CREATE artist!

Good morning,

We are very fortunate to work with a wonderful artist this week.  Karlee Weisgerber is here to teach us about painting landscapes of different habitats.  You can click here to visit Karlee's website and see examples of her artwork.

We will be painting tomorrow and Friday, so send your child with a paint shirt OR dress them appropriately for painting.

Thank you!

New Science section

We are beginning a Science unit on Structures.  I have made a new section for the website for Science. I have put links to short little videos I found that will help illustrate concepts for the students.  Feel free to do Google Searches online to find your own information.  

We will be focussing on this in Science all January and possibly into February before moving on to other areas of study.  

If you find good information, feel free to share it with me and I will add it to the website.  

Busy week!

Hi,
Just a few quick reminders and pieces of information:

1) The Gift Card fundraiser orders and money are due on Thursday of this week.

2)  We have our last Skating session on Thursday afternoon. Please help your child remember to dress properly and remember his/her skates and helmet.  Thanks!

3)  Friday is Parent/Teacher/Student conference day.  Please return your purple forms indicating whether or not you and your child can attend the conference time.  If you need a different time, please email me because I do have a few spots available.  andra.donbrook@rbe.sk.ca

4)  Please keep your child reading every day!  Raz-Kids is an excellent program and every time the child completes a book (READ, LISTEN and QUIZ) it counts as a book read for their Reading Log!  Actual paper books are essential to read also, so your child does not develop a "technological dependency" for reading, as well as simply contributing to a love of the true reading experience.

Your child should be documenting every book he/she reads at home in their yellow Reading Log duotang.  The goal was for every child to read about 11 books at home a month, so we can meet our "ultimate" goal of 3000 books read this year.

5)  Your child will be receiving "log in" information for "Mathletics" in the coming weeks.  It is an independent, online math program that can be used at home and at school.

I think that's it for now.  See you on Friday at the conference!

Agribition trip on Tuesday

Hi everyone,

Our Learning Community has an all day trip to Agribition on Tuesday.  That's a big trip to follow a long weekend, so please remember to pack your child's backpack that morning.

Your child will need to wear proper clothing, including: boots (rubber boots or old winter boots are best), pants (jeans are best) and a winter jacket.  We will leave hats and scarves at school, but thin gloves would be acceptable.

Your child needs a healthy bag lunch that can be eaten easily off his/her lap.  No junk food or soup please.  Sandwiches, apples, vegetables, granola bar and a drink would be perfect.  The students will carry their lunch in their backpacks.

We are having our "cowboy" breakfast before we get on the busses in the morning, so please remember to pack a plate, cutlery and a cup in a separate plastic bag for your child.

If you have volunteered to help cook our breakfast (THANK YOU!!!) then please be at the school community kitchen at 8:15.  If you are able to stay and clean up (THANK YOU!!!) after we leave, that would be great.

I have a few parents able to help us on our trip.  I will talk to you more on Tuesday morning, but we will stay mainly as a large group, with you helping keep track of a group of kids.  Agribition is a very busy place.  We will need to stay together.

I hope I haven't forgotten anything.  If I have, email me and I will update this post.

Thanks!

ps - No school tomorrow (PD day for teachers) and no school on Monday for Remembrance Day.

Skating!!

We are fortunate, at our school, that we have been offered free ice time at the Al Ritchie indoor ice skating rink.  We are also fortunate to have a principal who was a Figure Skating Coach!!!!

Mrs. Nelson will be joining us on our 3 skating afternoons to teach some skating skills.  YAY!

A permission slip with information about the skating afternoons was sent home yesterday.  Please return the bus payment, permission and consent & waiver form as soon as you can.

There are a LOT of permission slips lately, I know.  I apologize for that.  However, just imagine what it's like for ME trying to sort through and organize it all!!  :)

If you do not have skates and a helmet for your child, please ask around to see if you can borrow from someone.  If that does not work, please let us know and we will try to find some for your child.

November is going to be a busy month with Agribition, skating, report cards and 3-way conferences.  Wow!

Have a wonderful weekend!

ps - Please try to return any and all Agenda fees, Agribition permission slips and fees, Boston Pizza order forms and math assessments that were to be signed and returned on Monday.  That will help me get organized!  Thanks so much!!!

Hallowe'en!

Raz-Kids!

Yahoo!  Our classroom Raz-Kids accounts are finally ready to use!

I am sending home a letter today with the website information, along with your child's login and password.

You go to raz-kids.com, type in my teacher username: adonbrook0 (that's a zero), find your child's name and then they will need to click on their password.   The note I am sending home today will have your child's password on it.  Some of the passwords are 1 picture and some are a combination of 2 pictures.  Each child has a different password.  The passwords are more for fun and technological literacy than a need for actual security.

If you have a computer at home with internet access, please log on and check out this great reading program.  If you have an ipad, you can download the app for Raz-Kids and log on that way.

The way I ask that students use Raz-Kids is to READ the book first (click on the picture of the eye) and then LISTEN to the book and then do the QUIZ.  The quiz can only be completed after the book is read.  Many children have strong auditory memories, so if they LISTEN to the book first, then the READING of the book will not be authentic.

The students need to complete all three tasks for each book before moving on to a new book.  The quiz is designed to test comprehension, which is a really essential literacy skill.  I stress the importance of taking their time and working to get most or all correct.

I can check each child's activity online so I will be monitoring their progress.

I gave your child a starter level for Raz-Kids.  If you find it is TOO HARD, please contact me and I will switch them to a lower level.  If it seems a bit too easy, just have your child forge ahead for now.

Please know that Raz-Kids does not replace the importance of reading actual books with your child.  However, it's a great tool that we can use to help increase literacy skills!

Have fun!

Challenge your child - with help!

Is your child interested in discovering things?  Building?  Creating?  Do you want to foster these skills?  If so, check out this site:

diy.org

diy.org is a FREE, AMAZING concept site that was designed to challenge, motivate and inspire creativity and critical thinking in children.

You can go to the site and read and explore so you know what it's all about.  Then you can sign up for free and get a user name and password for your child.  After that, you can explore and participate the hundreds of topics/areas of interest.

Your child can participate in challenges and "earn badges" for their work.

Do take some time to explore this site.  Consider signing your child up!

CREATE artist

I am sitting in our classroom watching the students work with Allan Dotson, our CREATE artist.  Allan is an artist in Regina.  He is a Comic artist and also teaches drawing and art classes.  You can click here to learn more about Allan and his work.

The students are working very positively, happily and appropriately with him.  We are going to work with Allan today, Friday and again next Wednesday.

The students are working on creating a 4 panel comic that uses our "Stoplight" self-regulation tool to show how a grade 3 student can be having a "Green" day, but something happens to make it feel "Yellow" and then something else happens to makes it "Red".  The fourth panel shows how the student can take control over the situation and change the day back to "Green".

This is the same sort of thing we are learning about through discussions, stories and examples every day in our classroom.  Self-regulation is an essential life skill.  We need to be able to have control over our own actions, feelings and words.

I am impressed with the students' focus right now, but even more so with the ideas they are sharing.  I am hearing wonderful strategies about how to "change" a day from yellow or red, to green.

I will share more about our work as it progresses.

ps - Swimming lessons tomorrow morning!!

Homework

Hi everyone,

I have had a few questions about the Spelling program, so I wanted to let you know that information about our Spelling program is written in detail in the "Homework" section of this website.  

Also, I posted little tid-bits of information in the "Numeracy" and "Literacy" sections of the website.  More information will follow in the next few weeks.

I am also adding information to the "Links" section of the site every few days.  Check out some of the great videos I have added!  

Have a wonderful weekend!