Last Week Before Holidays

As always we will be continuing with learning and learning routines with some adjustments. All activities we are planning for incorporate curriculum so it is important that students continue to attend  school. Being on time, well rested and fed, allows students to be on their "A game" and ready to go! We certainly have a jam packed week for them to enjoy!

Monday, December 16th - Choir Dress Up

School Wide Caroling (gymnasium) - 8:30 am

Choir Field Trip - Students are asked to dress up is they wish, as we are performing for the seniors in our community! The remaining students from Mrs. MacQueen's class will join Ms. DuBray's class for the duration of the field trip. (9:30 am - 2:25 pm).

Tuesday, December 17th - Wear Your RED & GREEN Holiday Attire

School Wide Caroling (gymnasium) - 12:30 pm - Grade 3 Lead

Create Time to make gifts/cards for family members

Wednesday, December 18th - Wear Your RED & GREEN Holiday Attire

Create Time to make gifts/cards for family members

School Wide Caroling (gymnasium) - 12:30 pm

Classrooms have been working hard to earn a BOARDSGAME Party! They may bring appropriate boardgames if they would like. Students can also bring a snack to share with the class (cheese, crackers, fruit, cookies, veggies, sausage tray etc.) if you wish to send enough for 24, that would be great!

Thursday, December 19th - Wear Your Pajama's to School Day!

School Wide Caroling (gymnasium) - 8:30 am

NOON dismissal!

Note - Our Book A Day program will be winter themed this week!

How Do We Understand the World Through Stories?

What did we learn from the book, Because of Winn-Dixie?

Aisha - "Things can be really sad for you but sometimes you have to move on even though they are really sad for you?"

Lily - "It's okay if you have a pathological fear of something."

Ana - "You have to learn that you can move on with life."

Brayden - "Even though someone is being mean to you, give them a chance and maybe you can be friends."

Kendall - "Just because you don't want to be friends with someone, it doesn't mean that you have to bully them." "It's okay to be friends with different people of different ages."

Gabe - "That some kids don't grow up with parents from a young age."

Alex - "Even though that someone has gone to jail, they can change."

"Even though a family member doesn't live with you, it doesn't mean they don't love you."

Taven - "If something is gone in your life, be sad about it and then move on."

Elsa - "You can't hold on to anything.  You can only love what you've got while you've got it."

Jessica - "If you didn't grow up with a family member, doesn't mean you can't go on with life."

"It's okay to make new friends even if they've been a bit rude to you at once."

Wyatt - "Don't call people names."

Allie - "Everyone deserves a second chance."

"Everyone makes mistakes."

Kate - "If you call people names, they probably don't want to be friends with you." 

Malea - "When you are searching, and can't find it, it's good to move on with life."

Samantha - "We have to move on with life."

Leopold - "That you shouldn't hold on to only one important thing but think of other positive things."

Sienna - "Even though somethings lost, you still need to be happy."

Samuel - "It's okay to lose something you love."

Bhavleen - "If you don't have a family, still be happy."

Mrs. MacQueen - "Your friends and community can be your family too!"

Dedze - "Sometimes you have to let important things go."

Raine - "It's okay to be sad, you just have to move on with your day."

Olivia - "It's okay to be sad but you should never give up."

Blake - "If you've lost a pet, sometimes you have to keep trying and remember your pet is always with you."

"If you fall down, you always can get back up!"

December 8th, 2019

December Update! 

We will be teaching up until the last day of school, so attendance continues to be important for your child's success. If you are leaving before the last day of school (Thursday, December 19th, noon dismissal), please let me know ahead of time. This Wednesday is the Christmas Concert and next week will be caroling in the gym! Lots of fun times in the near future!

Science - Students have wrapped up their combined Science units about Building and Testing With a Variety of Materials last week. Next up will be our Hearing and Sound Unit. If you have an expertise in this area and would like to share with students, please contact me through e-mail.

Social Studies - We have been very fortunate to have had four presenters recently, who have presented on the topics of India and Global Citizenship. Over the next couple weeks we will continue to learn about India and then take a bit of a break to learn all about Ukrainian Christmas Traditions in the new year. I am thrilled to be sharing about my personal story with the students, as I am Ukrainian. We will also look at folklore with opportunities to act out traditional stories and learn some traditional Ukrainian dance steps.

Mathematics - As mentioned before, all concepts are continuously readdressed throughout the year. At this time, we are however concentrating on patterns within numbers (skip counting), Multiplication and Division. Please continue to take the time to practice with either cards or dice, basic facts with your child (addition, subtraction and multiplication). Just two minutes a couple times a week will support an improvement in basic facts acquisition.

Language Arts -
I AM SO HAPPY to announce that we beat our reading minutes for September in October! We are currently working on collecting our November data! Have your child show you on their Google Drive how we record this information. They should have two charts; one classroom and one individual.

Book-A-Day - Ask you child about the daily book and which one they voted for on Friday!

Read Aloud - Because of Winn Dixie will be wrapping up shortly. Stay tuned to hear about our next  book!

Word Work - Last week we looked at contractions. For the next two weeks we will be putting a pause on our formal Words Their Way Program to continue to focus on contractions as well as a few other specific spelling patterns.

Book Club is in full swing with many groups competed their novel and working on their book report write-ups. This week, feedback will be given to all students so that they can complete their good copies (edited) and prepare for presentations.

Coding - The next couple weeks will also have us visiting the program SCRATCH and completing a couple coding tasks. Feel free to explore the site at home in your free time.

As always if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me through e-mail. Looking forward to gathering with everyone on Wednesday night for the grade 1 & 3 Christmas Concert!

Mrs. Emily MacQueen