Ms. Midgley's Blog

Hello families! Today, students were introduced to a new magnet project. They are designing some sort of device that uses magnets. They were shown a rubric for how they will be assessed and were shown examples from another class. They began planning out their inventions and have shared them on Seesaw (if they finished today!) If you are able to talk to your child about their plan, and leave a comment with some feedback for them, that would be great!! Here were some ideas: - Fishing rod - Purse with magnetic closure - Doll with magnetic outfits - Maze In the afternoon, we learned about the artist Wassily Kandinsky. We learned a bit about his style of art and discussed abstract art. We looked at these works of art and discussed what shapes, colours, and lines we saw, how they made us feel, etc. The students really seemed to enjoy this and I've been thinking that it would be fun to learn about a new artist every Friday. Here are the paintings we looked at: 1. Yellow, Red, ...

Hello families! This morning we read another Rabbit and Bear Paw story about courage. We also started talking about Growth Mindset. We watched 3 short videos from the Class Dojo series on Growth Mindset. I can only seem to find the first one on Youtube! They talked about the idea of growth mindset, making mistakes, and the power of YET! We discussed how we feel when something is hard, how mistakes have helped us grow and something we find challenging at school. I can tell some students have learned about this in previous years or at home! One student commented that we can put too much pressure on ourselves or that a mistake can feel like a bad thing at the time, but it's actually something we can learn from. Students then had a few minutes to work with a partner to try to change a Fixed Mindset sentence to a Growth Mindset sentence and we discussed each one as a class. Here is some more information about Growth Mindset, if you're interested:  https://www.understood.org/...

Hello families! This morning we started our day by reading a story from the Rabbit and Bear Paws Sacred Seven series, called "Love." For brainstorming Weekly Words, students were paired up with someone they don't often work with. We chose words from the "-ub" family. We also had Daily 5 literacy time and Guest Reader in the morning. We started Mission Impossible in the afternoon and students had music. We will be having library tomorrow!  Reminders Leighton Art Centre forms due by Feb. 7 Netball forms (purple sheet) due by Thurs. Jan. 30th (Please let me know if you didn't receive this!) PD Day Fri. Jan. 31 Netball Blog Lake Bonavista School is participating in Netball from February 3-7t h  in our gymnasium. This sport involves foundational movement skills such as jumping, running, throwing, and catching. As described on the Netball Alberta website ( www.netballalberta.com ): “Netball is an exciting, fast and skillful game of fai...

Hello families, Yesterday we continued exploring with magnets and learning about polarity. We got together with our buddy class to explore where magnets are used in the school and things in the school that are magnetic and non-magnetic. Today students should bringing home a form for Netball which will be during the week of February 3-7. Several forms were left behind after school so please let me know if you did not receive one. If students are interested, they may have brought home a form about Board Game Club. Have a great weekend! IN-KIND-DONATIONS Thank you to everyone who has made a generous contribution to Lake Bonavista Improvement Society’s   IN-KIND-DONATIONS . We have raised just over $3000 this year! You can make a donation at any time throughout the school year. If you would like to donate, please click on the link below for a copy of the donation form. Donations over $25.00 are eligible for a charitable tax receipt. In order to reach our fundraising g...

Hi Families! I'm on a blog roll this week - we've been doing quite a few things that I want to share! Today, we added to our "KWL" chart about magnets, with information we have learned so far about magnets. Students then went to music and we continued with gymnastics during PE time. Students then participated in a math lesson. They either worked with Miss Wilks to continue learning about fact families, or they worked with me to learn about the addition strategy of "Making 10." Fact Family: As for the "Making 10" strategy - we started by talking about all the different numbers we can use to make 10 (ie. 5+5, 6+4, 7+3...) and then we discussed what happens when we add 10 to a number (10+4=14, 10+6=16, etc.) We used this knowledge to help with this strategy! I have to admit, it is definitely a bit confusing. I wouldn't expect students to write all of this down to solve 1 math question - we talked about this being ONE strategy that we ...

Hello families of room 13! This morning during work period, we practiced our "og" words and continued talking about counting on. Students used a number line to model their thinking and then had to come up with a fact from the same fact family - some students chose to do addition fact families, and others chose subtraction (I'll add a photo to help explain!) Start at 10 (larger number - count on 5 more -  11, 12, 13, 14, 15 Start at 14 (larger number) - count on 3 more - 15, 16, 17 After gym, Miss Wilks lead a magnet activity where students were testing the strength of a magnet. They predicted and then tested to see if a paperclip would still be attracted to a magnet through a notebook, a cloth and the table.  In the afternoon we had daily 5 literacy and library!  This Friday is Twin Day! Students can dress up with a friend(s) with similar outfits! I will give students a little bit of time tomorrow to plan this out!  Upcoming Dates ...

