More Mountie Artifacts

It was another busy Friday morning!

We looked at more of the mountie artifacts and then got a chance to take a closer look at all of the artifacts.  It was great to wear our white gloves and get to touch and inspect these very interesting artifacts up close.
Ask your child:  What was their favourite artifact?  What was it used for?
What was their favourite part of their mountie experience over yesterday and today.
Thank you to those who have paid for their child to experience the mountie kit.  If you have not paid yet, please do so ASAP.  $2 please

Thank you for everyone who continues to send in donations for Warm Feet for the Street.  We are still needing more donations to reach our goal of stuffing over 200 socks next Thursday.

A few kiddos have overdue library books.  Please return or renew them next week.

Stay warm and have a great weekend.  

Do You Wanna Be a Mountie?

Today we were Mounties!  We got to explore the Fort Calgary Mountie kit and learn some very interesting things about the past on the Prairies.
Here are some of the highlights from our work with this very special kit today:
We got to wear the special coats and look closely at some of the artifacts.  Check us out below! - Zoie
My table got Sam Browne Belt and we found two little hooks inside and it was used for holding bullets and was made out of leather - Grace D

Thank you to those who have already sent in their $2 for the rental of this kit.  If you have not paid yet, please do so by paying online or by sending in $2 with your child.  

 
 

 

 

 
 

 

 

Heading to the Prairies

Here are some highlights from the day:
In Phys Ed we played Elephant ball to practise our striking skills - Jade
In Daily 5 we finished our book exchange and everyone exchanged their book - Grace T
In Social Studies we have left the East Coast and travelled WEST to the Prairies. - Aykut
We had indoor recess and we did a video called Get Fit for lunch recess in the gym - Grace D
In math we measured stuff around the classroom with paperclip, 10 cube blocks and a marker and we were searching for things that were of different sizes. - Zoie
In math we did a problem with comparing numbers with an orange team and a green team and we had to compare their scores and decide which team won.  The orange team won because it had 19 cubes and the green team had 15 cubes.  - Easton 

Class photos going home today.  

Warm Feet for the Street Donations Needed

Please help out and support our Warm Feet for the Street by bringing in donations.  Anything helps this great cause.  

Here are the highlights from the day:
In science we tested and tried to make a ball of plasticine float.  Ask your child if they got to test the plasticine and if they were successful it making it float.  What made it work or not work? - Jade
In Phys Ed we played a new game by standing in a circle and we had to try to toss a ball up into the air and try to make it land and we were working on our striking skill and we also played another game to try and strike a ball to another person - Grace T
In math we worked with balance scales and used dot cards to make the scale equal or not equal.  Then we wrote an equation.  Ask your child to show you an example of an equation that shows equality and inequality.- Henri

Float or Sink??

Today was another busy day!!  

In Science, we tested the buoyancy of different items.  Ask your child about the items and what each of them did:
ball of plasticine
styrofoam
pencil
eraser
paperclip
lego
cork

Ask your child if they can tell you what each of the following means:  sink, float, buoyancy

Picture orders going home with those who ordered!

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW

No School Tomorrow!

Thank you to everyone who returned their OVERDUE books from the Learning Commons this week.  I still feel that there are many students who have overdue books, so please help your child find these and return them for NEXT week.

Here are the highlights from the day:
In Phy Ed we played Fire and Ice - Easton
In writing, we worked on our East Coast Animal stories.  I was in Author's Chair and I wrote, "I would teach my bald babies how to glide" Grace D
In Music we had a substitute and we read the book Pete the Cat and his Magical Sunglasses and we played a game with for boomwackers - Grace T
In Social Studies we learned more about the land of the East Coast and other another section to our page about Nova Scotia in our Visual Journals - Jade.

Here is a video about the Halifax Explosion which was part of the novel, Halifax Explodes!, that we read together.  We had many questions and many asked to see the video again, so here it is, if you want to check it out and discuss some more.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw-FbwmzPKo

Jersey Day Tomorrow

Get in the Grey Cup Spirit of the City!  Wear a Jersey tomorrow of your favourite team or a team you are a part of for Jersey Day!
Don't forget - It's fun lunch too!

Our boat stability experimenting continued today with a cork boat.  We added a sail to see if that helped make it more stable, and then a keel.  A keel is a weight at the bottom of the boat.  Some of us were successful at making our boats very stable today.  

We also finished up our lighthouse art!  Wow!  Check out these beautiful finished pieces of art work.  We have some very talented and artistic artists in our room.  

