Unfortunately, I have been out of the classroom since last Friday with a low back strain.

Ms. Moghe was covering for me this week. From what she has told me, it sounds as if the week went well with the students in her care. :)

The students created their own paper-art monsters this week and practiced using descriptive language to write about their creations. These will be shared with you at the upcoming parent-teacher conferences.

They also did some Metis dot art with their Grade 4 Buddies both last Friday and today. They listened to an Indigenous story called Trudi's Rock and designed their own special rock using this art form.

In Math, the students continued to practice different strategies to solve addition and subtraction questions - number lines, fingers, simple pictures, counting on, and counting back. They also continued to develop their understanding of patterns this week by identifying the core of various types of patterns, labeling, and extending given patterns.

In Social Studies, students completed a picture of their family and used family member words to label their picture. We will begin to share what activities our families enjoy doing through writing next week. I will also be asking each student to share a family winter celebration tradition with the class in the next couple of weeks. Please watch for a note that will provide more information about this activity.

You can sign up for a Parent-Teacher Conference with me beginning tomorrow morning.  Information about sign-up was sent in an email by the office this week. I look forward to sharing your child's work and speaking about their progress with you either Thursday night or Friday morning.

The Book Fair will be going on in the library both Thursday and Friday. I will be taking the students to view the Fair on Tuesday and they may come home with a wish list. Students can make purchases on Thursday during our regularly scheduled library time. We will not be having library book exchange next week.

This week we continued our focus on the four digraphs from last week; ch, sh, th, and ck. Our focus letters were L and V.

We have started to learn about the Grandfather Teaching of Respect. The buffalo represents Respect in these Indigenous Teachings. We will be learning more about this animal and its symbolism and significance to Indigenous people when we return from Fall Break.

We read The Peace Book by Todd Parr this week as a tie-in to Remembrance Day. We shared some of the things we do that make us feel peaceful. The students wrote a sentence and drew a picture about this in their Visual Journals.

Many children shared photos of their family this week and we had the chance to learn about the people they live with as well as some pets. I love seeing how proud the students are to introduce their family members to one another! If your child has not had a chance to share a photo yet, please email me one or send in a print next week. We will be drawing family portraits next Thursday!

In Math this week, we continued to practice solving basic addition and subtraction equations as well as word problems. We also used an online activity called "Splat!" to practice our number sense skills. 

This week in Math we also returned to working on pattern work. The students identified the core of various patterns and labeled the patterns using A,B,C. For example the pattern, ?$$@?$$@?$$@ has the core ?$$@ and we would label it ABBC.

In Gym, the students have been practicing many lacrosse skills and tricks. Their eye-hand coordination is really improving and they love the challenge of the tricks!

I hope everyone enjoys a relaxing Fall Break. Please remember to return library books next Thursday when we return. See you then! :)

We had a busy and fun-filled week. I'm sure your child was tired by the end of today. The school had a quiet, relaxed feel to it this morning after the excitement of yesterday!

Our focus sight words this week were "was" and "my" and our focus letter was J.

In Math, we reviewed and practiced representing numbers 1-20 in tally marks with a monster-themed  Around the Room activity. We continued to work on writing addition and subtraction number sentences (equations) to represent oral word problems and practiced using fingers, simple drawings, and number lines to solve these equations.

We practiced counting by 10s to 100 as well as counting by 2s and 5s to 40 daily.

In Writing, we continue to work on sentence writing and using our letter/sound skills to spell words. We have been focusing our attention on listening for the sounds "sh", "ch", "th", and "ck" in words and identifying these digraphs in printed words.

Here is a Which One Doesn't Belong Halloween-themed picture we worked with this week. You may be interested to see which one your child chooses. Please ask them to explain their thinking to you.

In Science, we learned what the word "investigation" means and we did a pumpkin investigation together. We also did a "Dissolving Candy Corn" experiment. We put 2 candy corns in each of the following liquids: cooking oil, dish soap, warm water, vinegar, and carbonated water. Ask your child which liquid dissolved the candy the quickest. Before we started the experiment the students wrote their hypothesis. We learned that a hypothesis is only a guess/prediction and it does not matter whether it is correct or not.

We also read the book "Ada Twist the Scientist" and learned the importance of curiosity, creative thinking, and experimenting.

On Halloween, we heard a fun story called "Room on the Broom" and did a sequencing activity to demonstrate our understanding of the story's order of events and our memory for details.

