Cold outside, but heating up inside!

We are in the depths of January, and the cold continues, but things are heating up in room 308.  (literally, the heat in the building is overwhelming at times, just ask about gym time!)  I am recovering from the new shock of baby Oscar at home (Jenny is the one really recovering, I just need some more sleep, and an extra set of hands) and I want to send out thanks to everyone for their kind words and support over the past weeks.  Oscar Lawrence Kalynuk (Laurence was the name of the midwife who delivered her, and Lawrence is my father's name, and it sounded good with Oscar...so that is where it comes from) is happy, and healthy, and gaining weight at a strong pace.  He didn't lose any in the first days, and has continued to grow from there, so things look good from there.  We had a procedure done last Tuesday on a lip and slight tongue tie, and the recovery is more difficult for Jenny and I in many ways, as we are the ones stretching and monitoring it, but it is going well.  His brothers are very happy to spend time holding and looking at him, though they will be happier when he is able to get outside skating and skiing with them.  Excuse me if a proud Papa shares a few photos here...



In class we have finally put a wrap on the oral presentations that we started in December.  There were great topics chosen, and some great growth shown by students in terms of presentation skills.  We will have other presentation opportunities as the year progresses, and it will be interesting to see how much the class will have improved, as this process has helped them to highlight areas of growth, and has given them all more confidence.  We are into the storytelling adventure, and will be choosing, and refining our stories this week.  With luck we will start filming our stories in the first week of February.  If anyone out there has any filming, editing, or even DVD making skills/programs, we would be very interested in some help with this process.  The plan right now is to us Gumby (our Ipad) to film the individual stories in a story booth setting, and then edit, and collect the stories in some way so that we can possibly have a menu and collection on a dvd.  If you have experience doing any of the steps I am referring to, let me know if you can help out.
This Friday we Skate from 10 to 11, with the bus leaving from Churchill at approx 9:40), and keep your calendars free on the Thursday before family day weekend (Feb 12) if you can join us for a skate on the canal from 11 until 1 approx.  Letters and forms will be going home this week regarding that trip, but we will need several volunteers so that we can skate in small groups and experience more of the canal on this outing.
Way to go everyone who is getting onto IXL math on a regular basis.  There has been an increase again this week in traffic from our class.  Ethan put in almost two hours, while Miranda, Hunter, Jake, Ryan, Kailee, and Felix all spent a considerable amount of time working on IXL this past week, and 10 others put in some time too.  I will mention to parents that it is a good idea to check in on your child now and then when they are using this resources, just to see how they are doing.  The questions are set up to show you where you have gone wrong if you choose incorrectly.  It has detailed explanations when the wrong solution is picked.  Why I mention this is that occasionally I will see that a student has spent a certain amount of time working on IXL, and the number of questions they have attempted does not reflect the time spent (ie 20 min and 300 questions attempted).  It is easy to spend time on the program, but if they are moving too quickly through questions, or not getting many correct, it is simple enough for them to just choose a different level to work on.  This is a tool to challenge their thinking, and flex their math muscles, not to just take up their time.  Check the number of questions and their level, and their results to get an idea of whether they are working on the right level.  They know how to change levels, and can do so at any time.
In social studies we did some primary research into Canada's international connections through immigration by mapping the links between our families in Ottawa, and known ancestry.  It was a great experience for students to gather this information from their peers, as we all learned something new about our classmates (we mapped countries of origin of any known parents/grandparents/great grandparents for students).  We would really like to make a master map of these connections, and are looking for a poster sized world map.  If anyone happens to have one that dropped out of a National Geographic or something like that, could you please send it in for us to pin up and use?
Things are really 'current' in science, as we jumped from static electricity experiments to building electrical circuits this past week.  In the week ahead we are going to build and explore a variety of electrical circuits and devices.  (if anyone works with 3v two pronged leds, we are looking for a small supply of them...)
Check out this video on the generation of electricity (it is American...but applies to us as well)

In math we are reviewing some data management concepts that we have looked at over the term, and we are working on 2d and 3d geometric principles.
Have a great week!

Birthday Break!

