Google Classroom

 In a backpack near you there is a paper package of activities for the first week of January.  Please note the deadlines that are included. The paper package is in case you have problems connecting with the Goggle classroom, if your little learner is still having to go to daycare they can complete activities in the evening, or if you need more to keep your little learner occupied 😄 

I will be sending information out about our on-line schedule when I know more.

I hope you all have a restful winter break and you are able to recharge as a family.

See you on Goggle Monday January 4, 2021 

Winter Concert

  Our virtual winter concert is posted at this link for your listening enjoyment!

https://youtu.be/kaffiXA1VRE

Tomorrow will be pajama day at Beddington Heights.  Please be sure that the pajama attire is school appropriate.

Read 20/10

January 4

 We are madly trying to finish up a few things before the winter break.  We have almost got our 6 regions of Alberta art project finished.  We have almost got our symmetry work finished.  We have almost got our lower case alphabet for cursive writing finished.  We almost finished our research on the animal we were given to write a descriptive paragraph.  We work hard every day.

One last shout out - if you will need technology for the week of Jan. 4 I need to know now so you can pick it up this week at school.

Read 20/10

SNOTS

 We are applying what we know about the six geographical regions of Alberta to an art project!  We are using six different mediums (pastel, water colour, charcoal etc) for each region.  When it is complete we will have a mosaic of Alberta to share with you.  We also started looking at some of the animals that live in Alberta with a lesson on annotating today.  Using the acronym SNOTS we wrote on our reading.  SNOTS stands for Small Notes On the Side - so today we marked up our animal reading with ? and ! and * to show our thinking while reading.  Tomorrow we will read again and make jot notes about our animal so we can create a descriptive piece  of writing.

We were so busy today!!  The grade 3 began perhaps the most anticipated grade 3 outcome of all, multiplication.  We begin by looking at the rows and columns of an array and writing repeated addition sentences to match the picture then write the multiplication fact.  Grade 3 were keen and are completing an I Spy activity to demonstrate their understanding of an array.  Meanwhile, grade 4 were finishing up their first round of multiplication and sorting numbers.

Read 20/10

We Got Mail!!

 

We are very excited to say that we got mail from the Chartwell Retirement home that we sent 'thinking of you' cards in November.  The card came from Sarah who told us it has been a long time since she was in grade 3, as she is 91 years old!!  It was great that she took the time to acknowledge the students efforts.  They were so very pleased.

Please contact me by phone or email if you will be in need of technology support for online learning the first week back to school in January.  It is the plan of the province to have all students online from January 4 to 8 2021.  Cross your fingers that that is all it is and we will be back together January 11.

Read 20/10

Symmetry

 Through our problem solving in math this morning we discovered that if a shape has three sides, three vertices and three angles then it will have three lines of symmetry.  We also found out that there is a pattern to shapes!!  Help your little learner with the concept of symmetry by dropping it into conversations - cut the sandwich into symmetrical pieces.  Where is the line of symmetry?

Using our mentor text this week - The Raft by Jim Lamarche we made some connections to the vocabulary of the story.  Students were writing their own personal sentences using the words that came up such as dock and bobber.  This will help them as little readers to put pictures in their heads.

Read 20/10

No school Friday

2-D Shapes

 We spent time this morning reviewing the names and attributes of the 2-D shapes.  This will prepare us for classifying and comparing different shapes.  Ask your little learner what they discovered this morning.  (Hint - it has to do with the number of sides, angles and vertices of any shape).

As a school we are using the Zones of Regulations to help little learners put names onto their feelings and then helping themselves to regulate their feelings.  We are using the movie 'Inside Out' to help with this journey.  In the movie the 5 emotions are at conflict with one another and they are shown in different colours.  We will use the same colours ourselves.  This would translate to home activities too if you are interested in taking the idea one step further.

Read 20/10

No school Friday

Google Classroom

 Tomorrow I will be sending home your little learners CBE email address, their log in information and passwords.  Please keep these in a safe place as you will need them January 4, 2021.  Students know how to log into the Goggle classroom as we have all been there already this year.  The process is the same as it was in the spring.  I have already sent home log in information for Mathletics, Prodigy and Raz kids.  We use these websites in the classroom and they have make for good learning at home.  If you have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch with me!

Everyone should now have finished their story in the style of Duck on a Bike.  We have been through the writing cycle - made a plan, used the plan to write a draft, shared the story and edited it and now we are ready to publish our work.  Ask your little learner who they wrote their story about.

We used good old fashioned Alberta road maps this afternoon to locate major cities, National Parks, and towns with funny names.  We found a town called Rainbow Lake but there was not a lake near by!!  We followed several major rivers from their source out of the province all the way to the Hudson Bay.  We had fun just looking at all the things in our province.

Read 20/10

Mayor's Food Drive

 Beddington Heights is participating in the Mayor's Annual Food Drive this year!  Please bring in any nonperishable food items for the Calgary Food Bank!  Also, we are collecting monetary donations. This will be a great act of kindness and show a great deal of care for others during a trying time of year for those who are less fortunate.  The drive starts today and ends Dec 11th.  Thank you for your support on this!

Read 20/10

Skip Counting

 We had a great Monday today -

Ask your little learner about skip counting with patterns (grade 3) and skip counting for multiplication (grade 4).  We are busy taking apart a poem by Joanne Lysyk - looking for all the words with suffix endings and talking about how they can change a words meaning.  The worlds largest beaver damn is located in Alberta in our portion of the Canadian Shield.  It can be seen from space so we had a look at that today while learning about how remote the Canadian Shield is.

