December 18, 2019

Today we enjoyed Carolling in the gym hosted by Harmony and Joy Pods.  Tomorrow it will be our turn.  We had a lot of fun singing and listening to funny Christmas jokes told by students.

We worked on a Community Helper Journal page today.  We picked a community helper to draw and wrote about why they are important to Tuscany.

The imaginations of Peace Pod students are amazing!  We discussed adaptations that animals may go through in each season and created our own unique animal and described their adaptations.

We also enjoyed the Harvie 500 in Phys Ed with Mr. Der.  Ask your child how many laps they did all together.



 
 

Monday December 16, 2019

Tomorrow is crazy Christmas/Winter sweater/shirt day (if you would like to participate).  Tomorrow afternoon is the dress rehearsal for the concert and the evening performance.  See the Monday Connect Messages for more information.

Today Mr. Kai's group went on their field trip to Ralph Klein Park and now all three groups have had the opportunity to go on this fabulous trip.  It ties in nicely with the Seasonal Changes unit and we focused on animal adaptation to the seasons, migration and hibernation.  We have been doing visual journal pages about our trip.  See below for pictures of Mr. Kai's group.

The summer and winter groups (Mrs. Bates and Ms. Disher) stayed behind and worked on our author study special project.  All three groups will have the opportunity to study Jan Brett's books and the Robert Munsch Christmas books.  Activities center around writing, making words, a math task and an art activity.  We will be spending the next few days working on finishing this before the break.  The writing tasks were responses to the books and would be great for you to do at home.  We focused on retelling the stories in our journals using three prompts: beginning (or "first"), middle (or "next") and end (or "last").  We also worked on identifying the characters, setting, problem(s) and solutions(s) to the stories.

There is no school on Friday.

The comments for your child are now up on Powerschool for the Math Learning Intention that was posted on November 15th.

Have a fantastic day!
From the Peace Pod

Friday, November 13, 2019

Today we really enjoyed our Green Fools sharing time.  Thank you to those parents that came to watch, the students all did an amazing job showing off their amazing circus skills.

We also had the opportunity to do a Learning Walk in the Hub put on by the grade 3/4 Joy Pod.  It was amazing to see all of the interesting things that they have been learning about over the past few months.

During the last part of our morning we spent time in our Season groups working on Field trip journal pages and other finish up projects.  We ended the day with a Gratitude Circle and shared all of the wonderful things we are thankful for.

Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather.  We do go outside daily for a body break so we want all students to be warm in the winter weather.

The Autumn group goes on their field trip to Ralph Klein Park on Monday, Dec 16.  Please ONLY pack a lunch, snack and water bottle.  We need to be able to fit our visual journals and our indoor shoes in our backpacks.  Please dress for the weather as we will be outside for longer periods.

Next week is the final week before Christmas break and we have many fun activities planned including Carolling and the daily Spirit Week events.

Have a great weekend!

Peace Pod

Thursday, December 12, 2019

Today, Winter went on their field trip to Ralph Klein Park.  There was lots of excitement upon their return.  They learned about adaptations, migration and hibernation. Ask your child what attracts coyotes to our community?

Summer and Autumn enjoyed some time at school practicing our Green Fools skills, creating cake art with Mr. Kelly as well as our daily literacy activities.  Summer group read several Jan Brett stories and did a math and literacy activities that related to the stories.  We read Trouble with Trolls, The Hat and Christmas trolls.  Did your child have a favourite story?  Autumn focussed on Robert Munsch stories and did a variety of writing, math and drawing activities  Ask your child what noisy item they would add to their Christmas tree.

REMINDERS:

• Tomorrow, the Grade 1/2s will be sharing our Green Fools skills from 9:15 - 9:45 in the Thunder Dome.  There is a limit of 2 family members per child and you must RSVP (please see this weeks Monday connect or the Phys Ed blog for more information)
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Wednesday, December 11, 2019

Today we had a great day!  Summer students spent some time reflecting and journalling about their fantastic field trip to Ralph Klein Park while Winter and Autumn did some work around Seasonal Changes to prepare them for their trips.

The Winter group goes on their field trip to Ralph Klein Park tomorrow:  Please ONLY pack a lunch, snack and water bottle.  We need to be able to fit our visual journals and our indoor shoes in our backpacks.  Please dress for the weather as we will be outside for longer periods.

Reminder to our Autumn group: please return your field trip forms for their trips by Friday, December 13th.

We also focussed on Reading today with Read to Someone, Read to Self, Literacy Centers and Guided Reading.  

We had another wonderful day in Phys Ed with Green Fools.  Students have been asked to think about what skill they want to perform during the sharing time on Friday.  

Reminder that next week is Spirit Week (see below).

Tuesday, December 10

Summer Group went on their field trip! 

        

Today, the Summer group went on a field trip to Ralph Klein Park & Environmental Education Center. They went on a long walk throughout the park and learned a lot about local animals and their relationships to the seasons.

