Remembrance Day Information

Next Friday November 9th will be our Remembrance Day Assembly at 10:30 A.M.

Royal Oak School will be having a Remembrance Day ceremony on November 9th at 10:30 a.m. Families are welcome to attend; please try to arrive a few minutes early to ensure you find a seat.

Holding Remembrance Day ceremonies helps pass on the tradition of remembrance and is an important way to show our gratitude to the Veterans of Canada, those currently serving and their families, for the losses and sacrifices they have suffered. Due to the solemn nature of this ceremony, families are reminded to refrain from clapping after student presentations. Students who participate in Girl Guides (Sparks, Brownies) and Scouts (Beavers, Cubs) welcome to wear their uniforms to the assembly.

Veterans Food Drive

With Remembrance Day quickly approaching Royal Oak School would like to support our Veterans by collecting non-perishable food items. These items will be collected all week (November 5-9) and will be picked up and delivered to the Calgary Food Bank (Veterans branch). There are specific items that are more needed than others and the Calgary Food Bank has outlined these as wish list items that are greatly appreciated.

We watched this video in class and talked about reaching a goal just like the student's in Airdrie did!

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/airdrie-students-help-out-with-food-drive-for-the-veterans-association-food-bank-1.4151599

Please send in as many non-perishable food items you are able to and there will be large food bank bins that we will aim to fill by the end of the school week as it will be picked up by Calgary Food Bank Volunteers on Tuesday November 13th. 

Ms. Bennett will be putting together a Remembrance Day slideshow and is inviting school families to send her photographs of family members who are veterans or current members of the Canadian Arm Forces. Please send in all photographs by the deadline of Wednesday November 7^th. With the photographs please include the Canadian Arm Forces veteran or current member’s name, the war or peace keeping mission they participated in, if possible, where the photo was taken, and their relationship to you ( for example great grandfather, aunt, uncle etc.). Ms. Bennett’s email address is mebennett@cbe.ab.ca

Reminder: Book orders came home yesterday. They are not due until November 9th. This will allow plenty of time to have any orders back before Winter Break! 

Literacy

In literacy groups we have continued to work on making connections this week. 

Good Readers use their Reading Brain to make Connections when they read!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wpByvesEMU

Parent Pipeline:

While reading at home please try to see if I your child is able to make connections when they are reading. Some good prompts for helping them to think of making connections to themselves are:

Math Candy Conundrum!!

Today we started a word problem. 

We worked in groups to solve this problem using all of the strategies we have used so far this year.

We worked in groups and will continue to do so tomorrow to come up with a solution, using multiple strategies to check our accuracy. 

Artist in Residence

Today we started working with our Artist in Residence. We looked at how Historians find out information and how Artists use this information to create. 

We used materials from the past to create our art. Materials from the land since we would not have been able to go to a store and buy them. We used feathers and sticks to paint a picture of what Calgary would have looked like before anyone except the First Nations people lived here. 

We added a horizon line and then some soft rolling hills for the Foothills. 

We then thought about what would be on the land and added things like animal tracks, trees, grass, rivers or water. We also added some teepee ring stones and some buffalo rubbing stones to represent the First Nations people. 

Artist in Residence

Our first session with out of 4 with our Artist in Residence is tomorrow from 2:30-3:30 pm. I am in desperate need of at least 1 or 2 volunteers to help with this process. If anyone is able to volunteer for this 1 hour time period please email me at imlagrana@cbe.ab.ca

Reading Brains, Number Lines, Research from a website

Literacy

In literacy this week we are talking about Reading Power and the importance of Thinking While We Read. 

This week and next we will be focusing on making CONNECTIONS when we read. These connections are usually in our heads in our Thinking Voice. Nobody else can hear our THINKING VOICE but good readers are hearing this voice ALL of the TIME as they read! 

We read the book Jack's Worry by Sam Zuppardi

While reading the book we had to stop every page and share any CONNECTIONS we were having from our own life. Tomorrow we will work on connections we have to other books or to things from the world. 

We will be practicing this COMPREHENSION strategy all week and into next week. My home reading homework will be about using this strategy at home to increase my understanding of what I am reading. Stay tuned for a PARENT PIPELINE on Wednesday October 31st on the BLOG. 

Mathematics

Open Number Lines

Today we continued to practice exploring the open number line by creating two-digit numbers on an open number line using HOPS (10s), SKIPS (5s) and JUMPS (1s). We had to label the numbers at the top and write an efficient equation to go with our number line. We practiced acting out these numbers. Ask me to act our a two-digit number at home, using hops, skips and jumps. 

Reading Like a Historian

Today we continued looking at the past through the eyes of a Historian. We used a website through the Glenbow Museum to research about the Blackfoot way of life past and present. We had to read parts of the website and then fill out a mind map with sketches and words about what we are learning. We will continue this activity tomorrow and Friday. Historians use many sources for their information about the past and websites/computers are one of them. If you would like to explore this website at home further use the following link:

http://www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/

Reminders, Math, Halloween Updates, Voices of the Past and the Weather!

Reminders:

There is no school tomorrow Friday October 26th. It is a Professional Development Day for staff. See you Monday October 29th! 

