Hi Families,
As with our other celebrations this year, we ask that no treats, gift bags, valentines or other small tokens be sent to school for exchange on Valentine's Day.
We will be planning some friendship activities that we look forward to sharing in more detail closer to the date, but that will include collaborative art and play activities, as well as targeted opportunities to identify and practice good friendship skills.
Thank you.
Ms. Thomas and Ms. Romanko
Hi Families,
Please see the additional blog notes regarding Family Literacy Day and Valentine's Day.
This week we added some new learning to our Literacy routines: using Elkonin Boxes to track how many sounds are in words when we stretch them out, and the Montessori Pink Boxes for connecting sounds to letters in consonant-vowel-consonant patterned words.
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| Elkonin boxes are a teaching tool that helps readers learn to break down words into their component sounds. There are many themed variations available, but this version allows the student to move a dot into each box as they hear a sound. If you'd like to try at home, we've been using this virtual model: https://toytheater.com/elkonin-boxes/ |
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| Each Pink Box contains either objects or images representing a consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word. |
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| Students stretch out the word to identify all three sounds, and search for the letter within the Moveable Alphabet, which is organized alphabetically, so students practice personal strategies to locate the letter pieces. |
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| Paired with the Moveable Alphabet, students are exposed to early identification of vowels and consonants, ensuring that each word has a vowel in the middle. |
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| Students practice directionality of print as they create a label for the object or image. |
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| The Moveable Alphabet supports risk-taking, as any errors can easily be flipped, turned or replaced. |
In Math this week, we continued creating number lines, as well as exploring a thinking routine that develops our mathematical reasoning called "Which One Doesn't Belong?"
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| Students worked in small groups to create a number line out of cards. One student removed a card and mixed up the remaining ones. The other student had to determine which card was missing, by applying their sense of number order. |
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| Comparing groups of items looking at similarities and differences supports vocabulary and reasoning. |
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| The great thing about this routine is that there are no wrong answers, as long as the student's reasoning is true. |
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| The focus is not on the answer, but on the student being able to communicate their reasoning/justification of their choice. |
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| Each routine allows opportunities to teach, practice and transfer different vocabulary. Try some of the ones above with your child, they've been introduced in class this week.
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We were very excited to practice presenting our All About Me posters to our class during Sharing Circle. What a risk-taking opportunity for the kiddos! Each student willingly stood to present their poster, speaking to each of the images, and adding detail to enrich their presentation. During our first practice, they were supported by guided questions from the teacher, but by the second practice, they had already built their confidence to navigate their full presentation independently. We can't wait to record next week!
Finally, we ended our week with another Guided Drawing. Students were challenged not only with a more complex drawing in terms of spatial awareness, line types and size, but also by adding double labels! Our "Rat in a Hat" allowed us to start applying graphemes (letters) to our phonemes (sounds), as we noticed which letters made the rhyming part of the words, making spelling the second word easier.
Beautiful, specific compliments were shared as students are becoming keen observers about what makes each drawing unique, from the size of the rat's snout, the curve of the mouth or the placement of the eye.
Reminders:
- Monday, January 31st: Non Instructional Day. No school for students.
- Tuesday, February 1st: Report cards available through PowerSchool. No paper copies sent home.
- Friday, February 4th: PM Kindergarten.
- Friday, February 11th: AM Kindergarten.
- Thursday, February 17th: Teacher's Convention. No school for students.
- Friday, February 18th: Teacher's Convention. No school for students.
- Monday, February 21st: Family Day Holiday. School closed.
- Friday, February 25th: PM Kindergarten
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! See everyone on TUESDAY!
Ms. Thomas
Hi Families,
This week, we continued exploring the idea of being unique, and what we have to contribute to our classroom and community, by identifying and representing our SUPERPOWERS! This is the last component for our "All About Me" posters, before we start sharing them small group and then documenting them to share with our families at home.
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| What's My Superpower Read Aloud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9LZPF4hGgM |
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| Okotok is the Blackfoot word for big rock. The erratic can be found just outside of Okotoks, on the way to Black Diamond. |
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| Discover the traditional Blackfoot story of Napi and the Rock in a new virtual performance combining music and drama. This special collaboration with Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society features music performed by Calgary Philharmonic musicians, combined with engaging storytelling and set design. |
We have received our delivery of rapid tests and medical grade masks from Alberta Education.
Today we will be distributing these items to students. We will be helping each student to put these in their backpacks to ensure they find their way home at the end of the day. Each student will be receiving a personally labelled Ziploc bag with 10 disposable masks and 1 box of rapid tests (each box contains 5 tests). We received masks for each student to have a 10 day supply. The masks going home are for students to wear to school in the morning. Teachers will have additional masks in the classroom so students can change their mask after lunch. All K-6 masks are identical. Students can continue to wear masks provided from home if they prefer.
If your child was not at school today to get their package, they will be kept in the office and sent home when your child returns to school. Please contact the office if you would like to pick up the package – which will be available Wednesday morning. We cannot accommodate pick ups today.
Thank you.
Hello Families,
Happy 2022 and welcome back to school! It was so exciting to see everyone back after an extended winter break. We've had a wonderful week reconnecting with each other, and our space.
This week, students were introduced to some new work choices in the classroom:
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| Creative, collaborative exploration. |
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| Developing our understanding of light and shadow. |
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| Applying understanding of shape and pattern. |
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| Developing communication through cooperative play and problem solving. |
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| One BIG idea! |
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| Ordering from tallest to shortest using matryoshka snowmen. |
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| Creating sets of objects to match numerals. Organizing by twos to develop sense of odd and even. |
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| We love puzzles and get excited when there are new ones, and bigger ones to solve! |
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| Write the Room: Winter Vocabulary |
We revisited patterns and subitizing through some different snowmen activities:
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| Examples and Non-Examples: Snowmen Patterns |
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| Can your child explain the reasoning why each pattern is an example or non-example? |
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| Roll-a-Snowman Have your child teach you this game at home. |
Learned a new rhyme, to the tune of, "I'm a Little Teapot":
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| We developed actions to connect to each verse, as well as identified rhyming words, and predicted an ending. |
And did a step-by-step drawing of a "pup":
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| The teacher illustrates each step of the drawing on the SMARTboard. Students match each step in their sketchbooks, step-by-step, developing spatial awareness, and practicing different lines. |
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| We are learning about labels for our work. Together, we stretch out the target word, identifying how many sounds it has. Counting sounds is an important, foundational literacy skill. We then match the sounds to letters. |
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| Students then label their own drawing, focusing on proper letter formation. |
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas
