Race to 100

In math, we played a new game called race to 100. To play you need to have 2 dice, a pencil, a paper, and a partner. To play each person takes turns rolling the dice. When you roll you have to add up the numbers on your dice and then put that many tally marks on your page. Each time you roll you add-on to your tally marks until one person reaches 100. The first person to get to 100 is the winner. This is a great game to play at home!

After recess we did word work. The grade 1's started practicing some new words. The words this week are: with, his, they, pit, sit, hit, bit, fit.  We practiced writing our new words using our neatest printing. The grade two's went with Ms. Stephure to continue their word study.

This afternoon we continued our work about human impacts in Whispering Woods. Today our groups needed to finish our pros and cons chart by considering the way our impact could be good or bad for animals, people, and plants. Then, we had to try to make a decision as a group of environmental scientist about our impact. We had to decide if it was an overall positive impact or an overall negative impact.

In gym we did jungle safari again. It was a bit different today because we had guards at each station to watch what we were doing and to make sure we didn't make mistakes.  After gym we went to music. We sang a song called "I can sing a high note and a middle note too".

Thank you to those students who have returned their 2017-2018 planning forms and their field trip forms. If you have not returned these forms please do so as soon as possible. Please remember tomorrow is our library day.  

Our helper tomorrow is: Tessa

Jungle Safari!

This morning we did journals. We worked on using the 5 W's to add details to our writing. The grade 1's were working to write 5 sentences about one idea so that they could write about each of the 5 W's for their topic. The grade 2's were working on writing two paragraphs using the 5 W's.

After recess we worked on our math assessments. People who were finished went on Mathletics and played Mathletics Live.  Mathletics Live is a great warm-up for our number operations study in math and it is a great idea to try practicing this at home.

This afternoon we continued our work as environmental scientists. We read a story where a vacation town gets built on an island and then made a pros and cons list about the idea of building the vacation spot. We were trying to figure out what positive impacts and negative impacts this building would have.  Then we reviewed the human impacts we observed in Whispering Woods on Friday. Some impacts were: Pathways, forts, broken and cut branches, the amphitheatre, and footprints and trampled grasses. In groups we were given one of the impacts and we had to start making a pros and cons list for that impact. We will continue this project tomorrow.  At home tonight ask me what impact I am examining. What pros and cons can you come up with?

In gym we had our first day of Jungle Safari! Jungle Safari is an obstacle course where we use our gymnastics skills to make it through a pretend jungle. There is a snake pit, lots of logs to walk across, a cave, a tunnel, and a crocodile infested pond! We will be trying out this obstacle course all week.

There are two notices coming home today. One is a new book order, the other is a field trip notice. We will be going to the Glenbow Museum on March 13th! Please return your forms as soon as you can. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Ezra

Environmental Science!

Today was Fresh Air Friday. We started the day by learning about a new study we will be starting. We are going to become jr. environmental scientists! We learned that environmental scientists look at the ways that humans, animals, and plants impact each other and how they impact our earth.

Here is a great video from David Suzuki that describes the type of work we will be doing:

Once we knew about environmental science we created title pages in our Fresh Air Friday journals. We will be using our journals to document our discoveries. Then, we went outside to the Whispering Woods to start investigating human impacts. We looked for ways that humans have changed, or impacted, the Whispering Woods and took some pictures as evidence.  We noticed that humans have had some positive impacts, some negative impacts, and some impacts that are a bit positive and a bit negative.

Pathways

The Amphitheatre

Cut logs

Ripped bark

Bent tree limbs

trampled grasses and bushes

Forts

Whispering Signs

If you have not returned your planning information for 2017/2018 form please do so on Monday. 

Our helper on Monday is: Max

A Snowy Thursday

Today we started the first step in our upcoming Northern Tales project. This first step was to start choosing a name for our main character. Since our stories will take place in the arctic we are looking for Inuit names so that our stories will seem more realistic. We went with a buddy and looked up names on an Inuit name generator. We explored the meanings of different names and tomorrow we will try to narrow down our choices to a few of our favourite names to include in our stories. Once we have chosen a name we will decide on our main character and the setting for our stories. Then we will start acting out our stories to come up with our problem, events, and solution.

After recess we had wordwork. The grade 2's are working on building words and focusing on words that have the long 'O' sound. The grade 1's did a spelling test for the 17 "No Excuses" words we have been practicing. Our tests are coming home today along with a list of those words. If there are any words that were tricky for us it would be a good idea to practice these at home.  When we were finished wordwork we tried to finish our math assessments. Quite a few of us were able to finish and got to play math games on the computer. Some of us still need another day to finish up. Once we have finished this assessment we will be moving on to number operations but it would still be a good idea to keep practicing counting patterns at home.

