Making the Most of May!

We are certainly packing in the fun and learning as we make the most of our last few days in May!

The ABC Countdown is proving to be a blast!

Thursday was the letter C, cookies and chalk! It was a creative and cheerful afternoon!

Yesterday was letter D! We enjoyed many dinosaur books throughout the day, including Dinosaurs Love Underpants (6 year olds LOVE underpants, so this book was a killer). We were very focused during a directed drawing YouTube video that showed us how to draw dinosaurs with shapes!

Our days have been filled with opportunities for curiosity and questioning. We are just beginning our final science unit, which will be encouraging us to explore building! 

We welcomed in Jason Reed from Bricks 4 Kids to get us thinking, building, experimenting, and collaborating! Following visual directions, we had the opportunity to work in partners to build a plane with a moving propeller!

Then the challenge was on to build a moving car! We tore up the halls with our vehicles!

It was an engaging afternoon that has us eager to learn more as we delve deeper into our building!

A, B, Seeds!

How many letters in the alphabet? 26! Our ABC Countdown started yesterday, and we'll be adding a little sparkle and zip to each day with activities for each letter!

A - Awesome Authors and Animals

With a stuffed animal under one arm and a favourite book in the other, we relaxed with the letter A!

B - Backwards Day, Buddy Reading and Building Birdfeeders

The kids looked really goofy today in their backwards fashion (the hoodies made us really laugh)! We also met up with our Gr 5's to do a little buddy reading 

Then we built beautiful bird feeders! Our day was loaded with the letter B!

Seeds!

Today we had a visit from a strange, but intelligent, individual. You see, Mrs. Beliveau didn't return to class after recess. Hmmm. Rather, Dr. Beliveau arrived in her place, challenging the students to join her in "seed surgery"!

The students have recently begun exploring plants, and today's "surgery" helped us understand that not all seeds look the same! We were surprised that different fruits and vegetables have different amounts of seeds, too!

We sure enjoyed assisting Dr. Beliveau in "seed surgery"!


ABC Countdown inspired by Mrs. Wells-Taylor's ABC Countdown

Rising to the Challenge!

Oh, was this a challenge!

This week, the boys and girls were challenged to learn more about an an animal of their choosing! They drew a detailed labelled diagram of their animal and wrote three facts with accompanying illustrations. We used the San Diego Zoo Kids website to help us with our research. 

Students researched their own animals, but worked in partners on a Chromebook to research. This allowed partners to troubleshoot, decode challenging text, and collaborate to write amazing animal reports!

Your child's report came home today in our monthly Evidence of Learning envelope. Happy reading!

Boys and girls, you rose to the challenge! Did your internet decide to take a nap? You didn't panic. Was the text tricky? You tried your best to figure it out. You worked hard and were kind to one another. Three cheers!

The cherry on top of our "animal-crazy" week was a presentation by the Earth Rangers! They empower kids to protect animals and their habitats through child-led fundraising. We were blessed to meet a black pine snake, an armadillo, an American kestrel, and a hawk! Wowzers!

How will we care for God's creation?

Landmark Magazine!

Today, the students were tasked with helping our Premier!

After learning about and presenting landmarks in our province, a very serious (albeit completely fictitious) task was handed to the boys and girls. 

Ms. Rachel Notley is planning to publish a magazine featuring incredible places to visit in Alberta. Hearing that we have recently become experts on landmarks in our province, she tasked us each with creating a page for her magazine!

Students were to choose and draw an Alberta landmark, then write a caption explaining why the landmark is important. 

These submissions will look great in Ms. Notley's "make believe" magazine!

The students' landmark projects will be coming home later this week in their Evidence of Learning envelopes, accompanied by a little rubric. 

Enjoy!


Rubric and task modified from the Alberta Assessment Consortium's "Welcome to Our Community" performance assessment. 

A Virtual Field Trip Around Alberta!

We skied the slopes in Jasper, rode the steam train in Stettler, screamed on the roller coaster in Calgary's Calaway Park, and oooh-ed and ahhh-ed at the amazing dino bones in Drumheller. Whew! What a week! 

