Hello!
Welcome to a new week. While the rainy weather makes a gloomy Monday, I know my lawn loves  it!

So, as we are now into our second week of June, we are looking very quickly at the end of the year.  I cannot believe how fast this year has flown by.  I know we say that every year, but I found that we had so much fun this year that is seems to have disappeared before me.

A few reminders as we finish up the 2014-2015 school year.

I have been sending home, and will continue to send home some books and folders. Please take a look at the contents, discuss them with your child, and please send them back.  We are still working on things in class, but I really wanted you to get a chance to see the amazing things that your children have done this year.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  I will send home their work for the summer at the very end of the year.

We have a very cool organization called Junglesport coming here to SJA throughout the last week of school.  They set up climbing structures for the students in the school gym and certified instructors guide the students through the activities.  The students are really looking forward to this event!  If you have not already done so, please complete and return the form to the school. Please let me know if you need a replacement form.

There will be no more new Word Wall Words coming home for this year.  We will spend the month of June reviewing the many words that we have learned this year already.  Thank you so much for your dedication and commitment to assisting the students with their new words each week.  Their practice and hard work has certainly paid off!

The homework calendars for the month of June will be finished shortly.  At the end of this week, the students will bring home their story retell journals.  They will be telling you all about the story, The Gruffalo! Once the retell journal is complete, feel free to return the calendars with the journals. The students should focus on reading daily as homework for the remainder of the school year. 

We have been working on our plays within the class.  The students have been put into small groups and have been working hard to learn their lines and get into character.  More information will come home about out little plays shortly! 

Your child’s report card and IEP will be sent home from their homeschool during the last week of June.  Interviews will not be held at the end of the year.  I am more than happy to sit down with you and discuss your child’s progress before the documents are sent home.  If you would like to schedule a meeting to talk about your son/daughter and the amazing work they have done this year, please do not hesitate to call SJA or write a note in the agenda and we can arrange a meeting.  

Rhymes- Research indicates there is a strong link between rhyming and reading ability. For this reason, working on rhyming skills is an essential part of our class program.  Sit with your child and try to find rhyming words to match the clues below. Then create some of your own!

(1) What flowers do that rhymes with mud? (bud)

(2) What flowers do that rhymes with room? (bloom)

(3) What plants do that rhymes with pout? (sprout)

(4) What birds lay that rhymes with legs? (eggs)

(5) What a bird builds that rhymes with best? (nest)

(6) What eggs do that rhymes with match? (hatch)

(7) What farmers plant that rhymes with weeds?  (seeds)

(8) A month in spring that rhymes with day? (May)

Please stay tuned for more posts!  There will be plenty of information coming your way for the next few weeks. As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  

Have a great week everyone! 

Save the date!!! The St. John the Apostle BBQ is coming up. Please join us if you can!!

As we approach the end of May (time FLIES!) things are going to move very quickly!  

In Grade 3, the students will be working on their EQAO tests throughout the next two weeks.  We have spoken a great deal about writing these tests. The Grade 3 students are prepared to work hard and try their best.  I know that they will all make me proud! 

To this end, we will not be working on new word wall words for the next two weeks.  We will all take these weeks and practice and review the words that we have leaned throughout the year!  There are so many!

We will continue on with our daily work!  We are looking at the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  The students brought home their retell journal on Friday. Please complete this whenever you can and return it to school once it is finished. Remember that whatever they tell you is great!  Retelling comes with practice. 

In class, we are looking at retelling the story with picture support and also by filling in blank words. Once we have practiced a few times, we are going to tell the story in own words! The students are really enjoying the story and seem confident in their knowledge of events! 

We have also been comparing and contrasting different objects. This past week, we looked at caterpillars and butterflies to see how they were alike and how they were different.  At home, talk to your children about how things are similar and different (How is a tree like a flower? What is unique about each plant?)

We have been using a Venn Diagram to organize our information

In writing, we are still practicing Procedural Writing (How To Texts). We will consolidate all we have been learning about and practicing in the next few weeks! 

We will also be looking a Narrative Stories for the rest of the year.  Stories follow patterns.  They have a setting and characters; they have events that make up the beginning, middle and end of the story; there is a problem and a resolution within the story. We will be using a few different strategies to learn more about how these elements go together to create stories.  

We have been practicing our story telling using a cute game called "Rory's Cubes".  Ask your child about it! 

As I mentioned before, the next few weeks will be very busy. We have a lot of work to do and there is a lot going on! Please continue to check here and on our Twitter account for updates!

Have a great week everyone!

Happy May Everyone!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and a lovely Mother's Day! Your hard work and dedication to your children is obvious every single day. I hope everyone was able to have a little break yesterday!

