Weekly Update

Hello parents and students!

It was a busy week full of a lot of activities! The students have continued their arctic fairytale writing and it's coming along really well.  The students are realizing the expectations now when they write, we are learning how to rewrite, revise and edit our work so it can be even better.  This week as a class we had a discussion of what it would be like to live in Iqaluit compared to Calgary, the pros and cons.  I think the consensus was that it would be a pretty neat place to live, but the cold would scare off many!  We then discussed what we would need to life there sucessfully.  We will continue this idea and think of needs vs. wants.  I will eventually show the students the price differences between groceries there compared to here!  They could not believe when I told them that a lire of orange juice that cost just over $2.00 here cost $23.00 up there!  So that makes us think..... If you lived there, would you really NEED orange juice to live?  It's an interesting discussion that began to take place...

We did our soap carvings on Friday!  They turned out really well and the students were excited to see their work transform when we painted the soap with the ink paint so the etched part would stand out.  We  are not finished with the carvings though, the students will eventually write a story inspired by their art. 

On Friday we were also very lucky because Quest theatre came to our school and performed Big Sister, Little Brother.  It's aplay inspired by "The Emporer's New Clothes".  It was wonderful and I think the students really enjoyed it.  It was good timing because the students are writing their own story based on another one, so we talked about the idea of  'adapting' stories when we create our own sometimes.

In math we have been working with base ten blocks, the idea of representing and trading.  It's something that can be very difficult and a struggle to understand at first, so if your child wishes to practice more at home here are some great websites:

Blocks representing numbers
Blocks representing numbers #2
Identify the number

101 Dalmations choir practice starts on Tuesday during lunch, even though the deadline to sign up was Friday if your child is still interested in being in the musical, you can find the form off the Chaparral school website and bring it in on Monday or ASAP! 

Ms. Q