Spelling Words! (Week of March 29)

Spelling List A

Stay	Play	Way	Say
Away	Day	Okay	Tray

Spelling List B

Check	Deck	Rock	Sock
Black	Thick	Stuck	Brick

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all doing well! Thank you to everyone who continued to post to SeeSaw over the break - it was so nice to hear from you. :)

I'm still waiting to hear more details about online teaching tomorrow! However, I'm planning to keep doing spelling pretty much the same way as I always have, so here are the words for next week!

Talk to you soon!

Zac

A message from Mrs. Kawchuk

Mrs. Kawchuk has a message for you on her blog.  Please go take a look.  
https://d2l.cbe.ab.ca/d2l/lms/blog/view_user.d2l?ou=6605&ownerId=22024

Wednesday, March 18

Hi parents,

I hope you are all staying happy, healthy, and positive - I know that this week has been a huge adjustment for everyone, and I really appreciate how kind and understanding you have all been. Thank you to everyone who has helped their child to share their work with me via SeeSaw. I have really enjoyed staying in touch this way!

As of this afternoon, I have started working from home, so here is a picture of me in my new "classroom". I had to strategically position the camera to hide the shelves dedicated to my magic cards collection. It's looking like after Spring Break, we will be using Brightspace by D2L for lessons and activities. It looks like a really great program so far! 

We're still waiting for more details on what a day of 'online school' is going to look like. I'm sure you have a lot of the same questions as I do. It feels a bit like the first day of school, in a way. There will surely be challenges to overcome, but just like in September, I know we'll be able to establish new routines and expectations, and pretty soon, we'll all adapt. 

It may not feel like it, but tomorrow is technically the first day of Spring Break! I hope you all have plenty of time to travel, socialize, and relax with family.

Zac

Library Resources

This web page: http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/lakebonavista/teaching-learning/learning-commons-library/resource-list/pages/default.aspx will be updated regularly and is a good resource for commonly used web-based resources.

Hope you are all doing well,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of March 15)

Spelling List A (The Bossy e, part 4!)

Tube	Cube	Cute	Mute
Flute	Brute	Use	Fuse

Spelling List B

Tough	Rough	Laugh	Enough
Cough	Thought

Another exceptionally tough List B this week, and since it's a short week, I thought six words would be enough. Hopefully everyone can get rid of their rough coughs and come back to school for some learning and maybe even a laugh.

Friday the 13th

Hi parents,

We had a very peaceful and quiet day today with only 13 students in class!

In the morning, we had our Spelling Quiz, which was followed by an introductory activity to our upcoming 'boats and buoyancy' unit. In this activity, students used tin foil or paper to quickly construct simple boats. They tested their boats to see if they would float on water and carry a small load. 

When that was cleaned up (which took a while), we played a round of "Settlers of Kanata". The students' communities are coming along quite nicely and advancing technologically too. It's been interesting to see how different groups have prioritized different developments. For example, one group immediately started to build every science-related structure they could, and now their group has almost discovered flight!

It's a shame that conferences had to be cancelled because I know the students would be excited to give you the 'tour' of their community. 

We played a math game called "I have, who has?", which tested the students on their knowledge of basic facts. It took a while to get used to, but the class was pretty into it once they got the hang of it.

Have a nice weekend, 

Zac

Wednesday

Hi parents,

Sorry about the lack of a blog post for yesterday, we have staff meetings at 3:00 on Tuesdays, so it's tricky for me to find time to write the blog. Plus it wasn't a very good day anyway (it was kind of crazy and loud).

Today on the other hand was a good day for our class! The students used their time well during the work period, and did some excellent advice-writing in response to the prompt: "When Mrs. Parkinson retires, she should..." We had a class discussion about 'retirement' too.

The highlight of the day was probably our "Settlers of Kanata" project. The students have clearly gotten the hang of it since our first attempt, and today, I saw more cooperation, more trading, and more strategic planning from all five of our community groups! Today I introduced the idea of the various roles a student can play within a group. I think it is a lot easier to work as a team when each person is given a meaningful job. One student in each group was given the job 'mayor', which basically means that they had the final say in all decisions that their group made. Each day, the group will choose a new student to be the mayor.

