Our final Blog Posts of 2016 ~ Christmas Lists

Our final blog posts of 2016 are up!
If you need to do any last minute shopping, our Christmas lists can be found here:

https://kidblog.org/class/MrsEldersClass2016/posts

Christmas Concert

Our school Christmas concert is Monday, December 19th at 7:00pm.

We will gather in our classroom at 6:30pm to do final preparations for the concert that evening.  No specific clothing is required, but we ask that students wear nice clothes for their performance on stage.

TD Book Giveaway

Once again we have been blessed with the TD Book Giveway.  Our book this year is "Small Saul" by Ashley Spires and is about a young boy who wants to be a pirate, but doesn't quite fit in.

Each child in Grade One and Two has been given this book to keep.  Please take the time to read this book with your child this evening and enjoy the story it has to tell.

Skating

On Monday, December 12th our class will be going skating for Phys. Ed. class.  We will have the Grade 9-12 class going along with us to help tie skates and keep us on our feet while skating.

Please send skates, proper clothing (warm enough to walk to rink AND skate in), extra mitts, and a helmet if wish for your child to wear one.

There will be no shinny allowed.

December Book Orders

We are sending home December book orders today.  For them to arrive by Christmas break, we ask that you return order forms and cheques by Wednesday, December 7th.

If you would like your purchase to stay secret, please attach a note to your order.

Thank you in advance for you orders!

Flashlight Friday

What a great Flashlight Friday we had today! We did all of our work and reading by flashlight and in our coziest pajamas! Thanks for participating!

Important Days in December

Friday, December 2nd

Flashlight Friday

Monday, December 12th

Early Dismissal at 2:30pm

Monday, December 19th

Christmas Sweater Day

Christmas Concert at 7:00pm

Tuesday, December 20th

Formal and Photo Booth Day

Wednesday, December 21st

Pizza and Pajama Day

Last Day of School for 2016

Thursday, December 22nd

Christmas Break Begins

Tuesday, January 3rd

School Begins

Flu Shots

Yesterday we had Miss Rasmussen at the school to give flu shots.  Mrs. Dyck and myself got our shot in front of the students, with the hope that this would diminish some of the fears associated with getting needles.

We are proud to say that our students all willingly got their flu shot AND no one ran away!  What a brave group of students we have!

Flashlight Friday

On Friday, December 2nd we will be having our first "Flashlight Friday" in our classroom. We ask that all students wear pajamas AND bring their own flashlight for that day. We have some special activities planned for that day, involving our current areas of study, and we are excited for it to arrive!

Scarf fundraiser tomorrow

The SRC is asking Staff and Students to wear a scarf tomorrow! The SRC will come around and count how many scarves are worn and donate $1/scarf to Samaritan's Purse. The donation will be used to buy more supplies to fill more shoe boxes from our community!!! Thank you!

Our Daily Schedule

We have had questions in the last few weeks about homework, and what the students actually miss when they are away from school, so we thought we would give an outline of what our typical day is like...

Morning Routine (morning message, counting practice, calendar skills, holidays/celebrations/season questions, days of the week, months of the year)

Viewing Practice (creating connections, inferences, asking questions)

Daily 5 (Reading to Self, Writing Practice, Word Work Practice and Guided Reading) 

Snack (food group sorting, mini-lesson on effects of nutritional values in given foods)

Star of the Week (Listening skills (listening for details to retell), Writing skills, printing practice, capitalization and punctuation practice, representing with pictures)

Math (Gr. 1-Teen numbers, counting practice forward/backward, writing numbers 0-20, building numbers with Base 10 blocks, building numbers with 10 frames, reading number words. Gr. 2-Place value, addition)

Focus Groups (individualized work on letters and letter sounds, sight words and sentence writing)

Writer's Workshop (writing from a picture prompt)

Lunch

Reading Stamina practice (10 minutes of silent reading)

Daily 5 (Reading to Self, Writing Practice, Word Work Practice and Guided Reading) 

Novel Reading (listening to Reading, visualization strategies, vocabulary discussion, focus on characters, setting, and problem so far in the novel)

Social (Discussion on our Christmas celebrations, compare/contrast with classmate's celebrations)

Art (lesson on primary colors, painting activity)

This is an outline of what is in the day planner for tomorrow.

