This morning we had guided reading and worked on our journal pictures. Then we worked on our journal writing. Some of us were working on watching for uppercase letters where they don't belong.  Some of us were working on using our "5 W's" to add more details to our writing. After that is was time for recess.

After recess we did wordwork. The grade 1's focused on the -in word family. The grade 2's finished their practice with adding -ing to words. Then we had math. In math we had a new problem to solve. Today's problem was:

On the way to school I saw:

Three people on unicycles

Three people on bicycles

Two children on tricycles

Two people in their cars

1 person on a motorcycle

How many wheels did I see? 

How many legs did I see? 

This afternoon we worked on our dioramas. We made a list of the steps we need to follow for our diorama. Step 1 was: Complete the habitat. Include at least 5 different plants that we find on Nose Hill like trees, bushes, and flowers.  Step 2 was: Create your animal. Show the male, female, and a baby.
After each step we need to ask a friend to give us feedback on our work. Then we need to use their feedback to make our diorama better. After we make our work better we have to check in with Ms. Boyer before we can move on to the next step.

Then we went to gym. In gym we learned to play a game called Kings Gold. If the weather is nice tomorrow we will try playing it outside instead of in the gym.

Our helper tomorrow is: Cedar

Saa'Kokoto, Sketching, and Bird Watching

This morning we started by welcoming Saa'Kokoto back to our school. We all gathered in the learning commons to present him with an offering and to hear some stories. Saa'Kokoto will be coming back to our school 4 more times and we will even get to go to Nose Hill with him!

After that we went outside to finish our sketches of the school. We started the sketches yesterday but didn't have time to add all the details or colour. We will be adding these sketches to our paperbag books as part of the "My School" page.

After recess we went to do some bird watching. We went to the green path that we take to get to Nose Hill. While we were bird watching we used tally marks to record the birds we saw. We saw Cedar Waxwings, Black-capped Chickadees, Magpies, Robins, Golden Finch, Hawks, Crows, Woodpeckers, Blue Jay, and Hummingbirds, We also saw lots of butterflies!

Volunteer Tea

Today was the Volunteer Tea. Our class did a fantastic job performing for all the volunteers. In case you weren't able to make it, here is a video of our performance.

Solar Project!

This morning we had our Earth Day and Solar Project Assembly. At the assembly the Green Team shared some important information about our garbage, recycling, refundable, and compost program. The Team has noticed that some items are ending up in the wrong bins and gave us some tips for putting things in the correct bins. After that we found out that our school is going to get solar panels! These panels will help us reduce our carbon footprint and should be installed this spring or summer.

After recess the grade 1's did booktime and the grade 2's did wordwork. In wordwork the grade 2's learned the three rules for adding -ing to words. In math we continued with our bird sanctuary problem. Before we started Ms. Boyer showed us an example of some math drawings that would make sense for this problem. Tomorrow we will share our strategies and solutions for the problem.

This afternoon we worked on our animal research and dioramas. Then we had gym and some finish up time. If our journals were finished we got to make a free choice.

Tomorrow is the volunteer tea! We look forward to seeing many of our parents and grandparent volunteers. 

This morning we started by journaling about yesterday's field trip. We tried to include as many details about the trip as we could and we also tried to include the things we learned from the hike, the stations, and our guide Marc.

After recess the grade 1's did wordwork while the grade 2's did solo book time. In word work the grade 1's practiced the -ig word family and four sight words: at, be, this, have. On our big spelling test this and have were tricky words for many grade 1's.

Then it was time for math. We are working on word problems. Today we started with a warm up problem that we did together. Ms. Boyer demonstrated drawing a picture for the problem that would be the most helpful for figuring out the answer. Ask me how Ms. Boyer's picture was different from a picture we might draw in art. After we solved the warm up problem we worked with a buddy to solve our own problem. The problem we had to solve was about the animals we saw at the bird sanctuary and how many feet we say in total. We will spend time finishing the problem tomorrow and then we will share it with you.

