December 5-9, 2022

 

It was a different week for us in Room 6… because we were actually in Room 5 for part of the week. We were very excited that our room was being painted, but it meant that we could not be in our room until Thursday. Fortunately, Ms. Bouchard and all the students of Room 5 welcomed us into their space. We had a great time learning with new peers and demonstrating the expectations and responsibilities we have when we are guests in others’ spaces. We really loved making thank you cards for Ms. Bouchard’s class and leaving them as a surprise for them.

We also continued to explore our role as leaders with our Kindergarten Buddies. We made snowflakes with them but focused on our role as mentors and providing support. The grade threes explored the question 'How does your role as a buddy differ from your role as a classmate?' One grade three student shared: “You have to inspire them and you have to show them greatness actions. You have to be appropriate because if you don’t, they are not going to learn good stuff.” Another student shared, “You can’t be silly and you have to be responsible,” while Everly explained, “You have to actually care about your buddy. Lets say you go to the pencil sharpener, you should look back to see if your buddy is okay.” The grade fours are exploring the question, 'How does working with buddies help you to grow personally and/or help your sense of belonging?' Here are some of their responses:

• "It can help you be more patient. Younger kids can’t always do things as fast as you can so you have to be more patient." ~ Kaitlin
• "It helps me be more patient, to wait for stuff. It helps me to not mess around because they will mess around because they think it is the right thing. It helps me to understand other people because they don’t know as much, so it is good to try to be at their level at the same time." ~ Lillian
• "It just helps me to be a better person because before we had kindergarten buddies, I sometimes would feel a little stressed out. Now I feel better because helping younger kids makes you feel better." ~ Ella

In math, we are exploring money.  We have learned to recognize the different types of Canadian coins, what they are called, and how to use both cent and dollar notation to represent quantities of money. The grade fours will continue to focus on decimal notation of cents next week, and developing our understanding of decimals as parts of a whole. We also began exploring strategies for counting multiple coins with the same value. We learned that we can use repeated addition, skip counting, doubling and skip counting, and a few other strateiges.  Some of us even made the connection that this can be represented as multiplication.

We also went on a virtual bus ride of the Alberta Rockies as we began to investigate the learning intention 'I can explore how geographic characteristics shape a community'. Together, we explored features of the land in the Rockies. We are also developing our skills to conduct research to learn more about a place. In the upcoming week, we will do a parallel task exploring and researching the features of the land in other places. The Grade threes will explore Peru, Tunisia, Ukraine and India, while the Grade fours will explore the other 5 regions in Alberta.

We also want to share that unfortunately, this week we had some Tree Trouble. When we returned to our classroom on Thursday, we found our dear Red lying on the ground. We were all very disappointed. Sebastian examined the base and discovered that it was still in tact. After a class discussion we have decided to rebuild our tree as it has become an important feature in our space. Stay tuned for Red 2.0!!

Of course, that was definitely not all! Be sure to ask us about:

• The story Ms. Rooke and Ms. Durnford read us and about the Mitten Tree giving project;
• Exploring offensive and defensive strategies as well as team work in our cooperative games in physical education;
• Revising our writing using A.R.M.S and how to include compound sentences in our writing; and
• Painting in Art.

Ms. Kawchuck also wanted to share the following message:

Our Winter Concert is almost here!    

Students in the 6:00 show need to be here at 5:40 pm Dec. 15 - doors will open at 5:40 pm 

Students in the 7:30 show need to be here at 7:10 pm Dec. 15 - doors will open at 7:10 pm 

Winter Concert Tickets were sent home this week with your oldest or only student. If you are not attending the concert or are unable to use both tickets, please return your them to the school with your child. Every person attending the concert requires a ticket including babies and small children  

You need to bring the tickets to the concert with you, due to fire code capacity requirements of our gym we will be checking and collecting all tickets  

If you are successful in securing tickets from the waitlist, they will be sent home at a later date  

Room 4 and Room 11 are also excited to bring back the AARCS winter fundraiser. Please see the image below for information on the pet treats they are making and selling to support the Alberta Animal Rescue Society.

Important Dates

• December 15 - Fun Lunch (Waffles and Chix)
• December 15 – Winter Concert 7:30pm for most of Room 6, 6:00pm for families joining other siblings
• December 22 – Last day of Classes before Winter Break
• January 9 – Classes resume after Winter Break