TWAS

Hello Everyone,

So this is it — our last week complete.  It is so hard to believe that our year together has come to a close.  These children have grown in so many wonderful ways, and never failed to thrill with their love of all that is new, fantastic insights and wonderful questions.  It has truly been a spectacular year and we can't thank all of you enough for everything that you do to support these little people and us in all of our learning.

Our week may have been short but wow was it busy.

In math this week 51A started off with movement math outside, challenging each other with basic math facts in Barn/house and racing to make "15" with card equations.  They're getting pretty quick, and are ready to be challenged during the odd car ride :)  51B spent time doing refresher work on number patterns and working on acrostic garden, colour and shape poems. Both classes revisited our Language arts, socials and math learning through Kahoot (an online site where we are able to make trivia games that challenge the children to reflect on their learning). We were able to dedicate part of a morning moving around to a variety of math stations, revisiting math facts, analog time, geometry and money.  Somehow we also fit in movie day, sports day, memory books, one final hot and cold science experiment, and packing it all up.

Ms. Klein and I are here in the building for the next two days; feel free to pop in and pick up any lost or left behind items.

Truly, we are so grateful for all that this year brought and wish you every possible happiness throughout the summer. May they all be filled to the brim with laughter!

All the very best,

The 51 A and B Team

tree nuts

Hello All,

I really want to thank everyone for being so considerate about allergies this year.  It's wonderful to have such supportive and caring families on our team.  I did want to mention that as more of us are opting for organic type granola bars, a lot of them have crushed/chunked tree nuts inside.  We do have a very severe tree nut allergy in our class, so if you could take just a moment to double check that those bars are nut free we would really appreciate it.

Thank you for your help; have a fantastic weekend :)

Kim and Julie

TWAS

This week at school the students of Room 51 had their neurons challenged by learning reviews on the program called Kahoot, an online computer game site that makes learning really fun.  More neurons were connected during coding with Ms. Handelsman.  In Scratch, a more advanced level of coding, students created movable stories where they had to select or make sprites and scenes and incorporate music as well.  They loved playing around with the wide selection of funny sounds in the program.

For the past 5 days, students were learning new summer songs in music.  Ask them to sing you, “Going on a Picnic”.  Mrs. Quilley had the children playing indoors and out with a variety of free play fun sport stuff (balls, skipping ropes, etc.), as well as badminton and Ogo disks.  What’s an Ogo disk?

During math this past week, Group A learned more about time, computed algorithms and number of the day work, while Group B worked on their mental math skills, particularly in the area of subtraction.  Both classes, of course, had extra practice in math through playing Kahoot on i-pads.

Hello Families!

All the Cranston students enjoyed their last time playing, creating and exploring in Club Friday.  It has been a fantastic success!  The yearbook is nearly ready with a few last minute photos being taken of students hard at work around the school.  Group A was seen on the hill creating a gigantic letter “A” with their bodies.  Can’t wait to see that pic!

On Wednesday, the students recognized International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples with a discussion and special story, “The Rainbow Bridge”.  This also touched on our current social studies topic of bridges in Saskatoon, a look into one of Canada’s many varied cultures.  Our study of another Canadian culture, the Acadian’s, interested the students as they learned various things about these people and made lobster traps from popsicle sticks and construction paper and lobsters out of red plasticene.  They also enjoyed painting little wooden lighthouses, making butter, playing the wooden spoons together and playing other games and working at several stations, during our visit from Teacher’s Pet.  A huge THANK YOU to all the parent volunteers!  Please ask your child what they have learned about the Acadians.

A representative of the Calgary Public Library came to visit our school to talk to all of the students about their summer reading program, “Schools Out”.  There were a lot of very interested students.  Please check it out with your child – they can work toward prizes!

All the children in 51 watched “Charlottes Web” this week as part of Group B’s book study in language arts.  They also finished reading the book with Mrs. McArthur just this week as well.  There were a few tears by the end of the DVD – Mrs. McArthur included.  Group B continued their exploration of poetry, completing their “Colour” and acrostic “GARDEN” poems and began writing a “shape” poem.  They are really enjoying the literary freedom that writing poetry brings with it.

