Monday, January 31

Welcome to the last day of January!

Grade 4s will be doing more of the FSA test, tomorrow and Wednesday. They're almost finished!

All students have a test on playing the recorder on Wednesday. They have a choice between two songs: #1 or #4 on page 12 of the recorder music I've given them.

I marked the unit 2 math tests over the weekend and returned them to students today. Most did very well! For those few who got a "C" or "C-", there will be a retest opportunity next week on Wednesday.

Spelling homework today: complete the worksheet on the back of the spelling pretest, including the "Let's Write!" section at the bottom.

Wednesday, Jan. 26

Hi everyone,

No homework today, besides the "village drawing" that the kids have to do for Miss Corazza by Thursday.

Jump Rope for Heart day is tomorrow. The intermediate kids will be jumping from 1:00 - 3:00. Here are the colour teams. It would be great to have the kids dressed in something from their colour team.

Purple: Noah Am., Nathaniel, Matt D., Alexys
Red: Jacob A., Jaena, Alin, Andy
Blue: Mitchell, Daniel, Rita, Brian
Black: Alicia, Noah Ar., Josephine, Noah S.
White: Young Ha, Brett, Christian, Teresa
Yellow: Jeffrey, Loise, Tom, Matthew
Green: Jacob M., Mallory, Jasmine, Kaitlin

The FSA continues next week on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Monday, Jan. 24

Hi everyone,


Homework today:

Spelling - worksheet and corrections from pretest, regular test on Friday

Math test on Wednesday - place value, estimation

Village drawing for Ms Corazza on Thursday

Reminders:

Jump Rope for Heart - Thursday the 27th, 1:00-3:00 for intermediate students. Each student has been assigned to a colour team (they should have it written on a form in their planners), so it would be great to have students represent their colour team in some way on Thursday. Hair, clothes, face paint are all possibilities. Students should dress for activites, including proper shoes.

Wednesday, Jan. 19

Hi everyone,

I hope your week is going well. I can't believe how fast they go by!

We did the first section of the FSA test (for grade 4) today. I was impressed with how the kids kept their focus for the whole hour. I was also very happy with how the grade fives worked independently for that hour. Kudos to the kids for hard work! We will be continuing with more of the FSA test in the coming weeks as there are six parts in all.

Next week, we have a math test on our Whole Numbers/Estimation unit. This test will be on Wednesday, Jan. 26th and will cover place value, addition and subtraction with regrouping, and estimation. We will be reviewing on Monday and Tuesday, but I strongly advise students to study at home between then and now.

No other homework from me this week. The kids have a poem (good copy) due for Ms Corazza tomorrow (Thursday). And of course, the spelling test is going as usual on Friday. Also, all grade fives need to bring back the purple form which asked which middle school they're going to next year.

FSA Tests

Hi everyone,

The FSA test for grade fours is looming again. This is a very controversial test, required by the government of all grade four and seven students. You've had a letter home from the school district outlining the scope of the test and your options as a parents. I encourage you to also read the information the BCTF has prepared and posted on its web site <http://www.bctf.ca/>.

As I mentioned to my class this morning, you do have the option to have your child exempted from this test. Such exemption will not effect his or his marks, education, or progress in school in ANY WAY WHATSOEVER. If you do wish to have your child exempted from the test, please call the office and speak to Mr. Leonard.

I will try to give you a day or two's notice of when we are writing the sections of this test, by posting such information here on our blog. The FSA test is written in six parts: three written, one math, and two on the computer. And just for your information, the students have not and will not be prepared for this test in any way.

We will be writing the first section of the FSA on Wednesday this week, just FYI.

Wednesday, Jan. 12

Another week, half over. Time's fun when you're having flies, as the frog said.

Next week, we're going to start public speaking in division one. Students will be asked to come up with a speech topic in one of three areas: a narrative (story), an argument convincing us of something (ie. smoking is bad for you), or a factual report (research and present on a topic of interest). More information about that as the week progresses.

Homework today:

Goal setting, LA assignment - due Thursday (we worked on this today, and while most students completed their rough copies, many still have to edit them and write a good copy)

Math worksheet - worked on in class but those who didn't finish need to complete it for homework

grade four, p. 40-41

grade five, p. 42-43

Tuesday, Jan. 11th

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a nice vacation and Christmas.

We're going to be encouraging the kids to read more and more regularly at home in the coming weeks. To support this, your child will have a "reading log" stapled into his or her planner. The idea will be for students to record their daily reading in this log and then have a parent initial that the reading did in fact talk place. Hopefully this will not be any extra work and you can sign the log when you check your child's planner.

Thank you for your support at home with this project.

Homework and reminders for today:

Math - grade four - p. 57-58, #1-2, 4-9

         - grade five - p. 62, #1-8

Friends For Life program - p. 34, due Wednesday

Study for spelling test on Friday

Three notices sent home today in your child's planner.

Scholastic book orders due Wednesday

Hot lunch food orders are also due in this week.