Not one of the outlined activities has a paper version that we can send home as homework.  Please know that when your child is absent from school, that even though they may not have "homework" that can be sent home, there is indeed a great amount of learning and discussion taking place when they are absent

November Book Orders

Your child will bring home November Scholastic catalogs today.  Anyone interested in ordering books, please have a cheque and order forms returned by Thursday, November 24th.

If you would like to order anything for Christmas, and have it remain a secret, please attach a note to the order forms.

Thanks so much!

Family Celebrations ~ Due on Wednesday

Today your child is bringing home Social homework that targets family celebrations.  We are working towards recognizing celebrations around the world but first need to discuss how we celebrate in our homes.

Our goal for this sheet is to find out how our classroom celebrates in December.  Most of our students have said they celebrate Christmas BUT if you celebrate another holiday please tell us about it on the sheet provided.  For those celebrating Christmas, please give details as to what things you do to celebrate.

Please return the completed sheet on or before Wednesday. Thank you!

Grade One Math Work

Some of the Grade One students will be bringing Math work home with them today.  As we continue to learn about numbers, we have moved into the "teens".  We continue to work on reading the number words from 0-20 and ask that you please work on them each night, and return them to school the following day.  We will practice during Math class, and send them home again each night for further practice.

Thanks for your help.

Water Bottles

Please continue to send a refillable water bottle with your to school.

We strongly suggest that you send it FULL in the morning, so that we can limit the number of bottles filled at school.  We are spending a large amount of money refilling water bottles and providing cups, and until the water advisory ends, this is the best solution.  We will also do our best to make sure that water bottles are going home each night to be cleaned and refilled.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Student Led Conferences

Tuesday and Wednesday we will be holding Student Led Conferences. This is a time reserved for you, and your child, to discuss what they have been learning in the first term of study.  Your child will be the leader of the conference (with some prompting from the teacher) and will talk about their strengths, their plans and goals of what to work on and their favourite things about school.

These conferences are a maximum of 15 minutes, and are coordinated from K-12.  We don't want you to feel rushed, however if we run late it changes the schedules of the entire school.  We ask that you arrive 5 minutes prior to your scheduled time, and keep it to under 15 minutes.

Again, this is a time for your child to speak about what they are learning and their goals.  If you have other concerns, we will gladly schedule another time to discuss them when your child is not present and we are not bound to a 15 minute time frame.

We look forward to seeing you all over the next two days!

Word Rings, Library Books and Daily Reading

We just want to send a reminder about the importance of the word rings and daily reading with your child. The word rings are considered "sight words" and are the most prominent words used in books.  The words they learn from the word rings are the building blocks of reading, and the sooner those building blocks become solid, the sooner your child becomes a fluent reader.

We also ask that you continue to read your child's library books, or any other "Good Fit" books with them, each day.  We understand the scheduling demands on families, and strongly encourage you to find 10-15 minutes each day for reading. Hearing someone read is another building block to a successful reader, and the more building blocks we can strengthen, the more confident and independent a reader becomes.

Please continue to work on the word rings, and return them for new ones once mastered.  We thank you for the continued support at home as we continue to develop reading skills.

PS. There are approximately 30 different word rings to master (as soon as possible)

Remembrance Day Service

Our Remembrance Day service will be held on Thursday afternoon at 1:30pm in the school gym.  The community is invited to attend.

Our class will be presenting a song and slide show during the service.

Pumpkin Carving

Wednesday afternoon will be our annual pumpkin carving activity!  We ask that all students bring a pumpkin and tools for that day.  Tools should include a metal spoon, a large scooping utensil and a sharp knife for carving.  Our high school buddies will be the only people using the carving tools to carve in the design.  Please label all items sent to school so that we can make sure they are returned to the proper students.  Thanks!

Canada Project

As part of our study of Saskatchewan and Canada we viewed a video of landscapes with the song, This Land Is Your Land, playing in the background. They really enjoyed it so we thought we would ask each of the students to send pictures showing the different places in Canada they have been. Hopefully the students will know where the picture is taken but you can also send along a location in a note that might help our lessons in the link to maps.

A second project may involve locations around Saskatchewan so please try to include at least one photo in the province.

Please email them to dyck.donna@prairiesouth.ca or in an envelope addressed to Mrs. Dyck. She will scan them and send them right back.

Thanks for your help in this project. 

Halloween Lunch

The Coronach Library is hosting a lunch on October 31st.  Please see the note in your child's lunch kit for further information.