The Environmental Education Center had lots of interesting facts and things to see!

         

Those of us who stayed at school had a bit of an unusual day in comparison to our normal schedule. After Ignite, both classes had Phys. Ed. together. We're still enjoying our Green Fools residency. We're learning to walk on tight ropes, juggle, use devil sticks, and balance. It's loads of fun! 

        

This is our last week with the Green Fools, so we're really trying hard to improve our skills while we have our great Green Fools instructors here. 

   

The Winter Group remained with the Green Fools for a full hour to account for the Phys. Ed. time they'll forego while on their field trip this Thursday. Autumn Group returned to their home room to begin Literacy. We had two unique themes for the day because Summer Group was away. Winter's theme revolved around Robert Munch books, while Autumn was focused on the works of Jan Brett. Autumn's Literacy lesson today grew from Brett's book called "The Mitten". After reading the story, we were all tasked with retelling the story in our own writing. 

It was at this point that we all went outside for a body break. 

We continued work on our writing after our break while Winter Group began an art project based on a Munch book they read. Soon after, Autumn went to Music class. 

After lunch and Mindfulness, we continued work in separate Winter / Autumn groups. Autumn did a counting and number patterns exercise following the reading of "Trouble with Trolls". Winter did a Making Words exercise based on Munch's "Finding Christmas" book. Winter then continued their beautiful artwork while Autumn began an art piece based on Brett's "The Hat". 

Fun was to be had by all in the Peace Pod! 

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

• If your child is in Autumn or Winter group and has not yet returned a field trip form, please do so. 
• There will be a Green Fools Celebration on Friday at 9:15AM to 9:45AM in the Gym. Parents are invited.

Monday December 9, 2019

Today we had IGNITE, a group meeting, literacy centers or read to self/read to someone and guided reading.  Winter and Summer groups went to music and they are working hard to prepare for the winter concert.  The afternoon performance does not require tickets but the evening one does.  We ask that only ticket holders come in the evening.  We can't have children on laps as that increases our numbers (fire restrictions).  I know some of you have concerns or questions regarding that and you can contact the office or check today's Monday Connect for more information.

Today during our word work time, the Winter group did a matching game for the /ip/ and /ing/ word families.  The Autumn group worked on rhyming pairs and sorting out word families then moved onto one word family and started generating words for that word family.  The Summer group worked on spelling a variety of words independently.  All three groups engaged in a read aloud: A Moose In A Maple Tree or The Snowy Day or The Pout Pout Fish and the Big Bad Bully.  Ask your child which story they engaged in.

Ask your child about gym (Green Fools) today.  We had lots of fun with the slack lines and barrels!

For the Summer group that goes on their field trip to Ralph Klein Park tomorrow:  Please ONLY pack a lunch, snack and water bottle.  We need to be able to fit our visual journals and our indoor shoes in our backpacks.  Please dress for the weather as we will be outside.

Reminder from Autumn group: please return your field trip forms for their trip on Monday December 16th.

Winter Group: We are still desperately looking for some more volunteers for our trip on this Thursday.  Please email Ms. Disher if you can come and have your clearance.

Green Fools Residency:  There is no formal performance for showcasing the work from kids.  Please check the physical education blog link for information if you would like to come and see what we have been doing in an informal way: https://ehsphysicaleducation.blogspot.com/

school.cbe.ab.ca/school/ericharvie/Pages/default.aspx

Have a fantastic day!
The Peace Pod

Thursday, December 5, 2019

This morning we had a wonderful morning with Mrs. Kinsman reading Wishtree.  I think we are getting close to the end.  What can your child tell you about the story?  Then we enjoyed more time with Green Fools in Phys Ed.  We have learned to juggle, balance plates and peacock feathers, use flower sticks and scarves.  The Green Fools always make us laugh!

After a story with Mr. McCambly, "Franklins Neighborhood", we went outside to enjoy the sunshine.  Once inside we had a relaxing period of reading and literacy activities.

After lunch we had Mr. Kelly come in to do some art with us.  He read "How to Catch a Star" by Oliver Jeffers. He taught us how to draw cylinders and spheres and create shadows with our shapes.

While half of us did art the other half had a chance to upload our Tuscany Community structure into Iris.  Student work that is posted on Iris can be accessed from home using the students ID number and password.  If it hasn't been sent home yet please speak to your child's homeroom teacher.

We said goodbye to our Student Teachers today.  We wish them all the best in their future as Teachers.

**All Ralph Klein Park field trip forms have gone home.  Ms Disher's class, Nov 12th, is in need of Parent Volunteers.  If you are able to help out please contact Ms. Disher ASAP (jadisher@cbe.ab.ca)**

REMINDERS:

• No School Tomorrow Dec 6th
• Families Helping Families (http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/ericharvie/about-us/news-centre/_layouts/ci/post.aspx?oaid=503aa829-8a03-46d7-a157-eae8b56ed2bf&oact=20001