2nd last tuesday of the year

We painted a rock for your garden.
We read a story about the crocodiles who went to the beach but got distracted. Ask about it!
We wrote about a day at the beach this summer....hopefully!
We watched a frog/toad presentation by a mom in Mlle. Aucoin's class.

We are swimming even if the rain tells us not to...as long as it is open:')
We will play Thursday by ear, as they say. The forecast is looking to be siding with the farmers:(
Long term...looks good for Beaumont Spray Park on Monday and a surprise on Tuesday or Wednesday.
If you liked your father's day present, let me know!!!

June 17

Happy birthday to Xavier and Kadence! It was a sugarful afternoon.

We talked a bunch about boats and buoyancy. We talked about the different parts of a boat. We discussed materials one could use to build a boat no bigger than a grade 2 student's head. We checked if things would float or sink and why they do or don't.

We painted rocks for your garden. They'll come home tomorrow.

Remember to sign the permission form for the pool on Wednesday.

Don't forget we are biking to Fred John's on Thursday and each student should be able to do so with their necessary belongings in their backpack.

If the weather is extreme, we'll skip out and do alternate activities at the school.

Friday is activity day unless weather plays a role.

Monday is Beaumont Spray Park if weather is good. If not, Tuesday or Wednesday.

The other thing will happen when we have a more clear idea of the weather.

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. I have to sign out of our new gshare address and sign back in to blog and sign out to send notification. Pain in the derrière!!

The kids are behaving so well and I think they are having a good year's end.

June 5

There is a bit of homework. The students heard me read The Seven Silly Eaters! Ask them about it! They were given: My favourite part of the story was...
and I liked that part because...
They should have finished these two sentences, most have. If not, they must. They should also draw and colour a picture of the part of the story.
I sent home two forms/letters. Have a look.
That's it for now.

Busy June

Well hello all you parents out there! I have received some more scrap books...excellent! I will give you until Monday to pick one up and send it in as I have an awesome scrap-booking educational assistant who is putting this together for me, and in turn, you. She needs time to print pictures and assemble the order and prep the sections that fall under holiday celebrations and so on...

We had two track chicadees take off to Devon to race and jump and throw. Congratulations to Emily and Ella for participating in their first track and field event. I hear that ECPS dominated! Teach your child that word now! LOL. Must be in a good mood because I LOL'd!

My mood is directly linked to the the sunlight and the wind direction. Today I will have the wind at my back for most of my bike ride back to the city and that, as Martha says, is a good thing! Also, it's wing night at Brewster's and so I don't have to cook, just pay!

The kids are working on a document with survey questions in their google drive. The questions are for you to answer. We will take the results and make a pretty graph like professionals out in the real world.

We are waiting on release dates for the surprise field trip before permission forms come home in a sealed envelope. Once this happens, we will have solid dates for Beaumont Spray Park and anything else we will be doing.

I sent home some student work in the agenda so have a look. Ok! I go bike home now. Have a nice evening. Fly a kite with your child maybe? Walmart! 0.99$!

Monday, June 3

Today was the eighteenth last day of school. I did some testing. The kids wrote their dictée  on the verb avoir. I will send a copy home tomorrow. We also did another spelling test where the kids listen to me read a story and fill the missing words in. I gave them time to work on their geometrical shapes presentation. Most  should have it finished. If you like, have them open it up in their google drive and have a look.

This afternoon was science filled. We talked about matter, anything that has a mass and takes up space. We talked about how all matter is made of particles that are always moving. Heat them up and they go faster. Cool them down and they slow down. Ask the kids about this!? We talked about liquids and how they can dissolve some things and not others. We talked about cohesion of water molecules. We talked about how certain things can absorb water and other materials cannot.

Again, I imploded a pop can, showing that when gases cool down, the particles move closer together.

