Dear families of room 18:
A reminder that our Beddington Loves Reading Day is tomorrow! Your child is welcome to dress up as their favourite book character for the day and will be participating in three very short DEAR periods (Drop Everything And Read), as well as a few activities aimed at fostering a love of reading!
Today we began our Classroom Chemistry unit by preparing our scientific process. We will be testing mixing liquids to see how they dissolve with each other tomorrow and students are all ready because of the foot work we did today.
In math students reviewed the traditional algorithm for division one last time, and many had wonderful breakthroughs as they worked with a partner. I reminded them that it is not about which strategy they choose to use, so long as they feel confident they have a strategy that works for them.
We had a health lesson today which identified triggers that cause us to move through the different zones of emotions and tools or strategies we can use that work for us. This was meant to be an individual lesson with students examining which strategies work specifically for them and not the person they sit next to.
In Language Arts, students were given time to complete their procedural writing. Anyone who did not complete their writing was told to bring it home for homework, and if it was not completed for homework the expectation would be that students complete it with me over lunch.
Have a great evening!
Monday, January 29, 2018
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Thursday, January 25, 2018
Good evening families!
We look forward to seeing you this evening at Student Led Conferences! We have five stations set up for you to enjoy and review assessment criteria with your child.
In math, we continued working on using the traditional way of solving long division. For parents looking to support their children, most students are experiencing difficulty with division basic facts and using their multiplication facts to solve division questions. For example, in both methods of division, the very first step is to see how many times you can fit the divisor into a digit, such as how many times can you fit 3 into 9. When the digits start to turn into larger numbers, such as how many times can you fit 7 into 42, students get overwhelmed and struggle to select the appropriate method to help them find the answer. In this case, students should be able to reverse the division sentence into 7 x _(6)_ = 42 so that they know they can fit 7 into 42, 6 times.
In language arts, students have continued to compose their procedural writing, although we did not get back to it today we will be moving on to finishing the writing process on Monday, editing our work, and preparing it for publishing on our student blogs. If you continue to have difficulty accessing your child's blog, tonight will be an excellent opportunity to check it out in person.
In social studies, students were asked to consider the challenges and opinions that were expressed during the lead up to confederation. They had to choose a side, for or against confederation, and write a letter to one of the Father's of Confederation outlining the reasons why they wanted to join or remain separate from Confederation. It was a quick writing activity meant to give students opportunity to practice taking and synthesizing information in order to persuade a reader toward an opinion. From what I saw during this time, many letters were quite convincing!
Yesterday we began classroom chemistry by reviewing the states and properties of matter in preparation for some exciting experiments we will be conducting next week. We will be looking into reactions and changes of state. Stay tuned for some fun!
Please be advised that our school wide Literacy Day has been rescheduled from Wednesday, January 31st to Tuesday, January 30th. This is an opportunity to celebrate reading and literacy by dressing up as our favourite book character, decorating our doors around literacy and increasing the amount of time students read throughout the day. We are looking forward to seeing how creative students can be with designing their book character costume!
Reminders:
-Student led conferences begin tonight at 6:30
-No school tomorrow - PD DAY
We look forward to seeing you this evening at Student Led Conferences! We have five stations set up for you to enjoy and review assessment criteria with your child.
In math, we continued working on using the traditional way of solving long division. For parents looking to support their children, most students are experiencing difficulty with division basic facts and using their multiplication facts to solve division questions. For example, in both methods of division, the very first step is to see how many times you can fit the divisor into a digit, such as how many times can you fit 3 into 9. When the digits start to turn into larger numbers, such as how many times can you fit 7 into 42, students get overwhelmed and struggle to select the appropriate method to help them find the answer. In this case, students should be able to reverse the division sentence into 7 x _(6)_ = 42 so that they know they can fit 7 into 42, 6 times.
In language arts, students have continued to compose their procedural writing, although we did not get back to it today we will be moving on to finishing the writing process on Monday, editing our work, and preparing it for publishing on our student blogs. If you continue to have difficulty accessing your child's blog, tonight will be an excellent opportunity to check it out in person.
In social studies, students were asked to consider the challenges and opinions that were expressed during the lead up to confederation. They had to choose a side, for or against confederation, and write a letter to one of the Father's of Confederation outlining the reasons why they wanted to join or remain separate from Confederation. It was a quick writing activity meant to give students opportunity to practice taking and synthesizing information in order to persuade a reader toward an opinion. From what I saw during this time, many letters were quite convincing!
Yesterday we began classroom chemistry by reviewing the states and properties of matter in preparation for some exciting experiments we will be conducting next week. We will be looking into reactions and changes of state. Stay tuned for some fun!
