Thursday, November 12, 2015

Welcome back from your midweek break. What an interesting day we had. 

During Daily 5 the fire alarm went off! It was a bit chilly out but we all followed the routine perfectly. When we came back inside, we finished up our Daily 5 activities then went right to Phys. Ed. 

In Phys. Ed. today we practiced our throwing and catching skills with volleyballs and we also played wax museum. 

After Phys. Ed. Ms. Coker joined us while we worked on a "Find the Mistake" worksheet. There were 10 sentences, each had one of our word wall words in it, but not all of the words were spelt correctly. We had to figure out which words were spelt incorrectly then write them correctly beside the sentence. This was great practice for our reading and grammar skills.

*Reminder, tomorrow is the word wall quiz. Here are our words to practice tonight:

Group A: not, on, dog, got, the, dig, at, in, can, to

Group B: the, that, them, day, may, made, was, of, it, a 

Following recess, we completed a graph worksheet in Math. One graph was building a bar graph and the other was a pictograph. Then, there were 3-5 questions about each graph we had to answer. Tomorrow we are going to do some problem solving.

All afternoon we did Social Studies. First, we had a chance to finish drawing and assessing our bedroom maps. Then, after a quick body break, we continued on. 

We just started a unit on prairie communities in Canada, we will be focusing on the prairie community we live in, however, today we started by discussing all the prairie communities in Canada. *Ask me which 3 provinces are the prairie provinces and what we did with a map of Canada?? 

Reminders:

-Home reading tonight. This will be only night for this half of the week. please return to school tomorrow for the weekend.

-School picture retakes are Wednesday, the 18th. 

-Still taking mustache votes until the end of the month. $1.00 per vote, vote as many times as you like. All donations going to mens health awareness and research foundations. 

A note from Mrs. Hayes the assistant principal:

November 12, 2015

Dear Parents:

The Calgary Firefighters Toy Association hosts an annual Christmas party for families who may require some form of assistance during the festive season. If you feel you may need some support this holiday season and would like your children to be considered to attend the party on December 20^th at the Stampede Corral, please pick up a form at the office and return to Karon Hayes, Assistant Principal. Please note this is only for children 12 years of age or younger. There are a maximum number of children that can be accepted and applicants are chosen on a first come first serve basis. If you have any questions, please contact Karon at (403) 777-6610. There is a deadline for applications so please contact Karon no later than Wednesday, November 18, 2015.

Respectfully,

Karon Hayes, Assistant Principal, Beddington Heights School

Reminders:

-Home reading tonight. This will be only night for this half of the week. please return to school tomorrow for the weekend.

-School picture retakes are Wednesday, the 18th. 

-Still taking mustache votes until the end of the month. $1.00 per vote, vote as many times as you like. All donations going to mens health awareness and research foundations. 

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

This morning we had to complete a few house keeping items before starting our morning routine and Daily 5.
After Daily 5, we did some work with our word wall words. In our language arts books, we made different lists of words. Together we brainstormed as many words as we could think of that are apart of the "ot" family, the "ay" family, and then all the words that start with "th". Take a look at some of the words we wrote down, and ask me to tell you more:
"ot" family - got, not, hot, spot, shot, dot
"ay" family - may, day, say, ray, clay, yay, stray, pray
"th" words - three, thinking, then, this, throat, Thursday, there, them

Right after recess was our school wide Remembrance Day Assembly. The division students put it on and boy, did they do a fantastic job! Ask me what I think peace means and how I will strive for peace in our community.

After lunch we had some time to read to ourselves again, then we went to the library (because the time we normally go, we had the assembly). Then, we went right to music. In music we sang a new song called "Cleaning the Halls"and the Rocky Mountain song.

To end the we did some work with our bedroom maps. If we did not bring a bedroom map back from home, Mrs. G gave us time to create the map in class. Once we were done, we had to do a self assessment on our own map. There was a checklist we had to fill out based on all things on our map, then 2 questions to answer. One was about what we thought we did well on our map, and the other was what we could have done better on our map. Finally, we gave ourselves a mark out of 8 and explained why we deserved that mark.

Reminders:
-No school tomorrow. There is school Thursday and Friday, so make sure you come back!
-No home reading tonight, it will go home again on Thursday, one last time before the weekend.
-Mavricks Club will be collecting food donation until Friday.
-vote for the worst mustache between Mr. Hebert, Mr, Sadowsky, and Mr. Shackelton $1.00 per vote, you can vote as many times as you like.