After lunch we painted our Northern Lights. We started by using sponges to get our paper wet with water. Then we added paint in northern lights colours. We were careful not to scrub the paper, instead we tried to use long strokes that blended together.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We will be spending quite a bit of time in the Whispering Woods so please come dressed for the snow and the weather.  We are bringing home a very important notice about next year's school attendance. Please make sure this form is filled out and returned by Monday. 

Our helper on Monday is: Max

Pink Shirt Day!

Today was Pink Shirt Day. We talked about the importance of showing kindness and respect to everyone in our school and the importance of supporting people who are being bullied.  We did a demonstration to show how mean actions can travel and also the way that kind actions can travel. We talked about the idea that if we send kindness out we will get kindness back. But if we send anger out, we might get anger back. We tried to practice this today in our classroom and during our recess breaks.

In our writing time we worked to finish our story maps for the story Hide and Sneak. We are getting better at including details in our story maps and at identifying the important elements in the setting and problem.

After recess we did our wordwork and then we had math. We continued working on the math assessment we started yesterday. Ask me how it is going and if there are any parts that I am finding tricky. 

This afternoon some of our friends from Simon Fraser came to visit us and talk about anti-bullying day. We worked with these friends to design some anti-bullying t-shirts. We have put our designs up on display by our coathooks. Feel free to drop by and take a look!

After that we had library and then we went to gym. We did our gymnastics circuit by following dots on the floor to the different stations.  We are getting more confident on the big climber and with the tall ladders. Next week we will be starting our jungle safari obstacle course!

Our helper tomorrow is: Isabel

Its Tuesday!

Today was Tuesday but started off feeling a bit like a Monday. That is because we started by working on our journals. We had quite a lot to write about after our 5-day weekend! In our journals today we worked on trying to use the "5 W's" to help us add more detail to our ideas. The "5 W's" are What, When, Where, Who, and Why. We tried to see if we could write at least one sentence for each W.  This really seemed to help some of us add more details and helped our grade 2 friends create more interesting paragraphs.

After recess we had wordwork and then we started working on a final math assessment for our study of counting patterns. We are trying to complete the assessment by ourselves to show Ms. Boyer what counting patterns we can do and where we might still need some more practice. We will be working on this assessment for the next two days.

This afternoon we talked about the Northern Lights and watched some videos of the Northern Lights. Then we read a story about these lights and learned a little bit about why they happen. Tomorrow we are going to be creating our own Northern Lights to go above our Inukshuk display in the hallway.

In gym, we continued with gymnastics. We continued with lots of the equipment we used last week and also added the climber!! We were VERY excited about this. Because we are working on gymnastics, please make sure you are wearing gymnastics appropriate clothing for the next few weeks.

Tomorrow is Anti-Bullying day. To celebrate this day we are all going to try to wear pink shirts.  If you don't have a pink shirt in your closet (or your sister's closet) you can also wear red or white. Our friends from Simon Fraser will also be coming up to do some special friendship activities with us in the afternoon.  Please remember tomorrow is also our library day. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Jasper

Have a great LONG weekend!

This morning we worked on our story response for the story Hide and Sneak. Next week we will start planning our own stories and we will need to be able to include the 4 story elements we are learning to find in other stories.

In math, we finished our drumming problem from Monday. People who finished early got to play mathletics or the math part of ABCya.

This afternoon we worked on our Inukshuk challenge. Today we had to measure the dimensions of our inukshuks in centimeters. We learned how to use a meter stick to do this and how to measure things that were taller than 100cm. To do this we measured 100 cm with the meter stick and then had a friend mark the end of the stick with their finger. Then we would move the meter stick to line up with their finger and measure the rest. Then we would remember to add 100 to our number.

In gym we continued working on our routines for gymnastics. More of us were ready to share with Ms. Boyer today. Next week we will continue gymnastics and we will add in the climber.

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

Our helper on Tuesday is: Dhvani

Happy Valentines Day!

Today was a very exciting day! We started off by getting our Valentine's mailboxes all ready to go. Then we did a little bit of work to get ready for our story writing until recess. After recess Ms. Boyer, Reid, and Jasper went downtown to give our school presentation to the Board of Trustees. When the video for this presentation is posted Ms. Boyer will put the link on the blog. While they were gone we had a guest teacher and we got to make a Valentine's Bingo game. We had to brainstorm Valentine's words and then we each made our own bingo card. Once we were all ready we played the game.

