Week 16: Dec 18-22 The Third Week of Advent

Today marks the third week of Advent, when we celebrate the joy of the impending birth of our Lord! We are hopeful, we are peaceful, and now we are also joyful. The students will participate in our third Advent Celebration on Monday at 1:30 p.m., and our fourth Advent Celebration (Love) on Thursday morning at 10:00. I hope that you and your family have a wonderful Christmas holiday, and safe travels.

We have a few special events planned for this week, and a few things to wrap up before the holidays. On Tuesday morning, we will be having a Christmas Craft morning, and volunteers are most welcome to join us to help the children assemble crafts. If you can spare an hour or 2 to help out, we would really appreciate it! We will start around 9:30 a.m. and be all cleaned up by noon. Thank you!

On Wednesday, we have a science test on the properties of light planned. If we don't get it out of the way before the break, some of the information might be forgotten in the Christmas excitement! Here's a quick study guide:

Light is a form of energy we can see.

The 5 properties of light are:

Here are the experiments we did to demonstrate each property:

1. We set up cue cards, 3 with holes in the middle and one with a target at the end. Then we aimed a flashlight through the holes to hit the target. We could only do it if the holes were lined up correctly, showing that light travels in a straight line.

2. We build a light maze with mirrors in a shoe box. Light went in one side of the shoe box, reflected around the box inside, and came out the same side. We could predict where the light would reflect to, because it was a regular reflection pattern.

3. We reflected light off smooth and crumpled tin foil, and compared the reflections of each.

4. We experimented with different coloured filters on our flashlights, and with colours and filters on here to discover the primary colours of light are red, green and blue.

5. We put a pencil in a cup of water, and observed that it looked bent. We also built magnifiers out of plastic cups, plastic wrap, and water drops.

We also used prisms to break white light into the colours of the rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. We talked about natural (fireflies, the sun) vs. manmade or artificial (flashlights, tv) sources of light; and light that gives off heat (fire, stovetop) vs. light that gives off little to no heat (glowsticks, LED bulbs).

On Thursday, we have a Christmas Sing-Along for all students. We have been practicing the actions to "Must Be Santa" as the song that we will lead, and we will join Mrs. Rayner's class in leading "Frosty the Snowman". It should be fun! 

On Friday, we may possibly have a pajama day!

Week 15: Dec. 11-15 The Second Week of Advent

Today marks the second Sunday of Advent - the Sunday of Peace.  We pray for Peace in all aspects of our lives - our homes, our schoolyard games, our communities and our world.  On Monday at 11:30 a.m., the junior students will participate in our second Advent Liturgy.

To help the students to participate in the loving act of sharing and giving during this time of Advent, they are invited to collect items to donate to the Shepherds of Good Hope.  At this time of year, there are many items the Shepherds need to assist the people who are staying at the shelter. The Grade 4 students are encouraged to bring in disposable face wipes and pocket sized kleenex packs. Thank you to those who have already sent an item or 2 in - you have helped to make someone's Christmas a little more comfortable and happy. 

With some snow already on the ground, and more in the forecast for Monday / Tuesday, don't forget to dress your child appropriately for the weather. There are many students still not wearing snow pants, hats and/or mittens at recess, and 40 minutes is a long time to be outside without proper winter wear! Also, many students have not had indoor shoes to change into. These are required - not only for gym, but also to wear in the classroom for safety. Thank you.

 A reminder that on "Snow Days" when the busses are cancelled, the schools are still open.  If you choose to have your child attend school on "Snow Days",  however, you are responsible for ensuring your child arrives to and leaves from school on time, dressed appropriately for outdoor play, and with indoor shoes as usual. Students go outside for recess as usual unless it is raining heavily or below -25, even when busses are not running. Kiss and Ride is not in operation during "Snow Days", therefore if you are picking your child up at the end of the day, you must park and come into the school to do so. Thank  you for helping to keep your child safe!

Upcoming events:

Wednesday is iWalk Day / Drive to 5! Walk to school or drive to one of the drop-off and walk locations - either the parking lot at Marcel Lalande park or at Arc-en-Ciel school. Hope to see you there!

Wednesday is also our Advent Mass, 9:30 a.m. Parents are always welcome to join us.

