Spelling List A
Spelling List B
Spelling List C
Could this be the week the children finally learn how to spell awesome?? Only time will tell....
Friday, October 29, 2021
Friday, October 29
Happy Halloween!
We had a fun day today, but also educational.
In the morning we had the spelling quiz, and the students did a lot better than I had expected - the 'ai' rule seemed to be tricking many of them, even up until yesterday, but today everyone brought their A-game and rose to the challenge.
We did a lot of storytelling today. For social studies, the students listened to the story of the 'Wendigo', which is a spooky Indigenous legend originating in Eastern Canada. There are some really creepy versions of this story but we stuck with a fairly tame one.
We did a reading comprehension / art activity, in which the students read specific sentences about what to add to their haunted house drawings, and where to put them.
The traditional LBS Halloween Parade made it's return this year, and the students got to march around the other classrooms in our cohort and show off their costumes, while Halloween music played over the PA.
The parade was not the only tradition that made it's return - we also watched the Haunted House episode of Magic School Bus! The episode i all about hearing and sound, so the timing could not be more perfect (bats are part of our hearing and sound unit, and we're getting back into soundwaves next week).
We ended the day with Music once again.
Have a nice weekend and a spooktacular Halloween!
Zac
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Thursday, October 28
Hi parents,
Today was a really good day for our class!
In the morning, we did some 2-digit subtraction, listened to the story "How Dogs Became Our Friends", and glued the good copy bat paragraphs into the bat books, which means we are officially finished our bat project! Unfortunately I still need to keep them for report card stuff so the students can't bring them home just yet...
The students spent much of the morning work period working on a haunted house art activity. This task was a lot more complicated than it looks - students had to do a lot of careful cutting, gluing, and sketching, but the end result was fantastic and the kids were so proud of themselves. They were constantly coming up to me and explaining these super elaborate and often somewhat disturbing backstories of their haunted houses, it was a lot of fun.
In the afternoon, we worked in our literacy groups. Some students worked on biography brochures, and others worked on halloween riddles.
In gym, we played a new game called "Bats and Squirrels", in which students try to remove balls from their side of the gym while also being active only during the day (lights on) or night (lights off).
We had Music at the end of the day.
Halloween Celebration Tomorrow!
Tomorrow is our Halloween celebration at LBS, and I know the kids are really excited to wear their costumes to school! As usual, we are asking that students not bring any prop weapons, or wear costumes with blood, guts, etc. If students have costumes that fully cover their faces, we're asking that they not wear the mask portion of it. We are still not allowed to have any treats, sadly.
Have a spooktacular night,
Zac
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
Wednesday, October 27
Hi parents,
Sorry about the lack of blog posts yesterday, I was having some internet trouble.
Today was a good day for our class all around - the students wrote rough copies, and good copies, of paragraphs all about bats. This is kind of our last big bat activity and I was happy to see the kids putting so much effort in! We talked about how neatness, spelling, and content are extra important when writing a 'good copy'.
We did something called a "Math Forum" today, which is basically where students are given a difficult math problem and asked to work in partners to solve it using multiple methods. The point of a Math Forum is to challenge kids to think outside of the box, and approach problems in new ways. The problems we addressed today were subtraction word problems, and I was happy to see that many students immediately used the written 'borrowing' strategy that we've been doing in class. However, I think it's important to realize that there are other ways that work as well, and in some situations, it may be more useful to apply other strategies.
The other purpose of a math forum is to emphasize the importance of clearing explaining how you solved a problem, and illustrating your thought process.
Anyway, today was our first attempt at it, and all around it went pretty well! We'll be sure to try another one soon to see how we can improve.
I told a scary story to the class at the end of the day. Usually the class watches videos of cute baby animals after a scary story to help them relax, but unfortunately the YouTube ads are so long and un-skippable that we didn't get a chance.
Have a nice night!
Zac
Monday, October 25, 2021
Monday, October 25
Hi parents,
Today was a pretty typical Monday in Room 4, not a whole lot to report!
We went to the library, worked on journal writing, practiced spelling words, and continued to work on subtraction in math. When writing, the students have started to underline words they're unsure of how to spell, to make their editing easier later.
We watched a cool episode of Molly of Denali that taught the students about the adaptations of huskies, and the importance of radio communication in remote northern communities.
In the afternoon, we had a sub-par Daily 5 session and had to regroup, discuss expectations, and give it another go. The second time was much better.
We finished reading Wayside School! The last two stories were Stephen and Louis, and both were great.
Raz-Kids has been renewed at LBS!
