Wednesday, November 6

 Hi parents,

We had a good day today, especially in the morning. The kids worked on their Calgary in Motion workbooks, and answered reading comprehension questions about a separate workbook on the Invictus Games and Remembrance Day.

In math, we played "Classroom of Doom". Multiplication has been added to the game to make it more challenging!

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then wrote sentences for our spelling words.

We ended the day by looking at the data for how students travelled to school. The students made observations about it.

The spelling quiz has been post-poned until next Friday, November 15, just because this week is short, and next week only has two schools days so it would be pointless to start new words.

Tomorrow is our Remembrance Day assembly. Please consider sending a donation with your child.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Friday, October 18

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today with a tiny class. 

In the morning, the students went off in pairs to survey every class in our school about how they got to school today. We're going to go over the data tomorrow and make observations and predictions.

In math, we learned the "noodle and bowls" strategy for solving multiplication problems. This strategy is only slightly less 'concrete' than the Montessori materials, as it involves drawing circles (bowls) to represent groups, and then filling each bowl with a set number of lines (noodles) to represent that quantity of each group. So for example, you could solve 3 x 4 by drawing 3 bowls. adding 4 noodles to each bowl, and then counting up the total number of noodles to find the product.

In the afternoon, the students worked in groups to read, and re-read, specific paragraphs from "Trapped in Transylvania", that really showcased the narrator's personality. For example:

We talked about how the narrator, Devin, is able to take a scary story like Dracula, and actually make it pretty funny.  It'll be interesting to compare Devin's narration style to the one we're about to experience in "Wish Tree" (the narrator is a tree).

We ended the day with Music.

Tomorrow is School T Shirt Day! The Shirts went home today! If your child was away, they can get their shirt tomorrow and wear it on top of whatever else they wore!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, Nov. 4

 Hi parents,

Today we finished reading Trapped in Transylvania! Only two school days behind schedule, that's pretty good. The students were pretty engaged by this book from start to finish and I really enjoyed reading it and talking to them about it.

In math, we worked with the coloured bead bars on multiplication basic facts. The students have definitely got the hang of making groups, and counting up totals, so now we can turn our focus to building skip-counting skills to make the whole process more efficient.

We started talking about remembrance day and how buying and wearing a poppy can help veterans. We also talked about why veterans may need support - the students had a good understanding of the mental and physical trauma that can come from fighting a war, and how these obstacles can make it harder for veterans to support themselves when they come home.

On Thursday, our school is having a Remembrance Day assembly, and all students will be given a poppy. Please consider sending a donation with your child.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Spelling Words! (Week of Nov. 3)

 Spelling List A ( Nov. 1 - Nov. 7)

only	very	many	body	copy
ugly	pony	hazy	city	duty

 

Spelling List B (Nov. 1 - Nov. 7)

cherry	story	enemy	dairy	mercy
weary	abbey	shiny	fancy	really

 

Spelling List C (Nov. 1 - Nov. 7)

thirty	deputy	injury	entity	costly
theory	steady	worthy	guilty	comedy

The theme this week is -y endings. I don't anticipate these words will be very difficult, but each list has at least a couple that students might not be familiar with, so think of it as a vocabulary building opportunity as much as an opportunity to practice an incredibly common spelling pattern.

Good luck!

Zac