March 17-20

Dear Parents

Another week of learning has flown by.  Thank you to everyone for taking the time to connect over parent-teacher conferences.  This helps to set us up for the last few months of Grade 1, as learning really starts to come together at this time of year.  It is definitely an exciting time.  I hope that you have a restful Spring Break and we look forward to seeing everyone on March 31.

Social Studies

This week, we focused on learning more about our city.  We learned about a couple of special landmarks - The Calgary Tower and the Saddledome.  Ask your child about something interesting they learned about these.  We drew a guided drawing of each of these, and then added some important labels and facts.

We also learned about urban communities and what makes these special places.  We did a see-think-wonder with our table groups, writing our ideas together.  We then looked at a picture of an urban place, labeling and making labels for all the different things in an urban community, to help build vocabulary.  

   

We look forward to exploring and learning more about urban communities and our city, especially as we start to prepare and think about our City Hall experience in May. 

Learning Intentions:

I can understand what helps to recognize different communities, such as landmarks 

I can understand what are some familiar landmarks and familiar places in my community 

I can understand why some landmarks are important places in my community

I can understand what are some differences between urban and rural communities 

I can demonstrate a willingness to share and cooperate with others

Grade 4 Buddies

We were excited to find some time to connect with our buddies this week too!  We have been working so hard on our terrible day stories in writing and making our event story into a book.  Our buddies enjoyed listening to our stories and celebrating our learning with us.  

 

Literacy

We continue to build and add additional letter sounds and rules to help increase our reading skills.  This week, we moved to learning about vowel sounds and the special rule of ‘silent e’ at the end of a word and how it changes the vowel sound to say its own name or long vowel sound.  A few extra minutes of daily practise is helpful, as we help build these new skills each week.  

March 10-14

Dear Parents,

Reminders

• Please remember to book conferences to discuss your child's learning.  Conferences will be held Thursday, March 20 and Friday, March 21.

• Please check your child’s backpack or folder for their folder.  Here, you will find a sample of their writing.  The folder will need to be returned on Monday so that I may send home other samples of your child’s work.  This will help guide our conversation during our conference.  

This week we were grateful to work with Miss Anna from Passion for Glass.  Miss Anna shared her knowledge about the properties of glass and the beauty that can come by combining shapes and colours of glass.  Students began by making a plan to create a piece of glass artwork that showed a place or natural element where they felt connected to the land.  Students then looked at shapes and colour and transferred their plan into creating their glass tile.  We are all anxiously waiting for the return of the work once it has been treated in Miss Anna’s kiln.  

Learning Intentions

• All shapes can be reduced to basic shapes

• Shapes can be made using different procedures

Science

On Wednesday, students were engaged in the hands-on activities from Teachers Pet: A Day at the Race Track.  This ½ day in-school field trip had students participate in different centers that helped to develop their understanding of Energy.  Centers included:Ramp Racers testing different surfaces and racers, Marble Tracksters testing different pathways and building marble runs, Forest Frenzy looking at how animals move, and building a wooden racer.  

Learning Intentions

Investigate direction, pathways, and speed of moving objects

• Directions of movement can be described as:  Up, down, forward, backward, sideways, toward, away from 

• Speed can be described as: Fast, slow, changing, not changing (constant) •

• Demonstrate how the movement of objects can be influenced by: the shape of the object, the materials the object is made from, the surface texture of the object, and interactions with other objects.

• Movement pathways can be: straight, curved, spiral, side-to-side 

• Describe ways animals move along different pathways.

• Wheels help objects move more easily 

Math

We concluded our investigation of the meaning of addition and subtraction.  We have also been fortunate to work with Mrs. Gordon and build our fact fluency.

Subtracting to Compare

In a comparison situation, there are two groups, and we want to know how many more are in one group than in the other.

For example, if there are 10 children on the play structure and 4 students are standing near the school, how many more students are on the play structure?

We can answer that question by subtracting: 10 – 4.

Once you know there are 6 more children in the larger group, you also know there are 6 fewer children in the smaller group.

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Comparison Models

You can show comparisons in many ways.

