Kenneth D. Taylor - Mrs. Sayani

Dear Parents, Wishing you and your families a “Happy Holiday” and a wonderful “New Year”.  Thank you for your kind gifts.  I have enjoyed having all your children in my class and am looking forward to the learning ahead... Your child will be coming home with his or he report card today.  Please read this document and discuss your child’s strengths and also have a conversation with them about their next steps. Learning Commons - Mr. Dyck would like our students to keep their learning Commons books over the holidays.  Please ensure that your child continues to read for 15 minutes 4-5 times a week .  Our next exchange will be on January 3, 2017. Have a wonderful holiday! Mrs. Sayani

Dear Parents, Thank you for coming out to our school carolling today.  Our class did a wonderful job dancing to “ Waka Waka “, A Time for Africa. We also spent some time talking about how to be kind to each other.  We listened to a read aloud by our Assistant Principal, Mrs. Tuttle called “What Does It Mean To Be Kind?”.  Feel free to ask your child about this tonight.        Learning Commons - Mr. Dyck would like our students to keep their learning Commons books over the holidays.  Please ensure that your child continues to read for 15 minutes 4-5 times a week.  Our next exchange will be on January 3, 2017. Have a wonderful evening with your families. Mrs. Sayani

We are beginning to learn about “Liquids” in Science. Today the students explored water.  They observed it, felt it and explored it using spoons, beakers, measuring cups and test tubes.  We discussed the importance of water.  Feel free to ask your child what he or she knows about water. What scientific facts can they share with you. The students are learning how to use a Storyboard as a plan for writing stories.  This Board will help them collect story elements prior to writing.  We as class created a class generated Storyboard about a book titled, “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. It includes a beginning, middle and ending of a story. The students will have this storyboard when writing their own story. Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Looking ahead…  Painting something special for the holiday season… Tomorrow - green and red day. Our class will perform during our carolling assembly @ 1:00pm Friday - pajama day Mr

Today the class looked closely at the landscape of a Prairie.  We  discussed describing words and this is how some of the students described what they saw… ”I see beautiful sunflowers, a dirt path, a good looking sky that helps grass grow. I think the place gets lots of rain and sunlight.  I wonder why the flowers are so tall? I feel like there are lots of bees and butterflies there”. ~Aleksei “I see sunflowers, yellow daffodils, clouds and a clear blue sky. I think that this is a farmer’s field and it is beside a corn field and it is where scarecrows are...I wonder if strawberries grow and other fruits?  I also wonder if there are scarecrows? I feel a sunflower seed crunching in my mouth and the air and breeze”. ~Folashewa Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Looking ahead…  Painting something special for the holiday season… Thursday - green and red day. Our class will perform during our carolling assembly @ 1:00pm

Today the class looked at warm and cool colors in Art.  We discussed how cool colors remind us of trees and oceans whereas warm colors remind us of fruit, lava and the sunshine.  The students painted color wheels and learned how to mix colors to create different shades of colors. Here are a couple of our palettes. Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Parent Council is still looking for a few parents to volunteer as Parent Volunteer Coordinator for each classroom.   Our class still does not have a volunteer. If you have received your CBE police clearance and this position would interest you please contact parent council at council's.kennethdtaylor@gmail.com . Looking ahead…  Painting something special for the holiday season… Enjoy your weekend with your families and stay warm! Mrs. Sayani

Today the class began looking at the Land of Nova Scotia. They noticed lighthouses, rocky shores, hills, oceans and boats. We used the thinking routine; “I see, I think, I wonder and I feel” when looking at the photographs of this landscape. Please ask your child about this tonight. The students worked on a class survey today about “What Ken Taylor’s school colors should be”.  They asked students within our class and graphed the results using tally marks.  We learned that our class would like the color to be BLUE. Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Parent Council is still looking for a few parents to volunteer as Parent Volunteer Coordinator for each classroom.  If you have received your CBE police clearance and this position would interest you please contact parent council at council's.kennethdtaylor@gmail.com . Looking ahead…  What does the land in Iqaluit look like? Mrs. Sayani