Just a reminder, to access Raz-Kids at home:
1. Go to https://www.raz-kids.com/
2. Click 'kids login'
3. Enter my username: zlink
4. Find your name and enter password (I can provide / change these if anyone forgets)
There are lots of exciting things happening at LBs in the near future:
Upcoming Dates:
Friday, October 29: Halloween at LBS
-Costumes encouraged, no weapons, blood, etc.
-Still no treats allowed, sadly
Nov. 2: Photo Retake Day
Nov. 4: Moustache Day
Nov. 11: Remembrance Day (no school) and...
also Nov. 11: Freezer Feastival Orders due
Have a nice night,
Zac
Friday, October 22, 2021
Friday, October 22
Hi parents,
We had a great Friday today! The class dojo store was a big hit and I'm sure it was the highlight of the day for many students.
We started our day with some math problems and the spelling quiz. I'm thrilled by how quickly the students are grasping the concept of borrowing in 2-digit subtraction problems.
The class listened to the story of the cougar for Social Studies, and drew pictures to show their understanding of it. I'd be curious to see how well they could retell these stories at home. We've talked a lot about how in traditional communities, stories would be told over and over again, year after year, and that's how every member of the community would become familiar with them, even the children.
In science, we watched a great video that explained the meaning of the word 'mammal'. It was actually really interesting and I think it might be a good one to watch again at home, so here's where you can find it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqsK0VhcL8o
Then, using their new knowledge of what it means to be a mammal, the students wrote 5 different endings for each of these sentence starters:
-Bats can...
-Bats are...
-Bats have...
We did Daily 5, and then it was time for the Class Dojo Store. Our recent work around subtraction made the whole thing go a lot more smoothly, as students were able to independently subtract the points they were spending from the points they had earned, and determine how many they would have left over. Students had the option to buy a variety of dollar store items.
Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice weekend!
Zac
Thursday, October 21, 2021
Thursday, October 21
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good pajama day today - things were a bit loud at times, understandably, but all around the day was a big success.
In the morning, we worked on more 2-digit subtraction problems and practiced spelling words for the quiz tomorrow.
We read the indigenous story "The Eagle and the Linnet", and the students drew pictures and discussed their thoughts on it. I've really been enjoying telling stories to the class - it's a nice break from Molly of Denali and it's cool to see that kids are just as engaged by storytelling as they are watching videos.
We are just about finished with our bat projects - today, the students wrote their own definitions of various bat-related terminology, such as 'hibernate', 'wingspan', 'nocturnal', and 'echolocation'.
We had a practice Lockdown today, and spent a fair bit of time this morning just hiding quietly in Ms. Greenhall's room. The police officer said we did a great job.
Tomorrow is our Spelling Quiz, and since this has been yet another 4 day week, the students have not has as much time to practice as usual. Any extra practice at home is always appreciated!
Have a nice night,
Zac
PS: Thank you to everyone who placed scholastic orders and included our class code - you've helped our class raise money that we can put towards new literacy games, math resources, and story books!
Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Wednesday, October 20 (Pajama Day Tomorrow)
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today! There were moments of craziness but the students always did a great job of reigning it in.
In the morning, we read the story "The Rainbow Crow", and talked about the importance of oral storytelling to First Nations peoples. We also talked about how storytelling is cool because you'll never tell the story the exact same way twice - even tiny, subtle changes are bound to occur, and over time, those changes can lead to drastically different stories.
We talked about the difference between a 'fact' and an 'opinion', and the students sorted a series of statements about bats based on which category they fell under. For example, "Bats are creepy", "Bats are scary", and "Bats are interesting" are all opinions about bats, even if many of us may agree with them.
We continued to work on 2-digit subtraction with regrouping, and I am finding it so much easier to teach this year than in previous years! I think the Grade 2/3 split actually lends itself quite well to many of these more complex math concepts. Having a stronger understanding of basic facts and place value makes a big difference.
In the afternoon, we did Daily 5 and Gym, and read an awesome story from Wayside School with a valuable lesson. In the story, Joy steals another student's delicious lunch, eats it, blames her classmates, and gets away with it. The other students are upset of course, but they get over it pretty quickly. Yet for the rest of the school year, every time joy has a delicious lunch, it tastes terrible.
The students shared some insightful comments about how feeling guilty is often much worse than the consequence of telling the truth.
Tomorrow is a school-wide Pajama Day!
Have a nice night,
Zac
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Tuesday, October 19
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today, but it was a basically a Monday, so I don't have too much to write.
In the morning, the students wrote in their journals, did some spelling practice, went to the library, and did some math problems. Today we did some 2-digit subtraction problems, some involving borrowing, which I still believe is the most challenging math concept we cover until Grade 5. It's a long process but if we practice a bit every day I know we'll get the hang of it. Any practice at home will also go a long way! The video below is one I use year after year - hopefully it will get stuck in their heads.
