We are enjoying learning about poems and we had a lot of fun pulling (so many) library books off the shelves to create spine poems! We are so thankful to everyone who works so hard and volunteers in our library to re-shelve books so we can do really neat things like this! If you ever want to volunteer to help in our library please don’t hesitate to contact the school! We started off by reading the spine poem Mrs. N created to inspire us. She had us visualize the time of day this poem may take place, how it could be like a dream, and how it told a very short story.

Today is Monday.
I dreamt,
The most magnificent thing.
The shape of my heart,
It looked like spilt milk.
Day is done.
Tuesday.
Again.
Spine poem by: Mrs. Normand

After we had a good understanding of what a spine poem is Mrs. N. gave us the choice of working in a group or alone to create our poems. Here are the spine poems we created. Try to visualize the poems in your head as you read them! We are learning to do that as we listen to stories and poems.

Day is done,
Today is Monday.
Little lost bat.
Tuesday,
I dreamt,
The cat came back,
It looked like spilt milk.

Wake up world,
One world together,
The earth made new.
King of the skies,
Listen to the wind.

Water,
Cats,
The cat came back.

Little lost bat,
On the move,
Today is Monday.

A visit to the circus,
Nothing like a puffin.
Star stuff,
The right word,
Mr. Ferris and his wheel.

David smells,
Smelly socks,
Again!
Oh no! Not again!
David gets in trouble.

Oh no!
My crocodile does not bite.
How big is it?
Dealing with bullying.

How to be a cat,
I am cat.
Cat, you better come home.
Why?
Mattoo, Let’s play.
The lighthouse cat.

Bear under the stairs,
Don’t wake the bear!
Mr. Bear and the bear.

One special day,
The cat next door,
The Klondike cat,
My house.

The runaway hug,
Hug me,
When I feel sad.
Hug Machine,
Happy!

The students were very excited to hear that Mrs. Normand’s cousin, Mrs. D.N.A., would be coming to the school in the afternoon to do another science experiment to teach about Matter. Today Mrs. D.N.A. and the students raced 4 different liquids. In the race was water, syrup, molasses, and ketchup.  Mrs. D.N.A. reviewed what the students had already learned about matter.

Solids – Have their own shape (If you put them in a container the shape stays the same). They don’t change their shape on their own, but you can break (or squish in some cases, like play-dough) a solid.

Liquids – Take the shape of the container they are in.

Today students learned that liquids also flow. Mrs. D.N.A. took a few pictures and had one of our lovely students take a video (so Mrs. Normand could watch what the class did while she was away). Unfortunately the video was too large to put on the blog post. If I can figure out how to load it over the weekend I will add it. If not feel free to come in one day before or after school to watch it. It is really very exciting to see! There was a lot of cheering as each liquid finished the race.

If you are interested in finding out the results ask your child and I’m sure they would be very happy to tell you but below is a recap of the race in case they cannot remember all the details.

*Spoiler alert – Race results below*

Water was the fastest and finished the race in less than a second taking 1st place. For awhile it looked like Ketchup was going to come in 2nd, but then it lost stamina and Syrup pulled into the lead taking silver. Ketchup managed to continue flowing and finished in 3rd. And finally after much cheering, Molasses finished the race in 4th place. It was very exciting to watch how the some liquids flowed fast and some were much, much, much slower.

Unfortunately in her efforts to allow enough time for the students to write about the race Mrs. D.N.A. forgot to take pictures of the mess she created at the end of the race. Thankfully there are so many wonderful helpers willing to help her clean up at the end of the experiments.

Please continue to practice counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s with your child. For counting by 2’s focus on counting forwards starting on any even number between 0-100. If your child has this mastered have them start on an odd number for more of a challenge. When your child counts by 5’s have them start at any number with a 5 or a 0 in the ones place and focus on counting forward. When you practice counting by 10’s with your child feel free to start anywhere between 0-100 and have them count forwards (and backwards if you feel they are up for the challenge). Your efforts make a big difference in our classroom learning time!

If you noticed I highlighted the ordinal numbers, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th above. Ordinal numbers are another part of our Math unit that we will be learning about. Have fun with your child lining up toys, having races, and putting objects in order. Have them practice writing ordinal numbers up to 10 and reading the words for ordinal numbers as well. There are many great games you could make around this concept.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs. N.

Today we were very happy to be able to tour the Fire Hall. We had two amazing tour guides, Mr. Austin and Mr. Taylor. They taught us a lot about the trucks and equipment used to fight fires and rescue people.

We were very excited to see their new Engine! We were even the first group to tour through it. There were so many levers and buttons inside. On the outside there were so many doors and compartments that all of the equipment fit into. They even keep hoses in the bumper!

We really liked the Aerial truck with the ladder that can go so high you can see Saskatoon and Osler at the same time! We thought it would be really neat to be up that high.

We saw the clothes that all of the Fire Fighters wear to fight fires and the clothes that they wear to go to other emergencies. They have to be able to get changed into their emergency clothing very quickly.

One other neat thing about our tour was were also the last class to see their very old (Mr. Austin even said the truck was older than our parents) truck! On the old truck the fire fighters had to ride on the outside and hang on really tight on the way to a fire.

