Sunday, 29 November 2015

What We Were Up to This Week: November 23-27

Working on building our shoulder strength while reading 'Mr. Zinger's Hat' together.
Each year Children's Book Center teams up with TD Canada to gift a book to every
grade one student in Canada. 

Christmas Concert
Thursday, Dec. 10th at 1:00pm and 7:00pm at DayStar Church. Each family has been given two tickets. They were sent home to the eldest child enrolled at WPS on Thursday, along with report cards. Mrs. Gray has requested that our class wear Pajamas/Housecoats and Slippers for our class performance. If you are not planning on using your tickets, please return them to the school so that other families may use them. There are very limited 'extra' seats, so make your requests ASAP! 



Playing board games with our Grade 6 Buddies




Building our people, animals, and houses this week

Building Unit
This week, we continued our building unit. We discussed the difference between domestic animals, like pets or farm animals, and wild animals. Students chose a domestic animal to build out of salt dough, and then built themselves out of salt dough as well. We discussed how it is important to use the right material when something is being built. Students had the choice to build out of cardboard, flat paper, wood scraps, or dough. They decided the best material to build a person and an animal with was dough, because you can roll it and make it round. First we made a 'blue-print' plan, then we built, then we painted. Once they were done, they began on their houses. Since it was such a snowy week, discussed how we needed to put something on the roof to protect from rain and snow, so students glued plastic straws to the roof as 'shingles', and added 'siding' to their homes to protect from the elements. Next week, we will build Willow Park School and work on creating a pathway from their homes to the school. The students are very engaged in this project, it is exciting to watch them plan, experiment with which materials work best, and take pride in what they are building!

Thank you to everyone who donated items to build with! We have many items for many different projects.

Language Arts
We continue to spend some time focusing on vowel sounds. Students are motivated to learn the vowel sounds- they understand that it is important to know these sounds because there is at least one vowel in every word. We focused on the 'short e' sound this week.



BOOK ORDERS
Book orders were due Thursday, Nov. 26th. I placed the order after school, so no late orders will be accepted. 

RAZ KIDS
I sent home access information for RAZ Kids yesterday. https://www.kidsa-z.com/main/Login, username willowpark1. RAZ Kids is an excellent program for students to be able to read books at a level they understand, and then answer comprehension questions upon completing the story. I have included the link on the 'links and resources' page for future access.


Tobogganing and Winter Wear
Please take some time to review the information package sent home on Wednesday, which explains the rules for the tobogganing hills. Please return the permission form sent home as soon as possible, if it is not returned, your child will not be allowed on the hill. 

As the weather get colder, it is very important for your child to practice putting winter wear independently. In order to encourage the development of important fine motor and organizational skills, we do not help them unless they are very stuck! The faster they are able to get dressed, the more time they will have outside. We have had some instances of students leaving with other student's mittens. We have many students with the same gloves or mittens as a classmate, so please make sure these items are correctly labelled so that they make it home! Lost and found is located in the hallway by the gym. If an item goes missing, that is where you will likely find it! 

December Calendar, 1H



Wednesday, 18 November 2015

Healthy Children Newsletter: Children with Food Allergies/ Children with Video Games

Posted below you will find a monthly newsletter from Alberta Health Services with information regarding Video Games and Food Allergies:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByaeyDUhURoMTHpSM1AzZXlpZ3dDUmlIN0ZfT2ljRUZGX0FF/view?usp=sharing

Thank you again to all of the parents who sent items for our building unit! We are excited to work on building our homes out of cardboard tomorrow.

Have a great evening!

Monday, 16 November 2015

Some Important Dates, Information, and Reminders

I hope that your family had a safe and enjoyable extra long weekend!

A few updates for the week ahead:

Construction began in our classroom over the break, and will be ongoing throughout the week. We will be focusing on our Building Unit this week, beginning on Wednesday. 

We have completed all of the letters in the alphabet, and are moving onto learning words! We are reviewing short vowel sounds. This week we are focusing on the 'short a', ahhh sound, and are discussing words that begin with a, have a in the middle, and end with a. 

Here is a song we have been singing this week. We sing the song and then students take turns pointing out all of the short a's in the song.

Willow Wear Orders are due this Wednesday, November 18th.

This Friday, we are having a Family Beach Dance at Willow Park from 5:30-8:30.Tickets are available at the school for $1.There will also be a cash only concession. Each student attending MUST have an adult to accompany them to the dance.


Report cards will be coming home Thursday, November 26

Book orders are due on Thursday, November 26th. I will be placing the order on Thursday after school.

