Pizza Lunch

Please read the following message from Mr. Yeung:

Dear Parents,

To celebrate the cookie dough fundraiser from last year we will be having a whole school pizza lunch on January 22, 2020.  There will be no charge to parents, thank you to School Council, and we will be ordering pepperoni, cheese, Hawaiian, vegetarian and gluten free options from Panago Pizza. Each student will receive up to 2 slices of pizza, should they want 2 slices, so please make sure to still send your child with snacks and some extra food for lunch, just in case they are still hungry.

If your child has any food allergies, that we are not already aware of, please make sure to let the office know as soon as possible and if your child normally goes home for lunch, they are welcome to stay at the school that day at no extra charge. Please just make sure to let us know your child will be staying if they do not normally stay. Should you not want your child to partake in the pizza lunch, please also let us know as soon as possible. 

An extra special thank you to School Council for providing us with this fun lunch and for everything they do for us! Should you have any questions or concerns please contact the school at 403-777-8180.

Thank you, 

Kenny Yeung

Principal

Keeler School

Popcorn Sale for the Australian Bushfires

Keeler School’s Generosity Club has been brainstorming ways that we can help our friends in Australia, who are dealing with terrible bushfires. We have decided to have a popcorn sale to raise money to help with some of the costs. Our popcorn sale will happen January 20-23^rd, 2020, at lunch time. We will sell bags of popcorn for $1. All of the money raised will go to one of four foundations:

Adelaide Koala Rescue – Helps take care of Koalas that have been hurt due to fires

The New South Wales Rural Fire Services – Helps support Firefighters and their families

CFS Foundation for Volunteer Firefighters – Helps Volunteer Firefighters who have lost their homes or have been hurt while fighting fires

Beyond Blue – A foundation that helps survivors with counselling and other mental health support.

If your child would like to purchase popcorn, they can bring money Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. There will be no popcorn sale on Friday, the 24^th because we do not have lunch on Fridays.

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Baniak or Mrs. Genno at 403-777-8180.

Thank you so much for thinking of those in need, and supporting our fundraiser!

-Generosity Club

Learning Update

Welcome to the first blog post of the new year.  The weather last week certainly didn't keep us away from learning.  Brrrr!

Right away, we started off by brainstorming and writing our January goals.  At the beginning of each month, students choose and record an academic goal, which for most students targets an area of Literacy or Math.  Next, students choose a random goal.  This encourages them to strive for growth within an activity that they are passionate about.  Lastly, a Circle of Courage goal, which is centered around one of Mastery, Independence, Generosity, or Belonging. 

After the winter break the Grade 2s hit the ground running, starting three new units.

In Math, we have begun exploring 3-D shapes and have also introduced Math Centers.  Within these Math centers, we are able to complete targeted practice for our two-digit addition and subtraction skills, as well as maintain our knowledge of the other various math skills that we have covered so far this year!

In Mrs. Rahal’s class, students were also introduced to word problems and various ways to solve the problem using pictorial representation and number sentences. 

In Science we are investigating Hot and Cold.  We will be completing experiments and doing research so that the students can...

- describe temperature in relative terms, using expressions, such as hotter than, colder than. 

- measure temperature in degrees Celscius 

-describe the role of insulation in keeping things hot or cold.  

AND just a few more!

In Social Studies we are about to begin learning about Acadian cultures, so we spent the week focussing on where the Maritime provinces of Canada are located, and discussed how the landscape differs from that of the prairies.  The Maritime provinces of Canada are just a portion of Eastern Canada that hosts the rich history of Acadians.

Music: Ms. McGill's class learned what the word tempo means and had fun exploring the tempos of various songs! Mrs. Rahal’s class learned a Hot and Cold song with actions.  

Winter Break

Classes will resume on January 9, 2020.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Winter Break!

Learning Update

Wow, fall went by quickly!

Grade 2s spent the last two weeks finishing up various projects:

• Our pictorial chart about eye color
• More hamburger math fact practice; Ms. McGill's class focused on the words, "hamburger is for horizontal"
• Quest performance last Thursday! 

Writing/Art

We read a book entitled "Snowmen at Night".  As a class we brainstormed what we think our snowmen do at night.  Students turned their creative thinking switch on and brainstormed ideas, created a rough copy, and lastly, wrote a piece of writing to go with the art pictured below!  Each student used ripped paper to create a side profile of their snowman.  

Learning Update

Hello Grade 2 Families,

Last week we started Quest Theatre (pictures to come).  The students had bundles of fun creating and practicing our Christmas scene for the school concert this Thursday, December 12th.  Room 7 and Room 8 are both full of reindeer and elves.  We are excited for you to see it!

Math

Last week, Ms. McGill and Mrs. Rahal's class completed a survey on eye colour as a class.  Then individually, each student created a picture graph.  In Room 7, 14 students have brown eyes, 4 have blue eyes, 2 have hazel eyes and 2 have greeen eyes.  Mrs. Rahal's class asked and answered some questions where they had to analyze their data.  Ms. McGill's class will be doing that this week.

We have also been working on horizontal math facts (otherwise known as hamburger math facts), where students have to remind themselves of their ones and tens place value relationships while adding and subtracting.

Social Studies

Ms. McGill and Mrs. Rahal's classes both finished up a research project on the prairies.  Students were placed in groups and using the pictures and text, had to gather and record important information on life in the past, landscapes, resources, and animals!

Physical Education

Ms. McGill's class had a special guest!  The area physiotherapist taught us all about various activities that we can do when we are feeling wiggly.  We are so excited to share what we learned with Mrs. Rahal's class.

Learning Update

Writing

In Ms. Rahal's class, students were introduced to some more words they can use to connect two sentences together (conjunction words).  Some of these words include or and yet.

In Ms. McGill's class, students have been working on their spelling through the use of Words Their Way and word rings based on their decodable books.

Students have also been working to add more detail to their writing tasks and have been making sure to use proper capitalization and punctuation.


Math 

The Grade 2 students have been introduced to graphing and data analysis.  They surveyed peers to gather information, make estimations, answer questions, and then used the information gathered to create a bar graph.  Survey questions have included: “What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?".

Science 

Students have been learning about what a compass is, it's relationship to magnetism, and how it is used in our environment. They had to answer two questions last week: What is a compass? (What does it do?) and How does a compass work?

Social Studies 

Mrs. Horder, our Indigenous Education Learning Leader, has been working with the Grade 2 classes on the importance of oral history in relation to the indigenous cultures of the prairies.  Looking through this lens, we have been comparing our life to that of indigenous peoples.

Quest Residency

Quest Theatre is doing a residency at Keeler from Dec. 2-Dec. 12.  Quest Theatre is an organization that comes into schools and assists students in a theatrical production from start to finish.  The instructors will teach Music/Drama during the school day, culminating in Christmas themed performances on December 12th.  The performances will be at 1:30 and 6:30.