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  

Happy Monday!

What an amazing snowfall yesterday!  As inconvenient as 30 cm of snow can be, we live in a beautiful city and I love the way the snow glistens and shines on sunny days like today. And the kids are having a BLAST playing in it! 

That being sad, I hope all were safe and sound yesterday. 

We are starting a fun week here at SJA! Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and we are going to celebrate our friendship and kindness in our P.J.'s. Students are invited to bring their "stuffies" for the day. We will be playing some fun games and we may even enjoy a little treat! 

I sent home a list of the first names of all of the students in the class. If you and your child decide to send in cards or treats, feel free to use this list. Another option is to just have your child write their name on the card. Also, please do not feel obligated to send anything. I know it can be difficult with your child being part of two classes. We will have plenty of kindness and treats to make it a great day here!

Here are some of the activities we will be doing this week to celebrate our friendships this week!

We have read a story, There Was An Old Lady who Swallowed a Rose. We will be using this Valentines themed book to reinforce rhyming and sequencing. It follows the same pattern as many of the other "Old Lady" books we have read this year. 

We will be using Valentine's Task Cards to help us infer information. "My Valentine is for an animal that is long and thin. This animal slithers. This animal might stick out its tongue"!

We are going to learn some special friendship words and use them to play an exciting game of BINGO!

To practice our reading and speaking skills, the students will participate in a fun heart game involving reading, telling stories and active participation tasks! 

These activities will be going on all week! Check out our Twitter account @MrsFaloonPLC to see some of the pictures of our exciting days!

Last week, we started writing in our journals about something the students could do. The class was asked to brainstorm something that they were really good at. It had to be something they were proud of.  This is something we are going to continue to work on. The students will be asked this question many times, "What can you do?" The idea is to remind the students that we are all good at some things, while others tasks may be more challenging. It is important for us all to remember that we are people with strengths and weaknesses. This is what makes us, us! It is good that we all have different strengths because it makes this world unique, diverse and beautiful. Watch for more learning about this! Look for the title, I Can!

Just a reminder that your child's Term 1 report card and IEP will be coming home soon. These reports are completed as a collaboration between myself and the homeschool. They are sent home from your child's homeschool. 

If you would like to discuss your child's progress at all, either on the phone or in person, I am happy to talk with you. I will send home an interview request form at the end of the week. 

Some schools will be including the Term 2 IEP's in with the reports from Term 1. This means you will be receiving the grades and evaluations of their progress on their expectations from Term 1 as well as the new IEP goals that your child will be working toward in Term 2. Some schools will be sending the Term 2 expectations home at a later date. 

Regardless of when you will be receiving the Term 2 document, I am happy to go over it with you as well. There is a lot of information in those documents and your voice as the parents is important. Your input on the IEP is encouraged! 

Thanks for reading! As always, let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Have a great week J

Hello! 

I cannot believe that it is February already! 
January flew by and I have a sneaky suspicion that this is an indication of how quickly the rest of the year will go!

As early in the year as it seems, we have already begun discussions about the student's progress and where their learning journeys will take them next year. For some students, they will be returning to their home school full time while other students will be returning here to the PLC at St. John the Apostle for another year in this program. It is necessary for these conversations to happen this early as there are many protocol to follow and some paperwork that needs to be done! I have been lucky enough to have already spoken with many of you about this. Please know that I will be touching base with everyone about the next steps for your child. 

Term 1 report cards and IEP's will be sent home this month. The assessments and reports are completed as a collaboration with myself and their homeroom teachers. 
Once they are sent home, I will be available to meet and discuss your child's progress. I will send home information about this in the next few weeks. 
Soon after, your child's Term 2 IEP will be sent home. Some of you will be receiving these IEP's along with the report cards and some will be receiving them at a later date. The dates vary because the home schools choose the date in which they are sent home within a certain time frame. 
The Term 2 IEP's will be the goals and expectations that your child will be working toward for the remainder of the year. After you receive this document, I will be happy to go through it with you either in person or over the phone. These are important pieces to your child's education and your input is encouraged. Never hesitate to contact me if you have a question regarding the IEP. 

Just a reminder that with the winter comes cold and wet snow. Extra clothes for your child are a great idea! 

We have been really busy here in the Primary Language Class! So much learning and many exciting events have happened in the past few weeks!

Last week, our school had a Structure Challenge. Each class was given one 75 minute block of time to build a structure with just straws, connectors and some blocks. The focus of the challenge was collaboration. The students were amazing! The morning class decided that they wanted to build a play structure. During our building time each student was responsible for different part of the play structure and then it came together beautifully in the end. In the afternoon we ambitiously decided to build an igloo. There were many challenges… But everyone worked together to connect all the straws in a circle, worked through the mistakes, and create an igloo that could stand on its own. I was so proud of both classes for their patience, collaborative skills, and great communication throughout the projects. 