This afternoon we worked on our animal research and dioramas. Then we had gym outside. We played hula hoop tag. After that we went to music. We are busy getting ready for our performance at the volunteer tea!

Tomorrow we will be having an Earth Day assembly lead by our Green Team and Destination Conservation. At the assembly we will also be finding out about our school's solar project! Parents are welcome to attend. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Ashton

Inglewood Bird Sanctuary

Today was a great day at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary! To start the day we met our guide, Marc, and he took us on a short walk through grasslands and along the lagoon to an old brick house. Along the way we saw some magpie nests, chickadees, heard a northern flicker, and saw some merganser ducks, canada geese, and mallard ducks. Ask me what makes a magpie nest so interesting.  

When we got to the house we went inside and did an activity to learn about all the different animals that can be found at the bird sanctuary. Lots of different animals come to visit because there are three different ecosystems at the bird sanctuary: grasslands, water/wetlands, and forest.  After we finished our activity we had a snack and got ready for our long hike.

On our hike we walked for over an hour and saw lots of great things! We saw a deer, a beaver den and dam, canada geese and a canada goose egg, a northern flicker, chickadees, a hawk carrying a big stick, and even a muskrat! Marc also showed us some animal evidence like woodpecker holes and even a real beaver tail and an antler.



After our hike we had lunch and then we went into one of the classroom to look at some animal biofacts. There were 5 different stations. The bird station, the rodent station, the cats and dogs station, the ungulates station, and the bear station. Ask me 5 things are observed or learned from the stations today. 

After we finished at the stations we each chose an animal to sketch. On our sketch we had to include the ways that our animal's body or behaviour helps it to adapt or survive. Some examples were beak shapes or leg lengths can help birds to find their food. Ask me about the animal I chose and how it has adapted. 

Tomorrow is a big day. It is twin/triplet day and also treat day! If you have not already arranged to be a twin or triplet feel free to wear your Dr. Coffin shirt and you will likely find lots of other twins to join!

Field Trip on Monday!

Today was a busy day of finishing up some projects so they will be ready to share with our families at conferences tonight and tomorrow.

Please remember that we are going on our field trip to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on Monday! You will need to be dressed for the weather since part of our day will be outdoors. Please also remember to bring a lunch, waterbottle, and your lightweight backpack. Please leave all extras like toys and library books at home.

Have a great weekend!

Who is this?

This morning after guided reading and centers Ms. Boyer showed us this very old photo and asked us to try to figure out who it is. She told us we would find him if we went on a search around the school. After walking around the hallways we discovered that this is Dr. Earnest William Coffin! After we solved the riddle, Ms. Boyer showed us the Dr. Coffin book (did you know our school has a book?) and we read the chapter about Dr. Earnest William Coffin.  Ask me what facts we found out about him.

Where Did Spring Go?

This morning we started with our usual Monday routine of Journals and guided reading.  Before we started our journal writing we met at the carpet and had to think of our first sentence in our heads. Then we shared that first sentence with a friend. Ms. Boyer told us that sometimes if we are having trouble getting started with our writing it can really help to say our ideas out loud to someone or to ourselves. This gets our brains warmed up and our ideas ready so that we don't have to try to think of ideas and write at the same time.

After recess we practiced the words from our custom spelling lists and then we had math. In math we are starting our new study of adding and subtracting. Today we did a "show what you know" so that Ms. Boyer could see what we are already able to do and what she needs to teach us.  Before we got to work Ms. Boyer showed us how adding and subtracting facts could be written across or up and down. We learned to read the facts both ways and learned that even though they look different they mean the same thing.

This afternoon we started working on our dioramas! The first step was painting the background. We painted the sky and some hills so that it will look like Nose Hill.

In gym we started our climbing unit. Today was a bit slow because we had to learn some new rules and facts about climbing.

