Week of March 2

From the Classroom

This week, our classroom learning was connected to a real-world event: the RCMP “Name the Puppy” contest. We watched a short news item about the contest, which helped bring the learning to life for the students. You can view it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRAgXQ2SOJs 

This activity provided an opportunity to explore important places and ideas connected to our city, province, and country, while also making links to our Social Studies, Science, Literacy, and Math curriculum. Through discussion and shared thinking, students explored how names can reflect places, communities, geography, and experiences that are important to us.

As part of the activity, the class considered three possible puppy names:

Bowness (“Bow”) connected to our city and gave us an opportunity to talk about local landmarks and communities in Calgary.

Breeze connected to our recent learning about weather and seasonal change. Students made links to chinooks and the changing weather patterns we experience in Alberta, helping connect the activity to our Science learning as we continue to observe and describe changes in weather and seasons.

Brigade (“Briggs”) connected to our province and country through the military base in Edmonton and opened up conversation about acts of service carried out by members of Canada’s Armed Forces.

After learning about each option, the class voted on their favourite name. In the end, our class chose Briggs.

The learning continued as the class brainstormed questions they were curious about, particularly about military life. On the students’ behalf, I reached out to Capt. Ryan Bartlett, Public Affairs Officer with the 3rd Canadian Division Support Group Headquarters at CFB Edmonton, to request responses to their questions. When his reply came back to me, I read it aloud to the class during our learning time on Friday. This provided a wonderful connection to our Literacy learning, as students practiced asking questions, organizing ideas, and seeing how writing can be used to communicate with a real audience for a real purpose.

We also made connections to Math, particularly as students thought about how places are connected through movement and pathways across our city, province, and country. These discussions supported early understanding of direction, location, and spatial awareness as we talked about how people travel and how places relate to one another.

Finally, focused literacy instruction this week included the introduction of the wh and ph sounds, a review of the magic e spelling rule, and the introduction of the “bossy r” spelling rule. As outlined in the heart word list posted last week, we reviewed words from Column A, and Column B words were introduced and practiced throughout the week in a variety of literacy activities, including independent writing, dictation, and literacy games.

School/Classroom Information and Important Dates

100s Day & Leprechaun Traps! 🍀✨

Reminder-We will be celebrating 100s Day on the morning of March 12th! Starting on Monday March 9th, students are encouraged to bring a small collection of 100 items (for example: buttons, paper clips, beads, pasta, etc.). Please make sure the collection can fit inside one Ziploc bag and is clearly labelled with your child’s name.

Later that same day, we will begin building leprechaun traps in class. Students will need to bring materials for trap-building, including a small cardboard box. Other helpful items include paper towel or toilet paper rolls, scrap cardboard, craft sticks, string, recycled containers, and any fun decorative supplies you have at home. Thank you for helping us make these activities creative and exciting!