Welcome Back!

What a great first week it has been! Ms. Yong and Mrs. Ma were so pleased to see everyone's faces again. We hope you had a restful and fun break.

Important Information and Dates:

- CJP Science Fair club is looking for some adult volunteers to help judge our school's Science Fair. It would be a half day commitment on  February 7th morning. Volunteers do not need any teaching or science back ground but these expertise never hurt.  It is open up to parents of CJP students from Grades K-4. These adults will be given a brief judging 'clinic' to help educate them on the judging process. Judges are the ones that help us decide who represents CJP at the city science fair. 

- Students who are interested in re-writing their addition/subtraction math assessment, they are welcome to write it on Monday during recess to show growth in their learning. 

- School Council on January 17 at 6:30pm. 

- Scientist in School presentation on January 16th for Room 20 and January 17th for Room 21 at 1:00pm. 

- Parent-teacher conference on January 25th, 2018
- This weekend, students have taken a blank multiplication chart home to work on. We will go through it on Monday to connect to the work we are working on in class. Please have a discussion with your child about multiplication. 

Blue Dot Days
Brrrrrr! It has been a very cold week. At CJP we have had three Blue Dot days, this means students stay inside for recess and are allowed to come in at 8:55am before school starts at 9:10am. Please ensure you are bundeled up and dressed appropriately for the weather! Students, remember to check the lost and found for your sweater, gloves, hats and mittens.

Welcoming, Caring, Safe and Respectful
What do these four words mean to you? As a school community, everyclass created a leaf that students signed, acknowledging that they as students have a responsibility to the school. Please have a discussion with your family,what do the four words look, sound and feel like at school from a student perspective and a parent perspective? Below are the rules from the Alberta Government: The Alberta Education Act for both students and parents.



To help us understand these four words, students have been doing a read aloud of Wonder by RJ  Palacio. You can have a discusison of what hte students have read so far and who the main characters are!


Math
In Math students have been learning about multiplication. Some of the key terms we have learned so far are array, groups, product, multiplication, multiplier/multiplicand, and area.
Some of the materials students have been using are in pictures below: multiplication bead board, stamp game, Pythagoras Board and Checkerboard.

Lego Math
In order to learn about multiplication and what it means, students were presented with a challenge


How would you figure out how many studs are inside a 5 by 10 lego piece?

How would you solve the area of a 6 by 8 or 8 by 6 lego brick?

What is the Area of the big rectangle below? What strategies would you use to figure it out? How many groups do you see?

A student is showing their thinking. 

 

Light and Shadow

Students have been learning about Light and Shadow in Science. The Great Lessons are unique to Montessori, one lesson explains how the universe was made. we reviewed the great lesson and tied it into one of the most important sources of light, the sun



First we learned that light is a type of energy, just like sound! Second, we learned that there are different ways to organize light into categories that help us understand what light is/does and where we find it: communication and adapation (angler fish), energy (sun), reflect, see (flashlight) and heat (camp fire).

Phases of the Moon

We have an optometrist visit on Friday and shared their understanding of the eye and their expertise with us. Here's a reflection of our work. 


In order to understand how light works students are learning about Light and Shadow through the perspective of a photographer.
As a critical thinking challenge, students looked through 8 photos and determined which photos were worth 1000 dollars.





Here are the 8 photos
 




Photographs 4,7 and 8 were the MOST popular in terms of meeting the criteria. Out of this top three, which on is worth 1000 dollars? 

Students at work:

Students analyzed the photos and this is what they think. 

Students used Classlab to document their ideas on the board just like a sticky note.

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Conferences are on the 25th of January if you are unable to join us on that evening please re-schedule by emailing us. Also, booking conferences will be up at 8am on the 18th.