Reading Fair

Yesterday we participated in our Reading Fair.  We were lucky enough to hear 4 different people read to us AND we got to bring home a book!  Thank you to Richardson Pioneer and Prairie Mines and Royalty for donating books to our Grade One and Two students!

Our visit with Andrew Meredith

Today we were visited by artist, and former Coronach student, Andrew Meredith.  He talked to us about his coloring book based on Saskatchewan AND we got to pick our favourite page to colour!  Thank you to Andrew for visiting with us and answering our questions.  

Watch for more colouring pages to come home as we will be using them to help us learn about the province of Saskatchewan! 

The Centipede

Sometimes the most random things become the best lessons in a classroom...

Today the students were VERY excited to find a "bug", "creature" and "thing" outside.
They (of course) brought it inside for us to see!  We then recruited our Science expert Ms. Jasmin McKenzie to teach us a bit more about this interesting critter! Ask your child what they learned today!

Picture Retakes

Picture Retakes will take place on Tuesday, October 18th starting at 9:00 am.

October Book Orders

Scholastic book catalogs were sent home yesterday for October.  If you are interested in ordering from these catalogs, please bring the order forms and a cheque (we can't take cash) back to school by Friday!

Thanks in advance for ordering!

Horse and Snake Blog Posts

Last week we studied this picture taken by my talented friend, Carla Froshaug.

The students had so much to say about this photograph that we decided to blog about it.  Have a look at the posts here and feel free to leave a comment. Thanks in advance!

https://kidblog.org/class/MrsEldersClass2016/posts

Important Days in October

Friday, October 7th
No School

Monday, October 10th
Thanksgiving
No School

Monday, October 17th
Professional Learning Day
No Classes

Friday, October 28th
No School

Questioning Strategies

For the last few weeks we have worked on questioning strategies.  We use the "5W" as guidance and ask questions starting with "Who, What, Where, When and Why".

This weekend a friend of mine took some amazing pictures of a bull snake in her pasture.  This is only one of the many great photos, and some of our questions listed underneath.

I wonder WHO the photographer is?
I wonder WHAT the horse is going to do?
I wonder WHAT the snake will do?
I wonder WHEN this happened?
I wonder WHERE this happened?
I wonder WHY they are staring at each other?

I wonder IF they will fight each other?
I wonder HOW the photographer got so close? Did the photographer move or use zoom?

Our Blog Posts

On Monday we blogged about our weekend activities! You can see them here:

 https://kidblog.org/class/MrsEldersClass2016/posts

Writer's Workshop

Each day we do guided writing activities to help students practice the skills we are teaching them.  We have been giving students picture prompts  to guide their writing and these students offered to share their writing with the class.

** We have been working on the season of Fall, taking clues from colours, and asking questions

Bake Sale Tuesday

The SRC will be hosting a Terry Fox Bake Sale on Tuesday, Sept 27^th at morning recess.  
All items are $1.  Thank you in advance for your support.

FCC Drive Away Hunger

Once again Coronach School is participating in the FCC Drive Away Hunger campaign in honor of World Food Day on October 14th.

Collection bags were sent home today and should be returned before October 11th.  A list of the most needed items are attached to the collection bag.  Last year Coronach School collected 770 pounds of food and we are hoping to beat that total this year!

Thank you for your support!

School Pictures

School Pictures envelopes are being sent home today.  Details of available packages and ordering information is on the envelope.  Please return envelopes (even if you are not ordering) by September 28th.

Our First Blog Posts!

Last week the students did their very FIRST blog posts on their very OWN blogs!!
You can view the posts here:

https://kidblog.org/class/MrsEldersClass2016/posts

We would love for you to share this link with friends and family (around the world) who may be interested in our classroom.  We always try to get as many "visitor flags" from around the world as possible so please share with others.

We also encourage you, and others, to leave comments on our blog as it helps to create ownership of our posts and initiate reading and conversations online.  Please follow these guidelines when sharing comments on our blog:

1) Only use first names when commenting on the blog.  Names like Mom, Dad, Auntie Suzy and Grandma Betty are perfect BUT please do not use Grandma Betty Smith, as it is not a safe internet practice and creates issues with privacy and safety.

2) As we are using the blog for a teaching tool, we encourage all comments to use proper spelling, punctuation and language (no abbreviations, slang, etc)

3) Please only leave positive comments on the blog. Again, we are encouraging conversations and building confidence so only positive comments will be approved.

