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!