Friday, March 24, 2023

 Literacy and the Land

"Elders have taught us it's important to acknowledge the land where we gather and the First Peoples who traditionally lived here. It shows respect for people, their contributions and their ways of being, belonging, doing, and knowing, which are reflected through the stories and songs that have lived on this land for thousands of years. " 

Calgary Board of Education 2023

    Throughout the school year our grade 3-6 students will be given opportunities to acknowledge and celebrate significant cultural observances and events such as the Winter/Summer Solstice and Spring/Fall Equinox. As well as be introduced to stories about the land passed on by our area elders.

Grade 4 and 5 - The Legend of Okatok

Grade 5 "retelling" of the legend of the Okotoks Erratic Rock. 

Grade 3 and 4 - Story of Ki'piaapi (Crocus)

The Spring Equinox represents new life and an awakening in our natural world. 

Crocuses are one of the first flowers of spring to bloom on the prairies. Blackfoot legend states that it tells other plants to start growing - it is time for the new life cycle. 

Future teachings will include the legend of "Ksistsikoom" (Thunder) and how spring is marked by the first sounds of thunder.

As we head into our spring break, I would like to share a word colleague taught me:

  Kakyosin is a Blackfoot word meaning 

"to observe or notice quietly and mindfully. " 

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Student reflection of "Spring Senses Words"

Wishing everyone a relaxing break with lots of sunshine and 

many opportunities to practice Kakyosin.

 See you on Monday, April 3, 2023

Friday, March 17, 2023

Blog #16

March 13-17

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

 Podcasts

 Learning Objectives:

-I can write or represent meaning of text in different forms.

-I can use grammatical structures, verb tenses, and conventions in my own writing, and apply a variety of strategies to assist with my spelling.

The Task:

    Over the past few weeks the grade fives have being creating podcasts for the book The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.  

The Hundred Dresses is a 1944 children's book. In the book, a young Polish girl named Wanda Petronski goes to school in an American town. The other children see her as different and mock her for a couple reasons.

    Students were given a sample podcast and a rubric to refer to while writing. As we read each chapter, students were encouraged to focus on summarization as well as a specific skill for the chapter podcast. For example:

                Chapter One- Modified "Fab Four" and overall format of the podcast.

                Chapter Two and Three - Can you improve your introduction and closing?

                Chapter Four and Five- Characters within the story.            

    Within the first chapter the students were quick to notice despite its age the themes and events in The Hundred Dresses are still relevant today. (This text was chosen for this exact purpose.) It was impressive how many students made "text to text" connections to literature we have read in class recently such as Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson.

 The Hundred Dresses podcasts are posted on each student's Google Classroom, 

please check them out. 

Friday, March 10, 2023

Blog #15

March 6-9, 2023

Student Led Conferences

Thank you to everyone that stopped by to celebrate our learning this week.

If you couldn't make it, please feel free to email me and we can arrange a time to chat.

Many grade three parents asked about reading activities to do at home, these links maybe helpful.

"Home Literacy" Through Playing with Sounds and Words 

Below is series of videos released by the Calgary Board of Education. This series provides information on phonemic awareness, as well as some fun activities you can try.

CBE Utilizing Decodable Books 

CBE Phonemic Awareness: Introduction

CBE Isolating Sounds: Part One

CBE Segmenting Phonemes: Part Three

CBE Manipulating Phonemes: Part Four

Fly Leaf Decodables

Fly Leaf Publishing is the series we use at Andrew Sibbald School. Click on the "Free- E Library" tab and then "Student" to access the list of books. You will then need to scroll down to the chosen text as well as some sample "homework" tasks based on the E Book.  

Fly Leaf Decodables

Friday, March 3, 2023

Blog # 14

February 27- March 3

Student Led Conferences are next week March 9-10. I would love to meet with you and your child. 

Please use CBE's system to book a conference time. 

"Heart Words" 

   In grade three, students learn high frequency words (words that come up often in reading) by focusing on the parts of the words that have an expected letter sound or pattern. In many cases the entire word can be sounded out through these familiar letter sounds and patterns. For example the word "she" can be decoded by using the familiar digraph s-h says "sh" and the long "e" at the end says its name. However, many high frequency words have parts that "do not follow the rules" and are spelled in a way that would not be expected. High frequency words that are irregularly spelled are called "Heart Words" because some part of the word must be explicitly taught and "learned by heart."  For example the word "from" has four sounds. Three of these sounds are spelled in a way that is expected. The only sound that does not follow the rules and must be "learned by heart" is the "o" making a "u" sound. During the learning process,  teachers and students will often place a heart symbol above or below the word to indicate that this part must be memorized or "learned by heart".

Photo credit: "Heart Words: A Better Way to Teach Sight Words"

Grade Three Heart Word Wall