September 14th 2021

Hello families,

This week we jumped right in to our first writing workshop! The workshop consists of 4-6 days, each day moving on to the next step in
the writing process when appropriate. The steps incude:

1: Plan

2: Share

3:Draft

4:Revise

5: Next Steps

We began by looking at "The Best Part of Me" as our mentor text, reflecting on what the author did really well and how they engaged their readers. After reading the book students received a graphic organizer (modified for their specific writing level) and we began to plan. Some graphic organizers contained sentence frames or prompts, while others were a blank slate! We discussed the term "stamina" and how throughout the year we will be working on our writing stamina, just like people train their stamina in sports and other actives. I was blown away as our beginning writing stamina is already 10 minutes!

On day 2 students shared their work with a partner and then their partner provided helpful and kind feedback, with a possible suggestion. Being a plan, students were told to focus on commenting on ideas, not spelling or grammar. Upon receiving their feedback, students used a pencil crayon to add at least one more idea to their writing.

For our draft writing students maintained their stamina while writing a rough draft, ensuring they refered to their graphic organizer to guide them. During this process students are encouraged to just write their ideas down and not get caught up on spelling or conventions. They simply "GUM" (give it a try, underline it, and move on).  We will be moving on to the revision step next week once everyone has completed their draft.

Writing workshop is a great way for students to develop and enhance their writing skills  through a familiar framework that we will use throughout the year!





In math students applied their knowledge of data collection and bar graphs by taking the data we collected as a class about pets and creating a bar graph in their math book. Some students utilized materials or a skeleton graph template to support their understanding.





We also continued to review and explore different ways to look at place value. Students demonstrated their understanding through the Montessori base ten material, visuals and games. Students who wanted more of a challenge tried some fun place value riddles, requiring them to think outside the box!


As it feels more and more like fall outside, we created a "Fall Favourites" sketchbook page, introducing  and using sketch-noting techniques. They turned out great!


In science we started our hearing and sound unit by creating a "Know and Wonder"  sketchbook page where students wrote about their previous knowledge and things they wonder about hearing and sound.


At the end of the week we began to discuss the anatomy of the human ear and how sound travels through our ear to allow us to hear. 

Our Daily LA groups have been created and students have been doing an excellent job at staying engaged during this time. During word work, students explore beginning and ending blends, using a dictionary and their previous knowledge to see what kind of words they can find!


To celebrate Dot Day on Wednesday we painted some blending art and incorporated pointillism into the centre. They are beautiful additions to our art wall!




As a class we delved into the Magic Treehouse Series by Mary Pope Osborne. These books were a childhood favourite for myself and I am so happy to see the class enjoying them as previous reads, current reads, or maybe something to read in the future! We just finished the first book and are on to the second. We will be reading other novels throughout the year but this series has a great hook for students who may need a new series to follow.


Grey cards with your child's login information were sent home Thursday. They are signed up for RAZ kids and my Google Classroom at this time. Please subscribe to my blog if you wish to receive notifications for when I post. This can be found in the top right corner of the page.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss. Greenhall


Upcoming Dates

Sept 21 : International Day of Peace: UN Website link: https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace 

September 22 :Terry Fox Run Day 

September 24 : Virtual Classroom Tour

September 28 : Picture Day 

September 29 : Orange Shirt Day 

September 30 : Non-operational Day 


Terry Fox Run 2021 

We will be having our Annual Terry Fox Run on Wednesday, September 22, 2021. Teachers will be discussing with students the life of Terry Fox and the contributions he has made to cancer research as well as coming together in the afternoon for a virtual wrap up assembly.  Students are encouraged to wear blue/white/ or their school t-shirt on this day. 

Students can dedicate their run to someone who they know has been affected by cancer. Please speak to your child prior to our run and if they choose to dedicate their run to someone, they can share this in their class sharing circle prior to or after their run. 

Should you wish to make a donation online, please use the following link to donate through the Terry Fox website: 

http://www.terryfox.ca/LakeBonavista 


Let’s keep Terry’s dream to find a cure for cancer alive! 



ADmazing Savings Coupon Books

ADmazing Savings Fundraiser has begun! The proceeds from this fundraising activity will be used directly in your child’s classroom. Books are available for $25.00 each, of which Lake Bonavista will use $11.50 for the benefit of our students.

 

If you wish to take advantage of these discounts, please complete the order form printed on the back on the ADmazing envelope, and enclose the correct amount of money - $25.00 per book ordered. - directly to your child’s classroom teacher by Thursday, October 7th, 2021 or earlier.

 

Please ensure if you are returning the book that you have not scratched off the code area for the app, as the book will not be returnable if the code is visible. 

 

Additional books for Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer or Southern Alberta may be ordered at $25.00 each for family, friends and relatives.  If you wish to order additional books, please send your order as soon as possible to your child’s teacher so that the order can be filled.  As a school, we discourage door-to-door solicitation.


Virtual Open House

What an amazing school year start-up we have been having at LBS! Typically, at this time of year, we host Parent Teacher Conferences in an Open House format. With restrictions due to Covid-19, our format has been adjusted. This year, each class has created a video to introduce families to our school, answer commonly asked questions and show details of how our class works. These videos will be released on Thursday, September 23, 2021 at 4:00 pm. If you have questions after viewing the video, please reach out. We are certainly missing seeing families in our school building and look forward to future opportunities where this may be possible.