We have had a busy, fun, and warm week at school. The summery weather brought lots of energy to the classroom and playground!

We enjoyed a great trip to the zoo on Monday and enjoyed a terrific program about Arctic animals. The students were engaged in some games and hands-on activities and got to touch a number of animal artifacts. If they haven't shared any information about this, you may want to ask them which animal's fur they got to feel or if they can tell you the colour of a polar bear's skin (black).

Thanks again to the parents who volunteered for this field trip and spent the day with a small group of students.

Our second field trip will be on Tuesday, June 10th to Heritage Park. Please return the yellow permission form by next Tuesday, June 3rd.

This week we talked about the Past and Present and sorted pictures of items and activities into these two categories. Many children brought back the "interview" form and we will begin sharing these on Monday. I was waiting to receive a few more of the baby photos before making our matching game. If you have not yet emailed me your child's photo, I need you to do so by Monday so your child can be included in this fun game.

Next Thursday is our last book exchange at the library. Please ensure that any outstanding books are returned as soon as possible.

We will be taking advantage of the good weather to take learning activities outside as much as possible. Please ensure your child brings a hat and a water bottle every day.

Our Grade 4 buddies introduced the Grade 1s to a website that we will be using for our upcoming animal research projects. Each student chose an animal they want to learn about and we will start this work next week. This project will include making an animal out of plasticine as well as a diorama of the animal's habitat. Your child will need a shoebox for this project. Please send one in as soon as possible. If you have more than one, I'd appreciate extras. :) * Shoe stores often have extra boxes that they will give you for free. 

Our phonics focus this week was on words containing the long e sound made by the "ea" team. I have been teaching the little verse, "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking." to help the students decode words containing the vowel teams. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule! :) The words we were working with this week were: read, team, ear, and beach.

In Math, the students were given an open-ended question about a candy store. Please see photo below. They were told they had $20 to spend and that they were to find as many different combinations of candies to spend their full $20. Many students came up with equations that included 5 or more addends using a hundred chart, a number line, and/or mental math strategies.

We continue to observe the daily changes in our class garden, noting which plants grow the quickest. We also planted bean seeds in plastic cups to see the development of the roots and the "underground" developments of a bean plant.

Thank you to everyone who has sent in a baby photo of your child for our matching game. If you have not done so already, please email me a photo by Wednesday, May 28th at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca. Thank you! 

IMPORTANT Zoo Field Trip Reminders.

Monday is our trip to the zoo! The forecast looks great. Please ensure you put sunscreen on your child prior to coming to school. You may wish to send some with your child, however, they will need to put it on themselves. Please also ensure that they have a healthy and hearty lunch with two big snacks. The children get quite hungry with all the walking and fresh air. 

Please do not send money with your child as they will not be able to make any purchases.

A water bottle, good walking shoes (sneakers - no sandals, please), and sun hat are also essentials. Our bus will be leaving at 8:40 sharp. Please make sure your child is at school by 8am. Thanks for your help in making this a great day!

We are also very excited to perform for you at our Celebration of Learning this Tuesday in the East end open area (right outside our classroom) at 10:00am. We hope you can come!

I sent home a pink form for you to do with your child regarding grandparents' or parents' memories of being 6 or 7 years old. Please return these as soon as possible so the students can begin sharing these "interviews" with their classmates.

Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday, June 10th - Field Trip to Heritage Park

Tuesday, June 24th  - Sports Day

Thursday, June 26th - Last Day of School! Dismissal at 12:00pm.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend!

This week's phonics' focus was on words with the letter "ow". Our daily Word Work and Shared Reading words were: clown, down, brown, and owl.

In Math, we have been working at solving equations and word problems using 3 or more addends. The students are practicing breaking these long equations into smaller equations to come up with the final answer. We  have also been practicing identifying numbers represented in ten frame blocks (ten rods and ones cubes) as well as working to identify larger and smaller numbers using the < and > symbols.

Our garden box really took off this week and it's been exciting to see our veggies begin to sprout. I'm sure there will be a lot of growth over the weekend!

We have now wrapped up our Social Studies unit on communities and mapping. The students drew a map of their heart to represent all the people, animals, activities, and possessions they hold dear.

