November 26th, 2014 Agribition and Canine Presentation

Greetings Parents and Students,

We ended last Friday with Readers’ Theatre presentations, where the boys and girls performed their stories to various classrooms from Kindergarten to Grade 4.  They enjoyed practicing their stories and working on reading fluently and expressively.  See photos 1 to 15 (email). 

We completed our farm animal research study on Friday and this week, following Agribition, our two writing projects entail Agribition brochures (will be shared later this week at interviews and by email) and farm animal paragraph writing. See photo 8 for initial lesson on “Strong paragraph starter”.

Thank you, Create Artist, Mrs. Beckel, for our 3 Visual Arts sessions with you.  The final project entailed creating maps of the school and using water colour pencil crayons and brushes to paint with.  Feel free to have your child show you his/her “masterpiece” at the interview. 

Photos 27 onward are of Agribition highlights and special moments. Thank you VERY much to the 7 parents who were able to join us for the day.  We could not have done the trip without you!  Your children were in excellent hands, in small groups of 3 and the day was educational, relaxing and a lot of fun for everyone.  There was so much to do and to see in the barns, at the rodeo, at the Family Pavilion, the Farm Machinery Mall and more.   Have your child explain the photos TO YOU.  One of my personal highlights was the Hoop Dance, as the performer, Terrence Littletent, was one of my students, 24 years ago, at Thomson School.  He invited Roan and myself, to perform with him. 

  Feel free to email me additional photos if you have any on your cell phones, parents who volunteered.

This afternoon, Constable Jess, Constable Neil and canine, Eko, joined us in the classroom for a canine presentation/demonstration.  After discussing and reviewing DOG SAFETY and the role of the police dog Constable Jess works with, we were invited outside to the playground to see the three police members IN ACTION!  Thank you to Gr. 3 student Anika and her mom, Constable Jennifer, who were  able to arrange this visit for our classroom.  It was Constable Jess’s VERY FIRST classroom presentation ever!

Finally, we welcome another Grade 2 student to the classroom, from the Philippines, tomorrow morning.  His name is Brylle. 

See you later this week for INTERVIEWS students and parents.  Remember to send your bowling permission forms and method of payment to school this week.

Cheers,

Ms. Selimos

Hello Parents and Students,

Brrrrrrr!  It’s getting cold out there!  Please make sure that your child comes to school with ski pants and warm winter clothing.  With the wind chill today earlier this week, we began with an indoor recess.

On Monday we welcomed new student, Sauravi, to our Grade 3 class and today, Zaid (photo 41), to our Grade 2 class.  We now have 24 students in the class.

We continue to work on NUMBER FAMILIES in math.  We have done many Number Family activities this week using ten frames, dice, 2 sided counters and dice. Our math focus this week was about MISSING addends. New math vocabulary included:  equal and unequal. We did some MATH DRAMA, where I was trying to reinforce the “missing number” within an equation. For example:  8 + ___ = 14.  We continue to explore +/- and the missing elements:  __ + 5 = 13 or 2+__ = 11 or __-6=5.  The children used a math number line and a hundred chart as a tool.  This afternoon’s math lesson and next week’s focus is using a NUMBER LINE. 

Our Star of the Week was Sonakshi.  Sonakshi enjoys ballet.  She has traveled to  Banff and the Rocky Mountains.  She is an only child, who was born in Kolkata, India. She enjoys swimming and dressing up.  Her favourite food is pasta.

On Tuesday, our 2 awesome University of Regina students, Miss Lechler and Miss Kezama, taught the children a little bit about beekeeping.  They showed a short Magic School House bee video, followed by a discussion about bee keeping.  Miss Lechler modeled a beekeeper uniform and the children even sampled some delicious honey from Miss Lechler’s farm. 

Our science focus this week has been to explore and to create jot notes, working in small groups about the students’ specific farm animals of study.  This afternoon’s lesson will be about organization of jot notes (photos 38 to 40) and order.  Friday and next week for science, each child will create a paragraph(s).

For health on Wednesday, Mrs. Beckel showed the video www.poison.org/prevent/Elementary.asp  The video dealt with poisonous substances in the home.  It is well worth viewing again and discussing with your child.

We received some wonderful mail this week from the Humane Society with a Certificate of Appreciation for the cat toys we made and donated using the socks you sent to school.  Thank you once again for your support!

We engaged in 2 PWIM (Picture Word Inductive Model) lessons this week.  The new poster features the fall and pumpkin patches.  One of the PWIM lessons focused on sorting the words based on suffixes. Another lesson focused on alphabetization (photo 1).  When reading WITH your child at home, ask him/her to point out words with suffixes (ed, s, es, ing) words.  Take 3 or 4 of your child’s spelling words and see if your child is able to put them in alphabetical order.  Our Writing Traits lesson this morning focused on organization and putting things in the right order.

Report cards go out for all Grant Road students on Friday, 21^st.  All report card envelope papers are YOURS TO KEEP.  I look forward to meeting with each of you and your children next Thursday after school or Friday morning, at your designated time for the 3 – Way Conference.