We talked about Bat Life Cycles today. Well, first we just talked about the word 'cycle', and what other kinds of 'cycles' we know about, then we talked about 'life cycles', and finally we talked about the specific life cycle of a bat. The students cut out and glued pictures and words into their bat books to show a bat's life cycle in simple terms. One interesting thing we learned is that baby bats hang off of the mom bat for a few weeks before they are able to fly on their own.
In the afternoon, we had gym, Literacy Group time, recess, and music.
Have a nice night!
Zac
Thursday, October 21: Pajama Day
Friday, October 15, 2021
Friday, October 15
Hi parents,
We had a great day today and got a whole bunch of things done. It felt like a very long Friday, but in a good way.
In the morning, we had the spelling quiz. This week's quiz ended up being much more challenging than usual for many students - I think it will be helpful to review the difference between the -or and -ar sounds next week! There was a lot of confusion around that today, even after practicing the words all week.
The students finally finished adding the 'bats vs. birds' page to their bat booklets.
We did a fun writing prompt in which the class got to write about what I should dress up as for Halloween. I had an awesome time reading their responses. It was surprising how many students thought 'princess' would be a good option.
The students had a couple more opportunities to read their bat journals from yesterday aloud to the class, and almost everyone volunteered to do so.
We did Daily 5 and learned a math game called 'Catch the Ghosts'.
Remember that there is no school on Monday, as it is a PD Day!!
Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice weekend!
Zac
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Thursday, October 14
Happy Crazy Hair Day!
We had a pretty fun day today, that also had some real shining moments of academic brilliance (mostly in the morning - that's usually when those happen).
The students listened to an African folk story called "Why The Bat Hangs Upside Down". Interestingly, despite all of our extensive bat research, I don't think we've actually stumbled across the answer! We talked about how indigenous peoples around the world often used stories to explain natural phenomena, before scientific approaches became popular.
The students did an excellent job completing a "Diary of a Bat" writing task, in which they pretended to be bats, and wrote about a typical 'day in the life'. They turned out so well that many students asked to share their work by reading it aloud to the class. We didn't have enough time for everyone to share today, but we'll have more opportunities tomorrow.
We completed a Crazy Hair Day art project, in which the students used straws to blow paint around on a bald self portrait. That's the best way I can think of to describe it. The picture below will probably help.
Tomorrow is our Spelling Quiz!
Have a nice night,
Zac
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Wednesday, October 13 (Crazy Hair Day Tomorrow!)
Hi parents,
We had a bit of a loud day today.
In the morning, we rearranged the seating plan, and looking back, I think that may have been the reason for the loudness. I let the students know that if they were unable to focus in their new spots, they'd be in different spots tomorrow. Since the whole day was louder and less orderly than our usual standard, the seats will unfortunately have to move again. I hope the class sees this change as an opportunity to make new friends, and I hope everyone will be able to focus a bit better in new places. The students will still have plenty of opportunities to socialize at recess, during gym, and during snack.
The highlight of today may have actually been the math quiz, which was a huge success! The students worked independently and demonstrated a great understanding of Place Value. I'll be sending the quizzes home tomorrow.
In science, we reread Stellaluna, and talked about the similarities and differences of birds and bats. The students created Venn diagrams to capture their ideas.
In the afternoon, we worked in Literacy Groups, went to Gym, and had Music. In gym, the class had a lot of trouble with cleaning up, as the temptation of hula-hooping was too much for many to overcome. We ended up having a full class "Listening Club" during recess, which lasted 5 minutes and consisted of me explaining the importance of listening, and how to politely remind other students to follow instructions.
The class was not too happy about that, but I'm sure we'll be able to do much better tomorrow. :)
On second thought, maybe not, as tomorrow is crazy hair day at LBS! Please remind students at home as this event was not particularly well advertised at school.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Crazy Hair Day - Thursday, October 14
(not on the weeknd)
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Tuesday, October 12 (Place Value Quiz Tomorrow!)
Hi parents,
I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend - based on the students' journal entries, it sounds like it was a pretty good one!
Today was a good day for our class. The students wrote in their journals, practiced spelling words, worked on some 2-digit addition problems, and continued working on their bat books.
This time, our focus was on adaptations, and the many unique ones that bats have. I am so happy every time the word 'echolocation' comes up in a class discussion.
We did some quiet reading, worked in Literacy Groups, and read "Stellaluna".
