January 30 - February 3

Just a few important dates to pass along:

• Wednesday, Feb. 1 - No school for students (PD Day)
• Online booking for Parent/Teacher Conferences will be available starting Friday, February 3 until March 3. There will be a link to follow on the website.
• Wednesday, Feb. 8 - Grade 4 Field Trip to the Confederation Center. Information and permission forms are going home today. Please return permission forms by Friday, February 3.
• Friday, Feb. 10 - No school for students (PD Day)

Have a great week!

January 23 - 27

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I have included some important dates to keep in mind in the coming weeks.

• Book Orders - new Scholastic book order forms will be sent home on Monday. If you'd like to order anything, please return your order by the following Monday - January 30th.
• Arts Discovery Days - We are fortunate to be able to attend the Arts Discovery Days at the Confederation Center. This will be a hands on workshop in a variety of art forms, and is directly linked to the Language Arts and Social Studies curriculum. More information and permission forms will be sent home later in the week.
• Bricks 4 Kidz - This after school program will be available again beginning this week. If you're interested, please see the school website for more information.

Everyone did a great job on their social studies quizzes last week! I will send them home with your child tomorrow.

That's all for now! Have a great week!

January 16 - 20

Sorry for the delayed post this week.

I wanted to touch base regarding homework. Although there are many who are doing an excellent job completing their homework each week, there also continue to be students who either aren't completing their homework or aren't handing it in. Reading logs are expected to be filled out for each night. Word study activities can be completed when you have the time, so if one particular night is really busy you can double up the next night. Going forth, any students who complete and hand in all their homework two weeks in a row will get a choice from the Treasure Chest. If homework continues to be incomplete, I will touch base on an individual basis.

We will be having a Social Studies quiz on Thursday. Students will be expected to match the province/territory with its capital and will need to be able to locate these on a map. Games and resources were sent home with students on Friday. The following website is a great way for them to practice where the provinces/territories and their capitals are located.

The sledding party is still postponed until we get some more snow. I will keep you posted :)

Have a great week!

January 9 - 13

It will be a nice, busy week in 4D this week! I'm looking forward to a full week. Last week we spent some time revisiting expectations, and I know everyone is geared up for a productive week coming up.

Literacy:

We will be starting a unit on Synthesizing (summarizing and finding the main idea in both fiction and non fiction texts) in reading comprehension.  This will be integrated with a Descriptive Report in writing.  Our reports will be about a province or city in Canada as we learn more about the physical landscape of Canada in Social Studies.  We will then present our report to a student in 4B, and vice versa.

Homework: 

Due to the storm day last Wednesday, I did not collect reading logs on Friday. Homework expectations will resume this week. Please support your child in their nightly reading, and have them fill in their reading log each evening. There will be new word study words this week, so word study activities will be expected to be completed for homework as well. I have included the word study instructions/nightly schedule in your child's reading log duotang. This way, when they get new word study scribblers they will still have the instructions available at home.

Super Happy Fun Jar Celebration:

Our marble jar was filled before the holidays. There were already so many exciting and fun activities happening during that time, so we decided to hold off to have our celebration in the new year! 

We will be having a sledding party! This will include sledding on school property and hot beverages afterwards. Students are welcome to bring their own sleds to school as long as parents can drop them off and pick them up. They are not able to go on the buses. I will also bring extra sleds. Helmets are encouraged - hockey helmets or bike helmets are acceptable. If anyone has extras that they are able to send, I would greatly appreciate it! Of course this activity is weather dependent. I am hoping we can do it on Thursday, as long as we don't get too much rain on Wednesday.  A notice will go home with students today.

Have a great week!

January 4 - 6

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you enjoyed a restful holiday and that everyone is feeling rejuvenated for the new year!

During this short week, we will be doing a New Year's Resolutions activity and discuss goals we have for the coming months. We will also be finishing up our narrative stories and be taking some time to share them with each other. This will be a great time to re-visit the expectations for Reader's Workshop. We will take some time to talk about choosing appropriate books, the importance of reading stamina, and reading responses.

As for homework, I have decided to invest in homework bags. The folders just weren't holding up and it was sometimes difficult to fit everything in. You will be seeing the green bags coming home. Any notices and communication from school to home will go home in the bags. Because it is a short week, we will wait to start Word Study until next week. Reading logs will need to be filled out this week. It is important that they are filled in each night. Thank you for your support with this!

I am really looking forward to seeing all the kids tomorrow!!