Swimming Day 3

Swimming has been going really well.  Now that the kids know the routine we have not had to leave the school as quickly in the morning although they are very excited to go right away.  All of the students seem to be having fun, trying hard and enjoying the time with their swimming teachers.  We usually arrive back at the school around 10:45.  The walk back is definitely slower than the walk down to the pool.

Once we get back to the school we have a very short snack break and then we have some writing time.  This morning we worked on our story writing until lunch time.  Many of us now are either on story typing or story illustrating.

After lunch we have math.  The grade ones today learned how to play a game called Clockominos.  To play this game both you and your partner get a set of dominos and a playing board.  We take turns flipping over a domino and then placing it on our board.  We have to count up the dots total and look for the number on our playing board.  If the number already has a domino on it we don't get to place one down.  The first person to fill their Clockomino board is the winner.  We have been practicing adding up numbers and being accurate with our answers.
The grade twos have been working on number problems and writing their own number story problems.

After music we had a short activity break outside and then we came in to work on our dioramas until the end of the day.

Mrs. Hamby will be away for the next two days and Mr. Ogilvie will be in as the guest teacher.  She will be back on Friday.

This morning swimming went really well and everyone was excited to meet their instructors and get into the water.  We left the school shortly after nine and each grade one was paired with a grade two swimming buddy.  It took us about 15 minutes to walk and then they all changed and headed on to the pool deck to hear the instructions.  They were in the pool for 40 minutes and then changed and we walked back to school.  This will be the routine each day for next week.  Thank you to those parents that helped out today.  It was greatly appreciated!

When we got back we had a quiet snack time and a short recess break.  Once we were finished we met to continue our ant study.  Today we were going to watch and see how ants get their food.  We took sugar outside with us and first we dumped the sugar close to the ant hill.  It did not seem that the ants were very interested.  We took a short walk around Whispering Woods and then came back to observe, still not many ants.  Then one of the kids had the idea to put the food right at the top of the hill where all the ants were.  Once we did that we noticed that the ants came immediately.  We noticed that the sugar pile was getting smaller and eventually was almost all covered in ants.  It looked as if they were taking the sugar and going back down into the anthill to store it or doing something else with it.  Next week we will record what we noticed.

Remember that Monday is swimming again.  Have a great weekend!

What a Performance!

The performance today was amazing!  Everyone remembered what they needed to say and needed to do.  The singing and dancing was great and it looked like our audience really enjoyed the show.  All that hard work was worth it.  We felt really good when it was finally over.  What a relief!  Thank you to all the made it to the show and also helped us practice our lines so that we were ready.

This afternoon we got to enjoy some play time with our friends and we also got to have popsicles outside.  In music we had a karaoke dance party and in gym we got to choose the games we wanted to play.  It was a good way to end the day.

Tomorrow is our first swimming day.  We will be leaving the school shortly after 9:00.  Please pack a  towel, bathing suit, goggles is you like, an extra plastic bag for wet bathing suits.  An extra snack would be great too, as the kids are usually tired and hungry after swimming.  They will want to have a small snack to revive their energy level.  Once we return to the school, we will be doing an outside activity in Whispering Woods so please make sure that your child is dressed for walking to the pool and to be outside afterwards

Assembly tomorrow

Tomorrow is the big day!  We have been working so hard to get ready for the assembly and we can hardly wait to share it with you.  We will begin our performance at 11:00 so please make sure that you come a little earlier so that you can get a good seat.

For costumes we are wearing jeans and t-shirts or plaid shirts.  If you have a shirt that has a Canadian symbol on it that would be great too!

We are still looking for volunteers for swimming.  At this time I still need volunteers for next week,  Tuesday and Wednesday.  Please let me know if you are able to volunteer.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Dress Rehearsal

We are very excited to share our assembly with you on Thursday at 10:50.  The assembly will start at 11:00.  If you come a little early you will be able to get good seats.

Today we had a rehearsal this morning and then another dress rehearsal this afternoon.  For the assembly we can look for a clothing costume that will be jeans and a shirt that reflects Canada.  It could be a t-shirt with a flag or just  a white or red one.  Another option would be a shirt that is plaid.  If none of these options work for you we would suggest just jeans and a t-shirt.