Hello families, Today we chose words from the "-og" family. I picked up some large floor puzzles for the class to use and they were a popular responsible work choice today. I saw a lot of good team work! We also had some daily 5 literacy time this morning, and guest reader. I think everyone was very happy that our week of indoor recesses has come to an end! In the afternoon we went over some expectations and safety rules for gymnastics. This week, the students are using the Canadian Climber and some other gymnastics equipment such as balance beams, trestles and ramps. After recess, students went to music. Field Trip Forms Today I sent home field trip forms for our upcoming field trip to the Leighton Art Centre on Monday, February 10th. The forms are due back by Friday, February 6th, but sooner is always better and helps me to get organized ahead of time! If you have reached out to me about volunteering, you will also be getting a volunteer form. Please return the bl...

Hello families! This morning we started talking about magnets. Miss Wilks started a KWL chart with the students. We will be talking more about magnets for the next week or two! Students also had music and gym this morning. Afterwards, we were talking about the "counting on" addition strategy. We watched this Number Jacks video and discussed how to use the strategy. Here is a diagram to help explain! The lack of fresh air and exercise is definitely starting to show! We had to go over Daily 5 expectations for the second day in a row, and unfortunately we still had problems with staying on task and treating the books and materials respectfully. I'm really looking forward to the warmer weather next week! After Daily 5, students has a few more minutes for work period, and were asked to complete a quick number pattern activity that some teachers asked us to do for our professional learning on Friday! At the very end of the day, I may have used Wild Kratts as bribe...

Hello families! In the craziness of report cards and freezing weather, I forgot to write a blog yesterday! I'm aiming at posting a blog 3 days/week! We chose words from the "-op" family this week. Today students had three work period tasks: weekly word practice, writing, and a shape activity. Students could choose one of the following writing prompts: If you could invent anything, what would it be? Or What is kindness?  They could also choose between doing a shape sort, or reading and following clues to determine the shape. We also had Daily 5 literacy time and library. At the end of the day, we read the story The Cool Bean and talked a little bit about kindness and how our actions, whether negative or positive, have an affect on the people around us. Today students are bringing home a booklet from MAPSS, a brochure from Child Safe Canada with courses for Winter & Spring 2020, and some information about an upcoming fundraiser.  This Thur...

Hello families, Yesterday we talked a little bit about New Year's resolutions and goal setting. We connected this to the idea of Mastery from our Circle of Courage. Students wrote about New Year's resolutions that they have for themselves. We also tried another open-ended math task based on spending. We discussed the expectations of being clear and organized and using pictures, words, and numbers to communicate our thinking. Today, we revisited the math task, after going over ways to solve it yesterday afternoon. Students were given a very similar problem to solve today and did a much better job! We also watched a Bill Nye video about magnets during snack and students enjoyed some free choice time.  Thank you so much to everyone who has offered to volunteer for our Leighton Art Centre field trip on February 10th. We now have enough volunteers!  Next week we are having an open house for any new families who are considering LBS for next year. I j...

Hello families, This morning we reviewed some of the shapes we talked about yesterday. We discussed the idea of 2D and 3D shapes and some attributes of 2D shapes. Students then went to music, and in gym we continued with our gymnastics unit. During work period, students practiced their "-ot" words and continued working on their penguin shape art from yesterday. We had to add shapes for the feet, beak and any additional features (ie. bowtie, hair bow, hat, etc.) In the afternoon, we had Daily 5 literacy time. The students were quite chatty in the afternoon so it took us a little longer than normal to get through two stations. With the few minutes we had left before recess, students could either finish up their work period tasks or choose a responsible work choice. I am looking for some volunteers to join us on a field trip to the Leighton Art Centre in Millarville on Monday, February 10th. This is an all day field trip. If you have your police clearance and are ...

Hello families! This morning we practiced our Weekly Words and worked on some addition. Students used dice to determine which numbers they would be adding together and used a material to solve their work. In gym, we reviewed some of the safety guidelines we reviewed yesterday. We reviewed ways to fall forwards and backwards with minimal injury, and how to do a safety landing. We also practiced some poses and balances with the mats. After gym, we did a penguin art activity using the Geometric Shape Cabinet. We reviewed the different names of the shapes and the attributes. We didn't quite finish it, so we will continue tomorrow! In the afternoon we had some Daily 5 literacy time and went to library. 

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a restful and fun winter break! It was so nice to see everyone back at school today. Today we welcomed our student teacher, Miss Wilks, to our classroom. She is a student at St. Ambrose and will be with us for the next 5 weeks. We also welcomed a new student to our class today! This morning we chose words from the "-ot" family and wrote about our winter breaks. We had some quiet reading time and enjoyed Guest Reader. Don't forget to check out Seesaw for this month's Guest Reader schedule. In the afternoon we had gym and music. We are starting our gymnastics unit in gym. Tomorrow we will be having library! 📚 Gymnastics We will begin gymnastics in our regularly scheduled gym classes on Monday, January 6, 2020.  The gymnastics unit will last approximately four weeks.  Safety routines, cooperation and good sportsmanship are taught and reviewed in each class.   This physical activity opportunity will hel...