Mon, 21 May 2012 20:36:10 -0800WeeblySun, 06 May 2012 19:34:03 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/05/may-7-11.htmlIt is so wonderful to have the warm sunshine!  Beautiful spring weather...ahhhh!

This week we will be looking forward to...

Tuesday- Class Photo Day as well as a band concert during the am. 

Thursday- School Track Meet- although our primary students will not be participating in any events, the school will be alive with excitement.  Students love to bring a couple of dollars for concession treats

Guest Author study- Jan Andrews will be here in the morning to talk to our primary classes.

Language Arts- We have finished our poetry unit.  Our publishing will be coming home this weekend.  We will now begin looking at letter writing.   Students will be able to write a letter to a loved one.  I will be asking students to bring in an addressed/stamped envelope for the letter we write.  Students often enjoy writing to grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins...

Reading- we have been working on our comprehension skills with reading fables.  Students are enjoying learning the different morals in each story.

Math- Our current unit in Math is Time- I plan to spend only one more week on this concept as we have been working on it indirectly all year during calendar time. Next week we will begin a mini unit on Fractions.

Socials/Science- We will continue our unit with the West Coast communities and begin a more focused look at the Pacific Temperate Rainforests.  Our science lessons will be finishing up clouds this week and we will begin looking at the forests' soils and seeds.

Health and Career- we have been learning about Safety with Hazardous Products.  This week we will begin learning about Safety with first aid.

Our artist of the week will soon be Bedrich Smetana- this is a Czech composer that wrote a beautiful piece of music titled Ma Vlast (My Country).  One of the pieces in this cycle is  The Moldau based on the journey of the river.  It is beautiful piece that goes with our water/rain theme for Spring. 

Upcoming Dates:
May 8- Class Photos and Band Concert
May 10- Parkcrest Track Meet
May 17- Hug a Tree Presentation
May 18- Pro-d Day
May 21- Victoria Day- no school
June 1- Isobel Lake Field Trip
June 4-7- Swimming Lesson @ Brock Pool



]]>Tue, 01 May 2012 18:15:27 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/05/may-1-4.htmlToday was a wonderful day at the Science Center.  Thank-you to all our parent drivers: Mrs. Bolton, Mrs. Pearson, Ms. Bell, Mrs. Shuttleworth, Mrs. Thompson.  Without you, it would be impossible to get there.  The children enjoyed their science experiment with dissolving matter and loved to play and explore the science experiments in the three rooms!

Upcoming Dates:
May 8- Class Photos and Band Concert
May 10- Parkcrest Track Meet
May 18- Pro-d Day
May 21- Victoria Day- no school
June 1- Isobel Lake Field Trip
June 4-7- Swimming Lesson @ Brock Pool


]]>Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:52:54 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/04/april-10-13.htmlI hope you all had a wonderful Easter with your families.  The children seemed very excited on Friday to have some time to do exciting things.

This week begins our two week stint with our student teachers: Ms. Wolstenholme and Ms. Allen.  They will be teaching us a unit in math and one in science and one in social studies.  I will be there of course for all the lessons, helping and guiding.  They are very excited to begin and have planned some neat activities for our kids.

Please note with a short week last week and a short week this week I have decided to have the student work on the same spelling unit one more week.  Our spelling test will be this Friday April 13th.

Tuesday:  High Country Music Festival @ Calvary Community Church- We will leave at 8:45 am and I don't anticipate we will be back until 12:00 pm.  Our students have been scheduled to sing at 10 am. Please have your child come dressed appropriately for this as we are representing our school.  Girls are expected to wear black skirts or pant and solid spring coloured tops.  Boys are wearing solid black tops and solid black bottoms. 

Wednesday:  We do have gym first block in the morning and then choir in the afternoon.  We are now working on our year end numbers as well as some special pieces for the parent appreciation tea.

Thursday:  This is our library day.  We have now finished up our frogs unit in the library.  This week is a regular sign out day.

Friday:  Students will have PE and computers in the morning

Reminder that Monday April 16th is a District Inservice Day and there will not be any school.
]]>Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:45:51 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/04/april-2-5th.html
Happy April! Isn’t it wonderful to see the sunshine again?  It is so nice to see the children playing outside again, enjoying the fresh air.  Spring is here, I think. J

Easter Week: This week we will be participating in some Spring/ Easter activities.  Students will be dying Easter eggs on Thursday April 5th.  I would ask that each student bring at least 3-4 raw eggs to colour for this day.  It is important that the eggs are raw as we will be blowing the yolk out.  

I am also needing parents to supply food colouring and vinegar for this event.  If you are able to help us with this donation, please let me know or send a note in your child‘s agenda- I’d greatly appreciate it.

]]>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:03:37 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/03/march-26-30.htmlWelcome back!  I hope you all had a wonderful spring break.  I know the children were happy to be back at school and see their friends today.  They shared some wonderful writing this morning about their exciting holidays.

Just a reminder that this Friday is an early closure date for Parent/ Teacher Interviews.  Dismissal will be at 12:30 pm.  If you would like to schedule an interview with me on this day, please feel free to send me a little note in your child's agenda.  If you could also give me a range of times so I can schedule a time that is available (Thanks!).  I will also be contacting families if I have a concern or if I feel a need to meet. 