Tomorrow will be the volunteer tea.  You should have received a digital invitation last week by email.  Ms. Stephure has asked that if your child has a Dr. Coffin t-shirt, that they wear it tomorrow please.
The tea will start at 2:00 in the afternoon.

Rehearsal Day

Today was a very big rehearsal day with all the props and sets.  We had one rehearsal in the morning and then we had one again this afternoon.   We also worked on our dioramas in between.  We are getting better at knowing where we need to be and when it is our cue to go out on to the performance floor.  Many of us still have to try and memorize our lines so that we know them by Tuesday.  We are hoping that we can do the assembly without the scripts.  Mrs. Hamby and Ms. Boyer keep saying that we can do it.  We only have two days left when we come back before the big show.
We are ready for a long weekend...
Today we chose a new sharing category for helper sharing.  It will be to share a favorite stuffy.
Please remember that there is no school for students tomorrow.
Enjoy your long weekend!

First Practice in the Gym

Now that all the props are prepared for our assembly we have started our full run throughs of the show.  This morning we worked on story writing and dioramas before recess.  While we were working on this Ms. Boyer was pulling small groups to rehearse their lines for the assembly.  After recess we had solo book time and then math.

In math today the grade ones read a book called Domino Addition.  After the story they got together with a partner and worked on recording their own domino addition facts with a set of dominos and a partner.  They had to take turns turning over the domino and adding the two sides together.  They each had their own recording sheet.  The grade twos practiced building numbers using one hundreds blocks, tens sticks and cubes and recording them in their journals.  They then had to write each number in its expanded form.

After lunch we spent time in the classroom practicing our assembly all together and then we went to the gym to see where our singing and dancing spots would be.  We practiced our dance and our songs in the gym with the music.

We realized we need to work on memorizing our lines a little better and also the song lyrics.

We have been working very hard!

Assembly Preparation

This morning Ms. Boyer pulled various groups of kids for assembly practice.  If we were not in the group needed we were in the classroom with Mrs. Hamby finishing our journals and then working on our Nova Scotia dioramas.

Before recess and after recess we worked on making and painting props and sets for the assembly.  Now that we can see all the pieces coming together, it is very exciting for us.

This afternoon we got to go to the book fair.  Most of us picked out a book or several to buy.  We also had music and gym.  In gym we worked on our  Acadian dance performance for the assembly and then got to go outside with some small playground equipment.  We sold enough books at the book fair to buy books for two schools overseas.

It was a very busy day...

The helper tomorrow is Leo.

Assembly Practice and Props

This morning while we were working on journal pictures Ms. Boyer took some of the kids to begin practicing their lines for the assembly.  They went to the gym and the music room to practice.  Mrs. Hamby stayed int he room with Mrs. Foster and and Mrs. Smith to be with the kids that were working on pictures.  When center time was over we began working on our journal writing.  Many of us wrote about what we did to make our mom feel special on Mother's Day.

After recess we had solo book time and then practiced our assembly songs.
In math, we began working on addition and subtraction.  We all started by doing a timed race of addition practice to see how we many we could complete.  We had ten minutes.  We hope that we can get faster  each time.  Then the grade twos went with Ms. Boyer and the grade ones will be working with Mrs. Hamby.  The grade twos began by looking at addition and talking about strategies to add bigger numbers together.  The grade ones began by looking at the different words and symbols that get used for addition and subtraction and key words to look for in order to tell if it's addition or subtraction.  Does the number get bigger or smaller?  Do they say how many all together or how many are left?  We practiced listening to number stories and we had to tell whether it was an addition story or a subtraction story.  We had to practice counting on from one of the numbers to solve the addition stories.

In library today Mrs. Kidd said that it was our last day to choose books.  All books need to come back next Monday.  Some of us are bringing home overdue slips with titles on them to look for at home.

This afternoon we started working on props for the assembly.  We split up into groups and we were each assigned a job to do from the prop list.  We will be painting and creating our props again tomorrow morning.  Today we had to draw the outline of our props and fill in some of the details.  Tomorrow we will paint them in.

