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!