Terry Fox Run!

Today was the Terry Fox Run.  Before the run we had a pep rally in the gym.  The Me to We club lead some warm ups and got us ready to start running.  In the Terry Fox Run Room 2 ran a total of 123km! Room 1 ran a total of 114km. Together that means we ran a total of 237km (thanks for Hailey for figuring out that tricky math for us!).

Before we went to the pep rally we tried the beet chips that we cooked yesterday. They were a bit salty and a bit sweet and some of the edges that got extra crispy were a bit bitter.  Some of us found them a bit spicy because of the pepper we put on them.  They weren't quite as crunchy as they were when we cooked them yesterday so when you make them at home you might want to eat them right away!  While we were eating the beet chips we also worked on making a title page for our recipe books. We will be working on finishing them next week.

Today was also Sarah's birthday. Happy Birthday Sarah!

Author visit!

Today we had a chance to try the last of our three new centers. After centers we finished up our Guess Who? projects. We are now ready to start hanging them up on the wall for everyone to see.

Can you guess who?


After recess we had some book time and then we went outside to do a practice lap of the real Terry Fox course that we will be running tomorrow. Then we came inside and did our first warm-up sorting activity with our nature collection. Today we could sort our collection any way we wanted. We were all really great at sorting but next week the sorting activities are going to get a lot more challenging! It will be exciting to see how many challenges we can do!



After lunch we had a visit from author Shane Peacock. Most of his books are for older students but he wrote a beautiful picture book about Vincent Van Gogh called "The Artist and Me". We read it earlier this year and it was really neat to meet the author. Ask me more about Shane's visit! We are also bringing home an order form in case your family would like to order any of Shane's books. (Please remember that the picture book mentioned above is the one that would be appropriate for gr. 1/2.)

Tomorrow is the Terry Fox Run. We will be running rain or shine (just like Terry!), which means we need to come dressed for the weather.  We will be running for approximately 45 minutes so please make sure you are dressed in layers, are wearing good running shoes, and have a water bottle labeled with your name.  Today we are bringing home a Terry Fox tattoo and a sticker.  The sticker is designed to be worn while you are running and has a space to include the name of someone you are running for.  Usually this is someone you know who has been affected by cancer and it is a way to show that you are supporting them.  Please attach the sticker to your shirt in the morning. 

Zucchini Bread!

Before recess we working on our self-portraits.  Mrs. Hamby talked to us about blending the watercolour paints when we thought the colour was too dark.

After recess we realized that not everyone had enough items in their outdoor collection for us to start our math activity so we went back outside to collect some more. We are now ready to start the activity tomorrow.

This afternoon we started by baking some zucchini bread. We used oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, grated zucchini, and flour.

After baking we went to library. Ms. Boyer started by reading the story Miss Nelson is Missing. Then Mrs. Kidd talked to us about the rules in the library and how to use the browser cards. We all have library books in our backpacks today and they need to be returned next Wednesday.

In gym we continued training for the Terry Fox run. We ran 2 laps because there are 2 days left until the big run! Please remember we are still collecting Toonies for Terry.  Then we played lava tag at the playground.

Parent reminder: If you have not already so, please send an inexpensive pair of headphones with your child so that they can play our education computer games and listen to stories during out centre time. If you can't seem to find any suitable headphones please let Ms. Boyer know and she will help to find a pair. 

Air Mail!

This morning we started out by trying our new centers. Some of us started at the Tumblebooks center, some started at the drawing books center, and some of us started at the word games center. Tomorrow we will switch to a different center. The computer were being a bit finicky today so the Tumblebooks center was a bit frustrating but we tried our best to problem solve. If you want to try Tumblebooks at home remember that our username is coffin and our password is books.

After that we did some cooking with the potatoes we harvested. We figured out that we harvested a total of 156 potatoes! Today Mrs. Hamby showed us how to make Crispy Potato Wedges. We used potatoes, olive oil, and seasoning salt. We each decorated our own recipe and will bring them home next week.  The potatoes took about 40 minutes to cook so we ate them after recess.

