February already AND I hear there are 6 more weeks of Winter?! If the next 6 weeks go as quickly as the last 6…it’ll be melted snow and green grass in no time!

Here is a recap of our shortened week!

-The letters the kids wrote to Austin were really great! I’m sure he’s going to be inspired to create even more amazing inventions. I love how the students are starting to see themselves as writers and are able express themselves through the written word

-The last of the addition Math practice was given to the students last Monday (January 29). I’ve written each student a note saying which pages they need to complete by Monday, February 5. We had some time at school to work on the remaining pages and many of the students have already handed their completed work in, while others have chosen to finish on the weekend. If your child does not have any math work with them at home, it should be in my possession, ready to be checked by me! I wanted to give the students lots of time to complete the work and for them to have the responsibility for completing the work by the due date. We have also worked through subtraction with regrouping and practiced our basic facts to help build recall. I urge you to use flashcards for a few minutes each day to develop recall. We watched a new Math Antics video. This one was about polygons! Ask your child what a polygon is!

-We finished Pax!! It was a tear jerker but also a bonding experience for us as a class. I know we are always hoping for a happy ending, but I think Pax ended as it should have. It was happy in its own way. The book also taught us about character development and maybe a little about ourselves!

-We are about half way through Shout Out To The Fitzgerald-Trouts! It’s pretty cool having this sneak peek. I think we’ve found 4 mistakes so far! Esta’s message about editing was pretty valuable. It’s like being detectives as we read these first few chapters!

-The art we’ve done so far is quite beautiful…see for yourself!

-Wednesday was #BellLetsTalk day! We had some important messages to share with each other, the school an the world!

We were very excited to hear that almost $7 million was raised this year and almost $100 million raised to date. Let’s keep talking and listening each day and let everyone know that they matter 🙂

-We got to touch a polar bear skin!!! How cool is that?!

-The Ask Me Question was posted on Seesaw and is to be answered in the Home Reading folder! It’s is all about celebrating reading and coincides perfectly with World Read Aloud day and I Love to Read month! It’s also a good opportunity for the students to practice their oral reading skills and for parents to hear the growth in accuracy, fluency and expression that their child has made. I read some of The Fitzgerald-Trouts without stopping at punctuation and then when only stopping at the end of a line, not at punctuation and then lastly without expression! Let me tell you…it was NOT a hit with my audience. Practice, practice, practice! Take turns reading to each other. It might just be the favourite part of your day too 🙂

-Animal/Habitat inquiry topics have been decided! All students who brought in their top 5 choices were given an animal that they were interested in. Students who didn’t submit any choices have been given a topic and if there are any concerns will have to make arrangements to speak with me. We tried to cover animals from a variety of animal types who live in a variety of habitats.

Upcoming plans!

-We will finish the Fitzgerald-Trouts and begin our next reading adventure…

It’s a great story about belonging…with a little bit of magic!

-Art round #2 starts on Monday! The grade 3s will work with me and the grade 4s will work with Helen! We will learn about the artists and practice their style and the following week we will create our final products!

-Anna (our student teacher) is going to be doing a lesson with us to kick off our next health unit. We’ve talked about a healthy mind for months and I think the students have learned some great strategies to help them cope with anxiety, fear and stress that we experience in our daily lives. We will continue to practice mindfulness each day at 1:00. Mindfulness is called a practice because we need to work on mindfulness just as we would work on skating or math. Some of the kids have asked about the app I use in class. Here it is as an FYI!

The plan is to link having a healthy lifestyle to the Olympics! We can compare what we need for optimal health to that of an athlete! This week we will work on creating a bulletin board to track Canada’s successes in Pyeongchang! #LetsGoCanada

-We will begin our animal inquiry project research in the lab and see where it takes us. That’s the beauty of inquiry. It’s not all planned out…the direction is influenced based on the interest of the students 🙂

-There is no Day 2 this week so therefore there will not be a Genius Hour work period until Monday, February 12th

– Words Their Way (WTW)…students are responsible for bringing home their words after their WTW leader tells them they are finished with the sort. Then they are told when the test day is. It was a coincidence that all groups had a test on the same day last week. Words are sent home as each group completes their tasks. We will try our best to also post words in Seesaw, but ultimately the students are responsible for transferring their words to the Home Reading folders to take home and practice before the test 🙂

-Book orders for February are due on Friday, February 9. It is also Winter Fun Day on Friday afternoon. As we receive more information we will let you know! Thank you for returning the Circle of Life permission slips and for returning tickets if you are not able to attend the evening performance. It’s almost show time!!!!!

Enjoy your weekend!!!l

Until next time,

Danielle