Week 14: Dec. 4-8 The First Week of Advent

Today marks the first Sunday of Advent - the Sunday of Hope.  We have Hope in God's faithfulness to us, and in His promise to us of Eternal Life.  On Monday at 10:00 a.m., the junior students will participate in the first of 4 Advent Liturgies to remind us of the importance of Hope in this season, and in our world today.

We have a few charitable initiatives that are continuing this week. The first is our Advent Project, when we collect items for the Shepherds of Good Hope. This year, Gr. 4 students have been asked to bring in facial wipes and travel size Kleenex, both of which are readily available at the dollar store. The facial wipes are disposable pre-moistened wipes (not diaper wipes) and cost $1.25 per package. The kleenex are the pocket packs. Please send them in with your child if you are able to. Thank you. The second initiative is a "Pay It Forward" project from the Me to We Club. They are collecting new or gently used items that students at Our Lady of Mount Carmel School could purchase as gifts for their siblings or parents at nominal cost. Items could include: -jewellry- baseball caps- toys- Christmas ornaments- Christmas gift bags- tissue paper and anything else you feel would be appropriate as a gift for the students to purchase for family members. The Me to We Club is very excited about being involved in this initiative, and have collected many gently used items already! Thank you for your support!

Other happenings this week:

-this week is Hour Of Code week, where students across the world are encouraged to take part in an hour of coding some time during the week. We will do an hour in addition to the hour we did with our reading buddies last week, and with the other Gr. 4 class the week before. Coding is important, and will be added to the math curriculum soon. It's great to see so much excitement about problem solving and logical thinking!

-Thursday is our next Faith Buddy Day. We will join our Faith Buddies, Mrs. Fitzpatrick's class, during 4th block to participate in some activities that encourage Hope.

-Friday, St. Peter's Band will be coming to play a Christmas concert for us in the gym. We look forward to this every year! Seeing former students return, and share their musical talents with us is a highlight of the season!

Science - we have been doing a lot of experiments to show all of the properties of light! Here are the properties and the experiments we did to prove each one:

Properties of Light

1 Light travels in straight lines: We lined up cue cards, punched holes in the centre of 3 of them and drew a target on the 4th, then shined a flashlight through the holes to land on the target.

2. Light that is not reflected is absorbed: We used different coloured papers, tinfoil and mirrors to see which ones reflected light the best, and which ones absorbed more of the light.

3. Light reflects off a smooth shiny surface in a regular reflective pattern: We used mirrors to bounce light around inside a shoe box, in one side and out the same side but further down the box.

4. Light reflects off a rough shiny surface in an irregular pattern: We reflected light off of crumpled tinfoil.

5. Light bends or refracts when it goes through water: We put a pencil in a cup of water and looked at it from the side. We also looked at small items and newspaper through water lenses, and refracted light through prisms.

Math: We have completed our Geometry unit, and will have a test this week, likely Wednesday. Please have your child review quadrilaterals and their properties (see the anchor chart on an earlier blog post), lines of symmetry, and acute, right, obtuse and straight angles. We will be starting a short unit on Data Management, that hopefully we can complete before Christmas break.

Language Arts: We have completed our Google Read & Write training with Mme Campeau-Leblanc. She taught us many tools and tricks for editing and proof-reading our work using Google tools. We have started writing and editing Christmas stories, which we hope to read to our reading buddies before Christmas. I was very impressed with the amazing commercials the students made for their cereal boxes! Such creativity!

Week 13: Nov 27-Dec 1

Wow, time is flying by! I can't believe it is almost Advent! We have our next iWalk Day on Wed, Nov 29. Students are encouraged to walk or wheel to school, or Drive to 5. We will have staff at our Drive to 5 locations, Arc-en-Ciel School and the small parking lot at Marcel Lalonde park, just behind the school. Park and walk with your child, or park and let them walk the last 5 minutes to school independently along the path through the park.

The  St. Clare Me to We Club is encouraging our students to “Pay it Forward” to students at another school as our Christmas project. Our Lady of Mount Carmel School is holding a Christmas Store for their students.  This enables students to purchase gifts for their family members.  All funds raised will be used to support the students at this school enabling them to go on field trips and to purchase school supplies and to provide food and clothing for families who need assistance.  A portion of the funds collected by the Christmas store will also be given to charity or another school in our board that requires support from the community.

