Thursday, December 22

 Hi parents,

We had a fantastic day today that was truly filled with joy and holiday spirit.

The students had a great time carolling, exchanging cards, and engaging in various academic activities. We also finished watching The Muppet Christmas Carol, and reading Trapped in Transylvania.

Thank you all for your support and kindness this year. It has been an amazing year so far. And the second half is usually even better than the first. :)

Have a wonderful Winter Break!

Zac

PS:Canyon Meadows Cinema is showing Elf and The Grinch (new animated version)!

https://www.canyonmeadowscinemas.ca/

Wednesday, December 21

 Hi parents,

We had a really awesome day today. I was ready to give the students a nice, short morning work period, but they were so focused that we actually ended up extending it to 90 minutes! 

We had full-school carolling at 9:30, and then ate snack and watched the next part of The Muppet Christmas Carol. The students are pretty into it now, which is great because its such a powerful story. We have about 20 minutes left to watch tomorrow - the big finish. 

In the afternoon, the students went to Music, and then we did Daily LA.

We ended our day with a cubby clean-out. 

We have only one chapter left in Trapped in Transylvania. So it looks like we'll be finishing our "Halloween novel" just in time for Christmas.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. The students seemed a bit more at peace with the fact that we were stuck in the classroom all day.

In the morning, we did addition, subtraction, and multiplication colour-by-numbers. We also worked on yesterday's writing task and spelling practice.

We watched the next chunk of The Muppet Christmas Carol, and learned more about Scrooge's childhood. We talked about how a good storyteller (like Charles Dickens, for example) can establish a character as "bad", or "unlikeable", and then change your impression of them. At this point, now we're all rooting for Scrooge to see the error in his ways.

We learned about Hanukkah through a book on Epic, and did some Christmas themed art.

In the afternoon we had a great round of Daily LA, read Trapped in Transylvania, and worked on Christmas Cards.

Spontaneous Christmas carolling has been happening during the work period. It is truly a magical time in Room 4.

We only have two days left of school! Tomorrow is "Grinch Day", and Thursday, is a Pajama Day. However, this is also a great time of year to do cubby clean-ups, so it may be helpful to send a bag or two with your child tomorrow as they will likely be taking home a lot of work and other miscellaneous cubby items.

Have a nice night!

Zac

Monday, December 19

 Hi parents,

Today was a bit of a crazy day, understandably, as the kids were cooped up inside all day, our gym is being painted so we can't do PE there,  and its the last week before Christmas. That being said it was still a pretty good day. 

The students did some great work with writing about their favourite Christmas / holiday movie. We started watching "The Muppet Christmas Carol", which is kind of an annual classroom tradition for me. I know some students have already seen at it home, or last year if they were in my class, but I feel like it's such a powerful and meaningful story that it helps to watch it more than once. I noticed students seemed more engaged in our discussion afterwards, and I think that comes as a result of them having a stronger understanding of plot and characters.

In math, we talked about 'times tables' and 'fact families', and how they can help us with multiplication. Take the problem 3 x 11 for example. That's a pretty though one. But, 3 x 10 is a pretty easy one. So we can use 30 as a starting point, and then just add one more group of 3 to find the answer to 3 x 11. 

In the afternoon, we had Music, indoor gym, and Daily LA. We are almost done reading Trapped in Transylvania. I don't know how I had it in my head that we could read it the week of Halloween. Maybe I need to read faster.

Have a nice night!

Zac

PS: Don't forget about our Holiday Spirit Week!

Spelling Words! (Last week of school of 2022!!!)

 Spelling List A (Dec. 18 - 22)

Been	Goes	These	Would	First
Elves	Roof	Snowy	Presents	Giving

 

Spelling List B (Dec. 18 – 22)

Shall	Today	Warm	Eight	Better
Christmas	Merry	Jolly	Icicle	Sleigh

 

Spelling List C (Dec. 18 – 22)

Reindeer	Santa Claus	Happiest	Celebrate	Hanukkah
Kwanzaa	Blizzard	Sub-zero	Banquet	Charitable

When the teacher gives "fun spelling words" on the last week of school

Friday, December 16

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today, just the kind of day we deserved after a wonderful Winter Concert.

