Adventures With Mrs. Craig

We had a great last day together for 2021! Thank you so much for all of the cards and special treats! I hope you create many family memories together and enjoy the break.  Sincerely,  Mrs. Craig

In Math today we learned about symmetry and created some awesome shapes and designs! We have been chatting about how awesome the public library is! Many of them seem interested in heading there for a free library card. I believe  Judith Umbach branch is the closest one--the address is 6617 Centre Street North. Country hills is also quite close.  We finished up our special winter project today. They can take these home tomorrow. :) Tomorrow we will be watching 'The Grinch.' They can enjoy some popcorn (they need to bring if they wish) and bring a stuffy. Tomorrow is also 'spirit of the holiday' themed. You can wear anything that reminds you of Christmas/the holidays/celebrations!  Enjoy the pictures! 

We have decided to not have spelling words this week and focus on sentence structure. We are also going to enjoy some curriculum inspired winter activities! Today we enjoyed making our own snowflakes for Science. Our guided question was "Why is snow white?" Ask your child what they learned. To make these snowflakes we used wax paper, plates and white glue. They can bring them home tomorrow!  In Science we made a chart in our Math books together. They learned about the definition, tools to use and units of measure for capacity, weight and length. Wednesday: Caroling at 2pm and Pyjama Day Thursday: Caroling at 8:30am and Plaid Day Friday: Pillars of Care Assembly 8:30am and Holiday Themed Spirit Day.  I am constantly giving my class compliments with how positive, calm and awesome they are. To celebrate we will be having a movie, popcorn, stuffy day on Friday. 

This morning they put together a division puzzle! Check their backpacks to see what it made!  Yesterday they started a group project for Social Studies. Each group is given a region of Alberta with a booklet of information. They will be creating a poster together and presenting these to the class.  We had library this morning. All library books are due back by Friday. I will speak to the students who have chapter books and come up with a plan.  Every morning we are doing Math word problems that students have made for our December calendar. Some of them have been really tricky! In literacy today we read a piece of non fiction text, and wrote down questions before during and after. They are learning to ask higher levelled questions about information they are learning.  In Science we read an article about oil drilling in the arctic. We then watched a video about where oil comes from and what we use it for. This became a very interesting conversation that could maybe be ...

 Not only was it cold outside today, but our classroom was freezing too! It turns out our heater is broken and will hopefully be fixed by tomorrow! We enjoyed working in the library though, nice to have a change of scenery. The class stayed nice and quiet throughout the day and worked well together.  In Math we played a few different Math games while working on multiplication and division.  In Science we learned about the word "decomposing." Ask your child what it means and how composting works! Spelling words! They picked some of their words this week! Red: sing, bring, thing, King, sting Blue: minute, hour, second, pollution, planet Green: accidentally, decomposer, insect, automatically, aerates 

      To start of our day and the beginning of December, we created our monthly calendar. This month I decided that each student will create a math word problem. We will open one of them each day. On the other side of the word problem they drew a picture that reminded them of December!      Today in writing, they created stories with the thought of "If I owned a polar bear for a pet..." Ask you child how their story went! Some students loved sharing them with the class.      In Science we started a new unit today, "Waste in Our World." They gathered information together about what the already know on these topics. Enjoy the pictures! 

 We started off our day today coding on laptops. We then used our laptops to research different landforms in Social Studies. They drew pictures of the landforms: peninsula, island, forest, desert, glacier, tundra, prairies/plains, mountains, lakes, valleys, rivers and ocean.  In Math today we solved another 'esti number.' We used skip counting, even and odd numbers and addition.  After lunch we needed a movement break so we did yoga.  After an excellent day they earned free time for the last 20 minutes. Most of them played a card game or drew with a friend. 

We had a great learning day today. We have no completed our Science unit "Light and Shadows." Today they had a pop quiz on the unit. Our next Science unit will be "Waste in Our World." You can start talking to you kids about how you get rid of garbage, recycling and compost in your home and where it goes after it leaves the bins! Today in Math we worked on white boards. We slowly went through how to subtract double digit numbers with borrowing. I could easily see what strategy they were using and if it brought them to the correct answer or not.  In P.E we started floor hockey. We also learning what ringette is! Spelling words: Red: the, they, that, this, them Blue: awesome, smiling, happening, joked, coming Green: boundaries, moisture, avoidance, discipline, temporary Tomorrow is spirit day! Crazy hair day! 

November Spirit is this Tuesday, Nov 30th, and it is crazy hair day! Students and staff will wear their craziest hair styles they can whip up this Tuesday!  December Spirit Day is the last day of school this term, Friday Dec 17th, and it will be Festive Holiday themed.  That could mean, ugly holiday sweaters, dress as Santa or his elves or his reindeer or a snowmen/women, or even a lit-up holiday tree! Basically, anything to get into that holiday cheer!   Thank you to the families that were able to meet with me the last couple of days. If you were unable to make the times work, please email me and we can find a different time that will work.  Have a wonderful weekend. 

 Today we continued learning about prime and composite numbers. We worked on factor trees and determined if the top number was either prime or composite.  We did a guided sketch today of a polar bear. Here is the link if you would like to try it at home https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4WW2Ydv0LA&ab_channel=VeriArt We are not done yet but some students wanted me to share.  We had a special moment with a student in our class today! She is originally from Pakistan and saw snow for the first time today! Here is an example of some of our math from today too. 

