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.