Oh the Weather Outside is Frightful...

And the fire is so delightful.... if only we could go away... Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!! (And freeze)

We didn't have any fires at school, but we did have a super cold beginning to our week. We had indoor recesses for so many days and we also had some kids coming back from their warm vacations. We got to enjoy their warm pictures of sunny skies, no snow, underwater swimming, hunchback whale seeing, sand and sea shells.

Jack and Noah each did a presentation of their vacation pictures. Even though it was so cold, our hearts were warmed up by their beautiful smiles.

Watching the Hunchback Whale video

Noah and Joelle conversing in a conversation about personal connections to Florida.

February Festivities

We started off our CRAZY busy month with a guest reader who plays table tennis and was once competing in the Olympics up in the Yukon. The kids were so excited to hear about Freddie's adventures.

On February 11, our class celebrated Chinese New Year. This year is the Year of the Snake. We celebrated with watching the Lion Dance, reading about how the Chinese Zodiac animals came along, and we also decorated snakes. We have snakes hanging off the classroom ceiling now!

We also celebrated 100th day by decorating glasses and making a necklace out of 100 cheerios! Boy was that fun!

Here are some pictures of our much anticipated and fun activities:

 Cutting out the circles to our 100 Day Sorting Mat

 Cheerios all sorted out and ready to string on!

Happy 100th Day!

 

Happy Groundhog's Day!

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

 700 lbs!

Tomorrow will be Groundhog's Day and our kids are so excited to see whether the groundhog will see its shadow or not! We've been spending three days on studying what the groundhog eats, what it does during the winter, what it likes to do, who its enemies are, and what the symbolic meaning of a groundhog is to us Winnipegers! We truly don't want any more -40 weather. So lets all pray and cross our fingers that we have Spring soon!

We've been monitoring a Canadian groundhog from Nova Scotia named Sam. He will be the first to predict whether we will have early Spring. Feel free to watch it at home!

http://www.novascotiawebcams.com/special/shubenacadie-sam.html

Happy Groundhog's Day!!!

New Year, New learning

We have had a successful start to Daily 5! The children worked on "Read to Self" and "Read to Someone". We have some pretty eager readers who just want to spend more time reading to a partner. I'm so happy to hear them say how much they like it so far!

Here are some active readers showing off their skills:



 

Hot Dog order is due on Monday January 21. Order forms have gone home with the children. If your child did not bring home the form, please feel free to send me an email.

Penguin Inquiry

We wonder about a lot of things, but we're extremely curious about penguins particularly. These are the wonderings of the grade ones:

I wonder:

• how do penguins jump in the water
• how do they wobble
• how can they fly
• how can they talk
• how do they hug?
• what do they eat?
• do they have teeth?
• how do they swim?
• do they surf?
• do they dress up?
• how do they live?

This is what the children know already:

Gavin: That they go 50 feet in the water
Owen: Penguins jump in the water
Jaedan: Penguins live in the Antarctica
Gabriel: I know that penguins are endangered
Yash: I know that penguins eat fish
Lance: They wobble
Chase: Penguins wear cameras under the water (if they are on a mission for critter cam)
Sophia: I learned about penguins and I learned that penguis crawl
Kobey: I know that their habitat is melting
Pranay: They use their hands to swim
Noah: Penguins are endangered
Isabella: Penguins can jump in the water
Anjali: The penguins were swimming in water
Duncan: How do penguin swim?
Teagan: They live in Antarctica
Colby: The mushy snow keeps the penguins warm
Caitlin: Penguins swim
Deborah: They jump in the water
Jack: Penguins can swim
Trisha: Penguins get eaten
Joelle: Penguins have feathers
Ryland: They are fat
Juleah: Penguins cannot fly
Erin: Penguins can go underwater, they eat fish

We have learned so much! But their curious minds continue to go!

Mystery Reader

We have been really really really busy lately! So busy that I haven't had much time to do any blogging. But here is a make up for it :)

We at SES are so grateful for our Mystery Readers. We learned many things through this program. We learn about clues (inference), giving back, and understanding expression through different readers.

I want to thank all the parents who have volunteered so far! I hope to launch this again in February for "I Love To Read" Month. Here are the exciting pictures of our Mystery Readers:

            

Whew... What a busy week!

We at SES have been really really busy!

This week, we had Mystery Readers, Advent preparations, report cards going home, and more Mystery Readers. On top of that, we're going on our very first mini field trip tomorrow! The kids have been working hard on writing letters to Santa. We talked about how Santa is our St. Nick! In fact, today was the feast of St. Nick.

Thank you to the parents who have signed up for Mystery Readers. All slots are filled up! If you really enjoyed the experience, don't hesitate to sign up again in February for "I Love to Read" month.

Pictures to come...