Welcome to a new year!
Posted on Sep. 12, 2025Hello! Thank you for checking in -- welcome to my class website if you haven't been here before. This year I'll be posting monthly updates here with information on what we've been working on for the…
News
Farewell... Spring? Hello June.
Posted on May. 31, 2025Hello! Ummm! Once again, time has gotten away from me. I sat down to do up this blog and realized that I had never done May's! I sincerely apologize. In the past couple months, we've said goodbye to Mr.…
Farewell March... I guess April's already half over?
Posted on Apr. 10, 2025Hello! Welp! I don't know where the time went. One day I was thinking to myself, "I'll have to write that April blog soon, and the next... well, here we are. March was a busy month! We had report cards,…
Farewell February, Hello March!
Posted on Mar. 1, 2025Hello! February felt like it went by so fast! But we got to do some amazing things: a performance of Oliver! at Gilbert Patterson, Valentine's Day, Mars activities with Mr. Tyslau, and our Skating trips.…
Farewell January, Hello February!
Posted on Jan. 31, 2025Hello! We're settling into the new year nicely by this point. Thank you so much to Yue Liu and Terry Mah for teaching us about Chinese New Year and helping us to celebrate this wonderful holiday! February…
Farewell December, Hello 2025!
Posted on Jan. 2, 2025Hello! And we're back for a new year! Welcome to 2025. It's incredible how quickly the time can fly, especially when we're excited about holidays and fun activities which go along with them. Starting…
2024
Farewell November, Hello December
Posted on Nov. 29, 2024Hello! Looking out the window, it's hard to believe that Winter isn't technically here yet, but we're only a couple weeks away. Thank you to everyone who was able to come out to our Hive Night in November.…
Farewell October, Hello November
Posted on Nov. 1, 2024Hello! The cold seems to be setting in now, and I've put away my summer jacket! Please make sure that your child has indoor shoes, as they will be required to take off wet and muddy shoes when they come…
Farewell September, Hello October
Posted on Sep. 28, 2024Hello! The weather's beginning to change, and the leaves are turning my favorite shades of red and gold! Please make sure that your child has indoor shoes, as they will be required to take off wet and…
First Week in the Bag!
Posted on Sep. 6, 2024Hello! Thank you for checking in -- welcome to my class website if you haven't been here before. This week, we have been focusing on getting to know one another and building our classroom culture. Thank…
Welcome Back!
Posted on Sep. 3, 2024Hello and Welcome! Thanks for stopping by to check out my class website. This year I'll be posting monthly updates here with information on what we've been working on for the past month, as well as what…
So long, farewell...
Posted on Jun. 27, 2024Thank you all so, so much! We had a fantastic year, and I've really enjoyed having such a wonderful class. Please see our final One Second Everyday video below, covering our whole year!
Goodbye May, Hello June!
Posted on May. 31, 2024Hello! This is it! We're down to the last month of school. We've already begun our 20-day countdown to the last day of school (what?) -- though our days are still just packed. Check out the video below…
Goodbye April, Hello May!
Posted on May. 1, 2024Hello! Well, normally I'd be saying that Spring has Sprung, but... the weather these last couple days seems to disagree! Regardless, we've had quite an eventful April, and it's just going to stay busy…
... Hello April
Posted on Apr. 12, 2024Hello! Well! The last couple weeks have certainly gotten away from me, but hopefully it's better late than never! Please see below for a quick video overview of the last month! Please see below for our…
Goodbye February, Hello March!
Posted on Mar. 1, 2024Hello! Please see below for a quick video overview of the last month! Please see below for our academic focuses in March: Writing: This month, we will spend the first couple weeks digging deeper into…
Goodbye January, Hello February!
Posted on Feb. 2, 2024Hello! It's been an exciting return to school this month. Miss Anika Huvenaars has been teaching (and will continue to teach until Family Week) Writing, Social Studies, French, and Word Study. Our schedule…
Goodbye December, Hello 2024!
