Dance, 3 Things for Canada, Run for Water, Happy Easter

Happy Birthday Matthias!  We hope you have a wonderful birthday weekend.


Congratulations all of you little dancers!  I spoke with Miss. Claudia and she was SUPER proud of our class.  You remembered your moves, your were brave in front of a large audience and you remembered to smile. Thank you for putting a HUGE smile on my face.

This morning our class watched a brief video clip with Calgary's Mayor Naheed Nenshi.  He talks about being active participants in Canada's 150th birthday.  Mr.Nenshi encourages all Canadians to volunteer 3 acts for service; one for community, one for country, and one for the world.  We discussed ways that we could volunteer.  We talked about volunteering at a local race (picking up empty water cups, handing out water, handing out medals), participating in a river clean up, helping a neighbor, holding a door open for a stranger, letting the person at the grocery store line -up in front of you when they only have a couple of items etc.  We discussed the Calgary Run for Water and how the funds raised will support the building of a water well in Dengali Ethiopia. Grow Calgary is a newer Calgary program that is looking for volunteers.  It is a community urban farm growing healthy, fresh food for social agencies with food access programs accessed by many people across the city. We also figured out that most of us would be between 56-58 when Canada turns 200 years old! Let's make Canada's 150th birthday memorable!

http://www.threethingsforcanada.ca/

Speaking of the Run for Water, I have made a group for E.G families (you DO NOT have to be a part of the E.G. Run Club to join us).  To register;


- go to http://www.runforwater.ca/calgary/5k
- click on "Join a Team participate with my peeps"
- begin to type Earl Grey Run Club.  You should be able to join the group and continue to register.
The E.G. Run club will be up "and running" in just a few weeks.  Students in grades 1-4 are invited to run approx. 3km on Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunch hour with Ms.Penonzek and myself.  More information will be coming home for those children who wish to participate.
I hope you all have relaxing, chocolate filled Easter Weekends.







  

New Novel Study, Dance, Boats and Buoyancy

Our class has begun a new novel study called "The World According to Humphrey".  We completed a summary for chapter 2 this morning.  In our Language Arts program we are focussing on summarizing chapters, persuasive writing and figuring out whether a statement is fact or opinion. We will also continue to work on poetry writing.

In Gym we are grooving to the music and trying to complete our dance routine for Thursday afternoon.  Please join us in the gym this Thursday April 13th from 2:15pm - 3:15pm to watch each class perform.

In Science we continue to learn about boats, buoyancy, and density.  These are BIG concepts to understand, Miss.B is doing a great job modeling and teaching each term.  She had the students divide themselves into 2 unequal groups to try to demonstrate a high and low density based on how much space they took up and how much air was between each of them.

Question of the day.

Who is Humphrey?  How does he feel about Mrs.Brisbane?

Up-dates-

Thursday April 13th - 2:15-3:15 Dance performance in the gym
Friday April 14th -  No School (Good Friday)
Monday April 17th - No School (PD day)
Thursday April 27 - Fun Lunch
Friday April 28th - Whole School Math Fair - All parents encouraged to attend (TTBD)
Friday April 28th - Miss. B's last day as our student teacher
Wednesday May 24th - Trip to Calgary International Children's Festival. Rain date will be Thursday the 25th. We will need at least 5 parent volunteers for the whole day.  Our transportation method is going to be a fun one!  We're walking 1.8km down to the train station and riding the "free zone" to City Hall Station. There will be some VERY tired children AND parents at the end of the day.  Thank you in advance for volunteering for this day!

Persuasive Writing, Measurement, Dance and Density

Today we began with a story called "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" in this story the wolf is actually the good guy.  This lead into opinion or persuasive writing.  The students read a sample paragraph comparing tuns sandwiches to a grilled cheese.  They then worked in groups to write their own persuasive writing pieces comparing dogs to cats.  For our very first piece the kids did an excellent job!

In Math we discussed length and height.  Students had to line themselves up (without speaking) from shortest to tallest.  We are working on a measurement garden, our headshots will be the center of the flower.

In Dance we tried some new break dance moves, they were pretty tough!  The coffee grinder was especially tricky, Vian mastered it right away!

In Science we began to try to understand what "density" is.  We have learned that big things like boats can float because the are less dense (can hold more air) then small things like rocks.

Sneaky Question

Why will a water bottle float but a book sink?

Dance, Math and Natural Resources

Welcome back!  We had such a great day today, secretly I think the kids were happy to be back at school.  
We spent most of the morning completing our "inchie" Social Study Art work.  Once they're complete I'll post some pictures on the blog.  
In the afternoon we began our Dance Unit in Gym.  EG is fortunate enough to have Claudia Sprau back as our dance instructor.  The kids all seemed to have fun trying out new hip hop dance moves. We have set a tentative date to showcase our new dance moves for Thursday, April 13th from 2:15-3:15.
In Math we are looking at different types of measurement.  The focus right now is being able to read a calendar and understand that each month doesn't always begin on a Sunday.  We know that our birthdate is always the same date but that the actual day of the week changes each year. 
In Social Studies we are learning about Natural Resources. Today we discussed what a Natural Resource is, students were able to brainstorm a few.  The 3 Canadian Communities we are learning about will direct the natural resources we learn about.  

Question:
What is a natural resource?
Can you list 4 natural resources?