We began celebrating summer birthdays this week and the many successes of our students, who showed off their metals and trophies from their various extra-curricular activities outside of school.  Congratulations Tate, Brody, Molly, Alexis, Thomas and Sophia!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Spelling list June 19 - 22

Spelling List Grade 1

down

day

did

set

bus

truck

must

cup

  

Spelling list grade 2

bath

math

moth

sloth

breath

mouth

path

cloth

tooth

Seth

months

hour

minute

second

year

mile

TWAS

Hello Everyone,

We hope you're having a great week and are ready for a beautiful weekend :)

Many of the children have uploaded a video into IRIS (it is an addition/extension to a certain 'project' that they have been working on).  They may want to share this video on Sunday morning . . . to access the video they will need to go to IRIS.  They can get there from the home page of the Cranston website. The user name and password to get into IRIS is exactly the same as what they type in to get into a school computer.  Enjoy!!

As we get closer and closer to the end of the school year, it seems that we are tying up lots of project loose ends.  There has been a lot of creating happening, and this week's STEAM project involved following along 17 instructions, measuring, reasoning, artistic design, writing and then putting it all together.  You'll find out all about in on Sunday!

There has also been a lot of poetry writing and art reflection.  It is fantastic to hear the thoughtful reflections and fantastic vocabulary coming from these 1's and 2's.  We reflected upon why the Mona Lisa might be famous and used our eyes and feelings to figure out what we saw, and felt, while looking at some of Bev Doolittle's art.  The children are really enjoying this part of our day and have even started to document some of their refections in documents, when their hard copies are finished.

In math this week 51A is working on algorithms and strengthening up our basic math fact recall with various movements and challenges.  Math is always a favourite, and no surprise there as they are demonstrating some excellent skills.  If you're feeling brave have your child challenge you to some mental math skills, and then get them to show off in return (computations like 20 + 12 or 30 + 15).  No paper and pencils allowed :)

We began our inquiry into bridges, literal and figurative.   The students have found some amazing exemplars and have begun to create mind maps to showcase their learning.   We're hoping to try out our building skills next week with some inventive bridge work.

Just a reminder that next week, Thursday the 22nd, is our in-school field trip and we can definitely use some volunteers.  Thank you so much for those who have offered, and anyone else who finds themselves with a little extra free time that day.  51A will be enjoying the experience in the morning, and 51B will have their turn after lunch.

We hope you have an amazing weekend enjoying some rest relaxation and lots of laughter,

The 51 A and B team!

Spelling June 12 - 16

Spelling list June 12 - 16

Grade 1

dog

now

find

long

mom

fox

chop

shop

Spelling list grade 2

June 12 - 16

graph

laugh

paragraph

tough

rough

enough

triumph

dough

though

cough

glyph

classify

wide

store

answer

model

TWAS

Hello Families and friends of 51 A and B,


       What a fun week we had!  This week the Foothills Soccer Club was in with their amazing coaches teaching us some fantastic soccer skills.  The weather cooperated so we were able to enjoy some beautiful spring weather while learning some excellent new soccer moves. Likewise we were able to take some of our math and language arts learning outside as well.  The children were practicing their number sense playing math toss (skip counting in all different shapes and forms) and making number relationship connections. Each of the students was given assigned numbers and then had to find number "partners." They were incredibly skilled at making connections between numbers, and in some cases were able to explain how 5 or even 6 numbers in a group were all connected. We were also able to practice the "art of performance," sharing our stories, and using our big theatre voices, around our new arbor day tree.
       Back in the school A and B continued to work on the skill of breaking down math word problems, pulling out the information that we actually need, deciding what type of computations are necessary to answer a variety of questions, and then pulling from our tool belts of strategies to work through the answers.
       Ms. Handelsman got our week started by teaching us how to code the "Canada Space Arm." I have to admit that the students caught on much quicker than their teachers . . .
       In social studies we began our inquiry into bridges.  While many important observations were made, the most wonderful was the metaphoric discussion about bridges in human relationships and how we use "bridges" to make connections to each other and literature.
      Our temperature lessons continue with an interesting experiment on conductors, and learning about the heating and cooling systems that we use in our homes.
     51 A continues to show exemplary citizenship by helping out the Kindies with sewing on Friday mornings.  It was wonderful to see that everyone in our group volunteered to be a kindie mentor this week, knowing full well the challenges that can come with that responsibility. Meanwhile back in 51B the students continued to work on a fun poetry project.
     Somehow we also managed to fit a fantastic assembly into our day.  The Redwood/Stols classes put on an amazing black light/drum fit performance and showcased some lovely ideas about the importance of being and cherishing the "you" in all of us.
     Finally our day ended with a flood of Circle of Courage nominations.  It is brilliant to see the students recognizing so many acts of kindness, generosity, inclusion and mastery in each other. They really are such a lovely group, and it does not go unnoticed throughout our Cranston community. Staff and students all across the school are continually commenting on the kindness and generosity that is consistently shown by all of the children in 51 A and B.  We are so very proud of them!