Today, we worked on a beautiful poppy art piece with our buddies. These will be displayed outside the Gym next week when we observe Remembrance Day. We will be having an assembly on Thursday, November 7 at 10:45 am. Everyone is welcome to attend.

Family Photo

Next week, as part of our Social Studies curriculum, we will be starting to talk about families. If possible, please send a print of a family photo you have of your immediate family or you can email this to me at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca. Each child will have the opportunity to introduce their family to the class.

Fall Break

A friendly reminder that there will be no school Friday, November 8 due to a Professional Development Day and no school Monday, November 11 - Wednesday, November 13 due to our Fall Break. School resumes Thursday, November 14th.

Enjoy your weekend. Stay warm! :)

This week's sight words were "are" and "his" and our focus letter was R.

We have also started to work with the digraphs (when two letters work together to make one sound) ch, th, and sh as well as ck. We have been practicing identifying these digraphs in words that we see in different texts as well as practicing writing words that begin and end with these sounds.

In Science, we learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin through books and videos and completed a small pumpkin booklet. Next week, we will do a pumpkin investigation and make predictions for how many seeds there are in our pumpkin, whether it will float or sink in a tub of water, and do some measuring of our pumpkin. We also started a pumpkin art piece on Thursday which we will complete on Monday.

In Math, we continue to practice counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s and have started to identify even and odd numbers. Here is a link to a catchy song we listened to all about counting by 2s. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMQ89agGfrk Definitely worth a listen! :)

This week, the students also worked at identifying and filling in missing numbers on a variety of number lines up to 20. Many students continue to work at ensuring the correct orientation of their numbers. Numbers 3, 5, and 7 often get reversed. We have also started to use number lines to help us solve addition problems with sums up to 15.

Once a week, we work on an Esti-Mystery as a class. These are fantastic estimation challenges created by a fellow named Steve Wyborney that involve number work, the concepts of greater and less than, patterning, and more. See the photo below for an example.

HALLOWEEN at MTS

Halloween is on Thursday, October 31, students in K-4 can wear their costumes to school.  

A reminder to all participants to please leave any weapons or gory accessories that may go with your costume at home.  Costumes must be non-violent in nature (no guns, swords, fake blood). If a mask is part of their Halloween costume, we ask that students not wear the mask at school as it may be disruptive to student learning.  

Please do not send any treats with your child to share due to allergies and other medical concerns. 

Students will be participating in classroom-based Halloween-themed learning activities that are sure to be fun and engaging. 

Upcoming Dates

FRIDAY                     PD Day - NO SCHOOL

October 30                FUN LUNCH - Little Caesars Pizza

November 7              Remembrance Day Assembly - 10:30am

November 8              Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL

November 11-13       FALL Break - NO SCHOOL

November 19            Picture Re-take Day

November 26            Grade 2 Field Trip to Sam Centre (Pynn/Thomson/Olson)

November 27            Grade 2 Field Trip to Sam Centre (Penford/Klasen) ** Make sure to cancel your FUNLUNCH Order

November 27            FUN LUNCH - SUBWAY

November 28            NO SCHOOL FOR KINDERGARTEN

November 29            NO SCHOOL FOR ALL STUDENTS

November 28 & 29    Parent/Teacher Conferences

 Our focus sight words this week were "her" and "by" and our focus letters were E and B.

This week, we began to write simple sentences using the sentence starter "I see...". I showed the students the following picture and they needed to write three sentences using an uppercase letter at the beginning and a period at the end. 

We talked about leaving spaces between words and using lowercase letters. The students referenced classroom posters and listened carefully for the letter sounds in words when completing their sentences.

We have started to work with number lines in Math. Zero the Hero brought us a fun Around the Room activity on Tuesday for our 30th day of school. The students had to look at a partial number line and determine which number was being covered by a pumpkin. We will continue to work with number lines up to 20 next week.

We have been practicing counting by 2s to 20 and by 5s to 50. We have also been working to solve simple word problems using addition. The students have been practicing their listening skills to draw simple pictures to aid in solving these problems. An example would be: I brought 5 cupcakes to my Grandma's birthday party. My cousin brought 4 cupcakes. How many cupcakes did we bring altogether? Practicing problems such as these while you are in the car, in a line-up at a store, or while hanging out at home is a great way to hone your child's skills while still having fun. All your child needs are their fingers to count on!

