Happy Thursday October 31st!

Reminders:
No school tomorrow!
Picture retakes are November 4th
Student led conferences will be in November. More information to come!

The students had a busy but great day today!

We began our day with ignite and trip to the library.
Ms. Paolini had the students rocking out and dancing to the monster mash!

After gym and snack students filled in their student of the week writing. It is great to see students copying speed and neatness increasing!

We then did our first official desk clean! I was quite impressed with how fast students got their desks back to clean.
We have a new desk plan next week in which the students will be getting a bit more independence with their school supplies!

After cleaning our desks we then counted all of the seeds that we carved from our classroom pumpkin! We had two estimates before counting. Everything from 30-30000 were the initial guesses. After seeing the bag of seeds students estimates were closer to actual amount. After counting in pairs we totaled up all the seeds to find....463 seeds!!! wow!

In the afternoon we had our pillars of care assembly before buddy time.

Congrats to the pillars of care winners and punctuality award winners!

I hope everyone has a safe evening and long weekend!
Happy Halloween and have fun trick or treating!
Mr Lancee

Happy chilly Tuesday Oct 29!

Welcome to our last week of October and today was a frosty one, but its getting warmer!

Reminders:
Orange and black day on Thursday Oct 31. Please no costumes at school.
Thursday is also our Pillars of Care assembly! 12:30 pm. I will announce the winners Wednesday!
No school Friday as it is a teacher PD day.

Today:
We began our day with our morning meeting leading into read to self. Students earned some time after read to self to read to someone!
Speaking of reading, I love how many students are completing their reading at home and earning hockey cards! Today I did not have time to hand them out at the end of the day so I will make sure everyone gets them tomorrow!

After reading we did our last day of soccer in phys. ed. Tomorrow we have dance again at 8:30 am!

After phys ed we did a whole class word work in which the students used scrabble tiles to make equations for spelling. Each letter was worth a number, they had to total up the numbers to find what their word was worth!

We then began our monster writing to describe our different monsters. Students had practiced this last week and we will be making this project for the rest of the week.

In the afternoon the students looked at our new pumpkin, "Kevin" and made an estimation about how many seeds were in the pumpkin. Tomorrow the students will be estimating how many seeds are in the bag of seeds I will pull out of the pumpkin. On Thursday we will count them all! Students also voted on the face they wanted for their pumpkin to be carved!

We finished off our day as botanists! Scientists of plants! Each student was given an ipad to research the different plants that can be found within Saskatchewan and the prairies. We then drew these plants and will be glueing them to a garden we will make in our classroom!

Have a great evening everyone!
Mr Lancee

Happy chilly Monday Oct 28!

Welcome to our last week of October and today was a frosty one!

Reminders:
Orange and black day on Thursday Oct 31. Please no costumes at school.
Thursday is also our Pillars of Care assembly! 12:30 pm. I will announce the winners Wednesday!
No school Friday as it is a teacher PD day.

This week in room 5:

LA: This week we will be writing Monster Descriptions that we will connect to some monster art we made today. We will be covering different word families that use vowels such as am, an, ad, at, et and ed. Students will also be practicing reading strategies and working to increase their reading levels!

Math: Students will be exploring place value up to 100. Students need to be able to write, draw and build numbers to 100. We will be using place value blocks, technology and games to solidify these ideas. Students will also be estimating and counting for our pumpkin competition using pumpkin seeds!

Social: The students took a plane to Saskatoon today! Our flight took us 1 hour and 6 minutes, better then 6 hours in a car! After a safety demonstration the students relaxed on their flight watching a video on the wonders of Saskatoon and their new Social concept, the prairies! This week we will be acting as botanists looking at the plants of the prairies.

Science: We are nearing the end of our liquids unit and only have a few concepts to cover. This week we will be focusing on the heating cooling of liquids!

So much fun to come in room 5!
Have a great night everyone:)

Happy Friday Oct 25!

Reminders:

Orange and Black Day October 31. Please do not wear costumes, instead wear orange and black!

Please return lunch room forms asap
Please return hockey reading tracker each day you read to receive a new hockey card:)

Special note:
Today I sent home a sheet with the students blue folders. This sheet is to be used to track home reading to earn hockey cards for our Calgary Flames reading program. Each time they read 30 mins they will earn a new card. 24 Cards to earn plus some additional Harvey the hound cards!
I know that we also have my home reading sheets to fill in as well. It would be great to record it twice to show once the hockey sheets are no longer being used. But it is not mandatory. The important thing is that your child is reading :)
Everyone read in class for 30 mins today so I gave everyone a hockey card!
Go Flames Go!

