Welcome back to our class blog! A quick thanks to all the parents helping out with class materials and student learning. We are blessed to have a parent maintaining and preparing supplies, another three helping students pass learning hurdles and extend learning, and another two run the Home Reading Club. As the year progresses, I will send out invitations for parents to join us on trips and special activities. 


We have been focusing for some time now on developing responsible habits and organizing time, materials, and work for success in school. I will highlight using italic letters some examples of how students can do this. Feel free to discuss with your child how they are being responsible and organizing time, materials, and work (modelling attentive listening at mass, setting up for work quickly and avoiding distractions, keeping their desk organized, asking when unsure about work - but only after reading the directions and trying the work independently, bringing home and returning to school homework materials, returning supplies, planning work in notebooks and with the agenda. 

This Wednesday our class will learn how to curl using the program Rings and Rocks. Friday we have the school Harvest dance (see letter). Students are working hard on writing disgusting recipes (procedural writing) to present at a later date. They are practicing using specific reading strategies when reading self-selected texts. Many students are using tools (whisper phones, dictionaries, finger-reading) to improve their attention.  Encourage your child to use strategies to solve words and better understand texts when reading at home. Last week in Math we learned that we can use hundred charts to count (like a calculator). The trick is to see the patterns! For example, we learned that to add ten on a hundred chart we simply move down one square because this is the same as counting on ten squares! We practiced counting on hundred charts by 2s, 5s, 10s, and now we extend to higher numbers counting backwards and by 25s. Students are welcomed to use base 10 materials, the Math Strategy Board words, and to receive help from desk buddies as they work. Clear page set up and organizational strategies such as using vertical ruler lines to space digits are routinely encouraged. 

Our Einstein questions are being praised by others in the school! They are a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn to research a topic and to teach that school is just the beginning of their learning. While a few of the questions don't lend themselves easily to the program (eg "Are mothers always right?"), most do have clear answers and greatly appeal to the class. Students are developing initiative and follow-through on their natural curiosity. The questions are also providing an opportunity for the class to become familiar with technology. For example, the class is learning to navigate the internet (perform efficient searches, use history to recall websites). Typically, students research questions every two weeks in school and are encouraged to add to their notes on the weekend at home. On top of developing these skills, the students a getting an opportunity to increase their comfort level with presenting orally - many students at this age feel shy when presenting, but the short, high-interest, and quirky nature of the questions seems relieve this stress greatly. Your child is welcome to practice presenting his or her answers at home. Thank you for supporting this program!

As the wet season approaches . . .  What am I talking about? It's already here! - I highly recommend that you send in a tied bag of extra clothes to hang on your child's coatroom hook. Every year I see students wishing they had done this. Please make sure your child is dressed warmly enough when the colder days arrive. The temperature can change quite a bit from day to day.