The Big Show!

Today was our big performance. Everyone did an AMAZING job and the audience gave us a huge round of applause at the end! It was a lot of work to get ready for such a big show but all the hard work paid off!

This afternoon we got to celebrate our success with some ice cream, a little movie, and some free time. We also had gym and music.

Tomorrow we will get to visit with Saa'Kokoto one more time for this year. We will also play some outdoor games. Please come dressed for rainy weather!

IMPORTANT: 

Swimming forms are coming home today. They were supposed to come home yesterday but Ms. Boyer messed up and forgot...oops! If you can please help her out by returning the forms tomorrow that would be amazing. 

Please also remember to return your Heritage Park form if you haven't already done so. 

Our helper on Monday is: Aiden 
* The new sharing category is: Favourite Stuffy

Final day of rehearsals!

Today was our final day to get ready for our show. This morning the Kindergarten's came to watch. They told us they enjoyed our show and learned some new things too!

After recess we worked to finish our dioramas and our fact cards. After our show tomorrow we will be inviting you to come to our classrooms to see our dioramas and fact cards. We are looking forward to showing you how much we have learned about our animals!

This afternoon we did some more rehearsing, finish up, and had a bit of free choice time.

Here are some important reminders:

1. Please wear your show clothes tomorrow. These should be clothes that make sense for your animal character. If you are planning to bring a cowboy hat or hard hat for the dance please make sure you have it labelled with your name. 

2. If you have lines in the show please practice them again tonight. Practice saying them slowly and clearly so the audience will be able to understand what you are saying. 

3. Tomorrow afternoon we will be celebrating all the hardwork our class put into the assembly with a little party. If you have a board game at home that you would like to bring please just make sure it has your name on it. 

4. We brought home a field trip form today for our trip to Heritage Park. Please try to return this form by Friday. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Leander

It's starting to come together!!

This morning we started with a full rehearsal of our show. Thank you to those students who remembered to bring their hats for the dance. If you are planning to bring a hat, please make sure it is here tomorrow so we will have a chance to practicing with all the props before the big show on Thursday.  Please also start figuring our your costume. Remember, you just need to try to wear colours that make sense for your animal character.

After our rehearsal we worked on making the headbands for our costumes. The job was a bit tricky but we persevered and they look great. We can't wait for you to see them on Thursday!

After lunch we had our last day of sketching with Ryder. Today we were working on adding the shading and the leaves to our tree sketches. Ryder also showed us how to use watercolour pencil crayons to add a tiny bit of colour. We didn't have time to do this part, but we will be able to add this next week.

In music we worked on our songs for the assembly. They sounded a lot better today than yesterday. It's amazing to see what practice can do!

Our helper tomorrow is: Dhvani

Full rehearsal with props!

Today was another big day of rehearsing for show. We spent some time practicing our songs and then did rehearsals of the whole show with the sets!

Here is the homework for tomorrow:
1. Please make sure your lines are memorized.
2. Please practice the songs and pay careful attention to the melody.
3. Start looking around your house for clothes that might work for your costume. The hope is to have everyone dressed in colours that match their animal. eg. If you are a white-tailed deer, try to find something brown to wear.
4. If you are planning to bring a hard hat/cowboy hat/straw hat for the dance, please bring it tomorrow and make sure it is labelled with your name.

Our helper tomorrow is: Shawn

Nose Hill with Saa'Kokoto

Today we went to Nose Hill with Saa'Kokoto. We went to the Medicine Wheel. We learned that 4 is a very important number for the Blackfoot people and the Medicine Wheel includes lots of 4's. The Medicine Wheel has 4 sections. In each section there is a triangle that represents people. The 4 people are for the 4 tribes of the Medicine Wheel. In each section there were also 4 "c" shapes that represent buffalo hooves.  The 4 parts also connect to the stars (the Wolf Trail and the Wolf Clan). There are also rocks that extend out beyond the wheel to show the 4 directions: north, east, south, west. These also represent the 4 seasons. At the center of the wheel there is a special spot for giving offerings to Na'a (mother earth). Offerings are given to Na'a to show respect for nature, and to thank Na'a for providing what we need. Offerings are also given when you are taking things from the land like berries or sage.

Then Saa'Kokoto told us a story. The story was about a mouse. Ask me to tell you this story. 