This week we looked closely at the landmarks of Iqaluit. The students compared the landmarks of Calgary to the landm arks of Iqaluit. Feel free to ask your child about this. The students continue to learn about double digit addition without regrouping.  We discussed two rules today.  First you add the ones and then you add the tens.  We will continue this work tomorrow.  Some students have taken on the challenge to work through double digit addition with regrouping. Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Parent Council is still looking for a few parents to volunteer as Parent Volunteer Coordinator for each classroom.  If you have received your CBE police clearance and this position would interest you please contact parent council at council's.kennethdtaylor@gmail.com . Looking ahead…  What does the land in Iqaluit look like? Mrs. Sayani

Today we looked closely at the landscape of Iqaluit which is the capital city of Nunavut.  We are creating a class “Google Slide” show together and documenting as well as sketching in our creative journals.  Feel free task your child about this today. The students continue to learn about double digit addition without regrouping.  We discussed two rules today.  First you add the ones and then you add the tens.  We will continue this work tomorrow.  Some students have taken on the challenge to work through double digit addition with regrouping. Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Looking ahead…  What landscapes does Iqaluit have? Tomorrow is Popcorn Day again. If you did not bring a toonie today, you are welcome to do so tomorrow. Mrs. Sayani

Today our focus was on the visible thinking routine “ Think, Pair, Share”.  The students wrote down what they think about the Inuit Land after looking at photographs of Iqaluit. We are beginning our guided Inquiry about the Inuit Land.  These are some of the students’ thoughts prior to our research. The students are learning about double digit addition without regrouping.  We discussed two rules to day.  First you add the ones and then you add the tens.  We will continue this work tomorrow. Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Looking ahead…  What does the land in Iqaluit look like? Mrs. Sayani

Today our focus was on writing our “Next Steps” for our magnet project.  The students took the feedback given to them and wrote down how they might change things about their toy or game.  This is apart of design thinking whereby students learn that failing is “ok” and we are given the chance to fix things.  This is what our entire process looked like for the past 6 weeks… Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Looking ahead…  Begin our Inquiry on Canada’s Dynamic Communities: Inuit, Prairie and Acadian Mrs. Sayani

The students all had the opportunity to try out their magnetic toy or game today.  They invited a friend to try it out too.  We will be spending some time tomorrow discussing what are next steps will be… Feel free to ask your child about how things went today. Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). All Home Journal must be returned to school by tomorrow. Looking ahead…  Begin our Inquiry on Canada’s Dynamic Communities: Inuit, Prairie and Acadian Mrs. Sayani

The students all got Gmail accounts today!  They learned how to log onto a laptop and how to send an email.  Their task is to send me an email and our hope is to send one to their parents in the weeks to come.  We discussed what it means to show “Digital Citizenship” prior to accessing our account.  Feel free to ask your child about their Technology time today. Tomorrow is another spirit day at Ken Taylor School. Tomorrow we will have our 2nd school spirit day!  We are so excited for it! Being a new school means that we have the chance to start some traditions for the future students. One of those traditions is picking a school colour.  For our spirit day tomorrow, students are invited to wear a colour that they think would represent Ken Taylor School the best.  They should be able to explain why they chose that colour.  Today we watched a video that Mr. Dyck and Mrs. Tuttle created to share a colour they think would represent Ken Taylor.  They read a story and shared their feel

During Math we looked at Addition using the mental math strategy “counting on” and Subtraction using the strategy “counting back”.  We used cool dice to create equations and solve the equations.            We read the book “Ish” by Peter A Reynolds for Word Work.  The students focused on the “ish” ending sound. Important Dates: Friday is an early dismissal day! Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Looking ahead…  Play with our magnetic toys and games... Mrs. Sayani

We took time out of our day to learn about a mindful art form called Zengarden.  Each part of the garden has a name.  The students learned shading and coloring techniques which they applied to their art work.  Zentangles and Zengarderns are apart of mindfulness.              Zentangle is an easy to learn art method of creating beautiful images from repetitive patterns. It is known to increase focus and creativity. Important Dates: Friday is an early dismissal day! Learning Commons - Wednesdays ( Please remember to bring your books back to school). Looking ahead…  Play with our magnetic toys and games... Mrs. Sayani