March 31st, 2015

Today in class, Mrs. Witmer started poetry with the students. Students were asked to read excerpts from various poetry books and write down any observations they made about the characteristics of a poem. Ask me what I found out about poetry today! As they learn more about poetry going forth they will be writing their own Native poetry to be included in the books our parents saw just before the break at student-led conferences.

In math this afternoon, Mrs. Jackson's class took some measuring tools outside and measured various objects and parts of the playground. It was pretty windy but otherwise a lovely day to learn outside! We found the area and perimeter of each, using rounding for the bigger numbers we collected in our data. One student realized that when they were multiplying bigger numbers like 2000 and 4000, they could just multiply 2 and 4 then add on the zeros afterwards to get the answer. Other students found that they were amazed at how big some of the areas were, especially the ones who measured the entire commons! We also practiced converting our measurements between metres and centimetres.

Mrs. Cooper's math class continued to work on fractions using the iPads to take pictures of fractions around the school.  From this activity, students should be able to recognize the numerator and denominator and be able to represent a fraction using pictures, words and numbers.

This afternoon we looked at acid rain, its effects and how it is caused. Since one of our variables in yesterday's experiment was vinegar and water, it is necessary for us to understand what this means for our bean plant. In order to understand this concept we read an article with a partner and highlighted only the information that we deemed to be important to know. Ask me to show you the article and show you the important info that I read about!


Please take a look at our safety website put together by the School Bound and Safety Committee if you haven't done so already. There is important information on there for parents and students about safety in coming and going from school. 

Reminders:

1. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on April 2nd.

March 30th, 2015

Welcome back from Spring Break! We hope you had a restful week and enjoyed some of the wonderful weather we have been having here in Calgary.

This morning we started off the day with Daily 5. We then had gym where we continued our work in playing with the Omnikin balls. We had music with Mrs. Penner this morning and had a chance to show her and work on our precorder skills.

Mrs. Witmer started a new book with us today. It is called "Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein. We made predictions based on the cover and the title of the book and then Mrs. Witmer started reading he beginning of the book to us. Ask me what my I predict will happen in this book based on what I know so far!

This afternoon for math Mrs. Jackson's class went over some of the work we did before Spring Break and reviewed some math concepts that will help us do an area and perimeter exploration outside tomorrow. In Mrs. Witmer's math class, students used iPads to take pictures of fractions around the school. Ask me what kinds of fractions I found!

We ended the day with plant observations. Various stations were setup for us to visit and we had time to spend at each one to observe and sketch the variables for growing bean plants and how it affects their growth. Ask me what the variables were! Our own plants that we planted have grown a lot over the break! We are excited to see how big they will grow and what kinds of blooms and fruit develop from them.

Our School Bound and Safe Committe has a website up with safety information regarding parking, crosswalks, drop and drive, etc. Please take a look and make sure to watch the new Drop and Drive video!

Reminders:

1. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on April 2nd.

March 17, 2015

The students continued to work on their Native Legends and most are very close to being done!  They took some time today to reflect and assess their writing using a rubric.  We then used these rubrics to reflect on IRIS.  Students were asked to say 2-3 strengths that their writing showed and one goal that they want to work on for the next story.

Students will share their IRIS artifacts at the student-led conferences Thursday evening and Friday morning.  A reminder to please sign up on the conference manager to book a time to come in with your child.  These are student-led conferences so your child will be prepared to show you their work and reflect with you about their strengths and goals.  During this time, students and parents will set goals for the upcoming term.  This is an opportunity for your child to share their accomplishments so far this year.

After math, we spent some time getting ready for one of our stations that parents will get to participate in during student-led conferences. It required them to write a procedure for parents to follow so we are excited to see if they wrote an accurate procedure.

The Scholastic Book Fair started today and our classes will have time tomorrow to check it out.  Students can bring money to purchase books tomorrow or make a wish list and then purchase books during student-led conferences.

March 13th, 2015

This morning we went to assembly put on by some of the grade 1/2 classes. They had messages for us about being superheroes in our learning and keeping promises that we make to others. The Ecoteam also talked to us about our paper towel consumption at Cranston School. We use 6,000 sheets of paper towel a week! In an effort to cut down in our usage to help the environment and save trees we are going to try to dry our hands with one paper towel only! To do this we must shake our hands dry 12 times and then use one paper towel. ♫ Twelve shakes and one paper towel ♫

We have also started procedural writing in our journals. In our first lesson, Mrs. Cooper and Miss Jackson asked us to write up a list of instructions for an Alien that came to our house to visit so that they could learn to brush their teeth. Students had 10 minutes to do this and then Mrs. Cooper and Mrs. Jackson demonstrated what their instructions look like in front of the class. Ask us what happened and discuss why our instructions worked or didn't work!

We ended the day reading more of Out of My Mind. Something shocking has happened in the story that has touched us all. We are almost done of the book and we are eager to find out how this story will end. Ask me what I think will happen and why!

Reminders:

1. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

2. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on April 2nd.