Once we had finished our delicious potatoes (almost everyone had second helpings and some of us even had fourth helpings!), we did some math. We are working on training our brains to see patterns and to be able to organize things into groups. We talked about attributes and then went outside to gather a collection of interesting objects. We will be using this collection to do some sorting and patterning activities in math and we will finish off with an attributes art project.

This afternoon we had a special delivery! The mail carrier came over the lunch hour and dropped off a letter for us. We were very intrigued because it said "Air Mail" on it and showed that it had come all the way from Northern Ireland!! It turned out to be a letter from Jessica and Chelsea's grannie. She lives in Northern Ireland and reads our classroom blog to see what we are up to. She sent us a note to let us know how much she enjoys the blog. It was so exciting to get mail from so far away!


After our exciting surprise we worked on adding the watercolour paint to our portraits. Making skin colour sure is tricky but we are doing a really good job. Once our portraits are finished we will be ready to assemble our "Guess Who?" projects.

Please remember we are still collecting "Toonies for Terry". Please bring a Toonie for our donation if you can.  There is a new notice coming home today in our green folders (some of us forgot our green folders so we will just have them in our backpacks).

Another great start to the week

This morning we started by working in our journals. Most of us were able to finish but some of us had to work on them a bit this afternoon.

After recess we talked about our new centres that will start tomorrow. We will be doing centers at the start of the day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. In a few weeks this will also be the time when we will do guided reading. The three centers will be drawing books, tumblebooks, and word games. We will travel to the different centres with our table groups.

In math we played a game called "What's My Rule?". In this game Ms. Boyer would call groups of students up to the front of the carpet and we would have to guess Ms. Boyer's rule for choosing students. We learned that the different ways you can describe something are called attributes.

This afternoon we started working on our final version of our self-portraits. We started by using very light pencil lines to plan our work. We are using special watercolor paper that is sort of bumpy. Tomorrow we will be starting to add the watercolor paint to our pictures. Then we went outside gym. We did 4 laps of the field for our Terry Fox training. Then we play at the park. Please remember to bring "Toonies for Terry" this week in support of the Terry Fox foundation.

After gym we came inside and did some journal sharing. We played a guessing game to find out who would get to share their journal next. In our guessing game we talked about vowels and had to figure out how many vowels were in each of our names.

Parents: In order to help prevent the spread of germs around our classroom we are hoping that each student can bring a pair of inexpensive headphones to school. These headphones will be used during computer activities so that students can listen to stories and play educational games without interrupting each other. Please send headphones in a labelled ziplock bag. If you cannot find a pair of headphones for your child please send me an email and I will be happy to help find them a pair. 

Parent Information

Dear Parents,

Thank you so much for taking the time to attend our parent-teacher conferences. It was great to touch base and talk about our students and the plan this year. Here are just a few reminders:

If you have not registered for the "School Messenger" program please do so ASAP. Beginning in October this program will be used for all communication from the office and you will miss out on important information if you have not registered. You can find the registration link on the CBE homepage and the Dr. Coffin homepage.

Over the next few weeks we will start organizing our volunteer opportunities with the help of our volunteer coordinator. Please stay tuned for more information about signing up to help us with our Fresh Air Friday's and our daily home reading program.

Enjoy you weekend!

Today in Math we learned about a new way to organize information. It is called a Venn Diagram. It is where you have two circles that overlap. In the parts that don't over lap you write differences, and in the part that overlaps you write things that are the same. Today we played a game where we worked with a friend to see what we had in common and what was different. We wrote the things we had in common in the overlapping part and the things that were different on parts that didn't overlap.

Today we had our first day of library but instead of doing our regular book exchange we did some window shopping at the book fair. Window shopping means we just looked at the books but didn't buy any. We will be invited to buy books on Thursday evening and Friday morning during Parent-Teacher conferences. Our library time will be 2:00 every Wednesday this year. 

We had indoor gym today. We started by doing 5 minutes of running to train for the Terry Fox Run. Our gym time was interrupted by a fire drill. Some of our new friends were surprised by the noise but we all did really well. When we came back from the fire drill we played Little Chicks.

