Truthful Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Creative Dance continues in the physical education as we added more movements with a partner. There is a lot of smiles and effort being put into each creative piece.  We look forward to sharing these moves with the rest of the school the last week of December before break. With a partner today we explored how sound traveled through a variety of mediums. It was interesting to hear the different sounds. We also finished collecting information about our chosen landforms and will be sharing the information with our groups tomorrow. Tomorrow is Toonie Treat Day and we can purchase a bag of popcorn! Just a reminder that there is no school on Friday, December 2, 2016.

Toonie Treat Day

Tomorrow is Toonie Treat Day!

Bring $2 and buy a popcorn this Tuesday and Wednesday!

Mindful Monday, November 28, 2016

Today we watched a video about landforms and then brainstormed types of landforms. In groups of four we are using the following website, http://www.pkearthandspace.com/ to collect information about specific landforms that we will share with our group. As a class we practiced making jot notes about caves and how we did not have to write complete sentences, but just the important ideas. Our information is being collected in a chart form.  Also today we started our reading new novels that we selected after book talks from last week. We read for twenty minutes, then discussed what we found interesting or what we visualized while we were reading. After our small group discussions we wrote about our conversations and what we had shared. For the next three weeks physical education and music will be combined for creative movement. We look forward to sharing what we have learned in three weeks. Reminder there is no school on Friday, December 2, 2016.

Thoughtful Thursday, November 24, 2016

Today we reviewed parts of the ear and had an opportunity to demonstrate our understandings in relation to hearing and sound. In the afternoon we looked at more of the heart values and continued to write about personal experiences (for example, writing about a time that we showed kindness/helpfulness/empathy/acceptance/respectfulness/truthfulness). It is our goal as a class to become more empathetic (ask me what empathy means). We realize each day is an opportunity to show empathy and will be looking at being more intentional with the HEART values at Ken Taylor. 

Reminder: No School Tomorrow 

Wondering Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Today we had a Spirit Day and a fun lunch. We wore our favourite colours and talked about the "why". Most of us mentioned that the colour makes us feel happy.

We have been learning about being Ambassadors at Ken Taylor School. We considered some values and virtues today that have been acknowledged as a part of Ken Taylor School's 'HEART'...

Helpfulness 

Empathy

Acceptance

Responsibility 

Truthfulness 

Yesterday we identified that ambassadors should be kind. 

We identified different colours for each value/virtue and then tied it into a personal experience. We will continue to work on these as we build on our ambassador like qualities and characteristics. 

Truthful Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Our Tuesday was full of writing, reading, reflecting and visiting the Learning Commons. Today we learned about Mr. Dyck's favourite colour (it came us as a surprise!) and watched a video of him reading a great story "Harold and the Purple Crayon". The book was full rich examples of creativity and problem solving. We noticed that no matter what the main character, Harold, got himself into, he was able to use his creativity to solve it. 

We know that a good leader, or ambassador, is usually an effective problem solver. Our class brainstormed some ideas of the other characteristics or values of an ambassador including: kindness, patience, being friendly, thinking outside the box, being calm and alert. We will continue to strive to all be ambassadors at Ken Taylor School and in our community just like Ken Taylor was!

A reminder: Tomorrow is Spirit Day - please wear your favourite coloured t-shirt and be prepared to talk about WHY it is your favourite colour :) 

Mindful Monday, November 21, 2016

Today we reviewed the Zones of Regulation. We thought about how we felt right after lunch, and were prompted to share a synonym for the word we were thinking of. For example, one student was happy but chose "joyful". We will continue to swap out the words in our speaking and writing to build our vocabulary. This will also make our writing more interesting for our readers. We then practiced mindfulness and how to relax each part of our body, and then came back to the circle answered the question "What zone am I now? Did the mindfulness activity change the way I feel? Am I ready to learn?". We wrote down our answers as a part of our reflection.

