June 16 - 20

 

Jay Genaille

Learning Intention: (Grade 2 SS)

- Exploring the dynamic relationships between people, place, and time supports understanding of perspectives and events to make meaning of the world

I Can:

- explore diverse cultural groups who contribute to the heritage of Canada

Learning Intention: (Grade 2 ELAL)

- Listening and speaking form the foundation for literacy and improve communication, collaboration, and respectful mutual understanding

I Can:

- explore how oral traditions are shared and passed down from generation to generation

As we continue to honour National Indigenous Peoples month, we had the special opportunity to welcome Jay Genaille to our school to teach us about traditional Hoop Dancing and share a powerful performance. We learned that Hoop Dancing is a form of storytelling, and Jay amazed us by creating many different shapes and animals using his hoops.  We learned that Jay uses 13 hoops to represent the 13 moons in a year. His performance was both beautiful and meaningful, and we are grateful for the chance to learn from him.

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Earlier in the week, we enjoyed a lovely pancake breakfast hosted by our Parent Association and the Calgary Stampede Batter Boys! Thank you parents for all you do for our Andrew Sibbald Community!

Following our breakfast, we participated in Western Day Sport Activities with our buddies, hosted by the grade 5 students. Thank you so much, grade 5s! Grade 2s had so much fun being active, trying out some western-themed activities, and hanging out with their buddies!

June 9th - 13th

 

June is National Indigenous History Month and as part of our learning we joined in on the Jube School's live session with Lennon First Rider who is a prominent Indigenous dancer known for his Fancy Dance performances and involvement in various powwows and other events. He has been involved in fancy dance since the age of 4 and has won numerous awards and championships in various categories. He has performed at events like the Calgary Stampede and is a multi-time World Iron Man Fancy Dance Champion!

Learning Intentions:

- Students explore the foundational heritage of First Nations communities

I Can:

- Describe how heritage is cultural traditions that can be expressed and learned in many ways and are passed down through generations

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This week we took a look at the history of lacrosse before we started our ELEV8 Lacrosse residency with Coach Dan Taylor! We learned that lacrosse was started by Canadian Indigenous groups and was originally known as stickball. These Indigenous games were seen as major events, which took place over several days in huge open areas between villages and the goals, which were often marked by trees or other natural features. The early iterations of this sport were more than recreational as they held significant cultural and spiritual importance, often serving as rituals and training for war. Any number of players were involved at one time and the rules were simple...the ball was not to be touched by a player's hand and there were no boundaries! The earliest lacrosse balls were made from natural materials like wood, buckskin, or rock and were often filled with fur. The early versions of lacrosse sticks were often crafted from single pieces of wood with the head bent and strung with animal sinew. 

Learning Intentions:

- Students modify movement to improve control and efficiency

I Can:

- Experiment with the three phases of movement in a variety of physical activities

- Modify one or more phases of movement to improve control and efficiency

- Participate in repeated practice for skill development 

- reflect on the performance of movement skills, and apply ways to be more efficient

Coach Dan taught us...

• about the parts of the lacrosse stick and how to hold it
• how to get low and scoop the ball up off the ground
• about using soft hands when throwing, catching and cradling the ball 
• to make sure the end of our stick faced our target when throwing

We also had lots of fun learning how to do some very tricky tricks like 'paint the circle', 'spin the stick' and played Hungry Hungry Hippos lacrosse style!

June 2 - 6

Learning Intention:

- students examine how growth is affected by variables

I Can:
- recognize how factors such as healthy eating, hydration, rest, and exercise affect healthy physical and emotional growth

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about healthy habits that can help our bodies and minds grow strong. So far we have learned that eating nutritious food, drinking enough water, getting rest, staying active and taking care of our mental health all contribute to our physical and emotional well-being. To show their understanding, students are designing “Healthy Humans” — creative drawings of themselves that included the healthy choices they make each day. These thoughtful and colourful projects are a great reminder of the small things we can all do to stay healthy. Stay tuned for some photos of our finished 'Healthy Humans'! 

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We also had some very special visitors in our classroom on Thursday! After learning about animal behaviour and building empathy for living things, students were thrilled to welcome 3-day-old goslings into our room. It was especially exciting to see our beloved Brightbill character from The Wild Robot "in goose!" A big thank you to Ellie in Grade 5 for sharing her sweet birds with us — the students absolutely loved the experience!

May 26th - 30th

 

Learning Intention:

- Students explain how the organization of ideas and information within texts can support the purpose or meaning of messages

I Can:

- Examine different reasons (purposes) for messages to be shared

- Explain why engaging with messages can be enjoyable

- Compare and contrast forms used to organize messages

- Examine the structure of a variety of imaginary or real stories

Over the last couple of weeks we have had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a few different sessions of LitCon 2025 - a literacy arts festival hosted by the Calgary Public Library.  We took some time to learn a little more about these three talented literacy artists -

All the sessions were really great, but of course having read Peter Brown's book The Wild Robot earlier in the year, we were most excited about joining his session and learning a little more about him! Prior to the session we read some of Peter Brown's other picture books - The Curious Garden and Mr. Tiger Goes Wild.

Peter shared about how he takes his ideas and moves them forward to becoming published books. He explained how he often starts with sketching his ideas like the characters and settings and creates thumbnail drawings. Peter also talked about how it takes a lot of resilience to pursue a book from the beginning to the end because it involves lots of fix ups which leads to many different versions.

We also learned about all the research that Peter did to help him really understand the characters he wanted to have in his story.

Students were glued to the Smartboard as the story of how The Wild Robot came to life unfolded before them. We took jot notes and followed along as Peter lead us through a directed drawing of the beloved character, Roz. Ask your child to share about their favourite part of our LitCon session with Peter Brown!