Room 8 did such an amazing job at the drumming assembly today!! It was so exciting to celebrate all their hard work and practice.
Students are continuing to work on their self-regulation strategies. We spent time in the sensory room to help us regulate our minds and bodies for more focused learning. Students are growing in their confidence using the equipment and they are building strength and endurance. In word work today we did 3 centers: sight words paired with sentences, synonyms, and sentence building. Students are working on developing full sentences using a variety of new words. They are self monitoring their sentences to ensure that they have a subject, object, and verb, and that the sentence makes sense.
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Today we started new work in guided reading. Students were given a short passage to read with comprehension questions to follow. Each passage had a repeating vowel sound (ex. ai in paid or plain) or belonged to a word family (ex. -ad in bad or mad). Students went through the passage and highlighted all of the repeating sounds, then read the passage on their own, then as a group. Finally, they answered the comprehension questions using full sentences.
In math we started learning our doubles math facts using pictures to help us remember. We learned that 9 + 9 = 18, and to think of a semi truck (eighteen wheels) to help remember this. We will be building our mental math strategies off of these facts. We continued painting our cordillera landforms today. Students added more snow to the peaks of their mountain tops and added forests along the base of the mountains. We will be moving on to learning about the interior plains next! Tomorrow is our drumming assembly. Please join us at 10:30am in the gym! Today in math we worked on adding double digits together. Students are learning about stacking numbers and to start on the right side of the numbers before moving to the left. Students will continue to work on addition facts and strategies such as adding double (7+7), doubles +/- 1 (7+8), and making ten. We also worked on skip counting today to help students see patterns in numbers and gain a better sense of numbers.
We started painting our cordillera land regions today! Students laid a base coat of grays and browns to their mountains and added some other land features such as lakes, rivers, trees, and forests. Tomorrow we will continue painting our cordilleras, adding more detail, like the white snow peaks on the mountain tops. Today we started to visualize a story to help us better understand what is happening. We listened to a Cree story called The Granddaughter who was Eaten by a Big Fish (click here to listen). Students drew the pictures they saw in their minds as they listened to the story, using the sequencing words "first, next, then, last". We will continue to do work with visualizing to help us develop better comprehension.
In math we had 3 centers set up for students to rotate through. They worked on representing numbers into the hundreds with base 10 blocks, number bonds, counting money, and finding the equivalent money for different coins (2 dimes = 4 nickels). We are continuing to learn about Canada in social studies. Students are working on labeling provinces, identifying each province when they look at a map, and knowing which order the provinces go in from west to east. Today in room 8 we continued writing our pen pal letters to our friends in Abu Dhabi. After answering all of the questions their pen pal asked, students asked questions about what life is like in the United Arab Emirates. The students were shocked to hear that maybe some of their pen pals had never seen snow! On Thursday we learned about the cordillera land form and what provinces it spans across. We started building the landforms using various materials like foam, newspaper, egg cartons, and straws. Students then paper mached their sculpts. We continued building our cordillera landforms today and we will paint them on Wednesday. We talked more about unexpected vs. expected behaviours at school. Students worked in groups to sort expected and unexpected behaviours and talked about how someone would feel if they did one of those things (ex. yelling at a friend). Students are continuing to learn what is expected of them during whole class instruction, such as raising their hand and waiting to be called on when they have something to contribute. Last Thursday we were very fortunate to get to see at wolf! Her name is Flora and she is 7 years old. She came to visit us from Northern Lights Wildlife Wolf Centre in Golden, BC. Although we were not allowed to pet the wolf, students got to pet a wolf and coyote pelt. Healthy Hunger!
The Parent Association is offering 4 more options in February and March. Please sign up at www.healthyhunger.ca Proceeds of these Fun Lunches and Snacks help the school directly. Snacks costs as little as $2!! And both lunches have a small option so students don't have to order a full meal if they choose. February 21- Kernels Popcorn February 27- Little Ceases March 13- Kernels Popcorn March 18- Edo Japan We would like to invite you to join us for the drumming assembly on Friday February 7that 10:30am. The North Haven students have been learning to play djembes (African drums) in music class for the past few weeks. The classes have prepared performance pieces filled with interesting and often complex rhythm patterns based on traditional melodies. Come and enjoy the performances and be amazed at the level of skill that our North Haven students have achieved! Today we worked on our addition and subtraction facts up to 20. Students used triangle math fact flashcards to show the relationship between addition and subtraction. Yesterday we worked on knowing the values of Canadian coins and being able to recognize them based on their size and symbol. We are working on identifying how much various coins add up to and locating the correct coins for a certain amount.