Today in gym we started to practice an Acadian dance for the assembly.  Ms Boyer took room one to teach them the dance and Mrs. Hamby took Ms. Boyer's class.

The used Book Fair is tomorrow.  The money raised will go towards donating a small library of books to a school in another country. Each book is 25 cents.  You can buy more than one book.

Malik is the helper tomorrow.

Ant Study

We began our day today by going to the other classrooms in the school and presenting our Human Impacts information about Whispering Woods.  Once we were done we all met in the classroom again to hear about what we would be doing outside this morning.
Today we began an insect study in the Whispering Woods as our Yellow Fish Road Project will continue at the beginning of June as we prepare to paint the storm drains.

Our intention today was to go outside and observe two ant colonies that we discovered in the Whispering Woods this week.  This is part of our science unit small crawling and flying creatures.
Before we went outside we watched some videos showing an ant colony and what they looked like underground.  We could see all the tunnels and chambers.  We also looked at the different types of ants we have here in Alberta so that it might help us identify the differences between the various ants.

The first time we went outside we had to catch an ant in the bug box and then observe what it looked liked and draw a diagram.  We had to draw the head, thorax, abdomen, legs and antennae on our picture and record the labels.

We had recess break outside and then we went inside for a story.   We read a book about ants.  In the book we learned about the different types of ants and the jobs that they had in the colony.  Then we went outside to observe the anthill.  We had to watch and see what the ants were doing and also what they were carrying.  We drew a diagram of the ant hill and recorded notes of what we were seeing.  We saw ants carrying twigs, leaves, larvae and even a dead ant.
We ended the day by meeting to share a story called "Hey Ant".  Then Mrs. Hamby and Ms. Boyer handed out our scripts to practice for the assembly.  We should try to practice it at home so that we can learn our lines and try an memorize them.  We will begin practicing at school next week.

Swimming Volunteers and Assembly Excitement

*If you are at all available to help with any of our swimming dates please send a note or email to let me know.  So far we only have volunteers for Friday, May 26th.  Our swimming time will be each morning of the following week as well.  We will leave the school to walk to the pool shortly before nine and kids swim from 9:30- 10:10 am.  We will walk back to the school and should be back by 10:45"ish".

This morning we worked on our story writing.  Some of our classmates shared stories that they had written and we got to see what it would like like as a book.  During word work time some of us worked on spelling practice while others went to finish the math problem from this week.  Mrs. Smith worked with us to help us solve the math problem.

After word work Mrs. Hamby and Ms. Boyer shared the script that they had written for the assembly.  We were all excited to hear what our parts would be.  By tomorrow we will all be getting a copy of our lines to begin practicing and rehearsing at home.  We will also begin practicing in the gym next week and making props and sets. We are very excited!  Our assembly will be May 25th, after recess, so at 11:00.

This afternoon we worked on our dioramas and rehearsed our songs both in the classroom and in music.

In gym today we spent half our time on the playground and half our time in Whispering Woods.  We discovered a spot where a robin must have been hunted by a predator as there were feathers all over that spot.

Madalynn is the helper on Monday.
Kindergarten Plant Sale   Friday, May 12 2017

 

Time:   10:45 AM to 11:30 for Kindergarten Families

                       

Time:   11:30 AM to 12:20 PM for

Dr. Coffin Families    

This morning after guided reading we worked on our story writing.Some of us have printed off our story pages already and have started our job of being an illustrator.  Most of us have started typing and a few of us are still writing our stories.

Today in word work the grade twos worked on contractions.  They had to make "flower contractions". The flower in the middle would have the contraction and the leaves on each side would have the two words that make up the contraction.  You could also be practicing shrink writing, proof reading and possessives.  Another activity was to write sentences with contractions and conventions.  You could also be making a word search.  We also looked for contractions in books.  The grade ones worked on adding their spelling words to sentences finished up their printing pages.

Today in math the people that were done the math challenge question got to go to Mathletics.  In Mathletics they could do subtraction and addition practice.