We have even thought about other things that we could build.....just for fun!

The students have been doing a great job with their word wall words. Just as a reminder, I send the words home each week in their notebooks. You are welcome to work through the words as you would like. As I have mentioned before, I completely understand that your lives are busy and there are so many other things you would like to be doing with your children that are not homework! That being said, exposure to these words is extremely beneficial. Repetition and daily use of these words will improve their recognition of the words, alleviating some stress while learning to read. There are many different apps and programs that focus on sight words as well. Please let me know if you would like some information regarding these useful sites. 

Here are the words for this week!

big, run

three, yellow, two

pretty, three, not, ten, see

green, hot, any, children, flag

This month, we are looking ahead to Valentine's Day and what it means to be kind. Our class and environment works really hard to promote a place where we can all be ourselves...exactly how God made us. We accept each other and celebrate who we are. This will be our focus for Valentine's Day. While the students are welcome to bring in cards for their friends, it is certainly not necessary. We will have a little celebration of kindness on that day in class. Stay tuned for more details about that! Also, please let me know if you would like a list of first names for cards. 

Lately, we have been exploring different technological tools to help us in our learning. The students have been working in an app called SeeSaw. Here they can record their learning in picture, photograph and video format. They are many options including taking a video, recording their voice or show their learning by drawing. They are all able to independently record their learning and store it in their own file. I am pretty impressed with the ease of which they have picked it up! There are many other functions of the app and as I learn them (it is new to me this year) I will introduce the functions to them. I am excited about this new tool we have. Ask your child about SeeSaw! 

I have also introduced an app called Google Read and Write to the Grade 3 students. This is a tool that they will be using to help them gain independence as a learner. This program helps students with reading, comprehension, vocabulary and writing. I am very excited to teach the students this tool as I hope they will be able to use it independently in the junior grades. I will also be introducing this tool to the Grade 1 and 2 students later in the year. 

I cannot say it enough.....I am so proud of my classes. Even on my grumpiest days, they make me smile and bring my spirits up. Even when my children at home are sick and I do not get enough sleep, they brighten my soul. Even when I feel overwhelmed with all that needs to be done in a day, they remind me of what is truly important. I am one very lucky woman to be able to do a job that I adore with students like your children! Happy February everyone! Stay warm and stay tuned for more exciting adventures from the PLC at SJA! 

Monday, January-09-17

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope that this first week back to reality finds everyone healthy, rested and full of wonderful memories from an amazing holiday!

I certainly do not take for granted this special time that I have to spend with my family. I feel blessed to be able to have 2 weeks with my children to celebrate, play and grow together! This morning was truly bittersweet! While I was a little sad that my holiday adventures with my babies have come to an end, I am truly excited to begin 2017 with YOUR children!

As an educator, I love this time of year!  It is busy and hectic, but the students really do seem to grow over the break. They come back refreshed and ready to learn.....so that is exactly what we are going to do!

We had some renovations done in the classroom over the holidays! The students were super excited to come in and see the new cupboards, closet, counter top and cubbie area! It really is lovely! Check Twitter for some pictures later today! 

Today, we spent some time discussing our Christmas holidays with each other. We practiced active listening and some students even tried asking other students questions about their stories! Everyone had such lovely tales of what they did. We turned the conversation into a discussion about the difference between telling someone something, and asking a question. We will be focusing on "telling sentences" and "asking sentences" throughout this month! 

As the New Year has just begun, we will be taking some time to discuss resolutions.  We will discuss about how people use the turning of the New Year to set a goal for themselves, to try and improve on something.  Some great examples would be: learning to play an instrument, reading more and practicing a sport! 

Throughout the week, each student will be setting a goal for him/her self.  They will also be looking at steps they need to take to meet their goals. Ask your child about what they are looking to improve on! 

As this week is fairly busy already and we have many learning activities planned throughout the week, we will have no word wall words this week.  We will be focusing on our 4 vocabulary words from the story, Gingerbread Baby. This words that we are studying are, pranced, worn, peppy and fool. SO far, we have talked about the words within the context of the story. This week, we are going to come up with an action that we can associate with the word to help us remember the word. 

This story has already led us into some exciting learning.  I am looking forward to seeing where else it takes us!

Just a reminder that this week will be COLD, then WARM and WET!  Please make sure that they children are dressed appropriately. 

This will be a busy month, so stay tuned for more information! 

Again, I wish you all a Happy New Year!  

Stay warm!! 

Sarah Faloon 

Happy Tuesday everyone!
Looks like this rain is going to take away all of our beautiful snow away. Life in Ottawa!!

Today, the bus and van transportation was cancelled because of unsafe driving conditions.  This is a good time to remind everyone that on these days your children are more than welcome to attend a full day at their homeschool.  The schools are prepared for days like this!

