Ms. Midgley's Blog

Hello families!  I've been reflecting a little bit this week and realized how disconnected I am feeling from all of the families this year. It is difficult to not see you all on a regular basis! Please know that I am always here if you need a chat. You do not have to wait until formal conferences if you have any questions or concerns. I hope that you are all doing well and taking care of yourselves as best as possible during this time!  This week we focused on words from the "-et" family. We read a poem called "My New Pet."  In math, we continued learning about subtraction through games and fact practice. We also continued talking about estimation and Mrs. Rooney set up some "Estimation Stations" throughout the week for students to participate in.  This week we also talked a lot about kindness and bullying. Students compared two apples that looked exactly the same on the outside. We spoke kind words to one apple, and unkind words to the other apple. Th...

 Hello families,  This week we focused on words from the "-ap" family. We had fun reading a poem called "Groovin'" that used lots of "-ap" words.  In math, we started talking about subtraction. We read the story "The Action of Subtraction" and practiced answering some subtraction questions using our beaded number lines. Students also enjoyed playing subtraction Bingo.  On Thursday we had a lot of fun celebrating the 100th day of school. Our new student teacher, Mrs. Rooney, and I dressed up like we were 100 years old! We also learned about estimation and students had to estimate a container with rice, beans and toilet paper. Students enjoyed making smart guesses and were surprised to learn that every container had 100 items in it.  In P.E. we did a 100th day workout, so students did 10 different exercises 10 times each. We also did some art using the digits in 100 and students used their creativity and imagination to turn the numbers into a p...

 Hello families!  For our weekly words this week, students got to choose between three lists of Valentine's Day themed words. We also read a few Valentine's Day stories this week.  Students also listened to a story called "Love Is" and chose to write about what they think love is or what Valentine's Day is about.  We also enjoyed reading this Valentine's Day poem as a class.  Since students weren't able to bring Valentine's cards for their classmates. We did a secret Valentine exchange. Students made 1 Valentine for one of their classmates. Their cards were so sweet and they really enjoyed making them. We made them on Tuesday afternoon and handed them out on Wednesday afternoon.  We also revisited the idea of independence and being a problem solver. We talked about big and small problems and students worked in their table groups to sort a variety of problems.  We also learned about Kelso's Choices - these are ways that we can solve many small probl...

Hello families and Happy February!  This week we finally finished up our Winter Animal Self-Portraits! I will share the final products on Google Classroom next week for you to see since they include student faces.  Students also enjoyed learning about Groundhog Day this week, and had fun making predictions about whether or not the groundhog would see it's shadow. I sure hope he was wrong about 6 more weeks of winter!  In math, students enjoyed playing a game of Jeopardy! We had a lot of fun, and of course listened to the Jeopardy music.  We also started a math problem solving project where students are working in partners to solve open ended math problems. Each group got different questions and students are continuing to find as many answers as they can. I created exemplars to show students (I forgot to take photos!) and students were given a checklist to ensure they included everything. Here is some of the progress so far! This will be an activity that we do again t...

Hello families,   On Thursday afternoon Room 10, 11 and 13 will be heading outdoors for some outdoor learning. We will be re-visiting our usual park to strengthen our connection to this land. Students will participate in a sharing circle, storytelling, a walk alongside and a sit-spot. These activities will be led by classroom teachers as well as our student teachers. An expert in Indigenous Education will be joining us outdoors.   Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately to spend the whole afternoon outdoors!

Not Your Average Wellness Webinar This Wednesday, Amber Pavey is hosting a Wellness Webinar. If you are able to attend, I highly recommend it. I have attended her mindfulness sessions in the past and she is wonderful!  *This  presentation is intended for an adult audience and will be about 1   hr   long.  We will also share a recording of the presentation for parents who are unable to attend.   Amber will be hosting the meeting on Zoom:     https://zoom.us/j/95663706186?pwd=NzdJc3l2dnExQkZxK05aK0JrdGRsZz09