Talent Show

Talent Show: 
Maple Ridge will be having a Talent show this year for Grades 1-4. There will be 2 shows; June 11 @ 2:30pm and June 17 @ 11:00 am. Auditions for Grade 1 students will be held during music class. If your child takes music/dance lessons or has a planned routine and would like to perform for the whole school they are asked to audition in front of their peers beginning this week. The last day for auditions will be Wednesday, June 5. Each student will be given 90 seconds for their performance. Song choice must be appropriate (no bad language or negative messages)

If you have any questions please email jmhebenton@cbe.ab.ca

Today students learned about the external body parts of a caterpillar by creating a labelled diagram. They observed their caterpillar to see if they could identify parts including the thorax, abdomen, head, mandible and spiracles. We put moved our caterpillars from their cups to the netting habitat as they are close to making their chrysalis'.

Please remember to send a water bottle, hat and sunscreen for your child to access throughout the day as we are spending more time outside for phys. ed and science activities.

Caterpillars, coding and our final field trip

We have been VERY busy lately in room 15/16!

Last week we had some special visitors arrive in our classroom! We have 20 painted lady caterpillars that we will be observing and taking care of for the next few weeks. When they first arrived they were very tiny. We have been documenting their growth and were shocked to arrive back at school this afternoon to see how much they have changed! They sure were busy eating over the weekend. We have lots of questions about how caterpillars turn into butterflies!

We have also been learning about coding. Students are working on iPads with a partner and have been working their way through the lessons on code.org. This is a website that you could check out with your student at home as well! It takes them through various coding activities and lessons. 

Today we enjoyed a day of learning downtown, exploring Prince's Island Park and the Bow River Pathway. We rotated through three centers in the morning and then had lunch in the park. With Mrs. McCaw we had the chance to use iPads to create a PicCollage showing signs of animals. We saw a lot of geese and goslings. Did you know a group of geese is called a gaggle? With Mrs. Pittman we practiced sketching plants and used watercolor pencil crayons. With Ms. Fraser we walked down to the Peace Bridge and looked for 2D shapes and 3D objects and had the chance to explore the area around the bridge. 

Downtown Field Trip Reminder

Tomorrow the Grade 1 students will be heading downtown for our final field study of the year. We will be leaving Maple Ridge by 9:30am and returning by 1:30pm. We will complete other activities once we return to the school. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful! It is supposed to be warm and sunny. Please make sure that your child is wearing sunscreen and a hat, as we will be outside the entire time. You child should also wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a water bottle, snack and healthy lunch! We are looking forward to exploring downtown together!

Volunteer Tea

We have the most incredible volunteers at Maple Ridge School! As a way of saying thank you for all of the work you do supporting our students by volunteering, we would like to invite you to our Volunteer Tea! If you have volunteered with us this year, please join us on May 29th so that we can say thank you! The volunteer tea is being held on Wednesday, May 29th from 10:30am-11:30am. If you are able to attend please RSVP to mapleridge@cbe.ab.ca

Animals!

We continue to learn about the needs of animals. Students completed their research about their animal and we have a few groups present their posters and information each day. Last week we discussed what a habitat is. A place that has everything an animal needs! Ask your child about their plan for their diorama habitat and what it needs to include. Today they began painting the background of their diorama and will continue to build things to put in it later in the week.

During math, we have been completing a word problem each day and then practicing skills through games. Today Room 16 did a problem about beavers visiting a pond and getting their paws wet and room 15 did a problem about butterflies. Ask your child what strategy they used to try and solve the problem. Problem solving is an important skill that takes practice and repetition. We encourage the students to show their understanding with pictures numbers and words.

We learned about something that some animals do to survive called mimicry. Animals copy other animals to trick their predators. An example of this is a Viceroy butterfly who is harmless but looks just like a poisonous monarch butterfly. Birds will leave the Viceroy alone because they think it is poisonous.

We are still in need of volunteers for our May 27th morning field study downtown. If you are able to volunteer, please email Mrs. P or Mrs. F.  Thanks!

Story writing

This week students are writing a story about the animal they have been researching. This will be a fictional story with their animal as a character. Students are making sure to include a beginning, middle and end, as well as a problem and a solution. Before we can start writing, we plan our ideas using a story map!

Field trip volunteers needed!! 
Room 15 and 16 are both in need of volunteers to join us for our downtown field trip on Monday, May 27th. We will be leaving Maple Ridge by 9:30am and returning around 1:30pm. If you are available to join us and have a current police clearance completed, please email your child's teacher as soon as possible.