November 17, 2014

Families Helping families

Students have started to bring in gifts for our family that we are supporting.  Thank you to those who have brought in gifts and for those that have already posted what they are bringing.  Please remember to use the previous Families Helping Families posts to indicate what you are able to contribute for your class's family.

Students have been reminded to go onto both Razkids and Mathletics 1-2 times per week.  If your child is having difficulties logging in, please let your teacher know.  This is an important part of your child's homework so we encourage your child to do this weekly.

Literacy and Numeracy Night

If you have not yet returned the form indicating that you will be attending the literacy and numeracy night on Thursday, November 20, please send it in tomorrow.  Thank you

Good Guys and GirlPower's Friendology notes are due November 20.  Please return these forms if your child is interested in participating.

Wednesday Nov.12th, 2014

Students continued to work on choosing important information from 4 different articles about Grizzly Bears and writing jot notes in their information web. We will work on this one final time tomorrow. Students will then learn about how to take information from a video clip (pausing and playing) and using this to add to their webs in jot note form. This is to help them practice for when they are researching questions of their choice during our daily 5 'research a question' time and during our big inquiry work. 

In gym, students participated in a combination of 'drum fit' and physical fitness drills. 

In math students in Ms. Rauser's group are creatively sorting numbers from 100-10,000 using a venn diagram (string). They are required to use higher level thinking skills to work through what comparing strategies would work and what would not. Communicating and working collaboartively with their partner is another aspect of this! 

Students in Mrs. Cooper were introduced to adding 3 digit by 3 digit using a variety of strategies (base ten blocks, number lines for counting, blocks and manipulatives, etc.)

Thank you to those families that have already indicated their generous donations to our sponsored families!! What a great way to teach students about the spirit of giving. This will be our focus for this initiative over the next three weeks. :0) A reminder to leave a comment on your teachers (RAUSER or COOPER)' s 'Families Helping Families' blog post to let other families know what has been purchased/donated and where the need is still. 

SCHOLASTIC HOLIDAY BOOK ORDERS will be due by: November 14th, 2014

** We seem to have received another type of Xmas book order and will send this home by the end of the week as it has some really great books in it! This one will have a really quick turn around (deadline) so that we can make sure to get the books in before holiday break. 

RAUSER...FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS

Cranston families, if you are interested in helping…

IMPORTANT à  Please send your child’s teacher a comment through this BLOG post titled ‘FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS’. State what item you are willing to contribute or donate based off of the needs the family has indicated so that all other families in your child’s class can see what has been contributed and what still is in need.

Please remember that our families would love to not have to worry about the purchase of food items and more than one gift card to their chosen grocery store would be welcomed!

**We welcome donations of gently used items for our families as well.

All gifts/donations will need to be wrapped and labeled to whom they are intended for. Wrapped contributions will be due by: Friday December 5^th, 2014

Comments when families were notified that they were chosen for this initiative:

"You have no idea whet this means to us." "This is truly amazing." "This could not have happened at a better time."

“Thank you for everything and for helping my family out. I’m grateful for the help complete strangers are willing to give us. It’s amazing!”

In the spirit of giving this holiday season, all staff at Cranston school would like to thank families in advance for their thoughts and contributions! Thank you for making a families Christmas a little brighter!!

COOPER ...FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS

Cranston families, if you are interested in helping…

IMPORTANT à  Please send your child’s teacher a comment through this BLOG post titled ‘FAMILIES HELPING FAMILIES AT CHRISTMAS’. State what item you are willing to contribute or donate based off of the needs the family has indicated so that all other families in your child’s class can see what has been contributed and what still is in need.

Please remember that our families would love to not have to worry about the purchase of food items and more than one gift card to their chosen grocery store would be welcomed!

**We welcome donations of gently used items for our families as well.

All gifts/donations will need to be wrapped and labeled to whom they are intended for. Wrapped contributions will be due by: Friday December 5^th, 2014

Comments when families were notified that they were chosen for this initiative:

"You have no idea whet this means to us." "This is truly amazing." "This could not have happened at a better time."

“Thank you for everything and for helping my family out. I’m grateful for the help complete strangers are willing to give us. It’s amazing!”

In the spirit of giving this holiday season, all staff at Cranston school would like to thank families in advance for their thoughts and contributions! Thank you for making a families Christmas a little brighter!!

November 7

READ-A-THON

Our READ-A-THON has been an outstanding success!  Students have met in book clubs, dropped everything and read and listened to a whole host of celebrity readers today.  We are most hopeful the conversations that have run rampant about books in the school this week have also been brought home to parents and that reading is now a focus of conversation throughout the whole community!