We began the month celebrating our Catholic Education Week. What a packed week it was! So many exciting events, presentations, spirit days and beautiful weather! I feel so fortunate to work for such a wonderful school board that has so much to celebrate!

In the last post, I mentioned that the students were creating projects surrounding Earth Day. They did such an amazing job presenting their projects to the class!  The expectations for the presentation were for the students to speak clearly, in complete sentences and with enthusiasm.  They were to look at the audience and confidently share their information. I have hung their posters and comics up in the halls to show off their hard work.  I will send them home soon!

Here are our word wall words for this week!

This month, we are going to work to consolidate some of the things we have been learning.  

In writing, we have been practicing Procedural Writing which is writing "How-To” do something. The students have done an excellent job learning the necessary components of this genre of text. They are beginning to verbalize when and why this type of text would be useful! 

While we will continue practicing procedural texts, we are also going to take a look at descriptive writing.  Throughout the year, the students have been learning about adding adjectives and descriptors to sentences, both orally and in writing. We are looking to take this knowledge and transfer it to more in depth writing. 

A major focus of our calendar time every day is the sounds we hear. We look at words in parts, we listen for beginning, middle and end sounds and we try and identify the sounds we hear. 

Recently we have been practicing deleting and substituting different sounds. This is an excellent activity to try at home! "Look at that red car! What is the first sound you hear in car?  What is the last sound? What happens when you take the /c/ sounds away and change it to a /f/? "

While reading, we will continue to practice all of our decoding strategies as well as the predicting and inferring strategies to develop a deeper understanding of the text.  The students have also been encouraged to ask questions while reading to further their understanding. Good readers as questions about what they are unsure of!!

Speaking of questions, we are going to use questions to help us look at narrative stories. Our focus will be on the main parts of a narrative (character, setting, problem and solution), and we will use the famous WH questions (who, what, where, when and why) to help understand the story. This week we are going to look at the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This book also happens to be the subject for this month’s Story Retell Journal!! 

So, as you can see, we have a lot going on! As the year draws near the end, there are many exciting events coming up! If your child will be staying at their homeschool for a special event or field trip (which I am completely on board with!), please let me know so I do not mark your child absent.  I will simply record that they are participating in a school activity. Also, please remember to cancel their transportation for that day by calling STS. Thank you in advance!

Again, thank you for reading!  And as always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  I am happy to chat! 

Hello!

Can you believe that it is the end of April already? I cannot believe how fast the past month has flown by. It has been a busy few weeks indeed! 

As we approach May, we are busy preparing for Catholic Education Week. This is a week set aside to celebrate and highlight our Catholic Education. 
A schedule of events has gone home this week! Here is a copy of the schedule. Please let me know if you have any questions at all about any of the events.  I would love to see as many of you as possible at our Open House on Wednesday morning!

There will be many reminders going home about the daily events.  Remember to check this blog and Twitter for frequent reminders! Also, there will be information is going home about purchasing tickets for the basket raffle. It is an amazing fundraiser and there are spectacular baskets to be won!

The month of May also means that EQAO testing will begin for my Grade 3 friends  The tests will be administered at the home schools with their Grade 3 class. Information about which dates your child will write will be sent home through the home school. I have been working with the resource and classroom teachers to ensure that the students are prepared to write these tests.  When I say that the students are prepared, what I mean is that I want to make sure that the students are ready to do their best. No one is expecting them to do more than they are capable of.  I tell them all the time...... "We never ask you to do something that you cannot do. You CAN do this!" There will be accommodations in place to help the students feel more comfortable, and more successful. This test should not be a source of stress or concern for the students.  Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns regarding the test. I am happy to chat with you about it!!

In other news, we have been working quite hard in our little corner! 

The students have been reviewing vowel sounds, both long and short. We have also spent some time reviewing and practicing the different spelling patterns for the many different sounds. We will continue reviewing this throughout the remainder of the year. 

In our reading, we are still looking at inferring as a comprehension strategy.  The students are doing an excellent job of using their previous knowledge to come to new conclusions while listening to stories. Right now, we practice this skill during shared and guided reading sessions (large and small group instruction).  As reading skills develop, this strategy will help them come to a deeper understanding of what they are reading independently. 

As I mentioned in the last post, we have spent a great deal of time learning about Earth Day. Our discussions have involved why it is important to help our planet, some ways in which we can help our planet, and also why it is important to have a day to recognize and promote this cause. It has made for some excellent class discussions with many practical implications. 

