Hope you Wore your Thermals Thursday

Brrr its cold out there! We all stayed toasty and warm inside the school today and started to get ready for our winter holiday. We had a chance to do some more festive centers, sang carols in the learning commons, cleaned out our desks, and finished up our secret projects. The projects are now drying and will be ready to bring home tomorrow!

After our morning recess we had a special guest visit us in the learning commons. Her name was Kelsey and she works at the Mustard Seed. She came to tell us all about the great work that happens at the Mustard Seed and told us how much our cards would be appreciated by their guests. Before she left she gave us some tips for things we can do to help prevent people from becoming homeless and to help people who are already homeless. Here are her tips:
- Be a friend to someone who is alone at lunch or recess.  Make sure people know they are not alone.
- Help your parents write a letter to your MLA to ask them to support affordable housing.
- Smile when you see a homeless person to show them kindness and respect.
- Use kind words to everyone, especially people who are homeless or who are having a tough time.

Tomorrow was supposed to be Winter Sports Day, but the weather is looking very cold and Mrs. Polski has decided to postpone Winter Sports Day until January when hopefully we will have a Friday that is still wintery but not quite so cold. Instead of Sports Day we will do some fun last day activities in the classroom including some games, a short movie, and even a special indoor snowball fight!!

Wintery Wednesday

This morning we worked on our festive centers when we arrived. Then we went to sing Christmas Carols. We sang Ms. Boyer's favourite one: Six White Boomers.

After caroling and a little more center time we worked on our Whispering Woods painting. Some of us are finished our paintings.

Then it was warm enough to have recess outside. Some of us are building snow forts!

After recess we made cards with out big buddies. The cards will be given to people who are homeless and will be having Christmas Dinner at the Mustard Seed.

This afternoon we continued the third step of our secret project. In the third step we used a type of glue called Mod Podge. We tried to be very careful but some of us have a little bit on our clothes.

After that we had library. At library today we didn't sign out any new books because of the holidays but Mrs. Kidd read a story to us. The story was about a girl named Irene who had to walk through a snowstorm to deliver a dress to a castle. She got lost in the snowstorm but finally arrived at the castle.

Today in gym we played a game of ringette.  Then we finished with a game of wax museum.

If you still haven't returned your library books please bring them tomorrow. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Peter

Tinsel Tuesday

Today was our first day of caroling in the learning commons. Today we sang:

Jingle Bells
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
Up on the House Top
Silent Night
We Wish you a Merry Christmas

Before and after caroling we had a bit of time to work on our festive centers. Then we got to work on our Whispering Woods paintings. Even though this is a very exciting week we all did a great job staying focused and doing careful work on our paintings.

After recess we tried to finish up our counting by 2's game cards. When we were finished we got to try racing our friends or the timer to see how fast we could put the cards in order. Once we are finished using the cards at school we will bring them home to use as extra practice with our families. Right before lunch we cleaned up our math and did the first step of a new secret project.

After lunch we got back to work on the second step of our secret project. Sorry we can't tell you anymore....it's a secret! Also, we apologize if the secret means that some of our clothes have a bit of glue on them. Sometimes secret projects can get a little messy!

Our helper tomorrow is: Jessica

Tomorrow is our library day. We will not be signing out new books but Mrs. Kidd would like to make sure that all the books are returned for the holiday. I know she would appreciate it if we remembered our books. 

Merry Monday!

This morning we started with journals. We needed to try to do our best work because this was our last journal of 2016!  Then it was recess. Luckily it was just warm enough today that we got to go outside for recess!

After recess we read a story and did computers. We did Mathletics and then had a chance to do the christmas games for the last 15 minutes.

This afternoon, we read a story called Christmas Magic. Then, instead of doing our arctic research we did some festive centers. Tomorrow morning when we arrive at school we will be able to work on these centers until 9:00 when it is time for carol singing in the learning commons.

In gym today we started playing ringette. Then we came back to the class and did journal sharing.

Tomorrow we will start our annual Christmas Caroling in the learning commons. It starts at 9:00 and parents are welcome to attend.

