Thursday, January 30

Messages and Reminders:
Our ratios tests went home today. Please sign them and send them back to school so we know you've seen them. The outdoor school parent meeting is this evening at 6:00. There is no school tomorrow. Please plan to visit math night on February 6 from 6:00-8:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning after ignite, we wrote the ratios unit test. They were sent home for you to look at and sign. After the test, we finished our book drawings from yesterday. During buddies, we heard a story about Groundhog Day (it's on Sunday) and did some Groundhog Day word work activities including a word search, making words, and putting words in alphabetical order. We also wrote lists of why we do and don't want the groundhog to see his shadow on Sunday. After buddies, we continued working on our book drawings or read with friends. We ended the morning with our last session of mission impossible in gym and a visit to the library.

Hope to see you all at the outdoor school meeting tonight!

Upcoming Important Dates:

Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Wednesday, January 29

Messages and Reminders:
Our ratios unit test is tomorrow. We have library tomorrow. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school tomorrow at 6:00. There is no school on Friday. Math night is February 6.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, we saw the feedback on yesterday's writing samples before jumping right back into our narrative writing notes. Today we focused on transitions, dialogue, jumps in time, and description. In math, we talked about what we've learned in ratios, did a ratios mini-quiz, and then did Mathletics on the laptops. After another day of mission impossible in gym, we did some guided drawing in art. We drew open books and pencils. We were really hard on ourselves so we also had some conversation about self-confidence and how practice makes us better. You'll be able to check out our drawings next week during math night.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Thursday, January 30 - ratios unit test

Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Tuesday, January 28

Messages and Reminders:
Scholastic book orders are due tomorrow. Our ratios unit test is on Thursday. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school this Thursday at 6:00. There is no school on Friday. Math night is February 6.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, we caught up on math work or did read to self or someone before doing our January writing sample. We had two choices this morning, a written prompt (a friend of yours keeps hiding your belongings and thinks it’s funny) or this picture prompt:

This month we also had a choice of typing our story on the laptops or writing it by hand. In gym we had our second day of mission impossible. During math, we reviewed different types of ratio questions, including some that will be on Thursday's test.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 29 - book orders due
Thursday, January 30 - ratios unit test

Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Monday, January 27

Messages and Reminders:
Scholastic book order flyers went home on Friday. Place orders by Wednesday if you want anything this month. Our ratios unit test will be on Thursday. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school this Thursday at 6:00. There is no school on Friday. Math night is February 6.

Morning Recap:
This morning after ignite, we did word work and made as many words as we could out of the letters in WINTER JACKET. In math, we did some ratio word problems about hockey. When we finished the hockey problems, we worked on last week's animal problems. If we finished everything, we played a new factoring game. During language arts, we continued our notes on narrative writing. Today we focused on points of view and the 5 W and H questions. After taking a break to go to gym for the first day of mission impossible, we did a writing activity where we answered the 5 W and H questions based on various pictures. This is a great way to plan a story, which could come in handy when we do our January writing sample tomorrow.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 29 - book orders due
Thursday, January 30 - ratios unit test

Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Friday, January 24

Messages and Reminders:
Our ratios unit test will be next week. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school on Thursday, January 30 at 6:00. There is no school next Friday. Math night is February 6.

Morning Recap:
This morning we had the January pillars of care assembly. After the assembly, we helped put away the benches and chairs before going upstairs. When we got up to our classroom, we put a whole bunch of papers into our math folders since the basket was overflowing. During math, we did a word problem using a graphic organizer to show our thinking. Our buddies came up to see us this week since we went down to them last week. We missed language arts during the assembly so we did LA buddies. We wrote squiggle stories and read with them. A squiggle story is when you turn a squiggle into a drawing and write a story to explain what's happening in the picture. We ended the morning at gym with all the grade sixes.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Upcoming Important Dates:
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Thursday, January 23

Messages and Reminders:
The January pillars of care assembly is tomorrow. Our ratios unit test will be next week. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school on Thursday, January 30 at 6:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning after ignite, we either caught up on unfinished work or played boggle for word work. How many words can you find on today's board?

