Summarizing a story, Magnetic Field and Early Settlers Contributions...

REMINDER: THERE IS NO SCHOOL TOMORROW FRIDAY DECEMBER 7TH. IT IS A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY. ENJOY YOUR EXTRA DAY OFF! 

Home Reading Update:

Dear Families,

For those students that are engaging in our Home Reading Program, we have a few reminders and updates at this time of year:

• Students that have been accessing Home Reading, but are now reading at a level L or above will no longer be receiving Home Reading Books after school returns in January.  Our Home Reading Program supports students below level L, as many of the texts that students are able to access in the Learning Commons, and through the Book Truck as well as within the rich literacy experiences in our classroom are accessible for students at that level.
• If you have more than one child at our school that is participating in Home Reading, please make sure that the books that come home are returned to school in the specific Home Reading bag that they came home in.  We have had some difficulty with siblings returning each other’s books, which has caused some confusion for our lovely Home Reading Ladies and their tracking system. Your assistance in keeping the books organized is greatly appreciated.

Thank you for supporting your child as they become stronger and more confident readers!

Summarizing a Story

This week with rereading and retelling a story we have also been focusing on the importance of summarizing the important parts. Whether you are using the 5-finger model or the Rainbow retell it is important to be able to retell without just repeating the entire book word by word. 

What are the most important parts? 

When we are reading a story and retelling it not only do we summarize but it is important that when we retell we are putting the events in proper sequential order. If we mix up the order of the story the meaning changes. At home you can practice this by having your child read a story to you, and then reread to build fluency and comprehension.

After have them practice retelling the story, summarizing the important parts, using their fingers to remind them of the sequence. They can do this orally. It is a great way to see if they are able to tell you the most important parts, in proper order, of a book they are familiar with. 

Magnetic Field

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0DFDfQajw

Magnets in the Real World? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oac3B1iJy7w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvkEExdl-w4

Today we began planning our Magnetic Inventions. We had to design an invention that would have a purpose or do a job of some kind. We had to label our design and add a list of brainstormed materials we think might be handy when we begin building next week. 

Next week we will be developing our own magnetic invention. It must use the force of repulsion or attraction or both to do something useful. Talk with your child over the weekend to think about some ideas and talk it through with them. We can supply some materials such as toilet paper tolls, some magnets, tape, string, glue, cardboard, paper, foil etc but if there is something particular that your child thinks will help them create their invention please send it with them by Tuesday December 11th. 

Thank you for your support. 

Early Settler Contributions

This week we have been looking at Settlers that  came from other parts of Canada and the world to farm and ranch and build the community we live in today. Why did they come to the West? What inspired them? How did the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Canadian Government help convince and attract these people to come and brave a new place? 

We looked at posters from the past that inspired people to come here:

We were then challenged to come up with our own Posters that would entice people to come here. We had to imagine we were in the past and living far from Alberta. What would convince us to come here? We had time to design a rough copy with all of our groups ideas. We will also make a good copy to be displayed and shared with other classes. 

Beakerhead Challenge 2018

In November we accepted a challenge from Beakerhead. Our challenge is to create something with TAPE that would be from the future (3018!!!). We can use some other materials but MOSTLY tape!!

https://www.transport-pf.or.jp/english/riku/07_mirai.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaElPV0FWJ0

Because we have been learning about the Past and looking at the importance of trains we decided as a class that we will create a train of the future. Our classroom invention will have a hovering locomotive, cargo cars of the future, a boarding station for passengers and storrage, and track. Ask me which part of this I am inventing/creating using tape?

We will be brainstorming all week and into next about what kind of train we might see in the future? How will it work? What will it transport? People? Cargo? 

The hardest part will be building this model from masking tape!

Talk with your child at home about what part of the train they are brainstorming about? How are they thinking it will look? How are they thinking to fold/cut/add to the tape to make their model. 

Stephens Backpacks, Literacy, Math and Magnets!

Assembly:

Yesterday we had a special assembly about Stephen's Backpacks. Stephens mom visited our school and spoke of Stephen's dream. Our goal is to fill 100 backpacks with the generous donations from Royal Oak Parents, Student's and Staff.
If you have not donated already please consider bringing in an unwrapped item. The deadline is December 10th, 2018. At the end of the school day, on December 10th items will be used to fill as many backpacks as we can.

http://www.stephensbackpacks.com/stephens-backpacks-projects/stephen-dreams-out-loud/

Literacy

This week we will continue to work on the Comprehension strategy of Retelling a story in sequential order. We will also be practicing summarizing the important parts in order to retell using the 5-finger model.

We listened to the familiar story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We then used the 5-finger retell model to cut out and put in sequential order using First, Next, Then, After That and Finally in our writing books. We practiced retelling orally with our reading group. We then had to add a sentence for each of the parts that would allow us to retell the important parts of the story.

We also used the Rainbow Retell visual as a reminder when we are summarizing a story:

Mathematics

This week we have been reviewing building two-digit numbers in a place value t-chart:

We used numerals and base ten blocks to build the number.