After we worked with Saa'Kokoto we went and did some sketching and then we used the bug boxes to catch some insects and look at them through the magnified top.  We caught some really huge grasshoppers!!

* At home tonight, please make sure to do a quick "tick check". 

Some of us were pretty tired by the time we got back on the bus! 

Assembly Rehearsal - Day 2

This morning we started by working on our dioramas and our fact cards while Ms. Boyer took groups of actors to the gym to rehearse their parts. After that we met with Room 1 and the Portable to practice our songs. After recess we all went to the gym and rehearsed the whole assembly. It went really well for a first full rehearsal. Please ask me if I have a speaking part and if I remembered to bring home my script. Our goal is to have our lines memorized by Monday.

This afternoon we moved on to the next part of the Dr. Coffin timeline. The next part is the creation of the sun circle.  We went outside to begin our drawings of the sun circle. Next time we will read some more stories about the building of the sun circle in the Dr. Coffin book and complete our sun circle drawings.

After that we had gym. Today was our first day of Lacrosse. Thanks to Leander and Reid (our resident lacrosse experts) for helping us learn some important skills and giving us a few good pointers!

In music we worked on our assembly songs. Please remember the songs are posted on the blog (Tuesday's blog post, I think!) if you would like to keep practicing at home.

Tomorrow is our trip to the Medicine Wheel. Please make sure your backpack includes water, a hat, a snack, and a light jacket (in case the weather turns). Please make sure all unnecessary items like toys or books are NOT in your backpack. Please make sure to put on sunscreen and bugspray before coming to school and be sure to wear appropriate hiking clothes and shoes. No sandals or flipflops please!! 

Our helper on Monday is: Jasper

Assembly Rehearsals - Day 1

Today we started rehearsing for the assembly. In the morning Ms. Boyer took some of the groups to the gym to start learning their parts. The rest of us worked on our dioramas. Some of the people who practiced today will be coming home with scripts so they can memorize their lines. The rest of us will get to practice tomorrow and bring home our lines after school. After that we had library and worked on our Dr. Coffin timeline.

After recess we practiced our songs and then we had sketching. Today we went outside to sketch the tree in front of the school. Today we focused on the lines. Next time, we will work on adding in the shading.

This afternoon we did mathletics for our math practice and then we had gym. In gym Ms. Boyer taught us the dance for our show. We practiced it a few times and then we went outside for a few minutes of gym.

Thank you to those students who have already returned their green field trip forms. If you haven't returned your form please do so tomorrow. 

Our helper tomorrow is: Aiden

Assembly Preparations Begin!

We are bringing home a field trip notice for our trip to Nose Hill this Friday. Please return the form by Thursday. 

Today was our first day of getting ready for our assembly. Our assembly will take place on May 31 at 11:00am.

This morning, Ms. Boyer, Mrs. Armour, and Mrs. Hamby read us the script and told us how the show would work. We also practiced the three songs that we will be including in the show.  This afternoon, we worked on creating the props for the show. We divided up the jobs between the three classes and got almost everything finished!

Tomorrow we will learn about our parts and start practicing.

If you want to practice the songs at home. Here are the karaoke videos:

Sketching

Today was our second day of sketching. We learned about perspective. We learned that if you draw things smaller they look like they are further away and if you draw them bigger they look closer. We also learned how to overlap drawings so that they look like one is in front of the other. We also learned about using shading to show where the light is coming from in our pictures. We learned to use lighter shading on the side where the sun is, and to use darker shading on the side where there is a shadow.

No school tomorrow or Monday!

Our helper on Tuesday is: Aksel

The New School

This morning we learned about the next part of Dr. Coffin's history. The building of the new school! We learned that at first, the school board didn't want to build a new school. Instead, they thought all the kids could just go to Captain John Palliser school. But, the parents and students protested and argued that decision and convinced the school board to build a new school. The new school was called a core school because it was smaller than the original school but built on the same foundation. That's why we can see some of the old school walls out by the sun circle.

In math we went to our new math groups. In Mrs. Hamby's group they worked on a partner game with cards. The game included creating adding and subtracting facts and recording them in our math journals. In Mrs. Armour's group the students had to pick a number between 10 and 20 and then show at least 5 different ways to make that number. In Ms. Boyer's group the students learned to explode (expand) numbers and write them in their expanded form.