Monday, November 9, 2015

Welcome back to this snowy day. Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

This morning we got to do Daily 5 again. Right after that, we read and discussed our new word wall words. This week there are a few red words, words with a bossy e, and words that start with the same sound and have the same vowel sound in them. We had to put our words into sentences that had 5 or more words in it. I also wrote down the words on a piece of paper which I will be binging home today. Just in case I lose them or cant find them, here are the words:

Group A: not, on, dog, got, the, dig, at, in, can, to
Group B: the, that, them, day, may, made, was, at, it, a

After recess, we had math and we did something new today. We focused on the days of the week and started talking about the months of the year. Here are some things we did with the days of the week:
-how many days are in one week
-Sunday is the first day of the week
-Saturday is the last day of the week
-it is a repeating pattern that goes on forever and ever
-we practiced counting which day comes when, based on Mrs. G's question (for example, which day comes 3 days after Thursday?)
-we listened to and sang along with a song
As for months in a year, we know that January always comes first and December is always the last month. Also that there are 12 months in a year that also repeat over and over again forever.

After lunch we read to ourselves for 15 minutes. It was a nice time to cool down and practice our reading skills. Then we got a chance to finish some math before going into social studies. Whoever did not finish the Math worksheet is bringing it home tonight for homework..

For social studies we talked about our bedroom maps. I need to bring to school tomorrow if I didn't today. The things that my bedroom map needs to have on it is:
-pictures
-name
-title
-date
-legend/key
-symbols
Following that discussion, we did a KWL chart on the prairies. Some of the things we said we already knew are:
-farms
-tools
-grasslands
-horses
-oil
-pipes
-pumpjacks
-moose/deer
And, some of the questions we have about the prairies are:
-what kinds of wild and domestic animals are there?
-How many people liver here?
-What did people do in the past on the prairies?
-What makes the prairies unique?
-What is family life like in the prairies?

A few of the male teachers in the school are having a Movember competition. Mr. Hebert, Mr. Sadowsky, and Mr. Shackleton are having a competition of who has the worst mustache. Starting now, anyone in the school can vote. It costs $1.00 per vote. You can vote as many times as you like. The person with the most votes will win some sort of pre-determined prize at the end of the month. The class that raises the most money will get to choose an outfit for the teacher with the worst mustache to wear for an entire day. If you wish to vote please bring $1.00. Mrs. G will hold on to the money and keep track of all votes until the end of the month. All money raised will go to mens health awareness and research foundations.

The Mavricks are still asking for your help in donating food for our troops and those in need. You can bring any food item that will not go bad, like a can of soup or some pasta. Tomorrow is the last day to bring food items.

Also, if you have any old winter gear that maybe does not fit anymore or you just have not used, you can donate those items as well. They will be sent out to children of all ages who cannot afford to buy new winter gear.

Beddington Heights thanks you all for your support as we do these fundraisers for our community.

Reminders:
-Home reading. Please, please complete and return to school tomorrow
-Practice those word wall words
-Fun lunch form coming home today, they are due back next Wednesday, at the latest
-There is no school on Wednesday!

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Today was a normal day again, finally.

Tomorrow we have our word wall quiz! So I need to make sure to practice my words tonight so I can ace the quiz. Here are our words again:
Group A: his, dig, pat, sun, put, is, big, men, cam, am
Group B: no, go, going, most, kind, find, gave, so, do, doing
Today, at school, to practice our words, we had to complete a worksheet with fill in the blanks and scrambled words.
We then went in to our creative writing. We took a few minutes, again, to look at the picture and come up with ideas in our own heads of what we could write, then we went right into continuing our writing.

After recess we had Phys. Ed with the rest of the Grade 2s! It was so nice to be with them again, although we had fun with the Grade 1s. Ask me about the game we played.

In math, we continued working with graphs. Today, we learned all about how to read and answer questions about graphs properly. We also learned about a few different kinds of graphs, including; bar graphs, picture graphs, line graphs, and plot/dot graphs. Soon we will be making one of each all on our own.

Following lunch we had some time to read to our self from the books in our classroom or our library book if we brought it to school.

Then we did a pre activity for our next novel study. Mrs. G did not tell us the title of the book, instead she showed us four different pictures, one at a time. In our visual journals, we had to write down 3-5 things that first popped into our heads when we say the pictures. Ask we what the pictures are and what I think the novel will be about...!