Today in room 5!

We began our day with a quick morning meeting before starting some ipads. This 50 min block was split into two sections.

Students were given 25 mins to do razkids with leveled reading books.
Followed by 25 mins of mathletics to work on specific math activities.

In gym we continued to play some four sided crash mat soccer!

After our Netflix Friday for 15 mins while eating snack we did our student of the week writing.
It was great to learn so much about a member of our class!

After writing about the student of the week we transitioned into a very exciting science experiment.

We wanted to test the absorbency of different fabrics and materials.

The materials were as follows:
Wax paper
Sponge
Tin foil
Shamwow cloth
microfiber cloth
Napkin

Each material submersed in water for 10 secs and the squeezed into a measuring cup.  We measured the amount of water in terms of cups and ounces!

After some rigorous testing, we discovered...........

The least absorbent material was tin foil and wax paper!

The most absorbent material was a sponge holding 1 cup or 8 ounces of water!
Wahoo! The students prediction was correct!

After cleaning up the room the students headed out at the end of the day!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy Thursday October 24!

Reminders:

Halloween Dance tonight 6-8! Come watch the teachers dress up for the costume contest! Make sure you dress up :)

Orange and Black Day October 31. Please do not wear costumes, instead wear orange and black!

Please return lunch room forms asap

Today in room 5:

We began our day with Ignite! The students favorite way to start the day!

We then moved into the library for some quiet reading and taking out of new books.
Students did a great job and were thanked by Ms Paolini for their quiet work!

Next Mr Sadowsky took the students for gym and crash mat soccer! They shoot....They score!

After our snack we continued our monster writing from the previous day! Students used adjectives to describe monsters using their senses. What does your monster look, smell, sound and feel like?
I see some great writing coming from the young authors in room 5 :)

After writing we moved into math in which we did some place value centers. The students were given a tupperware with several different items and they count them using ones and tens. Once they counted the objects they showed me and I gave them a new tupperware! Great way to practice place value!

In the afternoon the buddies came to join us to make a mural of the Calgary city skyline! We are using a large piece of paper to make buildings, homes, trees, clouds and we will be turning it into a large mural to display in our classroom!

We ended the day by using water orbs to test our word of the week: ABSORBENCY!

Dry










After adding to water

 30 mins later

We will see what they look like tomorrow!

Have a great evening everyone!
See you at the dance!

Happy Wednesday October 23!

Reminders:

Halloween Dance Tomorrow 6-8! Come watch the teachers dress up for the costume contest! Make sure you dress up :)

Orange and Black Day October 31. Please do not wear costumes, instead wear orange and black!

Please return lunch room forms asap

A quick announcement!

Reading...Give it a Shot

BHS has enrolled in the Calgary Flames reading program.  Students will be bringing home tracking sheets to monitor how much they read each day.  Can you please sign the spot needed if they are reading at home?  1half hour read = 1 Flames hockey card in grade 2.  Once they collect all 24, they can move onto the bonus card collection of Harvey the Hound doing funny things! The reading competition starts now and ends early December.  The more they read the more chance we have of the Calgary Flames visiting our school!  Thank you for your support and work with encouraging your child to read! Go Flames Go! 

Happy Tuesday October 22!
Reminders:
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8! Come watch the teachers dress up for the costume contest!
Orange and Black Day October 31. Please do not wear costumes, instead wear orange and black!
Please return lunch room forms asap

Today!

We began our day with our Tuesday morning meeting focusing on our days of the week, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXMofxtDPUQ)
the weather, special events coming up, and the number of days we have been in school!

We then transitioned into some reading strategies. We focused our efforts today on...

This strategy involves using the first letter of a word and the picture to figure out the tricky word.

Students then put this strategy into play doing some read to self and read to someone.

After some intense games of soccer in the gym the students went back to class for a snack and a story.

We then moved into some word work stations practicing word families using am and an

Students found several words that used these family of words like ham, ran, ram, hand, and so many more!

We then did our tri weekly basic facts test in which the students answered 20 + &- questions. I use this data throughout the year to measure student growth!



After math, students had some time to finish writing their "what I did on the weekend". We use a walking story format to support students writing a minimum of 4 sentences with pictures!