We continued learning about "Hooking Our Readers", and wrote about our weekends. So far, we have learned about making our learning more interesting by starting our writing in two ways:                    1) onomatopoeia and  2) question. Today we learned another hook, 3) Setting. By describing the setting (where and when the event/story takes place) we can draw our reader in.

We will continue to work on developing our hooks around the setting (where and when) of our stories. We want to create vivid pictures in our reader's head.



Reminders for this week:

Wednesday is Spirit Day - please wear your favourite colour t-shirt, Fun Lunch Today

Friday is P.D. - no classes for students

Thoughtful Thursday, November 17, 2016

Today we worked on goal setting and what we were going to do to help us achieve our goals. We will finish this tomorrow. In physical education we played a game that required large group cooperation. It was called "ins and outs". We really had to keep moving! Just a reminder that tomorrow is early dismissal.

Wondering Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Wow! What a busy day we had as we learned about mediums that sound will travel through  and that dolphins and bats use echolocation to find food or find their way in the cave. We know that sound waves travel away from the source of the sound. Did you know that the Rhinoceros Hornbill lives in the Borneo rainforest? During our virtual field trip to the Borneo Rainforest we heard the sounds four different animals make and we had to guess which animal made those sounds. Tomorrow we are creating a poem about loud and soft sounds and sharing our chain reactions with the other students. We can't wait to hear and watch other groups ideas.


In the afternoon, an occupational therapist named Miss. Erin came in to talk about Self Regulation. This is a pretty big concept we will continue to explore, and we learned that it is a way we recognize how we feel (feelings are okay!) but then how to regulate (bring ourselves to a happy, ready to learn place). We learned some strategies including breathing (in through our nose and out through our mouth), taking body breaks, and using our words to communicate our feelings.

Here are the 4 Zone of Regulation we learned about:


                                                         




Our target is always the Green Zone.



Looking for some great math games? Here are a few links:


http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mw/swfs/rockhopper_grade2.html

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mw/swfs/rockhopper_grade3.html

http://www.ictgames.com/football2.html

https://nrich.maths.org/9283

Truthful Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Today we continued working on the Rube Goldberg machines and will start presenting them tomorrow. We also are looking forward to our Virtual Reality Field Trip (in the gym) on the acoustics on the Borneo Rainforest. We will take what we learned from our field trip and then create haiku poems. In math today we worked on place value and a fun word problem (similar to Mad Libs) and then play a Frog Hopping Math game, which can be found here. (a great way to reinforce basic math facts!). How high can you get on the game?

Reminder: Picture Retakes are tomorrow :) Please photo package and/or note along with your child if they are needing retakes.

Mindful Monday, November 14, 2016

Today we reviewed the meaning of narrative and expository texts, and then had the chance to write our own narrative. We continue to learn about making our writing more interesting, and looked at
writing hooks.

The students were asked "What do you think this means?" before we looked at the meaning. Here are a few of their responses:

"when you do buddy reading, get into the book...trying to get into it"

"you put your arms together"

"getting your readers interested in a high level book, 200 page book, if you're in grade 6"

"getting a big group and reading to them"

"when you read the book, sounding the words"

"when you're writing a story, be very descriptive, so the readers want to read more, they will get interested in it, add action, motion, drama"

"you get interested in a book and you want to read more" 

"they really love the book"

"trying to make the book you are writing more interesting"

"get your reading partner interested in a book"

 

After learning what a hook is, we were able to summarize it as "making the book interesting from the first sentence. If you're a really good writer, from the first word! "

We wrote about one event from our long weekend, but had to use an onomatopoeia. Ask your child what onomatopoeia and event they wrote about. If their red scribbler is in their backpack, please review and ask them to finish their writing from today.

To wrap our day we worked on mindfulness and did a bit of mindful colouring while listening to some calming music. We continue to learn new strategies to be in control of our bodies and enjoyed this one!



Reminders: Half Day this Friday 

School Photos - all orders are due Tuesday, November 15 and Picture Retakes are on Wednesday, November 16. If you would like retakes for your child please return the original proof sheet with retakes requested on the envelope.  If you no longer have the original proofs please send a note requesting retakes.

