H  A P P Y     H A LL O W E E N 

Let's start with Language this week. We have been looking at some examples of descriptive text.The students created their "mental picture" of the text presented to them. You can see the top photo left lots to the reader's imagination and many interpreted the text based on connections they already had.  The second photo had much more descriptive text. You can see how most children VISUALIZED the image the author was trying to convey.

We also dug deeper into the meaning of similes and how a writer can use a comparison of two things to paint a clearer picture for the reader.

In Math, we continue to look at 2D Geometry by exploring different ATTRIBUTES of a polygon (side lengths, set of parallel lines and what type of angles are inside the polygon). 

 Once the class understood the concepts, we consolidated our learning by building polygons on the geoboards and discussing the attributes. As you can see by the middle photo, our math ideas continued into the lunch block!

In Science, the class looked at the definition of TENSION and COMPRESSION and connected it back to our unit on structures. See if they can explain how the cables on a bridge help a bridge to be stable.

On a sad note....we have already received 3 red tickets for recycling contamination. Please take any opportunity you can to explain what goes where so we can try our best to not get anymore tickets.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

SCHOOL SPIRIT WEEK - Oct. 31st - Nov. 4th

Students will be encouraged to bring in a donation to participate in each day of Spirit Week.  The class with the most donations (one primary and one junior) will have a “Digital Day” as a reward.  During “Digital Day” the students will have one block of iPads, chromebooks, iPods for fun activities.

Monday Oct. 31st - Halloween Colours Day (Black, Orange, Purple)

Tired Tuesday Nov. 1st - Everyone will be tired from Halloween, so… Pyjama Day! You may also bring in 1 peanut free Halloween treat. PROGRESS REPORTS COMING HOME THIS DAY. SUBWAY SPECIAL LUNCH FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ORDERED IT. ALL SAINTS LITURGY TODAY AT 9:00 AM IN THE GYM.

Wacky Wednesday Nov. 2nd - wear wacky hair today to show your school spirit.

Virtue Assembly at 10:15 am in the gym.

Twin/Triplet Thursday Nov. 3rd - get together with your friends and dress alike.  

Fun Friday Nov. 4th- Chew gum for 2 blocks today.  The SJ club will also have a candy sale in the Learning Commons at lunch.  Each SJ club member will bring in a fraction of their NUT FREE Halloween Candy to sell for .25 to the other students in the school.  We can invite the students with $ down a couple classes at a time.

We will ask the teachers to count the donations collected, and on Monday we will announce the winners of Digital Day.  Individual winning classroom teachers can decide when and how the reward will be given. All proceeds will be given for Social Justice support.

Hello everyone!
We did loads of learning this week.
In Math, we moved on to Geometry. We reviewed and connected to what we already had in our schema and started adding more to our understanding of POLYGONS.

In Language, we began exploring DESCRIPTIVE text. First, we question what makes a good descriptive writing piece. Then, we will have a chance to do some shared and guided writing before the students are asked to do some paragraphs independently. Stay tuned!

We started a partnership with one of the Kindergarten classes at St. Rita. Our class had a chance to read with a buddy on a rainy Friday morning.

I encourage you to continue to see and sign your child's spelling book. It comes home every Monday with your child's homework book and is expected back to school on Friday along with the completed homework. The photo below is an example of the many clues I give the students while they are writing the test. I encourage them to "read the room" as one of the strategies that can be used to figure out how to spell an unknown word. This was for sentence # 4. Check out your child's book.....and don't forget to sign the book and encourage your child to bring it back to school. My pet peeve is when a student tries to blame a parent for not doing this. I tell the students it is his/her RESPONSIBILITY for getting this easy task accomplished! 

In Science, the class did another experiment in class. We explored what GRAVITY was all about. We applied this concept to how THE centre of gravity changes depending on where the load of a structure was.  Ask your child about what would happen if you filled only the top of a new bookshelf with heavy books and left the bottom of the bookshelf empty? Would it be stable or would it likely fall over if something caused it to move? 

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER.....

Pizza Tuesdays:

November 8, 15, 22, 29

December 13, 20

January 17, 24, 31

February 14, 21, 28

Subway Tuesdays:

November 1

December 6

January 10

February 7

The Social Justice Club is having a Jack-o-lantern raffle on Friday Oct. 28th                                                          The tickets will be sold Wednesday, Thursday and Friday  for 25 cents each.  All proceeds are going to CHEO.

SCHOOL SPIRIT WEEK - Oct. 31st - Nov. 4th

Students will be encouraged to bring in a donation to participate in each day of Spirit Week.  The class with the most donations (one primary and one junior) will have a “Digital Day” as a reward.  During “Digital Day” the students will have one block of iPads, chromebooks, iPods for fun activities.

Monday Oct. 31st - Halloween Colours Day (Black, Orange, Purple)

Tired Tuesday Nov. 1st - Everyone will be tired from Halloween, so… Pyjama Day! You may also bring in 1 peanut free Halloween treat.