This afternoon we worked our dioramas. Some people have finished and have moved on to making a fact card to go with their diorama. The fact card needs to include at least 5 interesting facts about your animal and needs to include information from each category of research we did.

After that we had gym outside where we played some tag games. Then we had finish up time. To earn free choice we had to have the first three parts of our Dr. Coffin timeline finished.

Our helper tomorrow is: Josie

Math groups and sketching

Today was our second day working in our new math groups. In our groups we are working on our adding and subtracting skills in different ways. Ask me which math group I am in and what we are working on right now.

This afternoon was our first day of sketching with our guest artist, Ryder Richards. Today we were each given our own sketching sets to keep! The sets include 4 different pencils, charcoal, chalk, a smudger, sandpaper, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener. When Ryder arrived she started by showing us how each of the pencils is different and how we can hold the pencils differently to create different techniques. Then she explained how we would use the rest of our tools. After that we went outside to do some sketching in the Whispering Woods. As we worked on our sketches Ryder came around and gave us feedback and tips to help us improve our sketching techniques. We will be working with Ryder again on Thursday.

Our helper tomorrow is: Katie

Bird Watching

There is a house finch in here somewhere! 

Today we went bird watching in 3 different locations and practiced recording our bird counts in our bird books. On all of our bird watching trips we focused on trying to see chickadees, robins, magpies, and downy woodpeckers. We also left some blank spaces to add other birds we saw.

First, we went to the Whispering Woods. We tried to find spots to sit or stand to do a stationary bird count.  We saw a lot of chickadees! We also saw magpies, robins, downy woodpeckers, a hawk, and some sparrows (we think!).  Next we went down the green belt and did a traveling bird count. We saw a lot of robins and also chickadees, but when we came back to the school and looked closely at our bird guide we realized some of the chickadees might have actually been nuthatches...oops! We also saw some gulls, 2 mallard ducks, and lots of house finches! Finally we went to Barrett Park to do another stationary bird count. We could hear lots of birds in the park, but it was more difficult to see them. We think that some of the birds were in the backyards that surround the park and were hidden by the tall bushes.

After each bird watching session we came inside and shared our findings at the carpet. Next week will try to enter our information into eBird. If you still don't have your eBird account please try to set it up this weekend. Remember, your email password is the same as your password for logging in to the computers and into google docs.

Have a great weekend!

Our helper on Monday is: Joachim

A Surprise Project

Today we started with guided reading and centers. We also had a fire drill. After that we went to library and then we started working on a special surprise project. We worked on the project almost all day! You will have to wait to find out more details because it is a surprise.

In gym we played with the parachute. We warmed up with the weather, then we made mushrooms, and then we played shark attack.

After that most of us got to have free choice. On Wednesdays our free choice has to be a low-tech choice.

Our helper tomorrow is: Liam

A special guest

This morning we had a special visitor in our class. He was yellow and very hairy! He helped Ms. Boyer with her guided reading groups, listened at the carpet while Ms. Boyer shared the story of the fire at the original Dr. Coffin school, watched us while we did our own sketches of the school fire outside, kept us company during our lockdown practice drill after recess and supervised our games of Race to 100 in math. 

Please ask me about our special visitor and the activities he helped us with this morning. We were all especially excited to hear about the fire. Ask me to tell you a few details about this. Please also ask me to teach you how to play Race to 100. This is a great game for practicing our 'counting-on' adding strategy. 

This afternoon we worked on our dioramas and then went outside to play Kings Gold in gym. Today we had a ladies team and a mens team. But, we have more boys than girls in our class so a few boys agreed to play on the ladies team. It was our best game of Kings Gold yet! Ms. Boyer noticed students being really honest about tagging and being really good sports during the game.

Our helper tomorrow is: Lily

Bird Watching!

Birding with Vlad

Today was our bird watching day with CPAWS! We started the morning by going birding with our expert guide Vlad. Vlad is a very knowledgeable birder who helped us to see some amazing birds today. Here's what we saw:  2 Franklin's gulls, 2 downy woodpeckers, 3 black-billed magpies, 35 common ravens, 5 black-capped chickadees, 1 red-breasted nuthatch, 10 american robins, 1 dark-eyed junko, 1 white-crowned sparrow, 3 house finches, 10 white-winged crossbills, and 4 house sparrows!