I've started to introduce the Grade 1 students to the concept of two-digit addition! This is another one of those things where practicing at home can be a complete game changer for students. We're looking at problems that look like this: 

I am encouraging students to remember to add up the numbers in the ONES column first before moving to the TENS. This is a good habit to get into, because eventually we'll do problems with regrouping (carrying the one). Please practice these types of problems at home if you have time!

Also, speaking of math, Friday is Math Shirt Day. Students are encouraged to wear shirts / clothing with patterns, shapes, and numbers on them.

Student-Led Conferences

Student-Led Conferences are coming up on Thursday, March 19th from 4:00-8:00pm and Friday, March 20th from 8:00am-1:00pm. Each family will sign up for a 30 minute time slot, and 2 families can sign up at the same time. This is a chance for your child to share their learning, rather than having a sit-down meeting with me, so please make sure they attend! We are working on a few things that we are excited to share with you! The conference bookings are now open and you should have received an email from the school earlier this week. Please do not hesitate to call the office or send me an email if you are having trouble with booking a conference.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday

Hello families,

We had a pretty good first day back today. It mostly followed the pattern of a 'typical Monday' but there were a few tings we did a bit differently. Instead of writing only about their weekends, I encouraged the students to respond to a picture prompt from this website: http://www.pobble365.com/. I just found out about it today. There are tons of different thought-provoking pictures which work really well as writing prompts!

In Math this week, I've given the students some word problems. Word problems are, in my opinion, the best way to see whether or not students really understand the math concepts we're covering, particularly in terms of addition and subtraction. It is so important that students can determine whether a questions is asking them to add, or to subtract. I gave them some 'key words' to look for that they can use as clues. For instance, if a question uses the words "left" or "left over", it is almost always a subtraction problem, since it implies that the total quantity has been reduced. If a question uses the words "altogether" or "in total", it is almost always an addition problem, since addition basically asks students to group everything together and count it all up.

Blog Homework:

Create and solve two addition or subtraction word problems involving numbers up to 20. For an added challenge, use numbers up to 100. 

In the afternoon, the students practiced writing sentences using their spelling words. We also had gym, and when we got back, we started our Community Project, which is now called "Settlers of Kanata". It is kind of like a giant, long-term game of Settlers of Catan!

The students must use the natural resources found in their community's landscape to build structures and trade with other communities. The objective of the game is to create a well rounded community with a wide variety of services and developments, while also being respectful of the environment and the First Nations who also make their homes nearby. Our first effort went quite well today! I was impressed by how well the students traded with other groups, and surprised by some of the choices they made. For example, the first building that the students of Cornshine (a prairie community) built was an igloo. Imagine that. An igloo on the prairies. In order to build an igloo, they had to first trade to acquire ice blocks from the Arctic Community, "Snowy Mountains".

Anyway - it seems like it's going to be a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to trying it out again. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of March 8)

Spelling List A (The Bossy e, part 3!)

Vote	Hope	Rope	Hose
Nose	Froze	Stove	Cove

Spelling List B

Graph	Phone	Photo	Phase
Alpha	Morph

Only 6 words on List B this week - I was debating adding in some 'gh' ending words, but I thought that might be confusing. There are just too many ways to make an 'f' sound.

Good luck!

Friday

Happy Friday!

Today was a busy day for our class. We had some work period time in the morning, followed by our spelling quiz, and then I taught the students about the importance of 'trading', especially in early communities. We discussed how in many historic communities, people would trade to get the things they needed. Trading is going to be a big part of our 'community project' (which I am tentatively calling "Settlers of Kanata") so I thought we should talk about it before we get started.

Then, I gave the groups a practice activity, in which they had to trade 'resource cards' with other groups in order to assemble a set of five different resources. They did quite well with this challenge and seemed to enjoy it a lot!

We went outside for gym because the gymnasium is still being used for One World Drumming. This week, we've started each of our outdoor gym sessions with a quick lap around the field. Today the weather was beautiful so there were hardly any complaints. Or maybe it's because everyone is getting in better shape!

We went to the gym to watch the other classes do their drumming performances. By the time that was over, it was time to clean up and head home. :)

Have a nice weekend,

Zac

PS: If anyone has had a poodle-shaped lunch kit or an orange blanket toy arrive at home unexpectedly, please let me know! They have went missing in class recently and I'm wondering if someone may have brought them home by mistake.