Please be advised that our school wide Literacy Day has been rescheduled from Wednesday, January 31st to Tuesday, January 30th. This is an opportunity to celebrate reading and literacy by dressing up as our favourite book character, decorating our doors around literacy and increasing the amount of time students read throughout the day. We are looking forward to seeing how creative students can be with designing their book character costume!
Reminders:
-Student led conferences begin tonight at 6:30
-No school tomorrow - PD DAY
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Conferences, conferences, conferences!
Just a reminder that student-led conferences will be held this Thursday starting at 6:30! Students will walk you through some of the work they've done in class and will show you the assessment tools that are being used to check whether they're meeting learning criteria and outcomes. There will be multiple families in the classroom at one time and so this will not be a good opportunity to discuss your child's current achievement - this can be done through e-mail, phone, or by booking a separate meeting time at another date. Bookings are now open through your "My CBE" Account.
And now, a recap of what has been going on in room 18!
Yesterday students were given a quiz using the area model of division. This model has worked well to support the learning of about half the class but has not been accessible to all students as yet. This is to be expected and is the reason for us moving into another model of division this week. The goal is to present students with multiple models of division prior to a summative assessment of their skills, so that they may practice and choose the model that best suits their learning needs. Today, we recognized that what was REALLY tripping students up on the area model was in fact the basic facts portion of simple division and having students access their multiplication knowledge as a strategy of working through those difficulties. So, we practiced basic facts, and tomorrow we shall move on to a new model of division.
We had library today and set some pretty specific criteria around books that should be taken out of the library as many students are checking out materials that are well below their level of challenge. The expectation currently is that students should be taking out one "just right" challenge book, one "vacation" book, and one "buddy" book to try to meet their needs, their interests, and then care for others.
In Language Arts, students have begun their last expository writing style and are moving into Procedural Writing. Today we discussed the components of procedural writing and began to work toward writing a "How-To" writing sample by choosing something we can teach to someone else and brainstorming a list of steps that must be taken in order to complete the task or learn the skill. We will then be combining this with our knowledge of transitional language and paragraph writing before entering our writing sample into our blog.
As we had an evidence capture today, students had another day of social studies and were asked to consider the challenges the various groups living in Canada were experiencing prior to Confederation, and how those challenges were used as catalysts to motivate people toward creating the country of Canada.
Reminders:
-Thursday: Student led conferences begin at 6:30 and end at 8:30
-Friday: PD DAY - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Just a reminder that student-led conferences will be held this Thursday starting at 6:30! Students will walk you through some of the work they've done in class and will show you the assessment tools that are being used to check whether they're meeting learning criteria and outcomes. There will be multiple families in the classroom at one time and so this will not be a good opportunity to discuss your child's current achievement - this can be done through e-mail, phone, or by booking a separate meeting time at another date. Bookings are now open through your "My CBE" Account.
And now, a recap of what has been going on in room 18!
Yesterday students were given a quiz using the area model of division. This model has worked well to support the learning of about half the class but has not been accessible to all students as yet. This is to be expected and is the reason for us moving into another model of division this week. The goal is to present students with multiple models of division prior to a summative assessment of their skills, so that they may practice and choose the model that best suits their learning needs. Today, we recognized that what was REALLY tripping students up on the area model was in fact the basic facts portion of simple division and having students access their multiplication knowledge as a strategy of working through those difficulties. So, we practiced basic facts, and tomorrow we shall move on to a new model of division.
We had library today and set some pretty specific criteria around books that should be taken out of the library as many students are checking out materials that are well below their level of challenge. The expectation currently is that students should be taking out one "just right" challenge book, one "vacation" book, and one "buddy" book to try to meet their needs, their interests, and then care for others.
In Language Arts, students have begun their last expository writing style and are moving into Procedural Writing. Today we discussed the components of procedural writing and began to work toward writing a "How-To" writing sample by choosing something we can teach to someone else and brainstorming a list of steps that must be taken in order to complete the task or learn the skill. We will then be combining this with our knowledge of transitional language and paragraph writing before entering our writing sample into our blog.
As we had an evidence capture today, students had another day of social studies and were asked to consider the challenges the various groups living in Canada were experiencing prior to Confederation, and how those challenges were used as catalysts to motivate people toward creating the country of Canada.
Reminders:
-Thursday: Student led conferences begin at 6:30 and end at 8:30
-Friday: PD DAY - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Good afternoon families of room 18!
