Dear students and families,

Welcome to December and the last three weeks of the 2018 part of the school year. We have much planned and I am looking forward to an exciting finish to this year! At this busy time, do check the “Upcoming Events” sticky post found at the top of the home page – I update it weekly.

With all the interruptions to regular programming over the next few weeks, we just don’t have time for everything. 🙁 Here are some changes to this week’s plans:

Spelling: There will be no new spelling lesson assigned this week – we will catch up on unfinished work and corrections.
Math facts: We will start multiplication math facts 1-2 weeks later than planned. I will create new math fact planner records over the next week to show this change. Please refer to the homework page on this blog for up-to-date information about math fact dates – not student planners.
Math class and number talks: We will use this week to continue to review our mental math subtraction strategies of “adding up” and “removal” as well as our paper and pencil subtraction algorithm with multi-digit numbers (with and without regrouping).

We had a delightful time reading with our care partners on Thursday afternoon. See the slide show below for photos of some of the class members reading:

Upcoming Events

Ozobot Coding Trip

It is exciting that our Ozobot coding trip on Tuesday morning coincides with the international “Hour of Code” week that promotes computer science!
Note: The bus leaves our school at 9:10 a.m. and will most likely return to school between 11:30 and 11:40 a.m.
I recommend that students who normally go home over the lunch period bring a lunch on Tuesday as the eating period will be a little shorter.
For the students who ordered Dairy Queen lunch, it will be waiting for us when we return. 😀
Please watch the video below for a little more information about computer coding.

Holiday Concert Preparations

Stable Stomp

Our “Stable Stomp” is coming along nicely. Students are learning their parts remarkably quickly.

Students participating in the performance need to know the actions and words by heart; students involved in holding up pictures to add to the visual effect of the performance do not need to know the body percussion parts and words.
A copy of the score (in student planners) can be used to help practice at home at the discretion of families; this week, we will continue to refine the parts of the stomp we know and learn the rest of the piece.
Families, friends and relatives are welcome to join us for either of the 2 performances on Thursday, December 13 at 1:00 and 6:30 p.m.
Students may wear whatever they like for the performances keeping in mind that clothing must allow easy movement. We will perform on the stage which has a mostly black background so lighter coloured clothing may show up better against the backdrop.
Performers always look best to an audience with hair off the face – please accommodate if possible.

Grade 3 1910 Christmas Program

On the afternoon of Monday, December 10 all our grade 3s will travel to the WDM for the annual grade 3 1910 Christmas Program.

Students are encouraged to dress in clothing of the day such as: bow ties, suspenders, aprons and ribbons.
The cost of this program will be covered by our class account.
Grade 4s will stay at the school for regular classes on this afternoon.

The trip includes:

Shopping Spree: students take an imaginary shopping trip through certain stores in the museum
Craft: students create a seasonal craft with materials that people in our city would have had available in 1910
Once Upon a Christmas exhibit: students will be led through the show and focus on what life was like in our city in 1910 at this time of year
Snack: juice and a nut-free cookie will be served