After lunch we exchanged our Valentine's cards and had a chance to look through our envelopes and eat a few of the treats! Then we read a story and went to gym. In gym some of us were ready to share our routines with Ms. Boyer. The rest of us are still practicing and will try to share tomorrow.

Then it was time for music. After music we got to eat a few more treats (sorry moms and dads!!) and we watched a short Valentine's movie.

Our helper tomorrow is going to be Ashton again because his day was sort of overshadowed by Valentine's Day. 

A short week!

This morning we started our day with journals. Quite a few of us had exciting weekends outside enjoying the great weather.

After recess we worked on a little project called "Dr. Coffin is Awesome". We each made a speech bubble that said something we really like about our school. Then we delivered them to Mrs. Polski. She is making a bulletin board of all our ideas outside the office. Please stop by to see what we had to say.  Then we had math. We had a new problem today.

The grade 1 problem was: Mrs. Stephure had to drum with each class last week. If she went to 7 drumming classes for 4 days, how many classes did she go to? 

The grade 2 problem was: Mrs. Stepure had to drum with each class last week. If each class was 30 minutes and there were 7 classes each day. How many minutes did Ms. Stephure drum in 4 days?

After lunch we made our mailboxes for our Friendship Party.  We used envelopes and decorated them with words, paper hearts, stickers, and foam shapes.  We will have a few minutes to finish these tomorrow morning.

Then it was time for gym. We are back to working on our gymnastics skills. Today we started working on making up routines.
Our routines need to have: 
3+ balances (high, medium, and low)
2+ leaps or hops
2+ spins, turns, and rolls
A finishing pose

For tomorrow please remember to bring your Valentine's cards if you are participating in our card exchange. We will be exchanging cards, playing a game, and watching a short movie during our friendship party tomorrow afternoon. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Ashton

Drumming Celebration and Inukshuks

Today we started by finishing our Inukshuk Challenge. We had to double check our measurements and make adjustments. Then, we glued our inukshuks onto a background and added snow and northern lights.

After we had finished the challenge we went outside and built some inukshuks out of snow. We used the walls and ground to make our blocks the right shapes and then worked in teams and on our own to build. Ms. Boyer ran into a bit of an issue with the photos but will try to post them on Monday.

Then it was time for our drumming celebration! We did a great job with our performance and enjoyed watching all the other classes.

Just a reminder that we will be having our friendship celebration on Tuesday Feb. 14. A letter was sent home on Thursday with a list of students in case your child would like to make Valentine's cards. If the letter did not make it home feel free to email Ms. Boyer for the list. Also, we will be decorating valentines mailboxes on Monday. If you would like to bring a box from home (kleenex boxes work great) please feel free. We will also have large envelopes to turn into mailboxes for everyone so please don't go to any trouble to bring something from home. Have a great weekend!

On Monday our helper is: Lily

The Inukshuk Challenge

A bit of fun to start the blog today: Our version of the mannequin challenge!

Today we started a new challenge. It is called the Inukshuk challenge. Here is the challenge:

Inukshuk Team Challenge

Challenge: Build an inukshuk

Your Inukshuk must be:

1.  As tall as the tallest person in your group

2. No wider than the shortest person in your group.

The Rules:

1. No rock can be longer than the tallest person’s arm.

2. You must use at least 6 rocks and no more than 12.

Tomorrow we will finish the challenge and then display them in the hallway. 

Please remember that tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday and it is also our Drumming Show!  The show will start at 10:30 and parents are encouraged to attend. 

Here is a quick riddle we talked about today:

What word becomes shorter when you add more letters? 

If you figure out the answer email it to Ms. Boyer!

Our helper on Monday is: Lily

Drumming, Day 2

After guided reading this morning we started talking about arctic tales. We read the story "A Promise is a Promise" and then talked about the reasons why people would write tales in the arctic. We have noticed that a lot of the tales seem to be designed to teach lessons to children that will help to keep them safe. We will be starting to write our own arctic tales soon. Our homework is to start thinking about they type of tale we would like to write.

In math we worked on counting by 10's and we learned a sneaky trick for adding number that end in 0. Ask me to explain the sneaky trick to you. Once we had learned the sneaky trick, we played a game with our 10's cards. We would each flip over a card and we would try to add up the two numbers together. If we felt really confident with that, we turned the game into a race where we flipped over the cards and tried to be the first one to get them added up.

This afternoon in science we worked on our Arctic Buddy reflection. We had to think about the ways that we helped contribute to our groups and the ways we could be better group members on our next project.  Ask me how I was a good group member and what I plan to do better next time. 

Today was our second day of drumming.  We did a few rhythms like "Goon-Doe"and  "Give Me Some Cinnamon". Then we started adding rhythms together to make a song.

