Our Second Week Sept 11-15

Dear Parents:
Our first full week of school has been a busy one, our classroom is buzzing with learning.  Thank you so much for all or your kind donations of beautiful flowers from your garden.  You will see the results of our artistic talents below.  As well,  thank you to those who brought in newspapers for us to upcycle.

Here is a photo of the web we brainstormed to write our Home Journals to you this week.
It will help you make connections between and about our learning.  We are currently focusing on the following curriculum areas:  Science (Waste in Our World), Humanities (Alberta and it's geography and history through our class novel),  Literacy (writing responses using the see/think/wonder framework), reading independently and reading in a group using the reciprocal teaching framework.  We have been reading all types of media this week including videos, magazine articles, infographics, fiction and fiction texts.  In math we have been looking at problem solving through a problem of the week based on data and probability.  We have been practicing our mental math fluency using dice with a partner as well as our multiplication and division strategies.  The students completed a numeracy assessment (number and operations)  this week as well.

Our learning connections this week.  

We also worked on text to text connections between waste in our world and recycled materials to create and design some artwork.  We are using newspaper to create a tree to represent an ecosystem.  We are learning the difference between how humans handle waste and how nature does.  The second design project we worked on was using a natural dye to paint with through a process called flower pounding.  Here is a link to some more information on flower pounding incase you want to try it yourself:  https://oliverands.com/community/blog/2015/06/flower-pounding-technique.html

Here are some photos for you to see the students at work:

  

mindful decisions about color and placement 

working together to create the trunk our our tree

flower pounding using simple machines 

recycling newspapers to create art.  

Here are some of the completed designs using the natural dye from flowers.  There was no waste here because we put the used flowers directly into our green compost bins to decompose and return nutrients to the soil.  Someone said "hey, it's like the hammer is painting."  Another student said "this is so peaceful."  It is a mindful task.  

 Parent Teacher conferences are this week on Thursday from 3:30-7:30 and on Friday from 8:00 - 1:00.  If you haven't already had a chance to book a time, please try and do so this week.  It is a wonderful opportunity for us to discuss the learning strategies that work best for your child.  Thank you.  Here is a link to website for booking:  https://webapps.cbe.ab.ca/MyAccount/Account/LogOn?ReturnUrl=%2fMyAccount%2f