Happy Holidays!

Dear Parents and Students,

It has been a busy, cold wintery week! Unfortunately my classroom camera is not working properly so I do not have more pictures to post.

We read a story called Extra Yarn and had interesting discussions. In the story, the young girl had an unlimited (thanks for the great word Matty!) supply of yarn. She knitted sweaters for everyone even if they made fun of her, and also knitted things for random objects, like trees. One day she was offered millions of dollars for the box of yarn. What do you think she did? This story addresses bullying and community.

Thank you to Miss Connie and Miss Jen who gifted Room 5 with a very timely and fabulous book called My Mouth is a Volcano about a boy who has incredibly important thoughts to share, even if it means interrupting! A great, recommended read.

We continued with building number sense in math, colours and senses in Science, and working on developing our literacy skills.

Your son or daughter created yarn hats, and snowpeople with their names on each snowball. We connected this latter activity with math. Whose name was the shortest and whose was the longest? It was actually a trick question as we have a friend in the class whose full name was the longest, but we refer to his initials when we speak with him, so his name was also the shortest!

I hope your son or daughter took home the small gift from me to them. I want to thank you for all the chocolate and hugs! I wish your family and you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. Stay warm and I look forward to seeing all "my" kids next year!

Love,

Ms. Cokar

Fire Alarm!

Good afternoon,

We had a very exciting morning with a fire alarm. This was not a planned fire drill. It is extremely important in this type of weather that the students show Care for Self by dressing in layers. As we went outside there were so many wearing t-shirts only! This meant a lot of tears and sniffly nose. Speaking of Care, there will be a Pillars of Care assembly on Friday at 8:15. Hopefully four Room 5 students will be selected!

Please read the message below which was sent to you via School Messenger about the fire alarm:

This message is to inform you that students and staff were evacuated from our school around 11:05 am this morning due to a small fire in the boys’ washroom. Calgary Fire and Police responded while students and staff were relocated to St. Bede School. These steps were taken as a precaution to ensure the safety and comfort of students and staff.  The fire was contained to a small area in a restroom and no injuries were sustained. Everyone was back at our school by 12:10 pm and students are now eating lunch.  I want to thank students and staff for handling this situation in such a prompt and responsible manner. Through regular and effective fire drills, students and staff were well rehearsed and able to follow emergency procedures effectively. It was due to their efforts and cooperation that this matter was resolved quickly and safely. Thank you for your support. If you have any questions about this situation, please feel free to contact me at 403-777-6610. Brian Hebert Principal, Beddington Heights School

Wintery Week

Dear Parents,

What a week we have had! A wintery wonderland outside meant indoor recess and indoor lunch, and a change to our routine. This meant a lot of cooped up energy that needed to be released somehow. We are hoping that next week the weather will be warmer.

Due to our routine being affected, the weather, excitement about the upcoming holidays, Room 5 as a whole required reminders of Pillars of Care. If I can have parental support in talking about the Pillars of Care, it will reinforce what I am teaching at school. There was a lot of pushing and shoving, students hurting others with their words or hands, crying, etc. This is not acceptable and I am hoping everyone can speak to their son or daughter so we are on the same page.

Our fabulous volunteers helped us create these lovely decorations a few days ago. These can be hung from a Christmas tree or, as someone suggested, their bedroom doorknob!

Library books will be due by Wednesday, December 14 and students will not be able to sign out a book over the holidays.

Please Read! Concert Order Changed

Dear Parents,

There has been a change in the performance order! The three Grade 1 classes will perform last. This means the Winter Concert will begin at 6:30 with the Grade 3 classes first. I apologize for the confusion, and hope to see you all here tonight. Doors open at 6:00.

Ms. Cokar
P.S. Tomorrow's blog will share some of the fabulous work we did with the help of our volunteers.

Winter Concert TOMORROW

Good afternoon,

As you are well aware the weather outside is frightful! Students are showing up wearing boots and hats and scarves, which is great. What I have noticed, however, is that some students are wearing t-shirts and then complaining of being cold. In the past we talked about "layering" so if your son or daughter has decided to wear a t-shirt, perhaps they may want to wear a sweater, cardigan or hoodie on top.

Tomorrow is our Winter Concert! Doors open at 6:00 and the concert begins at 6:30. We are up first, followed by the other Grade 1 classes. We talked about wearing our fancy sparkly clothes in the evening, but we don't need to during the day.

Yesterday we made paper chains with numbers 1 - 5. The students wrote the numeral, the number word, and a picture representation.

We also created beautiful art similar to Ted Harrison, after we talked about different kinds of lines. We started with a horizon line, then a sun, and went from there. All these lines were in black. The colours above the horizon line were "warm" and the ones below were "cool". Ask your son or daughter what colours are considered warm or cool.

Please check backpacks for homework! There is a sheet titled "My Home" which should have the first five questions filled in with accompanying pictures. There are two questions remaining: address and phone number. Also, the last large box is a picture of your family. Please complete and return tomorrow.

Thank you,

Ms. Cokar

Winter Concert December 7

Good evening!

Our Winter concert is on Wednesday, December 7. Doors open at 6:00 and the concert begins at 6:30. The class has been practicing a song called Penguin Dance. If you would like to hear this at home, have your son or daughter sing it to you!

The Penguin Dance

Chorus:

The penguin dance goes flip, flop, flap,

One step forward and two steps back,

Wings akimbo, off we go!

Waddling, waddling, waddling sideways through the snow!

We wear tuxedos black and white,

For all occasions, we’re dressed right!

We always look so neat and trim,

We even wear them when we swim!

