June 16-20

 Dear Parents,

A few reminders:

All Home Literacy/Decodable Books - Please have your child return these.  We will not be sending any more home for this school year.  Also please library books as soon as possible.

Extra Bag - We want to start sending home items throughout this week - Reusable grocery/shopping bags work great, as they are easier to pack than our regular backpacks.  -Please check your child’s backpack every day.  We will be sending home materials throughout the week next week.

We will also be sending home many items this final week that may still be helpful to support your child with reviewing and maintaining their skills in reading, writing and math over the summer!  

As we head into the final days together, we know this can be a time of mixed emotions for everyone.  Having conversations about how your child is feeling helps them to know they are supported with these changes.  Feel free to reach out as well, if your child is needing some extra support in these final days.    

As we enjoyed our final 5 day week of our school year, we have had some great opportunities to enjoy our days together in some special ways.  In these last weeks of school, we have continued to be engaged in meaningful learning. Here are a few highlights from our fun last full week together!

Wet Felting - City Hall Art

As a last piece of our City Hall School Experience, students created a wool felt art Cityscape of the Calgary Tower.  Students learned about where wool comes from and how it is processed before building their artwork.  The process of creating this art involved stretching the wool to form a background and the downtown buildings. Then, the students spent time using agitation to cause the fibers of the wool to adhere to each other, resulting in their final piece.  

Learning Intentions

Exploration & Expression

• I can explore and use different materials to make art.

• I can create art by shaping and combining fibres.

• I can show my ideas, feelings, or stories through felting.

Technique & Tools

• I can use felting tools safely and carefully.
  I can press, poke, and pull wool to change how it looks and feels.

Design & Composition

• I can choose colours and shapes to make my picture interesting.
  I can arrange pieces in a way that tells a story or shows a pattern.
  
  

Celebrating Indigenous History Month 

On Thursday, we were treated to the Hoop Dancing of Jay Genaille.  Jay shared his journey to becoming an accomplished Hoop Dancer, then wowed us with his dancing!  Students also had an opportunity to ask questions to Jay after his performance.

Learning Intentions

I can participate in a variety of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit physical activities and games.

I can recognize how individual and group characteristics are unique and valued.

Pancake Breakfast and Western Day

Yahoo! Tuesday began with a Pancake Breakfast courtesy of the Stampede Caravan.  After we had our fill of pancakes and did some learning, students along with our grade 4 buddies participated in a variety western-themed activities 

June 9-13

 Dear Parents

This week we continued to explore learning in lots of fun and engaging ways.  Here are some of the highlights from the past week.

Phys Ed - Lacrosse

We had the opportunity to learn from an expert about the game of Lacrosse.  Coach Dan helped us to learn and build our skills around scooping, trapping, partner tossing, overhand toss, and cradling the ball.  We had lots of fun learning these new skills as well as playing a game of What Time is it Mr. Wolf?   

Learning Intentions

Engagement in various types of play supports motivation and confidence in physical activities

Demonstrate a variety of object-manipulation skills.

We also took time this week to come together and learn about Fancy Dancing with Lennon, First Rider, which was a great opportunity provided by Jube School.  June is National Indigenous History Month, so this was a great opportunity to learn more about their culture and understand how they can tell stories through their special dances.  We look forward to our special presentation that we will enjoy with our whole school community on Thursday, June 19.  

Literacy 

We continued to learn and practise reading and writing words with r-controlled vowels.  This week we focused on er and ir/ur spelling patterns.

June 2-6

 Dear Parents:

We have had another amazing week in grade 1.  Students have been focused on working on our Coyote Research Project and our 3D Shape Museum as well.  Thank you for your support in helping your child select a special item to share.  We also enjoyed coming together at the end of the week to celebrate all our talented students at our talent show on Friday.  

Reminders 

-Please return all Library books from the Learning Commons by Monday! 

-We will be beginning an art project on Friday June 13.  Each child is required to have a hand towel or a tea towel for this project.  Please send this with your child by Wednesday June 11.  Thank you in advance for your help.  

-Our Lacross residency will begin on Monday.  Students will be attending two sessions during the week.  On the other days we will have our gym classes outside.  Please make sure your child has appropriate footwear all week to play and run outside.

