Ms. Vanderwel's Room

Here's a look at our week! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- In language arts we have been writing about different animals in our journals remembering to use proper sentence format-- i.e. capital letter at the start, spaces between words and a period at the end. Students in grade 1 have been writing 1-3 sentences. Students in grade 2 have been writing 3-5 or more sentences.  In social studies, we began learning about the Medicine Wheel and its importance in First Nations culture. The students listened to a story telling about the significance of the Medicine Wheel to First Nations people and what the various parts of the wheel represent and are beginning to make a booklet to show their learning.  In math, the students have been working through some math centres to practice the skills they learned counting and representing numbers to 100 or 1000. In science we talked about some more of the seasonal changes we see in the fall and completed a...

 Here's a sneak peek at our week... --------------------------------------------------------------------- In reading we continued to learn and review a number of letter sounds. This week we focused on /n/ and /o/ and /d/ in grade one and on /ch/, /sh/ and /th/ in grade two. In writing we continued to focus on what makes a sentence and fixed sentences that were not quite right. We also learned about some of the local animals that live in Calgary and wrote in our journals using the facts we researched.  In math, we are nearing the end of our study of numbers to 100 (Gr. 1) and numbers to 1000 (Gr. 2). We continued to build numbers using base ten blocks and also learned how to represent numbers using expanded form. Students were able to represent and identify numbers in various forms.  In Science, we completed another experiment using baking soda and vinegar. We reviewed the Scientific Method as we worked through each step of the experiment. Students were able to accurately ...

Hello Everyone and Happy Friday! I hope you've had a wonderful week.  We have been busy as always. Keep reading to find out what we've been up to : ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In reading we continued to learn/review a variety of letter sounds and use these sounds to build words. We also began to read in small groups using decodable texts to practice developing our decoding skills.  In writing, we talked about what makes a good sentence (I.e. It needs a capital letter, period and spaces). Students wrote in their journals using some of the pattern sentence starters we have been learning. In math students in grade one began learning to count to 100 and to build numbers using tens and ones blocks.  The Gr. 2s continued to explore reading, recognizing and representing numbers to 1000 using base ten blocks. In Science we completed an experiment using the scientific method. We placed some candies in a dish and wondered what wo...

 It's Friday! Another week has come and gone. Here's a peek at our week : )                           ------------------------------------------------------------------ This week we reviewed some more letter sounds and continued building words using the sounds we know. We also learned some new heart words to add to our Sound Wall.  We also talked about Thanksgiving and read a variety of books related to the holiday. Students brainstormed things they are thankful for.  We also talked about giving. We read the book "The Giving Tree".  We recounted ways that trees give to us and thought of ways that we can be giving to trees.  After reading, "A Little Spot of Giving" students wrote down ways they can show generosity to others.  In math, the grade one students continued to work on building teen numbers using base ten blocks. We then moved on to talking about numbers to 100. They completed a m...