Crazy May!!!

I have to say thank you to Ms. Dixon for organizing this information for all of us.  May is looking to be a VERY busy month, particularly next week!

May Reminders:

Week 1

• May 1st - 5th -Wetland Week
• Monday, May 1st -Music Monday Assembly 9:30-10:00 AM
• Tuesday, May 2nd -Calgary Zoo: Croak, Life cycles of the Young & Slimy Field Trip (All Day)
• Wednesday, May 3rd 
• Hats On for Mental Health -Students are invited to wear a Hat
• Wetland's Assembly at the Wetlands 10:30 AM
• Litter-Less Lunch
• Thursday, May 4th -Celebration of Learning 5:30 -7:00 PM
• Friday, May 5th 
• Traditional Pow Wow Community Celebrations CBE (scroll down blog to see invitation)
• Snack Day
• Early Dismissal

Week 2

• May 8th - 12th -Children's Book Week (Celebrating 40 years)
• Monday, May 8th 
• Grade 3 Transition Visit William D. Pratt School 1:00 PM
• School Council & Fundraising Society Meeting/Elections 7:00 PM
• Tuesday, May 9th
• William D. Pratt Open House 6:30-8:00 pm (students and parents are welcome)
• Wednesday, May 10th 
• Dress up as your 'Favourite Storybook Character'
• Litter-less Lunch
• Thursday, May 11th -Kindergarten Parent Orientation 6:30 PM
• Friday, May 12th 
• Circle Friday Begins
• Early Dismissal

Week 3

• Wednesday, May 17th-Litter-less Lunch
• Friday, May 19th -NO SCHOOL Non-Instructional Day

Week 4

• Monday, May 22nd -NO SCHOOL Victoria Day
• Tuesday, May 23rd -Fun Lunch
• Wednesday, May 24th 
• Stampede Breakfast
• Litter-less Lunch
• Friday, May 26th 
• Volunteer Tea 10:00 -11:00 AM
• Circle Friday
• Early Dismissal

Week 5 (May & June)

• Wednesday, May 31st -Litter-less Lunch
• Thursday,  June 1st -Sports Day
• Friday, June 2nd
• Circle Friday
• Early Dismissal

Hats On for Mental Health

Hats On! For Mental Health Day!

On May 3, we will be recognizing “Hats on for Mental Health” at our school. We will be asking students to wear a special hat on this day to help raise awareness of the importance of good mental health. Each May, Albertans are invited to wear a hat to raise awareness of the importance of good mental health. Participating schools will relax their hat rules and encourage students and teachers to build understanding by wearing hats to school. Whether its a sombrero, a fedora or a favorite sports hat, all favorite hats are encouraged. For those students who choose to do so, we will have a collection jar at the front office for donations to the Alberta Mental Health Division of the Canadian Mental Health Association. More information is on the website:

www.canwetalk.ca

Reading Challenge

Students came home with blue reading challenges forms today.

We are promoting this reading challenge as a lead-up to Children’s Book Week. The challenge will run from today until Thursday, May 11th. We ask that on Thursday, May 11th all the returned reading challenge forms are returned to the school. Every student who returns their reading log will receive a 'reading prize’/token of recognition.

In addition to the reading log, at the bottom of the form is an area for students to predict how many books they think all the students in the school can read during that time period. The student that makes the closest prediction to the number of books read will win a prize. Our hope is to have the prizes distributed on Friday, May 12th by the end of the day. 

Happy Reading!

Wednesday, April 26

The Celebration of Learning is Thursday, May 4th and it starts at 5:30 (not 6:00).
Alexis

In gym, we are skipping for Jump Rope for Heart and some students performed a skipping routine. The forms for fundraising are in student backpacks.

Field trip forms are due tomorrow!  Our class goes to the Zoo next Tuesday.

In music we are doing a line dance and drums.  Each class will perform something on Music Monday (May 1st at 9:30)
Maycie

In math we were looking at fractions and now we are looking at perimeter.
Sophia G.

Inquiry:
We are working a lot on our endangered and tentative sites.  Our trifolds will be set up.  There will also be a Souk.

