Caine's Arcade at RT Alderman!

Hello room 75!
What a great field we had today to RT ALDERMAN!  Thanks to the families who brought donations for the Mustard Seed.  The students were excited to be at RT ALDERMAN and many were pleased to see some old friends who are now in Grade 5.  Ask your child to share with you their favorite game they played in the arcade.  Thanks to Mrs. Sturgeon, Mrs. Spurrell and Mrs. Litman for volunteering on our field trip!
Here is the link to the video that the students watched today, that explains where the grade 5 and grade 9 students at RT ALDERMAN got their inspiration to create their paper arcade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U

Next week is going to fly by I am sure as we are quickly approaching the holidays!  We will be spending the days singing carols, working with our buddies, sharing our Origins Projects and on Thursday we would like to have a class party.  Similar to what we did for Halloween, we will have a games afternoon, as well we will be watching a video with our buddy class.  If students want to bring treats to share with the class they can do so. We would like the snacks to be "relatively" healthy please.  Please remember that there should be no nuts in any products brought to school.  If students have a board game that they would like to bring and you are OK for them to do so, that would be great!

Also...
The students in our class and Mrs. Sloane's class did an amazing job singing the songs they have been working so hard on! It was great to see so many students and to meet many of their extended family members, such as the aunts, uncles and grandparents who came!! If you were not able to attend, we will find time for you in the week to make your Reindeer family picture!!  Here are the videos of the songs along with the students's artwork.

If there was anyone who happened to have video taped the performance of the students singing both the songs and would be willing to send me a copy that would be greatly appreciated.  I can then show the video to the students as well as  take the recording of the students voices singing and put that into the video with their artwork.  If so, could you please email me? achandelsman@cbe.ab.ca? Thanks.

I hope that you have a great weekend as it is supposed to be warming up finally!!(At least on Sunday!)

Important Information:
Thursday we will have a class party, with board games, a movie and snacks.
Thursday is also our last day of school before the holidays

Homework:
Read 30 minutes
Mathletics 30 minutes
if you have not finished your origins project, please do so and hand it in on Monday.

Question for the blog:
What game or part of today did you enjoy the most at the paper arcade and why?

See you on Monday,
Ms. Handelsman

It is tomorrow night!

Hello room 75!
Sorry for the late post!
We had a staff meeting and then one of the teachers from High River came to collect as much of the gifts for the families in High River as she could fit into her vehicle! And guess what?!?! The Cranston families have been so generous that there was not enough room to fit all the gifts.  Since Mrs. Secord lives in High River, she will be bringing her truck to school tomorrow and will bring the remainder of the presents to Spitzee School in High River on her way home.  Thanks again for the generosity the families in room 75 and in the rest of Cranston school demonstrated through their donations in support of our families helping families!

Thanks to Ally for sharing her interview with her grandpa about her country of origin, England!  She included a "bobby hat"; some Lego figures for the kids to see what a "bobby looks like", as well as the "Royal Guard"; and a double decker bus.  She was very confident and she shared the vast amount of information she gained about the different landmarks, foods, famous individuals, transportation and sports to name a few.  She included a picture of her grandpa from when he was a young boy in his school uniform to show what it was like.  As more students are sharing, they are making connections between their family's stories and the stories of their peers.  For example, Ally's grandpa emigrated to Canada in the same manner and in around the same time period, as Brooke's grandpa and Wilson's relative: by boat!  My dad's family also came from England, but my dad emigrated by plane shortly after he finished university and then my grandma emigrated after I was born to be closer to her grandchildren!

Marek did a wonderful job present the powerpoint he created about his interview.  He interviewed his mom and asked her questions about his grandpa who emigrated from Scotland! Ask your child if he or she remembers the reason why Marek's grandpa came to Canada!  He was very excited to include the different famous athletes and well known sports that are played in Scotland!

Way to go! Remember that the interview projects are due by Friday of this week!

We spent most of the day working to prepare for tomorrow evening.  Some of you will be receiving invitations today or tomorrow that were made by your child in regards to the Winter Wonderland!  We met with our buddies this morning to practice our songs as well as to work on our "gingerbread buddies" display.  Ask your child to share with you what they created today with their buddies and what the different steps were in the process. Tomorrow will be our final rehearsal in music class before the big event at 630 tomorrow night!  We are asking that if you are coming to the evening tomorrow night and your child will be there to sing, to try and arrive by 620.  I will close up my classroom at that time so that we can all meet in the music room. If you are at a younger sibling's performance in Kindergarten, then as soon as that one is finished, you can quickly make your way to the music room. They are adjacent to each other:)  We tried to time it so that you will be able to see all the kids strut their stuff tomorrow night! So, if we have to wait a few minutes that will be alright...The students in the tone chime club will be performing afterwards, I think they were planning to do so at about 645 or 7, again to allow for the families to see their younger siblings perform afterwards.  In between these performances there will be activities in the hub, and in the gym (hot cocoa and cookie decorating to name a few), plus there will be an activity planned for you to do as a family in our classroom!)  It is an open house, in that you can come and go as you please, so except for when we are in the music room, room 75 will be open for you and your family to come in and visit! Also, please be sure to check out the wonderful work on display in front of our buddy class as well as in front of ours!