We have been VERY busy in our class over the past two days! Here is a recap:
Math:
Students have continued to work through using the area model of division in class. It is a fun way of completing long division but as most methods require, has quite a few steps to follow and NOT BE MISSED! Students in our class should know them by now, they are:
1. Division
2. Multiplication
3. Subtraction
4. Bring it over! (Repeat)
Please feel free to watch this video to see how this method works! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl9eJJIlV-w&t=401s
Science/Language Arts:
We have been continuing to work on developing our Extreme Weather Articles. Many students have now completed their articles and were finishing inputting them into their ongoing blog document on google drive. Students are being encouraged to refer to the rubric as much as possible while editing and typing it up into their blogs. You will have the chance to review these blogs during our student led conferences!
Social Studies:
We have been discussing the idea of identity and have started to create an identity chart that highlights the various factors that help to build and shape our identity. These will be finished during class tomorrow.
Student - Led Conferences:
Just a reminder that student led conferences are next Friday from 6:30 - 8:30pm. This is an opportunity for students to share the learning activities happening within the classroom and is not meant to be an opportunity to discuss student progress. There will be centres set up for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science for you to participate in with your children. Group sessions will be for 40 minutes and registration should be open to you very soon.
Reminders:
-Pillars of Care Assembly tomorrow morning at 8:15am
-PD day next Friday, January 26th
-Student Led conferences, January 25th
We have been VERY busy in our class over the past two days! Here is a recap:
Math:
Students have continued to work through using the area model of division in class. It is a fun way of completing long division but as most methods require, has quite a few steps to follow and NOT BE MISSED! Students in our class should know them by now, they are:
1. Division
2. Multiplication
3. Subtraction
4. Bring it over! (Repeat)
Please feel free to watch this video to see how this method works! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl9eJJIlV-w&t=401s
Science/Language Arts:
We have been continuing to work on developing our Extreme Weather Articles. Many students have now completed their articles and were finishing inputting them into their ongoing blog document on google drive. Students are being encouraged to refer to the rubric as much as possible while editing and typing it up into their blogs. You will have the chance to review these blogs during our student led conferences!
Social Studies:
We have been discussing the idea of identity and have started to create an identity chart that highlights the various factors that help to build and shape our identity. These will be finished during class tomorrow.
Student - Led Conferences:
Just a reminder that student led conferences are next Friday from 6:30 - 8:30pm. This is an opportunity for students to share the learning activities happening within the classroom and is not meant to be an opportunity to discuss student progress. There will be centres set up for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science for you to participate in with your children. Group sessions will be for 40 minutes and registration should be open to you very soon.
Reminders:
-Pillars of Care Assembly tomorrow morning at 8:15am
-PD day next Friday, January 26th
-Student Led conferences, January 25th
Monday, January 15, 2018
Monday, January 15, 2018
Good afternoon families!
Welcome back to another week of learning! Today we did some BIG things!
Firstly, students began multi-digit division using the area model. This can be a very threatening topic for students so they had opportunities to work with me at the carpet and then with a partner on questions that they created. We will continue with this model this week before introducing another "new" way of doing long division next week.
After recess we worked on our news articles. Students are expected to have their written work completed for entry into their "blogs" by this Wednesday and were given reminders about how to stay on task today as we had quite a distracted day. We also tried to watch our stop motion animation videos but were thwarted once again by technology! We were able to watch some of our stop motion videos (some of them) and gave some feedback about how to improve their work quickly tomorrow. Our final products will be on display with the rubric during our student led conferences.
During the afternoon, we continued to work on our science articles, read some chapters of Wonder, and had our first gymnastics class with Mr. Sadowsky.
Reminders:
-Please remember NO HOODIES, JEWELRY, or LOOSE HAIR for gymnastics over the next three weeks
-Pillars of Care assembly this Friday (winners to be announced tomorrow!)
-No school Friday, January 26
-Student Led Conferences, January 25
Welcome back to another week of learning! Today we did some BIG things!
Firstly, students began multi-digit division using the area model. This can be a very threatening topic for students so they had opportunities to work with me at the carpet and then with a partner on questions that they created. We will continue with this model this week before introducing another "new" way of doing long division next week.
After recess we worked on our news articles. Students are expected to have their written work completed for entry into their "blogs" by this Wednesday and were given reminders about how to stay on task today as we had quite a distracted day. We also tried to watch our stop motion animation videos but were thwarted once again by technology! We were able to watch some of our stop motion videos (some of them) and gave some feedback about how to improve their work quickly tomorrow. Our final products will be on display with the rubric during our student led conferences.
During the afternoon, we continued to work on our science articles, read some chapters of Wonder, and had our first gymnastics class with Mr. Sadowsky.