The Souk is a Market
Sophie suggested that if students do a few jobs at home, they might earn money to spend at the Souk. Some examples might be: doing homework; cleaning the house or your room; doing the dishes; cleaning the bathroom; setting the table; grooming or feeding your pet; doing the laundry or changing your sheets.
The price list for the Souk:

Souk Prices: (1 pay station -purchase tickets; 1 ticket = 1 dollar )

Woven Coasters - 1 ticket

Woven Turtles- 1ticket

Bracelets -3 tickets

Scarves - 8 tickets

Lanterns - 1 tickets

Pan flutes - 2 tickets

Henna - hand prints - 1 ticket, hand application 2

Tic Tac Toe Games - 5 ticket

Perogies - 1 ticket for 2 perogies

Friday, April 21

Today we said good-bye to Ms. Murray - our fabulous student teacher.  We will miss her around the class and wish her all the best!  Thanks to all our students for helping her learn how to be a teacher!

We are working hard on our UNESCO projects and preparing for the celebration of learning.  On Wednesday and Thursday afternoons the students participated in making products for us to sell in our "Royal Oak Souk" on May 4th.  They created some beautiful trinkets - and even some tasty snacks for the evening!

In math, we will continue to learn about perimeter.  Today we made different shapes and perimeters on Geoboards.  We also played a fun shaping building game with our Grade One buddies.

We are finishing off our postcards from traveling to other cultures.  If your child has been away, they can continue to work on this in Google Slides.  The first slide should contain their writing and the second slide should be a picture collage showing different images of the culture of the country they visited.  

Tuesday, April 18th

Inquiry
Students are working hard preparing for the upcoming Celebration of Learning on May 4 from 6-7.
Students have been partnered up to research either an endangered UNESCO World Heritage Site or a site that is on the tentative list.  At the Celebration of Learning they will be the ambassadors to their site and try to persuade the voting body of UNESCO (you parents) that their site should either be protected or inscribed on the list. Part of their presentation will include information on Google Slides, which you are able to view at home if you'd like to see what your child is working on.
Tomorrow and Thursday students will be creating items to sell in our Royal Oak Souk - and funds raised will be donated to charity.

Writing
Students are working on their postcards from their travel to either Ukraine, Tunisia, India, or Peru.  (It was such a quick trip you probably didn't even miss them!)  Both the typing of their writing and the photos on the front of the postcard will be on Google Slides - so they can share that with you also at home!

Math
After our quick explorations of fractions, we are moving into measurement for the next few weeks.  This topic includes measure length using centimeters and meters; perimeter of shapes; sorting, classifying and building 2D and 3D shapes; time; and measuring mass and volume.  We will be starting with measuring and perimeter.

This is our last week with Ms. Murray, our student teacher.  The class and I are really going to miss her when she's gone!

Wednesday, April 12th

Science
Students are wrapping up their work on their Animal Hearing Trading Cards.  You can view your child's work on Google drive - and if they want to work on it at home, the research links are on this blog (scroll down a few posts).

Inquiry
Students have been placed with a partner and are beginning to explore either an endangered UNESCO World Heritage Site, or a tentative World Heritage Site.  They will be working towards persuading the deciding UNESCO body (all you parents) that their site should be the one that is saved or inscribed at the upcoming Celebration of Learning on May 4th (save the date!)

Hockey Pool
There may be a hockey fan or two in the class :-) so we are holding a Play-off Pool for Round 1.  No money will be exchanged - this is for bragging rights and math only!  Students selected the team that they think will win each series and for each correct team, they will collect 25 points.  We will do the same activity for each round, and tally our points as the playoffs continue (hopefully they are done by the end of June)!  Go Flames Go!!

