Spring is Here!!

Hello everyone and welcome to Spring!

What a beautiful day to start this hopeful season. This morning I was smiling the whole way to work while the glorious sun warmed me up! I cannot think of a better way to start back after a week away!

I sincerely hope that everyone had a great week. I really enjoyed spending the days with my children. I feel so blessed to have this time to spend with them. It was a nice way to relax and rejuvenate as we enter into the last few months of school........can you believe that?!?! 

The students were so excited to tell me about all of the adventures that they had over the break. We spent most of our time today talking about the fun things we did. We practiced listening to each other (and not just hearing each other) as well as asking relevant questions to find out more information. We have been learning about how asking a question is a way to really show that you are listening and you are interested in what another person is saying. 

Our new word wall words this week are:

blue, three

zoo, nine, saw

for, get, could, time, these

discover, don't, favourite, everybody, recycle

The words will go home in their homework books today. With all of our fun talk about the March Break, we did not get a chance to do our WWW activity today! The students will practice these words tomorrow in class. 

As mentioned in the last blog post, we are going to start Procedural Writing this week. We will begin by writing texts as a large group. Ask your child if they remember writing any "how to" texts! 

A reminder that we are learning the words nibbled, lay and through in our study of the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We will also practice sequencing the events of the story. 

We will be reading a poem titled, The Rainbow. We will use this poem as a base for practicing rhyming, letters and sounds, sentence structure, adjectives, synonyms and many other areas of language. This poem will be used for a few weeks to reinforce these areas of learning. 

So those are some of the things that will be keeping us busy this week! 

A reminder that Thursday is Mile of Coins Day! The students and staff of SJA are trying to line the halls with coins! How many do you think we need? All of the loose change brought in will be added to our OK Clean Water project. 

Also, we are always looking for canned goods to add out donation to Morrison Gardens and our local food bank. Thank you for your generosity during this time! 

Wishing everyone a wonderful week with sun filled days like this one! 

As always, do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. 

Sarah Faloon 

P.S.  Ask your child about the special visitor we had in our class over the March Break!!!! 

Happy March everyone!!!

With just a few days left before the March Break, we are all very excited here at St. John the Apostle! There are many fun and interesting days and activities coming our way! 

The second term is underway and the students have been hard at work.  We are working on new vocabulary words from different stories, listening comprehension skills,writing, different parts of speech, phonological awareness, decoding strategies, and punctuation.

We have been learning about the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We have chosen the following words to study: through, lay, nibbled. 
Here is a link to the story if you would like to listen to it at home! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75NQK-Sm1YY

The students have been doing a really good job with their writing. We have been working on sentence structure and how to write proper sentences. Sentences need to start with a capital letter, have all lower case letters in the middle, there needs to be finger spaces between the words and there should be punctuation at the end. We have been using our Writer's Eye to check and make sure our sentences are correct! I am really proud of how each student has made gains in their writing! 

This term, we will expand our writing and we will be starting to look at procedural writing. This is writing a "how to" text. We will begin by coming to an understanding of what a procedural text is and deciding what we need to include in this type of text. Throughout the term, we will practice many of these texts together!  You can help your child with this skill by talking about the steps you take to complete tasks at home such as brushing your teeth or making a sandwich.  You can reinforce what we are learning at school by using transitional words such as first, then, next and finally as you describe your procedure! 

You may have noticed your child talking about a program we have been exploring called Google Read and Write. We have been learning about this amazing tool that will help us with our reading and writing tasks. The Grade 3 students have been working on using the "read" function on the program which will highlight and read a text out loud! This is a fantastic way to eliminate frustration when text becomes too difficult. The idea is that the students are familiar and comfortable with this program in Grade 3 so that they can be better self-advocates in their learning in the junior grades. The students in Grade 1 and 2 have been exposed to the program in whole group activities. The focus for these students is more on logging into the computer and locating the programs. They will continue to use these programs in the coming years so that they feel comfortable and confident in using them throughout their learning. 

This week, as a class, we will be creating a book entitled “Our Lenten Promises”.  Each student will write down something they would like to work toward during this sacred time.  Ask your child what their Lenten Promise is. 

Throughout the year, the students have been learning about different strategies that will assist in their reading decoding and comprehension. Last term, we practiced making predictions and visualization. This term, we will focus on inferring. The basic idea of inferring is to figure out the things that the author does not outright say in a text. 


A few reminders:

• Please dress students appropriately for the weather for the day. It can be a challenging time of year as the weather fluctuates so much, however, it is still quite cold. The students should be dressed warmly and ready to be outside. An extra pair of clothes, socks and mittens is a great idea!
• Please inform STS if your child will not be requiring transportation. If your child is sick, staying at their home school or bring picked up early, please call STS so that they can inform the drivers. The phone number is 613-723-9677. Thank you for your cooperation. 

Here at SJA we have various projects on the go for Lent. Please read below!

OK CLEAN WATER

40 cans for lent!

St. John the Apostle’s

LENTEN PROJECTS

BACKGROUND: Ottawa-Kumbo (OK) Partnership

The OK Clean Water Project​ takes its name from the link that has been developed between 

Ottawa, Canada and Kumbo, Cameroon, Africa. The volunteers in Ottawa raise funds to support the water delivery systems being built in Kumbo and surrounding villages. The villagers in and around Kumbo volunteer their labour to build the water delivery structures 

and then receive training to manage and maintain the water supply. In doing so they establish ownership of their efforts.

40 Cans for Lent​ 

We will be working with other schools in our area, St. John the Apostle 

Church and the Knights of Columbus to raise 1000 lbs of food​ which will be shared with 

Morrison Gardens and Pinecrest Terrace Food Bank. Bring in a can or two every Tuesday.

Events- Mark your Calendars

Wednesday, March 1st​

​ Launch​ of our OK Clean Water Project and 1000 lbs of Food 

on Ash Wednesday.

Wednesday, March 8th ​

Visit from Ms Horan to speak about the OK Clean Water Project.

Wednesday, March 8​th

Jersey Day/ Hat Day​. Make a donation to wear your favourite team jersey and/ or hat. Some friendly contests will be held during the day.

Thursday, March 23​th​

Mile of Coins Day​. Let’s line the halls with our loose change donations and see if we can’t go all of the way around the learning commons.How many coins would it take to do that?

Friday, April 7​th 

PJ DAY! Make a donation to OK Clean Water and wear your favourite PJs for the day.

Friday, April 28​th 

Presentation​ of our school donation to Ms. Horan and the OK Clean Water Project at our April Assembly.

We are encouraging students to donate coins from their allowance or money they have 

earned so that, in a very real way, their efforts and donations are making a direct

and positive impact on the lives of others​.

I wish everyone a wonderful week and a relaxing and restful March Break. Whether you are travelling or staying in town, enjoy the week with your children! I know I am looking forward to some board games and movies with my children! I am looking forward to hearing all about their adventures when we return! 

S. Faloon