Hello and happy Monday!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend.  It was rainy and a bit gloomy yesterday, but the sun is shining brightly today!!

This is such a busy time of year!

You will be receiving your child's IEP this week.  This is your child's plan for his/her educational goals for this term.  I have set goals for your child in the areas of Language Development, English Language, Social Studies and Self-Advocacy.  These goals have been developed based on your child's Speech and Language Assessments, their current level of achievement in the academic areas and my observations and assessments in the classroom so far.
This is a very important document.  Please take the time to review, sign and return the signed portion to the home school.  If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to give me a call.  I would be happy to go over it with you. As the parent, you are an integral part of this process!

We have begun our United Way Campaign here at St. John the Apostle.  There will be a few fun activity coming up to raise money for this amazing organization.  The first event will be this Thursday, October 20th.  Students are invited to bring $2.00 and come to school dressed as a SUPERHERO! I cannot wait to see all the amazing outfits!! 
Next week we will have a pumpkin raffle.  Each class will decorate a pumpkin, and there will be tickets sold and one lucky winner will be drawn for each pumpkin! 
Early in November, there will be a PJ Day! Those are my favourite! 
A newsletter was sent home today explaining all of the events.  

As we get closer to Halloween, there will be more information sent home about what will be allowed on that day.  The students seem VERY excited about Halloween this year! As a class, we will brainstorm some ideas of how we can celebrate at school.  I am looking forward to hearing their ideas.  

Here are some of the exciting things going on this week!

Today, we learned our new word wall words for the week.  Here are the words!

come, look

it, in, is

look, car, eat, to, girl

myself, almost, about, also, because

This week, we practiced our words a little bit differently.  We played a game called, "Roll, Read and Write" where the students had to roll a number cube, read the corresponding word, and practice writing it. Everyone loved the game and there was some great learning happening.  I was particularly impressed with the amazing team work and cooperation that I saw.  The students were helpful, patient and polite with everyone on their team.  I give them all two thumbs up! 

Today, we also decided that we would like a ball for our class to play with at recess. After some discussion, we decided that a good way to find out about a ball would be to write the principal, Mr. McGarrity a letter asking him if he could get us a class ball.  Today, we wrote a first draft and did some editing. It has turned out to be a great activity and allowed for some fantastic learning opportunities in a real situation!  We will complete the final draft and send it to the office later this week. I will let you know how it goes!

Starting tomorrow, we will look at words that belong to the _op word family. Ask your child if they can remember any _op words! 


Today, we read a book called, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Bat! Some of you may have heard about the old lady who swallowed a bunch of school supplies from earlier this year. These are from a series of stories written by Lucille Colondro. They are a spin off of the original story, There Was an Old LAdy Who Swallowed a Fly. These books are excellent teaching tools!  They are full of rhymes, repetition, vocabulary, thematic concepts and a ton of laughs! I have many of these books in my library and you will be hearing about them throughout the year. We will be reading the Halloween version of this story for a few weeks. I have many fun activities and games based on this book coming up so stay tuned! 

Some parents have been asking about other activities they can do at home to assist their children. Please keep up the reading! There are so many valuable and crucial elements of language wrapped up in one small book.  Ask your child about the story.  Talk about the characters, about who they are and how they feel. Talk about the plot by asking what happened in the story. Reading with your children often will also give you some insight into their progress. I know as a teacher and as a parent, I love NOTHING more than seeing a child learn something new!


Phonological Awareness is a crucial part of language development.  Breaking down words into chunks helps the students understand how the different sounds work together to make each word. Here are some activities to assist students practice syllables:

-          Take turns and clap the number of syllables in words. You say a word and your child claps the word. For example: computer- child claps com/pu/ter, 3 claps; pig- child claps /pig/, 1 clap. Choose words with varying number of syllables.

-          While driving or walking, pick out words that you see, have child clap the syllables. For example: church, Walmart, Metro, Chapters, park.

-          After reading a book, pick a word or a picture per page to clap.

-          Throw a ball, beanbag, or favourite stuffed toy back and forth, as you each say one syllable at a time.   For example, for the word “macaroni”, you would toss the ball back and forth a total of 4 times.

-          Use a stick to tap out all the syllables of each family member’s name.  For example: “Mom/my”; “Bill”; “Grand/pa”.

We have a lot to focus on and I am incredibly proud of how hard the students are working. Their progress is real and it really does make me smile!


Have a great week! 
S. Faloon