Thank you to all the families as we have ALL the field trip forms handed in and so we are ready to go on our field trip this Friday!!
As Friday will be Mrs. Secord's last day with us as a student teacher, she is wanting to do something special tomorrow. She would like to bring in a special family member. Here are the clues:
This family member has 4 legs.
This family member has long ears.
This family member has a bushy tail.
This family member probably LOVES to eat carrots!
This family member would hop all over the place if it wasn't in its crate.
This family member has whiskers and fur.
What do you think her special family member is?Ask your child to share with you their answer.

Important information:
Winter Wonderland is tomorrow
We have a special visitor tomorrow
Field trip is Friday.

Homework:
read 30 minutes
mathletics 30 minutes
finish your interview project if you have not done so yet...

Question for the blog:
What would you like to say to Mrs. Litman as it is almost her last day and we won't have time to share the blog on Friday morning?

See you tomorrow,
Ms. Handelsman

Two more days until the winter wonderland!

Hello room 75!
We have been busy practicing and working hard with our buddies to get ready for the winter wonderland at Cranston School on Friday! Ask your child to share with you what they did today with their buddies and what they did in music class.

This afternoon we listened to three of our classmates share their Origins Projects.
Lucas interviewed his grandfather and shared what he learned about Portugal.   He was very proud to show the picture he included of his grandfather holding a trophy from when he played "futebol".

Nik interviewed his dad and enjoyed sharing his powerpoint on his country of Origin, the Ukraine.  He did a wonderful job reading the information from the slides, especially when he was discussing all the different foods.

Kaden interviewed his Grandpa about growing up on a farm in British Columbia, Canada.  Kaden included photographs to show the different artifacts that he was talking about.  He showed pictures of the battery powered radio his grandpa used to listen to the news on, as well as a picture of some of the coal lanterns they used to light up their house.
Way to go you guys!!
Ask your child to share with you something they learned from listening to their friends share their projects!

Tomorrow, we will continue to listen to a few more students share their projects to the class!  Keep up the good work.

Just a reminder that we are going on our field trip to RT Alderman on Friday for the paper arcade.  Here is a letter that RT Alderman has written in regards to the donations they are asking for for the Mustard Seed.  Bringing a donation is OPTIONAL.

Important information:

Thursday night from 6-8 is the school's Winter Wonderland

Friday is our field trip to RT ALDERMAN

Friday is also Mrs. Litman's last day with us as our student teacher.

If you have any donations for our family in High River and have not done so already, please bring them in.

If you have not filled in your field trip form please do so and send them in tomorrow. (We are only missing 2!)

Homework:

Finish your origins project

Read 30 minutes

Mathletics 30 minutes

Question for the blog:

What have you enjoyed the most about working with our buddies? And why?

See you tomorrow.

Ms. Handelsman

Aujourd'hui nous avions français!

Bonjour mes amis! Comment ça va?
Aujourd'hui, tous les enfants sont allés à la classe française.

Yes, we all went to French class today! Ask your child who their teacher was and what they worked on in French class!
I was away in the morning at the dentist and was happy to hear how hard the students worked for Mrs. Hofer!  Ask your child to share with you something they learned when working on Mathletics.
In the afternoon we went and did our book exchange at the library and then worked on Daily Five.  The students were very excited to share their presentations today on their Origins Interview projects.  We listened to Brooke share her Keynote presentation about her Grandma who came from England!  The students were amazed by the original photos of Brooke's grandma as a child and then of Brooke's great grandma as a baby (Grandma Brooke who Brooke was named for).
Bruce shared his poster on his interview of his dad who is originally from China!  Bruce did an amazing job of laying out the questions, answers and pictures in a circular method all around his poster.  He told the class that his favorite part was putting all the pictures and writing onto his poster.  The students really enjoyed hearing about the many different sports that are popular in China, such as ping pong and badminton.
We will continue to listen to each other's presentations throughout this week. If your child is choosing to present a keynote or powerpoint,or has images that he or she would like to display, please feel free to email them tome so that we can project them on the Smartboard during the presentation!

