Oki, Tansi, Parents and Guardians, I hope that you all had a lovely week. Students in room 23 were busy with lots of exciting activities and preparations for even more! Monday, we read more poems from the book Messages from Na'a. This is a great book written by Calgary students and Elder Saa'kokoto. Inspired by these ideas, we went outside to our Sit Spots for our own inspiration. Tuesday, we had special visitors from Calgary Pro Musica. They joined us for smudge and goal-setting. They gave a special performance just for us in our classroom. Wow! What an experience! Next, we took our maps and had the musicians find our Sit Spots.The musicians enjoyed being on the land as much as the kiddos did. Wednesday, Ms. Danica taught us about teepee stones and the importance of circles. We then did an art project where each of us drew a circle, then added designs to each others' work. The result is awesome! Did you know that red, yellow and blue are primary colours? Check out this song that we shared with our grade 5 buddies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu44JRTIxSQ That afternoon we went outside to explore our community. We drummed, sang our school song, saw a cool crow, looked at lots of animal poo, and found a new Sit Spot. It was a great afternoon! In Math, students continued to work on adding and representing addition through pictures and number sentences. It's a bit tricky, but we're getting there! In Literacy, students continue to work in centres on writing, language games, and spelling. During Guided Reading sessions, we have been working on touching each word as we read so that we read accurately. Our frog bookmarks help us with this: we jump from word to word with the frog and his eyes tell us what word our eyes should read! We have also been working on adding words to our imaginary backpacks. "Backpack words" are words that we recognize by sight: we don't have to sound them out. Our buddies in grades 3 and 5 help us with our reading. We also practice our letter stories, such as "Anna eats apples and says 'a, a, a!'" We sure are busy in room 23! Learning, fun, and laughter are always ongoing with our crew!
Take care and check our blog soon, Ms. Sara :)
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Oki families of grade 1/2 students! Brr! It was cold out there! It sure feels nice to thaw out after a full week of freezing temperatures. We had fun inside and did lots of learning, but it was time to get outside again! What have the kids been up to this month? Let's take a look! Students revisited their Sit Spots to see how things have changed. Just being close to Na'a helps us to refresh and refocus. We looked at the chinook arch that brought us these warm temperatures. Students were reminded of the story of The Bear Who Stole the Chinook that we heard on our field trip to Fish Creek Park. Winter is the time for storytelling. Room 23 welcomed Traditional Knowledge Keeper Alayna Manyguns to our class. She shared two stories with us. Students were captivated! We are very grateful for her teachings.
In Art, we've also been working on Guided Drawing. This week, we learned about the meaning behind our school name, and drew the Piitoayis symbol. The kids did a great job! So much excitement in room 23! Stay tuned for next week: Tuesday we have special visitors from Calgary Pro Musica who will work with my students to create a soundscape based upon nature found in our Sit Spots! We will present these at an assembly later that morning.
Have a lovely day, Ms. Sara :) I can't believe how quickly time has flown in room 23! I am very excited as well to start a brand new decade with my students: it is now 2020!
Since my last blog post, a lot has happened in our school community. Students learned about Remembrance Day and our brave veterans in November. We also learned about Métis culture throughout Métis week. Students explored artifacts, listened to stories and coloured pictures. December was a lot of fun for room 23 students. They participated in an amazing Winter Solstice presentation and sang "I've Got Peace in my Fingers" to a full house, including a dress rehearsal in front of Colonel Walker school. Speaking of Colonel Walker, we now have a buddy class with that community! We invited the two grade 1/2 classes to our class one Friday, and we visited Ms. M's grade 1/2 class the following week. We will continue to build friendships with those students in the months to come. ,December continued to be a time of fun and learning with two field trips: one to Fish Creek Park and another to the Central Library. Students learned about history, listened to an elder, and enjoyed learning in a new way. December finished up with an exciting visit from Santa and Elsa. These visitors brought laughter, smiles and toys for the kids. What a great day that was! Whew! What a lot of excitement that we've had! I am sure that there will be more fun and learning in the weeks to come. I will continue to update you through this blog, SchoolMessenger emails, as well as occasional phone calls. I look forward to posting pictures of some of our adventures in the weeks to come. Happy New Year! Ms. Sara :) |
Ms. Sara
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