There are a some trips coming up. Beaumont spray park, Fred John's walk, possibly outdoor pool, a bbq and a surprise. Keep 'em peeled for permission forms!
What else? Oh yeah! On Friday, we are making pop and exploring dry ice! Possibly blowing up plastic pop bottles for fun!

Holy rain batman!

I had a great day in grade 2! We have been writing up a storm. We will continue to write til' the end!

Have a look at our bulletin boards next time you are in.

The dictée this week is the verb avoir/to have. J'ai/I have, tu as/you have, il a/he has, nous avons/we have, vous avez/you have (plural), ils ou elles ont/they have (masculin/feminine).

Homework:

J'______ un chien.
Elle _______ un chat.
Nous ________cinq dollars.
Vous ________ une grande maison.

Pics from pancake breakfast

Remember the day I said not to feed your kids breakfast? We talked about heat and temperature and how it helps us cook food. Evaporation, boiling, solidification, melting (of chocolate chips), etc.

Thanks to Kiyoshi's mom for the fruit tray! It balanced out the extra chocolate chips!!

May 27

I haven't blogged in a bit and I apologize for that. I have been pretty busy at home trying to get my 4 boys' homework done and getting the junior high boys into study mode.

The last two weeks we worked on the verb être/to be. They wrote the dictée for this on Thursday, after a lot of class practice each morning. Most did quite well and are able to use it in the present tense in a simple sentence.

We have been working hard in science and are all done the unit on temperature. The kids' assessment should be in the backpack. Everyone demonstrated a great or good understanding of the concepts that I taught. We have begun to learn about liquids, matter, particles, states of matter, etc.

Geometry is going well. Just about finished. All the kids are able to differentiate between 2D and 3D. Circles, squares, triangles, rectangles...no problem!

For the Saskatoon part of our social studies curriculum we enjoyed Prairie Day on Friday. The kids made perogies, paska bread, butter, a tractor, and, in the afternoon, enjoyed planting a bean seed and an obstacle course in the gym.

The next little while will fly by and there will undoubtedly be lots of activities coming up so keep 'em peeled eh!

"See, Callum! You just trace it...easy, peasy!"

"I never saw a pot made of construction paper, and in the form of a cube!?"

"Why am I sideways?"

"Hannah! Ella is my friend."

Here the kids made a little biodegradable pot in which they planted a bean seed. They were little farmers with an environmentally conscious side.

 Xavier loved having his mom in class...thanks Mme. Lepage!

They are checking out another student who built a 3 dimensional tractor! Wow factor extraordinaire!

  Tractor building causes intense focus!!!

 "And that's how I cut off my other 6 fingers..."

Measuring volumes is math baby!

 Proportions and ratios too...

 Please stop talking Mr. Pask and let us play with the play-dough.

 "Why can't we make butter with salt??"

 "Prairie Day rocks!"

 "Mighty fine lookin' perogies you have there, Alex! I like your technique!"

"Thanks Kadence. Back home in Newfoundland we do this with seafood!"

 "Pask, just let us start!!!!!"

 Jumping over the bales was mounting the horse on the farm.

 Emily is simulating the milking of the cows at this part. In the background, Kadee is in the pig pen, dodging the little porkers. It's all in the imagination!

Xavier had a big horse. He took his time!

 Ella jumps into the pond at the end of the obstacle course! She looks happy! Emily does the same below!

The day was a success and the kids had a blast. Thanks to Hannah, Greysyn, and Xavier's mom for volunteering and thanks to all who sent in supplies for the making of food. The kids enjoyed the perogies and the bread with butter and jam in the afternoon. 

May 15

Today the kids worked on skip counting backwards! 100, 95, 90, 85, and so on...

We tried to work with the Chrome books but that world wide web thing was turned off this morning for the Provincial Achievement Tests. The kids were not happy.

We did do another of our little math facts practice activities. You may have seen them glued into the agenda?  They're quick and easy and keep the kids on their toes.

After library, we heard a story about a weird woman named Fleurette who came to take care of Clara and Henri while their mom went on vacation. Ask them about it.