On Tuesday, our guest speaker, Louise, from the Board of Education, presented a very interesting Arctic Animals lesson to Grade 2 classrooms. We learned about polar bears, seals, musk ox, caribou, tundra wolf and more. The children will share their journal paragraphs with you at the interviews.  See photos 14 to 23, 29 to 34.

During French, he boys and girls are having a lot of fun learning the farm animal vocabulary and the sounds the animals make.  We have read “Old Macdonald” in French this week, also “Petit Poussin, Que-Dis Tu?” and have listened to the farm song www.youtube.com/watch?v=oczhw6ikmSE   We also created favourite farm animal drawings in individual barns and on Wednesday, we wrote Garfield cartoons.  See photos 24 to 28, 35 to 37.  They LOVE French class and all the interactive activities and games. 

The countdown to Agribition has been ongoing this week! We have been learning barnyard dances such as:  The Alley Cat www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fFf0ClVLao, The Bunny Hop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RajWqQaq5dE.  We did a circle/partner dance to the song B-I-N-G-O, as well.  Watch the videos and have your child show you the moves. 

 Please send a healthy lunch for your child with a bottle of water for the Monday Agribition trip. Please make sure your child is wearing BOOTS, as we will be in the barns. Dress in layers.  No ski pants, as we will be doing a lot of walking and will get warm.  Do NOT send the AGENDAS to school in the backpacks.

 THANK YOU IN ADVANCE TO THE PARENTS JOINING US.  PARENT VOLUNTEERS: It is important to attend the ON SITE workshop on SUNDAY, November 23rd at 10:30 a.m. The purpose of the workshop is to familiarize you with an appropriate, safe route to take on that day.  Please meet at the Co-operators Centre Foyer at 10:30 a.m. at EVRAZ PLACE.  The workshop will last approximately one and a half hours and is well worth attending.  The Showcase exhibitors will also be on hand to explain their displays and answer any questions.  Remember to dress for barn conditions and to bring a pen/pencil.  Maps will be made available.

We will be leaving at 9 a.m. sharp, after attendance is taken.  

REMINDERS:  1. Reading logs with NOVEMBER minutes due next Thurs. 27^th.

  2. Return TERM I STUDENT WORK SAMPLES IN BLUE FILE FOLDER if you have not already done so.

3.  Grant Road book fair is on Thursday.  BOOK FAIR preview time for Gr. 2/3 is from 10 to 10:30 a.m. in the library.  If you would like your child to purchase a book, please send the money in a labeled zip lock bag and I will place change in bag from your child’s purchase.

4.  Lukas is * STAR OF THE WEEK * the week of Dec. 1^st.      

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone!

Ms. Selimos  

November 12, 2014 week with Ms. Selimos

          Hello Parents and Students,

It has been a short week, but a busy one.  Thank you to birthday boy, Brodie, for the delicious chocolate chip birthday cookies last week.  We really enjoyed them.  

We read many Remembrance Day books last week, including “Who’s That Man?” by Marny Duncan Cary, one of my favourites.  We joined our Grade 4 Learning Buddies on Friday, 7th at 11 a.m. for a beautiful Remembrance Day assembly.  The slide show was very effective and the Gr. 2/3 proudly and peacefully shared their “Peace” paragraphs.  At the Term I interviews, your child will share his/her “masterpiece” with you.  The children wrote a poem in their printing booklets about poppies, as well.  They are encouraged to use an erasable pen when writing in their printing booklets.  See photo 17 from email.

Artist, Mrs. Belcher, joined us last Friday afternoon for a Visual Arts lesson, exploring mapping skills with us. We discussed imagery. The children practiced sketching our classroom with a literacy/numeracy focus on spatial and 2-dimensional representation.   We made "shorts" books.  Ask your child to explain this book making process and the "bone" tool we used to help us to crease the paper.  See email photos 3 to 9.

Please reinforce +/- to 18 at home using flashcards, math sheets and on line games from my website.  One goal is to learn facts using automatic response.  Begin with adding one or two more (ex:  5+1, 8+2).  Next reinforce doubles (5+5, 8+8).  We can discuss more strategies and tips at the 3 way conference.  Number families continue to be reinforced.  In and Out of the Toy Box was a math book which I used this week to reinforce +/- strategies.  

The Sub Lunch last Friday was a huge success.  Thank you to the parents who helped in the classroom.  All went smoothly.

Our science focus this week has been to explore and to create jot notes, working in small groups about their specific farm animals of study.  Next week each child will create a paragraph. 

Our phonics letter of the week was Ff.

SONAKSHI  is  * STAR OF THE WEEK * the week of Nov. 17th.

Report cards go out for all Grant Road students on Friday, Nov. 21st.  On MONDAY the 17th, I will be sending a FILE FOLDER for you to sign of your child’s Term I work samples. Please look at the work WITH your child and discuss. 

Stay warm this weekend and GO RIDERS!

