Halloween

Tomorrow is Halloween...

There have been reminders on the announcements and communication from the office sent home regarding costumes. Below is a relevant bit of information that was sent out by the office:

"Students will be invited to watch the parade and are also welcome to wear simple costumes, black and orange or Pineland colours.  We ask that costumes not include ‘scary’ masks, props, blood or gore and be appropriate with the normal expectations of school. Any students who come to school with inappropriate costumes will be asked to change immediately. Students will be allowed to wear their costumes for the morning."

Our next bit of writing will focus on descriptive detail based on Halloween... So be observant while out trick-or-treating!

 

Apeldoorn Student Connections

Yesterday we had a wonderful presentation about the Netherlands and the special connections to Canada, primarily centred around WWII. Burlington is also the twin city of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands.

To further develop the relationship between the two countries and the two cities, our class will be partnered with a class in Apeldoorn and write back and forth to one another. The students will hopefully improve their letting/email writing skills as well as learning more about another country, more about their own country, and initiatives undergone by the government at home and abroad.

What we're up to

It has been busy at school and many learning opportunities keep presenting themselves. Below are some of the topics, activities, skills, ideas, etc. that we have been developing and sharing:

• reading "Dunk" to develop reading strategies (Making Connections, Visualizing, Asking Questions / Predicting, Determining Important Details)
• completing reading responses based on personal reading choices
• continued using peer editing and revising to improve writing tasks (including working with class 5/6 FI)
• improving basic Math computation skills (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing) and then experimenting with a variety of mental Math strategies to better understand computations (e.g., decomposing numbers, doubling and halving, finding compatible numbers)

Up next in Literacy and Numeracy:

• letter writing for pen pals in the Netherlands
• applying numeracy skills to identify, extend, and create numeric patterns

Also...

• BRAVO has continued for the Grade 6s and issues related to alcohol and effects on the body has continued to be looked at by the Grade 5s
• Invasion Territory games are the focus in Phys. Ed. as is the continued focus on active participation, safety, and fair play
• for Science we have discussed the Big Ideas for the Grade 5 and Grade 6 units on Human Body Systems and Space respectively

Please discuss these concepts at home and if any questions or clarification is required, don't hesitate to contact me.

Community Circles

In an effort to create a safe environment in which to take risks and learn about ourselves and others, we sit in circles so that everyone can have an equal say within the group. We can see everyone's face within the group and know that we are all listening to one another and caring about each other's thoughts and feelings. We have been using community circles in the class since the beginning of the school year as a place to discuss classroom expectations of ourselves and one another, activities going on at school and at home, and goals set out for the year, as a class and as individuals.

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to have our community circle lead by Ms. Lewis. She helped us establish clear norms about how we should act when part of the circle. She also helped us to relate most of our ideas back to the Right to Play motto: "Look after yourself. Look after one another."

The students were very receptive and offered many personal thoughts based on questions and statements posed. Ms. Lewis and I will work together to determine the needs of the class and how we can use community circles to further develop the students' understanding of themselves as individuals and as learners.

Please talk to you son and/or daughter about their reflections on community circles, and don't hesitate to ask me for any clarifications.

Take care!

Learn to type! and more

Typing / keyboarding - an invaluable skill that is no longer taught explicitly in schools

I have signed each student up with an account on an online typing program that tracks progress as far as speed and accuracy. There is a link titled typing.com listed on the right of this site. Students will be taken directly to the log in screen from there. Their log in and password is the same as their school log in and password.

This is an optional activity, however, extremely worthwhile. The only way to learn to type is by practising on a consistent basis.

Students should also become very familiar and comfortable with their school-based G-mail account. Included with the same account is access to Drive online storage, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc. Getting familiar with the functions of Google Read & Write would also be extremely beneficial, especially while typing skills are still being developed.

Open House Tonight

Tonight Pineland is hosting its annual Open House, welcoming family and friends into the school and teacher's classrooms for meet and greets and to get a sense of the learning that is taking place. All teachers will also have a hand out explaining what is going on in their class as far as curriculum, learning skills education, and any other activities or bits of information to help parents and guardians support and extend learning at home.

I will include an electronic version of my hand out on the "Hand outs and Forms" page of this site.

I have tried to make contact with all families by phone, and if I have not yet, I apologize, and will continue to make calls to give everyone an opportunity to discuss their student's start to the year. Please try to refrain from asking personal questions in the open house setting.

As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Hopefully I will see most of you tonight, and if not, there will be many more opportunities throughout the year!

Learning Skills

The Provincial Report Card includes marks for both Subjects and Learning Skills. By now, students have likely heard all about the importance of developing solid and hopefully strong Learning Skills. There is an almost inseparable relationship between strong learning skills and success at school and the rest of kids' lives.

In our class, we will be really focusing on Initiative and Collaboration and relating these learning skills to the Right to Play philosophy of "Looking after yourself and Looking after each other." Please take some time each day to discuss these skills at home as well as successes had at school during the day.


***Unrelated note: Picture Day is tomorrow (Wednesday, September 21)***