Volunteers Needed
Next week Wednesday October 31st is our first day working with our Artist in Residence. Our class will have our first session with the artist from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm this day. It would be good to have 2 or 3 parent volunteers for this session in order to support the students in their learning. If you are able to volunteer for this time please email me directly at imlagrana@cbe.ab.ca

The other dates needed are:

Tuesday November 6th 9:45 am-10:45 am
Monday November 12th 9:45 am-10:45 am
Thursday  November 15th 9:45 am-10:45 am




Halloween Update:
Royal Oak is excited to move in a new direction this year! In place of Pumpkinella, students are invited to wear their Halloween costumes on October 31^st. Please have students come dressed in their costume in the morning (PM Kindergarten, please come ready in the afternoon!). Please have your child practice getting in and out of their costume so they can independently dress for washroom breaks. We ask that costumes do NOT include: masks, weapons, accessories, or blood/gore. Regular learning activities will continue throughout the day. Students will get the opportunity to share their costumes with each other by participating in a parade in the halls. In keeping with learning about healthy eating, please do not send any special treats or snacks to share. Our Staff is looking forward to the 31st!

You are also welcome to wear black and orange if you do not want to wear a costume. 



Voices of the Past Inquiry

We have been talking about the past and how Calgary came to be. We started by looking at the perspectives of First Nations, Settlers, Missionaries and Police. We looked at jobs that were important in the past. This week we have been extending this look at History by asking "Whose voices have we not heard". The students came up with Children and Women. 

Yesterday we looked at children and talked about Children's voices/roles in the Past vs Present:

Today we looked at the Canadian Pacific Railway, particularly the Chinese immigrants who came to work on building the railway in hopes of a better life.

We read a book called Ghost Train by Paul Yee about this experience. 

We posed the questions to the class: 

Did you know about the Chinese immigration story to Canada?

Do you think it is important for us to remember this history? Why? Or Why not?

We will continue this discussion next week and look at some other voices that might be missing or not so present in our history books or understandings of the past.

Weather

We have been investigating the weather by visiting the website:
https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/weather/alberta/calgary

It is a great website to look at forecasts and talk about temperature. Every week two kids from the class are our weather helpers and it is their job to go to the website, find the daily weather, and forecasts and explain their findings to the class. 

Literacy, Paragraph Writing, Number Lines, and Sketching!

Literacy

This week we have been Thinking about what we read. We have explored using THINK MARKS when we read in order to capture our thinking. 

Think Marks can be in pencil, highlighter and even on sticky notes. When we have a thought about what we are reading we can stop and make a think mark in order to help us better understand and engage with what we are reading. 

This week student's began by reading nonfiction text about water. We read with our partners and then re-read making think marks as we read. We then used these think marks to help us to summarize the main idea of the article:

By making Think Marks it is easier to summarize the main idea and give details or examples from the article or book that we are reading. 

Parent Pipeline:

Writing

This week we are working on using all of the descriptive pumpkin sentence starters we created last week and putting them together in order to create a detailed paragraph of writing. 

What is a paragraph?

We began a rough copy and will continue this writing tomorrow. We are trying to make our writing as interesting as possible and HOOK our audience or reader into wanting to read more! 

When our rough copies are done we will be self-editing and peer-editing as well as editing with a teacher, in order to create a finished, polished piece of writing. 

Math

Number Lines

Today we started learning about number lines. We looked at the open number line as a strategy for building single and double-digit numbers. 

We also practiced skip counting on an open number line. 

Hop=10
Skip=5
Jump=Extras

We had to make up numbers and act out the hops, skips and jumps of a secret number and our partner then had to guess what our number was using 10's, 5's and extras to help them count. 

We practiced showing double digit numbers on an open number line by doing our hops (10s), skips (5s) and jumps (1s ) to get to our number. 

Here are a few links where you can practice skip counting at home:

https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/skip-counting-game.html

https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/fill-missing.php?g=5s50&name=Skip%20Counting%20by%205s%20to%2050

https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/fill-missing.php?g=10s100&name=Skip%20Counting%20by%2010s%20to%20100

Sketching

Yesterday we practiced sketching a pumpkin by watching a step-by-step video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4UfEbgGmmM

Today we added shading for depth and to create shadow and light in realistic ways. 

Next week we will do this again but instead of a video we will use a real pumpkin (the same one that inspired our pumpkin writing) and we will explore using different graphite pencils like B, 2B and 6B to help us add light, medium and dark shading to these sketches. 

Math Update, IRIS and BUDDIES!

Math

Math

Base Ten and T-Charts

Today in math we continued exploding numbers using base ten and remembering to looks for groups of ten, five and ones. Instead of using lines to explode our numbers this time we represented them in a T-chart.
T-charts can easily help us to visualize the tens and the ones place value. We are getting really good at exploding out the tens but often miss the fives that are hiding inside the ones.

For example:

The number 38 exploded in a T-chart becomes:

There are 3 groups of 10. (10, 10, 10) and a group of 5 and 3 leftover ones in the number 38.

Using the link below you can practice giving your child double digit numbers and challenge them to depict them on this T-chart using base ten blocks. Challenge them to group the ones into a group of 5 if possible. Make sure when click on the tens and ones t-chart screen option on the bottom instead of the other options.

https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/content/hsp/math/hspmath/na/common/itools_int_978054758

4997_/basetenblocks.html

Here is another link that you can practice moving base ten blocks to create the number and you can reverse it and figure out the two digit number from the base ten that are shown. Try both ways. Make sure you click on numbers from 0-99 for this task. 

http://www.roomrecess.com/mobile/BaseTenBlocks/play.html


IRIS
Today we posted a video on IRIS of ourselves reading part of a book. We wrote a comment about what we think we did well when reading out loud and what we think that we might need to improve. Please watch it with me and ask me about it!

Buddies

Today was our first day of Buddies. Ask me what my buddies name is? My buddy is in Kindergarten. We played outside. In three weeks when we have Buddies again we will read our buddies a book in an exciting voice with lots of expression!!