Well, we've made it to the holidays! :)

We enjoyed a busy week filled with many fun and festive activities including caroling, Festive Sweater Day, storytime with Dr. Slater with a special treat provided by our School Council - thank you! - and Pajama Day.

Today, we met up with our Buddies and played some Minute to Win It games organized by Mrs. Miller. The students had a great time working with their Grade 4 buddy to complete each fun challenge!

All of the teachers enjoyed a delicious lunch today also provided by our School Council. A huge thank you to all the parents involved in organizing this meal. It was a wonderful way for us to celebrate the start of the holidays together.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a restful and enjoyable holiday break.

I will see you back at school on Monday, January 8th.

Take care,

Jennifer Larmer :)

This week our focus words were: fish, wish, with, bath, much, such.

I am very impressed with the writing the students are beginning to do. They are keen to write sentences and are working hard to sound out words and reference texts in our classroom to help them express their ideas. Many of the students are eager to share their writing and illustrations during "Author's Chair". 

A big focus for us this week was making food together! Not only did we all participate in making a delicious soup yesterday but we also made bannock and butter. The children enjoyed the bannock and butter and all but a few hesitant vegetable eaters loved the soup! It was really nice to share these delicious treats together. I have included the recipes for the bannock and the butter below and have shared the link to the beautiful story, Stone Soup - definitely worth a read!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Avo5FJ250

Butter:

Pour 1 cup whipping cream and a pinch or two of salt into a small, tightly-lidded jar and shake vigorously for 15 - 20 minutes!

Bannock:

3 c all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp baking powder

1/4 c vegetable oil

1 1/2 c water

pinch salt

2 Tbsps granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees C

In a large bowl, mix flour, bkg pwdr, salt, water, and oil. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes. Let it rest for a minute, then spread out onto a cookie sheet to 1 inch thickness. Poke holes into it with a fork.

Bake for. 15 - 20 minutes until the bottom is golden when you lift the bread to take a peek.

In Gym, Mr. V had the students do a combination physical-creative activity where they had to run laps, collect pieces of equipment, and then work with their group of 4 to create a Christmas-themed "art piece". The creativity was awesome! :)

This week. we also met up with our Grade 4 Buddies to do some art. The students created beautiful winter trees using watercolour paints, watercolour paper, and Sharpies.

Of course, the highlights of our week were the two Christmas Celebration concerts on Wednesday. Thank you to all of you who were able to attend. Having a big audience to perform for is very exciting and it was great to share some holiday cheer with all of you.

We will not have book exchange at the library this week. Your child can return their book or they are welcome to keep it over the holidays. Please return Home Reading books, if you didn't do so on Friday.

Some fun and exciting events next week:

Monday - 9 am Christmas Caroling in the Gym

Tuesday - Festive Sweater Day

Wednesday - 1:15 pm Christmas Caroling in the Gym

Thursday - Pajama Day

Friday - Last day of school before our Christmas Break!

The Magic of Christmas Fundraiser   This holiday season, McKenzie Towne students and staff are encouraged to support The Magic of Christmas.  Every Christmas Eve, The Magic of Christmas loads up Calgary Transit buses that are magically transformed into “reindeer buses”, with hundreds of gifts and volunteers dressed as Santa and his elves.  Then they deliver Christmas spirit into the homes and hearts of those who need it most.  From December 5th to Dec. 18th, please bring in new, unwrapped donation items (not food) and place them in the boxes located in the front foyer.  Please see the attached wish list for ideas of items to donate. For more information or to make a monetary donation, please visit https://www.themagicofchristmas.org/ Thanks for your support!

This week seemed very short to me as I was away for 2 out of the 4 days due to illness. I will do my best to summarize.

Our focus words this week were: did, sit, six, will, have, give, live. We also continued to practice reading and writing words that included the digraphs sh, ch, th, and wh.

In Science this week we learned about measuring weight and when and why we would need to weigh an object, food, person, or animal. Using scales, the students compared the weights of various classroom supplies such as an eraser, pencil sharpener, glue stick, etc., and had to determine which was heavier and which was lighter,

We also did a Candy Cane Dissolving Experiment to look at the changing nature of matter. We placed a candy cane in each of the following: warm water, cool water, and vinegar, and made predictions as to which one would dissolve the quickest. Unfortunately, I had to leave before we could review the results together but it was the warm water that dissolved the candy cane the quickest!