Read 20/10

Thank you to all the parents who booked an interview time last week.  We can still chat by phone or email if you were busy last week.

Thinking of You

 

A little art project today of onion and potato prints that we turned into little thinking of you cards so we can send them to a local seniors residence that are in lock down due to COVID being in their building.  Our hope is to brighten someone's day a little bit.

No school tomorrow - Parent/Teacher Interviews tonight and tomorrow

School Clothing

 Grade 4's have hit the big time!!  We started using text books for our math work!!   Working with a text, paper and pencil is very difficult to coordinate - we have started by looking at the patterns on a multiplication chart and the relationship between factors and the product.  Today grade 3's were showing their understanding of place value.

Parent Council are running a fund raiser with Elevate Athletic clothing.  They are offering you sweatpants, hoodies and T-shirts.  They will deliver to your home - check out the website if you are interested.

https://www.elevateathletics.ca/beddington

Read 20/10

The Mountain Region

 What would it be like to live in the mountain region of Alberta?  What jobs would people have in the mountain region?  How would the climate affect the way people live in the mountain region?

These are the questions students were responding to in their writing this afternoon.  Now that we know a little bit about the region we were thinking deeply and creating opinions based on our new knowledge.  We've been looking at the Travel Alberta commercials and have decided we live in a pretty awesome place in this world!

Ask your little learner how their story is coming along - everyone is writing in the style of David Shannon and creating their own version of Duck on A Bike.   The planning stage should be over and the story begun.  We are working on making our writing interesting to our reader by using interesting details.

Please book an interview with me online, on the phone or drop me an email!!

Read 20/10

Parent Teacher Interviews

 Parent/Teacher Interviews are coming up next week.  The school will be using Microsoft Teams for video chat.  If you prefer or don't have access to Teams I am happy to set up a phone interview with you. These don't have to confined to Thursday or Friday if you want to chat Monday after school I can do that with you.  Drop me an email at ljanderson@cbe.ab.ca to set up an alternative.  Email is also an option if you are busy.  Email allows us to chat when available.  Let me know what works for you. We will be discussing issues, challenges, subjects and successes your little learner is currently having.  

No school tomorrow

Poppy Art

 We had a look at the poppy today as a symbol of Remembrance Day. Ask your little learner what they found out about why we use a poppy.  Students had choice in how they represented the poppy or the Canadian flag.  This is a sample of our art work.  In case you can't see the art is mounted on the words to O'Canada.

Tomorrow we will hold a Remembrance Day service in the classroom.  Those students who belong to a service group (Brownies, Guides, Cubs, Forest Rangers) are invited to wear their uniform.  

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Learning Goals

 We began the journey of setting our learning goals for the year today.  When we are finished everyone will have a reading goal, math goal and a personal goal uploaded into Iris that they will be able to share with you during Parent Teacher Conferences Nov. 19 and 20.

Read 20/10

No school Wednesday Nov. 11

Whose Poop Is That?

 We had a close up look at punctuation today and talked about how readers use punctuation and how writer's use punctuation.  We all need to know how to use periods, commas, quotation marks, and apostrophes in our daily work.  Using capitals appropriately in titles and proper nouns is also part of our work.  We created an anchor chart to show how to use all of these things and will refer to it all year long in our reading and writing.

Literacy month at Beddington has wrapped up and I am collecting all reading logs.  There will be a prize for the class who has the most minutes of reading recorded.

"Whose Poop is That?" is the non-fiction picture book we read today to look at organic matter and how it is all different yet equally important for creating fertilizer to make our soil rich in nutrients.

Read 20/10

Brain Food

 Just a friendly request that candy/chips remain at home for a treat.  The food that comes to school should be 'brain food' that will help us to boast our memory and think ideas through to solve problems.  Consider berries, vegetables and dip, seeds, whole grains or apples.  Thank you.

Comparing and ordering numbers was the grade 3 objective today.  We looked at digits and the value they held and then determined if the numbers were greater than, less than or equal to.  Little learners were creating their own numbers and working independently.  Grade 4 were finishing up subtraction into the 10,000's as that is our target number this year.

Household Waste.  In Calgary we are lucky because we are able to have pick up of most of our household waste.  When we recycle, reuse, and reduce we are doing what is best for our environment.

Read 20/10

School picture orders due Friday

October Pillars of Care

 Congratulations to our October Pillars of Care award winners!!  We celebrated each and every child in the classroom today.

Care for Learning - Zeeshan

Care fro Others - Kurtis

Care for Place - Brianna

Care for Self - Hayla

Care for Respect - Rawda

No school tomorrow -

Read 20/10

Pythons

 Reading non-fiction is important for little learners to develop their background knowledge and vocabulary.  Pairing non-fiction and fiction gives us the opportunity to compare stories to fact.  Today we found facts inside a picture book about pythons and were excited to learn a little something as well as be entertained.  Comprehension questions were used as a follow up.

Patterns on the 300 chart (grade 3) and 900 (grade 4) were the goal today.  We wrote about patterns when counting by 5, 10 and 100.  Tomorrow we will look at counting by 25.

Biodegradable and decomposers were the words of the day.  Looking at waste in our world we talked about how these are two important components.

Read 20/10 and record on the yellow reading log.

No school Friday -  

If You Give A Beluga A Piece of Bacon

 Dress-up day at Beddington Heights Thursday Oct. 29 - Come as your favorite book character.  Mask protocol is in place.  No weapons or inappropriate costumes.

We wrote about patterns on the hundreds chart today that we created last week.  I wrote the first response, together we wrote the second response and the third response was written independently.  I was looking for students who could identify odd/even, the digits in the ones and tens place and increasing or decreasing patterns.