Tomorrow our helper is: Tessa

An Indoor Friday

First thing this morning we had big buddies. They taught us how the earth rotates on an axis that is tilted and causes the winter solstice where there is no daylight in the far north, and the summer solstice where there is no nighttime in the far north. Ask me to explain this idea to you.  Then we showed our buddies our Arctic folders and read a story. After big buddies we finished a story called Arctic Son. Then we worked on our Inuit history books. We were working on the first three pages about transportation, shelter, and clothing.

Today we had an indoor day instead of Fresh Air Friday because it was too cold to learn outside. Even though we didn't go outside we still got hot chocolate as a special treat. After our hot chocolate we had to rinse out our mugs so that they are ready for next time.

Because we couldn't go outside we had a special gym time today. We played dodgeball for the first time this year!  In Dodgeball you have to try to hit the other team with the ball and try not to get hit when they throw the ball. If you get hit you have to go to the side and do jumping jacks while you count by 2's. The grade 1's had to count to 20, the grade 2's had to count to 50.

At the end of the day the people who had their first three pages in their Inuit history books finished had a chance to play Mathletics and christmas games on the computers. Next week we will be working on learning about Inuit tools, food, and games.

Home Challenge: Please find one tool used by the Inuit. Learn about the materials it is made of and how it is used. 

Our helper on Monday is: Isla

Another Indoor Day

This morning the grade 2's didn't have guided reading. After the grade 1's finished guided reading we worked on our Whispering Woods paintings. Some of us finished our first painting and will start the second one tomorrow. If we finished early we got to start planning our second painting.

After recess we had word work. The grade 1's practiced the -ice family and the -ike family. In math we finished our pattern check. Now we are finished with our study of patterns and are moving on to our study of counting and counting patterns.

In the afternoon we started researching arctic clothing. We learned about the types of clothing the Inuit wore and even learned some of the Inuktitut words for the clothes. Did you know that a parka is called a qulittaujaq and snowpants are called silapaak in Inuktitut? One that a few us knew was Kamik which means boots. We didn't have time to start the work in our books because we had to do all the research about the clothing so we spent the last 15 minutes trying to finish the transportation and shelter pages.

Then we had library. Please remember to bring your books back if you forgot today. In gym we did more 3-on-3 hockey games. Today we had new teams.

Please remember tomorrow night is the Festive Evening! 

Our helper tomorrow is: Reid

Brrr its Cold!

This morning was so cold that it was a Blue Day at Dr. Coffin. A Blue Day is when we invite everyone to come inside before the bell rings because it is too cold to wait outside. When we have a Blue Day we are supposed to meet the supervisors at our regular door and they will let us inside. Once we are inside we can take off our outside clothes and come down the hallway to our classroom. If the classroom is open we can come in and look at books until the bell rings. If the classroom is closed we can sit and have a visit with our friends in the hallway. 

During our writing time today we started working on the watercolour paintings for our Whispering Woods books. Our learning intention is to make our writing even more powerful by adding illustrations that match our ideas and really help our audience imagine what it is like in the Whispering Woods. We will each be making 5 pictures to go with the 5 senses we wrote about. If we wrote more than one idea for each sense we are picking our favourite ideas to use for the pictures.

After our indoor recess (it was still too cold to go outside) we had word work. The grade 1's practiced words in the -ike family. This is part of our focus on word families that have a 'magic e' at the end. The grade 2's went with Ms. Stephure to finish the long and short vowel secret pictures they are making.  Then we had math. Today we started talking about counting by 2's. This is sometimes also called skip counting, or counting by multiples of 2. For the grade 2's there was an extra challenge. The grade 2's had to show the even number counting by 2's pattern and also the odd number counting by 2's pattern. On Thursday we will start making a speed game to help us get really good at counting by 2's.

This afternoon we started by watching a 10 minute video of two Inuit men building an Igloo. The video was quite old but it had a lot of really great information about the way an Igloo is built. Because the video was quite old, the narrator called the men Eskimos. We talked about how this was a name that people from the south used to call the Inuit but that it isn't really what the Inuit like to be called. The Inuit men in the video were amazing builders and built a whole igloo in less than two hours!  After we finished the video we worked to finish the shelter page in our Inuit history books.