This week in Math we practiced Making Tens. We used the rainbow method below to help us see which pairs of numbers add up to ten and we practiced writing equations to represent pictures. We have also been practicing our doubles skills - 1+1, 2+2,...

In writing, the students wrote sentences based on a picture prompt they were given of a Christmas scene. The prompt also included vocabulary that they could include in their writing. For example: The girl has a red scarf.

Next Thursday, Dec. 14th is our Christmas Sharing Celebration and the students are very excited to perform for you. The sharings will be held in the West wing of the school at 8:15 and 1:15. It will be the same performance both times so please choose only one to attend.

On Wednesday, we will be making butter and bannock to have with our Stone Soup on Friday. Please see the orange note sent home on Thursday regarding Stone Soup. 

We will be sharing family Christmas/Winter Holiday traditions beginning the week of the 18th. Please watch for a letter that will come home with your child next week.

The Magic of Christmas Fundraiser

This holiday season, McKenzie Towne students and staff are encouraged to support The Magic of Christmas.  Every Christmas Eve, The Magic of Christmas loads up Calgary Transit buses that are magically transformed into “reindeer buses”, with hundreds of gifts and volunteers dressed as Santa and his elves.  Then they deliver Christmas spirit into the homes and hearts of those who need it most.  From December 5th to Dec. 18th, please bring in new, unwrapped donation items (not food) and place them in the boxes located in the front foyer.  Please see the attached wish list for ideas of items to donate. For more information or to make a monetary donation, please visit https://www.themagicofchristmas.org/ I hope you are all staying healthy and that you enjoy a wonderful weekend in the snow! :)

Our focus this week was on short vowel u. Our words were: cut, nut, run, fun, sun.

The students had many opportunities to write this week and are continuing to do a great job at using their letter-sound knowledge to sound out words to the best of their ability as well as reference the room for words we have posted. It is exciting to see their eyes light up when they remember where they can go to find the word they want. I've had students looking through their reading books, at posters hung up in the classroom, and at our daily visual schedule. The students are definitely becoming resourceful!

We also continued to work at identifying the following digraphs/consonant blends at the beginning at end of words - sh, th, ch, and wh and did a fun word hunt in the classroom to find and sort many words containing these blends.

This week in Math we did some work identifying numbers as even and odd, worked to solve an open-ended word problem, and did an activity where the students worked with a ten frame and counters to come up with as many ways they could to make ten. They also learned how to write an addition equation to represent their findings.

Now that most of the students have shared their family photos with their classmates, we did a family portrait in the Visual Journal and the students wrote a sentence about the people in their family. I will include photos of the portraits in next week's blog.

Mrs. Carter told us about a fantastic live webcam set up on Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. The camera is set on a man-made "hibernation station" for two grizzly bears. We have thoroughly enjoyed checking in on these two throughout the week to see what hibernating bears really do all day! Here is the link for your viewing pleasure.  https://www.grousemountain.com/web-cams/bear-den-cam

This is what it looks like:

We met up with our Grade 4 buddies again this week and did a creative activity based on the book, This is Not a Box by Antoinette Portis. 

Each buddy group was challenged to take a given shape or line and transform it into something using their imaginations. Here are some examples:

** Important Christmas Sharing Information **

We have started practicing songs and a poem for our upcoming Grade 1 Christmas Sharing. We will be sharing a total of 4 songs and a poem. This sharing will happen at 8:15am and again at 1:15pm on Thursday, December 14th in the West Wing open space of our school. Grade 1 parents, grandparents, and all other family members are encouraged to join us for one of these performances! 

We did not have our regular book exchange at the library this week due to the Book Fair. We will be going again this Tuesday. 

Thank you to everyone who is returning Home Reading books each Friday. I will be sending home a game for you to play with your child this week to review and practice some of the CVC words we have been working with in class.

Please keep your eyes open for a letter regarding an upcoming class activity called Stone Soup. The letter will be sent home early next week.

I enjoyed speaking with many of you at Parent-Teacher Conferences. Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.

Our focus words this week were: let, get, well, tell, red, ten. We worked with short vowel "i" as well to come up with an extensive list of consonant, vowel, consonant words (CVC) and sorted them into word families such as the "ig" family and the "it" family.

We have started to do a weekly dictation to review and practice both the high-frequency and word family words we have been working with in class. The dictations comprise of both words and simple sentences. I give the words to the students orally. The students are encouraged to carefully sound out the words and/or reference text around the room to help them with this exercise. 

