Everyone enjoyed the Stampede Breakfast

             

          


                 

              

Throughout the year, students of Vista Heights Grade 1&2 classrooms have had access to

to books from RAZ Kids reading program. This service will continue through the summer, so whenever your child is looking for an activity, please continue to explore the abundant title son this site.

Thank you parents for all the support that you have given to your child's learning.

On our last day of school we will start the morning with a 

All family members are invited to attend this event.

Students must come into class at the regular starting time 

and after their attendance has been recorded, 

students will go outside for the Stampede Breakfast.  

The students had a wonderful farewell assembly today! We sang songs, watched farewell videos, and said goodbye to our Grade 6's moving on to new schools.

We also gave thanks and farewells to the staff leaving Vista Heights including:

Mrs. Johl, Mrs. Chan, Ms. Makowski, Mrs Brar, Mrs Sagness, and Mr Lancee.

Thank you for all you do!

Also,

Little Green Thumb Snack tomorrow! 

Students will be enjoying a healthy tasty snack from the Little Green Thumbs so bring your appetites! 

Only 2 more days of school remaining!

Today the students reflected on the different things they learned in Grade 1/2. We were reminded of all the fun lessons, field trips, games and projects we did over the entire school year.

Reminders:

~~~~~~~~Farewell Assembly Tomorrow at 10:30!~~~~~~

~~~~~~~Stampede Breakfast Monday!~~~~~~

Mathematics 

This week students are showing their mathematical thinking 

by solving problems with Canadian coins.

Grade One students explored different ways to make exactly 

25 cents using pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Grade Two students explored different ways to make exactly 

I dollar using pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Hamza created a number of ways to amounts equal to 1 dollar.

 Zaid shows the important combination of 4 quarters making 1 dollar

Carlos finds many ways to use coins to equal 25 cents.

Aidyn finds another way to make change equaling one dollar.

Find some change in your household, 

try counting the various coins.

In the story, Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday, Alexander receives a dollar from his grandparents that he plans to save, but he spends it all, a little at a time.

Click on the book cover above to listen to this story of Alexander.

Communities in Canada

Students viewed a map of Canada and practiced learning about the differences between cities, provinces and country.

We live in a community of Vista Heights, 

that is in the city of Calgary, 

in the province of Alberta,

in the country of  Canada.

We have studied different communities in Canada and today we stared our study of the Acadian people from the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Students created postcards which had a picture on the front and a fact about the Acadian people on the back.

There were lots of trees so they could build log houses. 

Acadians spoke French.

They grew food on their farms.

They had to leave so they buried things for when they came back.

Please find more information by Tigana.

She was a grade two student form Alberta who travelled to Nova Scotia
 to learn more about the Acadian people.

Click on the Tigana's photo to see what she learned.

Today the students had a very exciting day with Math and Butterflies!

First the students worked in small groups and split into five math stations. Both Mr Beattie and Mr Lancee had a variety of math stations set up developing skills involving building, shapes, addition, counting and sorting.

Below are several photos on the different stations

At the end of the day students went outside to free our fully matured Painted Lady butterflies. It was a sad and happy occasion watching as the Butterflies we raised from caterpillars flew into the sky and to the neighboring flowers. Below are some photos of the butterfly releasing!

The Painted Lady Butterfly Facts!

The Painted Lady may be the most widespread butterfly in the world. It also known as the thistle butterfly and the cosmopolitan (because it is so widespread, occurring in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa). This flyinginsect lives in temperate and some tropical areas.

Egg: The Painted Lady begins its life cycle as an egg that is the size of a pin head. Eggs are pale green with 12 to 14 longitudinal ridges; they are laid on thistle, mallow, or hollyhock leaves. The incubation period is 3 to 5 days.

Caterpillar (larva): The caterpillar eats continually for 5 to 10 days before it pupates. The yellow-green striped, purple to black caterpillar has long spines on each segment. The caterpillar is up to 1.25 inches (3 cm) long. It builds a silky, webbed nest as it feeds, usually eating thistle, mallow, malva, hollyhock, sunflower, or canola. As the larva grows, it sheds its skin (this is called molting). The time between sheddings is called an instar; each instar has slightly different coloring.

Chrysalis (pupa): When the caterpillar has grown to the right size, it pupates. It hangs upside-down from a leaf or branch, and attaches itself with a single silken string. An adult forms from the caterpillar, whose internal structure changes completely. The chrysalis becomes almost transparent when the butterfly is about to emerge. An adult will emerge about 7 to 10 days after the chrysalis has formed.

Adult: When an adult emerges from the split chrysalis, it hangs upside down and pumps blood into its four wings, inflating them.Then it waits for its delicate wings to dry. It can fly a few hours after emerging.

The adult Painted Lady is mostly black, brown, and orange with some white spots; the underside is gray with white and red markings. The adult has a 2 - 2 7/8 inch (5.1 - 7.3 cm) wingspan. Adults sip sweet thistle and clover nectar. Adults can mate in about a week after emerging; adults only live about 2 weeks.

Migration: Adults from colder parts of North America overwinter in Mexico; adults from northern Europe migrate to North Africa and southern Europe.

Classification: Order Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), Family Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies), Genus Vanessa, Species cardui.