We are looking for gently used:

-jewelry- books- toys- christmas ornaments- and anything else you feel would be appropriate as a gift for the students to purchase

We need the donations sent to our school by December 15.

Thank you for your support! Merry Christmas!

Weeks 11 & 12: Nov 13-24

Sorry for not blogging last week, I was away at a wedding in Cambridge, which was lovely!

Last week, we moved our Faith Buddy Day to Wednesday, as both Mrs. Fitzpatrick and I were away on Monday, when the rest of the school did it. The theme was Peace, and we made a lovely painted peace symbol with our buddies. We also watched a short video and song. It was quite a peaceful block, and fit in nicely with Remembrance Day.

We also did a STEM challenge on Friday, called "Float Your Boat". The students were divided into teams of 3, and each team was given a bag of items with which to build a boat that could hold as many pennies as possible safely. Here was the challenge:

And here were the boats:

The winning boat held 85 pennies before tipping, sinking and / or spilling the "crates"!

Congratulations to the students who attended WE Day! It was an inspiring and fun day for all!

Upcoming Events:

-tomorrow we will have the opportunity to participate in some Inuit Games as part of a workshop in the afternoon. 

-Friday is a PD day

Here's what we've been up to:

Math - we completed our patterning unit and have started geometry. The focus for this unit will be on acute, obtuse and right angles, as well as identifying quadrilaterals from their properties. Here is a handy chart for reference:

Language Arts: as part of an Evaluating Media unit, students are designing and promoting their own cereal brand. They have designed a cereal box, and are now promoting it using whatever media platform they wish - filming a commercial, making a comic strip on Pixton, making a Slides presentation, making a WeVideo, etc. Lots of great creative ideas!

Phys Ed - we finished our volleyball fundamentals unit and are now moving into lacrosse skills. In Health, we will be wrapping up our Healthy Food choices and starting to talk about tobacco use soon.

Religion - Peace and Remembrance Day were the topics of recent conversations. We will be looking ahead to Advent soon.

Science - we have been conducting experiments designed to demonstrate the properties of light. So far, we have learned that light travels in a straight line, and that it reflects best off of smooth, shiny objects. Some colours are better reflectors than others. We have more experiments to conduct before moving on to sound.

Week 10: Nov 6-10

Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who came out to our Bible Blessing Ceremony on Friday afternoon. It was great to see so many of you! The children were so excited to receive their very own bibles, and wanted to read them as soon as we got back to class! A big THANK YOU to school council as well, for purchasing the bibles, and to Mrs. Desjardins for inscribing them for each student. They were much appreciated.

Tomorrow is Picture Retake Day - please send a note on paper or through the blog if you would like retakes done of your child's picture. Thank you.

Thursday is Parent-Teacher interview evening. Information was sent home with the Progress Report about interviews. Just go to https://clare.youcanbook.me/, click on the name of the teacher you want to book with, choose a time, and fill in your name. Once you click "Confirm", the interview is booked, and appears on my calendar. If  you would prefer a telephone interview, or would rather meet at a different time, please send me a note through the blog.

Friday at 10:30 a.m. we will be observing Remembrance Day with a liturgy. Parents are welcome to attend.

Here's what we've been up to:

Math: we have almost completed our Patterning unit, and will have a short test this week, likely Wednesday, on pattern rules (Start at 10, add 3 each time), determining a specific term in a pattern (what would the 50th term be?) in both number and geometric patterns. We have done many examples of each in class. Our next unit is Geometry.

Language Arts: we will start a read aloud this week for Evaluating, a funny book named "Nibble, Nibble, Jenny Archer. The students will really enjoy it! We will also have another session with Mrs. Campeau-Leblanc, the facilitator from the board who will help us to learn all of the ins and outs of Google Read and Write, on Tuesday.

Science - we have almost completed our Pulleys and Gears unit, and will have a short test on the information on Thursday. We have already done a review sheet on pulleys, and another on gears, so students should be well-prepared. We started introducing our new unit, Light and Sound, briefly on Thursday.

Phys. Ed - we have been playing a modified version of mini-volleyball in the gym, and students are getting better at serving!