We then looked at how a t-chart can help us to add two-digit numbers together:

We practiced this strategy using whiteboards and base ten materials as needed:

Magnets

This week we have started learning all about Magnets. This week we will be exploring centers that have materials for us to investigate, observe and manipulate in order to learn about some important concepts and vocabulary within our unit of study on Magnets. 

Repel

Repulsion

When two magnetic objects have like poles facing each other, the magnetic force pushes them apart.

Attract

Attraction

When two magnets or magnetic objects are close to each other, there is a force that attracts the poles together.

Magnets also strongly attract ferromagnetic materials such as iron, nickel and cobalt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s236Q1nuWXg

Rocks and Rings, Descriptive Mermaid Writing, Racing Liquids, First Nations and Buffalo Perspectives

November 22, 2018

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Royal Oak School students will have the opportunity to participate in an on-site activity called Egg Farmers Rocks and Rings presented by Curling Canada from November 30th until December 6th, during Physical Education classes. Curling is a fun sport to learn and participate in and aligns well with the Alberta Physical Education Curriculum. The aim of the physical education curriculum is to enable individuals to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to lead an active, healthy lifestyle. Curling is one of many activities that individuals may participate in for many years.

This program introduces students to the Olympic sport of curling and features a variety of drills, relays and team-building activities. It is taught using unique indoor floor curling equipment that helps to provide a true curling experience without requiring ice. For more information on this program and to check out some cool videos check out their website at www.rocksandrings.com

The cost for this program will be $2.35 per student. Please pay online using your MYCBE account by Thursday, November 29th. The MYCBE account accepts credit or debit payments. If you do not have an account set up, please contact the main office. If necessary, payment arrangements can be made by contacting school administration.

The program will run during the current Physical Education schedule and students will attend with their class. Each class will have two 30-minute blocks during this residency.

Please remember to pay online no later than Thursday, November 29th. Thank you for your continued support.


Sincerely,


Helen Hennick
Royal Oak School
Physical Education Specialist

https://www.curling.ca/about-the-sport-of-curling/getting-started-in-curling/rocks-rings/

Descriptive Mermaid Writing

This week we have been working on improving our writing by adding more descriptive words into our sentences. The novel study we are working on (Search for Delicious) has a character named Ardis who is a mermaid. Everyone was so captured by this mermaid and excited about meeting her in the book that we decided to do some amazing descriptive writing using pictures, classroom generated word banks and sentence starters.

Ask me how I made my writing more double scoop by adding more descriptive words. 

Racing Liquids

Today we finished our Racing Liquids science experiment to test how a liquids Viscosity impacts it's flow?

If a liquid is very viscous (thick) it will move ________
If a liquid is not very viscous (thin) it will move ______________

Ask me what I know!


INQUIRY
The Impact of the Canadian Pacific Railway on the Buffalo and the First Nations People:

This week we have been looking at the voices of the First Nations people and the animal that was so important to them (the buffalo). We have explored a series of photographs and talked about what we think is happening and why. 

We listened to a quote from a Cree First Nations man. Tomorrow we will continue to talk about this and if we think their voices also need to be heard in the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway. 

An aging Cree man is credited with saying that, “they took our land, they plundered our soil; they would have killed the last beaver if they could have found it; they destroyed the buffalo that was our food and took everything they could sell. They left only the bones, but wait and see what comes next; as soon as they find out how to sell them, they’ll be back to get the bones too”

Retelling, Viscosity, Doubles Practice and Telegrams from the Past...

Literacy

This week in Literacy we are focusing on the comprehension strategy of Retelling a story. Being able to retell the important parts of a story in sequential order is an important way to tell if we are understanding what we are reading. 

Today we were introduced to the 5-finger Retell strategy also known as the fist-to-5 model for retelling:

We will be practicing using this model all week to help us retell the important parts of a story. 

Parent Pipeline:

SCIENCE
Viscosity

Today we set up an experiment to do with testing the viscosity of different liquids. We will be Racing Liquids down a cookie sheet to what liquids will flow faster than others? Why? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ty07Jelhwg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVQw0svRHZA

We brainstormed some different liquids with different viscosity. On Wednesday we will test these out by having a liquids race! 


Math

Doubles Practice

Today we reviewed our doubles facts to 24. 

Knowing our doubles can really help us when we are solving double digit addition equations.

We played power of ten DOUBLES! Ask me how to play the game?

Telegrams from the Past

As we learn about the past one mode of communication we have researched is the Telegram. We read some past telegrams from the Government of Canada between London Ontario and British Columbia talking about the condition of the Chinese Railway Workers and problems they were facing. 

Today we brainstormed what it would be like to be so far from home, away from our family and friends, working at a very hard and dangerous job in a new Country. We empathized with how it might feel. 

We then had to imagine we were those workers and think about if we had the chance to write a telegram home who would we write to? We used the format of a Telegram to come up with a message for our imagined loved ones. Ask me who I wrote to? What did I say?