Owl Paintings: Our beautiful Snowy Owl paintings from our 4CatsArtStudio Field trip are being sent home Monday. I hope you are as pleased with them as I was. The studio tells me if you’d like to have them framed, they will happily stretch the canvas and frame it properly on wood. They look very nice that way! This does cost $30 and they can usually do it in a day.
Christmas Concert: Students are already hard at work learning their song for the Christmas concert. This year our concert is titled Santa Goes Green. Our class will be performing with Ms. Erichuk’s gr.5/6 class, a song titled “Recycle the Fruitcake.” In addition to this, we will be singing with the Primary choir in the start of the concert. We will also sing a song at the end of the concert as a whole school. We are just starting to talk about what students should wear. We will definitely need to wear a solid green top but I will let you know about additional props etc. Our concert is on Thursday Dec. 13 at 10:30 am (tentative) and again at 1:00 pm. We hope you can join us!
Christmas Craft: We will soon be making Christmas gifts for families. I am asking each student to bring $2 to help pay for the cost for these projects. Thank-you in advance for this!
Skating: It is tradition that classes go skating at Parkcrest. We are lucky to have Brock Arena so close by! We will walk over (weather depending) however, I usually ask for a couple of parents to walk with us and one to drive our skates and equipment over for us. We always need extra parents as well to tie laces. Students are allowed to bring hockey sticks and soft pucks. Our dates for skating are : Dec.17, Feb.21, Feb28. Time to find those skates! Please let me know right away if your child does not have skates- we do have some here at the school that students can use. I will need a parent helper to come and help sort through our school skates to help these students find a pair to wear. If you are able to help with any of these things, I would greatly appreciate it! Permission slips will be sent home soon.
Report Cards are coming soon: I have been busy gathering data and testing our students in math, reading and writing. I will continue to do reading and science tests with students this week as well. Report cards will be sent home on Nov. 30th. Remember Dec.7th is an Early Closure date for parent/ teacher interviews so if you would like to meet with me regarding your child’s report card, please send me a note with the report card envelope. Otherwise I will only be contacting families that I feel a need to meet with.
Homereading: I am concerned some students are becoming slack with their home reading and having agendas signed. Each day I check agendas and ask the students one by one to exchange their books. I have been hearing a lot of “I didn’t read it last night” or “We didn’t have time.” Please ensure your child is reading each and every night. Without this extra home reading, your child will not progress at the same speed as his/her peers. It makes a huge difference! I am now asking students to record how long they read as well to help track their reading. You’ll notice in their agenda tonight it says
Read ____ min. Please record the number of minutes and initial beside. .I will be awarding students with the top amount of minutes at Christmas break for their excellent commitment to reading. Thank-you for your help with this!
Book Fair: This week is Book Fair week. Students will be allowed a sneak peak on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, the book fair will be open for students wishing to buy books. We have been given time each day for students with money to go and shop. If you would like to send your child with money, Tues and Wed are the days to do so. Mrs. Gorman will also have the Book Fair open after school for families wishing to come.
Games Day: This Friday at lunch, student’s council is sponsoring “Games Day.” They are asking any students that are able, to bring a board game to play with other students. At 12:20, primary and intermediate students are then allowed to go to the gym and play games together. There will be a primary side and an intermediate side. Students do not have to bring a game to be allowed to go.
Movember: We are doing a school fundraiser for prostrate cancer as this in now “Movember.” You may have noticed Mr. Aziz and Mr. Daliwahl are growing moustaches. They will be shaving them off for the school on November 30th. Admission will be $1 and all proceed will be donated to this worthy cause.
Reminder : Inservice Day: Monday Dec 3
Class Themes Right Now:
Reading: We have been reading Owl stories and discussing who, what, where. Last week we started to look at what happens in the beginning, middle and end of the story. We started a reader’s theatre script last week about a character named Mr. Owl. Students are in the midst of making puppets to act this play out. We will work on this some more this week.
Phonics: We are currently learning the rule “If two vowels go walking the first one does the talking and says its own name” rule. Words like: moan, treat, street, rain. Please remind your child of this rule when they read each night.
Science: We are continuing to learn about Owls.
Socials: We are learning about what makes up a community and the differences between rural communities and urban communities.
Math: We are currently learning place value with double digit addition and subtraction. Please note we did not do a math quiz last week. Only spelling tests will be coming home tonight. I apologize that I’ve been slow to send home our weekly quizzes, I am writing report cards and using information for this purpose. Thank-you for your understanding.
Writing: We are still working on our writing skills. I am insisting students use capitals and end punctuation at the end of sentences. Students are now expected to write a minimum of 5-6 solid sentences during writing time (many are writing more!!!)
Student Teachers: We have been enjoying our student teachers this month. They will be with us until the end of November. They have been teaching us lessons in reading and writing. We wish them all the best as they will continue in the BEd program at TRU and begin a new practicum in the spring at a different school.
Final Thoughts: Wow, I think there was a lot of news to communicate. Once again thank-you so much for your efforts and support. I am enjoying teaching your children this year. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school or email me [email protected]. I’m happy to help!
Sincerely,
Mrs. J. Latta