Can you see the white-winged crossbills?

A brief stop to visit Iain's dog Sandy

Consulting the bird books

After our hike we met up with Vanessa from CPAWS and played some bird games in the Whispering Woods. The games we played were all designed to help us learn more about birds, what they need to survive, and the challenges they face. Ask me to tell you these things:
1. What are the 4 things birds need to survive?
2. What are the 4 life stages of a bird?
3. What is happening to burrowing owls that has caused them to become a species at-risk?
4. What caused Peregrin falcons to become at-risk. Why are there numbers now starting to grow?

Stephanie from Green Calgary was also here and taught us how to enter information into our eBird accounts. She also shared with us that tomorrow is a very special day in the birder community. Tomorrow is Global Big Day! Global Big Day is a day where birders from around the world try to go bird watching and enter their bird findings into eBird to see if all 10,000 bird species around the world can be seen. Last year almost 7000 species were spotted. This year they are trying to break that record. If you would like to help, spend some time bird watching tomorrow and then enter your findings in your eBird account. If you are interested in participating, here is a link with some more information: A Beginners Guide to Big Day.

Have a great weekend!

Our helper on Monday is: Addison

An assembly and getting ready for bird watching!

This morning our schedule was a bit different because the grade 5/6 students were doing a practice exam so we switched music times with room 7. This meant that we went to music at 9:00! We were all joking that it was time to get ready to go home when Ms. Boyer came to pick us up at 9:45!

After music we worked on finishing the second part of our Dr. Coffin timeline. The second piece was that in 1968 Mickey the Mascot was created by an artist in Edmonton and gifted to the school by the architects who designed the first Dr. Coffin school. To show this part of the timeline we drew sketches of Mickey.

After recess we went to watch the Grade 3/4 learning assembly. They have been working as jr. geologists and anthropologists this year so they put on a "rock" show! They sang some great songs and shared their learning about different types of rocks and how we can tell them apart. When the assembly was over we had some time to finish up our math problems from yesterday. These problems were more challenging than the ones we had done before and took quite a bit of perseverance to complete!

After lunch we spent some time learning about our focus birds in anticipation of our CPAWS visit tomorrow. We went with our focus bird groups and learned about the size, habitat, food, and range of our focus birds. Ask me to share some facts about my focus bird! 

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday. We will be going bird watching. If any parents would like to join us please feel free! We will be hiking around our neighbourhood for about 1 hour so please make sure students are dressed for the weather and wearing good walking or hiking shoes. 

Our helper on Monday is: Addison

Setting up eBird:

Thank you to those students and parents who have already set up eBird accounts and returned the orange paper.  A few parents have emailed with questions about email addresses and passwords. All students should know their password (it is the same one they use to log-in to the computers and to log-in to google docs) but if they can't remember or if you aren't able to find the educbe.ca email address at home, please email Ms. Boyer and she can send it to you.

Timelines and Dioramas

This morning after guided reading and centers we started working on our Dr. Coffin timeline. Today we started by getting our page set up with our school sketch in the middle. Then we read part of the Dr. Coffin book to find the first date for our timeline. Did you know that the first Dr. Coffin school was opened in 1967?

After recess the grade 2's met with Ms. Boyer to review and practice the rules for adding -ing to the end of words. At home, try testing me with some words to see if I can use the rules! While the grade 2's were working with Ms. Boyer the grade 1's worked on a practice page for this week's words. Then it was time for math. In math we worked on finishing up the problem we started yesterday. If we finished early we had some time to play Mathletics.

This afternoon we started by reading an Eric Carle story called Mister Seahorse. Ask my what made the animals in this story interesting and a bit unique.  Then it was time to work on our dioramas. Before we went to work we reviewed the steps for our work that we learned yesterday. We also talked about ways to give our friends feedback about their work. Ask me what types of things would be good feedback and what types of comments would not be good feedback.   

Here are a few examples of our dioramas so far. We are working really hard to add lots of details so that our dioramas look realistic.



When we had finished working on our dioramas we went outside to play kings gold. In our first ame some people got upset because they felt that not everyone was being honest about tagging and being tagged. We had a conversation about the importance of honesty in sports and especially in games where there isn't a referee. After our talk the second game seemed to go a bit better.

When gym was over we went to see Mr. O-Reilly for music.

Our helper tomorrow is: Senna