May 2015

What a busy past few weeks it has been! With our field trip to Fort Edmonton Park, May Long Weekend, the hustle and bustle of District Track Meet coming up, and practicing for the Track Meet...it has been a very busy few weeks! The crazy part is that it is not going to slow down! 

A few things: 

-Keep an eye out for forms and information being sent home. The students will put the forms in their kanga pouch and I will try to send an email when they go home, however, best to check every night when you sign their agenda. 

-With the change of weather, the students are spending more time outside (YAY!!) however they still need a good night's sleep. They are much more productive at school after a good rest. 

Language Arts

We continue to work on our phonics, spelling, writing (empowering writers program and 6+1 traits), journals, story prompt writing, and reading comprehension. This week we have started our Novel Study on Charlotte's Web. The students are pretty excited! 

In phonics we have been learning about: 'wr' words, digraphs (wh, ck, ch, kn, th, sh, wr, etc), 'ar' words, and 'or' words. Our next section of phonics continues on to learn about 'ir', 'er', and 'ur' words, compound words, and contractions. 

Our writing unit has been encouraging the students to elaborate and add details to their writing while thinking about two important questions: What does it look like? and Why is it important? 

The Empowering Writers unit will focus on: using good description words, writing convincing statements, creating a postcard, write suspenseful writing, and be introduced to acrostic poems. 

Another important part to writing is varying their word choice, so they have been trying to write with different words and 'juicy' words. They have began learning about verbs (action words) and why each sentence needs to have a verb in it. Over the next few weeks, the 6+1 Traits of Writing will allow students to start looking at: using clues to figure out tough words, using their senses when writing, using details but not too many, and using different words to begin a sentence. 

Math

We have finished up our 'Addition and Subtraction to 18' unit. The students have come a long way with their number facts! Keep in mind that the students cannot practice these facts enough. 

The students are practicing (A LOT) their double digit addition and subtraction. Although they have been exposed to different methods of addition and subtraction, ask them to show you their favorite way. This is a great activity for you to do with them!

Science

The students have been experimenting a lot with their 'recycle items' and determining which materials float or sink, and why they float or sink. This week the students will finish up their Boats and Buoyancy unit with their final 'boat' by creating a boat that is self-propelling. The students are pretty excited to create and test their boats. 

The next unit is "Small Crawling and Flying Animals". 

Social

Our grade 2 class is diligently working on our Social presentations. It is a culminating project in which our class has been split into groups, research one of the three communities, and put the interesting information into a google presentation. Once completed, the Grade 2 class will present their information to the Grade 1 classes. This is quite a large project for them to work on so it will take a few weeks to work on. The presentations will take place in late June. 

May 4-8, 2015

Happy Education Week! 
There is a lot going on at East Elementary School this week to celebrate Education week. 

On Monday we were visited by Ms Meyer, who led the class in Drum Fit. The students had a blast banging on the yoga balls with drum sticks and dancing to the music. 
On Wednesday, I encourage all students to wear a hat (any kind of hat) for "Hats On for Mental Health" day. Last week in Assembly the students talked about what mental health is, how we can keep our mind sharp, and discussed how to changed negative thoughts into positive ones. **Please note this is also Early Dismissal Day**
A Zumba group will be coming in on Thursday to teach the students during gym. Zumba is a type of 'work out dance' to fun songs. I know the kids are going to love this activity!
Friday is a SUPER exciting day as the Grade 4-6 students will be having their Science Fair. An Assembly will kick it off in the morning and the Division 1 students will be able to check out the displays in the morning when we visit. Even I am doing a science experiment (display and presentation) for the students! Our class is very excited to see it. 

Permission forms for our field trip to Fort Edmonton Park were sent home yesterday. We are going on May 19 (Tuesday after May long weekend) and the cost is $6.50. This will be an all day field trip and students are asked to bring a bag lunch. More information will be going out next week. **We are in need of volunteers, otherwise this field trip cannot happen. Please consider volunteering for this field trip.**

Language Arts
Students are wrapping up their 'Fantasy' story this week. They have been working diligently on writing an exciting story with details. Their story must include an introduction, body, and conclusion. They will be coming home on Friday, so keep an eye out for these!
In Phonics, we have wrapped up talking about words that contain digraphs (sh, th, wh, ch, ck). This week will allow us to start using words with silent letters (wr, kn, etc). It is great practice at home for kids to see common items and attempt to spell them aloud. 
Our spelling this week is a review of the past five weeks. 
In our 6+1 Traits of Writing we have been working on including voice in our writing, and how Authors add voice to their own writing. We have just started discussing adjectives and what the purpose of adjectives are in writing (add detail). 

Math
Students are absolutely loving adding double digit numbers! They understand the need to add the 'ones columns' first then the 'tens column'. They love to 'carry the one' because it FLIES up to the top and joins the other 'tens' number. Have no idea what I mean?? Ask your child! They are getting pretty good at it!
Adding and Subtracting to 18 is almost over, but it is a skill they will be working on for the rest of the year. They are getting lots of practice using these numbers and committing them to memory, however the extra practice at home is always beneficial. The goal for the year is to have addition and subtraction facts to 12 committed to memory. They are to be mental math facts that can be recalled within a moment...I always say 'less than 1 second' without using any fingers, counting, manipulatives, or any help. 

Science
Wednesday is the day! They are testing their items in the water table to see if they float or sink. They will start building their boats next week.

Social
The final culminating project is underway! The students have been split into 6 groups (some of 3 and some of 4). Each group has a community (Iqaluit, Meteghan, or Saskatoon) to study, become experts in, and create a presentation. They will present this at the middle of June to the Grade 1 classes. They are very excited! The best part is that the students can present their project in any way (poster, brochure, powerpoint, etc). Don't worry...all of the work will be done at school. They are very excited to research, discuss, and present their information.