Ms. Midgley's Blog

Hello families,  This week in math we learned about equalities and inequalities. Students learned this new concept with numbers under 10 and then extended it to addition and subtraction to 20 by searching for problems around the classroom!  We also continued to work on our "Me on the Map" books and learned a little more about our country and province. We will continue this learning next week. Students also put their mapping skills to the test during an Easter Egg mapping hunt. We originally had this planned for last Thursday but the snow ruined our plans a bit so we ended up doing it on Wednesday afternoon. Students had to read the map to find the Easter eggs and then copy the correct design once they found each egg.  In Science, we continued our learning about animal's structural adaptations. We learned about bird beaks and the many different and interesting ways in which they work. Students compared our mouths with bird beaks using a Venn Diagram.  In literacy we l...

Hello families,  This week we have really been focusing on being kind, responsible, respectful and safe. We've reviewed these expectations each day and have been working hard to make sure our classroom is running smoothly. I compared our classroom to a machine that only works when everyone is doing their part to follow classroom and school expectations. I have let students know that if they are not demonstrating these four things, they will lose the opportunity to make work choices for themselves - they have to show responsibility to gain responsibilities! I've compared this to showing that we are ready for grade 2 and that classroom behaviour and how we treat others is more important in showing they are ready, than how they are at reading, writing or math. I think we're making progress... slowly but surely!  Volunteering I am still on the hunt for someone to volunteer to help with a few odd jobs around the classroom maybe next week. I just need help with a few little (kind...

Hello families,  This week students were so excited to start buddies! It's been quite a long time since we've been able to do activities with an older buddy class at school. We have buddied up with Ms. Gierl's grade 4/5 class. On Monday, students met their buddies and did some buddy reading together. On Friday, we had a picnic snack outside with our buddies and enjoyed some time playing together.  In math we've continued to learn about subtraction and some different strategies for solving subtraction problems. Last week we used materials and pictures and this week students learned how to use a number line (rulers make great number lines!) and we talked a little bit about counting back.  During our Daily 5 Literacy time, we worked with the "-in" word family!  This week we also started learning some mapping basics. I showed students this photo and they were pretty quick to figure out that it is a map of our classroom. Throughout the week we learned about legends...

Hello families,  I hope everyone enjoyed a restful March Break! I'm sure you heard that when students returned, our classroom looked quite different! We were finally able to bring the carpets back to the classroom which inspired a new classroom layout! Students have been loving the more flexible work spaces, and it is so nice to meet on the carpet as a class again. Here are a couple of photos!  Peace Corner Math Workspace Carpet Meeting Space Before the break we had our newest little hermit crab, JJ, die. I'm not sure what's been going on lately as I've had the crabs for 3-4 years and have never had one die up until this year! I picked up a new hermit crab  and when I got him to the school I realized he only has one eye! So we decided to name him after Plankton from Spongebob who's name is actually Sheldon J. Plankton, so his name is Sheldon (also he lives in a shell...... I thought it was quite clever but the kids didn't quite seem to get it!) It's hard to ...