As we speak of transportation, please remember to call STS and report if your child will be absent for the day.  It is important for the drivers to be aware if they are not going to pick up a student. I know that some of you have have already been in contact with the drivers to let them know personally, so thank you! If you do not have the phone number of the person who drives your child, please call STS at 6132-723-9677 and they will let the driver know. Thank you for your cooperation with this manner.

On Sunday, we entered into the season of Advent. We have now begun to prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord at Christmas!
In our class, we will be looking at gifts we can give Jesus for each week during Advent. These gifts, will not be the kind we can purchase at Tory R' Us! I will be encouraging the students to think about how we can help each other, be kind and love our neighbour in an effort to give back during this season. We have spoken about how one kindness, one simple act or word can make a BIG difference. This is the spirit of Christmas!

There are many charitable efforts happening here at SJA, including an Advent sock tree and a Hat drive.  If you would like to donate any new socks, hats, mittens or scarves, they will be used to help keep little ones throughout the city stay warm during this winter season!

Here are our word wall words for this week:

you, my
make, run, up
what, very, will, was, but
sentence, mother, brother, again, found

Please remember that I send the words home each week and you can practice as much or as little as you can. I want the homework to fit into your schedule, so as long as the books are returned by Friday, I will continue to put the words into the book for each week. Thank you for your help with this!

As I have previously mentioned, we have been studying the book, Harry the Dirty Dog this month. Ask your child about our vocabulary words.  We have created definitions for some of the words to help us better understand their meanings.  We are now practicing using these words in full sentences. As an extension of this learning, we are trying to use the words within new contexts!

Throughout the year, we have been very focused on becoming better readers! Each student is at a different place in his/her reading journey and we are celebrating each step, both big and small on this journey! The students are using many different reading strategies to decode when they come to a word that they do not know.

Here are the strategies that we have been learning about.  As I just mentioned, as students progress in their reading, they will be working on different strategies to help them out! Ask them which strategy they are using now. Maybe they can show you how they use it while reading their Snuggle Book. 😊

I know I say this often, but I am so proud of each and every one of my students. It can be very overwhelming going to two different schools, having multiple teachers and leaving friends from one school or another.  These kids are strong and resilient! I am thankful to be able to spend my days learning with them! 

As we move through December I know it will be very busy. Please do not hesitate to give me a call or write a note in the communication book if you have ANY questions or concerns. 

Happy "Snow" Day!!! 

Mrs. Faloon 

Can you believe all of this snow?!?!  Winter is here.....but will it stay? 😃

As the cold and wet weather arrives, please remember that the students need warm clothes for recess time. The students came in today with rosy cheeks and wet mittens. They were so excited about the snow! An extra pair of mittens and socks in their bag may be a good idea!

This week we are honouring Anti-Bullying Week.  At St. John the Apostle, we are focusing on the role of the bystander.  We have started talking about what bullying is, what it looks like and what it feels like. We have begun to identify the differences between real bullying and other behaviours. We also began discussing how important it is to say something if you witness bullying. We watched a video about being an UPSTANDER instead of being a BYSTANDER.  We are encouraging the students who witness bullying to do something about it. There are 4 main ways to be an UPSTANDER:

1. Be a Buddy

2. Interrupt 

3. Speak Out

4. Tell Someone

We are going to decorate our door to show the school how we feel about bullying. Stay tuned for pictures!

Here are some of the amazing things we will be doing this week!

Our word wall words are:

at, to

big, have, do

ride, here, them, eight, over

every, once, sister, happy, often

We played the game Roll, Read, Write! Ask your child how to play!

This week, we have continued our focus on the _et word family. We made a fun little book last week and this week, we are still learning about which words belong to this family. The patterns and rhyming are helping us on our reading journey!

We continue our study of the book, Harry the Dirty Dog. As we read the story, the students and I wrote down all of the words we did not know and now we are going in depth to learn more about them.  We are taking those words, creating our own definitions and learning about them in other contexts.  The goal is to integrate as many of these words as possible into each child's vocabulary. Vocabulary is such an important part of language so we will continue with these words all month. Next month, we will begin a new book and more words! It is going to be a good one!!

As we get more and more into the school year, the students are all taking steps to meet their individual goals! They have been doing more writing in their journals and I am so proud of them! Each time we write in our journals, I have a chosen topic for them.  We discuss possible sentences for them to write, brainstorm ideas and then they are off! With the many different learning levels in the class, their journal entries all look very different. Some students are working towards telling me a sentence orally that I scribe for them, while others are working towards 3 or 4 sentences independently. The students take this task very seriously and they are doing really well. It is so amazing to see the progress of each child!

Next week, we enter into the season of Advent where we are getting ready for the birth of Jesus. It is such an amazing a blessed time of year and there will be many exciting activities ahead. Please continue to visit the blog and our twitter account for updates and reminders. 

A reminder that we go to the Library every Wednesday. Please try and help your child remember to return their book each week so all of the students can enjoy the lovely books from the library.