ABCs are Moving You by Usher is one of our favourite songs to sing and dance to right now. Ask your child to show you their moves! : https://youtu.be/H4BsBk3uzfc


Tuesday, 10 November 2015

What We Were Up To This Week: Nov.9-13

It was a very short week, but we packed it full of activities! We celebrated completing our 'letter of the day' activities, and will continue to review individual letter sounds and beginning, middle, and ending sounds of 3 and 4 letter words for the rest of November. We have started problem solving journals in math, and continue to work on Mathletics and math games in small groups during our math lessons, with a focus on numbers 1-20. 

We will begin our building unit on Monday, November 16th. Please send any of your building items you have collected for this unit on Monday or Tuesday, as we will be busy working on our projects by Wednesday. When the students return on Monday, it is likely the new wall will be waiting for them. Construction is starting on it tomorrow.

On Monday, Nov. 16th, tickets for our Family Beach Dance will be on sale in the morning from 8:15-8:30 and at lunch from 12:00-12:45. Tickets are $1 each and there is a minimum purchase of 2 tickets (students must be accompanied by an adult). Cash only. The Family Beach Dance is on Friday, November 20th. 

There is NO SCHOOL this Wednesday, November 11th. There is a Remembrance Day Ceremony at the LRC tomorrow at 9:15 for anyone who is interested in attending. Here is the link for more information: http://www.leduc.ca/lrc

There is NO SCHOOL Thursday, November 12th or Friday, November 13th. Enjoy the mid-term break! 

Friday, 6 November 2015

Willow Wear



Willow Wear order forms are coming home today in your child's backpack.  

There are a number of clothing items in both youth and adult sizes to choose from.  Willow Park team jerseys and Willow Park toques are new this year.  

Orders can be placed online using Acorn (preferred), or you can submit an order to school with payment by cash or cheque. 

If you need additional Willow Wear order forms, click here to go to the Forms & Handouts page on the school website.  Orders are due Wednesday, November 18th.



What We've Been Up To: Nov. 2-6th

Our class poppy wreath 
We have been discovering the importance of peace in our lives, and what peacefulness feels like. We have discussed the difference between a peace-maker and a peace-breaker. We explored how we can experience peace with all 5 senses and recorded this in our peace journals. Students experienced what peace feels like in the cozy corner, with blankets, pillows, and warm scarves to cuddle up with. We listened to peaceful music accompanied by pictures of peaceful scenes, and smelled the Peace and Calming essential oil in a diffuser. Lots of the students mentioned they feel most peaceful when they smell something delicious baking, in their cozy beds, or if they are in a warm bubble bath with calming scents. Students painted pictures of their favourite meals, and on Friday we baked cinnamon buns and ate them because yummy baking can comfort us on chilly days!



We have also been learning all about bats! Students began to show interest in bats during the weeks leading up to Halloween, so we decided to take some time to learn more about these interesting creatures!


We will  begin our building unit on Monday, November 16th, so please send in any of the building materials previously requested when students return from the mid-term break.

We are almost complete our Alphabet Army: Letter of the Day unit and will be moving on to a new Language Arts unit when the students arrive back from mid-term break as well. 

There will be no school on Wednesday, Nov. 11th, Thursday, Nov. 12th, and Friday, Nov. 13th. 

A special congratulations to Logan Forsythe, who received the award for Musician of the Month. Great work, Logan! We are so proud of you.


Tuesday, 3 November 2015

November Calendar

It is hard to believe it is already November! Below you will find a copy of the November Calendar. It will also be posted in the Monthly Calendars section of this blog to view. November Newsletters were sent home yesterday. 

Tomorrow is formal dress for the Remembrance Day Ceremony at 11:00 am. It is also Library and Early Dismissal, at 2:15.

There will be a $2.00 Pizza Lunch on Thursday. This lunch is being hosted by Grade 6s to fund an end of year field trip. Pizza will be $2.00 per slice, cheese only. Students will be responsible for purchasing the pizza independently, so please make sure they are aware of where their money is if you choose to send them with it.



Sunday, 1 November 2015

Halloween Fun!

What a fun week celebrating Halloween! We continued to learn about pumpkins. Students showed what they know about pumpkin parts by playing a fun game called 'pin the part on the pumpkin'. We carved Jack-O-Lanterns and examined the parts of the pumpkin up close.




The grade 6 students did an excellent job putting together a Carnival and Haunted House for the students to enjoy.






The students were so excited to dress up and participate in the Halloween Parade on Friday after lunch. Thank you to the parents who came to help the students change into their costumes, as well as the parents who sent special treats to enjoy during snack time. I hope you had a safe and happy Halloween!