Happy Halloween

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Halloween!

Surrey Nature Centre- Halloween in the Forest

We had an awesome time at the Surrey Nature Centre! We were fortunate the rain held off on our forest adventures. Throughout the program the forest fairy toured us around and introduced us to 4 different forest animals (an owl, crow, raccoon and bat). We learnt lots of interesting facts about each of these animals and realized they aren't so scary after all! Here is a peak of our field trip:

We used our senses to make observations about our surroundings. 

 Raccoon hand and foot prints.

We used our sense of touch to feel raccoon fur. 

We looked at real bat skulls, they were tiny!

A broken apart owl pellet! We learnt that owls can't digest all of their food so they have to spit back up the remains, this is called an owl pellet. 

We used binoculars to see like an owl. Owls have binocular vision. 

The owl and crow demonstrated how quiet owls are when they fly by flapping their feathers in front of us. Owls have very special feathers making them almost impossible to hear. 

Lastly, we had to work in partners to build the owl a birds nest. This was a favourite activity. Here is the result 

Thanks again to all the parents who volunteered their time to drive and help make our day possible! 

Pumpkin Day

We had so much fun at pumpkin day today! We started by heading to the field to pick a pumpkin 

Next, we had to do a silly photo! 

We practiced reading and tracking our words with a witch's finger.

We read a story called 'Pumpkin Jack.' When Tim carves his first pumpkin, he names it Jack. When it finally begins to decay, he puts it in the garden rather than in the trash bin. As the months go by, Jack grows moldy, sinks into the leaves, hides in the snow, and finally sprouts a new plant. By the next fall, there are plenty of pumpkins for Tim to share at school. He keeps just one for himself and when he finishes carving it, he says "Welcome back, Jack!" This story is the perfect example of the life cycle of a pumpkin.

Next we started our investigations! We were making predictions, using our observation skills and mathematical thinking! 

We recorded our thinking and results:

We took a class vote on how to carve our pumpkin! 

These faces were priceless as the students helped me clean the pumpkin. 

We carved our pumpkin and named him Jack. 

Happy Pumpkin Day!

Bats

We have been busy studying bats the past couple of weeks and we think that they are pretty cool mammals!

Here is a peak of our learning and bat themed activities:

To kick start our unit we made a bat cave for our classroom 

Students came up and we labelled the class bat. 

We talked about what a label is and did a labelling activity. 

We continued with a bat theme in math as we played a math addition game. 

 

We did a directed drawing of a bat. 

Each day we read more about bats and added our new words to our vocabulary books. 

We played a shake and spill game on our bat boards where we recorded all of the different ways we could make 12.

We completed an art project where we used a stencil and sponge to create a spooky picture. 

Your child is coming home with their vocabulary books and bat fact books. These mini books can be used to read together and recorded in their home reading books. 

Literacy Centres

Today we wanted to share what we work on during literacy centres. We do literacy centres with our early literacy teacher so two groups are working on activities with a teacher.

When your child is at literacy centres they are working on many different skills! They are working on recognizing letters and sounds, reading, writing and building popcorn words, decoding skills, oral language activities and guided reading are some of the skills we are currently working on!

Literacy centres are a fun, hands on way for students to practice their popcorn words, reading and writing. 

Here are the centres we had this week. 

 Building popcorn words with play dough. 

 Guided reading with me. 

Decoding and sounding out CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) 

Sorting fall objects, building vocabulary and oral language skills.

Using wiki sticks and markers to read, write and build our popcorn words.

Spin it and pin it- Working on identifying the beginning sounds of pictures.

During our morning message we are practicing many reading skills. We are sounding out words and filling in missing sounds, we are reading our popcorn words and practicing our reading. 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! ♻️

Today we had a presentation from the Langley Enviromental Protection Society. We learned all about the importance of minimizing our garbage and what happens to all that trash! 

Something we continue to work on at school is recycling and using the compost properly. One of our schools goals is to educate children about the impact their waste has on our community. To raise awareness and promote healthy eating the school is asking students to take their garbage home after lunch. 

Students learned all about the different recycling bins and how to sort materials properly. They worked collaboratively to complete this task. Not to worry- all of the materials were clean! 

Remember to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle! ♻️

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from these turkeys!

Mystery Bag!

Today we kicked off our VIP Mystery Bag. K brought in a very interesting deer bone to share with the class. The format of the show and tell is to give 3 clues and then there are 3 guesses. After that the VIP gets to share their story about their show and tell.