We are also excited for our Lacrosse Residency this upcoming week.  This means that we will be outside for Phys. Ed when we do not have our time in the gym.  Please help to ensure your child has appropriate footwear for playing outside this week and is dressed for the weather. 

Coyote Research - Literacy/Science 

This week, we dived into learning about Coyotes and how they are connected to us and where we live.  We learned about what it looks like, what its basic needs are, its environment and adaptations.  Each day, we read information and had discussions about a topic.  We then recorded our information in our visual journals to show and represent our learning and understanding.  We have been very interested to learn more each day.  Take a look at some of our work!

Learning Intentions

• I can use organizational tools to record information 

• I can gather information from a variety of different places and sources 

• I can ask questions to identify research topics 

• I can record factual information in various ways 

• I can show an animal in its environment

• I can determine how the local environment meets the basic needs of an animal

Math - 3D Shape Museum 

This week, students engaged in tasks to develop their understanding of concepts relating to 3 D shapes.  We examined 3D objects, found examples of 3D shapes in our city skyline, and as a conclusion to our study, we created a 3D museum of found objects from home.

Learning Intention:

• I can sort and classify 3-D shapes using a variety of attributes.

• I can identify familiar 3D shapes

• I can identify familiar 3D shapes

Literacy

This week we focus on R Controlled vowel sounds.  Please take a look at the home practice to support your child in this learning. 

May 26-30

Dear Parents,

Reminders

-This week, students interested in showcasing their talent performed in front of their peers.  If you child was chosen to share their talent in the School Wide Talent Show, you will have received a permission slip.  Please return that as soon as possible.

-Shape Museum.  This week, we have been exploring 3D shapes.  We will be building a Shape Museum of found objects.  Please watch your email for a request for small everyday items from home for this project.  

Celebration of Learning

Thank you to all those who were able to attend our Celebration of Learning this week.  Students worked in an intentional way these last few weeks to capture their learning in meaningful ways that truly illustrated the depth of their understanding of the places that we visited and connected to in our downtown community. We were so thrilled to welcome a large group into our learning space.  Students also had the opportunity to share with our grade 4 buddies and kindergarten.

Math

This week we have been exploring 3D shapes.  The following is a summary of the key ideas to help support your child’s learning.

Learning Intention

I can identify and describe 3-D shapes, including their faces and where they are seen in the environment.

Which 3-D Shapes Should Students Meet?

Students should have opportunities to see and use cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, and rectangular prisms.

It is important that they see 3-D shapes in different orientations and sizes.

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What Should Students Include When They Describe 3-D shapes?

When students describe a 3-D shape, they can talk about a real item that the shape is like, and they can describe the shape’s attributes, for example,

•	whether it rolls
•	the number and shape of its faces (if it has faces)
•	whether all the faces are the same
•	whether it has very pointed parts

For example, students might describe a sphere as something that looks like a ball, rolls, and reminds them of a circle.

They might describe a cylinder as having two circle faces, having a round part that is not a face, and rolls when it’s on its round part but doesn’t roll if it’s sitting on one of its faces. They might say that a cylinder looks like a can. Some students might notice that a can has ridges that stick up around the circle faces, and actual cylinders don’t.

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What Is an Effective Way to Trace All the Faces of a 3-D Shape?

Students trace all the faces of a 3-D shape to get familiar with how many faces the 3-D shape has and the shapes of those faces. It is hard to keep track of the faces and make sure that you trace them all. To help, students can put a sticker or a sticky note on each face as they trace it.

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Helping Your Child With New Words

There are many opportunities to find and compare items at home that are similar in shape to 3-D shapes. You can help your child remember the names and characteristics of common 3-D shapes by relating them to items in the real world. For example:

Some lumps of sugar are cubes.

Some traffic pylons are shaped like cones.

A tennis ball is a sphere.

This drinking glass is almost a cylinder.

Many boxes are prisms.

Literacy 

This week we have continued to look at word endings.  We focused on Y say E at the end of word and LE at the end of the word.  To help solidify these sounds please take a look our home practice and review these sounds with your child.