January 20th 2023

Hello families,

It was a busy week! We had the opportunity to explore a school wide learning provocation in our Learning Commons. So far there is a large aquarium with some eggs inside. Students were so excited to guess what is going to come from these strange looking eggs. We also looked at some photos from earlier this week, as they have already started to change! Students took part in an "I see, I think, I wonder" activity to practice their observation and research skills.

On Friday we visited the aquarium to take part in a "bubble" thinking routine for a 10 minute observation. Some students noticed that these eggs are beginning to "swish and wiggle" and even grow some "fins and eyes". We will have to see what they look like next week!

In literacy we began exploring digraphs as a class, focusing on "CH", "SH" and "TH". These also have their own Animated Literacy actions. Ask your child what they are!

We took part in our usual weekend writing, highlighting the purpose of transitions words and what makes a sentence. I am happy to see many students using this predictable writing task to focus on their printing, writing organization and sentence structure.

Our grade 1/2 team is also reassessing our Work Work groups as many students have shown amazing growth! We are hoping to start these up again next month. Grade 1 students have also been completing government math and literacy assessments with me this month.

Here are some books we read this week:

In math we continued to learn about number lines and missing numbers within a number line. Number lines will continue to be a part of our daily practice for a while during opening task.

As we move into addition strategies, students explored adding using pictures, and adding using number bonds. We played number bond games with dominos to support the development of fact fluency. Try it out at home!

In Science we conducted a measuring temperature experiment were students demonstrated their estimation, reasoning, and measuring skills. At each station students were given a container with a form of water in it (hot, cold, snow, room temperature). They then filled out their data chart reflecting their observations.

We discussed the concept of "below zero" and how state of water changes when the temperature gets very low and very high . Students also shared their understanding of descriptive words such as "hot, freezing, cool, warm, and cold" to describe their predictions.

In Social Studies we learned about Humility, our sixth out of the Seven Sacred Teachings. This is represented by the Wolf. Many students made the connection that Humility is failing and trying it again (take things lightly, failing can be pretty funny some times!) and putting others needs in front on your own.