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April 16th is National Wear you Pajamas to Work and School Day!! (Apparently Ms Lauf did not.) So, on Monday, April 16th, Prince of Wales will be swapping our jeans, t-shirts and work clothes for somethings a little cozier. Please join us in wearing your favorite pajamas on Monday! IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Volunteer Thank-You A huge thank-you to all the volunteers that helped make this week at Zoo School FABULOUS! You helped ease my worries of making sure the students all arrived back at the school, you took care of them, and modeled learning and journalling with them. THANK-YOU! IMPORTANT DATES April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 130 days to go, 50 days left. Our last day at Zoo School, but DEFINITELY not the last day of our learning from it. Today, we were in the Discovery Centre, which is right across from the Penguin Plunge. We started off with bringing to mind the stories we saw about the animals, and thinking about conservation, how this ties in with conserving nature, and with us. We are nature. We learned about different worldwide organizations the Zoo works with to help conserve animals, as well as the list of animals the Zoo is directly involved with here in Alberta and around the world. Ask your child for an animal or two that the Zoo helps with, We also looked at biofacts of our animals:
Students wrote reflections about these two questions:
We also had a visit with Flapjack the Pancake Tortoise, and learned some pretty neat things about him. Flapjack is not in a public enclosure, and only comes out for learning groups. Ask your child what the learned about Pancake. After our visit with Flapjack, we wrote an “If I were…” poem based on our observations and learnings. WOW! These kids are POETS! (snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap….) We finished our time with a viewing of a tiger pelt and heard its story. Ask your child about it! We came back to school, and finished off with how next week will look like, including finishing up any journalling pages, the story stick, and begin writing our stories. Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
ZOO SCHOOL We are meeting at the flagpole tomorrow! Our bus leaves at 8:10 am, confirmed!!! Weather I have challenged students to be like Tunisian students, where they have to remember important information, like checking the weather daily, and making sure they are dressed appropriately. RUBBER BOOTS IS RECOMMENDED. IMPORTANT DATES April 9-13: Zoo School April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 129 days to go, 51 days left. Day 4 (& 3) of Zoo School! Oh Weebly… I was having problems posting yesterday’s blog, so… Yesterday, we had a fabulous design day, where students made a Musk Ox Enrichment Bashing Toy. They had 10-15 minutes to plan and make a large structure made out of 4 cardboard boxes and dried bamboo (pandas eat fresh!). We then brought it down to the musk ox enclosure, and the Keeper threw two in with a loud bang. Ask your child what happened next! After lunch, we had walked back to our classroom, and we planned out our story sticks, which was good, because we made them today! Most students finished them, and we will share them tomorrow. Next week, we will do lots of Zoo School reflecting and planning where we are taking our experience to help conservation through stories. This morning, we heard from a long-time volunteer and expert story-teller, Sheila, who shared with us what we need to do to be an expert story teller. She told us stories using pictures, and also with a felt board. Ask your child what they need to do to be an story teller. Tomorrow is our last day, and it truly has been an amazing experience. Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION ZOO SCHOOL We are meeting at the flagpole tomorrow! Our bus leaves at 8:10 am, confirmed!!! Weather I have challenged students to be like Tunisian students, where they have to remember important information, like checking the weather daily, and making sure they are dressed appropriately. RUBBER BOOTS IS RECOMMENDED. PoWER HOUR PoWer Hour forms are due Wednesday, April 11th. I will collect them in the morning, and get them to the office. IMPORTANT DATES
April 9-13: Zoo School April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 127 days to go, 53 days left. Day 2 of Zoo School! We spent the morning learning all about penguins! Did you know that penguins…? (Ask your child to fill in the blank!) We started off with observing the 5 different penguins in their enclosure. Andrea, our Zoo School Coordinator, had much information that she shared with the students. Some students got splashed, and others saw them being fed herring and smelt (mmmmm….). One penguin is named Ray Charles, and he is a chill penguin. (Get it? Chill?) He had cataracts in his eyes, and they removed them. His quality of life improved immensely, and now he just hangs out watching the world go by. We also saw a VERY LARGE AND VERY FLUFFY brown baby King penguin. He is beginning to molt. We also attended a penguin program, where students explored penguin locomotion, their prey and their predators, penguin life cycles, how high Rockhopper penguins can jump (170 cm), and, as always, conservation. We finished our penguin exploration with a tour through the feeding area, and hung out in the -20°C freezer. (“Hey! It’s recess!” was a comment made by one student.) After lunch, we settled into our animal observations, where the students documented what they saw in their journals. Tomorrow at Zoo School, we will explore the Canadian Wilds! Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION ZOO SCHOOL We are meeting at the flagpole tomorrow (Tuesday)! I have just received an email, and our bus time is at 8:25am. We will still meet outside and do a group huddle and perhaps a quick bathroom break. Weather I have challenged students to be like Tunisian students, where they have to remember important information, like checking the weather daily, and making sure they are dressed appropriately. RUBBER BOOTS IS RECOMMENDED. PoWER HOUR PoWer Hour forms are due Wednesday, April 11th. I will collect them in the morning, and get them to the office. STUDENT-LED CONFERENCES
From Mrs Bezugley Blog: Student-led conferences are an opportunity for your child to demonstrate what they know and have learned at school. Conferences will be held on Thursday April 19th from 3:30 – 7:30pm and Friday April 20th from 8:00-9:00am. Conferences will be in half hour blocks, allowing you and your child 30 minutes to share their work in the classroom with 2 other families present. Teachers will be available in the classroom but will not be booking specific time slot interviews. Please be prepared to spend this quality time with your child, as they will have tasks and activities to share with you. If teachers feel the need to meet privately with you to discuss your child’s progress, they will contact you by Friday the 13th. Interviews will be booked by the classroom teacher for Friday, April 20th 9:00-12:00 pm. If you feel you require a one-on-one interview and have not heard from your child’s teacher by Friday, April 13th, please connect with them to set up a time. IMPORTANT DATES April 9-13: Zoo School April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 126 days to go, 54 days left. Day 1 of Zoo School done! Today started off as really any day should start off, and that was with a Panda Media Presentation. We heard from the CEO of The Calgary Zoo, Dr Clément Lanthier, from Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mr Ricardo Miranda, Ward 9 Councillor and acting Deputy Mayor for April, Mr Gian-Carlo Carra. The students were also part of the ceremonial opening of the gates, AND WE GOT TO WALK ABOUT 10 PACES IN!!! No pandas were seen, as they are still acclimatizing to their new homes. (Most zoo staff have not seen the pandas.) After our 10 minutes of fame, and a lifetime of memories, we headed to the classroom, where we got the lay of the land/classroom, and talked about our story sticks we are creating to help us develop our stories. Students then got into their animal observation groups, and explored the zoo, and looked for their sticks. We talked about using our arms and hands as non-standard units of measurement, and how the sticks shouldn’t be longer than elbow to wrist, no shorter than bandwidth down from wrist , no thicker than their thumb or skinnier than their pinky. (This was done with hand visuals.) Everyone returned shortly before lunch, most with sticks in hand, and excitement of what animals thy had seen. They journaled what they saw and did, many using event maps, labelled illustrations, and lists. After lunch, we shared what we saw, and then we were off on our animal observations. Tomorrow, students will get specific things to look for, as we collect information for our animal stories. Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION ZOO SCHOOL We are meeting at the flagpole at the front entrance every day next week. MAKE SURE YOUR CHILD HAS ENOUGH FOOD FOR THE DAY. It will be an active week, and they need their energy!! More information coming home! I have sent home a checklist for students to help the out for next week, as well as an itinerary for the week. For Volunteers A wee package of notes is coming your way! This is for you to read over, just so you are familiar with that we are doing and what we have done. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BRING IT WITH YOU. The information will be in the Class Volunteer Journals. Panda Exhibit Thank-You Presentation EXCITING UPDATE!! I have been informed this evening that a shout-out will happen to our class and Prince of Wales at this presentation. I am thrilled that our class can start off their Zoo School Week with this. What a fabulous opportunity to see this! Weather I have challenged students to be like Tunisian students, where they have to remember important information, like checking the weather daily, and making sure they are dressed appropriately. PoWER HOUR PoWer Hour forms were sent home today. We went over what courses are available, and the forms are due back on April 11th. I will collect them at Zoo School and make sure they get handed in. You can go over the course list here: IMPORTANT DATES
