March 11, 2014

Hello Parents!

Let me introduce you to Tim and Tim!  These guys are our class stuffies that will be coming home with each child for a few days.  They come with a book to read and a travel journal.  If you have time, you can write as much or as little in the journal about Tim's adventures for the few days he stays with you.  Encourage your child to draw a detailed picture and as much writing as possible.  You can also include some adult writing for your child to tell all the details you wish to share.  You are welcome to be as creative as you wish with Tim!





This week we are working on the marvelous letter 'Mm'!  We have had some fun with moustaches, marching, and magic!  We have made a magnificent list of /m/ sounding words in our class.  Can you find any more at home?




We have also read the book How Full is your Bucket? The children realized that filling a bucket is like our Pillar of Care for Others.  We have brainstormed some fantastic ideas of how we take care of others, and created a bulletin board display of all of our ideas.  Next time you're at the school, come take a peak.  We have a lot of unique and interesting ways that we take care of others.

Raz Kids Reading

Hello Parents,

I have had to put on a password for each student for our Raz Kids accounts.  It is the first letter (capital) of your child's last name.

Did you know that we have read a total of 340 online books in Room 1!  I am really proud of our students!  I wonder if we can hit a total of 500 soon...

Mr. Trechka

Alien Inline Skating

We have been having fun the past few weeks with Alien Inline Skating.  

"It was hard at first, but now its easy." (Seth)  

We want to say a big 

THANK YOU! 

to our Parent Council Association who helped subsidize this activity so that it was affordable for all of us.

 There was A LOT of safety gear to put on.  Thankfully the Grade 6 classes helped us put on all the gear quickly so that we could have as much skating time as possible.





 

Our AWESOME instructor, Shaun, helped teach us how to skate well.  We were very excited to see his likes moustaches just as much as Mr. Trechka.
"I like that its curly." (Liam)

Shaun has tricks and tips to help us get up safely, and taught us what to do when we lose our balance.  "Touch our knees!"

 

He skates with us when we're scared, and helps us get better.  There are all sorts of fun games that we can play to build our skills such as balancing our "ice cream cones", Builders & Bulldozers, even going on our Tour of Calgary with our pool noodles, and we didn't even have to leave the gym.  The noodles helped us pretend to be the Calgary tower, a horse to ride at Stampede, a hockey stick at the Saddledome, and even an elephant trunk at the zoo!

 “I’m really fast at the skating when I lift up my feet.  I go, and I’m really fast!  I can beat anyone.” (Nando)

 “I like that its easy going slow when its just practicing stuff.” (Evey)

All that skating has us tired by the end!

It is a good thing that Shaun is super organized with all that gear.  We helped sort the gear into the proper bins.








Shaun has a local skate shop in Kensington called Shop Task.  For a fun way to stay active when the weather warms up, if your family is interesting in finding out more information about classes (he tells me they offer some free classes), skating products, or safe places to skate, check out their website www.shop-task.com for more information.  

Extreme Cold

Hello Parents,

In this extreme cold, we are all taking precautions for the safety of ourselves and our children.  It is CBE policy that when the outside temperature/windchill is colder than -20, we keep the children indoors (recess, before school, etc).  We also welcome you inside for drop off/dismissal at the front doors when it is such temperatures.  Check out Environment Canada's website for more information on windchill and cold temperatures.

Calgary Board of Education is also issuing reminders about safety when waiting for busses as there may be delays due to the weather.

Mr. Trechka

3D Olympics

For the last couple of weeks, we have been talking about and looking at a variety of 3D shapes including cubes, spheres, cones, cylinders, and pyramids.  There are all sorts of things in our classroom and Learning commons that come in these shapes.

 



Today, on top of skating (more pictures to come next week), today we had some 3D Olympics.  Working as a team we had a basket of things to sort by 3D shape.  We used their proper names as we worked.  Gold medals were awarded for team work, quickest sorting, and use of proper vocabulary.  We all came away as winners!!

  

Take a look around your kitchen, bedroom, or bedroom and see what kind of 3D shapes you can find.  Have your own sorting 3D Olympics as a family for some inside fun this weekend!

If You Give A...

We have been enjoying the series If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff.  The children have noticed the pattern that she finishes the books with the same thing that they started with, called a circle story.  We have enjoyed them so much that we have started coming up with some of our own titles and book covers.  We used a mix of our sight words and kid writing to go in our journals.



If you give a mouse a cookie - Nando

If you give a crab bacon - Gregory

If you give a spider a hamburger - Jason

If you give a bunny an apple - Tina

If you give a pig some fries - Marlo

If you give a dinosaur a cookie - Matthew Z.

If you give a bunny a carrot - Connor

If you give a pig some gum - Gregory

If you give a dragon a piece of meat - Calum

If you give a bunny an apple - Lily

If you give a cat an egg - Bella 

If you give a mouse a lobster - Landon

If you give a spy tiger macaroni and cheese - River

If you give a zebra a watermelon - Joshua

If you give a tiger meat - Ethan

If you give a dinosaur a chicken - Seth

February 18

Hello Parents,

Alien In-Line Skating

The next few weeks are a fun time at Beddington Heights as we welcome the Alien In-Line Skating program!  Each of our Kindergarten classes have six turns in the gym.  The program provides all the equipment that we need including kneepads, elbow and wrist guards, skates and helmets.  If you wish to send your child’s personal helmet from home you are welcome.  Please label it, as we will keep them in the classroom for the two weeks.  Just a reminder, if I have not received a permission form for your child, due to school policy your child will not be able to skate until it has been signed and returned.

Our dates for Room 1 are:

AM                                                      PM

Thursday, Feb 20                              Wednesday, Feb 19

Tuesday, February 25                       Monday, Feb 24

Friday, February 28                          Thursday, Feb 27

Tuesday, March 4                             Friday, Feb 28

Wednesday, March 5                        Tuesday, March 4

Thursday, March 6                            Thursday, March 6

Letter  Oo

This week we will look at the letter ‘Oo’.  Vowels are really fun letter because they make two sounds! When letter Oo is long, it says its name like the word open, and short letter Oo makes the sound at the beginning of octopus.  Here is the link to the interactive fun at Starfall.com.