Reformatted McQueen Lake Info. Booklet 02/21/2012
I have heard from a few families that the info. booklet will not open. I reformatted the document as a PDF. McQueen Lake Information Booklet Hopefully this will work on home computers. If not, I can ask Mr. Weddell to email the document to families; however, it is challenging because quite a few of the email addresses we have on file do not seem to be up-to-date or correct. Please let Mr. Weddell and I know if you have changed your email address and remember to check that our emails do not go into your "Junk" folder. Add Comment February 20-24 02/21/2012
I apologize for my late post this week! :S Highlights from last week Last week was a busy time! We went to YPC and skating on Thursday. The YPC concert was a classical ballet performance from Goh Ballet. I am a ballet dancer myself, so I was very excited to share my knowledge and experience with the kids. Before the show, we discussed some common stereotypes about ballet dance, particularly male ballet dancers. I was pleased to see the kids kept an open-mind about this art form. Thanks to all of those families who helped out with skating! The students and I really appreciate it. Upcoming Events:
In Social Studies, we will soon be starting a new unit on how cultures meet their basic needs and more. In Science, we are continuing to explore how adaptations allow animals, plants, and people survive in their habitats. This week, we will continue to focus on types of adaptations, for example, structural and behavioural adaptations. In Fine Arts, we will be listening to a selection of music. Students will listen for certain musical elements such as tempo, pitch, dynamics (loud and soft) as well as identifying the instruments they hear. Unfortunately, we will miss our Thursday computer block this week due to our gymnastics field trip to TCC. Next week, students will start practicing their division skills on TenMarks and through website math games. Our Monday P.E. block was cancelled due to other classes being held in our gym. We spent our P.E. block outside yesterday. In Math with Mr. Weddell, the students are focusing on strategies for solving DIVISION problems. We have discussed how important it is to have MULTIPLICATION FACTS memorized so division will be easier. REMINDERS:
If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me at the school or through email (agartrell@sd73.bc.ca). McQueen Lake Information from Mr. Weddell 02/14/2012
Here is a McQueen Lake Information Booklet about our upcoming trip on February 27, 28, 29. Please take some time to go through the information to find a list of things students will need to bring, a basic schedule of how each day will go, etc. Permission slips and a $25 fee will need to be returned by Wednesday, February 22nd. Fees are required for food costs ($20) and ski rentals ($5). The wrong amount was originally written on the permission slip. Mr. Weddell had the kids write $20, but it needs to be corrected to $25. If you have questions and concerns please contact Mr.Weddell (mweddell@sd73.bc.ca). February 13-17, 2012 02/10/2012
Highlights from last week Last week was an exciting time! We went skating on Thursday and a YES was pulled out of the jar! The chosen reward was SHOW and TELL. Please check your child's agenda to see which day is his/her day to share (either 15th, 16th or 17th). Students will have a few minutes to share one item. The sharing item must fit in their locker or backpack and please no pets. The Valentine's Dance was also on Friday. Our class donated the greatest number of canned goods for the food bank! Thanks for the generosity. :) Upcoming Events:
In Social Studies,Ms. Boyer, the school's First Nations Support Worker, will be coming into our room to tell us about the Medicine Wheel and how it ties into our daily life. In Science, we are continuing to explore how adaptations allow animals, plants, and people survive in their habitats. This week, we will focus on types of adaptations, for example, structural adaptations. In Fine Arts, we will be listening to a selection of music. Students will listen for certain musical elements such as tempo, pitch, dynamics (loud and soft) as well as identifying the instruments they hear. In computers, the students have been practicing their multiplication skills on TenMarks and through website math games. Our Monday P.E. block is cancelled due to a basketball tournament being held in our gym. During our regular P.E block, we will be having a guest speaker, Wayne Deptuk, in to talk to us about McQueen Lake. In Math with Mr. Weddell, the students are continuing to focus on committing MULTIPLICATION FACTS to memory. Ms. Lane's class showed the most improvement and won the trophy. However, Mr. Weddell will be having another "round" to see if our class can win the trophy! The kids will complete another multiplication pre-test at the beginning of this week and a quiz on Friday. REMINDERS:
Styles Sydnee Kelly Alison Cheyenne Kolby Declan Aidan Braden Heather Mason Courtnenay W. Keysha Rylls Natasha Tayler Paysha Cherice Emily Dallas Hunter Oden Courtnay M. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me at the school or through email (agartrell@sd73.bc.ca). February 8th Update 02/08/2012
Valentine's Day Reminder that if children plan to give out Valentines next Tuesday, they will need to include everyone. We strive to create an inclusive, positive class community. Here is a class list of student names: Styles Sydnee Kelly Alison Cheyenne Kolby Declan Aidan Braden Heather Mason Courtnenay W. Keysha Rylls Natasha Tayler Paysha Cherice Emily Dallas Hunter Oden Courtnay M. Skating tomorrow (Thurs. Feb. 9th) I have heard back from a few families about coming with us. If you plan on joining us, please meet at 12:55pm in our classroom, as it would be great to have extra adults walk with us and help carry skates to the arena. Social Studies Mapping Quiz Please take a look at your child's mapping quiz, sign it and return it to school. I am really pleased with the kids results. The average mark was 83% a high B! :) February 6-10 02/06/2012