April 9-13: Zoo School April 11: PoWer Hour Forms due today April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 125 days to go, 55 days left. Today was a final day of prep before Zoo School next week. We made our panda faces to wave around as we make our way to the presentation, and at the presentation. We had music. We had snack and went over one more time how The Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? of Observations, showing examples of other Grade 3 (and 2 and 4) work. We talked about how telling stories connects us and builds empathy in us. This lead into our continued discussion of why we need to care about nature (We are nature. We are all connected. We all need each other.) and extinction. We looked at the an extinction in the process of the White Rhino - the last male rhino passed away, and there are only two females left, both his daughters. This made the students sad and angry, so we talked about how we can take that and we can use it in the stories we will be observing about the animals. We did one more journalling technique called Ten Times Two - students observed the mountain goat enclosure and wrote ten things they noticed. Then they wrote ten more. This technique helps students slow down, and embellish their observations with more detail. For example, “trees” became “pine trees with less needles than other pine trees”. We finished the day with shoes on chairs, and off they went! Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
ZOO SCHOOL Field Trip Forms YAHOO! All forms that were sent home yesterday, came back today! POPCORN PARTY!! Volunteers A HUUUUUUGE THANK-YOU to all the volunteers! Panda Exhibit Thank-You Presentation EXCITING UPDATE!! I have been informed this evening that a shout-out will happen to our class and Prince of Wales at this presentation. I am thrilled that our class can start off their Zoo School Week with this. What a fabulous opportunity to see this! Weather I have challenged students to be like Tunisian students, where they have to remember important information, like checking the weather daily, and making sure they are dressed appropriately. Milk Program Delivery Info This is a message for the milk program students! I will bring the milk along to the zoo on Tuesday and Thursday. IMPORTANT DATES April 9-13: Zoo School April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 124 days to go, 56 days left. Well. This class constantly inspires me, and warms my heart. We continued to explore classifying living things, with a focus on amphibians. We watched a video of the growth of frogs from egg to froglet (7 weeks), and this really drove the term metamophosis (big change) home. May students documented this process from egg —> tadpole —> froglet —> frog in a circle! OH MY GOSH! The documented a life cycle on their own!!! LOVE IT! We tackled some math. We will begin each day with a half hour of math work. Many students were excited about this. I think I even saw a fist bump, but I don't wear my glasses in class (I really should've gotten the trifocals), and someone could've just been stretching at that point. A teacher can dream… We also did some more of our Inside-Out drawing. We started with a 4 cm square, and now we had to extend it out to a rectangle; but I didn’t make it easy… We first estimated the length from each side by first estimating, then we used the square frame. I copy and pasted it, and we discovered that we had to extend the frame 1 cm on the top and bottom, 2 cm on the left side and 6 cm on the right. This may sound easy, but it really isn’t, because we have to understand the terminology, and be able to visualize what to do in our head. I am happy to say that we got to where we needed to get to, and we will begin drawing in our extended frame. We got our Harry Potter Reader’s Response mini-booklets into our visual journals, and we began mapping out the story so far. We have been practicing quick draw throughout the year as a way to document our learning as well as to take notes. We looked at a couple student samples from Ms Parent’s class, and then I gave the class pep talk that instead of looking at something as daunting (“How can I get all that in?” and “I can’t do all that.”) to something we will end knowing how to do, a long as we set up our expectations for success and have that oh-so important self-talk (“Hey! Look what I’ll be able to do when I’m done this. I can’t wait to get started!”). We played some badminton in gym, and finished off the day with amphibians. Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
ZOO SCHOOL Field Trip Forms Field trip forms have been sent home! A Popcorn Party if they all come back by FRIDAY! AN EXTRA SPECIAL THING IF ALL FORMS ARE BACK TOMORROW!! Volunteers Please, please, please let me know if you can volunteer AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The reasons are two-fold: I need to make the Animal Observation Groups, and I want to make sure that your child ends up in your group, and that they can select their animal-study animal for the week. I need to let the Zoo School Coordinators know how many volunteers are coming so they can book the appropriate bus size. We still need volunteers for:
Panda Exhibit Thank-You Presentation There is an extra letter attached to the field trip forms regarding a special presentation to the Government of Alberta for assisting with the Panda Exhibit, on Monday, April 9th. Local and provincial news media will on hand for this. The Calgary Zoo media team has asked if our class would like to be part of this exciting event! Please read the letter and make sure you sign the Calgary Campus Open Minds Consent Form for this. Students without consent will be away from the audience so as not to be filmed or photographed. Weather I have challenged students to be like Tunisian students, where they have to remember important information, like checking the weather daily, and making sure they are dressed appropriately. IMPORTANT DATES April 9-13: Zoo School April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 123 days to go, 57 days left. Another stellar day in our class! We dove into our visual journals, studying the fennec fox, the smallest fox in the world that is found in the Sahara, including Tunisia. Students did a Daily Double - one side is for observations and the other side is for reflections. We had a fabulous discussion about what the difference is between an observation (facts, using our senses) and reflections (inferences, opinions, emotions), and, of course, reinforcing to always give the WHY. This was followed by six 1-Minute Sketches of the fox. Now that was super fine! The skill here was to focus on shape and line texture, as opposed to outlines. The next step will be six 1-minute writing, where they jot down 1 or 2 notes for each picture. We also did a guided inside-out drawing. We are at our first step with this one. Students were shown a small part of an animal, and we worked on drawing the shape with textures and lines, as opposed to outlines and then trying to fit in all the juicy bits. This is also looking super fine. After lunch, we had Dawn from the Calgary Zoo come in for a presentation. We discussed what we are doing there, that we are taking our learning into a different environment, zoo etiquette, and what to bring. We also did a biofact study, using an I Sketch … , I See … , I Think … , I Wonder … . Ask your child which biofact they got. (African porcupine quills, Amur tiger claw, ibex antler, King penguin feathers, ostrich feathers, muskrat pelts, bactrian camel hair, caribou antler, and Amazonian parrot feathers) We finished off our day with getting FIELD TRIP FORMS! Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
ZOO SCHOOL Field Trip Forms Field trip forms are coming home tomorrow. A Popcorn Party if they all come back by Thursday! Volunteers Please, please, please let me know if you can volunteer AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. The reasons are two-fold:
Tuesday: 2 volunteers Wednesday: 2 volunteers Thursday: 2 volunteers For confirmed volunteers, I will be sending home Zoo School Low-Down in the next day or two. Hopefully I will have all you need to know. If not, contact me, or we fly by the seat of our pants, which can sometimes have some pretty amazing results. Weather I have challenged students to be like Tunisian students, where they have to remember important information, like checking the weather daily, and making sure they are dressed appropriately. IMPORTANT DATES April 9-13: Zoo School April 18: Fun Lunch (Little Caesar) April 19: Student Led Conferences (evening) April 25: Spring Photos April 26: PoWer Hour begins OUR DAY 122 days to go, 58 days left. Welcome Back! We are in the final stretch before summer (if it ever gets here) break! Today, we started off with handwriting. Much improvement all around! After music, we did a Round Robin for Tunisia. Students were assigned a topic, for example festivals, food, homes, communication, … . They read through their page, took notes, and then compared their notes with mine, adding in any information they need. Early finishers then continued looking for more ideas about what they want to learn about. When students are finished with their topic, they will present to the class, where the class will add to their notes. After recess, students had time to give their Six Room Poetry and Pen Pal Letters a once over, using their criteria checklist to make sure they have what they need. I will provide them with Editor Feedback, they do corrections, and then write their good copy. Students that finished their writing, continued on with their Tunisia research. In the afternoon, we looked at our ZOO SCHOOL ITINERARY SHEET! This will come home tomorrow with field trip forms. It is an exciting week of exploring and storytelling. I am pumped to see where we end up. This was followed by looking at how we classify animals. We discussed different physical features while sorting a variety of animals on the SmartBoard. After a gym class of badminton, we watched the Biology Song, learning the seven things that classifies you into living versus non-living. Ask your child if they can list them all! If they can, they get a puppy! Just kidding. They get a fist-bump and a huzzah. We finished off the day with talking about what makes a good story. There are some GREAT ideas, such as exciting characters, a POP!, action, a little danger, a surprise, details and juicy words, and staying on topic, just to name a few. FIELD TRIP FORMS WILL COME HOME TOMORROW. A POPCORN PARTY IF WE GET ALL FORMS BACK BY THURSDAY! Cheerios! Ms Lauf Zoo School is NEXT WEEK!!! WE STILL NEED VOLUNTEERS FOR THIS WEEK TO WORK!
We currently need 2 more volunteers for each of the following days:
Zoo School Information Session The Zoo School Site Coordinator will be visiting our class on Wednesday, April 4, from 12:30 to 2:00 pm. She will be going over what our week will look like, as well as expectations. I believe we will also be doing some journalling! Volunteers are invited to participate in this session, if you can make it. If you cannot, DON'T FRET! I will make sure you get the lowdown later in the week, and of course, on your day(s). |
AuthorMs Lauf Archives
June 2018
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