The book, "If You Give A Beluga A Piece of Bacon" is being written by the whole school this week. We had our turn to add one page of the circle story.  Ask your little learner what we wrote and passed on.

Read 20/10 and record your reading on the yellow reading log.

Nonfiction Text Features

 Little learners have been searching through the social studies text book to locate nonfiction text features.  Looking for the Table of Contents, webs, headings index's etc. will help them to become familiar with the feature and see the different ways information can be represented.  

Looking at the geographical region of the mountains we brainstormed all the things we already know about mountains, asked a few questions we would like answers to and then made predictions about the book we were going to read.  We used the Table of Contents to find out what was in the book, chose a topic to read about and found out that lodgepole pines (which are Alberta's provincial tree) were named because the Native people collected them to make their teepee.  As we collect information about Alberta we will be recording it together.

Skip counting was our math focus this morning using a hundreds chart.  We skip counted in various ways and next we will write about the patterns we notice.  I will be looking for students who can talk about the numbers by what is in the ones and tens columns.

Read 20/10 and bring back your reading record tomorrow -

Scholastic class code

 Scholastic Book orders are in backpacks today.  New this year - Scholastic will ship to your home and you can order online whenever you want at schoastic.ca/clubshop. When you check out, please enter our class code: RC248826 our earns free books and you will get free shipping on orders over $35.00.  Thanks for supporting readers at home and at school.

We used the Scholastic book orders this morning to do some shopping and then we sorted the books into fiction and non-fiction titles.  We found out that this month there are very few non-fiction titles to purchase!

Grade 4 began using Mathletics this morning and are working their way through place value and addition.  Grade 3 continued to sort odd and even numbers after writing the numeral of an expanded number.

Read 20/10

Fiction vs. Non-fiction

 We had a look at fiction and non-fiction books today.  We started with looking at two books about spiders and noting how they were the same and how they were different.  We created a list of their features such as illustrations vs. photos, different titles and facts vs. story.  We zoomed in on the first page noting a table of content and a title page.  Students then worked with their own pairing of books noticing their similarities and differences.  We will be 'zooming in' on non-fiction for the next couple of weeks.

Everyone sorted their personal deck of cards today to determine even and odd numbers.  Students estimated the value of their even and odd piles and then were adding the numbers together.  I was looking for students who could add with a strategy such as making a friendly number and if their estimates were reasonable.

This week we are walking to remember Chanie Wenjack a victim of the residential school system in 1966.  This is to honour and build awareness about the distance that Chanie Wenjack was attempting to walk when he left residential school to reunite with his family.  We will be walking the school block counting our steps.  Our goal as a school is 644 km.  Today we each walked 2,924 steps.

Read 20/10 and record it on your reading log

Good Canadian Children

Good Canadian children need to be dressed for the weather.  We are outside three different times of the day and there were a lot of wet feet and cold hands after phys. ed. this morning.  Inside shoes too please.

 We attempted to answer the questions - "Where do you think Alberta is located in Canada?" and "If you were driving around Alberta what would you expect to see?" this afternoon.  Chat your little learner up and see what they are thinking.

Return reading logs on Friday

Read 20/10

Picture day tomorrow

Headphones Please

 Headphones please for classroom use.  We all logged into computers today and accepted the invitation into the Google classroom.  Your little learner is all set up in case we have to go back online.  We will be using Mathletics, RazKids and Tumblebooks in the classroom all of which have audio. Please put names onto the headphones.  

Problem solving during math was our focus this morning.  I am looking for little learners who circle numbers, underline the question, box important words, evaluate and solve.  Using this strategy will help them to focus on the question and get themselves going.  Every problem must have a picture, numbers and words to be complete.  

Reading logs are at home for home reading every night.  Read 20/10.

Picture day Thursday

Thankful

 Our thankful pumpkin is full of all the things we are thankful for  - 

Home Reading Log

 In a backpack near you is a home reading log.  For the month of October we will be keeping track as a school how often our students are reading at home and for how long.  Please make an entry on the log every time you read and then we can keep track each week how much we are reading!!

Read 20/10

No school Friday or Monday

Alphabetical Order

 Today we used the new vocabulary from Wanted!! Ralfy Book Burglar that we read yesterday and played a game to determine the meaning of the new words.  We then took those 12 words and put them into alphabetical order.  Some of the words required us to look to the second and third letters to determine which order they need to be in.  This is something you and your little learner can do at the dinner table, or while driving - talking about which word comes first when thinking about A,B,C order.

We continue to skip count and add and subtract larger numbers.  Basic facts are something that can also be worked on at home.  We are all responsible for addition and subtraction to 18.  Grade 4's should now have two packages of work handed in to me for marking.  Please ask your student if their math has come home for homework.

Waste In Our World is our current science unit.  We have defined waste and are becoming aware of the four types of waste.

Read 20/10

No school Friday or Monday 

Beginning, middle, end of a story

 I refer to the beginning, middle and end of a story all the time when we sequence a story, look at important events, discuss problem and solution and summarize so today we focused on the words beginning, middle and end.  After listening to the book, WANTED! Ralfy Rabbit Book Burgler we created an anchor chart together about what a good author would include in the beginning of their story, middle of their story and end of their story.  What we discovered was an author really needs to capture the readers attention.  Everyone then wrote an exit slip answering the question; What do you think is more important, the beginning, the middle or the end of the story.

Grade 3's were looking for patterns on a hundreds chart this morning and writing about counting by 2.  They completed a pocket chart to show me they could count by 2.  Grade 4 continued to work with place value, number names, expanding numbers and word forms.  It is a lot to remember!!

