Winter Break

Thank you for your support with your child's learning so far, parents! A huge thanks for all the gifts and generosity this week. I am truly humbled.
We have had a really good start and first term to our Grade 2 year and will be moving on with new units once school resumes on Tuesday, January 8.
Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!
Ian

November 19-23

Thank you for attending our November conferences, parents and guardians of Room 5 students! It was great seeing you again or meeting for the first time to discuss your child's progress so far and
how to help with their development.
We have had a productive but short week- trying to finish up our unit on addition and subtraction strategies for Math, and our "Exploring Liquids" unit in Science. We will continue working on addition and subtraction all year, but increase the difficulty level to include numbers up to 100.
We are wrapping up our Social Studies unit on Saskatoon over the next couple of weeks. Ask your child what they can remember about Saskatoon and the Ukrainian community there!
Thanks again, parents, and I look forward to seeing you at our Winter Concert on Thursday, December 6!
Ian

Oct 29-Nov 2

Halloween week! One of the writing tasks students completed this week was a journal entry about our trip to Heritage Park. These are now entered into students' Visual Journals. All students did well on their Spelling homework and tests that we did today. We had a fun Halloween party on Wednesday, and students wrote a journal entry about their night the following morning. These are also in their Visual Journals, and we will share them with you during our conferences later this month.In Math, we continued working on addition and subtraction strategies, and learned how to complete a basic Sudoku puzzle. In Science, students learned that a drop of water can be manipulated in a variety of ways once it is placed on a non-absorbant surface. (We used wax paper).
We also had a wonderful assembly from the Earth Rangers on Thursday. And finally, our class won 2nd prize in the Elementary Pumpkin Decorating Contest!
Check it out!

Oct 15-19

Hello Parents,
In Room 5 this week, students learned how to write sentences in order to describe a process. They wrote a short paragraph about their leaf art, beginning their sentences with "First", "Second", "Third", "Fourth", and "Finally". They are up on our bulletin board if you'd like to see. We also created some Halloween scenes by cutting coloured paper and tearing blue paper for clouds.
In Science, students used eye droppers to stack drops of water onto a penny. They were surprised to discover they they could add close to 20 drops before it overflowed!
In Social Studies, we worked on the flags of Saskatchewan and Nunavut. We

also continued our work on one of Calgary's pioneers, Sam Livingston, in preparation for next week's trip to Heritage Park. It looks like we are going to enjoy pleasant weather for our trip!
Thanks for reading!

October 9 - 12

Hello Parents!
 In Language Arts this week, students wrote sentences about their long weekend. They were asked to use some describing words about something they smelled or tasted.  We also did some work on nouns. Students separated pictures into the categories of "people", "places", "things" and "animals". We did some keyboarding practice using laptops. Students should now know what "Home Row" is on the keyboard.
In Math, we have continued working on mastering our doubles facts for addition.
Bon Weekend,
Ian

October 1-5

Hello Parents!
Thanks to everyone for helping your child settle into a homework routine with our Spelling lessons, and for signing your child's Home Reading pages! We are continuing with reading assessments and have finished with nearly half the class. We did some writing on "Being Thankful" this week, and your child should be bringing this home today. In Math, we focused on addition strategies and played "Base 10 Bingo" to help with students' number sense. We had a fun outside PE session where we made a large game area in the deep snow to play "Fox and Hares"- ask your child about it!
In Art, we did a few painting sessions. The leaf stamping was particularly successful and we hope to have the opportunity to collect freshly fallen leaves again next week to try again.
I hope your family enjoys a nice long Thanksgiving weekend! School resumes on Tuesday, October 9. We will not do Spelling homework next seek since it will be a 4-day week.

Sept 24-28

Thank you for coming to our Intake Conferences last week!
In Room 5 this week, students have written Acrostic poems with a Fall theme. These have gone into their Visual Journals. We have done some writing about Manners and something that was difficult to do but we persevered through (using Terry Fox as an example). The Terry Fox Run was Thursday afternoon.
In Math, we have been working on basic facts- noticing patterns, drawing numbers with Base Ten blocks, and arranging them in our Visual Journals.
We also began our Science unit on Liquids and managed to stay mostly dry!

Welcome to Room 5's Blog!

Hello Parents of Room 5 students!
This will be our weekly blog where I will let you know about some of the week's activities, upcoming events, and field trips, etc.
We have settled in to most of our routines this week. It's great to see a large group of students treating each other with respect and care.
We watched the construction outside our window for a while on Thursday, since we had to remain indoors during recess. We should be able to enjoy outdoor recess breaks again next week.
Intake Conferences are happening this coming Thursday and Friday! Please sign up for a time that works for you. Your child is welcome to attend as well. These conferences are a chance for you to share any information about your child with me that you feel would benefit their progress this year. I look forward to meeting you and hearing your thoughts.
We do have a field trip to Heritage Park coming up in late October as part of our "Early Calgary" unit in Social Studies. We will need a few parent volunteers to accompany us, so let me know if you have your CBE clearance and would like to help out on Oct. 24. Lots more info coming home soon!
Thank you,
Ian