February WOW Winners!

You go girl!

You go guy!

You go guy!

Congratulations to Hailey, Matt, Caroline, Luca, and Julianna who are this month's WOW winners!   They have been recognized for their "Persistent Participation".  Keep up the great effort!  Maybe a few more of our peers will participate more too!

You go girl!

You go girl!

Today's classroom Lenten Promise is:  help stacking chairs in my classroom.

Zumba en Français!

Coordination!

Merci beaucoup to the grade eight students who led many classes in  Zumba today!  We were able to integrate gym and French!  Check out the photos!

Zumba Leaders!

Zumba Leaders!

Fun for All!

Active Participants!

What Choreography!

In sync!

Congratulations to the following students who were successful at today's chess tournament:  Nathan (4th), Edxio (4th), Luca (5th), and Thomas (6th).

Today's Classroom Lenten Promise:  hold the door open for someone.

French Week Excitement Continues

Today our class brought in some very creative and interesting supplies to use to decorate our classroom door for the door decorating contest.  Some students even asked if they could work at recess!  According to M LeBlanc the judging will now take place on Friday.  Bonne chance!

Many students are helping!

Many creative supplies are being used!

This morning Constable Silver also visited us to discuss the topic of Authority Figures.  We began discussing the consequences of resisting authority figures.  This leads to our next topic which will be the Youth Criminal Justice Act.  The students will discover how the law handles youth that break the law.

Tomorrow is red, white and blue day in honour of the French flag.  Sport some colour!  We will also be participating in Zumba en Français for our gym class.  Come dressed in comfortable clothing - no skinny jeans!

Today's Classroom Promise is:  Use your manners and let someone else go first!

Bienvenue à la Semaine Française!

Today M LeBlanc had our class hard at work designing decorations for our classroom door to kick off French Week and the door decoration contest.  The students are encouraged to bring any special items that they wish from home in order to impress our judges - Mr. Marenchin and Mrs. Merritt - on Wednesday.  The grand prize is a pizza party for the whole class!  Get involved - it truly is a team effort!

Height sure helps!

Sketching is a good plan!

Group Collaboration!

Enjoyable by All!

Sharing Ideas

Bravo M LeBlanc!

Great Listening Skills!

Research is Always a Great Idea!

Accountable Talk, of Course!

Today's Classroom Lenten Promise is:  only talk when you have to!

Math Test on the Horizon!

As you likely saw on the classroom calendar, our next math test is on Tuesday February 26.  It is based on the material that we worked on in Unit 4 - Decimals.  Most of the material in the unit is required to be covered by our Mathematics curriculum, except for lesson one.  It is very important that the students are able to solve open response problem solving questions using the four-step problem solving process that they were taught in September and have continued to use since then (you saw their purple duo tang during the Student-Led Conferences).  Please review their math workbook(s) with them and see the feedback that I have given them.  While we have improved greatly in this area, some students still have some work to do.

Good News!

 Congratulations to this week's Good News ticket winners:  Sophia (twice), Thomas, and Julia B.

Our Lenten journey continues and I am pleased to report that this week 87% of our class participated in meatless Fridays.  Keep up the great work!

Big Responsibility!

On Wednesday evening, the Kindergarten Open House was held.  It is a special night when families bring their little ones and register for the junior or senior kindergarten program that will begin in September 2013.  Our class has been asked to write welcoming thank you cards which will be sent to each new Guardian.  We have therefore learned parts of a letter and envelope, and have been working in this project for a few days.  They seem very excited and pleased to be asked to do this job.  This is what the cards look like from the outside.

Friday's classroom Lenten Promise is:  clean up a mess even if it is not yours.

Busy Day!

Choreography

On Wednesday, Mrs. D'Agnillo visited to pray the rosary with us.  She told us about a saint that was martyred during the Holocaust.  

Thursday's classroom Lenten Promise is:  increase someone's self esteem!

We also did our final preparations for our first dance presentation.  They will be formatively evaluated next Wednesday.

What synergy!

Careful planning!

Future Dance Instructors?

Creative Zumba!

Teamwork!

Movers and Shakers!

Planning on paper is
a good strategy

Congratulations!

Congratulations is extended to the three winners of a pair of tickets to see the Windsor Spitfires this Thursday when they play the Erie Otters:  Luca, Ryan, and Adam.  Enjoy the game and hopefully cheer the Spits on to a victory!

We have learned a new math game to practice our multiplication facts called "I have..., Who has...?"  Ask your child about it!

Today's classroom Lenten Promise is:  try not to say "like".

Lenten Promises

Last week, in addition to hosting the Ask Wednesday mass, we learned many details about Lent, Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, etc.  Each student also pledged to either do something positive or give up something for Lent.  We placed the papers with their pledges in our Lenten Promises container, which is displayed on our prayer table. 

 The students are encouraged to keep this promise for all of Lent - both at home and school.  Should they stray, they are encouraged to put that behind them and continue - no one is perfect. 

Each student was also asked to make a classroom pledge with a positive spin.  One of these will be chosen at random, posted each day, and the entire class is asked to try their best to fulfill that promise each day.  I will try to post them early each morning, because I know that some students and parents check the blog each morning, so you will prepare yourself to follow through with the promise of the day.

  Today's classroom Lenten Promise is:  stay seated during class and lunch.

Happy Family Day!

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you a very happy Family Day!  Rest, relax, play, or do whatever you like to do with your family members.  I plan to go bowling with my family.  What do you have planned?  Time is very precious - enjoy it while you have it!


*Don't forget that tomorrow is the last day to submit jokes/riddles and a parent note to be included in the draw for Spitfire tickets!

Inferring Character Traits

The latest reading strategy that we are concentrating on is inferring.  While good readers use multiple reading strategies at a time, we focus on one at a time for teaching purposes, so that we can expand and polish the students' skills.  The students have identified that when you infer, the reader locates clues that have been implanted by the author explicitly or implicitly, and use his/her schema to create conclusions about a character and/or situation.  Shown here is my class using character trait cards that I created.  They put pieces together to match adjectives with their definitions.  This facilitates vocabulary development, and in this case, we were inferring qualities about characters that we were reading about, citing evidence from the text.  This is a great skill to hone, so I recommend that they practice this at home with their daily reading. They also practice this in the classroom, independently, in their weekly reader's responses.  Please see the new anchor charts that have been posted in both the literacy and math sections of the Anchor Chart Library page of this site.

Good News!

 Congratulations to this week's Good News ticket winners:  Hailey, Julianna, Raven the Bird, Larissa, Hannah 22, and Julia O. 

 I am also pleased to announce that   88 % of our class participated in the meatless Friday lunch challenge.  Congratulations!  I am very proud of your understanding of this gesture and your committment to it!  Keep it up!

Endurance Circuits in the Gym with 6/7K

Bench Step-ups

Bench Hop

Scooter Board Challenge

Jump Ups

Run to the Net

Shuttle Run

Skipping

Gymnasium Jog

This week we began working on our endurance by working in small groups on fitness circuits.  The students tired extremely quickly, and many decided that they were not as fit at they thought they were.  Let's gear up for the Track and Field season!  Get outside and get active!