Posted on Jan. 5, 2024Hello! I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing Winter Break. I'm really looking forward to the new year, and have a big announcement! For the first few months, Miss Anika Huvenaars will be joining…
2023
Goodbye November, Hello December!
Posted on Dec. 1, 2023Hello! Thanks for dropping by again! November is always a rush as we wrap up assessments, prepare for report cards, and move on to new topics! I feel as though we've begun to settle into some of our routines…
Goodbye October, Hello November!
Posted on Nov. 4, 2023Hello! Thanks for dropping by again! October was a busy month of assessments, projects, and quite a variety of learning topics. Thank you to everyone who was able to meet with me at Parent-Teacher Interviews…
Goodbye September, Hello October!
Posted on Sep. 29, 2023Hello! Welcome back! September has been a whirlwind of getting to know everyone and trying to fit back into routines of deep thinking and academic focus. If you haven't already, please fill out my Student…
Week One is in the Bag!
Posted on Sep. 8, 2023Hello! Thank you for checking in -- welcome to my class website if you haven't been here before. This week, we have been focusing on getting to know one another and building our classroom culture. Thank…
Welcome Back!
Posted on Sep. 2, 2023Hello and Welcome! Thanks for stopping by to check out my class website. This year I'll be posting monthly updates here with information on what we've been working on for the past month, as well as what…
For the week of Mar 27-31
Posted on Mar. 24, 2023Hello! This week we had our first "normal" week in quite some time. We wrapped up our Fractions topic (for now), as well as our Simple Machines science unit. We dug into some of the foundational skills…
For the week of Mar 20-24
Posted on Mar. 17, 2023Hello! It's been a really busy few weeks. We've had our ski trip, planning for our Carnival project, Mars Month, and the actual building time for that project last week. We've found the time to do some…
For the week of Mar 13-17
Posted on Mar. 10, 2023Hello! It's been a while since my last update, and I apologize for that. It's gotten pretty crazy with report cards, Ski Trips, and sick kids. In any case, it's been busy around the classroom! We have…
For the week of Feb 13-17
Posted on Feb. 10, 2023Hello! This past week we continued to work with multiplying large numbers: the students selected strategies and practiced solving problems (quite successfully!), and we had our mini-boss battle on Thursday.…
For the week of Feb 6-10
Posted on Feb. 4, 2023Hello! This past week we dove headfirst into multiplying larger numbers: the student explored a variety of strategies which may be used to solve multiplication problems (see photos below), compared them,…
For the week of Jan 30-Feb 3
Posted on Jan. 27, 2023Hello! These past couple weeks were a bit of a blur. We got to experience a Lion dance, and the students got to experience a bit of the traditions associated with the Lunar New Year. We've begun our new…
For the week of Jan 16-20
Posted on Jan. 13, 2023Hello! This week, we welcomed a few new students into our class! We reflected on the past year and explored the purpose of reflection and goal setting - then the students developed goals for home and…
2022
For the week of Dec 12-16
Posted on Dec. 9, 2022Hello! First of all, thanks so much for your support with the Winter Wonderland this past week. I was not able to attend because of illness in my family, but I'm told that it was incredible, and we had…
For the week of Nov 28-Dec 2
Posted on Nov. 25, 2022Hello! It's been a few weeks since my last blog. Since then, we've welcomed Mr. Tyler McCallum into our clas as a student teacher from the U of L, as well as Mr. Quinton to fill the role of educational…
For the week of Nov 7-10
Posted on Nov. 4, 2022Hello! We started this week off with a wild Halloween Monday - tons of fun! After that, the students began working with decimal numbers in math. In science, we continued to explore different methods which…
For the week of Oct 31-Nov 4
Posted on Oct. 28, 2022Hello! It was wonderful to get back to a full "typical" week this week. The students finished up our focus on multiplication and division foundations. In science, we finished up with the main categories…
For the week of Oct 24-28