Wondering Wednesday, November 9, 2016

We have finished our iMovie for the Remembrance Day ceremony with our grade 1 buddies. This morning we practiced and recorded our parts of the poem with our buddies. We also practiced our song this morning with all the other grade 3 students. We continued working on our designs for our Rube Goldberg machines to produce a simple sound and it was interesting to hear all the conversation surrounding the chain reactions that we could create. We are very excited to start building the machines. Reminder, please bring food donations for the Veteran’s Food Bank tomorrow. Remembrance Day Ceremony is tomorrow at 9:30 am. No school on Friday, November 11^th. 

Truthful Tuesday, November 8, 2016

We have been busy preparing for our Remembrance Day ceremony with our Grade 1 buddies on “What is Peace” to us during buddy time. With our written poem we created a wonderful watercolour visual for our ceremony. During integrated studies in the morning we have been exploring how sound travels to and through the parts of the ear. We are now creating a Rube Goldberg machine to demonstrate how the sound wave travels. In our small groups will be drawing a diagram, listing our materials, and designing the machine to create a simple sound. On Tuesday next week we will be demonstrating our machines to the rest of the class. In math we continue to explore numbers. Please remember we are also collecting food for the Veteran’s Food Bank. There is a Remembrance Day ceremony on Thursday, November 10^th at 9:30 am in our gym. No school on Friday, November 11^th.

Fit Friday, November 4, 2016

Today Mrs. Buonomo lead us in a practice for the Remembrance Day Ceremony next week. Students who have a uniform (Cadets, Scouts, Brownies, Girl Guides etc.)  are asked to wear it to the ceremony, and the rest of the students are asked to dress up (dresses, nice pants and shirts) as a sign of respect. In class we discussed the significance of the poppy and Remembrance Day. A few student's responses:

 "So we can remember the soldiers who died in the war"

 "To show respect for the soldiers who died"

 "For the people that were soldiers and they died in the war"

 "To represent the soldiers who once died for our peace"

"In honor of people who died in the war"

 "To honor the soldiers who fought for our freedom"

 "to support the soldiers who protected other countries"

"to show the respect for giving us freedom"

In art we began our poppy wreath project using coffee filters and paint. We also looked at some pictures on the Smartboard of a few pieces of architecture in Calgary on Memorial Drive and discussed their meanings.

Thoughtful Thursday, November 4, 2016

Today we considered the question "How are sound waves like chain reactions?". We continue to learn about the parts of our ears and how sound travels. We also worked on descriptive writing during our read and reflect activity. Our exploration around the amount of water bottles saved we have saved - today we noticed that the numbers keep on getting bigger and bigger, or increasing. This pattern shows us that the amount of water bottles saved keeps growing, especially the water fountain by our grade 3 hallway (it has reached over 1000!). Tomorrow we will look at the direct impacts water bottles have on the environment.

Wondering Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Today we thought about the "WHY?" behind our 'Bottles Saved" data collection. We have started to realize the environmental impacts of plastics and how numeracy is used in our everyday lives. Thank you to everyone who brought in clean bottle caps - we will continue to collect them for an extended period, so keep them coming! 

Truthful Tuesday, November 1

Today we collected data, once again, from the water fountains. The picture shows how many water bottles we have saved so far...if your child has their blue math duotang in their backpack, please ensure they complete the work and return it tomorrow. Thank you! 

You will also find a notice that was sent home today...we are collecting clean bottle caps! 

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are collecting clean bottle caps!

Why?! In math we have been collecting data (numbers) from the water fountains at Ken Taylor School.  On each water fountain there is a display that counts the number of plastic water bottles that have been saved by using the water fountains. We are representing these numbers different ways and want to reuse the clean bottles caps.

Please send all clean bottle caps with your child to school in a plastic bag.

Thank you – Happy Collecting!

Mrs. Steckly