Our school will be doing a Winter Card fundraiser in the next few weeks. We spent a lot of time this week creating a beautiful winter art piece using paints and Sharpie markers. Here are a few samples of the work:

In Science, we continued to talk about how plants and animals change during Fall and we completed our Fall booklet. Next week, we will begin to learn about a pumpkin's life cycle and will do some investigations with a real pumpkin.

Gym classes have moved back inside now. The students have been working on underhand and overhand throwing with a lot of attention being given to body positioning and accuracy.

A friendly reminder to have your child return their library book by Wednesday each week. Also, there is no school next Friday as it is a Professional Development Day.

Enjoy your weekend! :)

This week's focus sight words were "be" and "for". We worked with the letters G and H.

I sent home a review/practice homework sheet with students who brought back the pink slip from last week indicating that parents wanted these "homework" sheets. If your child did not bring one home today and you would like the work, please email me at jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca and I will add your child's name to the list.

Today we learned about the work of the late artist Keith Haring with our Grade 4 buddies. Mrs. Miller led us in a creative art task based on Keith's style of art. Buddies worked together to create their own Haring-inspired art. The short lines you see indicate movement.

Keith Haring

We continued to work in our Fall booklet this week, writing and drawing pictures of how animals and plants change during this season in preparation for Winter. We looked at a live Grizzly bear webcam located in Alaska. The students loved watching the bears fish in the river for spawning salmon. Here is the link if you'd like to take a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1YoGAxmZtE 

In Math, we continue to learn about the multiple ways numbers can be represented. We have started to represent numbers 1-10 using these different ways in our Math notebooks and daily during our Calendar time. We have also been completing worksheets and playing a variety of partner games to practice this skill.

We have also been doing daily work focused on sounding out and decoding CVC words. Today, the students worked independently to label a group of CVC words. We continue to practice identifying short vowel sounds daily.

Yesterday, we read two books about Thanksgiving and what it means to show gratitude. The children shared one or two things they are grateful for in their Visual Journals. You may want to ask your child to share with you what they wrote about.

And on that note, I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving long weekend. I hope you are able to spend some relaxing time enjoying family and friends. I look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Tuesday. :)

 This week our focus letters were U and Y and our new sight words were "me" and "of".

Here is a list of all the sight words we have been working with so far this year: and, to, it, in, is, me, you, the, to, a, of.

The students enjoyed doing a "Write the Room" activity in Literacy this week. They had to find 20 picture cards of 3-letter items and had to do their best to write down the beginning, middle, and end sounds. We have been reviewing the short vowel sounds daily and will continue to do a lot of work with these sounds. For some students, identifying the short vowel sounds is still very challenging, for others it is simple. For those who are just beginning to work with these sounds, I asked that they write the word's initial sound and then try to figure out the middle and end sounds. Here is the vowel poster we reference in our room when practicing the vowel sounds:

We also read a poem about being a good friend and put the poem in our Poems and Songs duotang. We add a new poem or song each week and spend time reading it together and looking for specific words. Here is today's poem should you wish to read it with your child:

In Math, we focused on representing numbers 1- 12 using tally marks. Students worked with popsicle sticks to build tally arrangements and completed a worksheet. We have been practicing counting by 5s to 20 using tally marks daily. Some students continue to work on remembering that the 5th tally lies across to make a group of five. We will continue to work with tallies, ten frames, and dice to represent numbers 1-15 during the next few weeks.

We also did an activity called Which One Doesn't Belong today. It is the third one we've done this year. This is an activity based on keen observations and reasoning abilities. The students must be able to justify their answers. You might be interested to find out which picture your child thinks does not belong. Please remember to ask them to explain their answer to you.

We started working on our Fall booklet this week and focused on signs of Fall as well as the clothing we wear during this season. On Tuesday, we did a short community walk to look for signs of Fall. We noted many fallen leaves, leaves changing colours and drying, Halloween and Fall decorations on homes, and cooler temperatures. We will do another walk around our school field next Monday or Tuesday afternoon to look at the changing larches at the north end of our field and to sketch a Fall tree.

Today, we went outside with our Buddies and learned how to play the ball game Four Square. The Grade 4s taught and coached the Grade 1s on how to play. The students had a great time playing with their older friends and enjoyed the chance to be outside!

Please find two sheets that came home with your child today. One is a partner Math game we played in class last week and the other is an optional Literacy activity.

Picture Day! - Individual student photos will be taken next Wednesday, October 9th.

I hope you all enjoy a great weekend! :)