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. 

 Dear Parents

We have had a busy week reflecting on our week at City Hall School and preparing to present our Celebration of Learning artifacts. 

-Reminders: Our grade 1 Celebration of Learning will be on May 28, 2025 from 9:00-9:30 am.  All grade 1’s will gather in Room 15 (Mrs. Kosior’s classroom) to share some of the highlights from all of our learning that has connected to City Hall School.  You will then have some time to explore and engage with your child, as they share some artifacts of their learning.  We hope you will be able to join us.  Grandparents are welcome too.  

-Sibbald’s Got Talent!  Our classroom Talent Show will be on Thursday afternoon.  This is an opportunity for any students who have prepared and practiced a skill or talent to share that with their peers.  From our classroom talent show we will submit 2 entries to our school wide talent show which will be on June 6 at 10 am.  Please note that you are able to make a video submissio to my email at cakosior@cbe.ab.ca.  Also please have all materials at school for your child to perform their talent on Thursday May 29.  Thank you!

Preparation for Celebration of Learning

This week we have been busy capturing our thoughts and creating our artifacts of learning.  Not to give too much away…please take a look at our sneak peek of pictures from this time.

Math

In math we have been working on more complex problems involving addition and subtraction.  You can use this summary as background information to support your child’s work in math.  

Learning Intentions:

I can solve addition and subtraction problems using a variety of strategies.

Solving Problems Involving Addition

Students might use any of these strategies to solve problems involving addition:

•	working with concrete models, such as 10-frames, number paths, or counters
•	counting on
•	relating an unknown situation to a known one

For example, if students realize that 5 + 5 is 10, they might solve 6 + 5 by thinking of it as 1 more than 5 + 5.

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Solving Problems Involving Subtraction

Students might use any of these strategies to solve problems involving subtraction:

•	working with concrete models, such as 10-frames, number paths, or counters
•	counting on or counting back
•	relating an unknown situation to a known one

For example, if students realize that 10 – 5 is 5, then they might think of 10 – 6 as 1 less than 10 – 5 because you are taking away 1 more or because the space from 6 to 10 on a number path is 1 less than the space from 5 to 10.

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Solving Problems With Many Steps

Some of the problems students will experience in this topic involve situations that combine addition and subtraction.

For example, if you had 8 counters and then got 4 more and then someone took 5 away, how many counters would you have?

•	You could think about 8 + 4 first, which is 12. Then you could think about 12 – 5, which is 7.
•	But you might realize that you are taking away 1 more than you add, so you would end up in the same place if you simply took 1 away from 8. 8 − 1 is 7.

Literacy

This week, we continue to look at word endings.  We learned about Y say I at the end of 1-syllable words.  This can be tricky!  The following is some home practice you may use to support your child’s learning.

May 12 - 16

 Dear Parents,

After our successful week at City Hall School it was nice to get back into our own home classroom and return to our routines.

Please note we will be having a Celebration of Learning centered around our City Hall School work on May 28.  Please stay tuned for more information. 

Social Studies and Literacy

We have been hard at work reflecting back on our week at City Hall School and beginning to document our connection to the places that we visited.  Students reflected on their favorite places they visited and began to plan their story of the place they felt most connected to in their downtown community.

Learning Intentions:

• I can examine how I belong and am connected to the world.

• I can appreciate how stories and events of the past connect to my family and community to the present.

• I can appreciate how stories and events of the past connect my family and community to the present.

• I can examine ways that messages can be organized and presented for different purposes.

• I can develop listening and speaking skills through sharing stories and information.

• I can create messages through the application of writing processes.

Math

This week we returned to looking at subtraction and subtraction strategies.  The following is a summary of key ideas your child is learning.  

Subtracting by Counting Back

•	When you know a total amount and you want to figure out how many are left when you take some away, you can count back from the total. For example, if there are 14 birds and 6 fly away, you can count back to see how many birds are left: 13 (after the first bird flies away), 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8. Note that when you count this way, you say one number for each bird that flies away. You can keep track with your fingers to make sure you say the correct number of numbers. The number of birds remaining is the last number you say.
•	If you wish, you can count back by 2s and say 12, 10, and 8 as you think of 2 birds flying away at a time.
•	You can represent the situation on a bar model like this: The bar model shows that there were 14 birds in total; one part (the birds that flew away) was 6, and the other part (the birds that stayed) was 8.
•	You can count back to subtract the part you know from the total. For example, if there were 14 birds and now there are 8, you can count back 6 numbers from 14 to figure out how many birds flew away: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. You said 6 numbers and ended on 8, so you know that 6 birds flew away.
•	You can count back until you get to the part you know to figure out the part you don’t know. For example, if there were 14 birds and now there are 6, you can count back from 14 until you get to 6. The number of numbers you say is the number of birds that flew away: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. You ended up at 6. You said 8 numbers, so you know that 8 birds flew away.

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Subtracting by Counting On

•	Sometimes you know a total and a part, and you want to figure out the other part. This can be done by counting forward, or counting on, from the part you know. For example, suppose there are 14 people coming for dinner. If you know there are 6 plates on the table, you could count on from 6 to 14 to figure out how many more plates you need. It’s not the last number that you say that tells you how many more you need; it is how many numbers you say. You can keep track with your fingers. In this case, you said 8 numbers, so you need 8 more plates.
•	You can count on by 1s or 2s. If you count by 2s, you need 2 plates for every number you say.
•	You can represent the situation on a bar model like this:
•	Even though you are counting on, you are actually still subtracting the part you know from the total: 14 − 6.

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Helping Your Child

It is useful for children to continue to practise counting on and also to practise counting back from numbers less than 20. Some practice in counting on by 2s (not starting at 1) is also useful, but do this only when the child is ready.

Your child can practise at any time. For example, you can say, “Count on from 6,” “Let’s count back from 15,” or “Can you count back from 10 by 2s?”

Literacy

This week we continue to look at word endings.  We review ED endings, sorting words based on the sound each ed ending makes.  The following is some home practice you may use to support your child’s learning.