Thank you to everyone who has already returned their purple field trip forms. If you have not returned your forms please try to bring them back by Wednesday. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Senna

Coffin Cares and Humboldt Broncos Day

Today was our jersey spirit day in support of the Humboldt Broncos and also our Coffin Cares Assembly. It was great to see so many people wearing jerseys and Dr. Coffin shirts in support of the team. In the assembly the Coffin Cares team (including our buddy Abdul Ahad) performed two skits about respecting yourself. Ask me if I remember what they taught us in the skits. Some friends from our class were also recognized for showing respect. Congratulations to: Lawrence, Leander, Joachim, Katie, Josie, and Lily.  To see some pictures of the assembly, please check out the Dr. Coffin twitter feed @FreshAirFriday.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. Please come dressed for the weather.

Our helper on Monday is: Josie

An Artistic Day

Today was a very artistic day. After our usual Wednesday start of guided reading and library we got together with a friend to share our paper bag books. We showed them our family page and our All About Me page and read them all our information.

After recess we worked on our Picasso-style portraits. We used small brushes and paints to add bold colours to the pencil drawings we made on Monday. Tomorrow we will finish up the last step, adding black outlines using Sharpie markers.

In the afternoon we did another art job! This time we used our new understanding of Picasso and  his cubism style to make a special piece of art for the volunteer tea. This time we had a choice for the colour. We were invited to use paint or coloured Sharpies. Most of us chose to use Sharpies. We had to be really careful to fill all the spaces with colour so that it would look really bold and professional.

After that we had gym time outside. It is very wet and mucky outside! Lots of us ended up with wet socks. For the next little while it is probably a good idea to pack an extra pair of socks in your backpack.

We are coming home with 2 notices today. One is a permission form for our next field trip and one is an invitation to the family dance. 

Please remember that tomorrow our school will be showing our support for the Humboldt Broncos by wearing jerseys or by wearing the Bronco's team colours (green and gold). If you would like to bring your hockey stick to set outside our front door you are also invited to do that. Please make sure your stick is clearly labelled with your name. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Jasper

This morning we tried to finish our All About Me writing. Before we went to work, Ms. Boyer showed us a program on the ipads called Kahoot. We used it to do a little survey about our work. We did this as a practice because Mr. O'Reilly wanted to use Kahoot with us in music.  In the Kahoot we found out that 13 kids were finished their work, and 6 still needed some time. We also found out that most people made 6 facts for their page.

After recess we took a look at our big spelling tests to see which words we still need to practice. Then we started making our own custom spelling list of the words we need to practice.  Then we worked on our Picasso portraits. Today we watched Mrs. Hamby do a great demonstration of the painting part of the project and we watched a short video about Pablo Picasso. Ask me if I remember any facts about Picasso.

This afternoon we did some animal research and some animal research sharing. We shared with our table groups and then in a sharing circle at the carpet. Then we played tag games in gym. After that we went to music. We did a test on Kahoot. Mr. O'Reilly said we did really well.

Tomorrow is our library day! On Thursday, our WE day committee has organized a spirit day in support of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team. Students are invited to wear a sports jersey to green and gold. They are also invited to bring their hockey stick to set outside our front door if they would like. 

The helper tomorrow is: Dhvani

Band Performance!

This morning the Simon Fraser band came to perform. They played 3 songs. One was Pirates of the Caribbean, A Scary Song, and Lord of the Rings. In between the songs they also showed us the different instruments and played some little tunes to show us how each instrument sounded. An exciting part was when the conductor invited Max to come up and conduct for her during the Pirates of the Caribbean song!

Then we worked on our journals.

After recess we finished our 100 word spelling test. Since the test is very long the grade 1's had the option of doing silent reading instead of doing the test today. The grade 2's didn't have a choice and had to complete all 100 words.  Then we worked on a new art project. It is called Picasso Portraits. We are going to use them as the covers for our paper bag books. We tried to make the two sides of our portrait different so that they were not symmetrical. We did the pencil part today and we will add the colour tomorrow.

