May 26-30

 Dear Parents,

Reminders

-This past week, students interested in showcasing their talent performed in front of their peers.  If your child was chosen to share their talent in the School Wide Talent Show, you will have received a yellow permission slip.  Please return that as soon as possible.

-Shape Museum.  This week, we started exploring 3D shapes.  We will be building a Shape Museum of found objects.  Please watch your email for a request for small everyday items from home for this project.  

Celebration of Learning

Thank you to all those who were able to attend our Celebration of Learning this week.  Students worked in an intentional way these last few weeks to capture their learning in meaningful ways that truly illustrated the depth of their understanding of the places that we visited and connected to in our downtown community. We were so thrilled to welcome a large group into our learning space.  We want to thank all of the adults who have shown their support of this impactful learning - again to the MANY adults who joined us for our 5 days at City Hall School, as well as those who came to support our students in their sharing of their learning.  It truly means a lot to us and our students.  Our students also had the opportunity to share with our grade 4 buddies and kindergarten.

Math

This week began exploring 3D shapes and will continue this week as well.  The following is a summary of the key ideas to help support your child’s learning.

Learning Intention

I can identify and describe 3-D shapes, including their faces and where they are seen in the environment.

Which 3-D Shapes Should Students Meet?

Students should have opportunities to see and use cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, and rectangular prisms.

It is important that they see 3-D shapes in different orientations and sizes.

---

What Should Students Include When They Describe 3-D shapes?

When students describe a 3-D shape, they can talk about a real item that the shape is like, and they can describe the shape’s attributes, for example,

•	whether it rolls
•	the number and shape of its faces (if it has faces)
•	whether all the faces are the same
•	whether it has very pointed parts

For example, students might describe a sphere as something that looks like a ball, rolls, and reminds them of a circle.

They might describe a cylinder as having two circle faces, having a round part that is not a face, and rolls when it’s on its round part but doesn’t roll if it’s sitting on one of its faces. They might say that a cylinder looks like a can. Some students might notice that a can has ridges that stick up around the circle faces, and actual cylinders don’t.

---

What Is an Effective Way to Trace All the Faces of a 3-D Shape?

Students trace all the faces of a 3-D shape to get familiar with how many faces the 3-D shape has and the shapes of those faces. It is hard to keep track of the faces and make sure that you trace them all. To help, students can put a sticker or a sticky note on each face as they trace it.

---

Helping Your Child With New Words

There are many opportunities to find and compare items at home that are similar in shape to 3-D shapes. You can help your child remember the names and characteristics of common 3-D shapes by relating them to items in the real world. For example:

Some lumps of sugar are cubes.

Some traffic pylons are shaped like cones.

A tennis ball is a sphere.

This drinking glass is almost a cylinder.

Many boxes are prisms.

Literacy 

This week we have continued to look at word endings.  We focused on LE spelling pattern at the end of the 2-syllable words.  To help solidify these sounds please take a look at our home practice and review these sounds with your child. 

May 20-23

 May 20-23 

Reminders: 

 Join us for our Celebration of Learning, in Mrs. Kosior’s classroom and the Learning Commons on Wednesday at 9:00

In-class Talent Show - We will take time as a class to share our talents on Thursday, May 29th in the afternoon.  All are welcome who would like to share!  We will then select our 2 entries for the School Wide talent show.  

City Hall School - Day 5

Question - How do shared experiences create a story with others? 

We started the week with our final day at City Hall School.  We got to meet our City Councillor, Peter DeMong.  We got to spend some time with him, hearing about how he listens, participates and helps lead our city.  We were also able to ask him many questions.  We enjoyed hearing part of his story, and how he remembers living in the Bonavista area when he was little and his connection to our community.  

After lunch, we then went outside, spent time at the playground near East Village.  We then continued our exploring, going over the bridge to St. Patrick’s island.  We got to explore and look at some of the native plants in this area, and spent some time sketching.  We also ran up and down The Rise.  Before we knew it, we were walking back to get picked up by the bus.  

    

Again, I want to thank all of our adult volunteers who joined us throughout our 5 days at City Hall School.  I hope the memories and experiences will be something that your child cherishes for many years to come.  I know our time and adventures together will be something I cherish and remember as a highlight of my teaching career years from now.  I feel truly blessed to have shared this experience with your child.

Celebration of Learning

The rest of our week has focused on bringing our learning and experiences from City Hall School back to the classroom.  We are working on various pieces and parts to share our story of City Hall School with our families on Wednesday.  We hope you will be able to join us on Wednesday morning at 9:00am.  We can’t wait to share our stories with you!  

Math 

Learning Intentions:

I can model subtraction within 20, in various ways

I can subtract within 20

I can solve problems using subtraction 

As we came back to school, we spent some time this week reviewing and strengthening our subtraction strategies.  Subtraction is always a skill that can take some additional practise and time to build confidence in, and some practise at home could help support your child as well.  See below for some further details.