There were a few treats leftover from today's treat day. These treats will be sold at recess tomorrow. If you would like one, please bring 25 cents. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Isla

Drumming Kicked Off Today!

This morning when we arrived we noticed that our desks had been moved. We are now sitting at new table groups with new friends! We also have some new shiny tools in our shared toolboxes. Once we had found our new places we worked on our journals. The grade 2's are working to improve their paragraphs by making sure they have three detail sentences. The grade 1's are working on listening for all the sounds when sounding our their words.  Then we had indoor recess.

When indoor recess was over it was time for grade 1's to have wordwork while the grade 2's did booktime. This week the grade 1's are working on words in the -ack family and 4 sight words. The sight words are: for, on, as, are.

After wordwork and booktime we did Mathletics. Some people were finished all their bars so they got to play Mathletics live. The computers are looking a bit different these days because our server has been upgraded but we are getting used to some new ways of doing things.

This afternoon in science we worked on our Arctic Buddy Reflection. We thought about what worked well and what we would change.

After that it was our first day of drumming! Our teacher's name is Mr. K. Today we learned four letters in drumming. We learned big A, little A, big B and little B.

Then we had gym. We are taking a break from gymnastics this week because the gym needs to be available for some special guests this week so instead we played Doctor Dodgeball.

Tomorrow is Treat Day! Please make sure you bring 25 cents if you would like to have a treat. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Evelyn

Arctic Buddies!

Today we tested our Arctic Buddies!! We needed to test for our two criteria: insulating ability, and waterproofness. We tested insulating ability by filling up our Arctic buddies with warm water and then putting them outside in the cold. Before we put them outside we measured the temperature of the water so that we had a baseline, or starting temperature. Then we waited for 1 hour and measured the temperature again. We noticed that the temperatures had dropped. Then we waited for another hour and measured the temperature again. In this second measurement some of us noticed that the temperature had fallen again, but others noticed that the temperature stayed the same. The good news was that none of them froze! Our insulators weren't perfect (the temperatures had fallen) but they were helping out a bit and seemed to be slowing down the temperature drop.

Next, we needed to test for waterproofness. We did this by putting our Arctic Buddies in a big tub and then Ms. Boyer used the watering can to soak them all with water. Then, we "dissected" our buddies to see if the water had seeped into the layers or if the waterproofing had worked. There was quite a lot of variety in our results for this part. Some Buddies were still quite dry with only some wet patches at the top and bottom. Other Buddies were soaked most of the way through.

Here are a few questions to ask me at dinner:
1. How well did your insulation work? What was your starting temperature? What was your final temperature? 

2. How well did your waterproofing work? What materials seemed to work well, what materials caused problems?

3. If you were going to do this project again, what would you keep the same? What would you change? 

This afternoon we also had a chance to visit the Grade 5/6 learning celebration called "You Won't Learn This in Grade 6 Science." Their projects were really interesting and it was exciting to see what our big buddies have been up to!

Please remember that there is no school for students tomorrow. 

Our helper on Monday is: Peter

Winter Walk Day

We started today with guided reading and centers. Our center today was a finishing up center for everyone. The finishing up job was to try to finish our Inuit History books. We will be working to get these done for the next few days and then we will be invited to start a new center. Then we went on our Winter Walk. We walked the Terry Fox Lap but with a detour through the Whispering Woods.

After recess we did wordwork. The grade 1's started practicing their new words for this week and have put their word for the last two weeks in their backpacks. It would be a good idea to keep practicing these sightwords at home.  The grade 2's are working on building words using a set of letters. They are trying to figure out a secret word.

In math we started a temperature problem. The problem was:

The temperature on planet Ookpik is usually 8C. But the temperature has been rising by 10C everyday. What will the temperature be after 10 days? How about after 20 days? How about after 50 days? We will be working to finish this problem next week.  PLEASE DON'T SOLVE THIS PROBLEM AT HOME, WE WANT TO TRY TO DO IT ON OUR OWN NEXT WEEK.

Home challenge: 
Once upon a time we had a Chinook. At the start the temperature was -12C. On the first day of the Chinook, the temperature rose by 5C. On the second day the temperature rose by 8C, On the third day the temperature rose by twice as much as it did on the second day. What was the temperature at the end of the third day? 

This afternoon we worked on our Arctic Buddies. We had to finish dressing up our Buddies so they are ready for testing. We were doing a great job following our plans and using the fasteners to make sure everything was secure. After that we went to library.

In gym today we continued with gymnastics. We got to try out the rest of the stations today. Next week we will be working on making up some routines to share.

Our helper tomorrow is: Reid