To celebrate what they have learned, the students have completed either a poster promoting Earth Day, or a simple comic depicting ways that we can all help out. The students will be presenting their projects in the next few days.  We will review how to speak clearly in front of an audience and how to present information to others in a clear manner. This project involves many skills we have been working on all year (reading, speaking in whole sentences, making eye contact with others, understanding media etc.) so I cannot wait to see what the students present! 

Thank you for tuning in yet again!  I just want to reiterate again how proud I am of each of my students.  Your children work so hard everyday and are learning new things all the time. They really have come so far since September!! I feel so lucky to be a part of their academic journey and to get to spend my days with them. Thanks for sending them to me everyday!

I hope that you are all enjoying the warm weather! Have a great week!

Welcome to Spring (for REAL this time!!)

Can you believe this weather!? Thee gorgeous days in a row....things are looking up!

Although the afternoons have been warm, the mornings can still be a bit chilly.  Please make sure that your child is dressed appropriately for the morning temperatures. Layers are a great idea and allow the children to be comfortable all day long! Also, please consider writing your child's name in his/her clothing.  There have been many misplaced items and articles of clothing sent to the lost and found.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter weekend.  In our class, we spoke a great deal about Holy Week. We read stories and learned about Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Each of these events play such an important part of of our story as Catholics. What an amazing sacrifice and what a joyful reason we have to celebrate! I hope that the students read you the books that they completed and brought home.

We have been busy learning new skills everyday here in the PLC!

We have been using our inferring skills to understand more about what we read.  Our Inferring Learning Goal reminds us that we use information we already know and add some new information to "read between the lines" and understand the whole idea of the text. This will continue to be a goal!

We have also continued to practice our Procedural Writing.  Just recently we wrote a text about how to sharpen a pencil.  We are definitely getting the hang of it! 

Throughout the year, we have been focusing on developing expressive language skills through nursery rhymes and fairy tales.  Learning nursery rhymes and fairy tales have allowed the students with practise in memory, basic language concepts (opposites, prepositions, etc.), phonemic awareness, rhyming words, and the rhythm of language.  Because nursery rhymes have a natural rhythm, research says that children catch on to the words quickly and begin to recite them freely.  Ask your child about some of the poems and nursery rhymes we have learned! 

Today, we practiced our Word Wall Words in 3 ways!  We used markers and chart paper, we used play dough to spell them out and we practiced writing the words in sentences! Check out our words for the week! 



Next week, we will celebrate Earth Day.  In the days leading up to this, the students will be learning all about our planet and how we can care for it!  Talk to your child about protecting our planet and the little things we can do to help out every day. Watch for more exciting activities!

A few weeks ago, we read a book called Big Deals and Little Deals.  It helps the students learn strategies to problem solve more independently. I mentioned the book in the last post.  We have been using the language and the strategies in the classroom and the students are beginning to use the strategies more independently.  I am very proud of them!
Please let me know if you would like any more information on this book or the strategies it teaches!




We have many exciting things coming up.  Our Easter Mass will be held here at SJA on Wednesday at 1:15pm in the gym.  All are welcome! We can look forward to Education Week, EQAO for the Grade 3 students, many different performances and presentations coming to the school (stay tuned for more information and dates!) AND....the Ottawa Senators playing amazing hockey in the playoffs!!!!  Students (and staff...yeah!) are encouraged to wear jerseys on game days to show our support! GO SENS GO!!!!

Enjoy the week everyone!  As always, please let me  know if you have any questions or concerns. I am happy to chat! 

Happy Spring everyone!

I hope that everyone had a nice and relaxing March Break! I have loved hearing about all of the fun adventures that the students had on their week off!

We are half way through a very busy week!  We have been doing a lot and learning many new things.

Our week started with a little surprise!!

Before the break, we had created and left a trap to try and catch a leprechaun.
Unfortunately, when we returned on Monday, there was no leprechaun in sight, but he did leave us a little note and hid a treat for us! Sneaky leprechaun!!!! Oh well, maybe next year!

We read the book, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick. It follows the same patterns as the other Old Lady books we have read throughout the year, however, its theme is Easter. Throughout the next few weeks, we will complete different activities related to this book. Ask your child about them!!






This week, we have also been discussing a book called, `Big Deals and Little Deals`. In the book, it explains the difference between a big deal (something that hurts your body, something dangerous, scary situations) and a little deal (someone bothering you, someone hurting your feelings). It teaches different strategies to handle the little deals on our own. The strategies that the book uses mimic those we have learned about while using our WITS! (Walk away, Ignore, Talk about it, Seek help) Look for more info as we practice the strategies in the class. Please let me know if you would like more information about the book or the strategies we are using.

