As there have been some questions, I thought I would add a note to our blog about Library and Gym Dates. Students have Library every Tuesday afternoon. Gym will be on Thursdays and Mondays. I have added these dates to the blog calendar which you can find by clicking on the Calender heading at the very top of the blog page.
Thanks!
Dear Parents,Welcome to another year at Highroad Academy! If you have made it this far, than you are doing extremely well in your first foray onto our class blog!!! I am pleased to take this opportunity to introduce myself and to welcome your child to Grade 4. A good learning experience is built on a cooperative effort among parents, child and teacher. I look forward to the work and growth we will all accomplish this year. My expectations for conduct and academic standards are high. With your participation both in and out of the classroom, we can look forward to a productive, creative and enjoyable year.
This year will be different in many ways not only for you but also for myself. First of all, I am looking forward to working with a new teaching partner. Mrs. Goosen will be teaching Thursdays as I move into an administrative role in the Grades 4-6 area. She is a wonderful addition to our school and I know you will enjoy the energy, humour, great ideas and love for teaching and learning she brings to the class. This year also means a new grade for me as I move into the Upper Elementary area. I am looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity to try my hand at new subject areas and projects. Mrs. Goosen and I believe firmly that all children should have a love for learning and that learning does not just happen in school within our four walls. Our goal this year is to help your child build that love for learning into everything they do and to develop a sense of wonder at the wonderful creation God has made in His love for us. As part of this, we also hope to involve you in this goal; whether it is through our class blog, reading with your child as part of our Home Reading program or through the family projects that your child will bring home, we want you to be an important part of this process.
This blog will be an essential tool for yourself and your child! Please check it often. I will not be sending paper copies of newsletters home. This blog will contain information about classroom activities, resources, project information, homework, spelling lists and more. If you are having problems accessing the blog or any of the resources on it, please let me know.
I have placed a copy of the newsletter down below for you to look at and enjoy in full colour. Please take the time to read through it and answer the questionnaire at the back. If you could send that back completed as soon as possible, that would be great! You can also get it by clicking on the document in the Box.net area on the right hand side or by clicking here.
Again, welcome! Please feel free to contact us about any questions or concerns you may have. Our classroom door is always open, and messages can be left for us with our school secretary, to which we will respond as soon as possible. Please take a moment to fill in the question sheet and send it back with your child. This will allow us to get to know your child better.
If you are returning from previous years, welcome back!!! It’s good to see you again! Please feel free to keep coming back to see what’s new!!!
If you come here often, you might have noticed a change in the look here at the mrhclass blog. With the start of a new year, it was time to put some spit and polish on the ol’ blog and bring it up to date to get ready for a brand spankin’ new school year. There is lots new happening this year. I will be starting a new grade with a new teaching pardner! Yehaww!
But have no fear! All the great fun, great resources, videos and news you have come to expect from this here site will still be coming your way. Come back often as we get closer to the first day of school for more news and exciting events!
Mr. H!
Here, on my blog, I like to highlight funny videos that tickle my funny bone. One of my favorites is the Simon’s Cat series. Today the author unleashed a new one.
For our second Posts For Parents, I have highlighted a very interesting article from USA Today (partly interesting in that USA Today is not particularly known as a especially deep publication. My Mom used to hate reading the newspaper when we were in the States. I loved the cool infographics.)
Youngest in class get ADHD label
By Liz Szabo, USA TODAYNearly 1 million children may have been misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, not because they have real behavior problems, but because they’re the youngest kids in their kindergarten class, researchers say.Kids who are the youngest in their grades are 60% more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than the oldest children, according to a study out today from Michigan State University, given exclusively to USA TODAY. A second study, by researchers at North Carolina State University and elsewhere, came to similar conclusions. Both are scheduled for publication in the Journal of Health Economics.
About 4.5 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD, according to the studies.
Misdiagnosing children can have long-lasting effects, says assistant professor of economics Todd Elder, author of the Michigan State study. In fifth and eighth grade, the youngest kids in a class were more than twice as likely to use Ritalin, a stimulant commonly prescribed for ADHD, compared with the oldest students, his study says.
While many parents say Ritalin has helped their kids, it also can have significant side effects, causing headaches, dizziness and even high blood pressure, according to the paper from North Carolina State.
The findings could influence the way that teachers evaluate children with ADHD symptoms — as well as complicate parents’ decisions about when to start children in kindergarten, Elder says.
Although cutoff dates for kindergarten vary by state, the most common date is Sept. 1, Elder says. In states using that date, those who turn 5 by Sept. 1 could start kindergarten, while those with Sept. 2 birthdays would have to wait a year.
Regardless of the date chosen, some kids in a class are always going to be a year older than others, Elder says. Teachers and pediatricians — who actually make the diagnoses and prescribe treatments — should evaluate kids based on their age, not their grade, he says.
Experts note that the new studies have limitations. Although the studies clearly show that younger kindergartners have higher ADHD rates, the studies don’t explain why, says John Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
Instead of younger children being overdiagnosed, Elder says, it’s possible that older children are underdiagnosed, possibly because they seem more mature than their classmates.
And Ratey notes that teachers may contribute to children’s developing ADHD by treating them differently, perhaps because they perceive some younger kids as being more disruptive.
Parents don’t necessarily need to hold back all kids with birthdays before the September cutoff date, Elder says. Parents need to consider each child’s needs.
In some cases, he says, parents can’t afford to hold kids back a year. While public school kindergarten is free, an extra year of day care or preschool can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
I hope everyone is having a great holiday. The days are going fast and school is creeping up. However, we have had lots of fun here at the Hancock household. We have been geocaching and fixing things around the house and enjoying the lazy days (or as lazy as they can be with two young children).
One of the things that we did this summer was play with lego! It was a blast! You can see what we made in the videos below! Enjoy and I’ll write another post soon!
Well, the first day of summer holidays are here for me. I know the rest of you have all been enjoying the days of no school for about a week now but this is the first day for me! And how did I celebrate, you ask? Well, I woke up early with my children. However, I don’t mind. They are fun to be with and Liam has been calming down and is not quite as fussy as he has been since he was born which is nice.
I just wanted to say though; we’re not done! Though the school year is over, the blog is still yours to use. This will always be your blog to visit, to use the resources you have come to enjoy, and to say hi! Just because you are moving on to a new class and grade, this will always be your spot. Come and visit often, kick back your feet and stay for awhile! You know you want to! 🙂
Just to reward you for coming back to see us, I have a couple of soccer related videos for you and especially for Mr. Morris, who enjoys a good game of soccer! The first one is a silly one about those loud horns they have been using at the World cup called vuvuzellas. They are very loud and annoying. If you have watched any of the soccer games on tv or the computer, you would have heard them. They sound like very angry hornets!
Here is another video explaining the offside rule in soccer.
Well, here we are on the final week of school. And as it is the final week of school, there are many things happening. So, to provide some information and maybe clear some things up, here is a list of the events for the week:
Our bible memory verse for this week is:
This is a neat video showing how they get the space shuttle ready for launch. It took thousands of individual pictures to do this video.