As I am sure many of you have already been told, I am taking a short break from class due to the birth of my son Oscar.  Jenny, Arlo, Otis and I welcomed Oscar to the family last Thursday morning, at 9:30am.  At 8lbs 13oz (why they don't do it in metric I don't understand ...but this is 4 kilos) he was a good size (smaller than Otis by a pound!) but the delivery went smoothly at home.  I was able to catch the little guy, so I held him first, but of course it has been all about Mamma since then.  He is getting more and more animated by each day - moving his head around, starting to focus on objects, and grabbing at things.  The boys went to school that morning, and came home hopping with excitement to meet their new brother.  Arlo insisted that we pick up cupcakes, as it was Oscar's birthday, so we did celebrate, and are still celebrating in a way.  
I plan to be back in the classroom on Wednesday, but have been very confident that the students were in great hands with Sue (a former Churchill parent) and Eric (on of our regular guest teachers) filling in for me while I was away.  Just FYI, there is a sharing Wednesday morning, at approx 8:20, in the gym.  Our class is presenting a couple of songs with the students from room 310, and both the Uke and Guitar clubs will be performing a song to go with our month's theme of Integrity and standing up for what you believe in.  Feel free to join us if you have the time.
In addition I would like to thank those of you who are making a concerted effort to get your children onto IXL math each week.  There has been a definite upswing in the number of students accessing the program lately.  Great job to Oceanna, Jake C, and Hunter for putting in some time this past week, and big respect to Gabby, who put in an hour and a half at different times last week.  This is the kind of practice that has been shown to make real differences in math competence and confidence.  Please try to encourage your child to access this resource we have provided at least once a week at home.  Again, with it on your browser, or the app on your IOS device, it can be quickly accessed for a ten minute session a few times a week if there is a time during the day that can work for you.
Happy regards from new-fatherland
Ray

Quick Agenda for Wednesday

1.   Kenny is bringing snack
2.   What would you stand up for if you were to take a stand for something you believe in?
3.   Friday is a PA day.
4.   Wednesday is our sharing.  8:10am
5.   Family stories review Thursday

The week ahead

The week ahead is a short one, but we will be hoping to pack a lot into it as we are right back into the swing of things in 2015!  To start off, I want to acknowledge Katey and Ethan, who are the two student that put the most time into IXL math at home this past week.  They both came close to almost 100 questions this week, so well done.  Again, if your child is trying, and is not able to access IXL at home, please let me know.  The link is on our class blog, and they all have simple passwords and logins, so I should be able to help you set this up easily.  There is even a simple app that makes it easy to access from an Ipad, Ipod, or IOS device.

Thank you for your support with the homework that students worked on last week.  The search for family stories seemed to really excite the students.  We are going to use the stories that students gathered to develop some oral communication skills, as we select each students' strongest (out of the three they gathered) and work on building rich language to help perfect the delivery of the stories.  We hope to develop our stories and film them in the coming weeks.

Our third skating session is coming up at the end of the month.  If you can make it out, please let Ray know.  We need two volunteers for the bus ride over, and as many as can make it to help with skate tying once we are there (we skate from 10 to 11).

Our literacy logs will not be going home this week, as it is a short week.

Bordenball was a big success as an intramural, and when we took the students to an alternative schools tournament in December.  Triple ball (a version of volleyball) is starting up.  Ask your child if they are going to get involved, as it will be a great lunchtime option for weeks to come, and will lead to another fun alternative schools sport day in March.

In math we have moved into work with decimals, as well as fractions, in language we are looking at comprehension, main ideas, and how to use facts from the text to support our connections, in Social Studies we continue to look at how Canada interacts on the global stage, and in Science we will move from our exploration of static electricity, to work with current electricity.

FYI - As I am sure many of you have noticed, we changed our approach to the use of our agenda in December.  Students are now asked to write down the day's schedule off of the board each day, and at the end of the day we make additional notes home regarding important messages that need to be relayed.  This is a step we are taking in hopes that you can be better informed as to what we have done each day.  Typically it will include subjects, and a brief word about what we are doing in each.  Use this as a tool to help you engage your child in discussions regarding what they have done in school each day, as well as to stay on top of important events happening in the class.

Pizza forms are due by Wednesday.

There is no news on the baby front so far, but it could be any day now...I will keep you informed.

Regards,

Ray Kalynuk