This week we have begun a measurement unit in Math.  Students today discovered it takes 114 unifix cubes to measure the height of our classroom doors!  Height, Width and Length were the math words of the day! Students will continue this unit this week and more with our student teachers next week.

In Social Studies we are now learning about British Columbia.  We will be mapping the major rivers and lakes in our province.  Our student teachers will continue this series with a focus on the coastal BC and the rainforests.  Please save your paper towel rolls.  Only students that have brought them in will be able to make a rainstick.  Each student will need at least 3 rolls.  Please feel free to start sending these in and we can put your child's name on them.

In Science we are beginning to learn about clouds and the water cycle. 

Emily Carr will be our Artist of the Week for the next little while.  We will have some fun painting trees to go with our social studies and science themes.

In reading we are continuing to read and learn about fairy tales and folk tales.

In writing we are working on Poetry writing and students are just starting a publishing project making a Spring Poetry Book.  This will involve making rough copies, proofreading and writing good copies of their original poems.  It will be a lot of work but a beautiful keepsake when it is done!

Health & Career right now is all about Safety.  We will soon start this unit requiring students to understand safety in our community and safety in our homes.

Well I think that may be all for this week.  Please feel free to contact me at the school if you have any questions or concerns. I'm happy

]]>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:24:53 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/03/march-12-16.htmlThursday- We will be going skating at Brock Arena- this is our last time that we had booked.  We will walk over at 1 pm.  Once again, if there are some parents able to come to the rink to help tie skates and/or drive our equipment to the rink- we would be very grateful!

]]>Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:40:44 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/03/thursday-march-8th.htmlReminder tomorrow is Gymnastics- we will be leaving at 8:45 am.  Please remember your child needs his/her booster seat in order to be able to go with a driver.  We will leave right after announcements and be back after recess.
]]>Thu, 01 Mar 2012 21:57:13 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/03/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit4.htmlPlease note The High Country Music Festival that was originally scheduled for March 7 has been post-poned until  April 10th @ Calvary Community Church during the same time in the morning.
]]>Wed, 29 Feb 2012 22:08:10 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/vegetable-soup-day-postponed.htmlOur vegetable soup making has had to be cancelled.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused- we will try to find another date to schedule this event.

Thankyou. ]]>Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:13:23 -0800http://lattaslibretto.weebly.com/1/post/2012/02/last-week-of-february-wow-time-flies.htmlDear Parents,Thank-you to those of you checking our class blog regularly (lattaslibrettos.weebly.com) .  I am trying to post information on this each week.  I do understand some families do not have access to a computer so I will continue to send home newsletters once in a while as well.  (This is the newsletter I will be sending home on Monday)

Last Week:

• On Thursday we had a wonderful time at gymnastics.  The children were divided into small groups and we were taken through a series of stations (of course the trampoline was the most popular!)  Thank-you parents for remembering to send your child’s booster seat.  Special thank-you’s go out to our parent drivers: Ms. Pearson, Ms. Bolton, Ms. Shuttleworth and Ms. Smith- without you it would have been difficult to go!  Our next gymnastics day is Mar. 8th.
• Wednesday afternoon we were able to meet our new student teachers (Ms. Allen and Ms. Wolstenholme).  They will be arriving Apr.4 and staying for two full weeks, teaching mini units in Social Studies, Math and Science.  I have asked them to integrate Socials and Science and teach us about the West Coast Rainforests.  We will be learning about the Water Cycle and the West Coast of British Columbia.  I plan to also teach the kids at this time about Emily Carr and have the students make Rainsticks!
• Please start saving your paper towel rolls for this exciting project. Each students needs between 2-4 rolls
  

This Week:

• This Friday we will be celebrating the conclusion of our food groups study.  Ms. Smith has kindly volunteered to come in and help us make Vegetable Soup.I am asking each child to bring a small portion of whole vegetables to put into our soup on Friday .  I will be supplying a chicken soup base and some barley.  The children will cutting the vegetables to prepare them for the soup in the morning and we will be enjoying it at lunch.  Children will still need a lunch on Friday as this will just be a little extra treat.  Thanks in advance for your help with this!
• Tuesday is our Read Around the Planet experience!!  I have asked the children to wear mittens and a scarf for this video conference.  We are connecting up with another grade two class from Euclid, Ohio.
• Thursday will be skating again!  We leave at 12:45 pm to walk over to the Brock Arena.  I would love to have some parents join us during this afternoon.  Help is always greatly appreciated to tie skates and/or drive our skates/bags to the rink. Thank-you.
  

Our classroom learning is progressing well!  

• Students have been busy writing stories in their journals and been so creative with their ideas.  I am trying to get them to write with more detail and information.
• We have been reading and studying fairy tales. Last week we read the Elves and the Shoemaker and made little Elves to go along with this story.
• Science has been quite exciting with different science projects to do with solid, liquids and gases.  The kids loved making “Oobleck” (goo) last week- it was messy but so much fun!
• In Social Studies, we are finishing up mapping and have begun learning about the symbols of Canada- last week we made origami maple leafs and the student learned all about why this symbol was chosen to be put on our Canada flag.
• In Math, we have been progressing well with our subtraction and money with borrowing and will soon start multiplication
  

Well I think that is all for now. Please do not hesitate to contact me at the school if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Mrs. J. Latta

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