Monday, December 8

Two weeks of school until Christmas!  I will make this the last post until after Christmas, so I will try to list some of the big events/theme days coming up.

• Tomorrow, we have our week 2 Advent Liturgy at 12:45.  Several students from our class have been asked to do a reading.
• Monday, December 15 our class will be doing our cookie decorating activity thanks to the parent council.
• Thursday, December 19th is the Christmas concert for the parents.  It will start around 9:45 am and last until 11:15 am
• Here are the theme week activities for the week of December 16-20:
• Monday: Wear your ugly/tacky Christmas sweater
• Tuesday: Dress like Santa/elves/toys/trees/reindeer, etc
• Wednesday:Wear your favourite Christmas accessory (scarf, tie, headband)
• Thursday: Wear your favourite Christmas colours!
• Friday: Pajama Day

I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Monday, December 1

December has arrived!  Wow, only three school weeks until Christmas!  A reminder that this Friday is a PD day, so there is no school that day.  Also, I should point out that the school also posts updates here if you wish to bookmark it:

SMY Updates

In Language, we finished up our writing on our vacation spots and will be reading them out loud this week.  As an final exercise, we will be doing another persuasive writing piece called "Elf for Hire".  The class will be trying to convince Santa to be hired as an elf.  He is looking for a hard worker, follows directions well and has creative ideas.  They will use this criteria in order to help make their written piece.

In Math, we are working on area still.  This will help move us towards the early lessons on multiplication (the use of arrays to help with understanding).  

Monday, November 24

It was a pleasure to speak with many of you last week.  This school year is really moving along!

No major updates for this week.  We will be heading into Advent season soon, and only 4 more school weeks until the holidays!

As we move through these weeks, we will be working on a pair of persuasive writing exercises.  This week, we will be finalizing our persuasive argument for a favourite holiday or field trip.  This will be followed by an "I want to be an Elf" Christmas exercise.  In both instances, we will be looking at sentence structure, punctuation and paragraph formation.

In Math, we will be looking at how to measure area.  This week, we will be using the unit of Post-It notes, and try to measure our desk tops. This will be followed up with some "discovery" of some rules about measuring area.  As I mentioned in many interviews, there will be weekly assignments put on Magma Math (found in the student portal) to help refine their abilities.

Monday, November 17

 You should have seen that the Progress Reports were sent out last week.  Also, in the school email, there are links to sign up for the Parent-Teacher Interviews for this Thursday (3:30-7:30).  If you wish to have an interview, please sign up for one of the timeslots by Wednesday.

This week, in Language, we are working on persuasive writing.  Each student has selected a place they would love to take a family trip.  They are working on how to build an introduction, the body, and the conclusion.  We are taking a step-by-step approach in order for them to see how paragraphs are built.

In Math, we are working on number lines and how to use benchmark numbers and scales on these lines.  

In Science, we are starting our Forces unit.  This week we will be starting with an explanation of pushes and pulls.

Tuesday, November 11

Sorry for the delay, things were a bit busy here! Today we will have our  Remembrance Day service! We have spent the past few school days having some discussions about this day, and the reason we wear a poppy.

Just one announcement for this week:

• Progress reports get sent out this week. Mrs. Brooks will be emailing a link for parent-teacher interviews.  If you would like an interview, we will have signups for one of the 10 minute timeslots that will run between 3:30  and 7:30 pm on Thursday, November 20.

Monday, November 3

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!  It was fun to see everyone in their costumes last week.  This week:

• Some students have brought in their own headphones to use with their school laptops (useful for when they are hearing online stories).  If they haven't already, they can bring in a pair of headphones (they are even available at Dollarama) and I can store them here.
• I will be introducing the idea of our school's Student Council today.  They are welcome to run for our class position, with our voting happening on Wednesday. 
• Picture retake day is tomorrow (Tuesday)
• Hot Dog Day will be Tuesday November 18th! Tickets are now on sale through School Cash Online
• Popcorn Tuesdays are starting on November 25th. Popcorn Days are for sale in School Cash Online until November 11th.
• Friday is a PD Day, so there will be no school on that day.

In Language this week, we will be looking at a pair of poems for Remembrance Day.  As a challenge, I am going to suggest some to try to learn parts of In Flanders Fields by memory to be recited next week in class.  If they prefer to read it out loud next week from the paper, they can do that too.

In Math, we will continue to be looking at place value and comparing numbers to 1000.  This week, we will be reviewing the concept of rounding numbers.

Monday, October 27

 Main announcements this week:

• Monday, October 27 -  PJ Day
• Tuesday, October 28 - Aren’t You “PLAID” it’s Tuesday?
• Wednesday, October 29 - School Spirit Day
• Thursday, October 30 - Throwback Thursday
• Friday, October 31 - Halloween 

• pumpkins will be decorated in the school this week for a fundraiser on Halloween.  You can buy raffle tickets on SchoolCashOnline if interested.  
• Halloween is coming! As a reminder, no masks, no weapons, no props/accessories.  On that day, we will be having a Halloween Dance.

In Language, we have been working on our Monster Match descriptions.  We will be working on the good copies this week, and will have the "game" this week.  Also, we will have had our first library visit on Wednesday.  Please ensure the children return their books for each Wednesday morning library.

In Math, we are starting to look at representing numbers (place value). 

In Science, the class has been working in groups to present some findings about things that are added to soils (intentionally or not).  They will be presenting as group this week, but we will be following up with a discussion about what Collaboration looks like and how they felt their groups worked.