Tomorrow is Parent Teacher conferences starting at 4:00. Please be sure to call the office if you still need to book at appointment. 

Good copies, murals, and portraits

Today we started working on our good copy writing for our "Guess Who?" project. The grade 1's are working on using their neatest printing and the grade 2's are trying to write on the computers. It will take us a few days to get the writing finished but we will let you know when the display is ready for you to stop by and see.

After recess we continued our new routine where the grade 2's do solo booktime and the grade 1's do some word practice. Most of the grade 2's are trying to pick beginning chapter books that they can keep in their desk so that they are ready to read everyday. The grade 1's worked on listening for the short 'a' sound as well as the beginning and ending sounds in 3-letter words like map, fan, rat, and car. We will be working on short vowel sounds and 3-letter words for the next few weeks.

This afternoon we started learning about creating a self-portrait. We read a story about Vincent Van Gogh and looked at some examples of self-portraits. Then, Mrs. Hamby did a demonstration to help us understand where to place our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth on our page so that our portrait will look realistic. We will be spending the next few days working on our own self-portraits as part of our "Guess Who" project.

As you know, we participated in Beakerhead last week. Here is the final video that was submitted by the school. It was tricky to capture the whole project in only 30 seconds but thanks to the expertise of Ashton's dad Matt the video is pretty amazing! 

Parents: Please help your child to remember to bring raincoats and other appropriate clothing for the weather so that everyone is ready for recess. As we begin bringing more supplies and clothing to school it is a great idea to ensure that everything is clearly labelled with your child's name. We have several students with similar coats, shoes, water bottles, mittens, and even backpacks so labels really help us avoid confusion and return misplaced items quickly.

Lots of writing today!

Today we started with journals. We had to draw pictures and write about the things we did on the weekend. The grade 1's were working on writing at least 2 ideas and the grade 2's were working on writing 5 ideas.

After recess we started a new routine. The grade 2's went to their desks to have some solo booktime and the grade 1's came to the carpet to do some word practice with Ms. Boyer.  We practiced words in the AT family and practiced listening for the beginning and ending sounds in words.

In math we started by talking about tally marks. Tally marks are useful because they let us count by 5's instead of just by 1's. Then, we used tally marks to count the vegetables from our garden harvest. Tomorrow we are going to try to figure out how many vegetables we harvested in total.

This afternoon we wrote in our Fresh Air Friday journals. We wrote about our harvesting on Friday.

If you haven't called in to book your Parent-Teacher conference please do so. Conferences are on Thursday and Friday. There is no school for students on Friday.  We have an important notice coming home today. Please check backpacks for green folders. 

Harvesting!

Today we harvested our sun circle garden. We divided up into groups and each group was in charge of a garden bed or being at a wash station. We harvested carrots, beets, and potatoes.  After the vegetables were picked the people at our wash stations took care of scrubbing off all the dirt.  Then, we all helped clean up the garden beds by pulling out the leftover plant material and weeds so that the beds are ready for winter.

After we finished harvesting we learned how to make green and yellow bean fries. We took the beans we harvested last week and roasted for 15 minutes them with parmesan cheese at 425F. Ezra and Shawn liked them so much they had three helpings!!

Just a reminder that Parent-Teacher conferences are next Thursday and Friday. Please watch your email for a note from the office about booking your conference time.

What a busy week!

Today we did our filming for Beakerhead project. We used our instruments to make a beat in the Whispering woods and now Ashton's dad is going to edit all the pieces together to make the whole school video. We are excited to see the final show!

In math we started by practicing counting by 10's. Then we used this skill to count our bean harvest. We learned that counting is much easier when the strategy matches the size of the number. We discovered that even counting by 10's was still tricky. We were finally able to figure out the number when we grouped our 10's into groups of 100 and used them to count. Our bean total was 456 beans!

Today at gym time we did 2 laps and then played at the park. We only did 2 laps because lots of us were very tired. It has been busy week!

