This year, we have been learning a lot about Aboriginal culture across Canada. This Spring, we are also beginning to learn about Aboriginal culture elsewhere in the world. Today, I talked with the students about Mongolia, where I taught for two years. First, I gave them an overview of the country and its people. Then, I talked about the Tsaatan , or Reindeer people. In my own travels to lake Hovsgul in Northern Mongolia, I spent some time with a Tsaatan family. The Tsaatan are an ancient minority culture in Mongolia. The students noticed many similarities between the Tsaatan and Canadian Aboriginal People when we looked at some images. By request, I will bring in my traditional Mongolian clothing and other items or images I have from my time in Mongolia.

This week:

• Wednesday
  • Young People’s Concert at the Sagebrush- Theatre Sports
  • Home Reading Book exchange
• Thursday
  • Library
  • Jersey Day- Children may wear sports jerseys to support the families who were affected by the Humboldt bus accident
• Friday
  • Sharing of our Spheros project with Mme Kilmartin’s class

Next week:

• Thursday, April 19 we will have lots of fun activities as a reward for the points students earned, including:
  • Bring a stuffie to school
  • Wear PJs (a student asked my to wear my traditional Mongolian del- if someone else has traditional dress they would like to wear, they can choose that too!)
  • Extra outside play time
  • Inside play time
  • iPad fun
  • Special treats- any parents who would like to send some in, let’s keep them healthy-ish!

Our Spring units are in swing! This week, we have been using block coding to program spherical robots called Spheros. We will continue to use them next week, culminating in group projects that we will share with a grade 2 class next Friday.

In the area of aboriginal studies, we have continued to learn with Mme Suzette. Students heard a story to inspire them to think about how family members teach skills to others in the family. Today, four students recognized that we are on ceded Aboriginal territory on behalf of all at our assembly. We enjoyed watching Aboriginal dancers in regalia, drummers and singers to celebrate Aboriginal culture.  We are also beginning to learn about Aboriginal culture outside of Canada. This week, we read about Inuit culture in Greenland.

Thank-you to the students who presented a variety of water-related topics to launch our Show and Tell this week! We learned about a hydro-electric dam, the surface tension of water, drought in South Africa and how much fun water balloon fights are! We look forward to more great topics this month as we explore the many ways that water is important.

A reminder that we will be going to the Wildlife Park on Tuesday, May 1st to learn about water and wildlife.

In math, we have been reviewing adding, subtracting and measurement, including starting to tell time on an analog clock.

In French, we have just begun novel studies. Children will be reading a novel in a small group with the teacher, and many students have gotten to the stage where they can sign out youth novels from the library for personal silent reading. Great job! Keep up the home reading as well! We have two students who have read across Canada, and are now world travellers!