Reminders:
-Please remember NO HOODIES, JEWELRY, or LOOSE HAIR for gymnastics over the next three weeks
-Pillars of Care assembly this Friday (winners to be announced tomorrow!)
-No school Friday, January 26
-Student Led Conferences, January 25
Friday, January 12, 2018
Friday, January 12, 2018
Good afternoon families!
Just a quick update on what we worked on in class today:
We finished our math activity from yesterday and were able to extend it through the use of higher dividends and divisors to challenge student thinking around division.
Language arts time was used to continue to refine the 'lead' sections of our articles. This will be due to be typed into our blogs for Wednesday, so students who have not met the expectations of completed work so far have been spoken to and understand there will only be two more class work periods.
Phys. Ed: A reminder to students and parents that gymnastics will begin on Monday so students are asked to dress appropriately according to Mr. Sadowsky's instructions. Please check the phys. ed. blog for more specific details if your child does not remember the discussion they had with Mr. Sadowsky today and yesterday.
We were unable to watch our stop-motion videos today as we had technical difficulties (of course!) but I will be stopping by the Apple store this weekend to purchase the necessary tool to help us watch them directly off the iPad.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Just a quick update on what we worked on in class today:
We finished our math activity from yesterday and were able to extend it through the use of higher dividends and divisors to challenge student thinking around division.
Language arts time was used to continue to refine the 'lead' sections of our articles. This will be due to be typed into our blogs for Wednesday, so students who have not met the expectations of completed work so far have been spoken to and understand there will only be two more class work periods.
Phys. Ed: A reminder to students and parents that gymnastics will begin on Monday so students are asked to dress appropriately according to Mr. Sadowsky's instructions. Please check the phys. ed. blog for more specific details if your child does not remember the discussion they had with Mr. Sadowsky today and yesterday.
We were unable to watch our stop-motion videos today as we had technical difficulties (of course!) but I will be stopping by the Apple store this weekend to purchase the necessary tool to help us watch them directly off the iPad.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Good afternoon!
Here is a catch up of what's been going on in room 18 since Monday!
Math: Students have been continuing to use "play" and manipulatives to ease into division. We continued to work with counters and prompts to understand how we can use divisors to split dividends into groups to find the quotient of an equation. We have worked with numbers that divide nicely into even groups as well as numbers that leave us with a remainder. Next week, we will be working with long division strategies, but will begin by working with "new" strategies before we work with the "traditional" long division. I am hoping that this order will encourage students to give each strategy an honest effort before settling on a strategy that they feel best works for them, not just defaulting to the traditional method. This week has hopefully helped to reduce much of the anxiety surrounding division!
Science/LA: We have been using our science and LA time to work on our time capsule contribution. Students have continued to research an extreme weather event from 2017 to collect information to include in the article they will write and add to their google drive blog. Students began writing their articles this afternoon after having sufficient research time to find details to add to their articles. We also began a checklist of the items that should be included in their article, instead of a rubric, to ensure that students are meeting expected criteria.
Social/Science: Students had their last work period on their stop motion video today. There are still groups of students who did not use their time effectively to complete the work and were given ample support and time. We will be watching the videos tomorrow and comparing them to the rubric we developed to see how well students met expectations. It is my hope that students will be able to have some revision time next week to "bump up" their work so that it will be their best work that they present to parents during our student led conferences.
THANK YOU TO THE STUDENTS AND FAMILIES WHO HAVE ALREADY DONATED SOCKS TO OUR CLASSROOM COLLECTION! As we now have a class set of student whiteboards we have started to use them frequently during math. While we have a class set of whiteboards, we do not have a class set of erasers and that's where old mismatched or "hole-y" socks make excellent erasers for whiteboard work. So, again, thank you for supporting the work we do by sending in old, clean socks!
Reminders:
-Student led conferences on January 25
-PD Day January 26 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Here is a catch up of what's been going on in room 18 since Monday!
Math: Students have been continuing to use "play" and manipulatives to ease into division. We continued to work with counters and prompts to understand how we can use divisors to split dividends into groups to find the quotient of an equation. We have worked with numbers that divide nicely into even groups as well as numbers that leave us with a remainder. Next week, we will be working with long division strategies, but will begin by working with "new" strategies before we work with the "traditional" long division. I am hoping that this order will encourage students to give each strategy an honest effort before settling on a strategy that they feel best works for them, not just defaulting to the traditional method. This week has hopefully helped to reduce much of the anxiety surrounding division!
Science/LA: We have been using our science and LA time to work on our time capsule contribution. Students have continued to research an extreme weather event from 2017 to collect information to include in the article they will write and add to their google drive blog. Students began writing their articles this afternoon after having sufficient research time to find details to add to their articles. We also began a checklist of the items that should be included in their article, instead of a rubric, to ensure that students are meeting expected criteria.