Drama - we read a funny little skit entitled "Which Shoes do you Choose?" on Thursday and Friday. Each child had a part in the Reader's Theatre play, and we will read it for our reading buddies next week.

Week 9: Oct 30- Nov 3 Happy Halloween!

Parent, Grandparents, Guardians

Please join us

for the Grade 4

Bible Blessing

and Presentation Ceremony

on Friday, November 3, 2017

at 1:00 p.m.

in the gym.

Thank you for all of your support throughout our United Way fundraising activities! Our events have concluded for this year, and we are waiting to hear our total from the committee. All of the money raised in our school through events such as movie day, crazy hair day and board game day, stay in our school board and help our students and their families with specific financial needs through our Catholic Education Fund. We really appreciate your support!

Here's what we were up to last week:

Math: we are still working on patterning, and we spent our math block on Wednesday looking for natural vs. manmade patterns outside in the schoolyard for Take Me Outside Day! We have been looking at geometric patterns, number patterns, growing, shrinking and repeating patterns, and using patterns to solve problems. We are also looking to find the pattern rule, and define the 10th, 50th or 100th term.

Language Arts: We have been spending time finishing All About Me presentations, getting caught up in Religion, and learning about Google Read and Write from Mrs. Campeau-LeBlanc. We will be spending more time on this over the next 5 weeks.

Religion: We are preparing the songs for the Bible Blessing and Presentation Ceremony, and will be practicing the readings as well. We also learned that we are a Gift from God, and we are unique, as we launched into the Fully Alive program last week.

Science: students had the opportunity to try their hand at using a hand drill to drill through a piece of wood. It was hard work, but they showed a lot of perseverance! They also helped each other - one held the wood still, one held the extra drill handle, and the other turned the drill crank. It was great to see! In the meantime, another group built interconnecting gears with a Gearopolis kit, and a third group looked at how gears helped in a can opener and an electric clock. We are concluding our pulleys and gears unit, next week will be a review week and they will have a short test on the information Tuesday, Nov. 7.

Phys Ed - we have been learning the skills and playing short games of mini-volleyball. They seem to be enjoying it!

Reminders:

-progress reports will be coming home Thursday, along with information on how to book a parent-teacher interview, should you wish to

-the Bible Blessing and Presentation ceremony is Friday

-Daylight savings time ends on Sunday morning

-Picture retake day is Monday, Nov. 6. Please let me know if you would like retakes by sending a note either through the blog or on paper with your child.

Movie / Black & Orange Day on Friday!

To support United Way, please bring in a loonie or a toonie for the movie afternoon this Friday! Don’t forget to wear black and orange too! Thanks in advance for your generosity!

Week 8, October 23-27

It was great to see all of the cute crazy hair and hat combinations on Friday! Thank you for supporting the United Way! Our next event is this Friday, bring a loonie or a toonie and enjoy a movie in the afternoon. Don't forget to wear Black and Orange, too!

Here's what we've been up to this week:

Math - we did some adding and subtracting with decimals, and realized it was exactly the same as adding and subtracting whole numbers, as long as you line the decimals up (if you are using the algorithm). Then we started patterning, and had a lot of fun making our own growing, shrinking and repeating patterns with blocks and/or tiles. We also described our patterns using the pattern rule. We will continue with this next week.

Language - Most students are finished their "All About Me" presentations, and I am very impressed! They tried very hard to face the audience as they presented, and to speak in a clear, loud voice. I really loved their "items" that they shared with us.

Religion - we have been learning more about the bible, and how it is organized into Old and New Testament, then into Books, Chapters and Verses. We also spent some time preparing for and celebrating Thanksgiving Mass. It was the afternoon class' turn to do the readings, prayers and intentions, and the students who volunteered did very well. 

Science - we learned about different types of gears, such as worm gears, rack and pinion gears and helical gears. We made a flip book about each type of gear and what they look like. We will be wrapping up this unit soon, and will begin a review of what we have learned. We will also have a short quiz on that knowledge.

Phys. Ed - the students really love playing Noodleball! It is very active, as we don't have enough students to have subs, so they play all out and end up quite tired! We have also been trying to learn some of the skills from Gaelic Football, which are pretty tricky! Our next sport, starting in November, will be volleyball.