3. If you are interested in purchasing hockey tickets for "Student Night" please click on the link, Hockey Tickets, and don't forget to click on 'Cranston School' in the drop-down menu.

March 11th, 2015

Today worked on writing up our Native Legends in a Word document on the laptops. We are getting closer to having a completed project. We will be making a book with our legends and the art projects we have done with them and we are looking fowrard to showing these to our parents at student-led conferences next week!

This afternoon we got together with our buddies in Ms. MacEwen and Mrs. Richardson's classes to help them load a math talk onto their Iris accounts. We had to do this interview style, asking them questions and posing problems and having them talk through it with us. We were a big help to the younger students and great role models.

At the end of the day we went outside and planted seeds to experiement with during out inquiry on Bees and Plants with Mrs. Witmer. We had lots of fun getting our hands dirty and it was a beautiful afternoon!

Tomorrow we have Music so we have to remember to bring our precorders and folders to school!

***REMINDERS***:

1. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

2. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on April 2nd.

3. If you are interested in purchasing hockey tickets for "Student Night" please click on the link, Hockey Tickets, and don't forget to click on 'Cranston School' in the drop-down menu.
4. Fun Lunch money and orders are due on March 12th.

March 9, 2015

PARENT VOLUNTEER NEEDED!!! We are looking for a parent from each class to come in on Wednesday morning to help our students do a reading sample on IRIS.

We were excited to have Sara come as our guest speaker today to teach us about the life cycle of a bee.  She discussed mason bees and that they are a solitary bee and are non-aggressive.  A mason bee does not have a bee colony and they travel in swarms.  The students discovered different ways to protect and attract bees.  If you find a swarm, you are suppose to call to have it removed so that the bees can still be protected.  The students were given a sample of honey to take home.  Below is a link to find out more about mason bees:

https://www.calgary.ca/CSPS/Parks/Documents/Programs/Community-Orchards/mason-bee.pdf?noredirect=1 --

Please remember to do your home reading and to use both Razkids and Mathletics.

***REMINDERS***:

1. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

2. Miss Jackson's/Mrs. Cooper's Scholastic Book Orders are due on March 11th.

3. If you are interested in purchasing hockey tickets for "Student Night" please click on the link, Hockey Tickets, and don't forget to click on 'Cranston School' in the drop-down menu.
4. Fun Lunch money and orders are due on March 17th.

March 6, 2015

Our morning started with an assembly put on by the Tanga choir and the Peace Ambassadors. It was great to see some of the students from our class perform for the assembly.

We are very fortunate to have a guest speaker coming to visit our classe on Monday afternoon.  The guest speaker is a bee keeper that will be exposing our students to the life cycle of the bee and the importance of bees and how we can help to protect bees from endangerment.  This will connect with our exploration of the life cycles of plants and animals as well as connect to the inquiry work we have been doing.  We have challenged the students to find out the proper name of a bee keeper.

Students have been asked to complete the conclusion of their Native Legend for Monday.  We will begin editing and doing the final copy on Monday so it is very important that they complete and return their journals.  

Miss Jackson introduced the students to a new art technique, pointillism.  The students are using this technique to do a piece of art that represents their Native Legend. We looked at some Native symbols that the students incorporated into their art work.

Some of our students might be interested(especially those in the endangered animals group) in a Jane Goodall art contest.  Please see the link below if this is something you are interested in .  The due date is March 18 so it is something you would need to begin this weekend!

http://www.cbc.ca/m/news/canada/calgary/events/jane-goodall-s-roots-and-shoots-kids-art-contest-1.2951105

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND AND ENJOY THE WEATHER!!

***REMINDERS***:

1. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

2. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on March 11th.

3. If you are interested in purchasing hockey tickets for "Student Night" please click on the link, Hockey Tickets, and don't forget to click on 'Cranston School' in the drop-down menu.
4. Fun Lunch money and orders are due on March 17th.

March 5th, 2015

This morning we had a discussion on Responsibility. Our discussion covered various aspects of this term. What does it mean to be responsible? What responsibilities do we have at our age? What are our teacher's responsibilities? How does being responsible make us feel? How does being irresponsible make us feel? What is the outcome of being responsible? What is the outcome of being irresponsible? Ask us to reflect upon this discussion with you and tell you what we learned!

In music, we are working with our precorders and reading music. We will continue to remember to bring our blue folders and precorders to school on Mondays and Thursdays so we are prepared for music class! This is one of the responsibilities we talked this morning!

In dance today we learned an African dance. In order to perform this type of dancing, we used scarves as props. See if I remember how to do this at home!

In math, Miss Jackson's class is using their multiplication skills to work on area in measurement. We have discovered that if we make a grid on centimeter dot paper to find the area of a rectangle, it looks like an array! This is helping us to make multiplication equations to help find the area instead of counting all the blocks. Because we will be continuing to use our multiplication skills throughout the rest of the school year, it is still important to be reviewing out basic multiplication skills at home! This is another responsibility we have. :)

In Mrs. Cooper's class, Mrs. Witmer is continuing leading the students in their fraction unit. They have made fraction walls (Ask me what this is!) and we have learned some fraction games. We have also explored the difference between diverse fractions. We will be looking at where fractions take place in the real world moving forward!