Social/Science: Students had their last work period on their stop motion video today. There are still groups of students who did not use their time effectively to complete the work and were given ample support and time. We will be watching the videos tomorrow and comparing them to the rubric we developed to see how well students met expectations. It is my hope that students will be able to have some revision time next week to "bump up" their work so that it will be their best work that they present to parents during our student led conferences.
THANK YOU TO THE STUDENTS AND FAMILIES WHO HAVE ALREADY DONATED SOCKS TO OUR CLASSROOM COLLECTION! As we now have a class set of student whiteboards we have started to use them frequently during math. While we have a class set of whiteboards, we do not have a class set of erasers and that's where old mismatched or "hole-y" socks make excellent erasers for whiteboard work. So, again, thank you for supporting the work we do by sending in old, clean socks!
Reminders:
-Student led conferences on January 25
-PD Day January 26 - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Monday, January 8, 2018
Monday, January 8, 2018
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! ... and welcome back to room 18!
We began our day by being whisked down to the music room to start our year off with Mr. Wiens!
We then moved into math and spent some time "playing" with manipulatives and division. Students were given a number of dividends and asked to use their knowledge of multiplication to explore a variety of divisors and the potential for remainders. We will continue with this activity briefly tomorrow, and emphasis will be placed on students checking their work. After math we had gym.
Our stop-motion animation videos are not complete yet and so our time after recess was spent working on these with some reflective components about assessment and task criteria. We worked on creating a rubric to make sure we understand the differences between 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s, and then got straight to it. Students are eager to create the best work possible and are regularly making changes to improve their work.
After lunch we began a project for our time-capsule. We began by first watching the Google video "Year in Search 2017" to build anticipation about some of the things that happened during the past year prior to commencing our contribution to the time capsule. One of the major themes of the video just happens to be, and ensures curriculum connections, extreme weather events of 2017. Students will be researching these events and then creating a news article about their chosen event. Today, students were asked to choose a major weather event and then, using our PEEK graphic organizer, draw important facts and details from online resources to prepare them for their written production. Once the articles are finished, one of them will be voted on by the class and placed in the time capsule before it is sealed. Tomorrow, we will be discussing the various parts of articles prior to researching to direct their work more closely.
Reminders:
- Library tomorrow morning, students who borrowed books over the holiday are being asked by Ms. Paolini to return those books tomorrow morning!
- January 25th: Student-lead conferences! Parents and students are invited to come and share the learning that has been happening at Beddington!
- January 26th: PD day, no school for students
Chelsea Laird
Learning Leader and Teacher, Beddington Heights School
Calgary Board of Education | www.cbe.ab.ca/b372
t | 403-777-6610
f | 403-777-6613
We began our day by being whisked down to the music room to start our year off with Mr. Wiens!
We then moved into math and spent some time "playing" with manipulatives and division. Students were given a number of dividends and asked to use their knowledge of multiplication to explore a variety of divisors and the potential for remainders. We will continue with this activity briefly tomorrow, and emphasis will be placed on students checking their work. After math we had gym.
Our stop-motion animation videos are not complete yet and so our time after recess was spent working on these with some reflective components about assessment and task criteria. We worked on creating a rubric to make sure we understand the differences between 1s, 2s, 3s, and 4s, and then got straight to it. Students are eager to create the best work possible and are regularly making changes to improve their work.
After lunch we began a project for our time-capsule. We began by first watching the Google video "Year in Search 2017" to build anticipation about some of the things that happened during the past year prior to commencing our contribution to the time capsule. One of the major themes of the video just happens to be, and ensures curriculum connections, extreme weather events of 2017. Students will be researching these events and then creating a news article about their chosen event. Today, students were asked to choose a major weather event and then, using our PEEK graphic organizer, draw important facts and details from online resources to prepare them for their written production. Once the articles are finished, one of them will be voted on by the class and placed in the time capsule before it is sealed. Tomorrow, we will be discussing the various parts of articles prior to researching to direct their work more closely.
Reminders:
- Library tomorrow morning, students who borrowed books over the holiday are being asked by Ms. Paolini to return those books tomorrow morning!
- January 25th: Student-lead conferences! Parents and students are invited to come and share the learning that has been happening at Beddington!
- January 26th: PD day, no school for students
Chelsea Laird
Learning Leader and Teacher, Beddington Heights School
Calgary Board of Education | www.cbe.ab.ca/b372
t | 403-777-6610
f | 403-777-6613
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