** Thank you to our students who found out the answer to yesterday's challenge question. We found out that the Inuit made houses that they can move or rebuild because they are nomadic. That means that they move and don't just live in one place. The Inuit are nomadic because they need to hunt animals to survive. This means that if the animals move, they need to move. 

In gym we played floor hockey. We played 3-on-3 hockey just like yesterday. Lots of us are really starting to get the hang of it and the games went really well. Sidney Crosby better watch out!!

Very Serious Hockey Players!

Very Excited Hockey Players!

Our helper tomorrow is: Sarah 

A chilly start to the week!

This morning we worked on our journals. Lots of us wrote about getting ready for Christmas. Lily was excited about making a gingerbread house. Then, after recess we did some computer time. We worked on the number section of Mathletics. At the end we got 15 minutes to try out some Christmas computer games.

Due to the cold weather we had to have our lunch recess inside. We could choose to play chess, do colouring, computers, or play games in the gym. This week is going to be very cold but we will still be going outside for recess if the temperature (with windchill) is above -20. Please make sure you are dress properly for this cold weather. This means snowpants, boots, warm jacket, mittens, tuque, scarf.

After lunch we talked about Inuit shelters for our Inuit history books. We read a little bit of a story to help give us ideas. We learned that they used igloos and hide tents.  

Home Challenge: Why did the Inuit make homes that they could move or remake in a new place? Why didn't they make permanent homes like us? 

In gym we played hockey games. We played 3-on-3 games. Some of us have lots of experinence playing hockey and some of us are brand new. We talked about trying to make sure everyone had a chance to learn new skills and to not be too worried about the score. Then we came back to the classroom to do journal sharing. Some of us had to stay at our desks to finish our writing during the sharing time.

Thank you to those people who have already brought in donations for the "Fill as Sock, Fill a Need" campaign. We will be collecting donations until Friday. Here is a reminder of the items requested by the Drop-in Centre:

Gloves, mitts and hats
Lip balm and travel size toiletries
Cough drops
Travel mugs
Deodorant (non-alcohol based)
Brush and combs
Socks and underwear
Gift certificates (i.e. Tim Horton’s or McDonalds)
Chocolates and candy

Our helper tomorrow is: Tessa

Looks like Winter!

Today things really started to feel like winter. Snow to play with and very rosy cheeks after recess! Please remember to start bringing mitts, hats, scarves etc. to school each day. We will be going outside for recess unless it is colder than -20C. 

This afternoon our grade 5-6 friends from the Me to We club came to tell us about a new campaign they are running in preparation for the holiday season. The campaign is called Fill a Sock, Fill a Need and supports clients at the Calgary Drop-in Centre. More information about the campaign can be found here: http://www.thedi.ca/fill-a-sock-fill-a-need/

We are hoping to collect the following new items for the campaign: 

• Gloves, mitts and hats
• Lip balm and travel size toiletries
• Cough drops
• Travel mugs
• Deodorant (non-alcohol based)
• Brush and combs
• Socks and underwear
• Gift certificates (i.e. Tim Horton’s or McDonalds)
• Chocolates and candy

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

Our helper on Monday is: Anjalika

Arctic History

This morning we did guided reading and centers. Mr. O was here with us for the morning because Ms. Boyer had to do a special job for Mrs. Polski. He did guided reading with Ms. Boyer's groups. After that we continued typing our Whispering Woods Writing. 15 of us have our writing all finished. The rest of us will finish tomorrow.

After recess we had wordwork. The grade 2's worked on finishing an activity for long"e" words. The grade 1's practiced words in the -ame family. We are learning about the magic 'e' that mades vowels say their long sounds. Then we did our pattern check. When you are done your pattern check you can work on finishing your pattern-palooza and then Mathletics. We have a new bar to work on in mathletics that is about counting patterns.