Boat Building

Here are the highlights from the day:
In Phys Ed we played a game to practise throwing the balls at the wall to work on overhand throwing - Easton
In Science, we worked in a group of 3 and we had 3 pieces of different sizes of tin foil and we had to build a narrow, medium and wide boat.  We then tested how many blocks it could hold - Zoie 
In Social Studies, we started a KWL chart and started looking at a picture of the land in the East Coast.  We started with K - what we already know - Cayden
In writing, we chose an animal.  We could choose a Humpback Whale, a Puffin, a Lobster or a Moose.    I chose a puffin and I wrote If I was a puffin I would go fishing. - Grace D
We glued in our writing from our postcards into our writing books.  Now we are ready to start writing about our East Coast animal - Muhammad

Ask your child about their East Coast animal writing.  What animal are they?  What is their animal doing?  How could they describe what they are doing?

Don't forget
Jersey Day on Thursday!! 

Importance Notices Coming Home

Please note that there are a couple of different notices coming home today.
1) Fort Calgary in the Classroom.  We have a special Mountie kit that has arrived from Fort Calgary.  It is a $2 charge per child for the rental of this kit for the next 2 weeks.  You can pay online or send in $2.  
2) Warm Feet for the Street

Overdue books!
There are MANY overdue books from the Learning Commons signed out to students in our classroom.  Please help your child remember to return these ASAP!

Today in Science we tested the Stability of various sizes of boats.  We had 3 types of boats:  Narrow, Medium Width and Wide.  All the boats were made out of styrofoam.
Ask your child what boat was the most stable and why

Postcards from the Arctic!

You've got mail!

Your child's postcard from our trip to the Arctic is in your mailbox (wink, wink, backpack).  These were letters that we wrote as a draft and then went through a number of feedback loops.  This is now their final good copy.  Our focus was on descriptive writing.  Here is the criteria that we focused on.  
Includes 5 different ideas that tell about the land

Uses descriptive words that create a visual image in the reader’s mind

Spell sight words correctly most of the time

Almost always uses capitals at the beginning and ending punctuation correctly (. ! ?)

To have all of these things would mean that your child is on track (3) with their writing. We went through a number of feedback loops with our peers and teacher to ensure we had met the expectations for this writing task. Take time to read and enjoy their postcard and then with your child, see if they have all the criteria for this writing task. What do they feel they have done a good job on? What improvements did they make in their writing from their first draft?

Mailing address!?!?!?

Note: For writing tomorrow, it would be greatly appreciated if you could send your child with a piece of paper and your mailing address for a project that we are finishing up.  Thanks

Today in art, we started our East Coast landscape art.  We began with painting the background of our paper with the ocean and sky.  

World Kindness Day

Here are some highlights from the day:
In Social Studies we looked at pictures about the land of Nova Scotia and shared what we noticed in the picture about the land - Zoie
In Phys Ed we played Watch your Step and Catch me if you Can to work on our underhand throwing - Muhammad
In writing we got a picture from the East Coast and we wrote about waking up and what it would be like, and what we might see, hear, touch, and smell and worked on our description - Grace D
We watch a video about Maud Lewis which will be our next artist that we study as she created art based around the East Coast.  - Vanessa 

Blog Ticket - Ask your child to describe 3 things about the East Coast, based on the pictures that we discussed today.  Your child can write down the 3 things they discuss with you and bring their ticket tomorrow.  

Remembrance Day Assembly Tomorrow

Reminders:
Remembrance Day assembly is tomorrow at 10:30.  Poppies will be provided for every student.  Please bring in a donation for the poppy.

Winter Plant fundraiser form going home with oldest or only siblings.  

Here are a few highlights:
In Social Studies we learned more about Halifax and looked at some videos to study the land - Hugo
In math, we had a problem focused around the story Two of Everything.  We looked for ways to double the numbers to reach 100 coins.  Ask your child to explain a bit more - Henri
In Phys Ed we played Squirrel Tails, and you had to collect food or steal someone's tail - Muhammad 

A Boat that Floats?

Book orders for November are going home today

This afternoon we had our first boat building challenge.  Here are some of our thoughts on how it went.  
We got to build our boat with a partner and we got to test it in a container of water to see if it would float and it also had to carry a load - Grace T
My partner was Jade and our boat did not sink but it took on water - Grace D
My partner was Cayden and we built a boat out of plasticine, tin foil, cardboard and styrofoam and popsicle sticks and our boat sank - Zoie

First we were given the building challenge and discussed expectations for our boat

We worked with our partners to discuss and plan what we were going to do and how we were going to build our boat.  

We built our boats, following our plans and working with our partner.  

We tested our boats to see if they could carry a load, float, move forward, was waterproof and stable.  

Some of our boats were successful, and many of our boats were not. :(
Now we are going to learn more about boats and then have another building challenge in a few weeks.  
Everyone did a great job of working together, cooperating and doing their best to make a boat.  Well done!