4) Be patient with comment approval.  ALL posts and comments MUST be approved by me before they are visible on the blog.  I do try to check each day but that does not always happen ~ it will be approved as soon as possible.

Reading Spaces and Stamina

For the first few weeks of school we work on finding the best places to work and read.  With so many seating options within our room, this is an important first step in taking ownership of their learning.  We have made some great progress and the students have definitely found some places to help build their reading and writing stamina.

Scholastic Book Orders

Yesterday your child brought home book order catalogs from Scholastic.  When you order from Scholastic, our classroom earns credit towards purchasing Reading and Math Resources, classroom books and other items, so thank you in advance for your support.

If you are interested in ordering from September catalogs, please return the order form and a cheque (we are not allowed to accept cash) by Monday, September 19th.

Library Days ~ Correction

My previous post about library visits asked for the library bags and journals to be returned on Monday, which was an error on my part.  We will visit the library every Wednesday, so the green library bags and journals can be returned every Wednesday morning.

Sorry for the confusion.

Star of the Week Schedule

Below is the schedule for Star of the Week.  A few days before your child's turn, a Star of the Week bag will arrive at home. There is a guideline in the bag for what information we are requesting and paper to write the information on.  Your child will present this information and our class will then create a book describing your child.  Thanks for your cooperation!

Sept 12  Anthony
Sept 19  Kieren
Sept 26  Dillyn
Oct 3      Cade
Oct 11    Demetri
Oct 18    Walker
Oct 24    Fiona
Oct 31    Rylan
Nov 7    Bryn
Nov 14  Mackenzie
Nov 21  Josie
Nov 28  Lexy
Dec 5    Brayden
Dec 12   Caili
Jan 3    Jesse
Jan 9    Danesha
Jan 16  Ellie
Jan 23  Alexis
Jan 31  Ella
Feb 6   Dylan
Feb 13 Gillian
Feb 27  Jadon
Mar 6  Kiptyn
Mar 13  Ky
Mar 20  Bronson
Mar 27  Jaycee
Apr 3  Declan
Apr 10  Ciera
Apr 24  Saydee
May 1  Kali
May 8  Kaylee
May 15 Samantha
May 29 Quinn

Alphabet Rings and Word Rings

Over the last few days your child may have brought home an alphabet ring or a word ring. These are the beginning steps to reading and we strongly encourage you to practice them daily until they are recognized by sight (the alphabet cards or words should be read quickly, without hesitation).  Once they are recognized by sight and with confidence, return them to school and we will switch them for the next ring.

Thank you for your support in our first steps towards building readers!

Fall Painting with Aluminum Foil

Library Visits, Ways to Read Books and Good Fit Books

Today we made our first visit to the school library.  Students will be bringing home 5 books to read over the next week.  All 5 books, and Reading Journals, need to be returned the following Wednesday morning.

We have been learning about the 3 ways to read a book:
1) Read the Pictures (allow the child to look at the pictures and tell you what they see, or create a story based on what is happening in the pictures)
2) Read the Words (read all the words, or share your reading with an adult)
3) Retell the story (after someone has read the book to them, they retell it)

Their library books can be read in any of these ways, and then documented in their Reading Journal that is in their library bag.

Today we also talked about Good Fit books, and how your books should fit you. We are in the beginning stages of this lesson, and it is a long process to learn what books fit them but it will happen.  Today we compared how books are like shoes, and need to fit properly in order to help us in the best way.  Books, or shoes, that are way to big only make us stumble and get frustrated.  Again, this is a long lesson that we will practice daily, but I want you to be familiar with the language we are using at school.

Community Terry Fox Walk

Coronach School will be hosting a community Terry Fox Walk on Wednesday, September 28th at 2pm.

We are opening our school gym to the public at 12pm. The committee will, again, have a Penny Parade over the lunch hour in the gym and we will start our walk from there at 2. We love having the community walk with us!

Please try your best to support this great cause!

  

SRC Spirit Week

The SRC is hosting a Spirit Week from September 19th - 22nd and we encourage everyone to participate in the following days:

Monday - PJ Day

Tuesday - Hat Day

Wednesday - Coronach Colt Color Day (blue and green)

Thursday—Fall Colour Day (red, orange, yellow, green and brown)

Nut Free Policy

Coronach School has a Nut-Free Policy, and we have students within the elementary end that are severely allergic to nuts/tree nuts.

Please be VERY cautious when sending snack and lunches to school.

