Our District Indigenous Support Teacher, Ditta Cross, visited our classroom last week to teach us about names and cultural identity. She brought in her special drum that was a gift from her mother. It was her mother who made it and sister who painted it. We started our time together passing around an eagle feather to hold as we shared our names and any information we had about our names. 

Then Ms. Cross taught everyone a song and dance to represent people’s family and what they stood for. Students were divided into four groups to dance: ravens, whales, wolves, and eagles. Their dance mimicked the animal’s movements.

Next, she shared a story called Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie about a boy who would like to change his name. In the end, they found the perfect name. Thank you, Ms. Cross, for visiting our classroom and for teaching us more about Indigenous people and the importance of our name! Dear Students, what did you enjoy most about her visit?

The following day during Big Buddies time, we listened to the story called The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi about a new girl from Korea who looks to find a new name because she did not want to use her Korean name in her new country. Her new classmates write name suggestions to put in the name jar. At the end of the story, she finds the perfect name. Students were able to make a clear text-to-text connection to the story they heard just the day before.

Afterwards, we researched the meaning of our names and started working on our name crest. Students were so interested to find out more about their names. It would be so great if you could have a conversation with your child about how their name was chosen and why. This will give them greater insight into the history of their own name which may help them in deciding what they might add to their artistic creations. Thank you.

 

Dear students, what do you think or how do you feel about your name? What do you like or not like about it? If you could change your name, would you? What would you change your name to?

Dear Parents, please feel free to help your child respond to these questions as a comment on our blog. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely, Ms. Chan & Ms. Cowan

When doing inquiry, there are many different resources students can learn from. Yesterday, we discussed how we can learn from books, websites on the internet, experts, and videos, for example. We watched an episode of the Magic School Bus called “Spins a Web” and learned a lot from Ms. Frizzle and her students. Please feel free to watch the video with your child and talk about what they found most interesting. Ask them what other questions come to mind because we want to continue to foster their curiosity. While we cannot ride on Ms. Frizzle’s Magic School Bus, the next best thing is what we have organized for next week! And that is to learn from a spider expert!

We are so very excited to inform you that we will be walking over to SFU’s Biological Sciences Department to participate in some hands-on learning. Students will be working with a couple grad students who are passionate about insects and spiders. They will have an opportunity to see samples, ask more questions, and be curious. Here are the details:

Date: Friday, November 16th, 2018

Time: 9:30 am – We will be leaving the school shortly after 9:10 am and will return at approximately 11:00 am.

Place: Simon Fraser University’s Biological Sciences Department

Thank you so much to Priscilla’s mom for connecting us with the Faculty of Science to make this walking field trip possible!

We have been learning about many different reading strategies during our whole class read alouds and during reading groups time. One of the biggest things children are learning is that they need to ALWAYS read for understanding. One way to self-monitor is to regularly ask ourselves, “Does it make sense?” Children are being taught that there are a number of different strategies they can use when reading and to notice the ones they are already using when reading so they continue using them.

Ms. Cowan just returned on Monday feeling invigorated from a 2-day weekend workshop about reading and I am a part of a District book club reading Catching Readers Before They Fall so we are both very excited to have these ideas and strategies fresh in our minds to teach the students.

Today, we introduced students to a new reading strategy: picture walk. Here, we went through the book A Poppy Is to Remember one page at a time to take a look at the pictures before actually reading the words in the book. We discovered that by taking the time to study the pictures, it helped us to understand and make predictions. Next time you read with your child, feel free to take a picture walk through the pages before you read the words in the book and see how this strategy might help improve comprehension.  

After reading the book, we discussed what a poppy is to remember and thought about some of the reasons why we wear a poppy. We then wrote our A Poppy Is to Remember poems which will be shared at our Remembrance Day assembly this Friday, November 9th at 10:45 am. Some of the ideas shared in their poems were simply heartwarming. Here are some examples:

• A poppy is to remember the people who risked their lives.
• A poppy is to remember those who fought for peace because they were brave.
• A poppy is to remember those who went to the war because they sacrificed their lives for us.
• A poppy is to remember those we love because they wanted peace and for us to be free.
• A poppy is to remember people that are still living (who were in the war).

Each child will receive a poppy on Friday. Feel free to send donations to the poppy fund as we are collecting at the school. All families are welcome to join us in the gym this Friday for the Remembrance Day assembly. If you are not available at that time, then we hope to see you during our Family Read at 8:55 am!

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!