On Friday we had the Scientist in the School program visit our classroom. The children participated in a variety of experiments which helped to consolidate their learning about Simple Machines. Thank you to those parents who volunteered to help lead these experiments. The students thoroughly enjoyed their morning! 

     Thank you to everyone who has brought in a donation for the We Scare Hunger food drive. The children are learning about helping others less fortunate and they are so proud to put their donations into the box outside our classroom.  Just a reminder, please don't send in any products which contain nuts.  The Food Drive continues until Monday, October 31.

     The children attended "The Power of One" presentation on Tuesday morning.  Through watching role-playing situations the children learned that everyone has the power to stop bullying.  Each child will be signing "the Power of One" poster board to show that they would not bully others, and will report bullying.  The poster boards will be displayed in the school after all the students sign them.  

     Our school has been experiencing some difficulty with the IXL program this week. We have people looking into this issue and we are hoping that it will be up and running again early next week. I will keep you posted on this issue.

      Picture Retake Day is Thursday, October 27.  Please let me know if you wish a retake, so I can add your name to the list.  A reminder that photo orders submitted to school are due on Monday, October 24.  Payments are also accepted on-line.  See the proof form for additional details.

     

     The grade 8's will be creating a Haunted House for the students to visit. It is recommended the students bring a $2.00 donation when entering the Haunted House as the grade 8's are raising money for their grade trip. Our class is scheduled to visit the Haunted House on Friday, October 28th. Your child does not have to visit the Haunted House if they are not comfortable doing so. They will have the option to stay outside in the hallway with me.

     Halloween is quickly approaching. This week we will be having a Halloween craft morning. The children are looking forward to making some crafts that they can use to decorate their home. The children may wear their costumes to school on Monday, October 31.  There will be a school parade for the parents at 9:00 am.  The parade will be outside weather permitting.  Our classroom party will be in the afternoon.  Just a reminder that face paint is easier to manage than a mask and please no weapons.  

     Finally, a reminder that Pizza Lunch is on Friday, October 28th. Please remind your child how to behave for the parent supervisors in our classroom. The students need to use inside voices, remain seated, use their manners and to clean up after themselves. I will be speaking to the students about these expectations but an extra reminder from home will be helpful too.

    

What to Expect in October

It's hard to believe that we are in the second week of October. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! The children were very eager to share their Thanksgiving Trees
with their family. A special thank you to those parents who volunteered to cut out the foam leaves for
this craft. It was much appreciated by all of us!

Language Arts:
We have now gotten into the routine of weekly spelling lists. Each week, the students complete a variety of activities in class based on the spelling words of the week. These may include sorting words by spelling rule, crosswords, fill in the blank, proofreading and short creative writing assignments. I will send home the spelling test book every couple of weeks so you can keep track of the words your child needs to work on.

Reading:
In reading we are focussing on the reading strategies of making connections and predictions to assist with comprehension. Students are encouraged to make text to self, text to text and/or text to world connections as they are reading. The class will begin weekly Guided Reading groups next week.

The students have been working on reading some short stories in class and answering a variety of comprehension and grammar questions in complete sentences, using words from the questions to begin the answer and including greater detail. We are also working on beginning sentences with a capital letters and finishing sentences with appropriate punctuation.

Writing:
Over the next couple of weeks we will be working on a variety of short writing assignments based on Thanksgiving and Halloween. The students will learning to write recounts of various experiences, such as the Terry Fox walk and Thanksgiving. They will also be learning to write fictional narratives with a "Spooky" focus around Halloween, amongst other short Halloween writing activities.

Math:

We have completed our first Math Unit on Sorting and Data Management (graphing). Last week I sent home a list of units to practice on IXL based on what we have learned to date. This is an excellent review for all children.

 

This week we will begin our next unit as part of the Number Sense and Numeration strand and includes representing, comparing, and ordering whole numbers (place value), skip counting forwards and backwards, and basic addition and subtraction facts. We will also look at patterns in addition and subtraction and how to determine the missing number in equations ( 8+__ = 12). I will send home a list of IXL activities next week that correspond to what we are learning in class.

 

Science:

We will be starting our Simple Machines unit this week. We will be having the Scientist in the School come in for a morning of hands-on activities related to this unit on October 21st. We will need 4-5 volunteers for this amazing morning of learning!

 

Social Studies:

We are well underway with our first unit looking at Traditions and Celebrations. This month

we are focussing on Thanksgiving and Halloween.

 

Mystery Reader:

The children love discovering who our weekly Mystery Reader is. Please sign up for this. I am happy to accommodate your schedule to ensure each child is surprised by their parent, sibling or grandparent at least one time during the school year.

 

That's all for now! I will let you know when this blog has been updated again through your child's

agenda.