After lunch we kept working on our arctic study. We started working on our history books about the Inuit. We started making the transportation pieces to put in our book. Earlier in the day Ms. Boyer asked Peter to start his book because he is really talented at paper art. We used Peter's example to help us understand how to make our own pieces.

An Inuit Kayak
By Peter

Then it was library time. Most of us remembered our books. If you are having trouble remembering your books please remember that we always have library on Wednesdays but books can come back any day of the week.

Our helper tomorrow is: Jasper

Hockey!

This morning we started the day with guided reading and centers. This is our second week of the new center choices so we all got to start something new today. The centers are: Pattern-palooza (we needed an extra week for this one!), Robert Munsch stories (www.robertmunsch.com), and Arctic Vocabulary word searches.

Then we continued working on our Whispering Woods typing. Almost half of us finished today and we are hoping to get everyone else finished up tomorrow or Thursday at the latest. Then we will be ready to start the watercolour illustrations next week.

After recess we had a lockdown drill during Wordwork. During a lockdown we have to go sit quiety by our green lockdown meeting dot and pretend that the classroom is empty. We have to stay very still and we don't make any noise at all. When the drill was finished our school's police officer, Officer Johnson, came and told us that we did a great job! The grade 2's were in the portable during the drill and they did a great job staying quiet and still at their meeting dot with Ms. Stephure.

Once the lockdown was over we worked to finish up our Pattern Check. We will have 2 more days to finish this and then we will be moving on to some new work about counting patterns.

This afternoon we finished our conversation about Arctic transportation and then we tried to figure out which types of transportation would have been used by the Inuit long ago. Starting tomorrow we are going to be making history books to show our learning about traditional Inuit ways of living in the Arctic. We will be learning about transportation, clothing, food, houses, tools, and games.

Home Challenge: What is an Umiak? What is it used for? How is it made? 

(Email Ms. Boyer if you find the answer or bring it to school on a piece of paper.)

Today we are bringing home a green notice about the Festive Evening in our green folders. We are also still looking for home reading volunteers for Thursday this week and Wednesday and Thursday next week. If you are available please sign up on the Google Calendar. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Abdul Ahad

Arctic Games!

This morning the grade 2's met with Ms. Boyer to learn a bit more about writing paragraphs. Ms. Boyer showed us a hamburger organizer to help us create good paragraphs. The top bun was the topic sentence. The filling was the three detail sentences that need to go in the middle. The bottom bun was a concluding or ending sentence that wraps up the paragraph and maybe tells the reader something about your feelings. The grade 1's met with Mrs. Hamby and learned a bit more about when to use uppercase and lowercase letters. Mrs. Hamby taught us to use uppercase letters at the start of the sentences and to use lowercase letters in the rest of our writing.

In math time we got to do Mathletics. We were trying to finish the pattern section. Some of us finished at got to move on to the section about numbers. If you still aren't finished the patterns section please try to work on it at home if you can.

This afternoon we started with a story called Aurora and then we watched a short video of Northern Lights. Ms. Boyer showed us a special hotel where all the rooms are glass igloos and you can watch the Northern Lights while you go to sleep! Then we watched a Rick Mercer Report. He was visiting Labrador to see the Labrador Arctic Winter Games. They did lots of different traditional sports. Then, in gym we tried out some of the arctic games. We tried Seal Crawl, Scoops, and One Foot High Kick.

Tomorrow our helper is: Dominic

Thanks for Coming!

Thank you for joining us to celebrate the growth and hard work of our Room 1 and 2 students at our November conferences. Here is a brief overview of the topics that we have studied so far this year:

Language Learning:

Reading

All students are now engaged in home reading and guided reading.  Our grade 1 students are working in small guided reading groups 4 days per week and our grade 2 students are working in guided reading groups 3 days per week.

Weekly Journals: Each Monday students are asked to write about a topic of their choosing in their journal. Students often choose to write about their weekend or something exciting that is happening in their lives. Grade 1 students are working on writing 3-4 sentences using their “best guess” phonetic spelling with support from sentence starters developed together.  Grade 2 students are working on writing 8-9 sentences using correct letter case and punctuation. Grade 2 students are also encouraged to use their personal dictionaries as part of their focus on correct spelling.

