Spelling Words (Week of Dec. 7)

 Spelling List A (Dec. 5 – 12)

food	cool	room	poor	sooner
troops	scoop	moose	igloo	rooster

 

Spelling List B (Dec. 5 – 12)

doomed	proof	maroon	bamboo	gloomy
lagoon	moonlit	raccoon	cartoons	seafood

 

Spelling List C (Dec. 5 – 12)

school	smoothly	loosen	tycoon	cocoon
ballroom	mushrooms	soothing	foolish	typhoon

Easier words this week. Just because it's almost Christmas.

Good luck!

Friday, December 5

 Hi parents,

We had another pretty good day today. We spent most of the morning working on the art project we started earlier in the week, and many students are finishing up their good copies now. I'm really enjoying reading the names they've come up with for their artwork.

We had the spelling quiz but I haven't had a chance to mark them yet.

In math, we did another one of those 'math mash-ups', where symbols represent different values and students have to figure out each one.

In Gym we played 'Mario Kart'.

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, December 4

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, we did the next step of our art project, in which the students started to plan their own art pieces, based on the ones they'd studied yesterday. Some students have even started on their actual good copies.

We had a cursive lesson, Music, and a French lesson, in which we learned a few simple Christmas-themed words, as well as the essential word/phrase 'c'est', meaning 'it is'. 

We did Daily LA, and in the afternoon we had a great discussion about charity and volunteering, and homelessness. 

Tomorrow is our Spelling Quiz! The words are hard, so practicing once more at home might be a good idea.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, December 3

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! Sorry for the lack of blog yesterday, I had some meetings after work. 

Yesterday was not such a good day but the students really got their act together together. I told them things are going to be a bit more strict for a little while, and I think today they really took that to heart and started putting their best effort in.

We're starting personal art projects, inspired by the TREX display in our library. Each student in the class has chosen one piece that 'inspires' them. We've analyzed the artwork and made observations about the colours, mediums, emotions, and messages. Students are then going to create their own piece of art, using a medium of their choice (within reason), that is inspired by the original piece. They will then explain how their creation was inspired by the other art piece.

In math, we're still working on subtraction. Its getting more and more advanced though. We've started looking into regrouping over multiple zeros. The stamp game, once again, is enormously helpful for this.

We've looked deeper into 'volunteering' and 'charity', and read a couple books that gave great examples of children who created their own charities. We also talked about simple things we can all do to volunteer - shovelling snow, helping around the house, or reading with a younger child are all great examples.

Our Spirit Week is coming up soon-ish! See the post below for more info.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, December 1

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! In the morning, the students did a descriptive writing task, where they wrote about the 'perfect day in December'. For each part of the day, they were asked to include at least one or two interesting descriptive words, whether they were describing the weather, the snow, hot chocolate, blankets, or anything else that they felt a perfect day in December should feature.

We went over this week's new spelling words, and discussed the 'oi' sound.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then talked about two important words - 'charity' and 'volunteering'. The students attempted to brainstorm examples of each. I say attempted because virtually nobody was able to come up with anything beyond the Terry Fox Run! Tomorrow, we're going to talk more about charities, and ways that people, even children, can volunteer. I was surprised that nobody wrote 'volunteer for field trips' after our Spark trip last week! 

Parents - it would be awesome if you talked with your child about volunteer / charity causes that you may personally be involved with, or help them remember times they volunteered or raised money for a good cause. Because there seemed to be some mental obstacle that the class couldn't get past today with their brainstorming. I know they know more about volunteering and charity than our work today would suggest. :)

Have a nice night!

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of Nov. 30)

 Spelling List A (Dec. 1 – 5)

oil	join	foil	avoid	soil
boiled	oink	point	moist	toil

 

Spelling List B (Dec. 1 – 5)

spoil	toilet	poison	boiler	pointy
devoid	hoist	noise	voice	asteroid

 

Spelling List C (Dec. 1 – 5)

paranoid	turmoil	tabloid	choice	rejoin
choir	Oilers	endpoint	noisy	sirloin

The theme this week is -oi. The words on List B and C are especially hard this week, in that they have unusual letter combination and they're likely unfamiliar to most kids. Extra practice at home would go a long way!