Wacky Wednesday Nov. 2nd - wear wacky hair today to show your school spirit.

Twin/Triplet Thursday Nov. 3rd - get together with your friends and dress alike.  

Fun Friday Nov. 4th- Chew gum for 2 blocks today.  The SJ club will also have a candy sale in the Learning Commons at lunch.  Each SJ club member will bring in a fraction of their NUT FREE Halloween Candy to sell for .25 to the other students in the school.  We can invite the students with $ down a couple classes at a time.

Hello Everyone,
Short week = Busy week
In Math, we reviewed what fact families were but more importantly, why it is important to know how to use fact families (the early foundation of algebra).

This is the time of year where I tell my students that math facts do not usually present themselves so easily to us. In our every day lives, they present themselves as PROBLEMS that we need to solve. Sometimes they are easy to solve but sometimes they are not! For those challenging problems, we need to become confident PROBLEM SOLVERS. See the strategy I get the students to try in the class.

Here are some students in action explaining how they solved their problem with their partner.

We are almost finished our unit on RECOUNT. The students are wrapping up their last writing piece about what they did on the Thanksgiving long weekend.

In Science, we continue to talk about strong and stable structures. We did an experiment to see what shape is the strongest-a square or a triangle?  Ask your child what their CONCLUSION was. 

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER......

• Picture Day is this Monday October 17th.
• Please try your best to see and sign your child's agenda daily.
• Homework and spelling books always come home on Monday and are expected to come back to school by Friday.
• A reminder that Tuesday is always our Library day. Books are to be returned by then.

Hello Everyone,

 HAPPY THANKSGIVING

 I hope you enjoyed the turkey your child brought home from school on Thursday! 

A big congratulations goes out to our class for being so well prepared for the Thanksgiving Day mass this past Tuesday. We received many class compliments for a job well done---enough to push over the last of our 100 marbles. We brainstormed possible ideas, took a survey and graphed the data from our survey. In the end, we voted for a movie and popcorn block and 12 out of 20 of the children voted for the same movie.  Ask your child to retell you the order of events.

Preparing for the Thanksgiving day mass opened up discussion in Religion about celebrations and why they are so special that we have a holiday from school for these days. We compared our usual monthly calendar to the Church calendar. Ask your child what Church season we are in and how would someone know that if they walked into our classroom?

Check out our art work. It amazes me how creatively different each masterpiece is when the learning goal was the same for all. We may have the next world renowned artist right here in our class. . 

Read Alouds for the week. I personally loved reading the first book to the class. Ask your child what "feedback" means to them.

St. Rita fundraising packages came home on Thursday in your child's agenda. Please take a look and see if this is an initiative that you would be interested in supporting.

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER...

• Movie/ Stuffy/Popcorn block this Tuesday last block as a reward for pushing over 100 marbles.
• A gentle reminder that all students need earphones/earbuds for the listening portion of Daily Five
• Special lunch orders are due this Friday October 14th
• Homework books  are always given on the first day of the week and is expected to come back completed by the last day of the week
• There is always a spelling test on the 5 W.W.W.s on the last day of the week 

Hello Everyone,
We've been busy. The students learned a lot about one of Canada's finest examples of perseverance- Terry Fox.

                                                        Terry Fox Walk at St. Rita

We are getting into the nitty gritty with our first writing unit-recount. Because it is our first, much time is needed to explain that the purpose of a graphic organizer used for writing. We explored as a class that the graphic organizers' job is to make sure the writer has all the parts needed to begin to create a great paragraph.

Then,  a writer starts to add more detail in the first rough copy. Ask your child what the difference is between the anchor chart that is all written in red and the anchor chart that has green and blue writing as well.

In Science, we continue to build upon what we know about structures. Below you will see what happened when we experimented with the base of the bottle which acted as our structures and the fan which acted as the familiar force of wind.

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER......

• Thanksgiving Day Mass that our class prepared Tuesday October 4th at 10:15am.  All are welcome. The children who had speaking parts in the Mass were given a copy on Friday to take home to practice.
• St. Rita School will once again be supporting the Debra Dynes Family House in our annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. This organization works to meet the needs of families in our own community. If you would like to participate in our food drive, please send any non-perishable food items to the school with your child by Wednesday, October 5, 2016.
• Suggestions for donated items include: canned tuna/meat, peanut butter, canned vegetables, pasta, cereal, crackers, soup and powdered milk. This activity will be meaningful for your child if he or she can participate in the selection or purchasing of the food.
• St. Rita Family Fun Math Night is this Thursday October 6th starting at 6:30pm.
• P.D. Day this coming Friday October 7th and Thanksgiving on Monday October 10th. there is no school on these days.
• Special Lunches can be purchased on cash on-line from the St. Rita website. The last dayfor this is Friday October 14th. If you have any questions regarding this process, please call Mrs. DiGiacomo at the front office to assist you or write a note in your child's agenda requesting a paper copy.