Health - we have looked at what nutrients are in food and why they are important. We have also looked at specific foods and what nutrients are in them. We are comparing different foods from many food types to see what the "best choice" might be. The students are quite interested in how much sugar there is in many of the foods they eat! 

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday will be our second Faith Buddy Day, where we will look at the Gospel Value of Dignity of the Person with our Buddy class, Mrs. Fitzpatrick's Gr. 1 class. 

Friday is Black and Orange and Movie Day for United Way! 

iWalk Day Details

Don't Forget: 

Wednesday is iWalk Day! It is a day on which we encourage students to walk or wheel to school as part of our Active Transportation and healthy lifestyles goals for our school. All students who are able to walk, bike, roller blade, scooter, or wheel to school are encouraged to do so. If you can't walk or wheel the whole way, we invite you to Drive to 5! This is a concept in which students are encouraged to drive to a location close to school, and walk the remaining distance. Our locations for Wednesday are the following two locations:

JUNIOR STUDENTS - Arc-en-ciel school, 1830 Portobello Boulevard

PRIMARY STUDENTS - Parking lot of Marcel Lalande Park, 2157 Northlands Drive

Thank you everyone for your support!

Week 7: October 16-20

Another very busy week! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving holiday with family, and travelled safely.

Here's what has been going on in the classroom:
Math - we have looked at rounding, and the importance of being able to estimate. Sometimes we need an exact measurement or answer (like in an Olympic race) and sometimes an estimate is more efficient (like the approximate number of people at an event). We have been working on our estimation skills using Estimation180, and they have improved already! Now we are learning to round numbers, so that it can help us to estimate. We have practiced rounding to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000 using the Rounding Mountain and a little song. You can hear it here. We also watched a Number Rock video on rounding, you can see it here. Our next unit is patterning, and we will start on Wednesday.

Language Arts -  We have been enjoying learning All About our classmates as they present their All About Me slideshows. I am watching particularly for how well they face the audience as they present (make eye contact), whether they speak in a clear, loud voice, and whether they have rehearsed their presentation or have trouble pronouncing some of the words. We also completed a cornucopia with a short paragraph of something they are thankful for, and finished up other incomplete work. Next week, we will be starting our next Reading Strategy Unit on Evaluating.

Religion - we have started the new Religion program, and have started using the New Testament in our class. We learned how to locate readings in the Bible, using Book, Chapter and Verse headings to locate the specific verse we are looking for. The students caught on very quickly!

Science - we have built spur gears out of cardboard and used them to make bevel gears, spur gear trains, and see how many times the small gear turns in relation to the large gear. We also listed all of the things we know that use gears. Next, we will look at different types of gears and where they are used, such as rack-and-pinion gears, worm gears, and helical gears. We are having a lot of fun!

Phys Ed - we played a very active game called Noodleball, which uses a whiffle ball (as the puck) and pool noodle "sticks" to play a game very like hockey. Players shoot the ball toward the net hoping to score, but it is much harder than you would think!  In Health, students were to keep a food diary for a few days, so that we could set a few SMART goals, to improve our health over the course of the term.

Upcoming dates:
Monday is recycle your clothing and household textiles! Bring in gently used clothing items or textiles to be donated. (EcoInitiative)

Tuesday is no juice box day, and bring your own water bottle day! (EcoInitiative)

Wednesday is iWalk day, when you are encouraged to Drive to 5 (minutes from school and walk the rest of the way) or walk to school that day! (Healthy Active Transportation - Walk, Ride your bike, scooter, rollerblade, etc)

Wednesday we will see the Power of One anti-bullying show in the morning.

Wednesday is our Thanksgiving Mass at 1:00 p.m. Our class is doing the readings.

Thursday is Litterless Lunch Day (EcoInititative)

Friday is Recycle Toys Day (EcoInitiative)
Friday is also Crazy Hat and /or Crazy Hair Day for United Way!

United Way Fundraising Fridays

Sent to be the Good News

October 2017

United Way

Give. Change A Life.