This afternoon in our science inquiry with Mrs. Witmer we started exploring how, as a community, we can help bees to florish and prevent their extinction. We looked at these following websites:

Planting Bee Garden
David Suzuki
Organic Gardening
Attracting Wildlife
Bee Garden

***REMINDERS***:

1. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

2. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on March 11th.

3. Please send $10 for your child's Tanga art if you have not already done so and you would like to purchase it.

4. If you are interested in purchasing hockey tickets for "Student Night" please click on the link, Hockey Tickets, and don't forget to click on 'Cranston School' in the drop-down menu.

March 4th, 2015

Today we started talking about the ending of our Native Legends. We brainstormed what an amazing conclusion to our legends could look like. Some things we recognized that need to be a part of a good ending is consistency with the rest of our story, it needs to be interesting, and there should be a moral. Ask me what else needs to be included in a good ending.

In gym we played a strategy game with the Omnikin ball again. After, we play tag in teams using smaller Omnikin balls to tag other teams with in hula-hoops. 

This afternoon, Mrs. Witmer introduced us to our new science inquiry about Plants and the importance of bees and the pollination process! Students watched a quick 5 minute clip of the Bee Movie and then inquired about the importance of bees.  She showed us a picture of what a grocery store would look if bees went extinct. Ask me what it looked like and what kind of impact that could have on our lives! 

Tomorrow we have music so please make sure to bring your music folders and precorders (if you don't have an extra one at school) so you will have all materials needed for class!

***REMINDERS***:

1. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

2. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on March 11th.

3. Please send $10 for your child's Tanga art if you have not already done so and you would like to purchase it.

4. If you are interested in purchasing hockey tickets for "Student Night" please click on the link, Hockey Tickets, and don't forget to click on 'Cranston School' in the drop-down menu.

March 3rd, 2015

Today we continued writing our events into our Native Legends. We are reading what we have so far to a classmate so that they can give us feedback on our stories. We have also consulted a thesaurus to help us add more juicy words to make our legends even more engaging. We will be starting on our endings tomorrow so anyone who didn't finish this work today will have to do it or homework tonight. 

In gym, we have finished our work in floor hockey and are now moving on various games that we can play with the Omnikin balls. In music, we are working with our precorders. We all have folders now that contain music that we are practicing at home. We have to make sure that after we practice, we put our precorders back in our bags if we do not have a separate one at school, as well as our folders so we have all of our materials for next music class on Thursday.

***REMINDERS***:

1. If you didn't order a precorder because you have one at home, please bring these into school ASAP.

2. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

3. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on March 11th.

4. Please return signed Report Card envelopes if you haven't already.

5. Please send $10 for your child's Tanga art if you have not already done so and you would like to purchase it.

6. If you are interested in purchasing hockey tickets for "Student Night" please click on the link, Hockey Tickets, and don't forget to click on 'Cranston School' in the drop-down menu.

March 2, 2015

A BIG THANK YOU to all the families that came out and supported out Tanga art sale.  It was another very successful art sale. If you did not purchase your child's writing kit and would still like to, please send $10 in your child's folder labeled Tanga art sale and we will send your child's art home.

The students started to decide on a project that they will begin working on for their inquiry question.  After watching an inspirational video and looking at some examples of work that others have done to make a difference, the students gathered in their groups to make plans.  They are encouraged to be creative and think of a project that will make a difference around their inquiry topic.  Once students have chosen their project, they will continue to gather information to be experts on their topic.  We are asking students to begin searching for people that are experts to write letters to for gathering more facts.  Ask your child what project they decided on today and if they know what expert they will be writing to. 

Please help your child to remember to dress for the cold tomorrow... spring is around the corner but it's not here yet!!!! Brrrrrrrrrr........

Please read the following letter from the Cranston Administration:

Dear Cranston Parents/Guardians of children who have been identified to the school as being at risk of anaphylaxis and therefore in possession of an Epinephrine-injector (epi-pen)

In keeping with the recommendations of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Cranston School is requesting that these students carry their own auto-injector on their person to be easily accessible at all times (traditional school backpacks are not easily accessible as they are not worn all day). Furthermore, if at all possible, that a back-up auto-injector (clearly labeled with the student’s name and other pertinent information) be kept in the school’s office. In case of an anaphylaxis emergency, this will allow us to attend to your child in the fastest and most efficient way possible.

Please contact the Cranston School Office if you have any questions.

***REMINDERS***:

1. If you didn't order a precorder because you have one at home, please bring these into school ASAP.

2. Return the Student Movement Form by March 16th.

3. Miss Jackson's Scholastic Book Orders are due on March 11th.

4. Please return signed Report Card envelopes if you haven't already.

5. Please send $10 for your child's Tanga art if you have not already done so and you would like to purchase it.