Tomorrow we are going to try our first ever math quiz, on the topic of Place Value. Just like with our spelling quizzes, the purpose of tomorrow's quiz is to help students capture their current learning, and build some test-taking skills that will certainly come in handy down the road. The quiz is not worth stressing over but taking the time to review the 'ones', 'tens', and 'hundreds' places may help students go into it with even more confidence.
Please send back your ADMazing Savings Coupon Books!
Have a nice night!
Zac
Upcoming Dates:
We have some School-wide Spirit Days coming up...
Thursday, October 14: Crazy Hair Day!
Thursday, October 21: Pajama Day
Friday, October 8, 2021
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Thursday, October 7
Hi parents,
We had a good day today although it seemed a bit louder than usual.
In the morning, we learned about 'the first Thanksgiving', did the spelling quiz, and then did some Thanksgiving writing. Students wrote their choice of a paragraph or a poem about Thanksgiving.
We had a good talk about not rushing through work, and instead, using every minute of the Work Period to find ways to make their work even better. I asked the class to think of Work Period like "electronics time". If your parents give you 20 minutes to play video games, do you just finish one level? Or do you use all 20 minutes to do as much as you can? I know Work Period is not quite as fun as electronic time (although some students claim it's actually more fun), but I hope the analogy will help the class moving forward.
Anyway - after the talk, the students actually did a fantastic job of finding ways to enhance their work, and I think for a lot of students, this was their biggest writing success of the year!
We continued to learn about bats and work on our bat projects. Today, the students labelled bat diagrams. Did you know that bats have really long fingers? Or that most 'megabats' actually have pretty good eyesight, and don't use echolocation?
In the afternoon, we worked in Literacy Groups, played Kickball in Gym, and went to Music.
Please send back your ADmazing Coupon Books / Payment if you have not already done so!
And have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Zac
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
Wednesday, October 6
Hi parents,
Today was a pretty good day for our class.
We've started to work on addition problems that involve regrouping (aka 'carrying the one') and I've been really impressed by how well the students are picking it up! Any 'additional' practice you do at home goes a long way, and I appreciate all the extra work that you do with your children at home. Math concepts like carrying and borrowing are difficult to pick up, and it takes a lot of practice before most students truly feel comfortable applying them.
We continued our Bat exploration, and learned about the two main types of bats - 'microbats' and 'megabats'.
In the afternoon, we did some more Place Value math, worked in our Literacy Groups, did Daily, and went to Gym.
Tomorrow is our Spelling Quiz!
Have a nice night,
Zac
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Tuesday, October 5
Hi parents,
We had another great day today. In the morning, we watched an episode of Molly of Denali called "Culture Clash" in which Molly and her friends learned the meaning of the word 'culture' and disproved some inaccurate stereotypes about their Alaskan community. For example, they don't live in igloos, and virtually never encounter polar bears.
The episode also addressed inaccurate stereotypes about Texas, which sparked some great discussions in our classroom because I think many of those are also frequently applied to Alberta. The class thought it was quite funny that some people may think everyone in Calgary is a cowboy.
We finally got to start working on our "Interactive Bat Book" project! Over the next couple of weeks, the students will be learning all about bats, and creating their own bat books literally packed with information about bats. Today's activity was pretty simple - we brainstormed words that described bats and started with B, A, T, and S. The students glued their words onto the wing of their bat book (pictures below)
The class chose between 3 'batty' writing prompts:
-Write about a time you were upside-down
-Write about a time you were out at night
-Write about a time someone was afraid of you
I had a lot of fun reading the responses, and I think the prompts could be pretty good ice-breakers at a party too.
In the afternoon, we had Gym, Daily 5, Recess, and Music.
I sent home some flyers for Scholastic book orders. Please do not feel obligated to order anything, but if you do, please include our Class Code (RC157953), so we can earn some 'bonus points' for our classroom library.
Have a nice night!
Zac
Monday, October 4, 2021
Monday, October 4
Hi parents,
We had a great Monday today!
In the morning, the students wrote in their journals and practiced this week's spelling words.
We also went to the library and went outside for a nice Fall picnic.
In the afternoon, we had a successful Daily 5 session, and watched a video about hearing, sound, and soundwaves. We had an awesome class discussion about the speed of sound, and how different sounds have different looking waveforms (we're going to do some really cool activities around this concept in the near future!)
We played Statue Tag in gym, and at the end of the day, the students worked on challenging place value worksheets. We're currently in the process of transitioning or Place Value knowledge into 2-digit addition and subtraction problems - that's where it really comes in handy!
Thank you to everyone who has sent back / bought the ADmazing coupon books!
Have a nice night,
Zac
Friday, October 1, 2021
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