Did You Know.....

Did you know that we have been studying the parts of the Roman Catholic Mass?  Today we will go to morning mass to identify the parts that we have studied so far.  It will also help us to understand better how the mass is structured and why we do the things we do during mass.  As we continue with this unit, we will finish studying the parts of the mass, we will attend a tour of Corpus Christi Church, and we will have a test.

As with anything else we learn, when students have schema (prior knowledge) they always do better at understanding the material that is presented to them.  Unfortunately, only a few of my students seem to be able to answer my questions.  For the others this information seems foreign to them.  As you know, it is an expectation of our faith that we attend weekly mass.  It would be beneficial to the students to attend weekend mass, as this will help to develop their schema, and help them identify all of the parts of the mass we have been studying.  As they know, it doesn't matter which Catholic church they attend, the readings  - and the structure - will all be the same each weekend.

Our class will also be hosting the Ash Wednesday mass that will be coming up in a few weeks, so their attendance at mass will help prepare them for that too!

See you in church!

Sculptures

What can you do with a wire coat hanger, one leg of a pair of pantyhose, a block of wood, paste, and paint?  (...and help from Mr. Colautti with the sawing and drilling...) SCULPTURES, THAT'S WHAT!  For the last few art classes we have been learning about abstract art.  First we read the mentor text "The Dot" and discovered the main idea.  Then we learned about some artists named Jean Arp and Pablo Picasso.  Finally we began to create our own abstract sculptures.  Check out the photos of part of the process.  You will get to see the finished products when you come to school next week to participate in your child's Student-Led Conference.

New Dances!

We have been working on our latest dances.  I continue to be pleased at how well groups work together and do their best to follow instructions and meet expectations.  I guess that is why we were class of the week!

Decimal Fun - For a Fraction of the Day!

We have been working on understanding, representing, and comparing decimals to the thousandths.  We have used Base 10 blocks, number lines, and games to do so.  Check out the photos of us in action!

Good News

 Congratulations to last week's Good News ticket winners:  Mahleik, Tori, Nate, and Christian (twice).  Keep up the great work!

Yeah!  Math tests were finally sent home on Friday, since the last test was completed that day.  Please have your child return the signed test as soon as possible.  Thank you so much for you patience!

The vocabulary words continue to pour in!  Some students are even using them in their writing, orally, and book talks!  That was the learning goal:  to expand our vocabularies in many settings.  Keep them coming!

Congratulations Class of the Week!

 We had a fantastic morning as AM800's Class of the Week.  Arms told us that our entry beat out approximately 1500 other entries.  I knew that we had reason to celebrate!  Devon was able to give a live traffic report, and many other students were interviewed about their experiences in our class.  We listened to the radio during lunch yesterday and we heard Arms talking about us and his visit with us.  We had prepared interview questions for Arms about his career in broadcasting and he answered every one! Everyone enjoyed the breakfast and backpacks.  Our photo is on the AM800 web site - click here to view it.  Arms also posted information about his visit to our class on the AM800 Facebook page.  Click here to view that.  Check out the many photos of our experience.  We will be listening on Friday morning at 8:20 and 8:50 AM to hear Arms's recount of our experience.  CONGRATULATIONS CLASS!

CASI Results

On Tuesday, the students received the results from the CASI reading assessment that they completed on Monday.  This assessment asks the students to read a novel text and answer eight questions that each evaluate different types of comprehension.  You will see your child's results and the assessment that was done in September as a diagnostic, during the Student-Led Conference that will be held on February 5.

Special congratulations to the following students because their reading level increased by one whole level (and that is not easy to do):  Matt, Connor, Kameron, Devon, Joey, Mahleik, Helena, Karissa, Katrina, and Brooke!  Extra special congratulations to the following students because their reading level increased by two whole levels (that is even tougher to do):  Christian and Robert!  Honourable mention is extended to Logan because of his success on his first assessment of this type.  Keep up the great work everyone!