Working as scientist this afternoon we were outside observing what was in the circle of string we placed on the ground.  Great afternoon to out in the sun!!

Read 20/10

No school Friday or Monday

Writing Goals

 Our Terry Fox run was a success.  Thank you for your donations.  We will count our money tomorrow and then add it to the rest of the school.  Our goal is $400.00.

We wrote writing goals for ourselves today - we have agreed that good writers make their writing interesting for their reader and clear for their reader.  We have set strategies such as spelling, interesting details, and great beginnings to help us get to our goals.  Writing is a process and we will be able to fine tune a lot this year.  Our writing goals are glued onto our writing folders so we can refer to them as time goes on.

Ask your little learner how they are coming with their Me on the Map project, Terry Fox writing, warm colour, cool colour tree art and their message of understanding.  All things we tried to finish up this afternoon.

Read 20/10

What is Science?

 We attempted to answer the question, "What is science?" during a discussion today.  Interesting ideas were put forward.  We did figure out that science is all about being curious about the world around us.

Our work today was around it being Orange Shirt Day in Canada.  Our background knowledge was around Phyllis Webstad going to residential school in BC and having her brand new orange shirt taken away and her hair cut off.  She felt like her feelings didn't matter.  We read, "When I was Eight" by Christy Jordan-Fenton that tells the story of a young girl who went to residential school in hopes of learning to read but being made fun of and cleaning all the time instead.  We all then made a big orange heart and wrote in it a message of understanding to the children of residential schools.  We offered ideas of how to fix their hurt.

We worked through the steps of problem solving in math this morning.  Little learners are encouraged to circle numbers, under line the question, box important words and evaluate the information to solve.  Everyone had a problem on a sticker in their math book to solve before they worked with hundreds charts.

Tomorrow is Terry Fox Day at Beddington.  We will be running in Terry's memory during our phys. ed. time.  Donations being accepted.  We are working towards a goal of $400.00.

Read 20/10

 This week we will run our version of the Terry Fox run at Beddington Heights.  We spent today coming to a greater understanding of who Terry Fox was and what he accomplished.  We started by brainstorming everything we already knew about Terry and then talking about what we wanted to know.  After looking at videos about Terry we wrote new to us facts about him independently.  We then got a head start on tomorrow's work by making our own Terry Fox.

We did more work around ways to show a number today.  Specifically on expanded notation and drawing base 10 blocks to show our understanding.  Grade 4's are working the 1000's while grade 3 are working in the 100's.  Everyone was rolling dice and working with their own numbers.

Toonie for Terry - collecting donations - our school goal is $400.00

Read 20/10

Meet The Teacher

 Reminder: There is no Meet the Teacher at school tonight. Instead, please click on the link below and head to our Grade 3/4 website where you can find the Meet the Teacher Video and Powerpoint on the front page.

https://sites.google.com/educbe.ca/grade-3and4-at-bhs-2020/home

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me - ljanderson@cbe.ab.ca

NO SCHOOL TOMORROW

READ 20/10

Terry Fox

 

This year marks the 40^th Anniversary of Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope and we are excited to share that Beddington Heights will be proudly supporting this cause.  While this year’s event might look a little different, the result remains the same; to raise funds for cancer research. Let’s all use Terry’s message of hope and strength to inspire us during these challenging times. 

 

Each class will take part in the Terry Fox Run on Thursday, October 1st, 2020 during our scheduled Phys. Ed class.  

 

It is our priority to maintain the safety of students and staff while supporting this wonderful cause. To help support safety measures in all schools, the Terry Fox Foundation has created an online fundraising page for our school as well as provide classroom/individual “Terry” activities. Here are some of the ways you can support your child for this year’s Terry Fox event: 

 

1)Donate online at:  http://www.terryfox.ca/BeddingtonHeights 

• Click the link above to donate or search for our school name at terryfox.org 
• There is no minimum donation, every dollar counts! 
• Receipts are issued immediately to donors by email 

 

2)Set up a student fundraising page https://terryfox.org/schoolrun/students/

• Students are encouraged to set up a page under their school name 
• Students can fundraise by sharing their link with family and friends  
• All student logins and links are private and secure 

 

3)Cash donations:  While we prefer online donations classroom teachers will accept cash donations.   

  

4)Support your child’s “What’s Your 40?” Terry activity 

• Individual classrooms may be engaging in a Terry activities 40 times, 40 minutes or 40 ways… 
• Students at home can also join in by doing their own “What’s Your 40?” Terry activity 
• Try one of the suggested activities online (https://terryfox.org/schoolrun/whats-your-40/) or come up with your own 
• Share your activity on social media and tag others to join  

 

If our school raises $400 or more, Mr. Shackelton will have his class dress him up and do his hair and makeup for the school to see!

 

We are very excited to be a part of this year’s Terry Fox event.  This is our opportunity to make a difference in the lives of those suffering from cancer as well as build school spirit. We hope you will join us as our school community works together in the fight against cancer. Thank you in advance for your support! 

Stay safe, stay strong, 

No school Friday

Digital Citizenship Form

 Digital Citizenship forms should now be returned to school.  This form allows your child to use technology at school.  If you have not seen the purple form please check a backpack near you!

Our first fire drill was a success this morning - 

Place Value was reviewed before creating personal posters in our math journals.  I am looking for an understanding of how to show a number in various ways.  

Last week everyone had 'packed' a suitcase that they would be taking with them on a trip across Canada.  This morning we began writing about what we had put in that suitcase and what we would use the items for.  I am looking for the use of capital letters and periods as students get their ideas on the paper.

