Wednesday

Hello families,

This morning we practiced our Weekly Words from the "-ip" family. Students then went to music and then we had gym. During work time, students worked with partner to re-attempt the math spending task. This time, students had $19 to spend at the grocery store. I gave students an example, using the mall problem, to show them different ways that they could show their work. I also gave them half a piece of chart paper so they could have more space to show their work. Learning to organize your work and explain your thinking is very tricky! We discussed using pictures, numbers AND words to clearly show how we solved the problem. Practice makes perfect! There are so many ways to approach this problem: What could I buy so that I spend all of my money? What is the closest I can get to $19 without going over budget? What are the healthiest options I could buy? What are the least amount of items I could buy? What are the most amount of items I could buy? 





This afternoon, we had Daily 5 literacy and read a story called "Santa Duck." We started talking about summarizing, as I have seen this is something everyone needs to work on! We used the template: somebody - wanted - but - so - then. This doesn't work perfectly for every story but can help us to more clearly summarize the important details of a story. 



Today several students were having some friendship conflicts - maybe because it was too cold to go outside and everyone was going a little stir crazy! I saw a lot of confrontation, getting in each others' faces, and generally just not treating each other kindly. We had a big talk about the importance of making friends and how hard it can be to always be a good friend. I let students know that making friends and having strong friendships is something that we learn and practice all through our lives. We watched a social story called, "Making Friends is an Art!" (sick germs are getting to me - didn't have it in me to read another story!) Friendships are always a work in progress and this is something that we will be working on throughout the year. I always let students know that they do not need to be friends with everyone in our classroom, but I do expect them to treat each other with kindness. We also revisited the idea that we cannot control what other people say and how other people act, we can only control the way we react to it. Some students were shocked that even teachers have friends! 😆


Parent Resource Folder
I have attempted to make a Google Drive folder to share resources and can see that no one has had success accessing it 😞 I guess I'm not as tech savvy as I thought! I will work on this and let you know when I figure out what's wrong! Thanks for your patience! 

AARCS Fundraiser
If your child is in grade 2, you might remember that last year we did a fundraiser for the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS). Last year I received some information in the mail that this animal rescue needed extra support around Christmas time. Since this was so successful last year, and the students have been asking about it, we decided to do the fundraiser again this year. We will be making cat and dog treats and we will be selling them on Thursday, December 12th at our school's Winter Concert. Last year, we sold out before the second show, so this year we will be making even more treats and hopefully raising even more money! Last year we were able to donate $300 to AARCS. I adopted my cats, Nora and Eli, from AARCS back in April 2018 and AARCS has been so amazing through that process as well as when we worked with them last year. We will be talking more as a class about the idea of generosity, the basic needs of animals, and volunteerism. We will be making the cat treats in class on Tuesday, December 10th (Mrs. Ireland's class will be making the dog treats and we are working on recruiting our buddy classes as well!) If you are interested in joining us in the morning of Dec. 10th, or on Wednesday, December 11th to help with packaging, please send me an email!
I could only find a really grainy version of this photo that stole my heart! 

Card Club
Please note that Card Club has been cancelled for the time being. Mr. Link intends on starting it back up sometime in the New Year.

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