Getting started...

Hi Room 1 Parents, 

Thank you so much for your support as we work to keep learning moving forward.  I hope that you have had a great spring break with your family as unusual as it may have been.  It would never have occurred to me that a staycation in my own house could be so exciting!  I was able to spend some extra time with my husband and kids, cooking, playing games, puzzling, reading as well as going for extra-long walks with my dog. This is a strange and stressful time for both adults and children so as we move forward with learning please remember that your family’s health, both physical and mental, are most important and our school community is here to support you. Do not hesitate to reach out to me or Mrs. Polski if your family needs anything.  

Moving forward our learning plans will be posted on our blog each Friday, with the assignments for the following week. We hope that by providing this on Friday you will be able to work with your child to make a schedule for the upcoming week that works for you. As we get going we will be working to touch base with each student during the week and can also be contacted via email if you have questions, want to share anything with me, or need more suggestions for additional skills practice or activities.  

This week, please work together with your child to send me an email (Dlhamby@cbe.ab.ca). In the email please let me know the following things: 

a.     How are things going? What have you been up to?  

b.     What is your family plan for learning-from-home? When do you think you will do your schoolwork? What challenges do you anticipate you might encounter with learning from home?  

c.     What technology can you use for school (eg. Computer, laptop, iPad, tablet etc.)? Do you have access to the internet? Is your only option a paper-based learning package? 

d.     Do you have access to a printer? 

e.     Are you able to log-in to your Google account? You will use your email address ending in @educbe.ca and your school password (just like logging-in to the chrome books at school).  

Please also continue reading in Raz-kids and practicing your math skills in Mathletics.  

I miss you all and I am excited to start learning together again, even if it is remotely. Take care of yourself and your family.  

Mrs. Hamby 

Fresh Air Friday

Upcoming Dates:

This coming week we will have Karen Gummo working with our class one more time.  Our day is Monday March 16th.

Thursday, March 19th, last day of school prior to spring break.

Friday, March 20th, no school.


Learning Updates:

Fresh Air Friday

Because it was so cold today and many children were absent, we enjoyed a longer Big Buddy time.  We shared books and we played board games together.  We also spent some time working on our Nose Hill animal diagram.  To go along with our animal research we watched a movie about  a family of bears.

Next week we will begin to work on number patterns in math.  In science we will continue with our animal research.  In Literacy we will begin to work on a story response page in our art journals to go along with the work we have been doing with Karen Gummo.

Nose Hill Research and Mural

Dates to Remember:
Math and science curriculum night tomorrow night 5:00 - 7:00.
Come and try some math and science activities together!  


Learning Updates:
This week we have been working to build a mural of Nose Hill.  We are adding the trees, plants and vegetation that we noticed when we were on the hill Friday.  We will be displaying the "Guess Who I Am? animal games, on our mural.  You will be able to try it out when you come to the curriculum night on Thursday.

 In our animal research, we started working on a diagram of our Nose Hill animal.  Once we have accurately colored the picture we will be adding a title and labels to the diagram.

Karen Gummo was with us again today.  She told us a story that goes with the quote, "Every feather is a letter from a bird..."  We had to imagine and share perhaps the secret that the feather may hold.  As a response to the story, we began to work on a drawing to show the bird that left the feather along with the secret it holds.  We are creating a piece in our art journals to share this work.

We hope that you remember to come to our math and science night on Thursday.  It is from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.  Please drop by when it works for you.  We have three different activities for you to try.
We hope that when you come, you will see how much fun it is to learn math and science in grades 1 and 2!

Fresh Air Friday Nose Hill Animal Investigation

Dates to Remember
Karen Gummo continues to work with our classes this week.

Science/math curriculum night, Thursday March 12th, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

Fresh Air Friday, March 13th

Learning Updates

Today we went to Nose Hill! We worked in groups to investigate some of the animals that might live on Nose Hill. Our groups were tasked with finding evidence that our animal could survive on Nose Hill. We took notes and took photos of our evidence. When we got back to the school, we took turns sharing some of our findings. Here are a few of the things we had to say:

We studied porcupines. We saw willow trees that the porcupines would use for food and shelter. ~ Ansif and Zoe 

Porcupines would also eat berries. We found rosehips and buckberries.  ~ Shemuella, Renaud 

We studied hare. We saw rosehips that the hares could eat and we also saw hare tracks. ~ Declan 

We saw a burrow where the rabbits could sleep or hide. ~ Kipling 

We studied red fox. We saw a really good place for a fox to sleep. It was a place that would hard for people to get to. ~ Aaron 

We studied coyote. We saw coyote tracks and we followed them. We enjoyed the view. We also saw a flipped over car! ~ Landon 

We saw a lot of berries and deer track so we know there was food for coyotes. ~ Kais 

We studied red tailed hawk. We say mouse tunnels and tracks. The red-tailed hawk would eat the mice. ~ Finn 

We saw coyote tracks. They would be an enemy or competitor for red tailed hawks because they would eat the same things like rabbits and mice. ~ Max 

We studied lynx. We saw a chickadee that a lynx might want to eat. We also saw bunny tracks. ~ Hank 

We studied the american badger. We found a lot of food prints. ~ Ayaka 

We saw a lot of holes that could be from mice. They would be food for the badger. ~ Chrystal 

We saw lots of coyote tracks and honey. ~ Inaya 

A very big thank you for the volunteers that helped us out today!

Here are a few photos of the morning...

Working with our Story Teller, Karen Gummo, Animal Research

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

FAF this week we will be going to Nose Hill.  Thank you to our volunteers!  We are looking forward to seeing you on Friday to help us do some animal research up on the hill.  We have three volunteers, if you are still interested please let me know.  Please make sure that your child has proper footwear for walking to the hill as well as clothing appropriate for the weather.



Learning Updates:

We were excited to welcome Karen Gummo to our school.  She is a resident oral story teller from the community as well as a previous parent of Dr. Coffin School.  Her work is recognized not only in the school communities but also among the community of writers and story tellers.

She worked with our class on Monday and Tuesday.  Our work with her includes her story telling and then us retelling and creating ways to build deeper understanding as well as developing some of our own story telling skills.  She will be coming again next week.



The first day she told us a story about a Cormorant and an Eider Duck.  It was a story that explains why the cormorant is a silent bird.  Ask me to retell you tis story...  She said at the end of her story that "Every feather is a letter from a bird".  We used our imagination to draw the feathers we pictured in our minds.



The second day, Mrs. Gummo told us a story called, "Granny Raven and Granny Owl", adapted from Ronald Melzack's story.  It explains how the raven and owl got their colors and patterns.  We did a retelling and acting out together of the story and then we each drew part of the story.  Ask me to retell this story to you...



We have been working with our settings and character puppets to tell our own stories.

Working on our own story telling.

In math this week we are working on finishing up our pattern center work.  We have enjoyed working on these centers.  We will be moving on to number patterns when we are finished.

In science this week we found out the animal that we would be researching based upon our choices that we gave.  We also found out who we would be working with to do our research.  We are excited to get started. We will begin by drawing a diagram of our Nose Hill animal.  Ask me what animal I have decided to research.  If you would like to help me find some information that I can bring to school that would also be helpful.

Today we watched a video about the wolves of Yellowstone National Park and how they changed the landscape of the park.  This had to do with the animal food chain.  Here is a link to watch that short video again.

How Wolves Change Rivers