Sunday 17 December 2017

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!

Sunday 10 December 2017

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

Image result for 2nd week of advent candle
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.





Sunday 3 December 2017

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!