Tonight is the Welcome Back BBQ starting at 5pm. We hope to see you there!

Beakerhead Beakerhead Beakerhead!!!

Today we spent almost the whole day working on our Beakerhead challenge! We started by focusing on making sure our instruments worked the way we wanted. Then we moved on to adding decorations to make them look really beautiful. We had to do a lot of problem solving to make our project work. How would we make handles? How could we make things fit together? How could we fit all our different pieces together to make one big instrument? Even through it was challenging it was really fun to work in a team and figure things out together. It was also really fun to figure out how to make different sounds and to add all the decorations! Here is a video of our work today. We were VERY busy!

We had our gym time outside this afternoon and continued training for the Terry Fox Run. We had to run 3 laps before we could go to the playground.

Tomorrow we will be filming our Beakerhead video starting at 9:30. Please get a good nights sleep so that you are all ready to go. We will be filming in the Whispering Woods so please come dressed for the weather.

Beakerhead Day 2

Today we started working on our Beakerhead instruments. We started by going outside to look for some natural materials like interesting twigs, rocks, leaves, pinecones, and feathers to add to our creations. We are trying to make instruments that can keep the same beat and but we want them to make different sounds so that our final song is interesting. Our goal for our "beat keepers" are: 1. Make more than 1 sound, 2. Look beautiful and unique, and 3. Make interesting tones and sounds. Tomorrow we are going to work to finish our creations and start practicing for the whole school song.

After recess we took a look at the bean count that we made yesterday. We tried to count up all the squares (1 square = 1 bean) but we kept losing track!  So, we had to figure out a better way to show our numbers so that they would be easier to count. We talked about organizing our numbers in tens and ones. That means that if your number was 54 you would show 5 groups of 10 and 4 extra units. Then we all went and made a new poster. We are going to try counting the new poster tomorrow to see if it is easier.

We started our afternoon by singing Happy Birthday to Shawn. His birthday was on the weekend but we forgot to sing to him yesterday. Thanks for being so patient Shawn! We had music. We got to use the drums to practice our beats for the Beakerhead challenge.

This afternoon we had outside gym. We are training for the Terry Fox Run. Today we tried to run 3 laps and then we got to play at the park. Lots of us played lava tag.

Beakerhead Kick-off!

This morning we had our Welcome Back assembly and our Beakerhead kick-off. Our school is participating in the Beakerhead Ingenuity Challenge this week. Here is an amazing example that we watched at school: Wintergatan Marble Machine.  We have been challenged to create musical inventions and a 30 second video using some unusual supplies. We were sent: paint cans (without paint), pingpong balls, bubble wrap, elastic bands, and glow sticks. Our class is going to be in charge of making drums and other instruments that we can use to keep the main beat for our whole school musical performance. Ms. Boyer is VERY excited because she has always wanted to be a drummer in a rock band! For tomorrow please take a look through your recycling and craft supplies to see if there is anything you could add to our creations.

This afternoon we worked on counting up our bean harvest. We started by making some estimates about the beans by looking at the bags of beans and then by looking at the numbers each group had. We talked about rounding the numbers to 50 or 100 to make them easier to add up. Each table group used grid paper squares to show how many beans they counted and we made a group poster.

We have another notice coming home today in our green folders. Please make sure folders are returned tomorrow in case there are more things to come home.

First Fresh Air Friday

Today was Fresh Air Friday. We started by going outside and harvesting our beans in the sun circle garden. Each table group got a few bean plants to observe and sketch and then they picked them and counted them.  We noticed that some beans had really big beans with really long bean pods. We noticed that most of our beans were yellow but a few of them were green. We also noticed that the pods were sort of fuzzy.  Next week we are going to figure out how many beans we picked in total. See if you can figure out the total for Room 2 as a family. Here were the numbers from the Room 2 groups:

54, 43, 69, 73, 44


After our snack break we went outside to the Whipsering Woods and did a Rainbow Chip Hunt. Rainbow Chips are cards that have colours on them. Some of them are paint chips from the hardware store. Our challenge was to see if we could match the colour on our card with something in nature. We noticed that there are a LOT of different colours in the Whispering Woods! Even some of the really bright purples and pinks were there, but some of the colours like very light pink were tough to match.

