This morning we worked on planning the topics we want to share in our "All About Me" books. We read a story called The Important Book and then brainstormed topics that would be important about us. In math we started working on our final graphing project. We are trying to come up with survey questions that will help Dr. Coffin School. Ask me about my question. 

This afternoon Ms. Boyer was away at a meeting so Mrs. Wilkens worked with us. We continued our colour study by learning about tints and shades. We used white and one color to paint different tints of the color. Then we had music. Mr. O'Reilly was away so Ms. Stephure was here to teach us. 

Tomorrow our helper is: Leander

This morning we had guided reading and journals. Today the goal was to do hamburger paragraphs. In a hamburger paragraph you need to have: 1 topic sentence, 3 detail sentences, and 1 wrapping up sentence.

After recess we finished our 4 choice graphs. If we finished early we got to play mathletics.

After lunch Mrs. Polski came to read a story to us. It was a story about Canada and each of us got a copy to bring home!! Then we did our finish up time.

After that we had another visit with Saa'Kokoto. Today he taught us about the Medicine Wheel on Nose Hill. He taught us that the Medicine Wheel has 4 quarters. In each quarter there is a symbol for people. The 4 people symbols show the 4 tribes of the Blackfoot nation.  We also talked about the plants, trees, and birds on Nose Hill. He told us that you can even get medicine from some of the plants.  He taught us that when we go to Nose Hill and wish to take something from the Hill we should give back an offering. This is a way of giving back to Na'a (Mother Earth) and showing respect.  Today was our last visit with Saa'Kokoto until the spring. We are sad that we won't see him for a while but we are looking forward to the spring!

After our visit we had some outside gym time before the end of the day.

Tomorrow is Treat Day! If you are bringing treats please drop them off at the table in the front hall.  Don't forget you 25 cents!

Our helper tomorrow is: Shawn

Visit with Saa-Kokoto

This morning we started by meeting with the portable to examine our two amaryllis plants. When we got together we shared our observations and measurements. When we shared our measurements we discovered that our classes had been measuring differently and that meant we had very different results. We had been measuring from the soil and the portable had been measuring from the start of the new growth. We decided that next week we will both measure from the dirt so that it will be easier to compare our plant growth.

Then it was time for our first outside activity of the day. We began by talking about the words prey and predator. We learned a little rhyme to help us remember a way to tell if an animal is a prey animal or a predator animal: Eyes on the side, ready to hide. Eyes up front, ready to hunt. We talked about the strategies that prey animals use to hide from their predators. Some of the strategies we knew were that animals will have fur that matches their surroundings, that animals will stay really still so their predator's eyes aren't attracted by movement, and animals will stay very quiet so their predators won't hear them. This includes keeping themselves quiet and also moving through their environment without making loud noises. After we had talked about these strategies we went outside and gave them a try by playing a game of Camouflage. Ms. Boyer was the predator and stood at the edge of the Whispering Woods. We were the prey who went to hide. When Ms. Boyer yelled "Camouflage" we had to try to stay really still and quiet so that she wouldn't see us. If Ms. Boyer saw us she would call our name and we would go join her at the predator spot. We really enjoyed the game and discovered that the designs of boys snowsuits are much better for Camouflage than girl snow suits...all those pinks and purples were tricky to camouflage!!

After that we had our recess break inside and then we did our next outdoor activity. This activity was called the rainbow chip walk. Ms. Boyer brought out a big bag of paint chips and our job was to see how many of the colours we could find in nature. The job was challenging since lots of the world is covered in snow right now, but once we started looking closely it was amazing how many colours we were able to find.

When we were finished outside we came in to have our time with Saa'Kokoto (Randy Bottle). Today he was here to help us learn more about colour and the importance of colour to the Blackfoot People. We learned that all colours come from the earth and that we can even made paints from natural materials found in the earth like stones, clay, berries, and grasses. For the Blackfoot there are 5 important colours: red, yellow, blue, white, and black. He showed us some pictures of his great grandfather White Clay who was dressed all in white. This is because white is a very important colour. He also told us that we can still see some very old painting that is done in the red ochre paint at Writing on Stone provincial park. These paintings are called petroglyphs and were made by mixing the red ochre powder with buffalo fat. He told us how colours would be used to paint a Moyiss (lodge/tipi). He told us that blue is used to represent mountains and yellow can mean the sun or fire. Black is used to show the dark night sky and sometimes brown is used to show the earth.  He also told us a story how the horse was given its name in Blackfoot (Ponookomita) and how the Blackfoot people were introduced to horses. Saa-Kokoto told us this story and he has also published the story as a graphic novel which he gave us as a gift. The story is called Ponookomita. On Monday we will get to visit with Saa'Kokoto again.

Our helper on Monday is: Joachim

Lights, Camera, Action!