This afternoon we worked on our animal research. We are planning to have the research done by the end of this week so we can start working on our dioramas next week. If you haven't brought a shoebox yet, please try to bring one soon.

After that we had gym and finish up time. Most of us were able to finish our journals this morning and earned free choice!

Our helper tomorrow is: Taylor

Citizen Science!

Today we worked with guests from CPAWS and Green Calgary to learn about our environment and about birds. We learned some new vocabulary. Ask me if I remember what these two new words mean: (1) Biodiversity (2) Dimorphism.  We learned that all parts of our environment or ecosystem are connected and that when one animal or plant becomes extinct it affects the whole system, including us. We learned about some of the ways that the Chiniki people think about nature and some lessons we can learn from their ways of knowing that can help us to do a better job of taking care of the earth.

Our activities today included an animal guessing game, a biodiversity quest, watching a birdwatching skit to learn about the citizen science project, a game called hatchling, fledgling, bird, and a sharing circle.



On May 4 our guests will be coming back to get us started on the Citizen Science birdwatching project. In the mean time they have left us with binoculars and some special activities to do so that we can get ready to become bird watchers and bird counters.

Our helper on Monday is: Shawn

This morning was our first day trying out the new centers. Lots of us were very excited to get started on our projects! When we arrive in the mornings we are responsible for letting Ms. Boyer about our plan for centers by putting our name up on the board under the center we have chosen. This way Ms. Boyer knows where to find us and knows what she can expect us to be doing.

After centers we tried to finish up our All About Me page. Most of us are finished and a few of us just have a little bit more to do.

In word work we continued with our spelling test. We have now completed the first 75 words! Once the test is finished we will look at our tests and be able to see which word we will need to keep practicing. After that it was time for math. We worked to finish our "Show what you Know" and then we had a chance to go on Mathletics.

This afternoon we worked on our animal research. We started by sharing our habitat research with a buddy and checked to see if we had included all the must-haves. Then we made a plan for the day and went to work. At the end of our working time we met with our buddy and showed them what we had accomplished and learned today.

Then it was time for gym. We played relay games again. We did a really fun one with the scooters! After that we had music.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We have some special guests from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society coming to work with us. They will be teaching us about bird watching and getting us involved in a citizen science research project!  Please dress appropriately for the weather. 

Our helper on Monday is: Shawn

Goodbye Ms. Douglas!

This morning we started the day with a whole team meeting to learn about our new centers. Room 1 and the Portable came too. We learned that our new centers are more like projects and we will get to have lots of choices about what we want to do. We also learned that to get these choices we will have to show that we can be really responsible. Our new centers are: Book reviewer, writer, researcher, scientist, mathematician, and performer. We will get to start these new centers tomorrow. Ask me what center I am planning to try first!

After that we had library and then we had a little bit of time to work on our All About Me writing. Our goal is to have this page all finished tomorrow so that we can move on to the next part of this work next week.

After recess we continued with our big spelling test. Today we finished the first 50 words! Then we did math. Now that we are finished our mathlympics and have done so much good practice with our counting patterns we are doing a "show what you know" activity to see what we are able to do all by ourselves. So far Ms. Boyer has been really impressed with our counting patterns!

This afternoon we worked on animal research. Before we got to work we each went with a buddy to share the work we have done on our diet page. We needed to prove to our buddy that we had really completed all the "must haves" for that page. If we discovered something was missing we had to fix that first before we went on to our other sections. The last step before we got to work was we had to make a plan and tell our buddy what we would finish today. Then we went to work. At the end of our work time we got back together with our buddy and showed them what we had finished share our work so far.

Then it was time for gym. We played relay games again. One of the relays included lots of crabwalk. Our arms got really tired!

At the end of the day we said goodbye to our student teacher, Ms. Douglas. Today was her last official day working in our classroom. She will be going back to Mount Royal to write her exams and finish up all her assignments. She said she would like to come back and visit us again and may even come to volunteer on some of our Fresh Air Fridays!

Our helper tomorrow is: Leander