We are hoping to collect all the Read-a-thon funds by next Friday, November 14, 2014.  Please send in the funds students raised through their reading minutes next week so we can celebrate together - thank you!!

We started our day with a Remembrance Day Assembly - it was a very thoughtful assembly.  

The students worked with Mrs. Kinsman this morning to finish their work with the map of Canada to put into their mapping journal.  Next week the LARGE map will be arriving and the students will do some more activities with Mrs. Kinsman on mapping.

We enjoyed two buddy reading times today!  That was a great week of READING!!!

Thursday November 6th, 2014

WOW...what a great day. 

We had an amazing special guest presenter this morning (Maria Donoso) who came to speak with the students about her organization that is based out of Miami Florida called GLOW. Her organization works at providing water to children all over the world that do not have access to it. They also work with the people in using water effectively to grow crops, deal with erosion and protect the environment around them in the process. She talked about making a difference and that if you have an idea and you LOVE your idea...that you can do something. This could be in the form of fundraising, awareness raising or just becoming more educated about it and teaching others.

GLOW's Website

It was also GUEST READER DAY! We had many famous people roaming our hallways and reading to each classroom throughout the day. OUR classrooms had the following guest readers:

-Anna O'Neil (professional long boarder)
-Lori Gibbs (Radio Host 97.7)
-Michele Martin-Bossely (Canadian Author)
-Pam Krokker (Play-Wright)

TOMORROW IS OUR REMEMBRANCE DAY ASSEMBLY! 

Please have a conversation with your child about the importance and reasons behind Remembrance Day. You are welcomed to attend this assembly at 8:45am. Poppies will be handed out to each student tomorrow. If you have a donation for the poppy fund it will be most welcomed! 

Wednesday November 5th, 2014

**Your child will be receiving a poppy for our REMEMBRANCE DAY assembly on friday morning. If you have a donation for the poppy fund...please ensure that you send it with your child on that day. 

It was DEAR day today (Drop Everything and Read). Students carried a book wherever they went and when they heard a special bell they would sit down and read for 5minutes. TOMORROW is our 'Guest Reader' day. We will be having a special visitor come in to read to us and talk to us about what they have learned so far in life along their special journey (their special job). 

Constable Matisse came to visit both of our classrooms today about the S4 program. We discussed how we stay safe and take care of each other in our community. 

Students continued with their learning about 'jot note taking' and creating a web to help organize research information. We are having students work in partners to find information from 4 different Grizzly Bear articles and figuring out what is important and what is not. We have discussed what 'plagiarism' is and why we are learning to take jot notes to help us avoid this when we do research!

A reminder that our HOLIDAY BOOK ORDERS are due:

 FRIDAY NOVEMBER 14TH, 2014

November 4, 2014

It was a fun filled day with pajama day and two book clubs.  Ask your child what they did for book clubs today. Please remember to complete the reading log each evening and return to the home communication folder.  We are filling in our minutes fro reading all week and will need the forms both at home and at school. Students can color in one square for every 5 minutes that they read.  We are asking that parents please initial beside each day to show your child did the reading at home.

Tomorrow is dress up as a book character day.  Students are encouraged to make their costumes and use materials from home.  We do not want parents having buy special costumes for Dress as a book Character day!  

Tomorrow is also picture retake day if you are wanting your child to have retakes.

November 3, 2014

Read-A-Thon Week

The kick-off assembly was this morning and we are excited for a very eventful week.  Tomorrow, the students are invited to wear their pajamas and bring a stuffy for "Cuddle Up With A Good Book" day.

A pamphlet went home in your child's communication folder outlining the events for a week.  Each student chose a book club to participate in tomorrow morning and afternoon.  They will have the opportunity to join one in the morning and one in the afternoon. On the back of this pamphlet is a Read-A-Thon Pledge Form.   Students are encouraged to ask family and friends to sponsor them for the Read-A-Thon.  There are also some helpful hints for home reading and reading strategies.

Just a reminder that even though students have many halloween treats at home to eat, we ask that students still bring a healthy snack to eat in the classroom and leave the candy at home.  

As a follow up to our field trip last week, the students worked on a project in their art journals.  We discussed the materials needed and waste involved with building a tipi, a log cabin and a modern home.  There is a big difference in how much materials and waste we need for our home today!  The students recorded this information in their art journals with the art they did to create the three homes in our art journal.