Most of you were able to see the beautiful bison art the students created to represent the Indigenous Grandfather Teaching of Respect. This was a multi-step art project that involved paper tearing, printmaking (cotton ball and paint), texturizing (the wheat was made by making prints with a fork which created texture and the bison's thick fur was made by applying coffee grounds with glue), the use of oil pastels, and cutting skills.

We worked with number lines in Math this week. The students learned how to landmark a blank number line by adding 0, 5, and 10 and then placing a given number on the line. They also had a chance to do an activity where they had to identify a number on a line that had been covered or was missing. We will be using number lines more in the future to aid in solving addition and subtraction equations.

** Important Christmas Sharing Information **

We have started practicing songs and a poem for our upcoming Grade 1 Christmas Sharing. We will be sharing a total of 4 songs and a poem. This sharing will happen at 8:15am and again at 1:15pm on Thursday, December 14th in the West Wing open space of our school. Grade 1 parents, grandparents, and all other family members are encouraged to join us for one of these performances! 

We did not have our regular book exchange at the library this week due to the Book Fair. We will be going again this Tuesday. 

Thank you to everyone who is returning Home Reading books each Friday. I will be sending home a game for you to play with your child this week to review and practice some of the CVC words we have been working with in class.

I hope you all enjoy a relaxing weekend! :)

Over the past 2 and a half days we have focused on the words: hot, got, mom, want. We continue to practice reading and writing many consonant vowel consonant (CVC) words using the short vowel sounds of letters a, e, and o. Today, the students participated in an activity where they had to look at a picture and determine which three letters were needed to spell the name of the item in the picture. The students are getting very good at listening for and identifying the beginning, middle, and end sounds of words.

The students have also been writing sentences focusing on proper word spacing, the correct use of an uppercase at the beginning of the sentence, and a period at the end.

In Math, we are becoming familiar with locating and placing numbers on a number line. We have also been learning how to spell number words and continue to develop our ability to represent numbers in many different ways.

We continued work on a multimedia art piece this week centred on our second Grandfather Teaching about Respect. The students' work will be on display for you to see during Parent-Teacher Conferences next Thursday and Friday.

In Science, we learned what is involved in doing investigations. We did a Mystery Bag activity where the students had to use many of their senses to predict what object was hidden in the bag. We discussed the importance of curiosity and how questions and wonderings can lead to new learnings.

In Gym, the students practiced floor hockey skills through different drills and games.

In Music, we have started learning the songs we will share at our Christmas sharing celebration.

* I hope to meet with all of you at the Parent-Teacher Conferences next Thursday from 4pm - 8pom and Friday from 8am - 12pm. Bookings open tomorrow morning.*

We will be viewing the Book Fair next Tuesday and the students will have an opportunity to purchase items on Thursday. You may send money with your child on Thursday if you wish.

The week was a short one but we packed a lot into it!

This week we focused on short vowel "o". We have created a large list of CVC words with short o and have been writing sentences with these words. The students have been using their knowledge of letter-sound relationships to write independently. We also have many high-frequency words up in our classroom that the children are beginning to reference when completing writing tasks.

Yesterday, I read The Peace Book by Todd Parr to the students. Afterward, they each created their own page for a classroom book by finishing the sentence starter "Peace is_______" and drawing an illustration to go with it.

The whole school came together at an assembly yesterday to honour Remembrance Day. We created ripped paper poppies to decorate the wall outside the Gym and discussed the significance of the poppy as well as the importance of taking time to remember all those who fought for our freedom.

We continued to practice number representation in Math this week. The students have now learned to represent numbers through dice, tallies, ten frames, equations (addition and subtraction), a number line, pictures, number words, and fingers.

Thanks to everyone who either sent in a family photo with your child or emailed me a photo for your child to share. If you have not done so already, please send in a family photo after the break that we can put up on our classroom's family tree. I'd like for every student's family to be represented, if possible. Thank you for your support. My email is jllarmer@cbe.ab.ca

I wish you all a relaxing Fall Break and look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Wednesday, November 15.

Please note the following dates:

Nov. 15 - Picture Retakes

Nov. 20-24 - Book Fair

Nov. 23 -  (4 - 8pm) and 23 (8am - 12pm) Parent-Teacher Conferences

Nov. 24 - No school for students