30.1.13

HALF WAY THERE!

Happy 20th week of school! We are half way there! (Not that anyone is counting!!!) 

This week, as usual, is just another busy week in the classroom. Today I introduced our class poem for SPEECH ARTS. Our poem is titled "Little by Little" by Anonymous. We will recite it often in class, but please go over the poem with your child at home as well. The local Speech Arts competition is on Monday, March 4. I will assess them on this poem at the end of February. 
Students will also need to learn a poem of their own choosing. We will have a classroom Speech Arts on Thursday, February28. They may choose any poem they like but it needs to be 2-3 minutes in length orally. They must provide the title and author of the poem. They need to memorize the poem and recite it in the class. 
Students will be given three bible readings to choose from. They will have to recite one but DO NOT NEED to memorize it. I will send home an invitation for the classroom speech arts closer to the date if any family members are interested in coming. Thank you!

Overall, students did really well with our Provinces and Capitals Test. I sent it home today along with  with last week's math test, mad minutes quiz and Wordly Wise quiz. Please sigh and return to school. If your child received a "Not Yet Within" (that's 0-12 out of 26), they will take a retake next Tuesday.

Today's Homework:
1. Spelling Unit 16- Challenges|
2. Wordly Wise- Lesson 3 (Activities A-C, Story questions 1-5 only)
3. Current Events- Raccoons questions
4. Religion-page in our Creed book
Sigh and return tests

22.1.13

Tues. Jan 22

I hope you all enjoyed an extra day off yesterday! Professional development means that teachers go to work and hopefully learn something new to take back to the classroom. Yesterday, our team did some work with the Science curriculum and procured some new material for the curriculum!

Tomorrow we are going skating! Students MUST come to school in their uniform but will be able to change for skating before we leave for the rink. If you are able to walk with us, please be at the school by 10:30am. We should be back around 12:00. STUDENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE VENDING MACHINES. Thank you for your cooperation.

Today was busy, busy, busy! We started Spelling Unit 15 and Wordly Wise Lesson 2. We also started subtraction with borrowing and are continuing with our creative writing with snowmen as our topic.

Here is today's homework:

1. SP Unit 15-- WTW and WP
2. WW Lesson 2- activities A-C
3. Math w/s-- back side (we did the front side together in class)
4.Novel Study-- sentences

SS-- colouring the Map of Canada is due THURSDAY and we will have a TEST on JAN. 29 about the provinces, territories and capital cities.

Please encourage your child to wash their hands often as the cold bug is now invading our classroom! We have a lot of sniffles and coughing right now. If you would like to send some hand sanitizer for the classroom, it will be much appreciated!

18.1.13

Friday, Jan 18


Thank you to parents for taking the time to go over the readings and parts of the Mass last night with their kids. I apologize for such short notice! The students did a wonderful job at Mass today! I am glad that some of you were able to join us. Our next class Mass is scheduled for March 15.

We have started our new novel study this week, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and we are reading it as a read-aloud. Please do not read ahead at home since we will be doing prediction activities in class and those that read ahead will not be able to do the tasks properly. I will also be sending home some "EXTRA CREDIT" work next week in connection with the novel for those who want to get extra marks for Language Arts. These project-based tasks are NOT mandatory, but I encourage students to try them.

This week we also started Wordly Wise. The routine for WW will be very similar to our Spelling routine. The activities will be given on TUESDAY for the lessons. We will go through them in class. Activities A-C will be due on WEDNESDAY. The story and questions will be read in class on WEDNESDAY and due on FRIDAY. A quiz on the vocabulary will be given on FRIDAY.

TUESDAY: Activities A-C assigned (DUE WEDNESDAY)
WEDNESDAY: Story & questions assigned (DUE FRIDAY)
FRIDAY: Quiz

Next week we will be on Lesson 2.


We are going skating next week! YAY! By the looks of it, we have enough parents walking with us. If you are available to meet us at the rink and skate with us, you are more than welcome! Extra hands are always appreciated with tying of the skates! Please do not send money. Students ARE NOT ALLOWED to purchase things at the vending machines.

NO SCHOOL MONDAY for students! It's a staff PRO-D Day! Enjoy your long weekend!


8.1.13

Tues Jan 8

We just started our new unit is Social Studies on Canada. Today we talked about how living in Canada means different things to different people. The students started a collage (just on 8x11 paper) about what they think Canada is about. We discussed how there is no right or wrong answer, as long as they can justify why they added a picture to the page. It can be pictures found in a magazine, printed from the internet or drawn and coloured by hand. The words "My Canada" should appear on the page.We got a good head start on them in class and will have time to work on them again tomorrow. These are due on Thursday.

Homework:
1. Sp Unit 14 WP
2. Math worksheet adding

DUE THURSDAY: SS Collage

7.1.13

Welcome Back!

Happy New Year!!! Can you believe that we are now in 2013? I remember first hearing about the Vancouver Olympic bid for the Winter 2010 games WAY back in 2003 and it seemed that it would be FOREVER until that event happened... Well here we are in 2013 talking about the PAST games three years ago!!! I never knew the true meaning of "time flies" until I became a parent and saw time through the accomplishments and milestones of my children. I wish at times that I could freeze these wonderful moments with my kids and just really cherish them and delight in their presence. I really got to do that over the Christmas break and relished in spending time playing with them and enjoying cooking and baking since we were not rushed to go any where. I hope that you all had a relaxing break and made wonderful memories with your own families.

Monday was a bit of a transition again for all of us ( I think I drank about 3 large cups of coffee all day!!!). I caught quite a few kids rubbing their eyes and yawning throughout the day! We are back in full routine with spelling this week, starting with Unit 14. (The list can be found in the links) There is no POW to take home this week, as I am introducing a new problem solving strategy, Guess and Test. Our star student this week is Aline and her sheets are due on Friday. We are easing back into our writing and reading programs and in Math, we pick up again with "carrying over" or regrouping with double and triple digit numbers. We have started some handwriting and I have sent some practice sheets home if your child is interested. If they are doing these sheets, please go through it WITH them to make sure that they are doing proper formation (This is very important! We want to discourage bad habits at this stage.)

***Please note that we now have a student with SEVERE PEANUT AND NUT ALLERGIES in our class and we are NOW A PEANUT AND NUT FREE classroom. Please take some time to check the contents of your child's lunch. Thank you for helping us keep our students safe.***

REMINDERS:
-- Popcorn Wednesday
-- Food Bank Mass on Friday
-- Holy Childhood Association boxes are due
-- Skating forms are due (You can send the cheques with your oldest child, but we need to have a PERMISSION SLIP for each student.)

Here's a great take on New Year's Resolutions from Calvin & Hobbes! I know I have my share of things I want to work on!