This afternoon we worked on our dioramas.  Some people moved on to animals with plasticine.  They had to have a friend check over their landscape and building checklist before they were aloud to start with animals.

Today in Whispering Woods we discovered some Buffalo Beans getting ready to bloom.  They are a bright yellow native flower.  We found more pussy willows .  Ants continue to be a fascination in the woods.  We even found a big anthill.  We discovered that there is quite a lot of garbage in the woods.  Some of us decided to take a bag and gather up some of the garbage to have a positive human impact.  A negative impact that we noticed is that some of the flowers are getting pulled out of the ground.

Poorvi is the helper tomorrow.

Tuesday, May 9th, 2017

This morning after guided reading/centers we had a short assembly practice time trying to sing our songs without the lyrics.  We are getting pretty good at knowing the words but the one we really need to work on is "Alberta Bound".  Once we were done, Jordan shared some photos of her holiday to the Panama Canal.  Most of her pictures were about her dolphin encounter.  Since she was the helper today she also shared some dolphin facts that she had learned.

After recess we had word work and then we worked on problem solving in math today.  Before we started today we broke up in grade one and grade two small groups.  Mrs. Hamby took the grade ones and demonstrated two different strategies to try solving the math problem from yesterday.  Ms. Boyer took the grade twos and shared some strategies too.  This was day two at trying to solve the problem.  We also shared other strategies that seemed to work for some of our friends that had solved it yesterday.

After lunch we met at our small carpets to make an assembly chart.  We got to decide if we wanted to have a speaking part or a nonspeaking part.  We will all be singing and dancing even if we don't have a speaking part.

Once the chart was made we got to go and work on our dioramas.  Most of us are finished landscape and are working on buildings.  Some of us have even started working on the animals.  We are using plasticine, paper, cardboard, sand and foil to create our dioramas.

In gym we went out to explore the Whispering Woods again.  Today we discovered lots of ants that were crawling around leaves, wood, trees and even on the buds of the trees.  The ants are helping to open those buds!  We even think we saw some eggs.  We saw some buds on the willow trees that were opening to pussy willows.  We saw some negative impacts of plants and grasses being trampled.   We noticed red mites on some of the trees.  The grade five and six classes are investigating these mites.  We also saw some more crocuses.  Another negative impact was that we saw a tipi that had some burnt wood in it.  We let Mrs. Polski know.

Our helper tomorrow is Payton.

Plant sale is next Friday, May 12 at 10:45 AM. Kindergarten families will be given an opportunity to buy our plants prior to other Dr. Coffin families. We're planning on setting up for our plant sale in the Kindergarten classroom. We will have tomato, cucumber,  zucchini, peppers, basil, and cilantro for sale. Prices will range from 2 to 15 dollars, CASH ONLY will be accepted. The proceeds from our sale will be used by the Kindergarten students (which we will vote on) and for funding our L.G.T. program. 

Whispering Woods Discoveries

This morning when we got to school our desks were changed around.  Once we found where we were sitting we had to meet at the small classroom carpet.  We were excited to see that Jordan was back from here holiday.

This morning our journal work was to finish the writing we had started in our Fresh Air Friday journals on Friday.  Our writing needed to include what we did on Friday that involved data collection for our project and how we did it.  What we noticed and observed and then what we will be the next part of the Yellow Fish Road project and why.

After recess we had word work and the grade twos had solo book time.  We are focusing on the "ock"family this week and our no excuse words are, which, do, she and how.

We had to problem solve a number problem today to get the treasure from the treasure box in math today.  The problem was that we had 288 gold coins and 84 chocolate coins.  How many coins altogether?  Grade twos also had to figure out how many we would get of each coin and everyone had to have the same amount.  The class numbers are 23 in room one and 24 in room 2.  Once we figured out the answer we got to go and get our treasure.  We will share some strategies tomorrow and then have another day to solve it.

After lunch we worked on our dioramas.  We are working on landscape and buildings.

Today was library and we will only be allowed to sign out books till the end of May.  Then Mrs. Kidd has to start collecting all the books back to the library.