Good luck!

Wednesday, November 26

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today, even though the class ended up in listening club again. The work in the morning was fantastic. The listening in the afternoon was.... C+.

In the morning, the students worked really hard to finish up subtraction worksheets, spelling sentences, and their "Dear Res" letter rough copies. We started working on those yesterday. The students had written letters to Res, the Mars Rover, before, but this time they're helping him to prepare for his journey to Mars, or another planet. The students are bringing in info from their planet research to make letters than are friendly and engaging, but also full of factual information.

We had Music and Gym in the morning too.

In the afternoon, we did Quiet Reading, and then went to the library to check out the cool art pieces which our school has borrowed for a few weeks. Many students did an awesome job using all the time they were given to ponder the artwork, and even sketch their own versions of it.

Due to conferences being tomorrow evening and Friday (please book if you haven't already!), tomorrow is our last day of school this week, which means our spelling quiz will be tomorrow.

We are also having a quick math check-in, which students don't need to study for, but it will help me figure out where we're all at with addition and subtraction.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Caroling at LBS

 Mark Your Calendars!

The last week of December we will be caroling in the gym. We invite parents who are interested to come and sing along with us. Due to the size of our gym, we are allocating certain days to grade teams. Space is limited. 

Wednesday, December 17 8:30: AM Kinder and grade 3-4 parents  

Thursday, December 18 8:30: grade 1-2 parents 

Friday, December 19 8:30: PM Kinder and grade 5-6 parents 

Please note: this is not a performance, this is an opportunity to sing with us.  Students will be gearing up for a special Spring Event performance on April 23rd. 

Monday, November 24

 Hi parents, 

We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, the students just wrote about their weekends - we haven't done a classic 'weekend journal' in a long time (since September I think!) so it was cool to see the progression. We also reviewed conjunctions, and why you usually can't start a sentence with 'and'.

In math, we looked at subtraction with regrouping across zeroes. Using the stamp game, of course. This is another tricky algorithm to grasp, but when students are able to physically model the regrouping process using the materials, it makes it a little easier.

We went over this week's spelling words, and the 'oa' vowel team.

In the afternoon, we watched the short film 'Hewn' (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjLC5ky94ns) and had some cool discussions around it. It's a very artsy little film. There are a lot of ways you could interpret it, which makes it a great introduction to the idea of art / stories having both figurative and literal meanings.

Parent Teacher conferences are on Thursday and Friday this week, please book a spot if you have not already done so. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Our interactive Wayside School Display is finally all finished, and will be up for Conferences!

Spelling Words (Week of Nov. 21)

 Spelling List A (Nov. 21 – 27)

road	soap	toads	soar	hoax
foamy	coal	oath	soaked	loaned

 

Spelling List B (Nov. 21 – 27)

boarded	boast	toasty	coach	cloaked
loath	floating	hoarding	shoal	oaky

 

Spelling List C (Nov. 21 – 27)

throat	loaves	coarse	groaned	bloated
roasting	coastal	goatee	roadway	rollercoaster

The theme this week is 'oa', with a bit of a sub-theme of '-ed' and 'ing' endings. 

I'm also hoping the students can expand their vocabularies a bit using words like 'hoax', 'loath', and maybe even 'oaky' for those future wine connoisseurs. 

Friday, November 21

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. The spelling quiz went really well, although I forgot to hand them back after I marked them.

In writing, we did one last conjunction / compound sentence writing activity, in which students were given a simple sentence, and asked to end it in five different ways, using different conjunctions.

For example:

The kitten went to school,

 -but he didn't learn anything.

 -although he would rather have stayed home.

 -because he snuck into his owner's backpack.

and so on.

I'm hoping that all this work with compound sentences will help students expand on choppy, short sentences and make their writing flow a bit better.

In math, we did some toilet-themed algebra problems. The kids had a lot of fun with these and many chose to keep advancing through increasingly difficult problems, even after completing the required work.

In Gym we had some games of Pillow Polo, and the class showed great effort and sportsmanship, while also playing safely.

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac