Category: Class News

On Monday, your child was introduced to our new spelling program called Chunk Spelling. They all enjoyed discovering the new words they could make with the “at” ending while using their sound boards. It also helped them think critically when they came to a beginning sound that sounded like a word but wasn’t one or was a word but it didn’t have the same sound as in the word family. For example, dat (not a word) or what (has “at” at the end of the word but makes a “uht” sound rather than “at” sound).

Week after week, students will be introduced to a new word family to create words with different consonants, blends and digraphs. They record their words in a notebook in three columns: first column are words with just consonants, second column are words with blends and digraphs, and the third column is where they challenge themselves to think of larger fancy words with the word family. Some examples of bigger words were: scatter, flatten, and attic.

The homework pamphlet that went home is to be completed during the week. Every Monday, they will be given a spelling check and a new set of words for a new word family. Typically, grade ones will have five words and grade twos will have up to ten words.

Click here to learn more about the program.

Please ask if you have any questions. Thank you for your support at home!

Click to enlarge image.

This week, we did some experiential learning as we pretended to be spiders. Well, we were actually scientists doing another experiment. 

First, we asked some questions. Then we formed a hypothesis. Next, we tested our hypothesis and recorded our observations. Finally, we came to a conclusion.

We started with a sugar cube which represented the fly that the spider caught in its web. 

Then we added water to the cup to mimic how a spider “vomits” digestive fluid over the prey (sugar cube = fly) and we carefully and excitedly observed what happened. 

After a few minutes, we noticed that the sugar cube dissolved just like how a fly would after the spider’s digestive fluid liquefied it.

The next step was tasting the delicious fly (or dissolved sugar cube). Some enjoyed their “meal” but others thought it tasted disgusting and were rushing to get water (too sweet!). 

We recorded our observations. Here is an example:

This experiment gave us a good sense of how a spider “eats” its food!

Dear students,

What did you think of our experiment? What was the most interesting part of this experiment or this kind of learning? How did it make you feel? Please ask your parent to help you write your response as a comment on this post. We’d love to hear your thoughts! Thank you.

Sincerely, Ms. Chan & Ms. Cowan

[metaslider id=2812]

We had a lot of fun preparing for Hallowe’en. We learned about the life cycle of pumpkins, talked about the steps to carving a pumpkin, and designed our jack o’lanterns. Our big buddies helped us carve but we cleaned out the pulp and seeds mostly by ourselves!

Today, we started our day in the gym for the whole school parade. So many fantastic costumes! Then children rotated through three stations throughout the day. They listened to a story and then used their creativity to work on some art related to the story.

Our PAC parents were busy all morning popping popcorn for the entire school. Thank you very much for being so generous with your time! We are blessed to have you care so much about our kids at University Highlands.

We hope you had a wonderful evening of Hallowe’en festivities with your friends and family!

Dear students,

What was your favourite part of our pumpkin learning or Hallowe’en festivities at school? What did you appreciate the most? Please ask your parent to help you write a response as a comment on this post. Thank you!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan & Ms. Cowan 

[metaslider id=2765]  Check out our glittery spider webs! Can you spot where the spiders are? 

First, children followed a directed drawing of a spider web. Next, they chose how they wanted to paint their web sections. Then, glue and glitter helped to make our webs pop. Lastly, the spider was added if we wished.