Thursday

Hello families,

First of all let me just say thank you to everyone who worked with their child to complete the 'blog homework' from last night! I was so impressed by the bar graphs the students brought in today. :) If you didn't get a chance to complete it yesterday, that's okay - I'll still be awarding the 4 points tomorrow. Plus, I think it's a fun and meaningful way to reinforce the concepts we're learning in class. The students seem to really be enjoying making graphs.

Today we talked a lot about communities, landscapes, and natural resources. I read the students two books that explained what natural resources were and why they were important. The students also learned about the difference between renewable and non-renewable resources. We brainstormed a list of natural resources. Resources will play a big role in our 'Community Project' (which needs a better name), so I'm glad I remembered to give the students some background information first.

In the afternoon, we did Daily 5, and the students learned how to draw hibiscus flowers. This turned out to be pretty challenging, and I overheard quite a few people complaining about how bad their flowers looked. Because of that, I thought it would be good to follow the steps a second time, and see if the flowers looked any better. For the most part, they did! I hope the students built some self confidence and resilience through that process.

At the end of the day we played Classroom of Doom (which is a math game), and Wink Ninja (which is just a regular game). Remember that tomorrow is our Spelling Quiz!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday

Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! The students did an excellent job with their quiet reading time this morning and were able to earn back their Explore and Play privileges for tomorrow. We talked more about how communities, landmarks, and sports teams are often named after specific people, places, or events. Then, I told the students which 'landscape' they would be using to build their own community, and asked them to come up with some potential names for this community, based on the landscape.

By the end of the day, the groups had all come up with great names!

I'm getting ahead of myself though. We did more work around graphing today, and I was happy to see many of the students taking it upon themselves to create their own surveys and corresponding bar graphs during the work period. 

We had Music, Daily 5, and more work period time. We also had some excellent class discussions about mindfulness. 

BLOG HOMEWORK:

I want to challenge the students to count, and graph, the quantities of some items around their house. For example, they could do a graph that compares the number of 'chairs', 'couches', and 'beds' in the house, or something along those lines. Or, for an extra challenge, make a graph of the numbers of spoons, forks, and knives! Since this is a fairly big task, I think I'll make it worth 4 dojo points instead of 2.

Have a nice evening,

Zac 

Tuesday

Hi parents,

We had a decently good day today. There were definitely some moments where everyone was completely on task, working hard, and staying calm, but then there were also a lot of very loud moments, and the students ended up losing a bunch of Dojo points for ignoring the 'sit at the carpet' instruction many times, which in my opinion is one of the easiest ones!

In the morning, we had a discussion about the origins of names of communities and places. We talked about how many neighborhoods in Calgary are named after their geographic landscapes, and many roads and building are named after historic figures. The class was very distracted during this discussion so I'm a bit worried about how much of it sunk in.... if you wouldn't mind brainstorming some other examples over dinner, that would be great.

I'm thinking of names like: "Blackfoot Trail", "Canyon Meadows", "Crowfoot", "Macleod Trail", etc.

In the afternoon, I gave the students a short workbook to practice their graph-reading skills. I feel like all around they did quite well - I think our lessons yesterday helped! The tricky questions continue to be the ones that ask students: "how many more students chose ice cream than cake?" For example.

We went to the Library, had Daily 5, and went outside for Gym. The rest of our day was spent with Work Period!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday

Hi parents,

We had a good day today, mostly comprised of typical Monday activities.

In the morning, the students had Music, worked on their journals, and practiced spelling words. I gave some math lessons to small groups of students during the work period. This week, we are starting to do some work around Graphing. I noticed that the students have struggled with questions that ask them to compare results of a graph, particularly when they involve 'more' or 'less'.

For example - I'm sure that most students in the class could read this graph, and tell you how many students chose each fruit. However, if I were to ask, "How many more students liked apples than pears?", they would have a tough time figuring it out! I'm going to make these types of questions our focus for the week. If you'd like to practice them at home, that could be very helpful too. :)

The rest of our day was spent doing Daily 5, Gym, and work period. That's all I've got for today. 

Have a nice night,

Zac