Spelling

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

This week we are beginning our spelling program. I will be using the Words Their Way developmental spelling program. Your child will be bringing home a set of words each week that relate to their spelling needs. These words will have been introduced in class on Mondays, and we will have a test on the Friday of the same week (Thursdays if Friday is a holiday). The words can be cut apart to facilitate the activities. You can support your child each week by doing one or more of the following activities every evening:

Word Sort: Sort out the words into categories using the underlined words as a guideline. Words can also be sorted other ways according to a different rule, but make sure your child can explain why they are sorting them in the different way.

Blind Sort: Lay down a word from each category as a header and then read the rest of the words aloud. Do not let your child see the word, and have them indicate where the word goes. Then lay it down, and have them move it if necessary.

Word Hunt: Help your child do a word hunt by looking for words in a book they have already read that have the same sound or pattern as the words in the word list.

Practice Test: Read out the words and have your child spell them both orally and in written form. Regular practice will help your child to be successful in their spelling.

Thank you for your support.

Gina Carter

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

As many of you know, the students of Room 8 brought home their TUSC binders this past weekend. In addition to their binders, students were given their first TUSC assignment. I am very excited about this venture, and am looking forward to our first TUSC meeting of the year. As a reminder, the meeting will be held on September 25, and meetings will continue once a month, generally on the last Thursday of the month. The exception will be December, when we will have TUSC earlier that month due to the Winter Concert.

I hope that you all have fun preparing for your first TUSC assignment. Don't be too worried about the first one, you will get the hang of it and I'm sure that you will all do well at this task.

Good luck!!!!

Welcome Back To School

Hello all. Welcome back to school. I just wanted to write a quick note to let you know that I am looking forward to the new year and am excited to see you all. I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful vacation. Mine was very busy, and seemed to fly by. I'm sure most of yours did as well. I look forward to seeing all of the returning students and the new ones to room 8 at our Opening Conferences, and then get to know you all a little better later this week. We will have some fun pictures and blog posts to follow, so stay tuned.

Mrs. Carter

Spearmint Plants

Hello families of Room 8!!! As most of you know we were on a field trip today to the Assiniboine Park Conservatory. I had some parent volunteers taking pictures for us, and I hope to post a few in the next day or so. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know about the spearmint plant that your child brought home.

We were informed that this plant is a very hardy and aggressive perennial. If you choose to plant it in your garden, they suggested cutting off the bottom of a coffee can, and planting the plant in the coffee can in your garden. This way the plant will stay contained in your garden, and won't take it over. You can also plant it in a pot, and take some of it in for the winter to replant next year.

The pot that the plant came home in will break down in the soil, so you do not have to take it out, just plant the whole thing.

Enjoy!!!

Mrs. Carter

Egyptian Royalty Portraits

LOVE how these turned out!! You guys look like true Egyptian royalty!

Mrs. Andrews

Flora & Ulysses

Holy Bagumba! You have got to read this book! If you love books by Kate Dicamillo, you will not be disappointed.  It involves a cynic and a squirrel, a vacuum, and a lamp named Mary Ann. Our dear superhero, Ulysses, is a changed squirrel after he is sucked up by a super-suction, multi-terrain vacuum. Flora administers CPR and the two become inseparable. Read to find out how Flora's life is forever changed. The characters are unforgettable and the plot is full of surprises. This book made us giggle and kept us on the edge of our seats. We give this book 5 out of 5 cheese puffs! If you are looking for a good read, then look no further. This is the book for you! 

Happy Earth Day!

Our class wrote this poem about the earth. We hope you like it.

Our Earth

Blue and green

Should be clean,

What can we do to help?

Don't be a litterbug,

Give the earth

A great big hug.

Reduce, reuse, recycle,

Try riding

A bicycle.

Save the trees,

We beg you, please!

We can all do our part,

If we give the earth 

Our heart!

Room 22... It's your turn!

Watercolour Iguanas

Check out some of our watercolour iguanas. They were lots of fun!

Coloured plants

Here are the plants today. You can see the tinted carnations, and the colours in the celery leaves. We cut the stems of the celery and the carnations to observe how the stem functions. It was clear how the stem transports water to the leaves and flowers. We also cut a cross-section of the carnations, and could see how the coloured water reached the flowers. It was pretty cool.

Plants

Our plant experiment. We are learning the function of a stem in a plant. We will post another picture on Monday at the end of our experiment.