We raised $700 for AARCS!

In the morning, we had our Spelling quiz, most of which I was able to mark and hand back today, and we went outside for gym. 

We did Daily LA, and played the full class math game "Classroom of Doom", which now officially features multiplication. 

The students worked in groups with I-pads to learn as many French words as they could that are related to Winter and the holidays. 

We talked about the 'arrays' strategy, which can be used to solve multiplication problems. This basically involves using columns and rows to represent multiplication equations.It is a great way to represent multiplication problems because it lends itself nicely to the concept of 'area', which we will be covering later in the year!

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words (the last spelling words of 2022!) and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Wednesday, December 14

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty great day today. The students have been awesome with dealing with the unpredictable daily schedules. The concert rehearsals have interrupted the usual flow of our day, but it's definitely been worth it - they're sounding fantastic!

Today the class wrote in their journals about feeling nervous. They had the option to either write about a time they personally experienced feeling nervous, or about why people feel nervous in general, in paragraph form.

We had a math lesson on the Montessori Bead Chain material. You have probably noticed the bead chains if you've ever been in a Montessori classroom. They're very colourful and hang in a large cabinet. The bead chains are used mostly for skip-counting, which means they can also be helpful when learning multiplication! 

We talked about how skip-counting is another great strategy for multiplication. If you're looking for some introductory, confidence-booster multiplication problems to try at home, try anything involving 2's, 5's, or 10's. Most students are pretty confident counting by these numbers, so even a problem like 8 x 10 can be solved pretty easily. This is a great way to help students realize that a lot of multiplication can actually be done mentally, and they can save themselves time. 8 x 10 is very tedious to solve using noodles and bowls.

In the afternoon, we did two rounds of Daily LA. We also started working on a new classroom math game, called Dungeon Dice. It's like a beginner version of Dungeons and Dragons, but with student-created monsters, and even more opportunities for addition and multiplication practice.

The Winter Concert, and our AARCS fundraiser, are both tomorrow! Remember to bring $3 if you'd like to buy dog or cat treats. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, December 13

 Hi parents,

We had a bit of a crazy day today. Energy levels were high, and we spent most of the morning rehearsing for the Winter Concert , preparing dog and cat treats, and making promotional posters for them. We will be selling dog and cat treat bags for $3 on December 15 - at the Winter Concert in the evening, and during the dress rehearsals.

In the afternoon, we did a Cubby Clean-out, went outside for Gym, and did a lyric study on the song "Snoopy's Christmas".

The students did an awesome job with multiplication this morning - we're going to get into the challenging stuff a lot faster than I thought!

Have a nice night!

Zac

Monday, December 12

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty great day today. In the morning, we met with our buddies and started working on our AARCS Dog & and Cat Treat charity project. Some students helped with mixing ingredients, while others worked on posters to promote the fundraiser. 

When we got back to class, we talked about the -able suffix, and brainstormed examples of words that contain it. The class practiced their spelling words.

We did a very open-ended journal writing task today in which the students brainstormed a wide variety of topics to write about as an alternative to writing about their weekends.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA and gym, and then learned the "Noodles and Bowls" multiplication strategy. We are officially starting to learn multiplication! The students already seem to have a pretty good handle on it - I'm wondering if being in Grade 2/3 split classes helped expose them to a lot of the concepts, even though they weren't explicitly learning it? 

Anyway - "Noodles and Bowls" is the most basic, reliable multiplication strategy I know of. Basically, you take an equation like ' 3 x 4 = ', draw three circles (bowls), then put four tallies (noodles) in each one, then count them all up. While not the most efficient approach to multiplying, it does create a very clear visual of the process, and helps students to understand what multiplication really is.