For example, to compare 11 and 3:

•	You can subtract 11 – 3 by matching all the counters you can and then counting the rest: You can see there are 8 extra in the group of 11.
•	You can use a number path. You could put down 8 counters on the number path to get from 3 to 11, so 11 is 8 more than 3.
•	You can use 10-frames.

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Relating Comparison Situations to Part–Part–Whole Situations

When you subtract to compare 12 and 5, you are trying to figure out how much more 12 is than 5. You can think of it as a part–part–whole situation where the whole is 12, one part is 5, and you want to figure out what the other part is.

You can represent the subtraction situation using a bar model.

12 – 5

In reality, all meanings of subtraction are related: part–part–whole, takeaway, and comparison. Every time we subtract, we know a whole and a part and look for the other part. We can choose how to think about any situation in the way that is most helpful to us.

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Helping Your Child

There are many everyday situations where we want to know how much more one group is than another. When situations like that arise, encourage your child to help you use subtraction to compare the two groups.

For example, you could ask the following questions:

•	How many more plates than forks are on the table?
•	How many more people live at our home than live at Grandpa’s home?
•	How many more people are there than chairs?

Literacy

Our learning in literacy continues to move along with continuing to learn about consonant digraphs.  This week we focused on /ng/ at the end of words like song.  These sounds and the previous sounds we have been working on for the last few weeks take some additional time and practise to master, and we recommend reviewing them for a few minutes each day with your child.  

 

March 3-7

Dear Parents,

Some Reminders:

Wednesday - Teacher’s Pet Science in School experience - We look forward to spending a few hours of the day on Wednesday learning about Energy through our program “A Day at the Racetrack”.  This will be jam-packed with learning connecting to our Science outcomes in Energy.  

Glass Art Residency 

This coming week we have our Glass Art residency.  We look forward to creating a glass art piece that reflects a connection to the land and helps to tell a part of our own story and our connection to the land. We spent time on Friday learning about glass and how glass is made, as well as a bit about the process of how we will use glass to create our own unique art piece.  We also went outside to the learning grounds and sat for a few minutes quietly in our sit spots, to listen and notice the land around us.  We then went inside and talked about other things we feel connected to and reminded ourselves of other experiences we have had throughout the year already at Fish Creek and learning on the land. 

Students then started to plan and create their own visual plan that will help them with their art piece later this coming week.  

 Ask your child what they plan to create in this unique and special experience.

We started March off with lots on the go this past week.  Here were some of our highlights.

Social Studies - Community Walk

We shifted our focus back to learning about our community and the groups we belong to.  We went for our community walk, stopping at various locations and landmarks, and discussing their importance.  Even though the snow was falling, it was great for us to get out into Lake Bonavista and look at what makes our community unique.  Thank you to all the parents who joined us, and helped make our experience successful.  

Later this week, we then reviewed the places we discussed during our walk and used the text “Rosie’s Walk” as an anchor text to launch us into creating a community map, showing our own journey we took through our community.  

 

Learning Intentions:

I can look at and explore how we belong and are connected to our world.

I can explore and discover parts of our community and what makes it thrive.

I can recognize familiar landmarks and places in our own community

Physical Education - Basketball

We had a great time building new skills in basketball with Coach Dave and many more volunteers.  We practised our “triple threat”, dribbling, passing and shooting skills.  This was a great opportunity for us to build and develop our skills connected to basketball.  We had a lot of fun and enjoyed learning from Coach Dave!    

    

Learning Intentions:

I can demonstrate body and space awareness

I can follow gym rules and play fair 

I can participate in new activities, like basketball to improve my well-being

I can demonstrate basic skills of movement connected to basketball

I can demonstrate the ability to manipulate a basketball and develop skills connected to this sport 

Literacy

Our learning in literacy continues to move along with continuing to learn about consonant digraphs.  This last week we focused on /wh/ and /ph/ saying “f”.  These sounds and the previous sounds we have been working on for the last few weeks take some additional time and practise to master, and we recommend reviewing them for a few minutes each day with your child.