We looked closely at a photo this afternoon and recorded all the things we observed.  I prompted students with the sentence "Tell me what you see."  Then I asked them what they were wondering about the photo and asked them, "What do you not know but you are wanting to know?" and they asked questions.  Finally we wondered about the photo using the sentence starters, 'I think..." and "Maybe..."  This is to get your little learner to use clues and their own experiences to infer.  We will do this activity multiple times to have a deep understanding and also it allows us to look at pictures of our fabulous province.  Today we looked at the main street of Canmore.

Read 20/10

Place Value

 We started with an anchor chart today on place value in math.  We focused in on the difference between PLACE and VALUE (place is the location of a digit in a number and value is how much the digit is worth)

using blocks and pictures to help little learners.  We also looked at four different ways to represent a number, using blocks, word form, expanded form and standard form.  We will spend the rest of this week mastering place value.

We played a game of Guess the Missing Word today - I wrote the sentence and left out a word and little learners had to read around the word to determine what could be missing.  We had a great time with this reading skill.

5 Finger Rule is how we determine if a book is 'just right' for us.  When starting a new book readers should be holding up their fist and then putting up a finger every time they come to a word they don't know.  If all five fingers go up the book is too hard.  If only one or two fingers go up the book is too easy.  We are looking for the 'just right' book that will challenge us to become better readers.

Read 20/10

No school Friday

 

Cheerios

 We did some more work around estimation today using a good old box of Cheerios.  First we estimated how many bits of cereal there is in one box of Cheerios.  Our estimates ranged from 22 bits of cereal in the box to 200,000 bits of cereal in the box.  Everyone got 1/2 cup of Cheerios to count and I was watching for how your little learner organized themselves for counting. Lots of us got 'lost' while counting one by one while others made groups of 10 or 5 or 2 and then counted their groups.  I was interested in the efficient counters who determined there were about 200 bits of cereal in a half cup.  We talked about adding 200 21 times (because that's how many of us were here today) and then we decided to multiply

200 x 21 to find out that there is about 4,200 bits of cereal in a Cheerios box.  Ask your little learner how they went about counting their pieces today.  Is there something in the kitchen you could estimate the total of during supper tonight?

Everyone has a purple Digital Citizenship form in their backpack that needs signing tonight and returning to school tomorrow.  Without that form your child will not be able to use technology at school.

Read 20/10

Day 2 of Carson Crosses Canada

 Just a reminder that the playground is off limits before and after school.  Everyone must wear a mask when on school property (including outside) and remain within their cohort.  We are asking students to go directly home after school and check in there.

We reviewed the story Carson Crosses Canada and discussed all the places that Carson and Annie stopped along their way.  Some of us have been to the east coast, the mountains and the hoodos just like Annie and Carson.  A writing piece was then started in journals about places we have visited in Canada.  I am looking for complete sentences in this writing sample, complete with capitals and periods.

We practised a bit of estimating together as a class and then everyone was able to conduct their own estimation activity with dice and a pencil.  It is important that little learners make reasonable estimates and are not wildly guessing.  

We finished packing our suitcases for our trip across Canada and are ready for an adventure!

Read 20/10 tonight

Carson Crosses Canada

 To kick things off we are having a close look at the picture book, Carson Crosses Canada by Linda Bailey.  Not only is it a story written about Canada but the author is Canadian too!!  We talked about facts we know about Canada and wrote sentences with starters such as, Did you know, Would you believe, One fascinating thing.  The story will give us an introduction to where Alberta is in Canada and who our closest neighbours are, leading us into our social studies unit of Alberta.

Estimation was the math word of the day.  We discussed the meaning of the word, making a thoughtful guess, and then estimated how many sea shells were in my basket.  Estimation is a powerful tool and we will be estimating all week to ensure we all have an understanding.

Read 20/10

Welcome Back

 Welcome back to school!!

I am so excited that we are all back together again and I look forward to our year together.

In the classroom we have been working on routines and getting to know one another.  So far, we are proud to say, we have built stamina for reading to ourselves up to 15 minutes at a time each day.  Our goal is 30 minutes - we hope to be there by the end of September.  We have reviewed 3 Ways to Read a Book, Where to read, Why we read, When to read, What to read, Who reads and most importantly that one can not expect to become a better reader without PRACTISING. In grade 3 and 4 students can still be reading to someone for 10 minutes a day and reading to themselves for 20 minutes every day at home.  So so very important to practise.

Please ensure your child has indoor shoes and several masks every day.  It is nice to change the mask every so often, and then of course, wash them at the end of the day,  We will be going outside multiple times a day and students should be dressed for the weather, and since this is Canada weather surprises.

I hope to get to meet you all at some point but until then please feel free to call me at school 403-777-6610 or drop me an email, ljanderson@cbe.ab.ca if you have any questions or concerns.

The end is near -

The end is near and what a strange end it is.

Our learning continues until Friday and there are several activities posted in our classroom.  Thank you for supporting your little learners continual learning at home.

The Calgary Public Library is hosting their annual summer reading challenge and I encourage all of you to sign up.  It is a free activity that has a virtual sign up at their website.  It is an easy way to stay engaged with reading this summer.  Check them out!
https://calgarylibrary.ca/events-and-programs/ultimate-summer-challenge/

We have posted the staff farewell on our classroom wall that would have taken place Friday morning if we were at school.  

Report cards can be accessed through your CBE account - there will not be printed copies available.

Friday from 12 - 1 teachers will be hosting a 'walk-by' parade on Bermuda Drive.  We will be up on the hill to maintain social distancing and then we have the opportunity to wrap up this school year.  I hope to see you all there.