In LA, we took notes on a few more elements of story. Today's focus was on the five types of conflict and on theme. During math, we wrote a ratios mini-quiz and then did Mathletics on the iPads. We ended the morning with gym and library.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Wednesday, January 22

Messages and Reminders:
We have library tomorrow. The January pillars of care assembly is on Friday. Students who were away for most or all of last week have math homework due tomorrow. Our ratios unit test will be sometime next week. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school on Thursday, January 30 at 6:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, we had time to catch up on math or read to self or someone. In language arts, we continued going through the narrative writing slideshow and taking notes in our journals. Today we looked at character, setting, and style. This also included a review of literary devices. In math, we did some more complex ratio word problems. The problems had many steps and multiple questions to answer. Here is an example of part of one of the problems:

In gym, we continued gymnastics stations. When we got back to class, we kept working on the complex word problems and also looked at the rubric for math problem solving.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Tuesday, January 21

Messages and Reminders:
A purple notice about math night went home today. Please plan to visit math night on February 6. The January pillars of care assembly is on Friday. Students who were away for most or all of last week have math homework due by Thursday. Our ratios unit test will be next week. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school on Thursday, January 30 at 6:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, we met our new student and caught up on unfinished math work from yesterday. In language arts, we started notes about narrative writing. Today's notes were on plot structure. We also watched a silly video about how not to start a story. During math, we worked on ratio word problems. Today's problems were fairly simple and tomorrow we will tackle some complex, multi-step problems. We took a break for gymnastics in the gym and then continued working on our ratio problems until lunch. 

Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Monday, January 27? - ratios unit test
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Monday, January 20

Messages and Reminders:
The January pillars of care assembly is on Friday. Notes went home with our winners today. Students who were away for most or all of last week received math homework today. It is due by this Thursday. The homework consists of 2 pages of ratio problems we did on Friday and the basic facts / computation quiz students wrote on Wednesday or Thursday. If there are questions about the homework, students can ask during catch up / reading time tomorrow morning or you can email me (siwinston@cbe.ab.ca). Our ratios unit test will either be on Friday or Monday. Please plan on attending the parent meeting about outdoor school on Thursday, January 30 at 6:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning after ignite, we nominated our classmates for this month's pillars of care awards. We each filled out a ballot and gave a reason for our choices. As we finished voting, we did finish up or read to self. Once all the ballots were in, we tallied up the votes to determine our winners for care for self, others, learning, and place. The winner of the pillar of the month (January's is mindfulness) is always decided by the teacher. Once winners were announced, we moved onto language arts. Today we took a closer look at the reading assessment that we wrote on Thursday. Half our class was away that day, so to start out today, we paired up with one person who wrote the assessment and one person who was away. We read the text together and the person who was there last week explained our annotation symbols and made suggestions about where annotations could be made on the text. Once everyone had read the story, we went over the questions. Students who wrote the assessment last week received their scores and the remaining students got a blank copy of the questions. Together as a class we discussed the answers to the questions. A lot of student responses lacked details or provided only one example despite the question asking for multiple examples. We talked about how we need to push ourselves to do more than just the bare minimum. In math, we continued working with ratios. We watched two MathAntics videos about what ratios are and how to set up proportions to find equivalent ratios. We took a break to go to gym and then got time to work on some ratio problems on our own.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Friday, January 17

Messages and Reminders:
The January pillars of care assembly is on Friday. Notes will go home with our winners early next week. The parent meeting about outdoor school is Thursday, January 30 at 6:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning all grade six students started the day with the social studies unit test. As we finished the test, we came to room 20 to either catch up on missed work or do read to self or someone. Once everyone was done, we moved onto math. Today we reviewed ratios and did some practice problems as a class and on our own. After math, we went down to visit our buddies. They have started their hot and cold unit in science, so to connect with that and with this week's freezing weather, we looked at different materials and designed winter outfits. We ended the morning at gym with all the grade sixes.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Thursday, January 16

Messages and Reminders:
Our social studies unit test is tomorrow. The January pillars of care assembly is next Friday morning. Notes will go home with our winners early next week. The parent meeting about outdoor school is Thursday, January 30 at 6:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning after ignite, we did a reading assessment. We read a short story (3 times, as close readers do), annotated it, and answered comprehension questions about it. It's possible something top secret happened during the reading assessment, but we can't say for sure because what happens in room 20 stays in room 20. In math, students who were away yesterday wrote the basic facts / computation quiz while the rest of us did Mathletics on the iPads. We ended the morning with gym and library.