Over the course of the week we'll be introducing other strategies like skip-counting, repeated addition, and drawing arrays. Any practice you do at home will undoubtedly be helpful too. Learning times-tables is a good way to practice too, as long as students still understand the processes behind those tables.

The Winter Concert is on Thursday, at 6pm. If you need extra tickets, please email the office. If you will not be able to make it to the concert, please let me know and consider sending your tickets back for another family to use. :)

Have a nice night!

Zac

Calling All Volunteers - Urgent!

 

Calling All Volunteers - URGENT!

The Lake Bonavista School Improvement Society has been allocated a Casino Fundraiser December 17th and 18th at the Deerfoot Casino. We are in urgent need of voluteers to fill all of the positions. If you are able to help we would appreciate your support. We have 5 open positions and would also love to have some back up volunteers ready to go. The Signup Genius link is below: 2022-2023 Parent Volunteers: Deerfoot Casino - Lake Bonavista School (signupgenius.com)  You can also contact Crystal at lbsvolunteercoordinator@gmail.com for more information. Thank you!

Winter Concert Tickets

 Hello LBS families:  

  

Our Winter Concert is almost here!    

  

-Students in the 6:00 show need to be here at 5:40 pm Dec. 15 - doors will open at 5:40 pm 

-Students in the 7:30 show need to be here at 7:10 pm Dec. 15 - doors will open at 7:10 pm 

  

-Winter Concert Tickets are being sent home with your oldest or only student today  

  

-You need to bring the tickets to the concert with you, due to fire code capacity requirements of our gym we will be checking and collecting all tickets  

  

-every person attending the concert requires a ticket including babies and small children  

  

-if you receive tickets and are not able to attend, please send back to school with your child     

  

-if you are successful in securing tickets from the waitlist, they will be sent home at a later date  

  

Thank you! 

 

Julie Kawchuk  

Spelling Words (Week of Dec. 11)

 Spelling List A (Dec. 11-16)

Always	Because	Does	Upon	Into
Able	Table	Unable	Stable	Fable

 

Spelling List B (Dec. 11 – 16)

Keep	Myself	Own	Together	Try
Mixable	Lovable	Durable	Curable	Disable

 

Spelling List C (Dec. 11 – 16)

Sociable	Likeable	Washable	Usable	Portable
Valuable	Habitable	Favourable	Available	Fixable

There are multiple accepted spellings for some of the words on List C - American and British English will both be accepted!

We will be continuing our discussion of suffixes and talking about how adding -able to the end of a word can change its meaning, but also that sometimes you have to drop the 'e' to do it. I think this will be a challenging week for spelling but a valuable learning experience!

Friday, December 9

 Hi parents,

We had a really fun day today. It was Mr. Ripka's last day for a few months so we wanted to make it special.

In the morning, the students finished up work from earlier in the week (we had six big tasks this week - that's a lot!) and then we had our spelling quiz.

We had a fun 'history lesson' about technology from when me and Mr. Ripka were young, and the students got to experience the joys of Nintendo 64. We played a Mickey Mouse racing game and talked about how much the graphics, controls, and consoles have progressed over time, but also how the fun has remained the same. At maximum fun level.

The students wrote paragraphs giving advice to Mr. Ripka and sharing thank-yous. We assembled a little book for him to take with him into his second semester.

We read Trapped in Transylvania, and also talked about our upcoming AARCS fundraiser. Thank you to everyone who donated ingredients! Your contributions were a huge help - we only have to buy a few things now, and then we'll be ready to make some dog and cat treats next week.

With everything going on today, I unfortunately didn't get a chance to mark the spelling quizzes, but I will do that now and send them home for Monday. Thanks for your patience :)

Have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, December 8

 Hi parents,

Today we finally finished testing out the math board games. Many students have requested that their games be laminated, so they can bring them home and play them with you. I'm going to try to get that done tonight.