As always, if you have questions or concerns drop me an email or call Corey at the school and she will get in touch with me.  I hope you all have a fun-filled summer.

"There are no good byes for us.  Whatever you are, you will always be in my heart."
Mahatma Gandhi

Year End Bits and Pieces

It is a very odd thing to be packing up my classroom without the help of little hands but I have put everyone's belongings from their desk into bags and placed them in the gym.  You can book a time through your CBE account to drop by the school and pick those up.  There are still a few shoes and such waiting there too.

Staff are working on an opportunity to say farewell with students.  It will come in several formats so stay tuned.

Next week we will be concentrating on Indigenous Peoples Day with our classroom work.  In room 11 we have already done some work around the aboriginal theme through the sharing of picture books and activities that had little learners exploring themselves, their family, their community and the land.  We continue to strive for activities that will engage learners and move forward their thinking as we quickly approach the summer break.

As always if you have questions or concerns I am available by phone or email.

“Learning ultimately supports the well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors” - First Nations Principals of Learning

Pop Up Food Hampers

Brown Baggers For Calgary's Kids will have food hampers available Thursday May 28 at VIVO from 4:30 - 6:30 in the east parking lot.  No registration required.  Just show up!!

Tasks for this week are all loaded into the classroom - please ensure that if you have questions you give me a phone call, send an email or ask them during class meets. 

Thanks everyone - together we are strong!

Read on -

Climbing Story

As we go through this learning journey together I wanted to remind you that I am available by phone, email and video chat to answer any questions and support your little learner.

This week students are writing the climbing story they planned last week with the somebody/wanted/but/so/then and problem/solution graphic organizers.  I will be closely looking at their problem and solution to ensure it was developed in the appropriate steps using transition words and details through senses words.

We are going to wrap up our fraction work with more work with fraction sets - using math vocabulary such as numerator and denominator and then move into some shape and space work.

Remember to include some read to self everyday as well as reading to someone else.

Important dates

Just a reminder that Friday this week - May 15 is a scheduled PD day.  Teachers in our area are taking part in the moo'kaaksin gathering where we will continue our learning in the importance of land and and teachings of the native culture.

Monday May 18 is Victoria Day (I know it does not feel like it!)

 Tuesday May 19 was set aside for Student Led conferencing.  Teachers will now be involved in other planning.  If you need to contact me about your student's learning - if you have concerns or have encountered problems please don't hesitate to call the school and Mrs. Cumming will call me and I will call you or drop me an email.  I'm happy to help in any way I can.

Technical Assistance

Technical Assistance Now Available for Ongoing Learning

The CBE can now assist parents and students with technical issues that arise while continuing ongoing learning. Parents of kindergarten to Grade 9 students or students in Grades 10-12 can call or email requests for assistance with CBE supported technology.
Visit Technical Support for Students & Parents and choose “Support for G Suite" or “Support for Brightspace" for more information. This service is a temporary service available during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hours of operation will be Monday – Friday, 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM (excluding statutory holidays).

Please have the following information accessible when you call:

• Student ID number
• Student Email address
• Student Password (we will not ask you for your password, but you must be able to enter it)

Contact information:
Phone: 403-817-7996
Email: ParentTechnicalSupport@cbe.ab.ca

Mystery Bag

On our Google Meet this afternoon we played the game Mystery Bag.  Students in the meet really liked the game so next week we will play again.  If you want to lead the game drop me an email - we will take reservations from the first 5 students.  Students who were not in the meet are probably familiar with the game.  In a bag place an item.  You can give us clues about your item or we can ask you yes or no questions about your item.  Your call.  Everyone will take turns asking questions about your item or guessing what is in your bag. 
Reserve your spot today at ljanderson@cbe.ab.ca

Did you read all the new books on the shelf in Book Creator written by all our authors?  Some great writers -

Book Creator

Our class meeting on Google was productive today as we all gave Mrs. Craig ideas of things she could plant in her very first garden!  It is hopeful when we can get outside and work in the dirt.

This week students are being introduced to a website called Book Creator that they can use to write and illustrate their descriptive story about spring.  After they are finished their book they can put it on the 'shelf' in the 'library' for everyone else to read.  Book Creator has many features such as voice to text and the ability to upload photos - you and your little learner can decide together which features you want to use.  I am looking forward to reading the published results.

Thank you to those students who have handed in work for the week of April 20 - 24.  When I return work it is just so you can see the comments, it does not have to be sent back to me.

World Book Day

In recognition of World Book Day I have put together a few sites that I use with students because if you're like me you have already read all the books in your house and are looking for something new!

Calgary Public Library is the best resource of all!!

https://calgarylibrary.ca/

Not only is Calgary Public Library free but you can borrow ebooks right on to your device.  I have had to learn to like reading on my ipad - it's not my preferred method but it's opened a whole new world to me.  If you don't have a library card you can get one online.  Check them out!

 https://www.tumblebooks.com/ is a site your little learner should be familiar with.  Username is Beddington and the password is books.

https://www.storylineonline.net/

https://www.scholastic.com/digital/trueflix.htm

Mrs. P's Magic Library

Read on -

Principal's Message

The work for this week is focusing around asking questions before, during and after reading.  I hope you enjoy the on-line books that accompany these lessons and create some conversation in your home!

Math practise continues with subtraction of 2 or 3 digit numbers and some problem solving.

I will do my best to answer your questions around the technology -

Please read the attached Principal's Message for April.

Read on -

April Principal’s message                                                                                              April 15^th, 2020

You will see this is a difference from past communication where you would have received my message on school messenger. In order to minimize the amount of e-mail to parents/families at this time, we have made a decision at Beddington to include this in the teacher e-mail you are already receiving. Hopefully this supports families need and will provide enough information to give you what you need.