Also, Joshua and Richard won our bet...we had 10 students in our class for most of the morning (1 more showed up an hour before lunch)!

Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Wednesday, January 15

Messages and Reminders:
We have library tomorrow. There is a social studies unit test on Friday - see Mr. Shackelton's blog for more info. Parent meeting about outdoor school is Thursday, January 30 at 6:00.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, our class of 9 students wrote our triweekly basic facts / computation quiz in math. During LA, we looked at one of the forest texts we saw on a previous reading assessment. Now that we've done a bit of practice with annotation, we looked at how we might have annotated that text. We also went through the comprehension questions and talked about okay, good, and great answers. This review was aimed to help us be successful on the reading comprehension assessment we will be doing with a different text tomorrow. For the half hour before gym, we went downstairs and read with our buddies. In gym, we played a fun new team game. We ended the morning celebrating pajama day by doing some guided drawing of a great food combo to eat in pajamas...cereal and milk! We also placed bets on how many students will be here tomorrow. We miss you, friends! Please come to school!

Upcoming Important Dates:
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Tuesday, January 14

Messages and Reminders:
Tomorrow is pajama day and our next basic facts / computation quiz. There is a social studies unit test on Friday - see Mr. Shackelton's blog for more info. Fun lunch forms went home last week - remember to order online this week. Parent meeting about outdoor school is Thursday, January 30 at 6:00. Many students still need to return their signed report card envelopes (keep the report card at home) and LA and math quizzes from December.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, a few friends who were away yesterday caught up on math and the rest of us did read to self. We still only had 12 students today, so our many friends who have been away will have lots to catch up on when they return. This week in language arts, we're taking a break from elements of story and focusing on reading comprehension. As you may remember, improving our reading comprehension is a school-wide goal this year. Today we looked at close reading and annotating. Close reading involves reading a text multiple times. One of the strategies that close readers use is annotation, so we went over some different symbols we can use when annotating texts. We were also introduced to a new online resource: commonlit.org. As a class, we read a story and looked at how to highlight, annotate, and answer questions on the website. Then we picked up laptops and tried it on our own. Everyone read, annotated, and answered questions about a short story. If we finished early, we did online typing practice so we can get faster. We also took a break in the middle of LA to go to gym, where we continued gymnastics mat work. Since we did a double block of LA today, we'll do double math tomorrow with our basic facts / computation quiz and some work on ratios.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 15 - pajama day
Wednesday, January 15 - basic facts / computation quiz
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Monday, January 13

Messages and Reminders:
Wednesday is pajama day and our next basic facts / computation quiz. There is a social studies unit test on Friday - see Mr. Shackelton's blog for more info. Fun lunch forms went home last week - remember to order online this week. Parent meeting about outdoor school is Thursday, January 30 at 6:00. Many students still need to return their signed report card envelopes (keep the report card at home) and LA and math quizzes from December.

Morning Recap:
This morning after ignite, we did read to self or read to someone. Then we did a factoring review in math. Knowing how to find factors will help us when we need to simplify fractions and ratios. We did some practice as a class and on our own. Nearly half our class was missing today, so after the first part of math, we ended up changing our plans quite a bit. Rather than moving even further ahead in math and starting a bunch of new LA and having to catch up half our class tomorrow when they're back, we took a bit of a break from our usual work. Our buddies were also missing half their class today, so we went down and joined them to make one super grade 2/6 class. We did some word work and then watched Charlotte's Web and talked about how Charlotte is a good example of someone who is mindful (mindfulness is the January pillar of the month). We took a break to go to gym, where we started mat work in gymnastics, and then we went back to buddies to finish the movie.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 15 - pajama day
Wednesday, January 15 - basic facts / computation quiz
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)
Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm
Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Friday, January 10

Messages and Reminders:
Please return signed report card envelopes (keep the report card at home) and LA and math quizzes that went home before the break. Wednesday is pajama day and our next basic facts / computation quiz. There is a social studies unit test next Friday - see Mr. Shackelton's blog for more info.

