Terry Fox Walk

On Thursday we participated in our annual Terry Fox walk. The weather was perfect, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Thank you to all who donated to cancer research.

Good News Winners and VIP Information

Congratulations to this week's Good News ticket winners:  Julia and Robert!  Keep up the good work!

This coming week we will begin our VIP program.  Please see the Assignments page of this web site for two attachments:  September VIP letter, and Community Service form.  One of the requirements of graduation from the VIP program, is that each student MUST complete ten hours of COMMUNITY SERVICE by May 29, 2015.  This may not be activities within your own home, as that does not serve the community.  Students that are involved at school (such as foot patrols, bus patrol, Peer Pals, door monitors, etc.) are able to accumulate the time that way as long as the teacher supervisor is willing to sign their form.  Once the hours are complete, please bring in your completed form and ONE photograph of yourself doing community service.  The photo may be a hard copy, on a jump drive, or submitted through your mytools2go account.  It is important that we emulate our school motto for this school year:  BE THE CHANGE!

Monday's math homework may consist of your child correcting work from last week if they did not follow the steps of problem solving.  On September 24, we did yet another question together so they should have a full solution in their blue workbook.  Some students asked if they could take home their purple problem solving workbook and I have allowed them to but it must come back tomorrow (Tuesday).  Thanks so much for you assistance.  P.S.  Many students are finding that their multiplying skills are very weak.  Please review these to 12x12 daily for speed and accuracy.
:)

Do You Know What Your Child Does on the Internet?

I do not usually post during the weekend, but due to some startling information that I have learned, I thought it important enough to post.

On Friday evening, my husband and I watched the season premier of 20/20 on abc, titled "Out of the Woods".  It is the terrifying recount of a twelve year old girl who was stabbed 19 times by two "friends" because of their devotion to a fictional internet character named "Slender Man".  This happened on May 31, 2014 in Wisconsin.  When I questioned my own children about it, my 20 year old did not know about this, but my 12 year old did.  A friend has the app for a related game on his PED, apparently.

The seriousness of this event speaks to how important it is to know EVERYTHING your child is doing online, including knowing what apps they have on their PEDs (ipad, ipod, phones, etc.).  Please check out the link below for the details of the situation.

abc article about "Out of the Woods"

WOW Winners!

Congratulations to the WOW winners from our class for the month of September:  Isaac and Robert.  They have emulated the concept of being "Life-Givers" as we have been discussing in Family Life.  Keep up the great work!

During our assembly yesterday, the students also found out what house league team they are on for this year.  Ask your child what team they are on.
                                              

We also had the opportunity to watch the 2014-2015 Rock Band perform.  Here they are!

Extending Our Understanding by Making Connections

We have been working diligently on understanding and using the reading strategy of Extending Our Understanding by Making Connections.  We have completed reading the novel "Punished" and have been working on texts from our Nelson Literacy text as well.  When your child is reading at home encourage them to use and master this reading strategy.  Feel free to use the anchor chart on our web site as well.  Check out the math anchor charts as well!

We have crafted our first reader's response together.  We were practising making connections.

We also had some very interesting palindromes come in.  Check out the anchor chart!

Panic Ball and Anagram Results

For gym on Monday, we learned a new game called Panic Ball.  Check out the photos!

I was amazed with the multitude of anagrams that the students brought in after the weekend.  There were quite a few that I had not heard of before!

Good News Winners!

Congratulations to this week's Good News ticket winners:  Christian, Connor (twice), Mahleik, Justin, and Katarina.  Keep up the great work!

Math update:  On Friday we had a class discussion about the students' math work.  Since I look at the students' work daily, I am able to monitor progress.  I also see how students record their work and explain their thinking.  As a result I have noticed that there are many students' work that is messy, disorganized, and difficult to interpret.  I have asked that they use an eraser rather than crossing work out, I do not want them to draw horizontal lines between questions, and I do not want them to box questions.  Each day there must be the title, date, and page number with assigned questions recorded.  Each new question must start at the margin.  I will continue to coach them about recommended methods of recording, and it is also a good idea to refer to the anchor charts so that students' work looks the way the anchor charts do.  I hope that parents can assist with coaching them about neatness from home as well.  When it comes to EQAO in the spring, if an evaluator cannot understand a student's work, a mark of zero is earned.  Thank you for your support!

For today's word hunt, please try to find one palindrome.  A palindrome is a word or phrase that is spelled the same forward or backward.  example: HANNAH.  Good luck!

Prime and Composite Numbers

It took a couple of math lessons, but I think we have a solid understanding of what Prime and Composite numbers are.  Check out the hands-on activity that we did using manipulatives, to discover this principle.  The latest anchor charts also can be found on the numeracy archive page of this web site.

Some of the homework that is due Monday is to find or create five anagrams.  Here is an anchor chart that will help get you started.

The Writing Process

Make sure you are successful!

After writing a diagnostic paragraph for me the first week of school, we have been working hard on the specifics of how to write a great paragraph as well as the steps of the writing process (generating ideas, rough draft(s), revise, edit, publishing).  Here is a visual record of what we have been doing.  A great home practise idea would be for your child to practise writing paragraphs of their own.

Correct paragraph
structure

Preparing for writing

Rough draft, with
revising and editing

Revising and Editing anchor chart

More Ticket Winners!

Congratulations to those students who won Windsor Spitfire tickets:  Andrea, Isaac, and Matthew.  Have a great time and cheer on the Spits!

Have you checked the anchor chart archives pages of our web site recently?  As we create charts together, I post them there so that students may use them to complete homework, practise at home, and/or rehearse for evaluations.  Check it out!

A note regarding homework, specifically math.  When you are checking to see that your child has completed his/her work, please check to see that he/she has completed all assigned questions and ALL PARTS of all assigned questions.  It is very important to make thinking visible, and that includes all "explain" portions.  The students must use math logic and math vocabulary to complete these sections properly.  Also, when a question asks to come up with as many answers as possible, the more the better because it demonstrates a higher level of thinking.  Only one answer shows level one thinking.  Thank you for your assistance!

Little Picassos

                                For the last few art classes, we have been working on mixing primary colours to create secondary and intermediate (tertiary) colours.  While creating a colour wheel of their own, the students are also making that the focal point of a caricature.  We developed success criteria, and they have examined their rubric also.  In addition, they get to critique their own work and that of a peer.  Check out the process.

Alaskan Baseball and Viper Ticket Winners

On Thursday our class learned a new game - Alaskan baseball.  They gym was divided into two courts for maximum participation of the class - it was much too wet outside.  Check it out!

Congratulations to the students who won the LaSalle Vipers tickets:  Kameron, Andrea, and Isaac.  Have fun!  Now I have pairs of Spitfire tickets for a home game on Thursday October 9, 2014 at 7:05PM.  If anyone is interested, please have a parent jot a note in the agenda stating that the tickets will be used, remind your child to show me, and I will be happy to pass those out too.

One of our parish priests also visited us and taught us about some saints.  We look forward to his frequent visits.

Congratulations to last week's Good News ticket winners:  Logan, Karissa, and Isaac.  Keep up the good work!

Partner Work During Family Life

The students had the opportunity to work in pairs to guess the reasons behind the contents of each other's puzzle that was completed for homework on Wednesday night.  Check it out!  Some of us were surprised with what we learned!