October
What an exciting and busy month of September! I am now getting to know your children better and our classroom dynamics are developing nicely. I’m lucky to have such a great bunch of kids!
A couple of reminders about the routines in my class:
Social Studies: We have had an interesting month of September with Social Studies. Through learning about the four communities, students learned to organize information, communicate this information, develop good inquiry questions and work cooperatively to accomplish a task. There is a good balance between reading from the text book as we are acquiring information and working in large and small groups.
Science: We have begun looking at the characteristics of rocks. These include color, brightness, magnetic or not, acidic or not, hardness etc. We will move on to talk about soil, how it is made up and erosion.
In both French and English, we have also been working with the computers to complete the government Student Learner Assessments. Student Learning Assessments (SLAs) are digitally-based beginning of the year “check in” provincial assessments that enable teachers to identify student strengths and areas for growth at the start of the school year. While the students have been independently reading and writing, I have been able to read with your child individually in order to plan specific learning goals for them. Once I have finished reading individually with the children, I will be meeting with them in small groups to work on specific literacy needs. Under the tab at the top of this page titled "useful links, English", you will find many high frequency word files. You can open these at home and have your child read through them practicing these common words.
I have noticed that many people are set up on Raz Kids at home. For some students nightly reading doesn’t take very long and for others it can take longer especially combining the writing with it. If you feel like your child is doing too much homework (more than ½ hour a night), then please use your discretion to adapt the amount. For example, you may choose to have your child read the French book one night and the English the next. I also encourage you to sit with your child while reading. Your child should be writing a personal connection in their reading log each time they read a book. If they have read their book a second time, encourage them to write a different response. Please ask your child to write neatly as this is something I am looking at. They should also be using a variety of sentence starters and avoid "I like the part..." as a sentence starter all the time. Please try to do this regularly as it will benefit your child in attaining Grade 3 objectives. As some children are working on their reading independently, I will send out an email if your child has not submitted many reader's responses.
The spelling/dictée program has started. On Tuesdays, the students receive their French booklet containing their dictée words and activities to go with these words. They will also receive their English booklets containing their English spelling words. At the beginning of the year, there is often a wide range of abilities in English Language Arts. I have grouped the students into 3 groups based on their English reading and writing abilities. The students will have some time to work on their booklets at school and are encouraged to do so during transition times or if they have completed their work. Some parents appreciate being able to work on these booklets with their child therefore, they may go home to be worked on also. I will be checking for the completion of these booklets every Tuesday, the same day they will be tested on their words. I will be sending out a general email to parents informing them if their child does not complete their booklets.
Math: We have almost completed our unit on increasing and decreasing patterns. Once the students have written the test I will scan and email it for you to look at. We will then move onto a unit on numbers to 1000. Here your child will symbolically and concretely represent numbers to 1000, show the value of these numbers and compare, estimate and order them. They will count by 5, 10, 25 and 100 as well as by 3s and 4s, forward and backward. It has been my experience that some students require practice with skip counting as well as practice counting in French. Saying the numbers in French is a stumbling block for some students. These are two areas where you could support you child's learning at home.
Halloween is an exciting time during the month of October. We teachers love doing activities at these special times. While respecting our Catholic School's beliefs, we ask that you refrain from sending your child to school in a costume that depicts death or horror.
What an exciting and busy month of September! I am now getting to know your children better and our classroom dynamics are developing nicely. I’m lucky to have such a great bunch of kids!
A couple of reminders about the routines in my class:
- Ensure your child has a water bottle with only water in it.
- It's starting to get chilly out make sure your child is dressed for 20 minute recesses outside.
- Library day is Tuesday. Ensure your child brings their books.
Social Studies: We have had an interesting month of September with Social Studies. Through learning about the four communities, students learned to organize information, communicate this information, develop good inquiry questions and work cooperatively to accomplish a task. There is a good balance between reading from the text book as we are acquiring information and working in large and small groups.
Science: We have begun looking at the characteristics of rocks. These include color, brightness, magnetic or not, acidic or not, hardness etc. We will move on to talk about soil, how it is made up and erosion.
In both French and English, we have also been working with the computers to complete the government Student Learner Assessments. Student Learning Assessments (SLAs) are digitally-based beginning of the year “check in” provincial assessments that enable teachers to identify student strengths and areas for growth at the start of the school year. While the students have been independently reading and writing, I have been able to read with your child individually in order to plan specific learning goals for them. Once I have finished reading individually with the children, I will be meeting with them in small groups to work on specific literacy needs. Under the tab at the top of this page titled "useful links, English", you will find many high frequency word files. You can open these at home and have your child read through them practicing these common words.
I have noticed that many people are set up on Raz Kids at home. For some students nightly reading doesn’t take very long and for others it can take longer especially combining the writing with it. If you feel like your child is doing too much homework (more than ½ hour a night), then please use your discretion to adapt the amount. For example, you may choose to have your child read the French book one night and the English the next. I also encourage you to sit with your child while reading. Your child should be writing a personal connection in their reading log each time they read a book. If they have read their book a second time, encourage them to write a different response. Please ask your child to write neatly as this is something I am looking at. They should also be using a variety of sentence starters and avoid "I like the part..." as a sentence starter all the time. Please try to do this regularly as it will benefit your child in attaining Grade 3 objectives. As some children are working on their reading independently, I will send out an email if your child has not submitted many reader's responses.
The spelling/dictée program has started. On Tuesdays, the students receive their French booklet containing their dictée words and activities to go with these words. They will also receive their English booklets containing their English spelling words. At the beginning of the year, there is often a wide range of abilities in English Language Arts. I have grouped the students into 3 groups based on their English reading and writing abilities. The students will have some time to work on their booklets at school and are encouraged to do so during transition times or if they have completed their work. Some parents appreciate being able to work on these booklets with their child therefore, they may go home to be worked on also. I will be checking for the completion of these booklets every Tuesday, the same day they will be tested on their words. I will be sending out a general email to parents informing them if their child does not complete their booklets.
Math: We have almost completed our unit on increasing and decreasing patterns. Once the students have written the test I will scan and email it for you to look at. We will then move onto a unit on numbers to 1000. Here your child will symbolically and concretely represent numbers to 1000, show the value of these numbers and compare, estimate and order them. They will count by 5, 10, 25 and 100 as well as by 3s and 4s, forward and backward. It has been my experience that some students require practice with skip counting as well as practice counting in French. Saying the numbers in French is a stumbling block for some students. These are two areas where you could support you child's learning at home.
Halloween is an exciting time during the month of October. We teachers love doing activities at these special times. While respecting our Catholic School's beliefs, we ask that you refrain from sending your child to school in a costume that depicts death or horror.