We are continuing to learn about our student on-line learning and how to keep connected with our students during this period of isolation.  We know that whatever we are asking of you at this time needs to be balanced with your need for health and care of self and others. We will try to provide continuity where we can. Both on-line google classroom and paper packages have been implemented to provide opportunity for ongoing learning opportunities for our students.  This has been working with a level of success and we are glad to see successes with our students. The focus has been on math and literacy activities and we ask that you place your efforts on these activities first. You should be receiving weekly communication from your child’s teacher by this point outlining the week ahead. Teachers are available to answer questions either during scheduled google meet sessions or through responding to your individual questions through e-mail. We continue to refine weekly schedules to best meet needs.

Our specialist Mr. Sadowsky and Mr. Wiens have provided additional enrichment activities for you to work on. These are not compulsory and are there to support those who wish to engage at a greater level of involvement. I have had a number of questions as to whether these are required. They are posted for those who wish to access them.

Please note that for safety reasons the office is closed. Access for parents is in the main door and material pickup and drop off is in the gym. You are asked to exit through the gym door afterward. If you have questions for us in the office please feel free to call. Ms. Cumming and I are in the office during the day to answer your questions so feel free to give us a call.

Our knowledge of “Assessment of Learning” is ongoing. There will be more information forwarded to you regarding what to expect. We do know that report cards for year end will be part of our work. This will most likely be available on-line when they are complete.

We ask that you keep in contact with your teacher, whether your child is able to complete work or not. We are working to limit factors that prevent this from happening and we are able to provide resources in many cases. We have a listing for a number of resources that we may be able to connect you with. Our greatest goal at his time is to stay connected. We miss you all greatly.

Stay safe

Brian Hebert B. Ed. M.Ed

Distance Learning Motivation

DISTANCE LEARNING MOTIVATION

Set daily goals

Set timers for tasks

Have a designated space for work

Use smelly markers for marking

Get outside more than once each day

Use Go Noodle

Tell them for me how proud I am that they continue to read!

Please make sure you have looked at the classroom stream today there is a feedback question posted there that will help us with our planning.    Thanks for helping us out!

The Greatest Gift of All

💗The greatest gift you can give your child is a love of reading!

Simple things like reading to your child, sharing your thinking while reading , and telling stories is the foundation needed for your child to become an avid reader.

Today we hosted a class meeting at 1:30.  We started by taking questions about this weeks assignments that were posted this morning.  If you have questions after you have read through the tasks please don't hesitate to send an email.

Please don't forget your Raz Kids and Mathletics accounts.  Both those websites have great resources for keeping your little learner on track to success and neither one is seeing much traffic!!

Happy Easter

Our first week of working on line is drawing to a close.  I hope you have all have found your way around the classroom site and have been able to upload your work.  We will be posting new activities on Tuesday, as Monday is a scheduled PD day and all staff are involved in an online assessment seminar.

Our next video meeting will be Tuesday at 1:30 pm - the link will be posted on our wall just prior to the appointed time.

Have a great Easter weekend!!

Google Meet

We had a successful first Google Meet in our classroom.  A couple of gentle reminders:

• headphones would be great 
• we were busy muting mics because we can hear what the rest of the family is doing in the background
• keep the chat to classroom activities - students know I don't want to know all about the latest video game
• digital citizenship still applies - don't be name calling, using language etc.

We are thinking we will have a class meet up every Monday at 1:30 - next Monday is a PD day so join us on Tuesday.

All lessons will come in the form of video and written instruction so parents and students can access them any time.  You will see there is a little multiplication video there already.  Class meets will be for questions and explanations.  Email is the best way to ask questions about your own child and they can also send me work on email.  I am available every day from 8 - 2:30.  Some days I am at home and some days I am at school.  If you need to call the school you might catch me!

Lots of sites are opening up for little learners to read books - make sure you are still reading.

School Messenger

Thank you all for your patience as we continue to work towards learning on-line.  All I can say is this is not going to be my favorite platform.  Thank you to those of you who responded to School Messenger yesterday.  We will try to not clog up your in-box to much.  I am still eagerly awaiting replies from some of you...

While you wait for us to get a handle on Google Classroom please use your Raz Kids and Mathletics account.  If you need passwords shoot me an email.  Also remember that Tumblebooks (Beddington/books) is an excellent option when you have read all the books at home multiple times!! 
Above all else, please please keep reading😎

Keep Reading

Hi!!
I'm missing our morning hi, your smiling faces and the laughter.
These are the most extraordinary times and as we all try and find our way through I just wanted you all to know that I am thinking of you!!  It's not the same when we're not at school together.  It's very quiet in the classroom and a little bit on the cold side.  It must be all your smiling faces that keep this room warm.
I'm missing a lot of things about our time together but I think what I miss most is reading to you, and listening to you read to me!  Make sure you keep reading.  Read to the dog.  Read to your stuffies.  Read the cereal box.  Read the rules to a board game.  Just keep reading.  
We will have more direction from the school board after spring break about how we will move forward but just know that I am here if want to drop me an email.  I will get back to you!
Keep moving!  Get outside and play - Nose Hill is the best playground in the city - the dog and I will wave to you from up there!

Stay safe and have a great spring break!!

Responsibility

Responsibility is the fifth pillar for the month of March so we talked about what it means to be responsible, characteristics of people who are responsible, examples and non-examples of responsibility.  You will all be pleased to know each and every one of the little learners in this room feel they are responsible people!  My work here is done.😎
After we read, "Beatrice's Goat" in which a young girl in Africa receives a goat as a gift from far away and becomes responsible for its care - earning enough money to afford to go to school.  We all wrote about our own responsibilities.

