Wednesday December 21, 2022

Today we celebrated the Winter Solstice by watching a video on the CBE Indigenous Education site hosted by Elder Randy Bottle that explained the symbolism of the first day of winter.  Ask your child if they remember any of the messages from Grandmother Moon and Grandfather Sun and how we honour nature on the shortest day of the year.  Here is a link to this video:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/88fddb3f-1e4e-4e4a-99f4-cda0e4defa27?referrer=https:%2F%2Finsite.cbe.ab.ca%2F

We used the inspiration of Winter Solstice to have a story workshop session lit up with luminaries we made with paper cups.  We turned the overhead lights off and worked with twinkle lights and battery-operated tea lights.  It looked magical!

Pyjama Day tomorrow, it will be a fun filled day! 

I'd like to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and hope you all have a joyful break with lots of time for rest and togetherness!

Tuesday December 20, 2022

Our indoor recesses have been remarkably calm these past few days, with a whole lot of crafting and colouring going on.  This crew loves their tape and staples!  We had a blast playing scooter basketball in gym, which helped us burn off the extra steam after being indoors all morning.  Only a few more days of this terrible cold before it looks like temperatures get better!

Monday December 19, 2022

With the first day of winter approaching, we discussed the seasonal changes that winter brings.  We watched a science video that explained some of the adaptations made by animals to survive in winter, and how some animals hibernate or migrate to avoid the weather.  Our small groups sketched and wrote what they knew about winter clothes, trees, weather and animal behaviour.

This is our final busy week before break.  Thursday is pyjama day, as well as carolling in the gym at 9:00.  

Friday December 16, 2022

Our Food Bank food drive wrapped up today.  Ms. K took the final group of food drive leaders around to collect the last items and do the final tally.  The announcement of the winning class will be on Monday!

Students completed another round of narrative writing in Story Workshop today as well.  We are all improving at writing longer sentences, creating characters and planning a story with a beginning, middle and end.  

Thursday December 15, 2022

After much rehearsal and practice over the past weeks, we are excited to present “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas” tonight at 7:00!

Students are welcome to enter the school and come to their classrooms at 6:30. Please be sure to have them at Room 4 by 6:45 at the latest!  Our performance will start at 7 and conclude around 7:30, at which time you can come collect your child from the class. 

Enjoy the show!

***Christmas Sweater Day tomorrow!

Tuesday December 13, 2022

We had a ton of fun reading 'A Porcupine in a Pine Tree', a Canadian 12 Days of Christmas by Helaine Becker today.  There is a great variety of Canadian symbols within the story and we enjoyed making miniature illustrations to go along with the lyrics.  Ask your child which symbols they drew, coloured and cut out...a curling squirrel, a Stanley Cup or maybe a mountie munching doughnuts?

Reminder that our Christmas concert is Thursday evening...and Christmas sweater day on Friday!

Monday December 12, 2022

We explored a number of watercolour techniques today...ask your child if they can tell you how we used water, drybrush, saran wrap and tissue paper to make some interesting and beautiful samples!

Our Christmas concert is scheduled for Thursday December 15th at 7:00.  For any parents who can't make the evening show, we will have an open dress rehearsal Thursday morning at 9:00.

Friday December 9, 2022

We spent a big part of the morning recreating the scene and characters of "The Candy Cane Kids".  Students worked in teams to delegate jobs and share ideas and enjoyed recalling their favourite details from the show.

Enjoy your weekend!

Thursday December 8, 2022

Our field trip to Storybook Theatre was absolutely amazing!

Thank you to Lukas's mom and Aidan's dad for being enthusiastic volunteers...we couldn't do field trips without you!

The Candy Cane Kids performance was a magical combination of scenery, dance, music, costumes and comedy.  For some kiddos, this was a first experience with live theatre, which was very exciting.  The bus ride was another first adventure for some of our students.  Our bus driver had the bus decked out with lights, garland and ornaments swinging from the roof!

Upcoming Events:

Hat Day is tomorrow and all students are invited to wear their favourite funny hats, Christmas hats, sports hats or toques.

Next Friday is Christmas Sweater day, and Thursday, December 22nd is Pyjama Day.  No end of fun!

Food Bank Drive:  This has been such a great experience for our class so far.  Not only are we happily collecting our own class donations, we appoint 2 "Food Drive Leaders" for the day to travel around the school collecting donations from other classes.  We count the items and add them to the bar graph we have in our classroom to record each class's progress.  Lots of math to go along with our community spirit! If you have a few spare cans of veggies, beans, tuna or soup to contribute, please consider donating. 

Woodlands Christmas Concert Thursday December 15th...students are invited to dress up in 'Whoville' inspired clothes and colours.  See the note below from Mrs. Switzer:

Our Winter Concert is coming up on December 15, at 7:00 pm. Many students have been asking what they should wear for the concert. We are asking students to come dress in a "Who"-like outfit. 

Concert Dress Code: 

1. No black or grey 
2. No logos
3. Wear things that are bright, colourful, fun, patterned, sparkly, festive or wacky!

Students can wear fun hats, toques, colourful clothing, festive pyjama pants, fancy dresses, whatever they think would make a great "Who" outfit. I have attached a slideshow with some inspiration for your outfits. 

Whoville Costumes.pdf

Wednesday December 7, 2022

Tomorrow is our field trip to Storybook Theatre.  Please ensure that your child eats a hearty breakfast, arrives at school on time and has a small snack to keep in their pocket for our morning adventure.  The bus will depart from Woodlands at 9:00, so we will be starting to load at 8:45.  Thank you for your cooperation!

Tuesday December 6, 2022

Our food drive continued today with a successful collection from the school community.  Our grade 5/6 buddies are helping us by taking the leaders of the day around to classrooms to collect the food items and hauling them back to Room 4 for us to count. 

We created a beautiful Aspen tree forest to decorate our bulletin board in the classroom.  We will continue to build on our display to show what we know about the winter season.

Field Trip Thursday!  I will send a School Messenger tomorrow with all the details.

Hat Day is on Friday...students are invited to wear their favourite hat to school.

Monday December 5, 2022

Our first day of the Food Bank food drive was a great success!  Our two Food Drive leaders of the day gathered donations from 5 classes...totalling over 100 items!  The students were amazed at all the healthy food our school community has collected so far.  

We began a new non-fiction writing project in today's writer's workshop, "How to be a Good Dog Owner".  Ask your child what tips they have for their readers...and ask if they can show you how to sketch a cute puppy!

I am still missing a few consent forms for this Thursday's field trip...if your child brought home a new form today, please be sure to sign and return right away.  Thank you!

Thursday December 2, 2022

Our class learned about animal tracks today, and how they look different depending on whether the animal is walking, running or standing.  Ask your child if they can sketch you a bird track, a raccoon track or a deer track.

Tomorrow is Blue Day in Room 4...wear as much blue as you can!

Our Food Drive begins on Monday.  Grade One is hosting this food drive, so we will participate in collecting non-perishable food items to donate to the Food Bank.  The drive runs from Dec. 5 to Dec. 16, so we hope to get lots of donations!

Permission form for our field trip next Thursday December 8th is due now!  If you've lost yours please let me know and I can send a fresh one home.  The $17 fee can be paid online now.  We must have a signed consent form in order for your child to join us on this exciting day.