This morning we started working on our big version of our self-portraits. We are making them on very special watercolour paper. Today we started by sketching our portraits with very light pencil lines. Next week we will use watercolour paints to add the colour.

After recess we did graphs to go with our 4 choices surveys. We needed to have 4 towers in our bar graph this time to show how many people wanted each of our choices. Today's graphs were a bit more challenging because we used smaller graph paper and had to write our numbers and labels very carefully to fit them in the correct spaces.

This afternoon we had our recording session for our CBC music class project. Ashton's dad came to help video our performance. We learned that you have to be really quite when the recording is about to start because the microphones are really sensitive and will pick up any tiny sounds we are making. We also learned that it is important to work as a team and to play in unison so that the beat and the melody are really clear.  We got really good at listening for Mr. O'Reilly to call "Lights, Camera, Action!". Those words meant we were ready to record.

 When we were finished recording we had gym outside.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We will be working with Randy Bottle, our friend and Blackfoot Elder for part of the morning and we will be spending time in the Whispering Woods. Please dress for the weather (waterproof clothing recommended for the slush!). 

Our helper on Monday is: Joachim

Dress Rehearsal!

Mustache Day was a great success today! We had lots of kids wearing fantastic store bought and home made mustaches and even some mustache themed clothing!

This afternoon was our dress rehearsal for our CBC music project. We rehearsed in the gym because the music room it too small to fit everyone. The singers and the piano were on the stage and everyone else was on the gym floor. Mr. O'Reilly told us where we will be sitting and we need to remember our spots for tomorrow. We were great. The music sounded good. At first, the drums were too loud, but once the drums played quieter they sounded really good.  Tomorrow afternoon is the big recording day! We will be doing our recording right after lunch.

Tomorrow our helper is: Senna

Parents: Please remember our class is hosting treat day next Tuesday. If you need any information about what that means please contact me or our room parent for details. 

Self-Portraits

This morning after centers and guided reading we moved on to the beginning of our All About Me project. The first step is creating self-portraits. A self-portrait is a picture of your head and your shoulders that you make of yourself. The first step was to fold your paper so that you could center your head on the page. We had to work hard to try to make our head shape on the paper match our head shape in real life. Some of us have oval faces, some have round faces, some have pointy chins, some have round chins. Then we focused on drawing our eyes and ears. We learned that our eye are in the center of our head, not up at the top. Before we started our portraits Ms. Boyer also showed us a fun thing on the internet for making ourselves and that sort of helped get our brains warmed up for portraits. It is called Peanutize Me and turns you into a peanuts cartoon character! Here is our version of Cedar:

Cedar Goes Peanuts!

Here is the link if you want to try it at home: http://www.peanutizeme.com/

After recess the grade 1's worked on a review page for printing and the grade 2's started practicing their three sets of spelling words (days of the week, months, and number words to 20). The grade 2's used whiteboards to practice writing their words and then had a friend test them if they felt confident with one of the word sets. We will be practicing for the next two weeks and then Ms. Boyer will give us a little quiz on the words.

After that we started working on a 4 choice survey in math. We each needed to come up with a survey question where our survey participants would be given 4 choices. Several of us chose to ask about favourite hockey teams and asked questions like: Do you like the Flames, Oilers, Penguins, or Golden Knights? Tomorrow we will conduct our surveys.

This afternoon we finished up our colour wheels by adding in the tertiary colours. We needed to mix the paints to get these colours: red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, red-purple, and blue-purple. Here are a few examples of our colour wheels:

Please remember that tomorrow is Mustache Day! It is also library day tomorrow. We are bringing home our school photos today! 

Parents: Our class is hosting Treat Day next Tuesday Nov. 28. Please see the email sent by our Room Parent for more details about this. 

Tomorrow our helper is: Ashton

Colour!

This morning we started with journals and guided reading. Today Ms. Boyer showed us how to make a hamburger paragraphs.  In a hamburger paragraph, the top bun is for our topic sentence. The tomatoes are our first details sentence. The lettuce is the next detail sentence. The pattie is the last detail sentence. The bottom bun is the wrap it up sentence. The grade 2's (and some grade 1's) then tried to make hamburger paragraphs in our journals.

After recess we had printing and book time. Today's letter was "N".  Then it was time for math. Today we got to try mathletics! If you are working on mathletics at home the two strands we are focusing on are the shapes strand and the statistics (gr. 2) strand. You could also be doing mathletics live to practice your basic facts.

This afternoon we continued our colour study by looking at the colour wheel.  The colour wheel includes all the colours in the colour spectrum. Before we started the colour wheel we learned about the next set of colours. They are called tertiary colours and are made by mixing a primary colour with a secondary colour (1+2=3).  Then we started painting our own colour wheels. Today we painted the primary and secondary colours. After that we watched a short video about colours and learned something new at the end of the video. Here is the video:

Then it was time for gym. We are starting to practice basketball skills.

Our helper tomorrow is: Cedar