Classroom Routines and Reminders

Just a few reminders about our classroom:

1) We will be having "Show and Share" days for students and "Star of the Week".  Please watch the blog for schedules and criteria regarding these activities.

2) Library day will be each Wednesday.  Library bags and book choices will be sent home each Wednesday, and also returned for the following Wednesday.  Please watch this blog for further information about library days and the home component as well.

3) We have snack each day at 10am.  We strongly encourage you to send healthy snacks and items that are easily opened and eaten.  If numerous snacks are sent, we will encourage the students to have the healthier snack first.  We will be sorting our snacks as part of the Health curriculum, and are hoping to have snacks that fall into the Fruit and Vegetable categories.  A reminder that NO nuts are allowed within Coronach School.

4) We do acknowledge birthdays within our classroom but do not hold celebrations or parties at school. We respectfully decline any special snacks, treats or meals (although delicious and well meaning) for such occasions.  We also request that no birthday invitations be sent to school.

New Bell Times and Calendar

As we enter the new school year, we also enter into some unfamiliar territory.
The alternate school calendar is in it's first year of implementation in Coronach.
Below is a link to the school calendar and also a picture of the new bells times for the School.

School Calendar

Important Days in September

**please refer back to this post, as days may be added**

Thursday, Sept 1
First Day of Classes

Monday, Sept 5th
Labour Day
No Classes

Tuesday, Sept 6th
Open House
4pm - 6pm

Monday, Sept 12th
School Pictures

Monday, Sept 19th
Early Dismissal @ 2:20pm
PJ Day

Tuesday, Sept 20th
Hat Day

Wednesday, Sept 21st
Coronach Colt Day (Blue and Green)

Thursday, Sept 22nd
Fall Colour Day

Wednesday, Sept 28th
Terry Fox Walk 2:00pm

School Fees

To assist with the cost of school presentations and events, the SRC charges each student a $15 fee each school year.  These should be brought to school as soon as possible.

Cheques can be made payable to Coronach School.
If fees are sent with a sibling, please email me at elder.christa@prairiesouth.ca to let me know.

Thanks so much!

Welcome Back!

Hello everyone and welcome back to the 2016 school year! We are very excited to spend the upcoming year with you and your children.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with our room, the fact that you are reading this blog is an important first step for the upcoming year.  We do our very best to limit the amount of paper we send home, and this blog is the main way we communicate messages and information about our classroom. We do our best to update it daily, so please check back often to keep informed of what is happening within our busy classroom.

Our second way of quick and paperless communication is something called Remind, which is an app that allows us to text short messages to those that are members of our classroom group.  We promise not to spam you with numerous messages a day, and will only send reminders for those events and items that we feel are important to you and your child. For example: "Remember that tomorrow is library day, so please send back your child's reading journal and all of their library books tomorrow morning. Thanks!"

Remind: Grade One and Two 2016

The above link will take you to the app, and give you instructions on how to sign up for the reminders. I strongly encourage you to do so, as it is a very efficient way to stay aware of what is happening within the class.  As you sign up, please use your name, and in the description area please briefly tell us who you are.

For example: Christa Elder (Logan's Mom)

You may also sign up more than one person to the Remind app so feel free to sign up both parents, or caregivers that may need that daily information.  This is a different Remind group than last year, so everyone must sign up again to get the current notifications.

Again, welcome back to the 2016 school year! Enjoy the last few days of summer vacation and we will see you all very soon!

Year End

As we end another school year, we want to thank you all for the support over the last year.  We are thrilled with the amount growth we have seen in each student.  We will miss our Grade Two class as they move into Grade Three with Miss Gent.

We are very excited to continue our journey with the new Grade Two class and our rookie Grade One students.  Have a wonderful summer and see you in September!

Report Cards

Report cards will be handed out the morning of Thursday, June 27th.  If you are not able to pick it up at that time, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope so that we can mail the report card to you.

Thank you!

Our Final Blog Post ~ Summer Vacation

Today we did our final blog post of the school year!
Click here to read about our plans for summer vacation: https://kidblog.org/class/MrsElder/posts

Thank you for the continued support, the comments and the encouragement for our little bloggers!

Classroom Spaces

I just want to update all of you on our classroom configuration and the work spaces we have created.  These pictures show the variety of seating available and the spaces the children work in while at school.  

Our writing activity today was about the favorite spaces in our classroom ~ thanks for having a look!