TWAS April 12

Hello Everyone,

I hope you've all had a good week! 

Student led conferences are this Wednesday and Thursday, please let me or the office know if you're having trouble booking.  I know the children are very excited to show you what they've been up to!  Unless you are the 4:00 appointment, please come 20 minutes early so that you have time to visit all of the student learning stations.  Because there will be other families in the room when you are at the 'meet with teacher' station, I am happy to re-book for a different day/time if you would like a more private conversation.

Thank you so much volunteers who were able to join us on our field trip to Leighton Art Center this week. The weaving is up on display (and in the picture below).  The Leighton Center property is so beautiful and the children enjoyed seeing and learning about the many different art mediums that are part of the Leighton experience. Additionally it was fun to learn about some of the non-human critters that visit Leighton and neighbouring properties!

We also managed to build and float our boats this week.  There were so many creative designs and each and every boat floated; many even carried 'passengers'!! Way to go 73!  Some of the designs were even able to self-propel through the water.  While some boats have made it home, others did not survive the elements and have moved on to the recycling bin.  I have encouraged the children to continue to experiment with their designs and share observations on Monday!

Next week we will be starting measurement in math.  We will be looking, experimenting and playing with many different units of measurement (distance, weight, time) so if time permits, it would be great to get some of those conversations started at home as well!

Here is one of this week's math problems:

Ms. Secord is reading a book with 99 pages.  On Monday, she reads 2 pages.  On Tuesday, she reads 7 pages.  On Wednesday she reads 10 pages.  On Thursday she reads 5 pages.  On Friday she reads 14 pages.  She has to finish the book by Sunday. How many pages does she have left to read?

Our narrative writing is coming along so well.  We have been able to enjoy some Author's Chair sharing, and many of the students are nearing the end of their tales.  We will beginning to turn those stories into puppet theaters next week. Hopefully there will be some shows or partial shows to share by conference time! 

We are moving into the conclusion of The Story of Dell; enjoy our most updated version.  We think it's fantastic. Maybe even fantastic enough to turn into a play . . . . Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Once Upon a Time there was a happy and really brave creature named Dell! Dell was also incredibly beautiful. For starters, she was all purple and pink, except for her black hair. She always wore a super special pink dress even though her favourite colour was red.  Her loving kind eyes are teal blue and her dark brown eyebrows always smiled.

Dell lives on Planet Zorb. You’ve never heard of this ginormous planet because it is magically hidden in a black hole so that no one in any galaxy will ever find it! Planet Zorb is an awesome place to live, most especially because all creatures are nocturnal! Planet Zorb has the craziest swimming pools you ever did see! The water is purple and so super clean that it even cleans itself. Some pools even have incredibly wacky blue waterslides that are up to 5000 meters high. They whirl and twirl and take you to cool random places!! So, you would think Dell would love swimming. 

One Tuesday Morning Dell woke up and put on her favourite dress. She walked to school just like any other day.  She enjoyed watching the cool fairy lights that guided her morning walk.  One the way to school the lights were red.  When she walked home the lights were purple.  Each month the walking lights changed colour. This was the first day that they were red so she knew it was a brand-new month.

She walked into class excited to share her new-month knowledge when suddenly her teacher called out to the class

“Wonderful news everyone!!! We are going swimming!!!!”

Dell was excited until she started to shiver with fear. She started to visualize a huge massive diving board that she had seen on the nocturnal Planet Zorb internet. She started to think terrible thoughts like “I’m scared; I’m going to sink; I’m going to get hurt; I’m going to fall in and will never ever get out!!!”

Suddenly, the teacher, in a very serious owl voice said “our fun swimming adventure starts tomorrow. So please pack up your swimming gear, your favourite rubber duck and be ready for tomorrow!”

Dell feels extremely frustrated because not only does she have to go swimming, but she has to go tomorrow!!

As Dell began her walk home, the coloured lights started flickering wildly, like they always do when someone is nervous or afraid.  This made her think about how she could be brave.

As she was thinking about how to be brave, the lights transformed into secret code messaging that read

TELL THE TEACHER   TELL THE TEACHER    TELL THE TEACHER  TELL THE TEACHER  AND YOU WILL BE OKAY!

Dell thought to herself. . .I CAN TELL THE TEACHER!

When she got home she had a nice warm bath, which always makes her feel good, and she thought to herself, if having a bath makes me so happy then swimming, which is in nice warm water too, will also make me happy! But I’m still going to tell the teacher.

The next morning Dell is feeling excited about swimming because she is thinking that the water will be nice and warm. At the same time thought Dell is still really anxious and terrified about the diving board. She knows she needs to talk to the teacher but she is afraid the other kids will find out and make fun of her so she comes up with a better plan.

She decides to hide her swimming suit in the bathroom. She remembered that there was a silver storage box tucked under the bathroom sink.  This was perfect because her swimsuit won’t get damaged and it also won’t damage anything in the bathroom.

As soon as teacher owl had finished the class attendance, and everyone was busy working on their morning math problem (3 zillion bouncy balls duplicate so how many bouncy balls all together), Dell stealthly tucked her swimsuit into her inside hoodie pocked and signed herself out to the washroom.

When Dell arrives at her perfect swimsuit hiding destination she finds the wonderful hardworking caretaker bat cleverly cleaning away. 

“OHhhhh no” thinks Dell.  What do I do now!!!

But as luck would have it, that busy body boy called Bulabalooo, popped his head in the door to say

“Excuse me caretaker bat but the boy’s bathroom needs paper towels”

So off the caretaker bat and Bulabalooo went to fix the bathroom issue.

As soon as they were gone, she tucked her swimsuit away into the perfect secret destination and made her way back to class feeling very proud of her slightly naughty but clever self!

Walking back to class, Dell felt much better. She started to think about all the fun swimming things she might miss, and tried to delete all the images out of her mind but she just could not.  Even though the bus ride to the swimming pool is super cool, she just can’t stop picturing fun things happening in the self-cleaning purple swimming pool water.

She even pictures all kinds of Planet Zorb indigenous creature having all kinds of swimming pool fun. Cariduck’s (which look kind of like a cross between a caribou and a duck) are splashing and kicking up a storm. Goomoose (very similar to a moose and a goose) were planning a swim-time favourite game: Frankenstein.

By the time she gets to the pool she is almost wishing she had her swimsuit but then she thinks of that big scary diving board and is grateful for her cleverness. All the children enter the pool and head into the change rooms.  The time has time has finally come. Dell must tell her teacher that she does not have a swimsuit.

“Excuse me Teacher Owl. I forgot my swimming suit so I guess I’ll just have to watch from the waiting room” Dell said with a little bit of happiness in her voice.

“Ohhhhh don’t you worry not one bit, Dell.” Replied her teacher. “the swimming office has lots of spare suits that come in all shapes, sizes and colours,” teacher owl said with even more happiness in her voice. 

Dell feels incredibly frustrated, scared, anxious, terrified.  Dell feels like she’s going to puke!