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.

Monday, October 20

Not a ton of updates today.  I do have next weeks theme days for you though:

• 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 

In Math, we will wrap up our lessons on 3D solids early this week.  The class should know how to tell the difference between a pyramid and a prism, and be able to count their faces, edges and vertices.  We will be moving onto numeration and place value later in the week using base 10 blocks.

In Language, we will be working on our final descriptive writing lesson.  The class will be making Halloween monster figures out of clay this week which they will be writing a paragraph description for a matching game we will be playing next week.

In Science, we will be working in groups to look at some additives to soil (ie. pesticides, fertilizer, herbicides, salt).  The class will be working in groups to review a reading, then present their findings in a group book in Book Creator.

Tuesday, October 14

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  There are a pair of updates and reminders this week:

• please don't forget to go to the parent portal and fill out / sign the four different forms that are there.  One is an off-site permission form that will be important for our upcoming bus trips.
• there will be a Spirit Week at the school during the week of Halloween.  I will provide details when I get them, but there will be a theme each day of that week.

In Language this week, we will be continuing with some sentence writing tasks, and I will be introducing our final descriptive language task where we will be describing a "monster" that they created.  We will be looking at proper sentence form and punctuation.

In Math, we are moving on to 3D solids this week. We will be looking at the differences between pyramids and prisms, and counting all their edges, vertices and faces.

In Science, we will be continuing with our Soils unit.  Specifically, we will be looking about composting.

In Art, we will be looking at how to draw a picture using one-point perspective.  There pictures last week were fantastic!  They drew a tree, but really added some of their colouring lessons to help make them a little more realistic.