Friday, April 26

Hello Families! 

Some Important Dates: 

May 17 - Non instructional day (no school) 

May 20 - Non instructional day (no school)

We will go for a Coulee Walk next Friday May 3rd at 9am - 11am. If anyone is interested in volunteering please email Mrs Day or Mrs. Khan. 

Our learning: 

Literacy

• This week during our writer's workshop we learned all about what similes are and how to use them in our writing. 
• We wrote similes about Spring and later in the week we described what we like about ourselves using similes. Ask your child what their favourite simile was that they wrote about themselves. 
• We also drew self portraits and incorporated our similes into the drawing. 

 

Math

• In grade 1 we introduced money and how to count coins and bills. This allowed us to practice skip counting by 5s, 10s, 25 and also learned how to add the different types of coins together. Take a look at some pictures below of us counting.
• We also introduced fact families to work on our addition and subtraction skills and learned what relationships different numbers have to each other. Noticing the patterns using fact families helped strengthen our understanding of how parts can be added to make a whole and how a part can be taken away from a whole number to give us another part. 
• In grade 2, we introduced 2 digit addition (ex. 25 + 42) and learned different strategies such as skip counting using a 100s chart, using base 10 blocks and an open number line to strengthen our understanding on how to add 2 digit numbers as well as working on regrouping with bigger numbers.

Inquiry: 

• During social, we continued to learn more about the Acadian communities and how they use natural resources and turn them into goods for example, turning lobster into food. 
• This week we had a special guest come in to talk to our kids about Earth Day - Mrs. Khan's husband! Take a look at the pictures below.
• The kids learned about how a sustainability engineer helps to sustain our Earth's life by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. We had a great discussion to see how we can make an impact to take care of our environment and how to be kind to the land. 
• We also made a Earth Day pledge on what we will to take care of the environment and did an art piece of a globe to celebrate Earth Day.

Friday, April 12th

Hello Families!

Some Important Dates:

April 19th - Non Instructional Day - No School 

May 17th - Non Instructional Day - No School

May 20th - Victoria Day - No School 

EHS Fundraiser (sent home this week)

Our Learning:

We were so excited to show you our learning during our assembly today!  We could not be more proud of all our hard work in getting prepared and being able to present to the entire school.

Literacy:

• We are completing another round of our targeted literacy groups next week.  Ask your child the skills that they have been learning and books they are reading in these groups. 
• After using our 5 senses to improve our writing, we are moving on to other literary devices to add make our writing more interesting. 

Math:

• The grade 2s learned more strategies to add 2 - digit numbers (ex. using an open number line, adding by rearranging, adding and then compensating)
• We also used addition and subtraction to engage in problems solving tasks. 
• In grade 1, we strengthened our understanding of addition and subtraction by practicing problem solving questions
• We came up with a strategy (CUBS) to help us break down a problem solving question and practice writing number sentences. 

Inquiry:

• We had an exciting day on Monday watching the NASA live stream and learning all about the solar eclipse and learning.
• We also attended on online Calgary Public Library presentation as a part of their Caretakers of the Land series and learned about Inuit inventions and story telling. 
• On Thursday morning, we had a great time in the (muddy) Coulee looking for signs of spring.
• 

Thanks for reading!

Friday, April 5

 Hello Families! 

Some Important Dates:

April 11th - Coulee Walk at 9:00 am 

April 12th - Our Peace Assembly at 9:30 am - 9:50 am (Families are welcome!)

April 19th - Non instructional day (no school this day) 

* Please have your child come to school with appropriate footwear and clothing for our Coulee walk on Thursday morning (we are hoping for some warmer weather than what we had this week!) We also have our peace assembly next week Friday April 12th beginning at 9:30am in the gym. Please arrive on time so you can find a seat. The assembly will run for about 20 minutes. Some of your children may have come home with a script - practice these lines with them so they feel confident and are ready to speak at the assembly! 

Our learning: 

Literacy: 

• This week we wrote about the signs of Spring using our senses. We read books and watched a video  to help us describe what we might see, hear, smell, and feel in Spring (despite the snowy weather outside right now) 
• We also worked on making our Spring writing more detailed and descriptive to make it sound more interesting.
• Using our prior knowledge of revision and editing, we then went back to our writing at the end of this week to enhance our writing to make it better. Everyone has really been thinking about their writing goals as during our writing process! 
• In reading, we discussed how emphasis/expression of certain words in a sentence can really help us understanding the meaning of sentences. We are also continuing to build our fluency and automaticity when reading in our targeted reading groups. 

Math:

• In grade 1,  we are continuing to engage in number talks and estimation games to help solidify our understanding of mental math and the different strategies we can use to help us solve math problems.
• We also continued to review balanced equations. We are working on strengthening our understanding of different strategies we can use to help us with addition problems.
• This week we introduced problem solving questions, drew pictures and wrote number sentences to help us solve different addition problems. 
• In grade 2, we introduced 2 digit addition (ex. 25 + 30). We had the opportunity to be hands on with some base 10 blocks to help us adding 2 digit numbers. We also used our knowledge of skip counting to help us with 2 digit problems.

Inquiry: 

• In Science, we continued to discuss the different bodies of water and some of their properties. We learnt that these bodies of water are important for us in terms of drinking water, providing a habitat for animals, transporting people and goods, etc. 
• We also made real world connections by discussing the different bodies of water we might have seen on our Coulee walk as well as what bodies of water run through Calgary. 
• We then drew these different bodies of water in our visual journals. 
• In Social, we were introduced the Acadian community and learned about their way of living, traditions and customs.  
• In our visual journals, we created a "I see, I think, I wonder" to help us write what we saw in the videos we watched about the community, what we think is happening in these communities, and finally wrote about some questions we are wondering about. 
• We also had the opportunity to buddy up with our grade 3/4 friends to help us see different signs of Spring! We sketched, coloured, and labeled and we will have the opportunity to show you what we have worked on during the assembly, so stay tuned!