Highlights from last week Students pulled a YES out of the jar last Thursday and had a "Dance/Tattoo Party" for the last 40 minutes of Friday afternoon! Upcoming Events:
Future Field Trips:
In Social Studies, students will be testing their knowledge of world maps and terminology, by labeling all of the continents and oceans on a blank map. There will be a few multiple choice, matching and true and false questions as well. The quiz will be on TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8th. In Science, we are continuing to explore how adaptations allow animals, plants, and people survive in their habitats. This week, we will focus on how habitats provide organisms with their basic needs and how adaptations help organisms survive in their habitats. The students have also started reading an informational guide about McQueen Lake with Mr. Weddell. In Art, nearly all of the students have completed their one-point perspective drawing to tie into mapping in Social Studies. They will be up on one of the hallway bulletin boards sometime this week. The students evaluated their own work and were then able to compare their own mark to my mark. It is interesting to see if students agree or disagree with the mark given by me. Some of the kids have been able to show me why they think they deserve a certain mark, if I see they are able to justify their idea by pointing out aspects of their artwork, I sometimes change their mark. In computers, the students have been exploring mapping interactive games, including a longitude and latitude game. and maps which are listed on our "Learning Links" tab. I encourage you to explore these websites with your child at home. In P.E., I will be wrapping up the basketball unit fairly quickly and move onto gymnastics.FSA testing will continue this week. The testing will be administered by Mr.Weddell. In Math with Mr. Weddell, the students are continuing to focus on committing MULTIPLICATION FACTS to memory. Please keep practicing times tables (up to 10X10) every day! Try writing them down, reciting them out loud, make flashcards, playing games on websites like multiplication.com. The children will do a second math quiz this Monday to gage their improvement. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me at the school or through email (agartrell@sd73.bc.ca). January 29-February 3 01/30/2012
Highlights from last week Dress-up as Your Favourite Character Day! The students were eager to tell each other which character they had dressed up as and what book they were from. Some students even brought the books in to read to each other during silent reading. What's happening this week? This week and early into next week, there will be FSA testing. Information about FSA was sent home in an envelope recently. The testing will be administered by Mr.Weddell or Mr. Poelzer. In Math with Mr. Weddell, the students are really focusing on MULTIPLICATION. Please keep practicing times tables (up to 10X10) every day! Try writing them down, reciting them out loud, make flashcards, playing games on websites like multiplication.com. Mrs. Berndt, Parkcrest's Learning Resource teacher, has proposed a challenge to all classes to improve their skills. Our class has completed a pre-test to give a "baseline" (shows a starting point for each students skill level) for each student. Students in each intermediate class will take Mad-Math minute quizzes at their grade level at a later date (I believe in a few weeks) to see how their multiplication skills are improving. In Science, we have completed our Weather unit! The students did a wonderful job sharing their information about their topics. Your child's evaluation sheets for the written poster and oral presentation should have arrived home last Thursday. Just a note for the next time we do a research project, that students are expected to put the research information they collected into their own words, as "cut and pasting" from someone's website is plagiarism (we used the term "copying or taking credit for someone else's work" in the classroom). We have now started a new science unit about habitats and communities. This week, we will focus on how adaptations help organisms survive in their habitats. This will also tie in and connect with the future McQueen Lake trip. In computers, the students have been exploring mapping interactive games and maps as well as the website KERPOOF.COM which has a variety of Language Arts based activities. A list of mapping websites has been added to the Learning Links tab; however, we have been going through each site as a class, so if your child would like to show you the first four websites, we have already covered those in computers. In P.E., I will be wrapping up the basketball unit fairly quickly and move onto gymnastics. However, Mr. Weddell will continue to work with the students on developing more basketball skills. In Art, the students are continuing to work on one-point perspective drawing to tie into mapping in Social Studies. In Social Studies, we will be focusing on reading maps using legends, grids, compass roses, etc. as well as labeling world maps (continents and oceans) and discussing latitude and longitude. Upcoming Events: Thursday, February 9th - Skating with Gr.1 Little Buddies Tuesday, February 14th - Valentine's Day. "Have a Heart" - Dress up day - wear pink, red, hearts Thursday, February 16th - Young Peoples Concert and Skating with Gr.1 Little Buddies (a busy day!) Thursday, February 23rd - First gymnastics lesson at TCC Friday, February 24th - Professional Development Day - No school February, 27-29th- McQueen Lake Overnight Trip with Mr. Weddell Thursday, March 1st - Second gymnastics lesson at TCC Future Field Trips:
Thursday, January 26th is a theme day! 01/23/2012
I forgot to mention, this Thursday, 26th is a THEME DAY! Dress up as your favourite character from a book! January 23-27, 2012 01/22/2012
Highlights from last week: I was able to spend nearly the whole week in the classroom as Mr. Weddell was in working in the office Monday and Tuesday morning! It was really nice being able to see first-hand, how the students are doing in Math and Language Arts (subjects I do not usually teach them). The students did a wonderful job sharing their Natural Disaster research projects aloud last week. The kids were also eager to ask one another questions about the topics. The evaluation sheets for the written project as well as the oral presentation will be sent home this week. We made a map of our classroom using scale (which required practicing our multiplication skills to fit our measurments to scale), labels, colour, legends, symbols and compass roses. The students worked with partners or individually to measure the furniture, doors, windows, etc. in our classroom using rulers and metre sticks. The kids are also loving perspective drawing and I'm very impressed with the effort and details they are adding to their work. What's happening this week? Nearly all students have presented their Natural Disaster projects. They have done an excellent job. If your child has not completed or handed-in his/her project, please have them do so as soon as possible as the projects were due January 13th. We will continue to work through our mapping unit. In computers, the students have been exploring the website KERPOOF.COM which has a variety of Language Arts based activities. Students can make their own stories, movies, cards and pictures. We will be continuing our basketball unit in P.E. this month. We will move onto a gymnastics unit in early February. In Art, we will continue to work on one-point perspective drawing to tie into mapping in Social Studies. Hopefully the weather warms up enough for the students to go outside for recess and lunch this week. Five "in" days in a row last week seemed to leave everyone with a little "cabin fever." :) Please remember that students need to wear clothing that is appropriate for whatever the weather is like each day. I have suggested the kids bring an extra pair of socks and/or pants to school, in case their clothes get cold and wet after being outside. Communication Note for Families: I have done my best to email all of those families who have mentioned they prefer to communicate via email. I sent emails either before or after Winter Break to update you on your child's progress. Some emails were sent back to me, so please let me know if you have changed your email address and remember to check your "junk" mail to see if my emails have been considered spam. If you would like an update email and did not receive one from me, please send me an email letting me know. :) Upcoming Events: Thursday, February 9th - Skating with Gr.1 Little Buddies Thursday, February 16th - Young Peoples Concert and Skating with Gr.1 Little Buddies (a busy day!) Thursday, February 23rd - First gymnastics lesson at TCC Friday, February 24th - Professional Development Day - No school February 27-29th- McQueen Lake Overnight Trip with Mr. Weddell Thursday, March 1st - Second gymnastics lesson at TCC Future Field Trips:
January 16-20 01/13/2012
Highlights from last week: The students seemed to really enjoy the Young Peoples Concert last week. The musicians were very funny, talented and entertaining. The students also pulled out a "YES" last Thursday and earned their choice of reward - building a class fort! Our room was covered with blankets while the students were cozy reading with stuffed animals and friends. :) What's happening this week? The students have worked hard on their Natural Disaster projects! If your child has not completed or handed-in his/her project, please have them do so as soon as possible as the projects were due January 13th. This week, students will be presenting/reading aloud their Natural Disaster projects. I will be looking to see if students are able to present their research by reading clearly at a reasonable volume, as well as answer a question or two about their topic. Our mapping unit has gotten off to a great start. Students will be learning how to make their own maps later this week. We are also familiarizing ourselves with some McQueen Lake maps. We will be continuing our basketball unit in P.E. this month. We will move onto a gymnastics unit in early February. In Art, we will continue to work on one-point perspective drawing to tie into mapping in Social Studies. Upcoming Events: Thursday, February 9th - Skating with Gr.1 Little Buddies Thursday, February 16th - Young Peoples Concert and Skating with Gr.1 Little Buddies (a busy day!) Thursday, February 23rd - First gymnastics lesson at TCC Friday, February 24th - Professional Development Day - No school February 27-29th- McQueen Lake Overnight Trip with Mr. Weddell Thursday, March 1st - Second gymnastics lesson at TCC Future Field Trips:
| AuthorI am excited to be teaching at Parkcrest this year. I am passionate about teaching through Fine Arts and I also teach dance outside of school. I moved from the Okanagan to Kamloops three years ago. You can contact me by phone 250- 554-2368 or by email at agartrell@sd73.bc.ca ArchivesMay 2012 |
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