Week 32: April 29-May 3

Well, there certainly was a lot of excitement over the book fair! The students had a lot of fun shopping during the week. 

This week, the excitement is all about the play! On Thursday morning, the Drama Club will perform the play "Once On This Island Jr." as their Dress Rehearsal in front of the school. They will then perform the play for parents and families in the evening on May 2nd and 3rd. Please see the poster below for details:

The following week is Education Week, and the 25th Anniversary Celebration of St. Clare School. We are hoping as many former students, staff and parents as possible will be able to join us for the activities we have planned.

Week 31: April 22-26, Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend with your family, and that the joy of the Resurrection of Jesus continues through the 50 days of Easter. Spring is finally on the way!

We have a number of events happening this week:

Tomorrow is our turn at the book fair (Gr. 4, morning class). We are the very first class to shop the wonderful selection of books at the fair, and are very excited! The Gr. 5 students will be going on Wednesday (Mme Joly's class) or Thursday (Mrs. Moorman's class). Don't forget your money if you want to buy a book, or a pencil, or other item!

This week is also Earth Week, and the EcoTeam has asked that we pack a litterless lunch all week. We will be taking a class tally of litterless lunches all week. If it can be recycled or reused, it counts as litterless.

Friday is Spring Picture Day! It is the day that sibling pictures are taken as well, so if you would like a sibling group picture, please send a note with the oldest child and we will arrange that for you.

On Friday as well, the Public Health Nurse will be in to do a presentation with the Gr. 4's about tobacco use and smoking, and the health effects of each. This links directly with the health curriculum, and is very informative.

Here's what we are up to in language and math:
Language: Both grades have started a "Book Club" reading group activity. The Grade 4 were assigned one of 4 books on the topic of "Kids Can Do It!", and the Gr. 5 were assigned to one of 4 books on the topic of "Bully-Free Zone". Each day they are responsible for reading an assigned number of pages, discussing the characters, unfamiliar vocabulary, and answering 2 or 3 questions on the reading of the day. The information they gather is collected in a Google Slide available for you to look at in their Hapara Workspace, which you can look at anytime. My comments on each page are written in the "Speaker Notes" of each slide. This book club will take us approximately 2 more weeks to complete.

Math: We are working on Measurement activities in both grades; estimating and measuring linear distances in mm, cm, (dm,) m and km, and converting between them. We will also be looking at perimeter and area, then measuring mass, capacity and volume (Gr. 4) and relating volume to linear measurements (Gr. 5).

Week 29: April 8-12

We had a very busy week last week! 
-On Monday, a very knowledgeable volunteer from the National Art Gallery came to our classroom, and brought prints of several works of art from the Gallery as part of the Looking at Pictures program. She pointed our various features of the pictures, and led a discussion about the art and artists. 
-On Tuesday, the entire school gathered out front to raise the flag for Autism Awareness Day, which we followed up with a discussion about autism and how it can affect people. The students were interested to hear that 2 of my 3 children are on the autism spectrum, and are affected very differently.
-On Wednesday, we said a special prayer for our Grade 6 class, who were on retreat at Divine Infant parish for the day.
-On Thursday, we had a very busy day of math problem solving, thanks to a wonderful program called Mathletics. They ran an amazing day of math, where students rotated in groups between 4 centres, and solved many challenges and problems. The St. Clare Mathletes solved a total of 4 366 math problems over the course of the day! Wow!
-On Friday, we did some catch-up work, and some 3D geometry. 

Next week, we will begin a book club style reading activity, where each group will be assigned a book at their level, and have an assignment to complete each day. We will also complete our geometry unit, with 3D shapes, their attributes, and movement on a coordinate grid. Most students seem very familiar with the concepts so far! Also next week, the public health nurse will be in to discuss grade appropriate health topics with the students. Grade 4 students will discuss tobacco and smoking; Grade 5 students discuss alcohol and drinking.