Circle Meeting
In our Circle of Courage meeting today, the students discussed some important issues that both they and we (teachers and adults) have been noticing.  I've been hearing the occasional complaint about students feeling like they are being excluded or that other students are following them around or not being kind.  We reminded ourselves about one of the most important rules in our classroom: Take Care of Each Other.  Friendship issues are not easy and as parent I know how important they are to our children's overall well-being.  One student suggested that if they have a concern or bad thought about another person they should talk to their parent, and their parent may help them understand more about the situation.  What a great idea!  Parents, if you hear something from your child that you think I need to know about, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Monday, April 10th

Studio Bell National Music Centre Field Trip

Our class had a fantastic time learning and exploring the brand new Studio Bell National Music Centre.  In groups, students worked through a scavenger hunt on an IPad  which allowed them to explore the historical aspect of music, music awards, and of course, dozens of different instruments.  I think a favourite activity of many students was the sound booth - and probably a few would pick the rooftop balcony we checked out at lunchtime!  It was a great day of learning - and thank you also to our group of parent volunteers - we couldn't have enjoyed the day as much without you!

 


Physical Education Update

We have just completed a very successful week in the gym where students participated in the combative games unit and had the opportunity to learn how to wrestle. If you happen to be in the school please check out the bulletin boards outside of the PE office for some great photos of our amazing Royal Oak Wrestlers.

This coming week we will be doing Mission Impossible. Our Secret Agents in Training will work hard to complete 4 training courses through out the week. (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday) Students are asked to bring a flashlight and/or headlamp to their classes' final Mission Impossible Session, either Tuesday or Thursday. During this class the lights in the gym will be turned out and students will work hard to use their training to complete their final mission.. in the dark. Please ensure that your light is clearly labelled with your son or daughters name.

Ms. Hennick

Urgent Call for Volunteers for the Casino

Urgent Call for Volunteers for the Casino

It is urgent that we get 25 more volunteers for the Casino Fundraiser which benefits all the children in the school.  If we are unable to get the volunteers, we are in danger of losing the casino as well as the $60,000 – $70,000 to support your children’s education through technology, field trips, new award winning books for the library, a potential Naturalization area and many other wonderful experiences.

                                                                                                                                               

Lynn Sparks

Principal, Royal Oak School

The Royal Oak Fundraising casino will be taking place on Apr 17 & 18 at Elbow River Casino this year and we need YOU to come out and make this a huge success!!

The casino brings in a huge amount of funds that support our children's educations! Because this is such a huge event, we need over 40 volunteers between the two days. It is a fun event that you can enjoy with your fellow volunteers and have we mentioned you'll get FREE food!! 

If you can volunteer and have not already given us your name, please contact us ROScasinofundraising@gmail.com and we will be in touch!!

Thanks for giving your time!

Day Shifts:

10:45am - 7:30pm

Night Shifts:

6:45pm - 3:30am

11:15pm - 3:30am

Thanks so much!

Sheri

Animal Hearing Link

As students are working through their research into other animals' hearing, they can use the following link for information.  Students are also encouraged to explore other sites - either in the Online Reference Centre on LearnAlberta or from a supervised Google search.
Students were gathering information about:
- the highest and lowest frequency the animal can hear
- how the animal protects it's ears
- compare their animal's hearing to another animals
- what their animal uses it's hearing for
- other interesting facts about their animal's hearing

Animal Hearing Trading Cards
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x7EX7SJATDL4Kx_DvlUxI2zH5W0y9lG_vfXkBkVlxnM/edit?usp=s haring

First Days Back!

Our first couple of days back from spring break have been busy - most notably with our "Trip Around the World" this morning!  Captain Al from Teacher's Pet took us on an amazing journey where we learned about a "souk" in Tunisia; made lanterns to celebrate Diwali in India; played string games from Peru; and acted out a Ukrainian Folk Tale with finger puppets.  It was an amazing adventure - and we weren't even as tired as you'd expect after a trip around the world!  This is probably due to our amazing parent co-pilots who were along for our ride - it made for smooth travels for all!

 Science:
Students have begun to research how animals hear and compare that to how humans hear.  They will be making an Animal Trading Card with what they've learned about other animals' hearing.

Math:
We started learning about fractions today.  Many of the students didn't think they know much about fractions, however, once we started discussing it, they were surprised to see that they've been working with fractions their whole lives!  They all brought home their "pizza" - ask them what they learned about fractions today!
The Grade 3 mathematics curriculum on fractions includes:

 Demonstrate an understanding of fractions by:

• explaining that a fraction represents a part of a whole
• describing situations in which fractions are used
• comparing fractions of the same whole that have like denominators