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