Dec. 14-17

Hello families & Happy Holidays! 

I can't believe it is already Winter Break - it feels like we just started school. Every year seems to go by faster and faster. 

The blog might actually be a bit shorter this week as we were up to some top secret Christmas present making that I won't share any details about! But, students did enjoy making some Christmas gifts for families and it took a good chunk of our week!

This week, we talked about punctuation as I noticed a lot of missing or excessive punctuation in some students' writing journals. We reviewed different types of punctuation and when to use them. Students were also given the beginning to a piece of writing about a bear which we critiqued. Students were then asked to improve the writing and drawing. Students often have a hard time finding ways to improve their own work, but are very quick to see how they can improve someone else's work. 










This week we also continued talking about animal adaptations for winter! Students had a lot of prior knowledge about adaptations that animals in our community have and were very eager to share what they already knew, and what they learned. 


We talked about the "wh" digraph this week, too. This is a tricky one since "wh" sounds the same as "w." My hope in teaching this is that students will recognize when reading that the h is silent, but understand that it is difficult for students to know what to use in their writing. Eventually their visual memory will support them in knowing when to use "wh" and when to use "w." The Animated Literacy character "The White Whistling Whale" is on Google Classroom.



Online Learning January 4-8

Yesterday students brought home a large brown envelope with some resources for our time learning at home. This package has number lines, a hundreds chart, Bingo games, etc. that will be used in a variety of ways during the week. Please hold on to them and do not use the materials prior to January 4th. If you have limited access to technology (an iPad or laptop would be ideal - phones may not be sufficient for using Google Classroom). 

The expectations set out by the CBE for online learning in January will be higher than the expectations last spring. I have created a schedule to give you a heads-up on when we will be meeting. I will be available throughout the day for office hours should children need support, but understand the importance of children having time away from the screen. Assignments will sometimes be digital but I will try to include a printable versions of assignments as well as hands-on building assignments. I would suggest holding on to some scrap materials from Christmastime and from your recycling bins. This schedule and other important documents will be linked under "January Online Learning Reference Documents" on our Google Classroom. Last year we used Seesaw so using Google Classroom for online learning will be new for me too! 


Google Meet Expectations

  • Enter meetings with your microphone off
  • Depending on the activity, videos do not always need to be on
  • Only turn on your microphone when it is your turn to talk to minimize background noise
  • Students should be the only person visible on the screen 
  • Students should be in a quiet location where they are ready to learn (ie. not in bed or in a noisy space with siblings)
  • Students should be dressed appropriately (believe it or not this does have to be said- clothes are a must!)
  • Google Meet codes will always be the same and are included in the package sent home yesterday.





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