Guess Who: For this project students worked to write clues about themselves as a way to learn more about each other and to begin thinking about writing in full sentences and using descriptive ideas. For the grade 2’s the expectation was to complete at least 4 topics about themselves and write small paragraphs about each topic. For the grade 1’s the expectation was to complete 4 sentences about themselves using their best sounded out spelling and neatest printing.

Whispering Woods Descriptive Writing: Our students have worked hard to integrate their understanding of the senses and their explorations of Whispering Woods with some descriptive poetry. The grade 1’s worked to develop two descriptive ideas for each sense. Their ideas needed to include strong describing words and a detailed illustration. The grade 2’s worked on writing three descriptive ideas for each sense. Each idea needed to include at least two describing words plus an interesting ending that helped the reader create a vivid picture in their mind. All students are now working to type their work on the computer and then they will be making watercolor illustrations for each page. 

Remembrance Day Poetry: Students used their understandings about descriptive writing to create a short sense poem to describe their feelings and ideas about peace. Although these ideas were short, they demonstrate each student’s ability to transfer their learning from our descriptive writing study into a different context.

Word Work: Grade 1 students are engaged in daily word work. They are focusing on developing their understanding of word families as well as short vowel sounds. Grade 2 students are engaged in word work three days per week. They are focusing on mastering their short and long vowel sounds. They are also learning to use their personal dictionaries to help them improve their spelling in their daily writing work.

Math:

Counting: We began the year exploring counting and developing strategies for counting large sets. We looked at grouping objects into sets of 2, 5, 10, and 100 in order to make it easier to count. We also looked at the ways we organize our sets to make them easier for other people to count.

Patterns and relationships: Students used objects in nature to develop an understanding of attributes and to learn to sort materials in a variety of ways based on common attributes. This included learning to create Venn diagrams and T-charts. Students have also learned to create and identify a variety of repeating and increasing patterns using 2-or more attributes (gr. 1), 3-or more attributes (gr. 2).  This pattern work is an important step towards understanding number patterns. Students have used their understanding of patterns to create a special name pattern placemat to use for Fun Lunches.

Problem Solving: Students are engaged in weekly problem solving related to our current topic of study. Some of these problems are completed as a large group, some are completed as small group tasks, and others are completed individually.

Basic Addition skills: Students are developing their basic addition skills through math games and online practice in Mathletics each week.

Social Studies:

Community Stewardship: Following the harvest of our Sun Circle garden we cooked and baked using the vegetables from the garden. This was a way for us to come together as a community around a common project and allowed us to give back to others by sharing recipes with our families.

An Arctic Community: We were excited to help Ms. Boyer prepare for her trip to Churchill, MB. We learned about temperature, landscape, animals, and transportation in the north. We shared what we learned by compiling travel packages. Next, we will continue looking at traditional ways of knowing in the arctic by exploring Inuit stories and culture.

Science:

Community Stewardship: Students were responsible for harvesting the sun circle garden and reporting the harvest results to the school community. Next, we will be starting our indoor garden where students will be responsible for watering and monitoring our plants.

Temperature and Liquids: As part of our study of the Arctic students are learning about the ways that humans and animals adapt to harsh temperatures. Students are learning about insulation, including animal insulations such as fur and blubber. They are also looking at the differences between salt water and fresh water as well as ways that warmer temperatures affect our oceans, ice caps, and animals in the arctic. Students will be continuing this study through a series of science experiments in the next few weeks.

Learning to Self-Reflect

Today we started our day as usual with guided reading and centers. This is our first week of some new center choices. Ask me about the new centers. After that, we continued working on our Whispering Woods writing. We are trying to finish our good copies on the computer.

After recess we had word work time. The grade 1's worked on the -um word family. The grade 2's worked on finishing up work in their wordwork book and then had a chance to play some long vowel games. Then it was time to work on our pattern check. A few of us were able to finish but most of us need a few more days. Before we started working we took another look at our target and talked about trying to do a self-reflection (or self-assessment) of our own work using the target. This means looking at our own work and trying to decide where we would be on the target. Then we try to decide what we need to do to move closer to the center of the target. This is sort of a tricky thing to do, but we are getting better at it with practice and by looking at our work with Ms. Boyer.