Chorus

Although we’re birds we cannot fly,

We have two wings so I don’t know why!

We don’t have much to do but fish,

But that’s all right they’re our favourite dish!

Chorus

For we are happy, quite content,

On our cold and icy continent,

But if we’re bored by any chance

Then we just dance the penguin dance!

Chorus

Thursday Interviews and No School Friday

Good morning (JC has suggested this as a greeting).

The students are dictating my blog today.

Carman: We drew things like art on paper and sprayed with water. This was an experiment.

Ethan: In gym we practiced dancing skills.

Cassidee: We read a non-fiction book about colours.

Peter: We were reading books.

Ms. Cokar:
- Student involved conferences Thursday and Friday.
- No school on Friday
- Book Fair Thursday and Friday during conferences
- Scholastic book orders due Friday by noon
- Students are coming without recess snack and are getting hungry before lunch
- Students should show Care for Self and dress warmly for the chilly weather

Stay warm!

Ms. Cokar

Wednesday Book Fair

Good afternoon!

Wednesday is usually library book exchange day however tomorrow students will not be signing out new books (please return though!). Instead, we will have an opportunity to browse the annual Book Fair. You can send money with instructions, for example, if you send $5 are they allowed to spend it all on whatever they would like? If you prefer to shop with your son or daughter, the Book Fair is open Thursday night during Student Involved conferences 3:30 - 7:30 and Friday 8:00 - 12:00.

Today we tried to match magazine pictures with paint chip colours. The colours were primary and secondary. Here are some examples:

At the end of the day we had Maker Time. This is a time given to the students to tinker and create!

Have a great evening!

Ms. Cokar

Good afternoon!

A few reminders for this week:

* Student led conferences are this Thursday and Friday
* No school on Friday
* Book Fair this week. Please feel free to stop in after school this week
* Scholastic book orders due by Friday so feel free to pass them on during conferences
* Fun lunch order is due tomorrow (Tuesday) for December 8

Today we had a guest reader who sat in Ms. Cokar's rocking chair and read a book called David Goes to School! It was Karter, who is in our class:

Fransen also read Brown Bear, Brown Bear and did a fabulous job:

See you tomorrow!

Ms. Cokar

No School Tomorrow

Wow, that was a whirlwind week!

We continue to explore colours. The students know that scientists make predictions before they do experiments. They figured out that predictions means a guess. Today we predicted if paint would adhere (which means to stick) better to some materials. The materials were tin foil, wax paper, stir sticks, saran wrap, laminate paper, yarn, and straws. Do you think paint would adhere to all these materials?

We also tried to mix colours to match paint chip samples.  Students started with one colour and added additional colours. The last picture a student wanted to see what would happen if secondary colours were combined. Here are some examples.

Some reminders:

- No school tomorrow, November 25

- Scholastic book orders will be due by end of next week

- Student involved conferences are next Thursday and Friday

- Dress for the weather!

- Book fair next week!

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Cokar

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Happy Monday!

Happy Monday for many reasons, one of them being the beautiful weather we are experiencing in November!

Today in your son or daughter's backpack are:
1. Scholastic book order forms (three of them).
2. Kidney Foundation donation request information
3. Fun lunch envelope.

This morning, with the help of two lovely parent volunteers - Ms. Connie and Ms. Jen - the students had the opportunity to create a card using their handprint or fingerprint in paint. When the paint dried, they decorated to pull it all together. Tomorrow we will do a bit of writing. This card will be sent to seniors, who are very important people in our community and city. Did you know that seniors are over the age of 65? Ms. Cokar has at least 40 more years to get a discount on a bus pass :-)

In the afternoon we put on our scientist thinking caps and made predictions before I started an experiment. I asked, "What do you think we can do with water, clear containers, food colouring, and paper?" Max predicted I would pour in water, drop some food colouring and add paper. He was right! To make sure our experiment was performed as real scientists, we made sure we had the same amount of water and same amount of food colouring drops. The students noticed that yellow mixed into the water right away but blue and red took some time. Tamika pointed out that the yellow I used was a different brand. Awesome observation skills! We are excited to see what happens with our experiment tomorrow. Here are a few pictures:

Here are some pictures from Friday when we added food colouring to paper then sprayed the paper with water. We had some lovely colours appear on the paper, paper towels, and desks!

Room 5 had to take a few breaks today to settle. It is really important that all students be aware when they are being silly and not cooperating, it takes away from others learning. I could tell some students were getting frustrated by the distractions and were working hard on ignoring. We will review classroom rules again as it seems some important ones have been forgotten. I appreciate your support.

Ms. Cokar

A Snowy Science Tuesday

Good afternoon!

Today in gym we practiced shooting our basketball into a hula hoop which was hanging on the basketball net. While we waited in line, we practiced our dribbling skills.

We think we are scientists who experiment and make predictions. Today in science we predicted what would happen when we add white or black paint to the three primary colours. After we made predictions we actually experimented with the paints. Here are a few pictures of our predictions and our actual paintings.

Colours of Monday!

Good afternoon!

This morning we worked really hard in our math journals. We tried our best to write the numbers 1 - 10 and to draw circles or dots to represent the numbers. A couple of our students told me, "Oh no! I made a mistake!" and I said, "It's okay to make mistakes because it helps us to learn." Here are some pictures of the work we did today.

We also continue to learn about colours. Today we talked about ligher than and darker than, as well as the word brighter. In these pictures you can see we tried to put colours in order. Do you think we did a good job? I tried to make a video...hope it works!

Have a great day!

Ms. Cokar