Problem solving in math today had us choosing 12, 24 or 32 cookies to share with other people.  Students were choosing their own number to divide the cookies with and then deciding how many cookies each person would get.  The ability to get started on this type of question independently tells me a lot about your child as a learner.  They should be starting by drawing themselves a picture, writing the division equation and describing what they have done in words.  Ask your little learner how sticker math went for them this morning.

Read 20/10

Import/Export

Homework this evening is to locate 10 items at home which have been imported from other countries in the world - bonus points for items that came from India, Peru, Tunisia or Ukraine.

Good readers ask question before, during and after reading so we did just that with the book, "I Want My Hat Back" our next step is to determine if those questions were quick (easily answered in the story or thick (deep thinking required beyond the text).  Deep thinking questions are the questions that matter.

Read 20/10 tonight

Reminder that musical instruments are being built at home for sharing next week Thursday.  The instrument must have volume control and pitch control.

Calgary Opera

Calgary Opera was here this afternoon for a great performance of The Bremen Town Musicians.  Ask your little learner what they thought of story told all in music!

We spent more time this morning determining the numbers that will group equally into 2, 5 and 10.  The concept of remainders was introduced along with fact families.

Read 20/10

Jump Rope For Heart

💜💜 . Jump Rope For Heart fund raiser is due back to school tomorrow please.

Thanks for the writing homework.  Our paragraph writing with interesting details is coming along really well.  We developed a formula today for those who need to have a fall back:

Topic sentence

Detail sentence

Detail sentence

Once...

Feeling sentence

Read 20/10

Writing Homework

Some of us have homework tonight to finish the story we started about our families several weeks ago.  In this piece of writing we are working on organizing paragraphs and including interesting details.  The hope is that we can eliminate robot writing (My mom likes...  My mom likes... My mom likes...) and create a picture for our readers using detail.  My mom likes to cook.  Once she made curry and rice for all of us.  Please check with your little author and see if they have a story in their backpack or if they delivered it to my desk this morning.

The division symbol was introduced this morning and we talked about the total number appearing first followed by the number of people sharing (in this case cookies) and finally how many they each will get at the end.  We made the connection between division and subtraction!  Yay for us!!

Read 20/10

The Doorbell Rang

Division was introduced today through the story, The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins.  After hearing the story, students retold it by drawing pictures to show their understanding of cookies being shared.  Tomorrow we will re-read the story and add in the division notation to match the problem situations.  This will help little learners to understand that division is sharing in real-world situations.

Read 20/10 we were in the library this morning for new reading materials.

In a backpack near you is an invitation to Fun Lunch - McDonalds is serving this month.

Dresser drawers

We focused on making sure our writing is clear for our reader today during our 25 minute silent write!  One way to make sure our writing is clear is to group ideas together.  So we visualized our dresser drawers in our bedrooms.  They are meant to keep our clothes organized.  If we had to put our clothes into one box mayhem would insue.  It's the same with our writing.  The drawers of our dresser are like the paragraphs of our writing.  Real drawers help us to organize our clothes, invisible drawers help us organize writing. Paragraphs.  Since we are writing about our families we decided that a good organizational tool would be a paragraph for each person.  So we wrote and wrote this morning 4 to 5 interesting sentences about our family.  In multiple paragraphs.  It's exhausting really.

Read 20/10
Pillars of Care assembly tomorrow at 8:15
No school Monday

Math Homework

Some of us have math homework.  Please ask your little learner if they have subtraction of 3 digit math homework.  We answered questions using subtraction and then sorted those questions into ones that required us to borrow, ones that had zero's in them and ones where there was no need to stop.  Homework due tomorrow please.

For Pink Shirt day today we read The Invisible Boy - a classic tale of friendship, belonging and the power of being recognized.  We talked about what the story might mean for our classroom and we had a great discussion.  I wish you had been here.  Students then wrote to me about someone in our classroom who might feel invisible some times and how they could make that person feel seen, heard and loved.  So proud of the little learners in this classroom.  They nailed this.  We all now have a secret mission to look for the invisible and give them opportunities to be included, make friendships and feel like they belong.

Pillars of Care assembly Friday @ 8:15 in our gym!
No school Monday

FAST

Ask your little learner about the acronym FAST - we had a presentation today from the Heart and Stroke Foundation who were promoting their fund raiser Jump Rope For Heart, but they also taught us this quick reminder to help someone in need during a stroke.  (FAST stands for Face, Arms, Speech and Time)

Pink Shirt Day tomorrow - we talked about the bully, the bullied and the bystander today.  All three are important components.  Also important to note that bullying means a targeted and repeated behaviour.  Being looked at funny one time is not a situation of bullying.

Pillars of Care assembly Friday at 8:15 am
Read 20/10

Instrument Creation

In a backpack near you are the instructions for a musical instrument project that is due Thursday March 19.  Please be assured you are not to go out and buy anything just support your little learner with a trip to the public library to look for books or search the internet together to find ideas.  We have already built a pan flute in the classroom so that instrument is not a choice.  The marking rubric is included with the instructions.  Have fun.  Be creative.

Wednesday is Pink Shirt Day in Canada - please wear pink in support of our no bullys allowed approach.

We continue to review regrouping of multi -digit numbers.  Today we sorted questions that required regrouping and questions that did not require regrouping to be sure we understand the notion of 'more on the floor go next door.'

Jump Rope for Heart assembly tomorrow morning in support of the Heart and Stroke.  Information will come home tomorrow.