In the afternoon students went straight to music before returning to class for a science experiment!

Today we tested how solids dissolve in liquids!
Ask your children if sugar, baking soda, and coffee grounds dissolve in water!

Have a great evening everyone!
Mr Lancee

Happy Monday October 21!
Reminders:
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31
Please return lunch room forms asap


This week in room 14:

Math: We are working with place value recognizing numbers to 100. Students will be counting and sorting different objects using ones and tens to support their understanding. Today students used ones blocks and a chart to count to 10 and make ticks

Science: Liquids! We are doing several experiments this week to cover principles like density, mixing liquids and solids, and absorbency tests! Today we experimented with the density of different liquids!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrBYp_Op2ME
This link is a video similar to the experiment we did today but we did it with 1's blocks.

Social: We will be exploring the prairie communities of Saskatoon later in the week!

LA: This week we are focusing on reading strategies and building our phonics knowledge with word families like am, an, ed, and more!

Keep up with your home reading and mathletics!

Have a great evening everyone!
Mr Lancee

Happy Friday Oct 18!
Reminders:
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31

Reminders:
Please return lunch room forms asap

Today I sent home our first scholastic booklets! :)
I will be putting in the orders for book orders on the 15th of each month. So if your child would like to order some books I will be sending out the first order Nov 15th.
Two ways to pay:
1. bring in cheques in a envelope with the order form. I will mail them off!
2. Order online through scholastics and just search my name!


Thank you all for keeping up with razkids, home reading and mathletics! The at home practice is so important for supporting students daily learning!

Today!

We began our day with working at the carpet to talk about the "The Size of a Problem!"

 We are learning that depending on the size of a problem, there is also a reaction that should match. For example, breaking your pencil...should not a huge problem! It is a tiny problem that you can solve on your own! We will continue this work next week!

After some time on Mathletics we moved into gym and then reading buddies.

The middle part of our morning was reviewing the science experiment from the previous day and recording our findings in science journals.

We finished off our day by catching up on work from the week before clean up at the end of the day!

Have a great weekend everyone :)
Mr Lancee

Good afternoon everyone! Happy Thursday October 17!

Reminders:
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31
3 Notices were sent home today!
 1. Small pink form with information about the halloween dance
 2. Large pink form with some information about lunchroom
 3. White form about the Jacket Racket!

I wanted to inform everyone that we needed to evacuate our classroom because of an incident.
We continued our work in the library doing razkids and mathletics on the ipads before heading off to a special grade 6 classroom to do a science experiment! More details below!


Today in room 5!

We began our day with ignite! I have to say that today the students were ecstatic to be able to do an activity of choice since they missed it Monday!

We then went to the library to get some new library books for in class and the weekend.

After a great gym class I introduced our new activity in math:
Number of the day!

During this activity we use a laminated sheet to break down  numbers. I began by showing them how I would fill in each of the categories.
This one activity covers several numbers concepts including:
-Odd and even
-1 more, 1 less, 10 more, ten less
-tally marks
-10's grid
-expanded form
-place value houses

After doing the activity myself I then did the activity together with the class before allow the students to try it on their own!

We then moved into word work doing two new work activities which included roll a word and word spirals! Students now have 5 different word work activities to choose from. They will eventually have 15 :) They each slowly get introduced!

After word work we did our student of the week writing! We finished this after lunch before catching up on some Razkids time.

After moving from the library we transitioned into another classroom for a science experiment.
The goal:
Discover how different liquids mix!

The class used plastic cups, spoons, water, dish soap, syrup, and oil to test this experiment!

We first drew the cups of water with each liquid. Then students worked with a partner to mix the liquids slowly and record the changes they saw! Tomorrow we will be discussing what we saw!

Hope everyone has a great evening!
Mr Lancee

Good afternoon everyone! Happy Wednesday October 16!

Hope all of you had a great long weekend and are ready for a short week back at school!

Reminders:
Fun Lunch tomorrow Oct 17
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31

This short week in room 5:

Math:
We will be continuing to develop our number sense with numbers to 100. Today we did some activities and games that have students identifying different numbers in a hundreds chart.

LA:
Reading reading reading!
This is our big focus every week but I try to schedule at least 30-45 mins of reading everyday!
We will also be starting word work stations this week in which students will choose a station to build words in different ways using our spelling words.