For gym time today we got to go to the Whispering Woods and do some exploring in the woods.  We discovered signs of spring such as crocuses and leaves budding out on the trees.  Poorvi and Freya reminded the class to be careful to have a positive human impact by not trampling on the crocuses that are trying to bloom.
 

*Swimming forms will be coming home today.  Please note that the fees for swimming must be paid online via you "My CBE Account", no cash or cheques please.  We will also be needing volunteers to assist with walking to the pool and also in the change rooms.  Parents do not need to sign up everyday but we do need a ratio everyday to walk to the pool.  For this we would need at least 3 additional parents each day besides the school staff.

Storm Drain Data Collection

Today we began the data collection of counting storm drains around some of the streets by our school.  This information will help us determine how many supplies we will need to paint the yellow fish by each storm drain.  This is to help make people aware that what goes down the drains runs straight to the rivers.

We had five groups and each group went to a different location.  We went to Brenner Dr., Barrett Dr., Bannerman Dr., Benton Dr., and Breton Cl.  All together we counted 43 storm drains.  Each group had a map to mark the storm drains and a note taker to record observations.

While we were on our walks we observed that most of the drains seem to be opposite each other on both sides of the street.  We also noticed that they are usually placed where there is a downhill slope or on corners of streets.  We observed a lot of leaf litter, dirt and even rocks and garbage that had gathered around and in some of the drains, especially ones that were close to schools.  Some of the drains had faded fish images and some had ones that looked as if they had been painted more recently.

Next we will determine the amount of supplies we will need and then go and begin our work of marking the drains with yellow fish.

Our helper Monday will be Solomon.

Thursday, May 4th

Our day began with our guided reading and centers.  We continued with our story writing we now that so many of us have moved on to writing our stories we included an editing checklist to use when we finish our story writing.   We have to check it first and then we check it with a friend.  Once we have done that we are allowed to go and share it with a grown up for the final editing.  Once we have done that we are allowed to start typing our story.

Today was our last day of treasure math.  If we are still not finished we can still finish up during center time in the morning.  Maybe we will get a treasure next week...

This afternoon we worked on our dioramas adding more to the landscape and some of us began working on buildings.   We went outside for gym and when we got back inside we had a fire drill right in the middle of Maria's sharing.  Maria got to finish sharing about her cat when we came in.  Then Payton did some sharing that she had worked on last night about good manners.  We needed to have a conversation yesterday about what good manners look like at school and when we are together at the carpet.  We  didn't get a chance to finish the conversation but we will next week.

Tomorrow is Fresh Air Friday.  We will begin our work of planning our yellow fish road project by going to see how many storm drains we would have to paint in the nearby streets.  These small fish paintings will remind people that they need to be mindful about what goes down the drains.

I'm Back...

Mrs Hamby was back again today after being away sick since Monday afternoon.  Sorry there have been no Blog postings since last week.

This morning we began our day with centers and guided reading.  Our center this week is to choose a fancy coloring page about Canada and color it using either pencil crayons or crayons, paying attention to the shading and highlighting of various colors.  Mrs. Hamby found this fancy coloring book at Chapters with all these symbols of Canada for its 150th birthday.  It goes with all the things we have been learning about Canada this year.

After centers we worked on our story writing.  We have different stations and we are all at different spots.  Most of us have finished planning now.  The other stations are writing my story, editing my story, sharing my story with a grown up, typing my story, illustrating my story.

After word work we had our second last day of treasure math.  Next week we will be moving on to a new unit, number operations.

This afternoon we worked on the landscape of our dioramas.  We didn't have much time today but we we will have more time tomorrow.  We are using our highlighted lists to create first, the things we had indicated that we would include.

In gym today we tried playing King's Gold again.  We are having trouble playing this game because there seems to be a lot of arguing, cheating and poor sportsmanship.  We will take a break for a little while from this game and play some other games.

Today in music we practiced our "Secret Assembly songs" and learning the words so that we can sing them without looking at the lyrics.  We also played a game called Four Corners.  We had music today, since Ms. Stephure will be away tomorrow at the outdoor school camp.

Our helper tomorrow is Maria.