As you are aware, the United Way/Centraide of Ottawa-Carleton has launched its 2017 Campaign to support those in need in the Ottawa area. United Way/Centraide supports many programs in over 100 member agencies. This year, the staff and students of St. Clare school are called to make a conscious decision in taking an active part in the community by continuing to care for those in need. This supports our Board’s theme, “Sent to be the Good News.” We have designated three Fridays, October 13, 20 and 27, to raise money for our neighbours from the Ottawa area who are in need. Although we ask that students donate a loonie or a toonie for our special days, they can donate anything they can afford to participate in the activities outlined below. Students can do chores in order to earn money to donate to this cause.

You have touched the hearts of many people with your previous, generous support as seen with the Terry Fox walk and the Thanksgiving St. Vincent de Paul food drive. Please help us support United Way.  Your contribution is most appreciated.

Here is the outline for the three days:

Friday, October 13th: Board Game Day

Bring a toonie and a board game to play during a block today!

No electronic games, please.

Friday, October 20th:    Crazy Hair and/or Hat Day         

Students can wear a funny hat and/or have crazy

hair all day for a loonie.

Friday, October 27th: Black & Orange Day and Movie Day

Bring a toonie and come to school in Black & Orange clothes.

Let’s enjoy a movie for this last afternoon before Halloween.

Thank you for your continued support of the United Way in our community of Ottawa-Carleton!

                      

Week 5-6 Happy Thanksgiving!

 Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend with your family and friends. We all have so much to be thankful for. 

I apologise for not blogging last week - I came down with a terrible stomach flu and was down for the count for a few days. I spent the rest of the week playing catch up, and unfortunately never got around to blogging. So sorry!

Here's what we've been up to:

Math - we have moved into addition and subtraction, with and without regrouping. We are looking at various methods of doing both of those things, including the algorithm. Students have experimented with adding and subtracting using base 10 blocks, by drawing pictures, using an open-number line, by breaking the number down and adding the components together (expanded form), rounding then compensating, etc.  Ask your son or daughter which method works best for them, and have them explain it to you. Next we will be working on rounding.

Language Arts - students are working on All About Me slideshows using Google Slides in their Language Arts Hapara folders. They are encouraged to add pictures of themselves and their families. They are also required to add 3 items that have meaning to them, or represent them in some way. They have to explain why the item is important to them in a paragraph. There is a rubric outlining the expectation in their Hapara folder as well. Most students have made good progress in starting their slideshow. They will present their slideshows orally in class next week.

Science - we have moved on to gears, and how they are used to change the speed and direction of a force. We experimented with spur gears of different sizes and numbers of teeth, and saw how the direction of rotation changed as the gears turned, and how smaller gears have to turn faster than larger gears. We will look at other types of gears this week, such as rack-and-pinion, helical, bevel and worm. The students really enjoy experimenting with the hands-on activities.

Religion - The Grade 4 Bible Blessing Ceremony has been scheduled for Friday, Nov. 3 at 1:00 p.m. We will be sending home invitations to parents to join us for this special event! Each student will receive their own Bible, blessed by Father and inscribed with their own name to keep. In preparation for this, we will be learning some songs, and learning how to find various passages in the New Testament. In the meantime, we have almost completed the Samaritans on the Digital Road lessons. You can access the content of these lessons in the Elementary Student Portal, under "Useful Links", here.

Phys Ed - we completed our Cross-Country unit, finished some team-building cooperative games, and did a short Soccer unit. We will be trying some new activities this week.

Don't Forget:
-library day is Thursday for book exchange
-Our Thanksgiving Food Drive continues, please send in donations of non-perishable food items up to Oct. 13 (Friday)
-The Cross-Country Running Meet is on Wed at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility. Go St. Clare Stars! Please wear Purple and Grey that day to support the team.
-Friday will be Board Game Day for United Way - bring a board game and a loonie or toonie to play board games for a block with friends! (no electronics, please).
-Saturday there will be an e-waste collection day at Ray Friel as a fundraiser for St. Peter's High School. Bring your old electronics for recycling, and support our local High School!

Week 4: Sept 25-29

Thank you to all of the parents and volunteers who came out to support us in our 18th annual Terry Fox walk! It was a beautiful day for a walk around the neighbourhood! Final numbers have not yet been counted, but you can still make online donations at http://www.terryfox.ca/StClareCatholic. Thank you for your support in keeping Terry's dream alive!