To end the day, we started a social studies unit on communities. First, we reviewed what we discussed back in September on what we already knew about communities. Then, in our visual journals, we divided the page into four sections. We titled each section; Canada, Alberta, Calgary, and Beddington. Under each title, we had to draw a picture or write 3-5 things that represent each community.

Reminders:
-Please complete and return all home reading materials to school tomorrow!
-School picture orders due tomorrow
-Word wall quiz tomorrow

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

This morning we did a lot of writing. First we finished up our word wall tasks from yesterday and Monday. Then we started to do a little creative writing. Mrs. G showed us a picture that we just sat and looked at for one minute. Before we could start the writing we had to ask ourselves question about the picture like;
-Who are they?
-What are they doing?
-What are they wearing?
-Why are they dressed that way?
-How might they be feeling?
-How old might they be?
-Where are they?
We continued this writing piece at the end of the day. Ask about the picture and what I am going to write!

Before recess, we were able to squeeze in some library time. It was nice to roam the books and practice our reading skills.

After recess we had Phys Ed, for the last time, with the Grade 1s. Today, we did a "you pick"; 2 kids chose an activity to play and the class voted on it. We played volleyball! It was a lot of fun because we only had 3 people on a team, so we had more chances to try and hit the ball over the net.

Right after lunch we had music. Altogether we made up our own class song and practiced a song we have been singing for a while.

Following music, we went right into graphing. First, Mrs. G showed us what the graphs should look like using data that has already been collected. Then, we got to make our own graph with the data we collected yesterday. A few things our graphs needed to include are:
-a title
-numbers along the side
-a title for the numbers along the side
-a title along the bottom
-what we collected along the bottom
-the date
-add the data we collected
If you have any questions, ask me! We all did a fantastic job on our individual graphs.

Reminders:
-Home Reading - please complete and return to school tomorrow
-Book Orders are due tomorrow
-School picture orders are due Friday
-Bring a food item to support our troops and those in need. Bring by Tuesday the 10th

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Today we did our usual morning meeting and Daily 5. After Daily 5, we went right into practicing our word wall words. We had to write our words a few different ways; using bubble letters, fancy letters, dots, and then we got to choose one other way to write our words, whether it was rainbow write, pyramid, or anything else. Ask me to show you what these forms of writing look like.

Following Phys. Ed. and lunch we did some more work with graphs. Before lunch, we looked at 2 different kinds of graphs and made a list of all the features it had. This will help us to make sure we include all the right features in our own graphs. Then, after lunch, we starting collecting and measuring data. Tomorrow, we will take our data and start creating our own graphs!

To end the day, we continued and completed our poppy wreath for the Remembrance Day assembly next week.

The Marvricks club is accepting non-perishable food items as donations to support our troops and those in need as come up on November 11. Their goal is get enough to line up along all the hallways in the school, both upstairs and downstairs. If you wish to help out, please send items with your child. Thanks!

Reminders:
-Home Reading
-Book Orders are due Thursday
-School Picture orders are due Friday
-Please return library books
-Note coming home from Parent Council today

Monday, November 2, 2015

Welcome back! Hope you all enjoyed your long weekend and enjoyed your Halloween on Saturday, if you celebrated.

Today we did some sentence writing with our new word wall words. Being that we have all already improved so much on our writing, since the beginning of the school year, we were expected to use our word wall word in a sentence that had 5 or more words in it. This also allows us to be more creative with our writing.
Our new words are as follows, please practice with me at home too:

Group A       Group B
his                   no
dig                  go
pat                going
sun                must
put                kind
is                   find
big                gave
men                so
cat                 do
am              doing

In Phys. Ed. today, we did stations again. There were 5 different stations, a couple of them were new. Ask me what equipment I played with today.

Remember when I told you we starting measuring data last week and we talked a bit about graphs? Well today, we actually did some graphing practice together. As we were doing a graph on colors, we noticed that an increasing pattern appeared! Interesting how math concepts are connected to each other.

After lunch we watched a couple videos about Remembrance Day. We know that this day is coming up, next week, on Wednesday November 11. Before watching the videos, we shared some ideas of what we already knew about the special day. Then we watched two videos, one on the history of the battle field, and the other on the history of poppies. After the videos we shared a few things that we learned and discussed where the money from the poppies go. Following music, we started making a poppy wreath for our Remembrance Day assembly that will be next week.

Reminders:
-Please complete the home ready and return tomorrow. I thank you all for your cooperation as we do this program in our class.
-Class pictures coming home today.
-Picture re-take day is Wednesday, November 18