Leafman and Rekenreks

Reminders and Updates: Field trip forms are due by Friday. Home reading will begin on Monday. Your child will be bringing home books and a letter explaining strategies for reading with your child.

This week the students' writing has been based on their Leaf Creature creations. We talked about the importance of both pictures and words to tell a story and the students were challenged to create a WOW picture. Ask your child what makes a WOW picture. They really took their time and lived up to this challenge. Students are working on adding as many letter as they can when sounding out and writing. Some are able to add the first letter they hear (example for 'sun' they write 's.' Others hear beginning and end sound (sun is written 'sn') and others can hear the vowel in the middle. Once they are able to hear 'sun' they are able to write many more words in this word family (run, fun, gun). This is the progression we will see in the students throughout the year.

This week in math the kids have been using rekenreks to represent numbers, and as a tool for problem solving. Todays problem included baking cookings on two levels of the oven. Students are encouraged to show their thinking using pictures and numbers.

Today we used paint to explore tints and shades. Students made a monochromatic colour pallete using either red or blue paint and adding black and white. 

Fun Snack/Fun Lunch and Field Trip forms

At Maple Ridge School, we have fun lunches and fun snacks on a monthly basis. This past Friday was our first fun snack of the year from Booster Juice. To find out more about this, or if you would like to purchase a fun lunch or fun snack for your child, you can visit healthyhunger.ca

Field Trip forms came home today for our trip to Hull's Wood next week. Please return the forms to school with your child by Friday.

Terry Fox Run Information

Here is an important message from Mr. Emery about the Terry Fox Run tomorrow: 

We wanted to give you a couple updates about the Terry Fox Run tomorrow. The current weather forecast is calling for 4°C and a light rain at the start of the run. Terry Fox ran through incredible adversity, including days upon days of adverse weather. It is our goal to continue the run unless field conditions become unsafe for our staff and students. Depending on the amount of rain falling at the time of the run we will likely consider a shorter time period outside. Please ensure students come dressed appropriately for this event. We plan to start running around 11:00 AM.

This year the Terry Fox Run takes on special importance to the Maple Ridge School Community. One of our new Kindergarten students has been through a multi-year battle with cancer. He is currently fighting one of his most difficult battles to date against a disease that does not discriminate against gender, race or age. Tomorrow, as a school, we will be running for Max. Despite the fact that most of our staff and students have never met him, I can attest to his incredible spirit, determination and courage. To our school community he exemplifies the very characteristics that made Terry Fox a hero for a nation.

To read more about Max’s story, his family has indicated you are welcome to visit his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/maxoneinamillion/. 

Students are encouraged to bring Toonies to school tomorrow in our annual efforts to support the Terry Fox Foundation and the work they do in supporting cancer research. Donations can also be made directly through the organization’s website by clicking here. Your support is greatly appreciated.

As teachers, Mrs. Pittman and I know that you know your child best. If you feel like your child would benefit from a conversation about this at home tonight, please feel free to let them know that Mr. Emery will be talking about Max tomorrow in the assembly. We will be encouraging all of our students to run for him. If you have any further questions about this, please let your child’s teacher know. 

Our Most Magnificent Things

Our Most Magnificent Things 

Students have been busy creating an iLab plan to create their most magnificent thing. They have been working hard to draw and label their plans and write a materials list. This afternoon they started using materials to build their creation. 

Rekenreks 

Yesterday we created a special math tool that we will be using in class. We used red and white beads, two pipecleaners and one piece of foam to create our rekenrek. Can your child explain what a rekenrek is? How do we use it? 

Terry Fox Run 

On Friday morning, students at Maple Ridge will be participating in the Terry Fox run. The run will start at 11am and we will be running/walking for 20-30 minutes. Students are welcome to bring in a toonie for the Terry Fox Foundation at some point this week. Donations will be collected throughout the week and donated after our school run. Students are encouraged to wear their red Maple Ridge School t-shirt for the run. Right now the weather looks like it could be wet and rainy on Friday. Please make sure that your child is dressed for the weather! 

Rainbow Milk

Rainbow Milk 

Last week we completed a fun experiment using milk, dish soap, food colouring (red/yellow/blue) and a q-tip. Students arrived at their tables to find a small bowl with milk and the three drops of food colouring (red, yellow, blue). Using a q-tip with a small amount of dish soap on the end, students placed the q-tip in the middle of the bowl and watched what happened to the colours. They were very excited to see the three primary colours mix to create new colours! We then recorded our observations in our science journal. 

Cardboard 

We are in the middle of a building project called, “My Most Magnificent Thing”. We are in need of some cardboard to help us build our most magnificent things! If you have extra cardboard (moving boxes, cereal boxes etc) please send them to school with your child. 

Leaves 

Today is the first day of Fall! We spent some time outside this afternoon exploring signs of fall. The students were excited to see the leaves at the front of our school changing colours. They also found a whole bunch of ladybugs! How exciting!! For the next couple weeks, we will be looking closely at leaves. If you have any beautiful leaves that have fallen in your yard, or on the pathways by your house, please feel free to send in a small ziploc bag full with your child. We will be keeping these leaves in our classroom to explore and observe. 

Hull’s Wood Field Trip 

Students in Room 15/16 will be visiting Hull’s Wood on October 8^th (this is a revised date for Room 16). If you are able to volunteer and have a current police clearance completed, please email your child’s teacher.

Pictures 

Picture orders came home today. If you are interested in ordering, you are able to order online or complete the forms and send them back to the school. Orders are due by Friday, September 27th. 

Wednesday activities and reminders

Reminders: Dismissal 12:30 tomorrow and no school for students on Friday.

Today students used watercolour pencils to accurately colour their sketch of a sunflower.

It is exciting to see how much these kids love books! We have daily reading time and the kids look at and share books of their own interests with a friend. 

Today the students had explore time and were given different materials to choose from. This is an opportunity for the kids to collaborate, try different tasks and follow their creative passions.

Sunflowers

Students continued to practice their observation skills and wrote about their 'notices' and 'wonders.'
They look closely and are developing their vocabulary when describing what they see, smell and feel.

"There are fuzzy spikes." "It had brown, sticky spots."

They added a scientific sketch, drawing what they see and accurately colouring their picture.

Room 15 and 16 also explored the primary colours by experimenting with paint. Your child may have brought this project home today if it was dry but if it didn't come home today, it will tomorrow. Talk to your child about what they discovered.

We are working on creating an alphabet for the classroom. Students tinkered a letter to contribute to the project.

Reminder: Early dismissal at 12:30 Thursday due to parent conferences.