Last week we started to write letters to pen pals in Abu Dhabi. We continued those letters this week. Students are learning how to start and end a letter, how to respond to all the questions someone asks, and how to ask someone questions for information they are curious about. Tomorrow is North Haven's first book fair. Students will go look at the books during the day, and Thursday and Friday they can purchase the items (either during the day on Thursday, or at parent teacher conferences). Healthy Hunger! The Parent Association is offering 4 more options in February and March. Please sign up at www.healthyhunger.ca Proceeds of these Fun Lunches and Snacks help the school directly. Snacks costs as little as $2!! And both lunches have a small option so students don't have to order a full meal if they choose. February 21- Kernels Popcorn February 27- Little Ceases March 13- Kernels Popcorn March 18- Edo Japan North Haven will be hosting an Open House on February 3rd from 5:30-6:30. Join us for an information session, tour the building, visit classrooms, meet a few of the teachers, and learn about the engaging work of North Haven students! Although it is early, planning for the 2020-21 school year is well underway. North Haven School will continue to serve North Haven community members and Harvest Hills students will be redesignated. More information about staying at North Haven and the redesignation for Harvest Hills students can be found on our school website. In order to assist us with our planning and organization for the upcoming school year we ask that you complete the following electronic form by Friday, February 14th , 2020. https://forms.gle/oQBKftEK7J8hZ1bz5. Thank you for assisting us with our planning for the upcoming school year. Yesterday we finished writing our biographies about our aliens. Students worked really hard at first making a concept map of the information about their aliens, and then turning those ideas into full thoughts and sentences. We will be proudly displaying these on our bulletin board for parent teacher conferences.
Today we continued working on a graphing task that we started last week. Students sorted beads into different categories based on colour, then graphed the amount of each colour. We have started answering questions about our graphs such as "which colour has the most/least". Yesterday we started a new social studies unit on Canada! Students learned that there are 10 provinces, and 3 territories, and that we live in the province of Alberta. We also talked about different Canadian symbols like the beaver, maple leaf, and our flag. Students were surprised to learn that the entire country of Canada has close to 38 million people living in it, while the state of California has over 39 million people! We looked at the size difference on a map and wondered how that many people could live in such a small area. We also had a Speech-Language Pathologist come to our class today and teach us how to properly introduce ourselves. We practiced the wrong way and the right way to do it. After practicing with a peer, each student had the opportunity to introduce themselves to our Speech-Language Pathologist, Ms. Kos. North Haven will be hosting an Open House on February 3rd from 5:30-6:30. Join us for an information session, tour the building, visit classrooms, meet a few of the teachers, and learn about the engaging work of North Haven students! Although it is early, planning for the 2020-21 school year is well underway. North Haven School will continue to serve North Haven community members and Harvest Hills students will be redesignated. More information about staying at North Haven and the redesignation for Harvest Hills students can be found on our school website. In order to assist us with our planning and organization for the upcoming school year we ask that you complete the following electronic form by Friday, February 14th, 2020. https://forms.gle/oQBKftEK7J8hZ1bz5. Thank you for assisting us with our planning for the upcoming school year. Drumming Assembly We would like to invite you to join us for the drumming assembly on Friday February 7that 10:30am. The North Haven students have been learning to play djembes (African drums) in music class for the past few weeks. The classes have prepared performance pieces filled with interesting and often complex rhythm patterns based on traditional melodies. Come and enjoy the performances and be amazed at the level of skill that our North Haven students have achieved! Today we read a book called "Not Quite Narwhal" by Jessie Sima. It's about a unicorn that was born underwater and thinks he is a narwhal but isn't like the others. One day he goes above water and sees some unicorns playing. He realizes he's a unicorn too and feels happier knowing who he really is. This book is similar to a book we read the other day called "Red: A Crayon's Story" by Michael Hall. Students worked to find the similarities and differences between the books using a Venn diagram and made connections such as the two books having the same problem.
Yesterday we made "aliens" from folding a piece of paper in half, writing our names on them, and cutting out the top portion of the paper. Students had fun colouring them to make unique alien characters. We started writing about our aliens today. We brainstormed some ideas that we want to include like where the alien lives, how it survives (what it eats and drinks), and what kind of special powers it might have. No school tomorrow, have a great weekend! Welcome back! I hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable break! It was so great to see all of you. Today we got back into the swing of things by drawing self portraits of ourselves. Students had previously drawn a self portrait on the first day of school, and we also do one towards the end of the school year to show the progress they've made, not only in their fine motor/drawing skills, but in their conceptual understanding of themselves. In Language Arts, Students wrote about what they did on their break. It was nice to hear that so many of them had done fun activities with family. I heard all about their gifts, and the food and treats they had. In math we played games on ABCya and IXL math, focusing on patterns, addition, and time. We also made some polar bear art using watercolours and tracing cutouts onto white paper. We are in search of new and lightly used pants from our K-grade 3 friends! Please donate any extras if you have some to be given to children when needed. Parent council will be next Monday, January 13th at 6:00pm. All parents are welcome! Only 1 more day left of school until Christmas break! We are wrapping up our how to build a robot guides and robots will be sent home tomorrow. Students worked on their illustrations and cover pages today, and we will be putting the finishing touches on them tomorrow.
We started some watercolor tree art today. Students used geometric shapes and lines to make a tree in the middle of the page with bright colours surrounding it. Students worked on their fine motor skills using a small paintbrush, and learned that with watercolor you don't need much paint to make beautiful and vibrant colours. Reminder that it is PJ day tomorrow! We will be finishing up various projects we have been working on and also enjoying the last day together before the 2 week winter break! |
AuthorI am originally from Saskatchewan but now call Calgary home. My background is in inclusive education and I am passionate about supporting students who are exceptionally abled. I love getting out to the mountains, hiking, and taking in all the beautiful sights. I also love traveling which took me to Vietnam last fall to teach English for 3 months. Archives
March 2020
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