This morning I read 2 different stories from the same author. With using the second story, "The Last Polar Bear" by Jean Craighead, they filled out a chart of the summary using sentences and pictures. We have been focusing on the best way to summarize a storybook and this book had a clear beginning, middle and end.  In Math today we played another estimation game using 'esti mysteries.' You can search these games and try then at home too. Today we focused on prime and composite numbers. Many students still need more practice with understanding the difference. We will continue tomorrow with this lesson.  In Science today they started their shoe box experiment. Ask your child what they are making.  Spelling words:  Red: can, see, feel, brave, had Blue: about, together, laugh, light, sometime Green: between, building, appropriately, paragraph, throughout   Remember to sign up for parent teacher interviews for either Thursday or Friday this week. You can do this thr...

With the holiday season soon approaching it's important to care for others and give back to those who are less fortunate than us.  This holiday season, Beddington Heights School will be a part of 2 programs that the city of Calgary runs for those less fortunate.   The first program is Loonies for Lunches.   Loonies for Lunches would bring students together to collect loonies to donate to the food bank. Each school and/or classroom would create a donation box to collect the loonies and perhaps have some healthy competition to see which class could raise the most. The loonies would then be used   by the Food Bank to   purchase food for our Weekends and More program that makes sure kids get the nutritious food they need on the weekends to stay healthy and learning.   The Mayor's Food Drive is where we collect non-perishable items, i.e. can goods, sealed boxed items, for Calgary's Food Bank.  Both programs start this Monday to Dec 14th....

 Today we had 2 groups perform their shadow plays. We gave them 2 stars and one wish after their performances. I hope you enjoy the pictures.  All students need more practice with double digit subtraction with borrowing. We practiced this together today and went over the algorithm. We also learned a couple of different strategies that people have been using. Many students were trying to flip the numbers which they realized gives them the wrong answer. This is something to practice at home too.  We examined a picture of a house being pulled by a trailer and brainstormed ideas of what the picture could be telling us. They each wrote stories about this image and some of them shared to the class.  We started a documentary on polar bears today. Tomorrow we will be doing a special art piece to go along with the facts we have learned. Afterwards we will create a story about polar bears. This is something to brainstorm with your child.  Next week on Thursday and Friday ...

 I was away sick for 2 days, I apologize for the lack of blogging!  In Science we have been learning about rainbows and northern lights. We learned that Scientists call the northern lights the aurora. Ask your child why they use this term instead.  Other great conversations could be:  -How is a rainbow formed? -How is an aurora formed? Spelling words this week: Red: grow, most, so, also, both Blue: people, receive, edge, fifteen, piece Green: language, population, appointment, quotation, exclamation

 This morning the whole school took part in a virtual assembly for Remembrance Day. I hope you enjoy some pictures.  We also completed our pamphlets on touring around Alberta. They did a great job researching information on our province.  Please look over your child's spelling test with them.  See you on Monday!

 This morning they started off by playing 'back to back' with a partner. They each took turns giving each other a practice spelling test with their new words.  In Social Studies, they are pretending to be tour agents! To start, they are each creating their own pamphlet on Alberta. Today they worked on their title pages which included, the Alberta flag, the wild rose and any other image they decided to draw in relation to Alberta. We will continue with these pamphlets tomorrow.  In Math, I handed back their basic facts quiz from last week. We went over most of the questions. On of the students shared her trick with multiplying by 9! Maybe your child can show you tonight.  In the afternoon they started their shadow puppet scripts. Ask your child what it is about. Some students needed a lot of encouragement and suggestions on what to write about! Maybe you can help at home with characters, plot and great ideas. We will continue with these tomorrow.  Spelling words ...

 We had a nice, calm Friday. They started off by completing their basic facts quiz and spelling test, we then painted poppies. I hope you enjoy the pictures!  Have a wonderful weekend! 

We have been working on our comprehension strategies, to read and answer questions after listening to a text. Today we listened to a story called "The Shortcut" and answered 6 questions afterwards. All students were asked to go back and check their work, add as much detail as possible, and to reread the questions carefully.  We started a new class novel yesterday! Matilda is a wonderful story. Some students have listened to this story before, or have watched the movie, but that is ok. We talked about how great stories can be read more than once!  In Math, we continue to work on multiplication and division strategies. They are also working on double and triple digit subtraction and addition with borrowing and carrying.  In Science today they made posters on refraction and reflection. I will send these home when they are complete. They enjoyed doing a Science experiment with using tin foil. Ask your child about this and what they learned.  Tomorrow we will be having ou...

 This morning they started with writing about their weekend. Many students shared their stories from Halloween night and all of the fun they had.  Spelling words this week: Red: all, call, land, hand, small Blue: fact, began, clasp, rapid, able Green: universe, future, communication, beautiful, unusual 

What is better than combining subjects and creating something really cool at the same time! Room 13 loved making their skeleton hands after learning how light travels through different material, like glass. We also learned about how shadows grow and shrink depending on how close the light is. We used flashlights to gather ideas and work together.  They have been working together for the past 2 months to have a special movie day! They filled their rock jar and we will be having one tomorrow. They may also wear their costume and bring a special snack (just for themselves) while watching the movie.  We will still be having our spelling test tomorrow. Green group wanted a more challenging word this week so we had added 'multiculturalism'.  

 Yesterday we completed a definition word list for Social Studies. These included: multiculturalism, Francophone, confederation, tourism, economy and community. Ask your child what some of these words mean.  We used our inferring skills to listen to clues and information about everyone's costumes. They each made and completed a book of "Guess My Halloween Costume." They each had 3 clues with words and pictures. Some people, who do not celebrate Halloween, made a book of "Guess My Favourite Animal." Most of them are taking home these books tonight.  Yesterday we calculated how many laps and metres we walked/ran for Chanie Wenjack! Ask your child if they remember that number.  This morning we worked on our coding game! 

 Good Morning! We have not shared photos in a while! Here are a few to look over with your child.  This weeks spelling words: Red: his, is, an, and, can Blue: pitch, drink, swim, life, while Green: fifteen, referee, eager, ready, please