Sept. 9-13

Hello all,

This week went by sooooo quickly! It kind of got away from me... My goal is to write three times on a regular week and two on a short week.

This week we are getting to know each other, build routines and expectations. Please send your child with a pair of indoor shoes if you have not as of yet. This helps keep our wonderful school clean and lessen the hard work of our facility maintenance team. 😁

I have been working to get a base line assessment of writing abilities and basic facts knowledge. We have assessed the students ability to read Fry Sight Words which make up about 70% of any given text. Our goal is to move EVERYONE'S abilities forward no matter where they are starting.

We have been learning about growth mindset and how our brain controls our ability to learn if in a stressed state. Ask your child about the amygdala and the fight or flight response. Bianca Andreescu  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bianca_Andreescu has been a wonderful example of controlling our emotions to get control of our amygdala and let our prefrontal cortex be calm and ready to learn. GO BIANCA! We will be starting our day with calming breathing , after lunch break and right before any assessment to be calm cool and collected.

In Math our learning outcome for the next couple of weeks is representing numbers to ten thousand in symbols and words. This will be done by using number lines, place value blocks and expanded form. There are many ways to represent a number and the following were just a few.

In Social Studies we have discussed Alberta in the past and now. Our Social Studies units this year are about the stories, history and places of Alberta. What an amazing and interesting province we live in.

Our first unit of study in Science is on waste in our world.  This week we have defined terminology and brainstormed as a class as to what we think waste is. We will be taking care of a vermicompost bin to learn about composting and how decomposer type creatures help us. I am working to source some inexpensive Red Wiggler Worms. If you happen to have a vermicomposter please contact me. Man , they can be pricey!

I am excited about all the cool things we are going to do this year and getting to know your kids better. I work later every Wednesday and am open to meeting with anyone to receive insights and understanding to better help all learn. I hope to see you all at the Meet the Teacher event Sept. 19th. http://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/BeddingtonHeights/about-us/calendar/Pages/default.aspx
Please sign up for a time slot https://sis.cbe.ab.ca/public/home.html My email is aediduch@cbe.ab.ca and check it multiple times a day. I will return messages as soon as possible but please give e 24hrs grace to respond as I will be busy during the day teaching your amazing kids!

Cheers and happy weekend,
Mrs. Diduch