The Fire Hall is having an open house/BBQ on Wednesday October 8th from 6-8. Everyone is welcome to attend!

Mrs. N.

Well here it is, our upgraded blog. We are very excited to be able to keep posting blogs and keep you up to date with what is going on in our classroom. Enjoy the pictures from September.

In September we made flowers using white glue to draw, chalk pastels to colour, and black paper as the background. It has added a nice pop of colour to our classroom as the leaves outside begin to disappear! We are very thankful (and so are our parents) that Mrs. N. waited until after our pictures were taken to do this art with us because it was quite messy (but it was also so much fun)!

Last Friday a real circus performer came to our school. Her name was Sapphire.  She did many neat tricks like juggling, contact juggling, putting her arm all the way around her head, and everyone’s favourite, glow in the dark hoola-hooping! She amazed us with her skills but she also taught us a very important lesson: It is ok to be who you are and no one should make fun of you for that. She talked about how when she was younger many people were not kind to her and how she wished someone would have stepped in and told the unkind kids to stop being so mean. Sapphire challenged us to always stand up for our friends, classmates, and others we may see who are getting picked on or bullied. What a great message!

Thanks for being patient as we upgraded the blog. Check back again soon for pictures from our tour of the fire hall!

Mrs. N

It was really nice to see many of you at today’s pancake breakfast!

Our picture day is Tuesday September 22nd. If your child will be away on Tuesday please let us know and they can have their picture taken on Monday instead.

Please sign up for Parent/Student/Teacher interviews by going online to www.schoolinterviews.ca If you cannot access the site please let us know what dates and times work for you and we can sign you up. Interviews take place October 6th & 8th from 3:45-7:15

Family Fun Night is coming up on Thursday September 24th.  Tickets will be pre-sold at school on Sept 22nd & 23rd. Tickets will also be available for purchase at Family Fun Night. We are still looking for BINGO prize donations. Thank you to everyone who has, already donated bingo prizes, volunteered to work at fun night (both in our classroom or in the concession). This school community event cannot run without parent volunteers! We always appreciate your help!

There is No School for students on Friday September 25th.

Our Terry Fox Walk will be held September 30th (rain or shine). As as school we will be collecting money for the Terry Fox Foundation. We will be collecting money between Sept 24rd-Sept 29th.

We wrote in our Friday journals again today. We had a lot of fun brainstorming a list of all the things we learned and did this week. Please take a few minutes to read your child’s Friday Journal and write back to them. They really enjoy the notes you have written in their books!

We had our first spelling test this week. Spelling tests will be marked and sent home the following week for you to see and sign. How the spelling test is marked will be outlined when your child’s book comes home for the first time. Please sign and return the test book promptly each week so that your child will have their book for the next test.

Have a wonderful weekend! We can’t wait to see all the students smiling faces again on Monday morning!

Mrs. N & Mrs. M

This Friday is Meet the Teacher Pancake Breakfast. Please come to the school for pancakes anytime between 7:30am and 8:50am. After you have had your pancakes please stop by the classroom to say hello! As we are such a big school we would appreciate it if you brought your own plate and cutlery.

Our Picture Day will be Tuesday September 22nd. If your child will be away that day for any reason please let us know as the photographers will also be in the building on the Monday.

We have really been enjoying learning about patterns. On Monday we worked in stations building patterns out of a variety of elements (the actual objects used in the pattern). We built patterns while thinking about the different attributes that could change. We built patterns where the colour changed, the thickness of an element changed, the shape changed, the position of the element changed, and even the size changed. As you look at the patterns on this page ask your child to tell you what the core of each pattern is and what attribute or attributes are changing in the pattern.

We really enjoyed all the stations, but overall the favourite was using the SMARTBoard to extend the patterns!

Enjoy the pictures! Hope to see you at the pancake breakfast!

Mrs. N.

It is always amazing how after the first day of school the classroom begins to feel like “home” again. We have finally met the smiling faces that go with the name tags that have been on desks and lockers for the last few weeks. We are both so excited for this year and all of the potential each student brings to the classroom. We recognize that every student has different likes and dislikes, has their own unique learning style, and has their own story to tell. September is all about learning who each student is so that we can meet all of their leaning needs. Thank you for assisting us on discovering who your child is by filling out the purple sheet that was sent home on the first day of school. We look forward to working together with each of you as we work to teach your children.

As a class we have spend a lot of time this past week understanding how our classroom is a “community.” We have spent time discussing what a safe community looks like because that is what we want in our classroom community. We have decided that our classroom is a place where we will always try our best,  it is OK to be yourself, we are encouraged to ask questions, and it’s even OK to make mistakes.

We are a “bucket filling” classroom and we are excited about the 2015-2016 school year.

Mrs. N & Mrs. M

We are busy getting our classroom set up. We are filling the shelves with books, getting names onto desks, getting newsletters and planners ready, and so much more. We are looking forward to meeting many smiling faces on the first day of school!

More information will be posted on this blog in the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned! This year is going to be great!

Mrs. N & Mrs. M