Posted on Oct. 21, 2022Hello! Thank you to all for the wonderful conversations with our Parent-Teacher Interviews. This past week, the students continued reading their book club books, and we began looking at and practicing…
For the week of Oct 17-19
Posted on Oct. 16, 2022Hello! Last week was a short one, with Thanksgiving, but we began our first Book Clubs of the year, and had our first couple focused lessons on Waste In Our World. Some notes on our Learning this coming…
For the week of Oct 12-14
Posted on Oct. 7, 2022Hello! This week the students finished up our work with their mapping project. We worked at some independent literacy centers, and began brainstorming ideas that they might write about. We did some hard…
For the week of Oct 3-7
Posted on Sep. 30, 2022Hello! This week the students began working with maps - looking at the parts of a map and creating their own. We continued looking at complete sentences and how they can go wrong. We learned some math…
For the week of Sept 26-30
Posted on Sep. 23, 2022Hello! This week we really started digging into more of our curricular content. The students learned about the needs of plants, and studied the parts of complete sentences in more detail (Subjects and…
For the week of Sept 19-23
Posted on Sep. 17, 2022This past week was busy! We started learning our Math routines and structures, had our first few Science lessons, and began reviewing the parts of complete sentences. The students also wrote the MIPI…
For the week of Sept 12-16
Posted on Sep. 9, 2022Hello! What a wonderful first week we've had! It was really to have everyone back together in our building, and meet our amazing new class. As we're all getting used to here at Plaxton, we don't do things…
Welcome Back
Posted on Sep. 6, 2022Hello and welcome! Thanks for stopping by to check out my class website. I do my best to post weekly updates here with information on what we've been working on as well as what is coming up in school…
... and the rest!
Posted on Jun. 28, 2022Hello! I just wanted to say thank you for everything this year. It was a challenging one in some respects - new school building, new colleagues, new classmates, new routines, new restrictions (and then…
For the week of June 20-24
Posted on Jun. 17, 2022Hello! The days were just packed this week. We had a photo scavenger hunt on Monday, and we got to do art with Mrs. Goruk's grade 3s in the afternoon. Tuesday was our field trip (which was fun, despite…
For the week of June 13-17
Posted on Jun. 10, 2022Hello! This past week we really started wrapping up some parts of our school year. We are heavily into our end of year countdown (see pics below), and we are nearing the end of our final Science unit.…
For the week of June 6-10
Posted on Jun. 3, 2022Hello! This past week was fairly busy; between guest presentations on Peer Relations, the University VR development team, and our Human Sexuality lessons, it felt like we barely had any time for "typical"…
For the week of May 30-June 3
Posted on May. 27, 2022Hello! Since my last blog post, the students have developed and begun presenting social projects looking at their family heritage and culture and the countries their ancestors were from. We've finished…
For the week of May 16-20
Posted on May. 13, 2022Hello! This past week, students began editing their Camp NaNoWriMo stories - we'll wrap this up next week. It's been a long process, but it's been so fun! In Social, they created an "Immigration Poster"…
For the week of May 9-13
Posted on May. 6, 2022Hello! This past week, students worked on revising their Camp NaNoWriMo stories - it's been so incredible to see the stories that they've written and the passion they have developed around creating their…
For the Week of May 2-6
Posted on Apr. 30, 2022Hello! This past week, students have continued to add reflection posts on MyBlueprint (log in with the link in your email or by having your child log in with their district Microsoft login). I have…
For the week of April 11-14
Posted on Apr. 8, 2022Hello! My apologies for not posting the last two weeks - I was out sick (COVID came through my house). This past week, students have continued to add reflection posts on MyBlueprint (log in with the…
For the Week of Mar 21-25
Posted on Mar. 18, 2022Hello! This past week, students have continued to add reflection posts on MyBlueprint (log in with the link in your email or by having your child log in with their district Microsoft login). We continued…