After lunch we spent a little bit more time working in our groups to brainstorm types of transportation that are used in the arctic. We started this job yesterday when Ms. Boyer was at her afternoon meeting but we needed some extra time to finish. Then we all came together and made a group list of types of transportation. We put the transportation into 3 categories: Land, Water, and Air. Here is our list:

Ask me why some items have an * in front of them.

Please remember to register for parent-teacher conferences if you haven't done so already. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Katie

Target Day!

This morning we had a surprise when we arrived at school. Our desks were moved to new spots! Ask me about my new neighbors.

In journals Ms. Boyer and Mrs. Hamby introduced our journal target. We had talked about the expectations before but today we got to see it as a target. We each glued one into our journals so that we can keep looking at our writing to see if we are moving towards the center of the target.

In math we started working on our Pattern Check. Ms. Boyer reminded us about the requirements and also got us to glue the target for this project into our books. It was a big day for targets!

This afternoon we worked on finishing our arctic folders by gluing on our arctic landscape paintings. Then we went with a buddy and typed up a title on the computer. We learned how to change the size of the writing and how to pick a fancy font.

In gym we stayed inside. We practiced our basketball skills. We worked on trying to dribble with one hand rather than two. We also practiced shooting and passing.

At the end of the day we got to choose a new category for helper sharing. The new category is: Something you made. When it is your turn to be the helper please remember to bring sharing that fits in that category.

Please remember that tomorrow is Twin Day and Treat Day! 

Our helper tomorrow is: Isabel

Evergreen Theatre Show!

Today was our Evergreen Theatre show! Our play was called "The Polar Bear Cubs". You might be surprised to know that all the facts in our show came from our Room 1 and 2 polar bear experts. Natalie, our Evergreen leader, was so impressed by our polar bear knowledge.  These were the facts we included in the show:

- Polar bears have black noses.
- Polar bears eat seals. They mostly eat the blubber.
- Polar bears sleep on sea kelp in the summer.
- Polar bears clean themselves by taking snow baths.
- Polar bear cubs practice pouncing to get them ready for pouncing on seal dens when they are older.
- Polar bears can move silently even though they are enormous. They need to silent to sneak up on seal breathing holes and catch the seals.

"I thought being in the show was really cool!" ~ Sarah
"My favourite part was when Ms. Boyer screamed!" ~ Isabel
"I really liked the costumes. They were cool." ~ Jessica
" I liked it when we sneaked up on Ms. Boyer." ~ Isla
" I liked it when we scared Ms. Boyer." ~ Levi
"I was fun to see Moms and Dads watching." ~ Lily
"I liked how Natalie had music for different parts of our show." ~ Anjalika
"I thought that the show was very cool!" ~ Dhvani
"I really liked the music that they played for our show." ~ Reid
"I liked that lots of parents could come." ~ Tessa
"The show was really funny." ~ Jasper
"Today we did a dress rehearsal before the parents came." ~ Ashton
"I liked the music a lot." ~ Hussain
"I liked the show!" ~ Abdul Ahad
" The play was really fun!" ~ Addison
"I liked the part when the big scary polar bear walked by. It was Mrs. Polski!" ~ Max
"I liked Natalie!" ~ Katie
"It was kind of scary to be in a show." ~ Bilal
"It was awesome!" ~ Shawn
"It was really exciting." ~ Ezra

Evergreen Theatre Day 4

This morning following our guided reading time we started working on our good copies for our Whispering Woods writing. A few of us still had to finish up some ideas but most of us were able to start typing.  We are going to be creating artwork for each sense and using our typed ideas to create our own Whispering Woods books. Sadly, these won't be ready in time for our Parent-Teacher conferences next week but we will be happy to share our rough copies with you and we will bring the good copies home when they are finished.

After recess we had our Evergreen Theatre rehearsal. We practiced our lines and got to rehearse in the gym. After that Natalie showed us our costumes. We will each be wearing a special polar bear costume! To complete our costumes it would be helpful if everyone can wear white, gray, or light brown bottoms tomorrow.

