December 1st, 2016

​In Language Arts today, we finished discussing making connections as a reading strategy. Students have been practicing making connections using picture books. We used Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books one week and then we used Robert Munsch books another week. Today, students cut up all of their connections from the previous weeks. Then, students practiced sorting each others' connections. You had to draw another students connection from the bin and then find the student, ask the student about their connection and then correctly label it a "text-to-self," "text-to-text," or "text-to-world" connection. Students did a great job with this activity overall. You can see from the images below that we are much more comfortable making text-to-self connections. A good indication to me that we will have to continue to review and practice text-to-text and text-to-world connections throughout the year. Our next reading strategy is comparing! This will help us with those text-to-text connections for sure. 

In Social Studies today we completed a review activity summarizing our learning in Term 1. Students were asked to explain the following mapping terms and features: distance, scale, direction, compass, cardinal directions, intermediate directions, latitude, longitude, and legend. Students were allowed to use words, pictures, or diagrams to help them. They were also allowed to work in small groups and to review these concepts together. We will continue to work on our ongoing regions project next week. I'm looking forward to seeing the result and to each having our own "textbook" on the regions of Canada. Want to get ahead? You can read about the regions using our Social Studies page. We are looking at the Arctic Region, Cordillera Region, Interior Plains Region, Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Region (sometimes called the St. Lawrence Lowlands), Atlantic Region (sometimes called the Appalachians), and the Canadian Shield Region.

We have completed Level 2 on our Classroom Leaderboard! This means that collectively we have earned 150 House Points. As a result, next week we are going to be having a reward day. The students today voted to have a Bottle Flip tournament. I'll be providing the water bottles so that we can all have the same ones to be fair. Make sure you practice! 

Today's pictures include some Throw Back Thursday pictures! Some are from our Language Arts lesson and some are from the School Board Meeting last night. The students already know that I was presented with a TAFI Award. This stands for Twitter, Apps, Facebook, and Instagram. It is presented to Fort McMurray Public School District staff who actively promote FMPSD using social media. Some of the School Board members were a little confused as to why our Instagram handle is @bobfrogm. Who doesn't know about Bob!?! Someone else very special was honoured at the School Board Meeting last night - Chloe Tagg! Ashton's older sister Chloe is a very talented artist. She drew the winning design that is going to be featured on FMPSD's Christmas card this year. The #TBT pictures are of when Chloe was in my Grade 5 class a few years ago. Even then, she was a creative student who took on lots of leadership roles at school, such as volunteering during Family Nights. While looking through my old photos to find one of Chloe, I also coincidentally stumbled upon one of Ashton! Did you know that Ashton's Kindergarten or Grade 1 class (I can't tell which) was our Reading Buddies class a few years ago? I didn't remember either until I saw this cute photo! 
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Agenda
Language Arts:
- Read 20 minutes
- Book Talk (December 15th)

Math:
- Practice 2x, 4x, or 8x tables

Health:
- PEAK Basketball (Monday)

Angel Tree Donations - due December 9th (ask Ms. B for a tag)
Winter Concert - December 14th @ 6:00 pm (doors open @ 5:30 pm)
Tech & Trades Academy- Mondays (3:00-4:00 pm)
Grade 5/6 Guitar Club - Thursdays (2:45-3:45 pm)
CG Recyclers - Day 1 (lunch recess) and Day 4 (lunch)