Meet our new Student Teacher!

Welcome Ms.Gerarrd to our classroom!  Some of you may already know her as she was Mrs.Scherschel's student teach from October-December.

A note from Ms.Gerrard

Hello Grade 1/2. I am so excited to be apart of your classroom and Earl Grey School. I am looking forward to all of the exploring, learning, and fun we are going to have. I was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia and I moved to Calgary 13 years ago. I am graduating from a Bachelors of Education in May and I can't wait to start teaching in my own classroom this coming September.  I am looking forward to learning more about each of you.

Reminders

-Please order your Fun Lunch by this Saturday at midnight (Panago)
-Wed. Feb. 27th Leader in Me Assembly and Pink Shirt Day
-PD Day March 1st (no school for students)
-Parent Teacher Interviews March 21st and 22nd

In Language Arts we are writing stories about the Mountain Bongo, we will share these with you at Parent Teacher Interviews on March 21st and 22nd.  The focus is; word choice, legibility, makes sense, spelling, and conventions.

Social Studies has us looking at the geography and people in Iqaluit, Meteghan and Saskatoon.  We have been spending time looking at how we could travel to these places from Calgary.  When we looked at a map some students noticed that Iqaluit is separated by water and that there are no roads leading to it.

In Science we broke our first thermometer.  The one that we put outside last week broke in the cold weather.  We have learned about the average seasonal temperatures in Calgary and that Canada has 4 seasons.

In Math we are working on double digit addition and subtraction in grade 2 and addition and subtraction to  18 in grade 1.  We are reviewing facts that make 10 each day.

Hockey is the them in Physical Education.  We are working on basic skills before moving onto playing a game.

First Week of Fabulous February!

Just some light reading to help you get through the cold snap!

Updates: 
Mon. 11th- Earl Grey sweatshirt forms due (extended until Monday at noon)
Mon. 11th - Our class will be watching the grade 3/4 shadow puppet plays
Tues. 12th- Science Fair will be in the gym all day
Wed. 13th- Valentines Day Party in the afternoon
Thur. 14th, Fri. 15th, Mon.18th - NO SCHOOL (Teacher's Convention and Family Day weekend)
Feb.27th- Leader in me assembly and Pink Shirt Day
March 1st- PD Day- No school for students
March 13th - Tentative "Nuts"  Div 1 performance 
March 20th - Parent Teacher Interviews (evening)
March 21st- Parent Teacher interviews AM only, no school for students
April 11th- Earth Rangers presentation (whole school in the gym)
May 1st-Helsen and Maze trip to the Calgary Humane Society
June 19th- Helsen and Scherschel classes go to the Calgary Zoo to present Mountain Bongo project

Science-
The bitter weather has been wonderful for our Hot and Cold Unit.  This week we got to watch the mercury both drop and rise very rapidly after putting the thermometer outside and then bringing it back in.  We also tried putting a thermometer inside tube of rocks and a tube of water to see if they would act as insulators.  We learned that the rocks slightly insulated the thermometer and the water didn't help to insulate the thermometer.

We looked at a house and talked about ways to cool and heat our houses using; space heaters, curtains, fans, windows, door snakes and thermostats.

Social Studies- 
As we look at other Canadian communities we learn about the geography and landscape in Iqaluit, Meteghan and Saskatoon. 

Math-
Grade 1s - Addition and subtraction to 20.  Students are using number lines (rulers), blocks, counting on and doubles strategies to help them.

Grade 2s- Addition and subtraction to 100.  Students are using re-grouping, expanding and number lines to solve equations.  We are also working on telling time (on the hour and half past).

Literacy-
We continue with "I see, I think, I wonder" to build our vocabulary working on strong verbs and adjectives.  Students are constantly reminded to check for upper and lower case letters, proper conventions, phonetic spelling in new words and accurate spelling in common sight words.

We have been using story books to understand parts of a story (BME).  Students are able to recognize the setting, characters, problem, solution OR the adventures and ending in a story.  Through the deconstructing and reconstructing of texts students now have a clearer understanding of what a "good" story needs.  The next step is for students to create their own stories about the mountain bongo.  Students will help create an assessment guide prior to writing the stories.  This ensures that students understand the expectations.

Ms.Kristen our Schools Occupational Therapist has been visiting our class about once a months since Oct.  This weeks session was on Big and Little problems.  She gave our school the nicest compliment by saying that she works in about 14 schools and she finds the Earl Grey KG and grade 1 and 2 students very mature and excellent problem solvers. Below is a part of the presentation that she gave to both Mrs.Maze's and our class.

Mission Impossible-GYM