Nov 3 2014 with Selimos PEACE

Hello Parents and Students,

I hope everyone is keeping dry with the rain… No snow, yet! 

  The first photo is of Mr. Chernoff, our Vice Principal and Phys. Ed. teacher. Thank you to last week’s, Star of the Week, Hunter, for the birthday cupcakes on Thursday. Yummy!  On Halloween Friday, we enjoyed dressing in orange and black and were excited to have Veterinarian, Dr. Sally, join us after lunch to teach us about Dog Bite Prevention Safety.  The children practiced “STANDING LIKE A TREE” if a dog approaches them.  They practiced “TUCKING IN” like a rock, if they are already on the ground. Have your child share the ABCs of petting a dog:  A = ask owner permission, B= be sniffed and C= cootchie coo.  Check out some of the journal writing samples from the children. Also, be sure to view websites:  www.doggonesafe.com and www.be-a-tree.com

Our Vertebrate party on Friday afternoon was a big success.  Thank you for sending nutritious items with your child.  We enjoyed healthy snacks, watched a video and danced to:  Monster Shuffle song:    www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgFxo-IkCNQ Have your child show you the dance (photos 21 to 27) at home and try it with him/her.

Reinforced Gr. 2 math vocabulary this week:  greatest, least and ordering numbers from least to greatest and greatest to least.  The children played a GREATER THAN game (thousands, hundreds, tens and ones) in pairs.  Each needs a set of 0 to 9 cards.  Write the words:  Hundreds, Tens, Ones on a piece of paper.  Each player draws a card and strategically placing it under Th, H, T or O.  The person with the highest number wins.   You can also play this game trying to create the LOWEST NUMBER. It is an easy game for you to create and to try at home with your child. It is an excellent game for reinforcing place value. See photos 2 to 7. 

Grade 2 Math Binders (Unit 2) went home on Monday. Please sign UNIT 2 and return the binder with the first 2 units to school.  Our NEW UNIT 3 for Grade 2 math is:  +/- to 18.  I hinted to the children to ask for flashcards for Christmas or for a birthday, as it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for them to know their facts to 18 automatically by the end of the year, in preparation for Grade 3.

On Monday afternoon, University of Regina SUNTEP student, Mr. Austin McCabe, joined us for the afternoon.  He shadowed me in the classroom and enjoyed helping me to teach a Core French lesson introducing “Le Jour de Souvenir” vocabulary; Remembrance Day (see photo 34), a vertebrate lesson and a health lesson at the end of the day with Mrs. Beckel.  We completed our Vertebrate study, after researching amphibians last week and wrote a “pop quiz”.

We began a new PWIM poster (Picture Word Inductive Model) on Monday.  Review the words on the poster with your child.  Clap out syllables.  Choose 5 words and do a mini lesson on alphabetical order.  Can your child make some sentences for you using a few of the words?  Can he/she write a sentence using quotation marks in the right spots?

Brodie was our fabulous Star of the Week.  He has an older brother in Grade 5.  He enjoys spending time with his mom, dad, brother, grandparents and cat named, Willy.  He has been to Douglas Provincial Park for camping, fishing and tubing.  He had his picture taken with a real monkey in Mexico!  He LOVES football and cheers the Riders on.  He plays hockey for the Colts and his favourite NHL team is the Oilers.  He LOVES to read and his favourite subject is math. 

On Tuesday, we had the pleasure of having Professor Mark Brigham, from the U of R Biology Department, join us in the morning.  His slide show presentation was EXCELLENT!  We discussed bats of Canada and bats of the world.  Some cool facts:  The bumblebee bat is the smallest bat of the world.  We discussed bat anatomy and roosting.  Canadian bats are insectivores.  Saskatchewan bats DO NOT live in caves, but can be found in hollow trees, buildings, attics.  One of the highlights was the LIVE bat he brought to share with us. See photos 71 to 74 of bat journal writing. I hope the visual arts clay bats and writing pieces made it home to you on Tuesday, after school.

This week, we studied some books about peace and war in Canada, as part of our Remembrance Day study.  A Bear in War by Innes and Endrulat brought tears to a few eyes, including mine.  The children and I brainstormed about peace at home, in the classroom and on the playground.  They will be creating paragraphs about PEACE,  which will be featured on the bulletin board outside our classroom for you to read in a few weeks when you are here for the 3 Way Conference.

Please return the 3 Way Conference note sent home today in your child’s agenda.  I will be running interviews AFTER SCHOOL on Thursday, November 27^th (3:45 p.m. to 6 p.m. or so) and on MONDAY, November 28^th in the morning. Please select your preference and I will try my best to accommodate your requested time.

Agribition is a few weeks away.  Thank you for sending the $1.50 bus fee and for signing the permission/helper note.  I still need a few more to come in. 

Here is a cool bat video for you to enjoy with your child.  Please take the time.  It is only a few minutes long: http://www.motivious.com/orphaned-bat/

Next week is a short week.  No school on Monday and Tuesday.

  Enjoy the long weekend with your families.

Happy Wednesday and peace to one and all!

Ms. Selimos