November 28, 2014

The students had some time on IRIS today to record a reading sample.  We did reflections about our reading, thinking about what strategies we use and what we need to continue to improve our reading.  We ran out of time so our Reading Samples are not completed but we hope to finish this on Monday.

We also spent time this morning working on developing a writing rubric, followed by a fiction writing assessment.  On Monday, the students will revisit their writing and use the rubric to assess it.  This will help students recognize their areas of strength in writing and what they need to work on as a goal.

FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES

We are still in need of more gifts for our families that we are supporting this year.  This is the last week for students to bring in their gifts so please take time to check the FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES BLOG to see what our family still needs.   Thank you

November 27, 2014

Mud City is our next read aloud that our classes will be doing. Mrs. Witmer (Ms. Rauser's student teacher) and Mr. Lam (Mrs. Cooper's student teacher) will be taking the leadership with this book and using many different kinds of teaching strategies to make it exciting and engaging.

In math, the students were introduced to using arrays as a strategy to do repeated addition/multiplication.  Students were provided time to practice this strategy while working on their family menu.  They are beginning to add up how much their family spends on meals each day.  This is being used to compare meals and the cost of food around the world.  

Ask your child what their big question is that they have chosen to investigate.  We made our final decisions about the DEEP THINKING QUESTION that we are most interested in.  Students will become experts in their chosen topic. Further information will follow as we move forward to the steps students are taking to gather resources and how they are going to plan their approach to their BIG problem.

Parent teacher conferences are Thursday, December 4th and Friday December 5th. Please remember to sign up on conference manager to meet with your child's teacher.

November 26, 2014

We are asking that each child please bring in a straight stick around 10 cm in length.  These sticks will be used for our Christmas ornament.  These sticks are due Thursday, December 4.  Thank you

Just a reminder that our classes perform for the December 9th Christmas concert from 6-7:30.  The students have been asked to practice the lyrics which can be found on Mrs. Jackson's blog under the admin heading in the teacher blogs.

In writing, we are working on making our writing more descriptive as we write about our areas of interest or expertise.  Students brainstormed for words that they could use and underlined words that they aren't sure how to spell.  Students have been asked to bring these home tonight to use a dictionary to find the correct spelling of these words.  An online dictionary will work for those who do not have a dictionary at home.  Please return the inquiry notebook tomorrow so that we can continue onto the next step.

November 25, 2014

Thank you to all the families that have already sent in gifts for our Family Helping Families.  Just a reminder to please post and check the Family Helping Families Blog to post the gifts that you are sending in.

Our students uploaded and reflected their Grizzly Bear Project onto Iris so parents can check it out.  We will be using their areas for growth and goals as we begin another project.  We are really excited to begin working on our independent inquiry questions this week. Students will continue to further develop writing skills to support their work in the research process.

We started a math project today with both classes combined.  This is a project that we will be working on over the next few weeks is called What do people eat in the world?  Students will be analyzing different families from around the world and figuring out what they eat and the cost of the food.  They will then create their own weekly family menu and compare their families menu to the families from around the world.  During this project students will be working on diverse addition and multiplication strategies.

In writing, the students were introduced to free writing about an area of interest or expertise.  Students choose 3 topics that they know a lot about and will be picking one that they could write the most information about (their experts and can write specific details about this topic).  Ask your child what topics they picked and have them tell you everything they know about it. You can help them decide which one they 'could' pick by the amount of knowledge they have about it. ;0)

A reminder to students to log into RAZKIDS and Mathletics to practice important reading and math skills at least 1-2 times per week. 

Thursday November 20th, 2014

Mrs. Jones and Miss Jackson have told the children that if they wish to practice the specific Christmas carols they are learning in their music class that they can access this link which will take them to all the lyrics :0)

Link to Christmas Carol WORDS

Ms. Rauser's and Mrs. Cooper's grade 3/4 classrooms will be presenting their songs on our 'Deck the Halls' night --> December 9th, 2014 at 7pm in the gym. The evening will officially start at 6pm and there will be family activities throughout the school to partake in with the night officially ending at 7:30pm!

DATE TO REMEMBER -> DECEMBER 9TH  (6:00-7:30PM)

Yesterday the students started to do a good copy of their bear writing on the computer and we continued with it today.  Some of the students were very efficient with using the computer to type a good copy.  Other students found this a very challenging task.  We talked about students taking the time to practice typing at home to help them improve in this skill.  Dance Mat Typing is a fun and interactive website that can help students become more efficient at typing.  We have the website linked on our website.  

Math and Literacy Family Night

We are looking forward to seeing our families tonight.  Our evening has been planned to provide parents with activities to do at home with their children for reading, writing and math.

TOMORROW IS A PD DAY SO THE STUDENTS DO NOT HAVE ANY SCHOOL UNTIL MONDAY.  HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

November 19th, 2014

Photo Retake Picture Orders are due:  

November 24th, 2014 (Monday)

Scholastic HOLIDAY book orders are due:

TOMORROW (Thursday November 20th, 2014)

Families Helping Families Update for both classrooms

*parents: please check your emails as we will be sending out what has been purchased/donated to date to you through this form of communication either today or tomorrow. This will just compliment what is already on the BLOG :0)

Math and Literacy Night

**Tomorrow night is our family math and literacy night from 6:30-7:30pm
'Usborne' Book Fair will also be set up during this time!

