Dec. 16

This morning we started with carol singing again. Then, we did some festive centres.  After that we practiced singing our 12 Days of Christmas song.  We will perform our song during caroling tomorrow. If you can't join us for caroling please ask your child to perform the song for you. Here are the lyrics:

Dr. Coffin 12 Days of Christmas

A porcupine in a willow tree

Two basketballs

Three children playing

Four owls hooting

Five fun lunch pizzas

Six crazy treat days

Seven students learning

Eight missing laptops

Nine iPads freezing

Ten gardens growing

Eleven teachers dancing

Twelve snowforts melting

Tomorrow we are going to have a little party in the afternoon. We will watch a special movie and do some fun activities. If you want to sent a small special treat just for your child that would be nice.

We are getting excited about our Winter Sports Day on Friday. We are still looking for some volunteers to help out. If you are available please email Ms. Boyer. 

Our helper tomorrow is: David.

Dec. 15

This morning we started the day with Christmas caroling! Then we finished writing our Dr. Coffin version of the 12 Days of Christmas. Some of us also finished writing our own versions. Some of us will be working to finish them tomorrow.

On Friday we will be having our Winter Games Day! We will be spending the whole morning outside playing winter games. We will need to be wearing our warmest clothes including our snowpants and boots.

If you are available to volunteer to help with the Winter Games Day on Friday please email Ms. Boyer. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Stephanie

Dec. 14

Today in gym we started practicing some hockey skills. We practiced moving the puck with control and passing. We also had new centres today. We are doing some special centres for Christmas!  They are: Festive colouring pages, word puzzles, holiday cards, snowmen, and foamy decorations.  In math we moved on to our next pattern tubs. This is our third tub.

Tomorrow we will be doing carol singing in the learning commons starting at 9:00am. If you would like to join us we would love to see you! 

Tomorrow our helper is: Ellie

Dec. 11

Today we learned about predators and prey. We learned about the food chain that could exist on Nosehill and then played a game outside to see what it would be like to be an animal in the Nosehill food chain.  Before we went outside we did some research to see what our animals would eat to survive and created a chart to help us.

In our game some people were herbivores and had to hunt for food in special food stations. Other people were omnivores and carnivores and had to hunt the herbivores for food. At first there was a lot of running and screaming as the herbivores tried to run away from their predators. As we kept playing the game we noticed that the game started getting quieter. The herbivores like mice, hares, and deer started figuring out that hiding and being really quiet was important for their survival. If they yelled and stayed in the open areas it was easy for the predators like coyotes, cougars, and eagles to catch them.

We also discovered that the game was a lot harder for herbivores that were wearing really bright colours. We talked about how animals have to be able to camouflage so they blend in with their environment. If they don't blend in they will get eaten quickly.

Some of us even saw a real mouse! We noticed that it ran away really quickly and hid inside a hole near a tree. We realized that the mouse through we were a predator and was using its survival strategies to keep itself safe.

Dec. 10

Don't forget that tonight is the festive evening! We are all getting excited as we watch the wonderful volunteers get everything set up. It looks like it is going to be a great event!

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We will be working in Whispering Woods. Please make sure you have snowpants, and warm socks, mittens, and toques. 

Dec. 9

Today we started a new project during our writing time.  We started writing our own versions of the "12 days of Christmas".  Ask me about my version of the first day!

In science we started adding facts to our colour page to prove that we have learned a lot about colour. Did you know that you can't mix to get primary colours?
Did you know orange, red, and yellow are called warm colours?
Did you know that you can make all the other colours using the primary colours (yellow, blue, and red)?
Did you know that blue, green, and purple are called cool colours?

Tomorrow is our festive evening! We are very excited!

We will be working on mathletics tomorrow so please make sure you have your agenda at school. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Aiden

Dec. 8

Today we started working on our colour page in our visual journals. So far, we have added our tints and shades lines and our colour wheels to the page. Tomorrow, we are going to add facts that we have learned about colour.  In math, we started working on our second pattern tubs. We will be working on 8 tubs in total.  It will take 16 days.

In gym, we played our first real basketball game. The score was 2-1. We were working on trying to spread out and play defense and offense like real basketball players.

Don't forget that our Festive Evening will be on Thursday!

Our helper tomorrow is: Eiman

Dec. 7

This morning we had journals and finished up our first pattern centre in math. The grade one's also started doing some spelling practice during our guided reading today. This will be a new part of our guided reading routine. Grade two's will start their own spelling routine next week.

This afternoon we did a really beautiful art activity using corn syrup and food colouring as a final celebration of our learning about colour. We learned about the difference between opaque and transparent. Here are some examples of our artwork:

Our helper tomorrow is: Pania

Dec. 3

Today we did our vote for indoor garden planting! We also started planting our garden by putting our Tiny Tim Tomato, Diva Hybrid cucumber, California Wonder Pepper, and Sweet Basil seeds into peat pellets. We didn't plant the carrots and beans because they get planted directly into the big garden boxes. We will do that next week.

Please remember there is no school tomorrow. Have a great long weekend! 

Our helper on Monday is: Jason

Dec. 2

This morning we finished up writing our convincing arguments about the indoor garden. We have been working to write in ways that can convince other people to choose the same vegetables for planting as us. We learned that we need to include both facts and opinions in our writing in order to make it convincing.

In math, we started our pattern centres today. Today our centres were: snap cubes, opti-designs, xylophones, and crazy bugs. We will be spending two days at each centre.

We got to have a choice day in music because we earned 10 points for our hard work during class. We played 3 games. hangman, freeze dance, and wax museum.

p.s there wasn't a home reading volunteer today so students have the day off from their usual books. Please take a look at raz-kids for some extra reading practice today!

Don't forget that we have a PD day on Friday so there is no school for students. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Pania

Dec. 1

Today we did knee-to-knee sharing in journals. We focused on finding our most interesting sentences in our writing. In gym we kept practicing our passing and dribbling skills for basketball. We played a 3-on-3 passing game.  In math we learned about the new pattern centres that we will be working on for the next few weeks. We will be starting the centres tomorrow after recess.

We also wrote the observations and "I wonder" questions about the magic milk experiment we did last week. Some of the questions we came up with were:
- Why didn't the soap bubble?
- Why didn't the milk turn brown when the colours mixed?
- What would happen if we added more soap?
- How did the soap make the colours spin around?
- What if you added baking soda?
- What would happen if we put it in the microwave?
- What would happen if we added soda pop?
- What if we used shampoo instead of dish soap?

Some of us might want to do some extra research at home to find answers to these questions!

Tomorrow our helper is: Isabel