Week 2: Sept 10-14, 2018

We had a great first week back at school! What a wonderful group of Gr. 4 and Gr. 5 students I have this year! We are settling into our room and adjusting to routines. Here's what we did last week:

In Language Arts, we wrote little "Gr. __ Times" newspapers, that tell briefly about our vacation memories and what we are most looking forward to learning this year. These are posted on the bulletin board at the back of the classroom, take a look on Wednesday night if you are able to attend Meet the Teacher / Curriculum Night!  We have also begun our first Strategy Unit, Self-Monitoring, which give students strategies to deal with unfamiliar vocabulary and to understand confusing texts. In Grade 4, we begin with the read-aloud Catching the Moon.  It is one of my favourites, based on the life of Marcenia Lyle, also known as Toni Stone, who was the first woman ever to play professional baseball in a men's league.

In Grade 5, we begin with the read aloud Beautiful Warrior: The Legend of the Nun's Kung Fu, which is a beautifully illustrated story of two strong female warriors.

Math, we have been working on the Week of Inspirational Math activities put out by Jo Boaler from Stanford University. Her research into brain science and how everyone can be good at math is inspirational! The videos and activities that she and her team develop help students learn that speed is not as important as thinking deeply and making connections when it comes to math. We will be completing the activities this week, and moving on to the Numeration strand in both grades.

As part of the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning, students will have the opportunity to participate in STEM challenges on a biweekly basis. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Students are given a challenge, or problem to solve, and some simple materials to solve it with. They must work as a team and use their Creativity, Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Character and Citizenship skills to find a solution to the problem. We started this week with a spaghetti and marshmallow tower challenge. Ask your child what solution they came up with, and how successful they were! Also, check out the pictures posted on Twitter in the sidebar.

A few more notes to remember:

*library day for Gr. 4 will be Tuesdays, and for Gr. 5 will be Fridays; your child will have the opportunity to borrow a library book each week and return it the following week, starting the week of Sept 17th

*thank you to everyone who sent in kleenex and other assorted supplies! Please remember to send indoor shoes if you have not already.

*your child came home with a number of papers and forms on Thursday last week, please sign and return them as soon as possible if you have not already. The package contained :

• a school year calendar -for your reference at home
• a checklist of forms - to keep you organized!
• a Student Verification Form (white) - please verify the information, make any necessary changes, sign and return with your child
• the Acceptable Use of Technology Agreement - read it over with your child.  Both your child and yourself need to initial and sign both sides, then return it to school.
• Informed Consent for Student Participation and Acknowledgment of Risks - please read this form carefully, complete, sign and return
• Permission letter  - to go on Learning Walks and to the park at Arc-en-Ciel, please sign and return

* On Friday, your child also came home with letter about the School Council Fundraiser, Chocolate sales. Everyone benefits from the purchases made from the funds raised! Please support this initiative by selling chocolates at your place of work, or to family and friends. Children are not to go door-to-door. If at any time you would like more boxes of chocolate to sell, drop a note to the school or send me a note through the blog and we will send more home.

*While each child came home with a school agenda, most teachers will not be using agendas in the junior grades, we will be making use of classroom websites and blogs to pass along information. You can follow my blog by subscribing at the bottom of this page. 
Mme Corriveau has her blog at http://madamecorriveau.blogspot.ca/ 


Please feel free to drop me a line or leave me a message using my parent contact form on the side of the blog.  If your child is going to be absent, or late, or you would like to set up an appointment, or you just want me to be aware of something that may be affecting your child, it's easy to reach me.  

I look forward to seeing you all at Program Night on Wednesday, Sept 12, at 6:30, starting in the gym. Afterwards, I will be in Room 110.