We learned more about Ukraine today, and watched a video of kids trying a variety of traditional Ukrainian dishes. Some of them looked pretty tasty, others looked pretty interesting. 

Ukrainian Dance

Ukrainian Puppets

Kids Try Ukrainian Food

The class started to write about what aspect of Ukrainian culture interested them the most, but we were interrupted by a fire drill, and very few of them were able to finish their work.

In the afternoon we had Music, played floor hockey in gym, and then did Daily LA after recess.

At the end of the day, I sent home tickets for the Winter Concert.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz, and also Mr. Ripka's last day - for now! He'll be back in March!

Have a nice night,

Zac

LBS Holiday Spirit Week - Coming Soon!

 

Wednesday, December 7

 Hi parents,

We had another great day today!

In the morning, we went to Gym with our buddies and played Dr. Dodgeball.

Then, after snack, Mr. Ripka taught an awesome lesson about traditional Ukrainian dance. We learned about the origins of the clothing worn by Ukrainian dancers from different parts of Ukraine. Mr. Ripka even brought in some authentic dance clothing and showed the class some moves!

The students read the book "The Mitten Tree" and worked on a special project with Ms. Rooke and Ms. Durnford.

After lunch, we read a book called "Plants We Wear", and then the students designed their own 'plant-based' outfits that would be worthy of a Parisian fashion show. They even gave each item of clothing a price, and added them all up to determine the cost of the outfit. It was an art, science, french, math mashup lesson (those are rare!) and the class did an awesome job with it.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, December 6

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today!

In the morning, we watched this video about Ukrainian dance and puppets. Ukraine is one of the four countries we're learning about for Grade 3 Social Studies. While we may touch on current events in Ukraine, our main focus will be the culture, traditions, food, celebrations, and geography. Mr. Ripka has even brought in some traditional Ukrainian dance clothing and will be teaching the students a few moves soon :)

Students who did not get to test their board games out yesterday got to test them today. It was really interesting to talk with groups and hear their self reflections about things that worked and didn't work. They seem really eager to make revisions, rather than feeling embarrassed about missing things or upset that their games may not have been perfect the first time they tried them.

In the afternoon, we had Music, Gym, and Mindfulness. The class also wrote sentences using -ly adverbs, and even acted out some of them.

Have a nice day,

Zac

Monday, December 5

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good Monday today. In the morning, the students wrote in their journals, either about their weekends, or about their Christmas / Winter traditions. Students also had time to finish working on their money board games.

After writing, we had an opportunity to actually test out the board games, which for the most part went quite well! It was a great experience whether or not the games were fun / playable. I'm hoping the students have a chance to make adjustments accordingly.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA and gym, and also had a spelling lesson on the -ly suffix. We had a discussion that was pretty interesting as we noticed that -ly can also be added to certain nouns to create adjectives, as well as being able to turn adjectives into adverbs. For example, take "man" (noun), turn it into "manly" (adjective), which could hypothetically be turned into the bizarre made up adverb manlily to describe an action done in a manly way. Maybe there's a reason that word doesn't exist.

Art Cards were sent home at the end of the day! They look fantastic, thank you for all your orders!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words (Week of December 4)

Spelling List A (Dec. 4 - 9)

After	Again	Could	Just	Walk
Sadly	Mostly	Nicely	Weekly	Oily

 

Spelling List B (Dec. 4 – 9)

About	Bring	Drink	Hurt	Laugh
Likely	Easily	Lately	Freshly	Exactly

 

Spelling List C (Dec. 4 – 9)

Nightly	Happily	Angrily	Kindly	Quickly
Urgently	Silently	Carefully	Gravely	Lightly

This week's words focus on the -ly ending, and provide an excellent opportunity for talking and learning about adverbs!

It may be fun to discuss how the words from List C can be used to enhance the way an action is described in writing. 

For example, the difference between the phrases "she said", and "she said urgently", "she said happily", etc. 

Using adverbs can make writing drastically more fun to read.