Then it was time for fun lunch!!! Thank you to all the volunteers who came to help out today.

This afternoon Ms. Boyer started introducing our pattern check. This will be our final project to show Ms. Boyer how much we have learned about making patterns. We talked about the idea that this will be important evidence for Ms. Boyer to use when she is writing our report cards so it is important that we push ourselves to make our most interesting patterns for each category. Here are the patterns we will need to show:

-  A repeating colour pattern with 4 colours.

-  The same pattern two different ways.

-  A movement pattern with at least 3 elements.

-  An increasing pattern using sound.

-  A time pattern.

-  A number pattern.

Please remember that our Evergreen Theatre Show will start tomorrow morning at 11:15. Parents are invited to attend the show! (We will also be having a dress rehearsal at 9:00 so please make sure you are on-time for school tomorrow). 

Our helper on Monday is: Ashton

Evergreen Theatre Day 3

This morning we started with guided reading and centers except for Lily. She had a big tumble outside and got a bit scraped up. Thankfully she is now much better and came back see us this afternoon. We were all thrilled to see her! Please be very carefully on the compound coming inside the school. It will start getting a bit slippery with our winter weather.

During our writing time started by reading another Leo Leonni book called Frederick. It won a Caldecott medal. Then, we learned how to save our work correctly on the computer so that we won't lose our whispering woods typing. We didn't end up having much time to work after we were finished our computer lesson but we will carry on tomorrow.

We had Evergreen Theatre. First we did some more polar bear practice in the portable. Then we got to go into the gym to do a rehearsal of our play on the stage. We will get to do one more rehearsal tomorrow and then the big show will be on Friday. We found out we will get to wear costumes for the show! We hope you can make it to the big performance.

Today we had library. We had to have a silent library trip because Room 1 was busy practicing with Evergreen Theatre in the middle of the library.

Please remember that tomorrow is fun lunch! 

Our helper tomorrow is: Max

Evergreen Theater Day 2

Today we started the day with centers and guided reading. This was our last rotation of the three centers we have been working on. In our writing time we continued working on our Whispering Woods writing. The grade 1's and 2's spent some extra time talking about the expectations for their finished rough copy and then worked to get finished. Some people were able to get their rough copy finished and will be starting to type their good copies tomorrow.

Grade 1

Grade 2

At Evergreen Theater we started practicing being polar bears. We practiced pouncing, hiding, making our beds out of sea kelp, and hunting. We snuck up on Ms. Boyer when we were practicing being silent hunters. Ms. Boyer closed her eyes and put up her hand anytime she could hear us moving (Polar bears can move silently). We were so quiet that we all snuck right up to her and then roared. She was so surprised that she screamed!

This afternoon we continued learning about growing patterns. Yesterday Ms. Boyer noticed that most of us were very good at understanding growing patterns were the pattern grows by 1 element each time but we had more trouble when the pattern grew by 2 or 3 elements each time. We spent some more time practicing these together and then tried to do some on our own. After that we had music and then we had inside free choice time instead of gym. We could not use the gym because of Evergreen Theater and many of us had very wet outside clothes from lunch and didn't think we would be comfortable outside again.

Please remember tomorrow is our library day. Make sure to bring back your books. Tomorrow is also photo retakes day. If you are getting retakes, please bring your original photo proofs with you. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Evelyn

Today was our first day with Evergreen Theatre. We are going to be making a play that we will be performing on Friday.  Our show is going to be about water and polar bears. We have two Evergreen Theater teachers named Natalie and Brett.

We had outside gym. We practiced basketball skills. We practiced bounce passes, chest passes, dribbling, shooting, and defense skills. We played bounce-pass monkey in the middle to work on our defense skills and on our passing.

We read two books by Leo Lionni. One was called Pezzettino.  In math we worked on a new kind of pattern. They are called increasing, or growing patterns.

Today we found out that our Twins and Triplets Spirit Day will be happening on Tuesday Nov. 22.