Words this week include:

ball

going

was

bike

with

they

this

We will be focusing on the Th blend this week and next!

Alongside word work students will also be journaling every other day!

Social:

We will be finishing the last part of our circle project: Earth! 

Science:

This and next week we will be focusing on lots of science! We will be mixing liquids with water, testing how well things absorb and more leading in to next week!

Health:

We will be learning about the difference between a small problem and a big problem!

Always busy in room 5!

Have a wonderful Wednesday evening!

Mr Lancee

Happy Thursday Oct 10!

We have a new pillar of the month: Respect!

Reminders:
Non School days for Students: October: 11, 14, 15
Crazy hair day Oct 16
Fun Lunch Oct 17
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31


Short message today:

I hope everyone has a great long weekend!
Remember all the things you are thankful for, spend some time with loved ones, and eat some tasty grub!

All the best :)

Mr Lancee

Happy Wednesday Oct 9!

We have a new pillar of the month: Respect!

Reminders:
Non School days for Students: October: 11, 14, 15
Crazy hair day Oct 16
Fun Lunch Oct 17
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31

Parents and guardians,
I wanted to inform everyone that two incidents took place today in which the classroom had to be evacuated. Students did an excellent job evacuating and we were able to head to the library where we continued our classroom learning in a different space.


Highlights of the day!

Math: the students worked with buddies to complete a mathletics quiz as one of the final lessons for our patterns unit. Please make sure students are logging into mathletics to complete assignments regularly :)

Social: We have almost completed our communities comparing project! Today we drew several flags to represent all the countries in our continent. Tomorrow, The earth!

In LA we did our student of the week writing. It was great to interview the student and learn about our classmate!

Last day of school before the long weekend! Have a great day everyone!
Mr Lancee

Happy Tuesday Oct 8!

We have a new pillar of the month: Respect!

Reminders:
Non School for Students: October: 11, 14, 15
Crazy hair day Oct 16
Fun Lunch Oct 17
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31

Today we tried something a little different!

We began our day with quiet reading. I found that the students were calm and ready to learn rather then feeling riled up or sad they did not get to do soft start for longer. I am going to keep this morning routine going :)


Instead of math we moved into a morning meeting, a word work game and gym.


In math we worked on Start Finish style patterns...

These patterns looked like:

Start     Finish                 Start  Finish
  1             2                      2        4
   2            3                      3        5
   3            4                      4        6

        +1                                 +2

These are a type of growing patterns!


In LA we did some robot sentence writing using walking story paper.
Students write four simple sentences:

I like_______.
I like _______.
I like ________.
I like ________.

These type of sentences develop basic sight words, encourage capitals and periods, and get students to not fear writing! By using their own invented spelling for the last word students begin to experiment with sounding out words for writing and not fearing spelling the word wrong.
We will move into editing later in the year, but right now its about developing writing confidence!

In the afternoon we moved into social where we worked on our world project. Today we filled in the My Country circle and tomorrow we will start My Continent!

We ended our day with a science experiment that tested water vs syrup similarities and differences!
Each group of students got a jar of both liquids and compared them based off the colour and viscosity. We began to record our findings in our science folders before the end of the day!


Hope everyone stays warm this evening!
Have a great day!
Mr Lancee

Happy Monday Oct 7!

We have a new pillar of the month: Respect!

Reminders:
Picture day October 7
Non School for Students: October: 11, 14, 15
Crazy hair day Oct 16
Fun Lunch Oct 17
Halloween Dance October 24 6-8
Orange and Black Day October 31


I wanted to inform everyone that an incident took place today in which the classroom had to be evacuated. Students did an excellent job evacuating and we were able to head outside for recess before heading back to class.

Today was picture day! The students did a great job lining up before heading down to the gym to get our pictures taken!

Next we had some time in Math to do some hundreds charts patterns!
Students were able to notice patterns such as counting by 4's always ends in an even number. These basic skills will help students in both number building, addition and eventually multiplication!

Today was the first day we did read to someone during reading time! It is a great skill for helping kids to read aloud and learn new reading strategies.

In the afternoon the students did a lesson on "Being a Respectful Student!" These ideas are similar to our pillars of care and students were able to reflect on how they can show respect!

Starting this week I will be posting my weekly words to my blog. Try spelling them at home and use them to practice building sentences!

This weeks Word Wall Words:

here

you

on

little

has

girl

boy

will

Have a great evening everyone!
Mr Lancee