NO SCHOOL ON FRIDAY (Teacher PD Day)

November 18, 2014

The students worked hard today to continue to develop sentences and paragraphs using the jot notes they gathered on grizzly bears.  Students are expected to write 3-5 sentences about each topic they found information about.  We talked about writing sentences that are descriptive and include proper punctuation and capitals.  We have the computers booked tomorrow for the students to begin their good copy that will be included with the grizzly bear art they did in their art journals last week.

After practicing our research skills with the grizzly bear work, students will be ready to begin the exploration of their wonders and deep thinking questions.  Next week we will fine tune our questions and begin working in groups to continue with the inquiry process for the year.

Mr. Southworth met with our students this morning to explore the very huge map of Canada in the learning commons.  Ask your child what they found interesting about the map. Our next mapping session is tomorrow afternoon.

Mrs. Cooper's math class is working on adding three digit numbers with regrouping.  It is very important that all students are able to quickly recall basic addition facts when doing three digit addition. Please take the time to practice basic facts using Mathletics, cards games, dice games, flash cards etc..
Ms. Rauser's math group is exploring rounding numbers.  They watched an interactive rounding video to increase their understanding of rounding.  They practiced rounding to the tens, hundreds and thousands.

Book orders are due Thursday

Life Touch pictures arrived today!

If gifts have been purchased or donated for our Families Helping Families, please wrap, label and send to school between now and December 5(DUE DATE).

November 17, 2014

Families Helping families

Students have started to bring in gifts for our family that we are supporting.  Thank you to those who have brought in gifts and for those that have already posted what they are bringing.  Please remember to use the previous Families Helping Families posts to indicate what you are able to contribute for your class's family.

Students have been reminded to go onto both Razkids and Mathletics 1-2 times per week.  If your child is having difficulties logging in, please let your teacher know.  This is an important part of your child's homework so we encourage your child to do this weekly.

Literacy and Numeracy Night

If you have not yet returned the form indicating that you will be attending the literacy and numeracy night on Thursday, November 20, please send it in tomorrow.  Thank you

Good Guys and GirlPower's Friendology notes are due November 20.  Please return these forms if your child is interested in participating.

Some students in Mrs. Cooper's class have not completed their jot notes for the bear research that we were doing to practice non-fiction writing and gathering information.  If your child needs to complete this, they will have their Inquiry notebook in their home communication folder. They are expected to have 3-5 jot notes for each topic.  This should be completed for tomorrow so they can continue on to the next step.

Schoslastic book orders for Ms. Rauser went home on Friday and Mrs. Cooper's class received them today.  If your child would like to order books, please return the order form and cheque made to Scholastic by Thursday, November 20th.

COOPER...Families Helping Families

COOPER...FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS

Cranston families, if you are interested in helping…

IMPORTANT à  Please send your child’s teacher a comment through this BLOG post titled ‘FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS’. State what item you are willing to contribute or donate based off of the needs the family has indicated so that all other families in your child’s class can see what has been contributed and what still is in need.

Please remember that our families would love to not have to worry about the purchase of food items and more than one gift card to their chosen grocery store would be welcomed!

**We welcome donations of gently used items for our families as well.

All gifts/donations will need to be wrapped and labeled to whom they are intended for. Wrapped contributions will be due by: Friday December 5^th, 2014

Comments when families were notified that they were chosen for this initiative:

"You have no idea whet this means to us." "This is truly amazing." "This could not have happened at a better time."

“Thank you for everything and for helping my family out. I’m grateful for the help complete strangers are willing to give us. It’s amazing!”

In the spirit of giving this holiday season, all staff at Cranston school would like to thank families in advance for their thoughts and contributions! Thank you for making a families Christmas a little brighter!!

RAUSER...Families Helping Families

RAUSER...FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS

Cranston families, if you are interested in helping…

IMPORTANT à  Please send your child’s teacher a comment through this BLOG post titled ‘FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS’. State what item you are willing to contribute or donate based off of the needs the family has indicated so that all other families in your child’s class can see what has been contributed and what still is in need.

Please remember that our families would love to not have to worry about the purchase of food items and more than one gift card to their chosen grocery store would be welcomed!

**We welcome donations of gently used items for our families as well.

All gifts/donations will need to be wrapped and labeled to whom they are intended for. Wrapped contributions will be due by: Friday December 5^th, 2014

Comments when families were notified that they were chosen for this initiative:

"You have no idea whet this means to us." "This is truly amazing." "This could not have happened at a better time."

“Thank you for everything and for helping my family out. I’m grateful for the help complete strangers are willing to give us. It’s amazing!”

In the spirit of giving this holiday season, all staff at Cranston school would like to thank families in advance for their thoughts and contributions! Thank you for making a families Christmas a little brighter!!