Siloam Mission Guest Speaker

On Wednesday, we had a special visitor from Siloam Mission come and speak to our class. J.J. told us all about how Siloam works and he left us with a very important message. He also shared an inspiring story about a wall. We loved what he had to say! We thought it was cool that he had just rearranged the string of origami peace cranes and good wishes that we had sent to Siloam at Christmas. We are happy they are being put to good use. 

Here is some of what we learned:

- If you want to change the world, connect your life to people who are nothing like you. 

- Diversity is beautiful. Diversity is healing. 

- When you tear down walls, community happens and the world starts to change. 

- Siloam gives people hope and helps them to experience success. 

- Siloam is open 24-7, 365 days a year. They serve about 1100 meals each and every day. 

- There are lots of different services offered at Siloam. They have a kitchen, a clothing room, and a shelter with 110 beds. They also have The Madison where people can live and feel more at home. Siloam even has a health centre, a weight room, and an art room. 

- Donations and volunteers are always needed. 

Our class sent a big box of coffee beans back to Siloam with J.J. We did some calculations and we think we donated enough beans for just over 1000 cups of coffee. We would like to say thank you to our friends at Athlone who participated in our coffee drive and to the families in Room 8 who donated beans. We appreciate your generosity! Thank you also to J.J. for being an awesome guest speaker! 

Book Reviews

Check out our book reviews and feel free to leave a comment.  We'd love to hear about your favourite books too! Click the image to open book.

Mr. Baker Reads to Room 8

This week, we had a special visit from Mr. Baker. He brought some spectacular, but strange, books written by Lemony Snicket. The Dark was about how the dark helped a little boy find light. It kept us on the edge of our seats. 13 Words was about a despondent bird who eats 2 cakes, paints 11 ladders 10 colours, gets a fancy new hat, and STILL isn't happy. 

So we came up with 13 words to describe 13 Words: strange, unusual, hilarious, crazy, surprising, random, weird, witty, quirky, silly, fun, unpredictable, and lemony. 

Thank you, Mr. Baker, for being an awesome guest reader!

Operation Coffee Bean

 In our class, we believe that kids can make a difference! This month, we want to show our love with a coffee drive for Siloam Mission. We are calling it "Operation Coffee Bean". Did you know that at Siloam Mission they serve 1400 cups of coffee a day? We think a warm cup of coffee on a cold winter day can go a long way in bringing happiness to Winnipeg's less fortunate. Beans are preferred as Siloam recently received a donation of a coffee grinder and can now provide fresh coffee at a better price than already ground coffee. So bring in some coffee beans and make someone smile today! You can even go one step further by bringing in Fair Trade coffee beans. We are challenging all classrooms (students and staff) to participate in "Operation Coffee Bean". Just bring your beans to Room 8 or drop them off at the front office. We are hoping to collect a small mountain of beans for Winnipeg's homeless by the end of February! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for participating in our coffee drive. Sincerely, Room 8, Athlone School

Constable Fedoruk Visits Athlone

On Wednesday, we had guest reader Constable Fedoruk visit our classroom. She read us The Orphan and the Polar Bear by Sakiasi Qaunaq. The author's message was to stick up for yourself if you are being bullied. We learned that Constable Fedoruk has a very cool and important job within our community. We loved seeing all the gadgets on her police belt and hearing about some of her crime-fighting adventures. We think Constable Fedoruk is super nice, even if she packs a pistol and carries pepper spray. Thank you, Constable Fedoruk, for being an awesome guest reader! 

Written by the kids in Room 8

Mexico Art

Painter and muralist Diego Rivera sought to make art that reflected the lives of the working class and native peoples of Mexico.  These chalk and oil pastel drawings were inspired by his 1950 painting entitled "Mother's Helper". We are excited to learn more about art and culture in our study of Mexico! 

Hello

Please bear with us as we are still learning about the blogging process. Have a look at our structures that we made using only newspaper and masking tape. These structures were constructed in 30 minutes by the students and their challenge was to build the tallest free standing structure. I hope you enjoy.  Mrs. Carter

Newspaper Structures

Sophie, Aidan, Connor and Jaxen's structure.

Lelia, Ria, Evan, Paula and Lachlan's structure.

Tegan, Jacob, Ashley and Iann's structure.

Steven, Branden, Joshua and Kaiya's structure.

Newspaper Structures

Zach, Brayden, Arlo and Brandon's structure.

Human Rights

Check out our class mural on Human Rights.  What teamwork!