Last week we went on one short walk to Badger Park Thursday to get ready for our longer hike Friday. We focussed on walking safely, crossing streets, speaking quietly to hear the animals, respecting property and nature and wondering as we walked. We played wave tag at Badger Park and discussed safety in nature. Abby spotted a huge dragonfly as we walked- super spotting!
Friday before leaving, we read the book Step Gently which has amazing photos of insects and animals in nature before we walked to give us some focus. We then hiked along 10th to a small trail, we walked through residential areas, forests and a dry grassland. We brought our class ipad to take photos. We enjoyed a sit spot investigating our own small space in the forest. Some children found ants, maggots, spiders, etc. We have a lovely time breathing the fresh air and we are working on traveling with quiet voices to increase our spotting of squirrels, birds, etc. Everyone had good walking footwear and seem excited to hike again. I did not have a parent volunteer but designated 3 students my tail and we did just fine. This week we will go on our walkabout Thursday after recess. We will walk to the pond near ladybug daycare to see the storm sewer running into the pond and link it to how we can take care of the water. Let me know if you can come along.
Monday we have Little Buddies with Ms. Porters kindergartens and we will be making our names with nature items. We will compare how many of each letter we have and look at the number of straight lines and corners. We feel very important being big buddies this year.
We are learning about water this week- in particular the water cycle. We will do an experiment, view some short videos and create our own water cycle and water shed models. We will link our care for water to the salmon and their need for clean water. We will also play a game called Hooks and Ladders outside to try and be a salmon travelling through the dangers during their life cycle.
Tuesday I have arranged for our Indigenous support worker to come and discuss the importance of clean water for the salmon and show us some traditional fishing methods. Her name is Lana and she will come with us next Tuesday to Adams River as well.
I have 7 permission slips missing for our Adams River Trip Tues. Oct. 10– please send them in ASAP. If you child cannot participate because you will be away please let me know that as well.
During computers this week we will do ABCya again focussing on number patterns and numbers games on Wednesday and we will use the program Epic with reading on Friday. ABCya is free to use at home as well. Epic needs a code and is free at school but I think it will start charging you after 1 month so I’d suggest leaving it for school use. Next week we hope to try coding from code.org.
We have finished our autobiographies and they are hanging in the hallway if you’d like to see your child’s writing. I have helped many with spelling so it’s not an authentic sample. Some spelling is done by your child, when they circle a word they have been brave and tried it themselves. We are working on trying to keep our ideas going by trying our own version of the spelling, circling it and moving on. They know there is a time and place for spelling and editors can help with that after the story is written. If you are giving your child a comment about his/her writing it would be helpful to focus on ideas not spelling right now to build his/her writing confidence..
Book Orders are due Tuesday for those who wish to order.
Wednesday will be book day again. Keep on bringing those books back to ensure we have new interesting books each week.
Next weekend is Thanksgiving. Enjoy time with your family and know that I am thankful everyday to spend time with your children. They are each unique and special in their own way.
Parent Reading Helpers– thanks for your patience and interest in helping our young readers. I have a confidentiality sheet you must read before helping. All information you gain during time in our class must remain in our classroom. If you have any observations that need sharing you are required to talk to me not other parents. When working with students, all parents will remain in the classroom as per the new guidelines. I hope to focus your help on listening to reading so that would be 8:15-8:45 Mon.,Tues., Thurs. and Fri. It will be 9:15- 9:45 Wed. as we have music first thing. Please sign up for one time on the coatroom schedule or send me a note and I can sign you up. Please do not bring preschoolers at this time as the students are developing effective reading habits. I will hang up the calendar Monday morning. You will listen to students read a good fit book, if the words are too hard gently encourage them to get an easier book, if it’s too easy encourage a level up. We are using our eagle eye, lips the fish, chunky monkey, checking if it makes sense and retelling the story.
Hi Tammy,
Which spelling group is Riley in? I would like to do some practice with him at home?
I did a coding game with him last week on the iPad called Lightbot Hour. I used to use it with my grade 3 students-it is free:)
Tracey- I can double check for you but I’m pretty sure he’s in digraphs. I’ll have to check out that coding site thanks.