For the week of Mar 14-18
Posted on Mar. 11, 2022Hello! This past week, students designed and constructed Mars/Space-themed Theme Park rides and attractions. It was a ton of fun, and the students did some deep thinking and problem solving throughout.…
Family Week Next Week
Posted on Feb. 18, 2022Hello! This past week, students completed their unit on Information Writing. They wrapped up the piece they were using for practicing the new skills and strategies we explored in class and wrote their…
For the week of Feb 14-18
Posted on Feb. 11, 2022Hello! This past week, students studied mentor texts to write introductions to their information texts, as well as taking all that they have learned these past few weeks and doing large-scale revisions…
For the week of Feb 7-11
Posted on Feb. 5, 2022Hello! This past week, students began exploring how to elaborate on, expand, and confirm the accuracy of the ideas in their information texts. They even got to take a little field trip down to the Learning…
For the week of Jan 31-Feb 4
Posted on Jan. 28, 2022Hello! This past week, students continued to develop their understanding of how to organize and structure information texts in writers' workshop. They researched number and animal words in Blackfoot and…
For the week of Jan 24-28
Posted on Jan. 21, 2022Hello! This past week, students engaged in a variety of thinking tasks over Math, Social Studies, and Language Arts. They worked collaboratively to come up with solutions to the task, and reflected on…
For the week of Jan 17-21
Posted on Jan. 16, 2022Hello! My apologies for the long gap between posts! We did have a long break in there, but I was also out sick the end of the last week (not COVID, thank goodness... just stuffy noses, coughs, and plugged…
2021
Dec 6 (Week 13)
Posted on Dec. 6, 2021Hello! This week, the students continued exploring Lights and Shadows with Miss B in Science (including a particularly fun Shadows lesson - see pictures below). They continued reading their Book Club…
Nov 27th (Week 12)
Posted on Nov. 27, 2021Hello! This week, the students finished their Alberta Regions projects in social and we had our first lesson of our new science unit (Lights & Shadows). They continued reading their Book Club novels and…
Week 11
Posted on Nov. 19, 2021Hello! After a short week last week, we were back at it this week. Miss Bundschuh (Miss B) started with us on Monday, and will be here until Dec 16th. The students moved on from the research portion of…
Week 9
Posted on Nov. 5, 2021Hello! My apologies for missing the class blog last week - I had to be away on Friday. Over the last couple weeks, we've had some fun activities: we had our student teacher, Miss B, come to visit us (she…
Week 7
Posted on Oct. 22, 2021Hello! It was really good to be back this last week. We had some excellent learning as a staff over the Thanksgiving week, and I'm sure the students all enjoyed some time off, but it's always good to…
Week 6
Posted on Oct. 16, 2021Hello! Thank you so much to everyone for meeting with me and chatting about your children. I really have missed the opportunity for face-to-face contact so this was refreshing and rejuvenating. Prior…
Week 5
Posted on Oct. 1, 2021Hello! This week, the students continued exploring our foundational math concepts, with many engaging with number groups via basic multiplication and division facts. We continued developing characters…
Week 4
Posted on Sep. 25, 2021Hello! This week, the students began to take ownership of their learning in Math. Some students quickly moved on from Number Sense foundations and into the foundations of working with Number Groups while…
Week 3
Posted on Sep. 17, 2021Hello! This week, our focus shifted from general school and classroom routines and procedures to subject specific ones. We started working on our spiralled math curriculum, and students have been working…
Week 2
Posted on Sep. 12, 2021Hello! After week two, we are settling into the new school and new routines. The students are jumping in and giving it their all! (See below for a number of pictures from the first couple weeks) This…
Week 1
Posted on Sep. 4, 2021Hello! Our first week back has ended now! It was a fantastic first few days. It was really cool to finally meet everyone and begin exploring the ways that we'll do things here at Dr. Robert Plaxton. As…