Terry Fox

What a perfect day for a run!  After a quick warm-up in the gym we all went outside to run for 30 minutes.  I couldn't help but notice a few of the kids lapping me....I'll give you a hint, they're twins!  Everyone did their best to run the whole time.  I was really proud to see that our entire class stayed outside for the whole time and didn't stop for bathroom or water breaks.

I'm not sure how much our school raised but will keep you posted!  Thank you for all of you generous donations!

I'm sorry if I didn't get a photo of your child running.  It was tricky to catch them all.

Pumpkin Crunch

The boys and girls were pretty excited to go into the staffroom today.  Why is it that the staffroom is such a mysterious place for kids?  Before we began baking a few of the kids noticed some rulers on the staffroom table.  Ask your child what the teachers use the rulers, cherry tomatoes and empty coffee boxes for!  Once we cleared off the table each student took a turn mixing, dumping, or measuring.

The end result went home with the kiddos today, I hope they enjoyed their little nibble.  I've added the recipe at the very bottom of the post.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree
• 1 can (12 oz) evaporated milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans (the original recipe called for 1/2 cup)
• 1 cup butter, melted

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease bottom of 9 x 13″ pan.  Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.  Pour mixture into greased pan.  Sprinkle dry cake mix over pumpkin mixture and top with pecans.  Drizzle melted 

butter over pecans.  Bake 50-55 minutes.

Monday September 26, 2016

This morning marked our kick off to Terry Fox week.  At our assembly we listened to why students feel that Terry Fox was a "real life" hero.  This week we will continue to spend time learning about Terry  Fox's journey, his hope and his disease.

With the turn of the seasons we took advantage of the warm weather this morning and went outside to collect some leaves and berries.  We discussed how artists use different mediums (paint, clay, metal, glass and objects from nature) to create their pieces.  Once we had collected our leaves we came back into the school to build our own leaf creations.  We have lots of little leaf animals to add to our classroom gallery.

In the afternoon we continued observing liquids.  We've felt them, poured them, smelt them and tried to see through them.  Today was the first day that the students were allowed to work alone in small groups with their liquids.  We did pretty well, only one spill.....of course it was milk but no one cried!

Upcoming Dates;

Thursday Sept. 29 - Terry Fox Run  2:30
Friday Oct. 7th - PD Day - No school for students
Thursday Oct. 27th - Field Trip to Heritage Park - all day

Thursday September 22nd

Welcome FALL!  Today we wrote about Fall in our visual journals.  We read some books, looked at a quick video and discussed what we see, smell, feel and taste in fall. It's really neat to hear about the children's experiences and what fall means to them!  I think our whole class was excited about the idea of having hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles to warm us up....it was just an idea though, no hot chocolate in our class.

In Math we've been talking about increasing and decreasing patterns.  We looked at a birthday cake as an example of a growing pattern.  Each year you add 1 more candle to the cake.  The decreasing pattern was a fish bowl with 4 fish, each time the hungry cat came by the fish decreased by 1.

In Science we've been looking at different liquids to see how they move, smell, feel and whether they are transparent or opaque.  Right now we are just using once set of liquids to test.  As the class continues to show me that they can be responsible I will begin to put the liquids on their desks to explore independently.

E.G subscribes and pays for an account with Tumble Books.  It is a great resource of story books, non-fiction books, documentaries, games, puzzles and books in other languages.  I encourage you to add it to your favorites bar.  Children can easily navigate and use this site with little or no adult support.

http://www.tumblebooklibrary.com/Default.aspx

The username is :  egs
       password is :  book


Here are a couple of great links for math games.  These are both free and recommended by Learn Alberta.  (Math 3 under the Sea is geared towards grade 3 outcomes but the grade 1s and 2s will still enjoy completing the tasks).

http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/PatternGenerator/

http://www.learnalberta.ca/content/me3us/flash/

Dates to remember:

Terry Fox Run - Thursday September 29th at 2:30pm.

Monday September 19th

We kicked off our Monday with our 7 Habits assembly.  The assembly focus was on "good leadership" and what makes a great leader.  As I look around our classroom I see a room full of leaders!  We help each other out, we listen to each other and we look out for one another.

Our morning focus is mostly literacy based.  I thought I would post some pictures from todays work so you can get a feel for some of the work we do.  This activity is called "I see, I think, I wonder".  Students look at a picture and then complete the statements.  The point of this work is in improve and build vocabulary, help children become independent writers, have students think outside of the box and to develop critical thinkers and observers.  Our class will continue this type of writing every 2nd week, by Dec. the quality of the students writing will blow you away.