Important Information
Origins interview projects are due this week.
If you have items you wish to donate to our family in High River and have not yet done so, please bring into the school ASAP.
Field Trip forms are due! If you have not filled them out yet, please do so ASAP and make sure it is in your child's communication folder for school tomorrow.
Thursday night 6-8 Winter wonderland.
Friday is our Field Trip to RT Alderman
Thursday, December 19th- we will be having some type of an Xmas celebration in our class (playing board games, eating tasty snacks, watching a movie. More info to follow.
Friday, December 20th- NO SCHOOL Winter break begins!

Homework:
Finish your origins project!
Read 30 minutes
Mathletics 30 minutes
There is no work for your homework journals as most of you are continuing to work on your Origins project this week. If you would like to write me a Dear. Ms. Handelsman you are more than welcome to and I will read it over the lunch hour!  This can be on any topic of interest to you, for example, if you are in a hockey tournament, what you will be doing over the winter holidays, what you did over the weekend, what you do after school, etc...

Question for the blog:

Qu'avez vous fait dans la classe française aujourd'hui? Qui était votre professeur?

(What did you do in French class today? Who was your teacher?
à demain!

Mme. Handelsman

Parent Teacher Interviews went really well!

Hello room 75!
Thank you to the families who booked an appointment to come and visit with me so we could discuss your child during parent teacher interviews!
We are approaching our final 9 days of school before Winter holidays.
They will be a busy nine days with our Winter Wonderland on Thursday night and our field trip to RT Alderman on Friday.
If you have not done so, please make sure you have filled in, signed and returned the permission slips to the school on Monday.  If you would like to volunteer please email me achandelsman@cbe.ab.ca to let me know.
For the Winter Wonderland, it will be an open house from 6-8pm on Thursday.  We will be singing our songs with our buddies just once in the evening. We will be singing at 630 in the music room. If you will be attending the evening, please make sure that your child is there by 620 so that we can prepare.  There will be an activity for the students and their families in the classroom that they can do together anytime in the evening (except for when we are singing at 630).  There is more information about the evening the monthly newsletter as well as in the Monday Morning Messages.

Important information:
Monday the field trip forms are due
Monday is library book exchange
Winter Wunderland this Thursday, 6-8pm (singing at 630)
Friday is our Field Trip to RT Alderman

Homework:
Read 30 minutes
Mathletics 30 minutes

Question for the blog:
WHat did you do over the long weekend that you would like to share with the class?

See you tomorrow,
Ms. Handelsman

Field Trip forms home today

Hello room 75!
I hope that you had a good day today and worked hard for Mrs. Litman and Mrs. Hofer.
Tomorrow will be a busy day as we work on finishing up our posters with our buddies, our anthologies and posters.
I know that there was a Citizenship assembly that was hosted by Ms. Goldberg's and Mr. Soulier's class.  I hope that you were on your best audience behaviour as you watched the hard work of each of the students who presented in the assembly.  Please share with your family something that you learned from the assembly today.

Mrs. Litman told me that the field trip forms went home today.  Please make sure that you have given them to your family so that they can read them over and sign them quickly, as they are due back to school on MONDAY.  If one of your parents would like to volunteer, please have them email me at achandelsman@cbe.ab.ca to let me know.

Important information:
Parent teacher interviews tomorrow night and Friday.
No school this FRIDAY
If you are participating, please be sure to bring in your donations for the family we are supporting from High River.
Field trip forms due in MONDAY.
Thursday, December 12th: Cranston's Winter Wonderland from 6-8PM.  It is an open house, but we will be performing with our buddies a few songs and we will try to do so at 630/700/730...

Homework:
read 15-30 minutes
Mathletics 15-30 minutes
work on your origins project which is due next week.

Question for the blog:
What did you do today, or what happened today that you would like to share with the class?

See you tomorrow,
Ms. Handelsman

snow drifts

Hello room 75
Sorry for such a late post, but I have been busy this evening shoveling out the large amount of snow that blew onto my sidewalk and driveway.
I know that half of you stayed home and half of you went to school.
I hope that for everyone their Tuesday was a warm and safe one.

Have a great Wednesday with Mrs. Hofer, Mrs. Litman & Mr. Wong!

Question for the blog (I know that it was a late post, so don't worry if you were not able to answer the question, you can just discuss in class during the morning meeting)
What did you do on Tuesday that you would like to share with the class (and with me when I read the blog)?

Have a great and WARM Wednesday!
Ms. Handelsman