After PE we had to write about this story. In order to get a deluxe burger, the story should have: capitals, periods, short simple sentences that make sense, be neat, and have order to it. Ask them to write down in their agenda what they think they deserve for their efforts.

We ended the day with our grade 6 reading buddies who helped us with this writing and who also read with us.

Tomorrow, I will guide the class through an assessment of the their learning of our unit on Temperature. Maybe ask them what they know or have learned about temperature in class. Body temp, room temp, insulation, conductors, thermometers, etc.

May 9

Hello. I hope you are enjoying the weather. This is just a quickie to give you a heads up that I am at doctor and physio in morning and I am taking a personal afternoon to spend with my boy Liam who turns 13! That will bring the tally to 2 teenagers. Oy!

The will be well taken care of and busy as beavers with the activities I have left.

Moms! On Sunday, if your offspring forgets, ask them to share their presentation on their Google Drive.

Have a nice weekend!

Today was fantastic! Your child participated in our Walk for Water day. They learned a little about how we can help others and what some amazing people have and are doing to change the world for the better. Our school and school community raised over 25 000$ for Free the Children, http://www.freethechildren.com/. Your child is coming home with a hand-made beaded necklace/braclet that was made by African women, and from which, the proceeds go to provide clean water for one African for one year!!! Thanks to the anonymous donor of this special gift! Some of the kids are coming home with one of the 3 milk jugs full of water with which we walked. He/She should be able to let you know that it isn't to be wasted. Hopefully our kids have gained an appreciation for the value of water and the value of helping others.

This gentleman above is Spencer West. If you are interested, read about him and his accomplishments on the above website. Below, we are about to start our walk with and for water!

What a first weekend in May!!!

This is why I love Alberta:

Jasper on the final weekend of boarding! What a fanfabulous time!T-shirts, bikinis, clown suits, live music... so much fun!

This morn, I was away for some pd on the Chrome books. In the afternoon, we finished up our art project from Friday, did a bit of spelling, and then headed out to do our school yard clean up duty. 

I hope you read the email I just sent off. Tomorrow is going to be a phenomenal experience for your children. If you can attend, do it! I will post pics and vids!

Please, for the hot and sunny days, send your child to school with a hat and sunscreen. Please also show them how to apply it. I hate doing it so much that I pay my eldest to apply it to his brothers!

First Friday of May

We did our dictée this morning. It can be found in your child's agenda. We started a math/art/social studies activity. It could be seen in the presentation pics I shared with you  earlier today. If I don't have a gmail address for you, you must forward it to yours before being able to see it as I created the presentation on my Google drive.

If you don't have a gmail account, I have shared the presentation with your child. Have them log into their gmail via the Chrome browser and click on the "Shared with me" button on the left hand side of their Google Drive.  It is called Friday May 3 in class.

The kids had music and then phys. ed., before and after lunch, respectively, and then we made toffee. It took a bit for me to figure out that it really only works when the syrup is close to 240 degrees Fahrenheit. I got it after a bit. Don't worry, Ella! I saved you some!

Here was a sweet, literally, day in your kid's life:

Day 2 of May

Hey everyone. We did some science! I taught the kids what a conductor is. Metal and glass were given, by students, as examples. We heated things up and cooled them down. We talked about insulators like wood, or wool. Tomorrow afternoon is ''La tire''. You kids will have a bit of a sugar high at the end of the day. Ella, don't worry, I will try to save you some!

Homework: Your child has his/her username and password to log in to their google account from home. All you need to do is ensure that the home computer has Google Chrome. Once logged in, he/she will show you the presentation that we are working on and they are to write me an email. They have my email address in the agenda. They can type me a sentence about their favourite flavour of ice cream!?
We also started a lesson in our spelling workout booklet. They are to do pages 63 and 64. If you are busy and don't have time, no worries!

I go now! Cheers.