First day of Music!

This morning we started working on our first project. It is a "Guess Who" game that we will be putting up in the hallway. Please ask me what clues I have made about myself so far. We will keep working on this project next week.

After recess we read a story called "That is NOT a Good Idea". This story was the start of our talk about classroom expectations. We talked about expected and unexpected behaviours and came up with lots of examples of great expected behaviours for school.

This afternoon we painted pictures about expected behaviours at school. Lily and Levi painted  pictures about making sure we wear our indoor shoes.  Isabel and Dhvani painted pictures about listening carefully and cheering on our classmates.

Today we had our first music class with Ms. Stephure. We played a game that was sort of like freeze dance. When the music stopped you had to try to be the most frozen person to get chosen to lead the next round of the game.

We have a new notice coming home today in our green folders. If you forgot to bring your green folder back today please remember to try to bring it everyday in case there are new forms.

Tomorrow is our first Fresh Air Friday. We will be spending most of the morning outside. Please dress for the weather, rain or shine!

Day 2

This morning we had a chance to finish up the journal writing we started yesterday. We were writing about our summer holidays. Before that we read a story called SNAP! all about a boy and his box of crayons. He made a lot of discoveries in the story. He discovered how to mix colours and he discovered that its ok if your crayons snap, it just means you have more crayons. Some of us have already made that same discovery with our new school crayons!

After recess we played a game called "Guess Who?" we found out some facts about Ms. Boyer and Mrs. Hamby. We found out that Ms. Boyer loves baking and pizza, she plays tennis, is going to university at the U of C, and went to Nova Scotia this summer. We found out that Mrs. Hamby's daughter got kissed by a grizzly bear, she loves cooking interesting food, and she used to play the piano and guitar.

This afternoon we made a birthday graph for our class. We will keep the birthday graph up in our classroom so that we will remember to celebrate everybody's birthday during the school year.  We discovered that we have a lot of August birthdays in our class. We discovered that there aren't any March birthdays in Room 2. We discovered that Anjelika and Addison have the same birthday, Tessa and Ibrahim have the same birthday, and Abdul Ahad and Mrs. Smith have the same birthday!


Today we are bringing home our green communication folders. These folders have important notices in them and will be used to bring important papers back and forth to school all year. Please be sure to send the folder back to school each day in case there are forms to come home.

The First Day!

Today was the first day of school! We started the day by colouring a picture of something we did this summer. Addison drew a picture about going biking. After recess we played a game called "True or False". We all sat in a circle and each person shared one thing about themselves. It could either be true or false and the rest of us had to guess. Jessica shared that she has a baby cousin. It was true!

This afternoon started with a Tumblebook video and then we made fancy labels for our coathooks so we know where to hang our backpacks. We were allowed to decorate them any way we wanted. Hussain decorated his with lightning bolts. After that we had gym. Max thought it was pretty fun that we got to out outside! We read a lot of stories today. Anjelika's favourite was "Seymour Slug Starts School". Today was also Hussain's birthday! He brought cupcakes to share.

From Ms. Boyer
Tomorrow students will be met outside by our morning supervisors at 8:30 and will be invited into the school through the northeast (recess) doors at 8:40. Due to the new buzzer security system at the main door we are also trying to dismiss students through the northeast door at the end of the day. If you are meeting your children after school please try to meet them outside this door unless you need to speak to someone in the office. I will plan to come outside with our students at the end of the day so this northeast door is also the best place to touch base with me if you need anything or have any questions.

If you haven't already, please remember to send your child with a tool/pencil box that they can use to store the crayons, pencils, erasers, glue, and pencil crayons that we have provided for them. Please also try to send along indoor shoes. Running shoes are often the best choice for indoor shoes since students will be wearing these shoes during their phys. ed time.

Today was a great first day in Room 2. It was so nice to meet all of our new students and to see some new friendships already starting to form. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me via email or in person at the start or end of the day.