Morning Recap:
This morning we began with read to self or read to someone. In language arts, we read The 3 Little Pigs and completed a plot map for the story. All this work on plot elements has been in preparation for us planning our own stories. During math, we started our next topic, which is ratios. We discussed what a ratio is and how it is similar to and different from a fraction. We did lots of practice questions, as a class and with our table groups. When our buddies came up to see us, we set new year's goals about the pillars of care. Everyone completed a little book with a goal for each of the four pillars. We also did some new year's word work if we finished early. After a quick classroom cleanup, we ended the morning at gym with all the grade sixes.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 15 - pajama day
Wednesday, January 15 - basic facts / computation quiz
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)

Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly

Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day

Thursday, January 9

Messages and Reminders:
Please return signed report card envelopes (keep the report card at home) and LA and math quizzes that went home before the break. Wednesday is pajama day and our next basic facts / computation quiz. There is a social studies unit test next Friday - see Mr. Shackelton's blog for more info.

Morning Recap:
This morning after ignite, we filled out a plot map about LWW. When we were done, we continued our 2020 hopes page from yesterday. In math, we got our practice basic facts back (we were encouraged to take them home to study), completed a computation mini-quiz, and then did Mathletics on the iPads. We are supposed to do Mathletics in class for an hour a week, but the couple weeks before break we had a lot of technical difficulties with the laptops, which cut into our time, so we spent a few extra minutes on it today. We also had a few minutes to play other math games if we wanted. We ended the morning with gym and a trip to the library.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 15 - pajama day
Wednesday, January 15 - basic facts / computation quiz
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)

Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly
Thursday, January 30 - outdoor school parent meeting - 6:00pm

Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day
Thursday, February 6 - math night - 6:00pm

Wednesday, January 8

Messages and Reminders:
Please return signed report card envelopes (keep the report card at home) and LA and math quizzes that went home before the break. Plastic bags are needed in science this week. Next Wednesday is pajama day.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, we had some finish up time. Most of us needed to finish colouring, cutting, and folding the zones fortune tellers we've been creating for ages. If we got it done, we started filling out a page of hopes and wishes for 2020. We had to say what we want more of and what we want less of this year. In language arts, we reviewed plot elements and created notes about exposition, plot, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution in our journals. This took us a surprisingly long time! In math, we did a practice basic facts quiz to get our brains back on track with computation. The next real quiz will be next Wednesday, so today after writing the practice quiz, we went through the questions together to review the steps. We didn't have time to go through the last 3 questions so Ms. Winston will mark those tonight and we'll get the quizzes back tomorrow so we can take them home to study/practice. In gym, we had another day of the fitness circuit.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 15 - pajama day
Wednesday, January 15 - basic facts / computation quiz
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)

Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly

Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day

Tuesday, January 7

Messages and Reminders:
Please return signed report card envelopes (keep the report card at home) and LA and math quizzes that went home before the break. Plastic bags are needed in science this week.

Morning Recap:
This morning after music, we finished the last half hour of the LWW movie before writing in our journals about the movie. There were lots of questions we could answer, including our favorite and least favorite parts, similarities and differences between the movie/book/play, and what we would have changed about the movie if we were in charge. In math, we reviewed fractions, did some practice as a class, and then completed some questions on our own. They were very similar to what was on the fractions test in December, but some of the math seems to have jumped out of our brains over the break (which is exactly why we reviewed it today). We took a break to go to gym, where we did a fitness circuit, and then we kept working on our math. If we finished early, we played fractions games or worked on a snowman math problem.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 15 - pajama day
Wednesday, January 15 - basic facts / computation quiz
Friday, January 17 - social studies unit test (provincial government)

Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly

Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day

Monday, January 6

Messages and Reminders:
Please return signed report card envelopes (keep the report card at home) and LA and math quizzes that went home before the break. Students have been asked to bring plastic bags for a science project they will be working on this week.

Morning Recap:
Happy New Year! This morning after ignite, we played two truths and a lie. Everyone wrote down two truths and one lie about what they did over break and then we took turns guessing each other's lies. After that, as promised before the break, we watched the movie of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We didn't have enough time to watch it during our last week in December, and it worked well to serve as a reminder of the plot. We have a little bit left to watch tomorrow morning and then we'll dive into our story writing unit by reviewing plot elements on Wednesday. We took a break mid-morning to go to gym and then came back for a few more minutes of the movie before lunch.

Upcoming Important Dates:
Wednesday, January 15 - pajama day

Friday, January 24 - pillars of care assembly

Friday, January 31 - non-instruction day