Week 13: November 26-30

Hopefully everyone had the opportunity to order Spirit Wear to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of St. Clare school. There will be some upcoming events, likely during Education Week, including the opening of the Time Capsule that was sealed into the walls when St. Clare was being built. I wonder what things we will find inside?

Speaking of upcoming events, the Gr. 4 students will be going on a field trip to the Museum of Science and Innovation in February. We will need some parents to accompany us. It is essential that if you want to come with us, you have your police check for working with the vulnerable sector and have handed it in to the office. If you are interested in joining us, you should be able to get one before February. There are also 2 other trips in the planning stages.

Upcoming events this week:
-a Be Well assembly on Thursday
-Week 1 Advent liturgy for junior students in the gym on Friday

Here's what we've been up to this week:
Math - both groups reviewed telling time on both analogue and digital clocks. They are now working on elapsed time, which is a challenging concept. They are used to regrouping in 10's and 100's, but in time, we regroup in 60's. Sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, etc. It is hard for them to remember, and a calculator is not much help. We will continue to work on this next week.

Language - Gr. 4 finished Nibble Nibble Jenny Archer, and looked at various marketing strategies to target kids or adults as purchasers of cereal. They have just started to design their own cereal boxes, and will then design a way to promote it. They can record a commercial using the green screen, imovie, WeVideo, or a comic strip using Pixton, among other choices. 

Gr. 5 are listening to A Dog's Life, and each day they discuss some point of the story with a partner, then write an evaluative piece about it in their slide deck. It has been quite interesting so far! We are about half-way finished.

Week 12: November 19-23

At our PD Day on Friday, the topic was Numeracy and Mathematics. We teachers had the opportunity to look into the new Ontario Government's Focus on the Fundamentals of Math strategy, which really puts the focus on developing critical thinking, flexibility with number concepts and taking a balanced approach to the development of mathematical thinking. This is not the drill and practice, or memorization of facts popularized in the media, this is really developing number concepts, fluid reasoning, and problem solving. Here is a link to the Parent's Guide, for your reference, if you are interested.

Thank you to everyone who supported the United Way through Crazy Hat/Hair Day, Twin Day, etc. We appreciate your generosity!

Here's what we are working on:

Math - we are finishing up the brief geometry unit on angles, and will have a short test this week. The grade 4 students need to be able to identify acute, obtuse, right and straight angles, and the benchmark angles of half a right angle, halfway between right and straight, and know that angles are measured in degrees. The grade 5 students need to be able to measure angles using a protractor, and to use a protractor to draw angles given the measurement in degrees. Our next unit is a measurement unit on time and elapsed time, which we will start this week.

Language - Grade 4 students are listening to a read-aloud named Nibble Nibble, Jenny Archer. We were waiting for it to arrive from another library, and it finally came on Thursday! It is a short but funny book, and they will enjoy it. They were also asked to bring in an empty cereal box if possible, as we are evaluating the target audience for the marketing of the box. Grade 5 students are listening to a longer read-aloud, A Dog's Life, and each day have a short evaluation to write on something we heard that day. You can follow these short evaluations in their drive, if you want to.

Week 11: November 12-16, 2018

Thank you to all of the veterans, parents, grandparents, and siblings who were able to join us in remembrance on Friday. We will remember them, and their sacrifice.

Last week, we had our Faith Buddy day on Wednesday morning, and joined with the kindergarten students to look at Dignity of Persons. We talked about including everyone, and making them feel welcome. We finished by designing a page for our book, where each team of buddies wrote, "I can..." and drew a picture to illustrate it. It was nice to see everyone working together!

This week is a short week, due to the PD Day on Friday. There are no classes for students on Friday. I am looking forward to meeting many parents on Thursday night during interview evening. If you have not yet booked an interview, but would like to, there are a few spots left Thursday evening, or send me a note and we can meet at another time.

Thursday is also Crazy Hair/Hat day! Wear your craziest hat and/or wildest hairdo and bring a loonie or a toonie for United Way! 

Here is what we are up to:

Math - We have finished our patterning unit in both grades and will begin a very short unit on angles (geometry). We are following the MathUp program, and this unit is only 3 lessons long, followed by a short test. The next unit is measurement, including time and elapsed time, which is a difficult concept. Telling time on an analogue clock, and calculating elapsed time are both very challenging for students. This is something you can easily practice at home, by asking what time it is (on an analogue clock), asking what time it will be in 25 minutes, how long you have before you have to leave for something, etc. Grade 4 have to tell time to the nearest minute, Grade 5 have to know to the nearest second, and will also have to know time on the 24 hr clock.

Language Arts - We are still waiting for the Read-aloud to arrive from the school we are borrowing it from, so we have not yet started in Grade 4, but hope to in a day or 2. In Grade 5 we have started reading A Dog's Life, and have made our predictions of what the story will be about.

Week 10: November 5-9, 2018

*Don't forget - tomorrow is picture retake day!

Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who came out to our Bible Blessing Ceremony on Tuesday morning. It was great to see so many of you! The children were so excited to receive their very own bibles. 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.

Thursday, November 15 is Parent-Teacher interview evening. Information was sent home with the Progress Report about interviews, and there is a link on the school website: here . Just click on the name of the teacher you want to book with, choose a time, and fill in your name and your child's 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. Some parents would prefer a meeting that is longer than the scheduled 10 minutes during interview night. Please call the school or send me a note through the blog so that we can set up a before or after school time to meet.

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

Here's what we've been up to:

Math: we have almost completed our Patterning unit in both grades, and will have a short test this week, likely Wednesday, on patterns and pattern rules (Start at 10, add 3 each time), and on 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: In Grade 4 we are hoping to start a read aloud this week for Evaluating, a funny book named "Nibble, Nibble, Jenny Archer. The students will really enjoy it! The Grade 5 read aloud for the Evaluating unit is A Dog's Life, by Ann Martin.