Friday 29 January 2021
Valentine's Day
Thursday 28 January 2021
Thursday, January 28th, 2021
Hi Families,
We had a lovely last week of January, celebrating Family Literacy Day with a virtual assembly, and Crazy Hair Day. Our class also earned a special reward from our lunchroom supervisor Ms. Budd after earning 20 Helping Hearts! Next Thursday, February 4th, students will celebrate with a PJ Day and video lunch.
Some of our learning from the week to share with you:
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| Applying our knowledge of short vowels, digraphs and blends to create and sort real words and nonsense words using the game Chunks. |
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| Working with number lines to model addition and subtraction concepts. Students are working on identifying key vocabulary to solve problems. |
Continuing with our mini lessons around PERSEVERANCE:
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tQcSKH37AY Mini lesson: Don't give up! |
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd8VerGQwZc Mini lesson: Don't let fear stop you! |
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSfNv0-SgJM Mini lesson: Think outside the box! |
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| Buddy Challenge! Applying our PERSEVERANCE mini lessons. |
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| Challenge accepted! A pirate speed boat! |
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| Challenge accepted! A robot that can turn into a saw! |
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| Challenge accepted! A very tall dog! |
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| Challenge accepted! A unicycle car! |
Ms. Thomas
Thursday 21 January 2021
Friday, January 22nd, 2021
Hi Families,
This week, we have continued looking at parts of speech, and detailed writing, through our poem "The Perfect Cup of Cocoa" (available in Google Classroom --> Literacy --> Poetry Study). Students have been involved in step-by-step writing about their own perfect cup of cocoa, developing adjectives, verbs and adverbs for the mug, the cocoa and two toppings of choice. In the upcoming week, we will compile our writing, and add some mixed media art.
We have started looking at addition and subtraction connected to number line models. Even if students have automaticity for basic facts, using a model supports being able to communicate their understanding of both equations and word problems.
In addition, we continue to build and develop efficient counting strategies, learning about our subitizing super power, skip counting and counting on or back. Ask your child about subitizing, and get them to walk you through one of our thinking routines with these dot patterns:
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| Can you subitize each dot pattern? If you can't subitize, how does your brain see the dots for efficient counting? |
I have uploaded several new games (available in Google Classroom --> Math --> Math Games) that can support various math skills at home.
An additional activity for skip counting at just-right levels: https://www.abcya.com/games/number_bubble_skip_counting
With our writing, we have been taking our journal writing this week and working towards building our understanding of revising and editing. Step-by-step, we added additional details, checked for capitals and punctuation, then targeted spelling, to improve our work. We will be developing grade level criteria into checklists for students to self-monitor and edit their future writing.
This is a great activity from ABCya to practice conventions of writing : https://www.abcya.com/games/fun-factory-punctuation-capitalization
We are also doing some collaborative, ongoing learning on:
- reading a weather forecast
- the digraph /ph/ (we don't have a character/story/visual for this one, so we are creating one together!)
- Perseverance (mini lessons from favourite picture books!)
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLdAXyZ7_iQ Mini lesson: Be brave! |
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy3JCNBgb94 Mini lesson: Get ready to make mistakes! |
Some important dates next week:
- Wednesday, January 27th: Family Literacy Day
- Thursday, January 28th: Crazy Hair Day
- Friday, January 29th: PD Day, no school for students
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas
Friday 15 January 2021
LBS Action Projects
Grade 3 & 4 Students at Lake Bonavista School are excited to share two action projects for the LBS Community to engage in. These action projects were generated from their studies around Waste and our World. Students want to share the message that everyone can make a difference through environmental stewardship.
Big Mouth Bin
The Big Mouth Bin Initiative helps raise awareness on the importance of recycling and reusing unwanted textiles. We invite the LBS community to collect and drop off unwanted textiles (ripped/old clothing, shoes, purses, belts… anything fabric) in the Big Mouth Bin throughout the school year. A Big Mouth Bin has been placed on the East Compound. Did you know that by putting unwanted textiles in the bin it will give the textiles a second life? You would be surprised at what new product your unwanted textiles could turn into!
Gorillas on the Line
Supporting the Calgary Zoo’s “Gorillas on the Line” initiative, we are collecting any broken, used or unwanted handheld electronic device(s) (cellphones, iPods, iPads, tablets, mp3 players, chargers and accessories) to spread awareness on the importance of electronic recycling. All electronics collected will be delivered to the Calgary Zoo. The mining of ores that are used to make new cellphones contributes to habitat loss and the endangerment of gorillas. When we reduce, reuse, then recycle our electronic devices, we lessen the demand for coltan and help protect gorillas in the wild.
Friday 8 January 2021
Friday, January 8th, 2021
Hello Families,
Thank you all for your support during online learning this week! The week was not without it's (many) hiccups, and I greatly appreciated your optimism, perseverance, questions and flexibility as we started 2021 together.
Students are back in the classroom on Monday! Yippee!
Could I please ask that your child bring back their headphones to resume using in the classroom? It would be greatly appreciated. We will sanitize them with our technology approved wipes before being stored in the classroom, in line with our health and safety measures.
I have viewed all the work your child has completed either "in person" through Google Meet or through the digital formats you have provided. There is no need to bring work to school. It is actually the preference that you continue to limit the number of contact points between home and school, even paper items. Your understanding is again appreciated.
The forecast for this weekend looks GORGEOUS! I hope you find some time to spend outside with each other.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Ms. Thomas