We hope you have a wonderfully restful weekend that is full of laughter,

The 51 A and B team!

BTW my apologies to 51 A. We will be redoing our spelling test on Monday (with the last spelling list posted on the blog).  Yes I gave them the wrong test this past Monday . . . somehow I just can't seem to keep those spelling lists organized!  They were good sports and tried their hardest, but it's only fair to let them have another go at it. Thanks for helping them out with their spelling; amazingly enough they just love writing those tests :)


   
     

 

Spelling June 5 - June 9

Spelling grade 1

June 5 - 9

been

called

who

oil

win

lip

kid

ship

Spelling grade 2

June 5 - 9

thing

string

sing

bring

spring

ring

king

sting

wings

cling

sling

chart

wall

greater

smaller

road

TWAS

Hello Families of 51 A and B,

We’ve had a wonderful week here at Cranston. Hopefully your little ones are already out there loving this beautiful start to the weekend, and are enjoying some much deserved Rest and Relaxation!

Our class was given a VERY special gift this week: a new student came to us.  His name is Carson and we are so thrilled to have him with us.  He is lovely, and, of course, our wonderful students have made him feel so welcome.  Welcome to Cranston, Carson and family — you will love this beautiful community J!

Our week started with a SCRATCH coding lesson with Ms. Handlesman to get us prepared for Canada Learning Code Week, CanadaArm2 http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/iss/canadarm2/Default.asp next week. The students will be learning to code the space arm to move in space!  We also had a brilliant Artist in Residence, Rebecca Ellison, join us for three afternoons to teach us how to create fantastic background scenes for our puppet theatres and green screen story telling.  We learned how to build background, midground and foreground independently of each other and then put them together to create eye-popping definition.  The students made beautifully painted and decorated sheets of card stock, and then shared with each other.  They cut and trimmed from everyone’s creations to design and make brilliant works of art! You’ll soon be seeing them in their green screen movie creations.

It was also literacy week at school.  The scholastic book fair was a very busy place; thank you so very much to all of the volunteers who came to help with this.  51B were able to have a look at some interesting biographies of some of their favourite authors. The students were also treated to a “teacher swap” story read.  We also had DEAR (drop everything and read) day.  When the bell rang we ALL dropped everything (A even dropped in gym) and read, twice. Speaking of gym, this was our last week of Drum Fit.  Such fun.  We had gym today and were able to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather playing football or bouncy cush ball (I think it’s called that; the children will know the proper name I’m sure). 

We continued to work on our literacy in Daily 5, storytelling, reflective writing and then celebrated/showed off our literacy at Literacy night.  It was wonderful that so many families were able to make it at this busy time of year!

In math, 51A continues to look at word problems.  What information do we need and don’t we need?  What are the facts? What is the question? What are the different ways that we can solve this problem? What is the answer? The students are getting really good at answering these questions, and are using a wonderful variety of strategies to get to the final answer.

51B is looking back at different types of math that they have done, and seeing if they can figure out what strategy to use where.  They are testing their skills, independently, through a variety of assessments and then talking through the areas that are solid and those that need a little refreshing. 

We continue to look at temperature in science, and are beginning a STEAM project on bridges in social studies.  It feels like our days are getting shorter and our workloads longer, but the children are fantastic.  They’re working so hard from 8:20 until 3:00 each day; we’re very proud of them!

We would like to send a very special thank you to those of you on school council who treated the teachers to a wonderful dinner after school on Thursday.  It was heavenly to be pampered like that.  Everything was delicious and so beautifully presented.  Like I tell the kids all the time, I HAVE THE BEST JOB IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!  Thank you parents, always, for your support and for sharing your wonderful little people with us J

We hope you all enjoy a beautiful and restful weekend,

The 51 A and B team!