: online version: http://schools.cbe.ab.ca/b239/news.htm
- Please visit our school website to make an online booking for a student-led conference on Thurs evening or Friday morning appointment.  A laptop is in the staffroom for your convenience.  Should you require assistance in booking  conference, please visit the office.


Stay warm!