January 16, 2026

Hello families,

Here is what we got up to this week:

We began learning about The Seven Sacred Teachings.

The Seven Sacred Teachings come from the Anishinaabe First Nations and have been shared across many First Nations communities in Canada. These teachings help guide us in learning how to care for ourselves, treat others with kindness and respect, and be good members of our community. They also connect closely to the new Alberta Grade 1 and 2 Social Studies curriculum, which focuses on identity, community, and understanding how our actions contribute to strong and caring communities.

In literacy we used loose parts to retell our stories of The Mitten. We then moved on to Step 2: share our ideas, and Step 3: draft.

Step 4: Revise

I worked with students to revise their writing. The focus was ensuring our ideas made sense, and that we added adjectives (Grade 1) or synonyms (Grade 2). After this students who were ready reviewed their writing for transition words, capital letters, and periods.

Words of the Week (for next week)

Spicy Words

respectful

revising

courage

In mathematics we continued learning about place value and practiced representing numbers with "Number of the Day" tasks and math games. We also made place value creatures for students to demonstrate their understanding.

In gym we explored mindful movement through Tai Chi with Sifu Greenhall. Students practiced stepping quietly in sequence, breathing with control, and counting in Japanese while learning a small part of a traditional Tai Chi drill. The focus was on awareness, balance, and moving with intention. Did you know that the complete version of theTai Chi drill we learned has 180 moves?