In our writing, we have continued with our Procedural Writing Goal. Check out our Learning Goal and Success Criteria. The success criteria helps the students to remember the steps to take to meet the goal. We have practiced writing many procedural texts, including How to Get Ready for Recess, How to Catch a Leprechaun and How to Make a Bowl of Cereal.

A few weeks ago, we made some yummy fruit salad and then we wrote about how to make it!
The different colours on the big text help us see that we have included all of the important parts of a procedural text.







We also have a Learning Goal in our reading practice.  Right now, we are looking at predicting and inferring as strategies to help us understand what we are reading. Through many oral activities, we have noticed that when we use information that we already have in our brains, and add it with new information, we can come up with some pretty cool inferences!

This chart helps us with our inferring skills! 

Homework calendars continue to come home on a monthly basis. Students also have Word Wall Words every week to practice. Please work with your child to complete the activities and return it to school at the end of the month.  With the hectic lives we lead, it is not always possible to complete daily activities. I completely understand that there are times when more time is required! Help your child make a plan to work around outside commitments (for example: sports, clubs, special family events, etc.)  The activities are usually short and require about 5 minutes to complete. In addition to the homework calendar activities, it is very beneficial to read to and with your child every night.  Please remember that a major role in the development of your child’s language is played by you, the parent. Working on language skills at home and in various settings outside of the classroom, helps your child to reinforce and carry over the skills into everyday activities. 

The Easter weekend will soon be upon us. In class we will be looking at the story and the significance of this important weekend. 

I am really looking forward to celebrating the Spring season! Stay tuned for our Spring and Easter vocabulary words, our Spring writing activities and (hopefully) some Spring weather! 

A reminder that Friday is Hat Day here at SJA. We are raising money for our Lenten Project, OK Clean Water. Bring in some change and wear a hat all day!!! 

Also, we are continuing to collect used children`s books for our used book sale here at the school.  Proceeds will also go to OK Clean Water. If you have any books that you no longer read, please send them in to the school.  On the day of the book sale, students will have the opportunity to buy a book from the sale. The date is still to be determined. Stay tuned! 

As always, communication between home and school is very important. Please do not hesitate to write me a note in the agenda or to call. I would be happy to discuss any concerns or questions. 

Hello!

March is here and it looks like the cold, cold weather has stayed in February! I am certainly looking forward to spending more time outdoors in the beautiful March sunshine! It is hard to believe that it is already March.....where has the year gone?!?! 

Please allow me to begin by saying how sorry I am that we have had to postpone skating, TWICE!  This cold has made it difficult to schedule outdoor activities.  I appreciate your patience and understanding! We are looking at possible dates for rescheduling, so please stay tuned! I know how much the students are looking forward to it! 

I hope that everyone has received their Lent Calendar.  Lent is the 40 days and nights leading up to Easter where we celebrate the death and resurrection of our Saviour.  Lent is a time to show that we understand the sacrifices that have been made for us. Using the calendar is a great way to show the children that "giving something up" is the only way to be closer to God.  We can try to do nice and kind things, everyday, to bring us closer! Please let me know if you need another copy. 

v       In our writing, we have been practicing our procedural writing.  We started by looking at the steps necessary to get ready for recess, and we also looked at the steps necessary to make yummy pancakes! 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! 

    Throughout the year, the students have been learning about different strategies that will assist in their reading comprehension.  Throughout the next few months, we will focus on Inferring.  This strategy is often referred to as "reading between the lines". This strategy involves forming a best guess using evidence such as context clues and picture clues. 

    We continue to look at the elements of narrative stories. Understanding how stories flow will help give the students a more thorough comprehension of the stories that they read. When reading narrative stories with your children, ask questions about the characters and the setting. Also, talk about the sequence of what happens in the story. What happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story? 

   Here are our Word Wall Words for this week. Thank you for helping your children practice these words every week.  

    two, yellow

    from, this, talk, 

    drink, would, into, more, how

    that's, another, buy, by, know

    We have been learning nursery rhymes and poems at school since September.  Nursery rhymes and poems are an excellent pre-reading and developing-reading resource. Their repetitive refrains, beats, patterns of repetition, rhymes, and predictable language is exactly what young readers need.  Here is one we learned just last week!
 

If you have not already received them, Term 2 IPE's will be going home shortly. I am happy to meet with you to discuss the Term 1 report card, next term’s IEP goals as well as any plans for next year.  Please do not hesitate to contact me and we can set up a meeting or a phone call.  

The students have been working really hard and I am really proud of each of them.  I continuously see progress in each child and it is a great feeling!

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to the Spring season and all of the learning that we will do in the next few months!!