Subtracting by Counting Back

•	When you know a total amount and you want to figure out how many are left when you take some away, you can count back from the total. For example, if there are 14 birds and 6 fly away, you can count back to see how many birds are left: 13 (after the first bird flies away), 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8. Note that when you count this way, you say one number for each bird that flies away. You can keep track with your fingers to make sure you say the correct number of numbers. The number of birds remaining is the last number you say.
•	If you wish, you can count back by 2s and say 12, 10, and 8 as you think of 2 birds flying away at a time.
•	You can represent the situation on a bar model like this: The bar model shows that there were 14 birds in total; one part (the birds that flew away) was 6, and the other part (the birds that stayed) was 8.
•	You can count back to subtract the part you know from the total. For example, if there were 14 birds and now there are 8, you can count back 6 numbers from 14 to figure out how many birds flew away: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. You said 6 numbers and ended on 8, so you know that 6 birds flew away.
•	You can count back until you get to the part you know to figure out the part you don’t know. For example, if there were 14 birds and now there are 6, you can count back from 14 until you get to 6. The number of numbers you say is the number of birds that flew away: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. You ended up at 6. You said 8 numbers, so you know that 8 birds flew away.

---

Subtracting by Counting On

•	Sometimes you know a total and a part, and you want to figure out the other part. This can be done by counting forward, or counting on, from the part you know. For example, suppose there are 14 people coming for dinner. If you know there are 6 plates on the table, you could count on from 6 to 14 to figure out how many more plates you need. It’s not the last number that you say that tells you how many more you need; it is how many numbers you say. You can keep track with your fingers. In this case, you said 8 numbers, so you need 8 more plates.
•	You can count on by 1s or 2s. If you count by 2s, you need 2 plates for every number you say.
•	You can represent the situation on a bar model like this:
•	Even though you are counting on, you are actually still subtracting the part you know from the total: 14 − 6.

---

Helping Your Child

It is useful for children to continue to practise counting on and also to practise counting back from numbers less than 20. Some practice in counting on by 2s (not starting at 1) is also useful, but do this only when the child is ready.

Your child can practise at any time. For example, you can say, “Count on from 6,” “Let’s count back from 15,” or “Can you count back from 10 by 2s?”

---

Definitions

bar model: a model that shows a whole and its parts as two stacked bars of equal length, with one of the bars separated to show the parts

count on: to count beginning with a number other than 1; for example, to count on from 3, you would say: 4, 5, 6, …

Literacy

This week, we reviewed the letter y added to the end of words,  and that y can make vowel sounds too!  At the end of words, y can say long vowel i and y can say long vowel e.  

May 12-15 City Hall School

 Dear Parents,

Words can not express how wonderful the 4 days we have had at City Hall School.  Thank you to our many volunteers who came along to support our work this week.  Without you, we would not have been able to do it! 

Thank you as well to all parents and families for supporting your child as well.  Everyone was very prepared each day, and I was shocked at the continued energy and engagement we showed throughout the entire week.  And we still have 1 more day to pack in more experiences and memories together!  Amazing!

Please look below to hear about our week and the impactful learning we took part in. Share the photos with your child and ask them to explain the stories that they uncovered in our city.  A celebration of learning will be happening on May 28th to recognize and share our good work and learning from our City Hall School Experience.  

City Hall School

Monday

Question of the day

What is the story of the land?

Highlights

We began our week right away by meeting Mayor Gondek. We were thrilled to share with her who we are as students from Andrew Sibbald, spend some time hearing about how she listens, participates and leads our city, and were able to ask her some questions. 

Later, we spend time exploring the inside of City Hall, and noticing various displays in the Atrium.  We were very curious about the items located throughout this space, and this also allowed us to become familiar with this remarkable building. 

For the afternoon, we headed outside in the rain towards the Confluence.  Even though it was raining, we explored this place of significance where the story of our city began.   

 

 

Tuesday

Question of the day

How does the story of this place contribute to our identity?

Highlights

On Tuesday, the weather improved for us, and we were able to get outside to explore our city.  We explored historic Stephen Avenue and spent time at the unique space of Devonian Gardens. We enjoyed these places very much and many students wanted to return again, very soon!

    

Wednesday

Question of the day

How can perspective shape our understanding of ourselves?

On Wednesday, we were fortunate to participate in a City Council meeting.  We were honoured to be introduced by the council and recognized by the audience. 

 

 In the afternoon, we had guests from Calgary Municipal Land Corporation come and talk to us about Urban Planners.  We learned a little bit about how plans are made to decide how a space will be used within a city.  We then learned more about streets and addresses and how these are organized a certain way as well too.  We then got to create a building that would be needed within a city, out of lego.  

    

Thursday
Question of the day

How can art tell a story of ourselves, others and this place ?

Highlights

On Thursday, we had the opportunity to explore the Central Library and discover and look more closely at some public art within the library.

   

Later on, we learned about the purpose of public art in our city.  We met with a local artist Michelle Ku.  She is a muralist whose art appears childlike and was so engaging for the students.  She shared her experience growing up as a child, how she creates art, and how she thinks and engages in her art.

 

Learning intentions:

Social Studies

• Students will examine how they belong and are connected to their world.

• Students will determine what makes their communities thrive. 

• Students will appreciate how stories and events of the past connect their families and communities to the present:

• Students will appreciate how stories and events of the past connect their families and communities to the present.

• Students will analyze how their families and communities in the present are influenced by events or people of the past 

Language Arts

• Students examine ways that messages can be organized and presented for different purposes.

• Students develop listening and speaking skills through sharing stories and information.

• Students create messages through the application of writing processes.  

Wellness

• Students examine personal characteristics, feeling and emotions and explore understand of self. 

Science

• Students will discuss the responsibilities to care for environments is shared by all peoples and is fulfilled by showing respect for and protecting all aspects of nature.  

• For First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, a sense of responsibility towards nature can be connected to place and traditional teaching for future generations, such as taking only what is needed.