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!