This week we explored landmarks and map-reading, but we never left our classroom at Holy Redeemer! We enjoyed the students' presentations, along with several websites, webcams, YouTube clips, interactive sites, and more! 

Below is an interactive map of the landmarks we explored. Zoom in on Alberta, click on a red "pin", and enjoy an Alberta landmark! Links are included with several of the pins. 



Thank you, families, for preparing our little presenters so thoroughly! 

We are Tree Huggers!

Today was a spectacular end to an amazing week of learning! We spent the morning at Strathcona County's Arbor Day Celebration!

We participated in several hands-on events which helped us develop our appreciation for our terrific trees!

We learned about the importance of fire safety. We were very, very strongly cautioned that fires are incredibly dangerous and are never, ever to be played with. We were, however, surprised to learn that forest fires are a natural part of the forest ecosystem and can play a role in maintaining a healthy forest. 

Trees have birthdays too! We learned to count the rings on a tree "cookie" and learned how drought and the seasons affect the rings. 

Trees need TLC, too! Today we met some very brave and bendy arborists who were caring for trees! We watched in awe as they trimmed branches high in the tree. 

Can you see the arborist in the tree?

We "got our sweat on" at the Nature-cize centre! What an awesome obstacle course!

We planted our white spruce saplings! They will grow as wide as two adults with arms outstretched, so plant them in a carefully planned location! 

Celebrity sighting!!!! Bertie Beaver!!!

We headed into the forest and built little fairy houses! 

Our morning was finished off with a fabulous toe-tapping musical performance from Peter Puffin! 

Best job ever! #ilovemyjob

What a spectacular day! Fresh air, friends, trees and nature!

This weekend is Mother's Day. Moms, you are kind. You are patient. You are selfless. You are imperfectly perfect. Thank you for everything you do to support your family. Being a mom is constantly challenging yet profoundly rewarding. You are doing an amazing job. 

Little Blessings

Today was a lovely blessing!

Morning prayer with our chicks

As the sunshine streamed through our window, the boys and girls cuddled our fluffy little friends with gentle hands. We learned that we need to use a quiet voice and that when we hold them we need a firm hand underneath and a light hand on top.  

"They are like little baby angels."

The children savored today's cuddles! 

Joyful Noise!

Today our room was filled with joyful noise!

We arrived this morning to 5 little chicks, and somehow, during announcements, 2 more hatched! 

While some students spent time taking in the new life inside our incubator, others tackled the illustrations for a rhyming booklet called "5 Little Chicks". The chicks in our illustrations are made from torn construction paper. The creative juices were flowing!

To celebrate our new chicks, we shook our tail feathers and did the Bird Dance in Phys Ed! We even squeezed in a heart-pumping game of Rollerball!

While carefully

watching our unhatched eggs, we enjoyed reading Pig's Egg! We teamed up to identify the beginning, middle and end of a story. 

Our kind-hearted parent, who is guiding us on our hatching journey, popped in to share in our joy and excitement! She helped us prepare a box of shavings, food, water, and a heat bulb for when the chicks were dry. 

The incubator went on a little fieldtrip to the office when the power went out unexpectedly! We're pretty sure the chicks helped Mrs. Quenneville with some of her office work, though. 

Thank goodness for the generator!

Mrs. Beliveau and her brood returned after supper, once power was restored, and moved 9 fluffy, dry chicks to a cozy new home. 

3 damp chicks remain in the incubator, with more eggs looking promising. So far 12 little babies have joined our class! 

Tomorrow will certainly be filled with many soft fluffy cuddles!

Barnyard News!

There were squeals!

There were gasps!

There were high fives and hugs!

After waiting and praying patiently for 21 days, our first chick had hatched! The boys and girls were truly elated and filled with awe as they saw new life enter our world today!

Can you spot Mr. Marshall reading "Too Many Chickens"?

Today was a day the boys and girls will likely never forget, and tomorrow is promising even more action and joy! As we left the classroom today, three more eggs had teeny tiny peck holes and a case of the wiggles!

Please pray for us as we journey with our new babies this week, and feel free to stop by and check out our "barnyard news"!