During some of our writing times I have noticed that some of the students are getting confused when they are trying to sound out their words. The following link is to the "Letter Factory".  While the video targets a younger age group there is still a lot to learn from it!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmf8ej_the-letter-factory-leapfrog-www-pisothshow-com_fun?GK_FACEBOOK_OG_HTML5=1

WORK FROM TODAY

 In Math we are continuing to create our own patterns, copy our friends, and add onto a friends. This afternoon students went on a hunt around the classroom to find patterns.  We discovered that many of our shirts had patterns on them.  Here are some examples of work from today.

The 2 pictures below show 4 different students work, it's a bit tricky to see in the pictures.

Thursday September 15, 2016

Raz-Kids!

All students in our class now have accounts set up and ready to go on Raz-Kids.  The students that were in Mrs.Nasr's class last year are still using the same accounts.  At this time I can't "port" those children into our class but will do so in the future.

Please use Raz-Kids as often as you would like.  It supports reading, comprehension, can be informative (non-fiction books), builds fluency and increases confidence. Children can use the site to read, be read to, record and then listen back to their reading and complete quizzes.

I have taped the login information with individual passwords in the front of each agenda.

teacher name - ghelsen

https://www.raz-kids.com/

Liquids

We have begun our unit on "liquids" in Science.  I am shocked at how much information the students already know about liquids and density.  Some of the statements the students recorded were;

liquids;

-take the shape of the container they are in

-can be hot or cold

-can dry 

-can evaporate

-can be different colors

-can smell different

-can be sticky

-can be dangerous

-can turn to rock if they cool down

This is a great start to our unit and should be lots of fun with predicting and experimenting!

Secret question of the day.  Who is Wilbur?  You can post your answer in the comment section.

Updates

Picture day next Thursday September 22nd

Running club forms sent home with those children interested (grades 2-4)

Monday September 12, 2016

Today marked our first official 7 Habits assembly of the year.  As a Leader in Me School we try to encompass the 7 habits language throughout the day.

We are;

Proactive

Begin With the End in Mind

Put First Things First

Think Win-Win

Seek First to Understand then to be Understood

Synergize 

Sharpen the Saw

We will continue our assemblies where we celebrate our achievements, review the 7 habits, and share how we use them in our classrooms.

In the agendas today I stapled a note with the outcome goals for our current Math unit (patterns)

Important Dates;

Tues. Sept. 13th Parent Council 6:30pm

Thurs. Sept. 22nd  Meet the Teacher BBQ more information to come home

Fri. Sept 23. NO school for students
Thur. Sept. 29th Terry Fox Run 2:30pm

Mon. Oct. 9th Thanksgiving

Thurs. Oct. 27th Mrs.Helsen's class to Heritage Park

Wed. Nov. 9th Walk with grade 5s to Calgary Cenotaph (weather permitting)

  

Birthday Pictures

Hi parents,

Could you please email me a picture of your child on their 1st or 2nd birthday.  The pictures will be used to create our birthday bulletin board.  The pictures need to be into me by Thursday, Sept. 15th.

Thank you,

Gwen Helsen

gkhelsen@cbe.ab.ca

Me Bags

Good evening parents;

Our second day of school came and went in a flash.  Your children came into the class as if they'd done it a hundred times before.  They knew exactly where to put their belongings and where to go next.  They helped me read the morning message and correct all of the errors.

We talked about one of our upcoming field trips....it's not until the end of October.  Ask your child if they remember where our class will be going and what we will be wearing!

In the afternoon we began presenting our "Me" bags.  It was really enlightening to hear about the things that are important to each child. It's also amazing to see just how diverse our class is!  We will continue with our presentations over the next 2 days.

So far we learned our classmates are;

-swimmers
-snorkelers
-horse back riders
-tennis players
-golfers
-adved readers
-movie enthusiasts
-coin collectors
-hockey players
-baseball players
-laser tag pros
-lizard lovers
-Star Wars wizards
-cyclists
-dog lovers
-Parks Canada Explorers
-photographers
-fashionistas
-jokesters
-post card collectors
-lego builders
-campers
-kind helpers
-painters
-ballerinas
-crafters
-pasta enthusiasts
-fruit roll-up snackers
-pokemon collectors

and many more talents!