We will begin our focus on Past and Present in Social Studies next week. Please send in a copy of a baby photo of your child or email one to me at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca by Monday, May 26th. We will make a Guess the Baby Face board in our classroom for the students to try and solve. 

Please return the Zoo Field Trip forms as soon as possible if you have not done so already. Thank you to the parents who are volunteering to help with this trip on Monday, May 26th.

Upcoming Dates:

No School Monday, May 19th - Victoria Day

Zoo Field Trip - Monday, May 26

Celebration of Learning - Tuesday, May 27 - 10:15am ( It will be about 40 minutes long).

I hope all the Mother's Day gifts and cards made it home alright today. Just in case your child has tucked the gift away for a lovely Sunday surprise, you may want to encourage them to give it a little air (and maybe a bit of sunshine too) before they give it to you. :)

This week, we focused on words containing the vowel team "ou". Our daily practice words were: house, found, mouth, and cloud.

In Science, we have started to learn about seeds and plants and we planted our classroom garden box. We will be observing the growth of a variety of vegetables over the next two months.

In Literacy, we continue to discuss the elements of stories. This week, students worked in partners to identify and write down the main characters, setting, problem, and conclusion after listening to a story I read to them. Next week, we will begin creating short oral stories that include these elements.

We had Linkoln's dad, Rich, come and speak to our class and Mrs. Burch's class about his exciting job as a high-rise window washer. He brought in some of his equipment to show to the kids and showed and talked to the group about the safety gear he needs to wear while he works hundreds of feet high on the side of buildings! Here is a photo of him demonstrating his window-washing technique and another one he shared of the view from one of his "offices". 

We have really enjoyed having two parents share their jobs with us in the past couple of months to tie in to our Social Studies focus on Communities and Community Workers. If you have a job you would like to speak to the students about, I would love to hear from you. Please email me at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca.

Please remind your child to return their library book by Thursday so they can take out a new book.

We spent a lot of time this week working on artwork and writing for Mother's Day. I hope all of you mothers enjoy some well-deserved pampering and relaxation on Sunday! Enjoy. :)

Upcoming dates:

No school Friday, May 16th. It is a Professional Development Day.

No school Monday, May 19th as it is Victoria Day.

Monday, May 26 - Zoo field trip. Permission forms will be coming out next week.

Our class, along with Mrs. Burch's and Mrs. Carter's classes, will be presenting a short celebration of learning on Tuesday, May 27th.

My apologies for not posting a blog last week. I was attending an Early Childhood Teachers Conference in Edmonton from last Thursday evening until Saturday and completely forgot about my blog. I hope your child was able to tell you some of what we did last week if you were interested. :)

This week we focused on reading and spelling words that contain the vowel team "ai". Our daily Word Work words were: paint, braid, wait, and chain.

We worked on identifying the main characters and the setting of different stories during the week. We will continue to practice retelling the beginning, middle, and end of stories. Soon, we will begin to work in partner teams to create oral stories to share with the rest of the class. This storytelling will later transfer to writing simple stories.

In Math, I introduced the Canadian coins to the students. We listened to this catchy tune to learn the symbols that are on the coins and their values -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnZlAOSEmYQ. We did some addition problems using different groups of nickels and dimes.

On Thursday, we went on a community walk to the nearby Inukshuk Park to look for more signs of Spring. It's great to be able to take the students outside to enjoy some exercise and fresh air off the school grounds.

The students completed their Spring Booklets and will be bringing them home to share with you next week.

As our library will be getting painted next week we will not have our book exchange. Your child is welcome to keep their book from this week until Thursday, May 8.

Upcoming Field Trips

We will be going to the Zoo on Monday, May 26. Permission forms will be sent home in the next two weeks.

Our second trip will be to Heritage Park on Tuesday, June 10th. Please let me know if you are interested in volunteering for this trip. You will need a current Police Clearance for the CBE. Please contact me if you are interested.

Celebration of Learning - May 27

The Grade 1 classes will be having a short Celebration of Learning on Tuesday, May 27th. I will let you know of the confirmed time for this sharing next week.

Have a wonderful weekend!