Reminders

Important Reminders:
-No school tomorrow - Friday, February 1st
-Swimming begins on Monday, February 4th

Swimming Info
-students in room 15/16 will be swimming first thing in the morning
-in order to transition quickly into the pool, it would be helpful for students to wear their bathing suit under their regular clothes
-we will not be taking backpacks to the pool, please send your child's towel and anything they will need to change into after their swimming lessons in a separate bag (waterproof, if possible)
-it can be tricky for students to get leggings or tights on after getting out of the pool, please send students in loose, comfortable clothing next week
-we will be traveling to and from the pool on a bus and it is supposed to be chilly next week - please send your child to school with snow pants, boots, a warm jacket, a scarf, mittens and a hat

postcards

We have finished the first book in the Heartwood Hotel series. Today we read some descriptive passages from the story and the students task was to draw the setting (Heartwood Hotel tree and the main room inside) based on what they hear. This will be the front of their postcard. Once the pictures are complete, students will write their postcard as if they were a guest visiting the hotel.

stargazing balcony

Reminder to please return Heritage Park and Swimming Field trip forms by Friday. If you did not receive either of these, please email your child's teacher.

Forms and Volunteers

Forms 

-Swimming forms came home last week, please fill in and return by this Friday, January 25th

-Heritage Park field trip forms came home today, please fill in and return by this Wednesday, January 23rd 

Volunteers 

-Room 15 is still in need of 3-4 volunteers to join us for our field trip to Heritage Park on Tuesday, January 29th from 9am-2:30pm. If you are available and have your volunteer clearance completed, please email Ms. Fraser at meafraser@cbe.ab.ca

A Winter Day

The students have been hard at work painting a 2D scene of a community on a winter day. We have used a variety of art materials to complete their projects and all of the students are proud of the work they have done! Later this week we will be creating a 3D model of our winter scene.

Volunteer Request
The Grade 1s will be going to Heritage Park at the end of the month. Both room 15 and 16 are in need of 4 additional volunteers for this trip. If you are available to join us for the full day, please email your child's teacher by the end of the week.
Room 16 - Mrs. Pittman - Monday, January 28 all day
Room 15 - Ms. Fraser - Tuesday, January 29 all day

Storytelling

Today many of the students published their first story in a book format including a page about the authour. We have been reading familiar stories over the past week and today we read a twisted fairytale called "Cinderella Penguin." Ask your child to tell you about the characters, setting and what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story.
During explore time, many students chose to continue telling stories orally and created settings out of classroom objects.
During math, students described shapes based on attributes and looked at sets of shapes to determine which one didn't belong.

Gymnastics continues over the next couple of weeks. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately.

Gymnastics

In January at Maple Ridge School, students have the opportunity to participate in gymnastics during gym time. Most of the focus of this gymnastics time is on movement, specially, moving in different ways. This week we have been using the mats and working on building muscle and core strength. Next week we will begin using some equipment and then at the end of the month we will have fun with Mission Impossible. In order to ensure the safety of our students, we have a head-to-toe, ready to go rule in the gym. Here is our list. If possible, please review it with your child and have a discussion about safe practices in the gym. 

Head-to-Toe Ready to Go! 

Head - long hair pulled back 

Ears/throat/wrist: jewelry off 

Shirt: one layer shirt 

Waist: shirt tucked in 

Pants: sporty pants or shorts, no belts/zippers/tights or dresses - leggings without feet are fine! 

Ankles: pants rolled up if they are long 

Needs and Wants

Today we talked more about the community that we will be creating in our classroom. We discussed what would happen if Eva and Wall-E hadn't been able to return to earth in the movie and what they would need in a new community on a brand new planet. Then we had a discussion about needs and wants. What are some things we need in a community? What are some wants? A couple of examples that came up were: grocery stores, toy stores and schools. Do you think these are needs, or wants? Perhaps tonight as a family you could have a discussion about needs and wants. Do you notice that some of you have a different perspective about things that are needs and wants? In pairs students were then challenged to start creating a poster identifying what they believe we would need, and want, in our community. We also told them that they need to be able to explain their point of view!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! We had a great first day and kids were eager and happy to pick up right where we left off. We gave the kids some time to visit and find out what everyone did during the break. They tried to find someone they had something in common with ("we both went on a plane"). They created a representation of their vacation using a material of their choice then wrote about it. They set up mini museum displays and visited different museums to listen to their peers share their work.
We are beginning to look at 2D and 3D shapes and today students named and described shapes based on attributes like sides and vertices. This led us into our afternoon building task. Students looked at pictures of world famous and local buildings and described the shapes they say. They had the choice to recreated a building from a picture or create an original. Tomorrow they will name their building and explain the shapes in it and it's purpose.