Week 5: Sept. 30th- Oct. 4th

A Message from Mrs Ferrari

Ms Ferrari is looking for the following items:
  • knitting needles
  • embroidery hoops
  • yarn for knitting and weaving
  • scrap fabric
  • small glass jars (yogurt jars, pablum?)
If you have any of these items to donate, please drop them off at the main office with Ms Ferrari's name on them. You can also email her at anferrari@cbe.ab.ca if you have any questions.


IMPORTANT DATES

October 9: Fun Lunch- Subway
October 10: Ms. Parent is away
October 11: PD Day - No school for students
October 14: Thanksgiving  - No school
October 21: Last day to get halloween tickets (dance)
October 22: Ms. Parent is away at a learning series
October 23: Fun Lunch- Pizza Hut

Highlights from our week: Make sure to ask your son/daughter to share some details.

Mathematics:
We have started our place value unit over the last week. We have been examining different ways to represent numbers, what a number family consists of and have been thinking about why large numbers are important.

Writing:
We had two "Just Write" blocks this week, reflected on our current quiet place (both inside and outside) and reflected on what reconciliation means to us. 

Computers:
To start out computer blocks each week, we will be working on our typing skills using a program called typing club. We also got started on a fun math program called prodigy!

Seven Sacred Teachings/Sit Spots:
We extended our work from OSD to include the work of reconciliation in our classrooms. Part of this work is acknowledging some of the traditional teachings that can help guide us in how we treat others at school, at home and in our communities. We have started to talk about the seven sacred teachings and are focusing on the teachings of the bear. Ask me what teaching the bear encompasses and why that teaching is seen to be related to the bear. Additionally, we spent some time this week together as a large 5/6 group to read the book "A Quiet Place" and had a conversation about why it is important to have a place to go and reflect, to be able to quiet our minds and to be free of all distractions. This let us to choose our sit spots for the year and to practice our first sit spot. Ask me about my sit spot and how it felt to spend some time reflecting on where I am in the moment and to let go of any other thoughts that might limit my connection to the space around me.

Reading:
We have been reading the first chapter of our class novel, Number the Stars, which has elicited lots of great conversations already! We have also been working to summarize the story, identify main events, characters, settings and problems and solutions in our visual journal.

Science (gr. 5):
We took some time to investigate some of the questions we had around the wetlands to start our week. This was prefaced by talking about the importance of identifying good websites and how we consider whether something is a reliable fact. Students were given two work periods, including our discussions, and were able to find some really great responses to their questions. We spent some time sharing our responses and building up each others knowledge capacity in what we know about wetlands. Additionally, we have continued to think about the importance of wetlands and to also think human impact on wetlands. We have been looking at current events to think about the impacts of a project that is ongoing in Calgary, with the construction of the Ring Road. We have been considering the pros and cons of this project and thinking about those impacts might have an effect on the ecosystems of a wetland, flood mitigation and the ways it could impact communities.

Social/Science (gr. 6):
Grade 6 students work with Ms. Warrener for Social and Ms. Pallesen for Science. Please make sure you are checking their blog to get updates on what is happening in their class each week. 

Visual Journals:
We had some time to work on pages that were unfinished, worked on our Terry Fox page, our OSD page, set up our pages for our novel study (Number the Stars), created a double page with a sketch of a bear for our seven sacred teachings work this month, worked on our jigsaw page for our research on a particular type of wetland and have continued to reflect each day on something we learned.