Math - We continue with our daily math warm ups. Lots of math conversation among students! We are continuing Place Value. (Recognizing numbers up to the 10 000 in standard, expanded, words, and place value form). There will be a math quiz on Place Value this week, and we will move into addition and subtraction also this week.

Language Arts - we are finishing our unit on Self-Monitoring by writing a narrative. Students will have a choice of topic. After reading Catching the Moon, we wrote briefly about a dream we have and how we will reach it. Terry Fox also had a dream of running across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Students will have a choice of writing about either their dream in more detail, or writing about Terry Fox and his dream.  We also wrote a CASI reading test, to get a baseline level for each student.  We will write 2 more over the course of the year, to see how students are progressing.

Science - students had a great morning, building structures that use pulleys to perform work in the makerspace. They had a choice of materials to build with, and could build anything that uses a pulley. Most students are finished. We have a lot of cranes, an elevator, and a few others that are incomplete - can't wait to see what they will be!

Religion - we have been competing the Samaritans on the Digital Road. This resource is produced by our board for teachers to engage students in learning about participating in the digital world in a proactive, responsible and compassionate manner. It is built upon the shoulders of Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan and teaches students how to be responsible digital citizens. We have completed 2 of the 5 lessons, and the students are really enjoying them. Here is a link to the Be Internet Awesome game produced by Google: Be Internet Awesome. Here is a link to the One Day video from Lesson 1: One Day.

Phys Ed - we are finishing up Cross-Country running and continuing with cooperative, team building games.

Don't Forget:

-Library day is now Thursdays for book exchange

-Picture day is Wednesday, (the 27th)

Week 3: Sept 18-22

It was great to meet so many of you at Curriculum Night on Wednesday!  If you were not able to make it, here is a link to my presentation, and here is a link to Mr. Karpinski's presentation. Please let us know if there is anything you would like more information about, or if you have any questions.

We had a very busy first full week back!  Our schedule has been adjusted slightly, here is the most recent update:

 As you can see, our phys ed days have changed to Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; our library day will be Thursday. Please keep these days in mind so that your child can remember to dress for active movement on physical education days, and remember their library book to return on Thursdays.  Thank you!

This week in phys ed we have been running (or briskly walking) the cross-country route in the school yard. Students complete a warm-up first, and a cool down afterwards to avoid  muscle cramping or strain. They are encouraged to drink plenty of water to counteract dehydration, especially in our warm September weather. We will continue with cross-country practice in the coming week, as it is the first sport of the year. We will also begin with our health unit on healthy eating choices.

We had a brief introduction to our first art strand - Drama! We began by doing the Tortoise and the Hare as a Reader's Theatre play so that students can learn to read with expression. We will continue with Reader's Theatre and the importance of using voice and expression before adding movement and costuming/props to our drama.

In Math, we completed more of the Week of Inspirational Math videos and activities from Youcubed, the Stanford University site produced by Jo Boaler. Pictures of most of our activities were posted on the class Twitter account, if you are interested. They really enjoyed making shapes from string!  We have moved on to our Numeration unit;  making and ordering numbers to the ten thousands place. We played a fun game called JunkIt that you can play at home, to emphasize the importance of place value. All you need is a dice, a piece of scrap paper, and a pencil or pen. Set up your game board like this:

Take turns rolling the dice and placing the number you rolled on a line. You have 2 opportunities to "Junk It" if a roll is not what you wanted. The player with the highest number wins! You can switch it up and have the player with the smallest number win. There is some luck, and some strategy involved.

In Language Arts, we finished our Read-Aloud about Marcenia Lyle/Toni Stone, and have moved on to a shared reading activity, Zero's Math Adventures. 

We completed our second STEM challenge on Friday. We asked students to consider what people rebuilding in a flood zone or after a hurricane might have to think of when redesigning their houses. We then supplied each group with cardboard, MakeDo tools and screws, and let them build. We were amazed at the ideas the students came up with, from doors that sealed out water, to houses on stilts so water could flow underneath, and roofs that shed water. Great ideas! Pictures are posted on Twitter.

Please remember to return:

-chocolate money or unsold chocolates; more are also available if you would like to sell more

-the forms that were sent home on the first day if you haven't already

-Terry Fox permission form