Beyond The Desk

I forgot to also mention in my last post that Thursday is our Fall Colour Day. Students can come dress in play clothes that incorporate fall colours!

This week is already shaping up to be very busy. Here are some news items to keep you informed.

1. Spelling: With all these short weeks, it has been hard to fit in spelling. There will be no spelling this week but we will have spelling next Monday.
2. Memory Verse: Our Memory Verse for this week is to recite the entire Matthew 6:9-13. Thanks for all your hard work in encouraging your child in memorizing their verses. The students have been doing very well. I will hear the memory verses on Monday.
3. Pumpkin Math: We had a lot of fun this morning with Pumpkin Math. The students had a great time measuring, weighing and getting gunk all over themselves! Our pumpkins have now completed their life cycle and have left for the Highroad Garden compost! I will post photos later this week showing all the fun we had!
4. Science Projects: We are getting ready for the next part of our Science unit on Space. Part of this preparation will involve a really cool project. For the project, students will need cardboard. If you have any kinds of cardboard lying around that can be donated to our class, that would be appreciated. Preferably cardboard that can be easily cut, though I will accept any kind of cardboard.
5. Skating Form: Our class will be going skating Nov. 12 from 10-11. Students should have brought a form home today for you to sign. Please check to make sure your child brought one home today.

Lots of things are happening in the Grade 4/5 classroom! Here are some notes to help you navigate what is going on:

1. Spelling this Week: There is no spelling test this week due to the short week. Next week will be another short week with Parent/Teacher Interviews happening on Nov. 1. However, we will probably put in a spelling test that week just to get at least 1 spelling list in.
2. Memory Verse: This week’s memory verse is Matthew 6:13. I will hear memory verses on Monday.
3. Class and Individual Photos tomorrow: As mentioned last week, tomorrow students will be having photos done. They will be doing both class and individual photos at the same time. Our photos will be at approx. 10 am. Students should come wearing pants or kilts, uniform shirts and some type of blue (cardigan or blue zip-up hoodie)
4. Parent Teacher Interviews: Interviews will be happening on Nov. 1 from 10am to 4pm. We would love to have as many parents as possible come out. I will have a sign up list on the inside of my door for you to sign up on either before school or after school.
5. PD Day this Friday: There will be no school this Friday as teachers province wide attend professional development. I will be attending the Intermediate Conference being held in Abbotsford. I will also be in Richmond over the weekend attending a series of meetings to develop the next set of FSA numeracy questions. This is something I have done for the last few years and I am very excited to be leading the Grade 4 Numeracy FSA group in developing the math portion of the FSA’s over the next years to come. It is great professional development for myself as I get to meet and work with several people at the Ministry of Education level as well as teachers from around the province on assessment.
6. FSA – Students in Grade 4 will be starting to work on the FSA’s (Foundational Skill Assessments) in the next few weeks. Students will complete assessments measuring numeracy, reading and writing skills. We will be starting off with some practice assessments to get the students used to the style of questions asked as well as how to use the chromebooks to login to and complete the online portions of the test.

Our class photos are fast approaching and I am sure that there are probably questions about dress requirements with all the changes in our dress code policy.

Here is what we are looking for in terms of dress:

For picture day, students need to be in uniform (pants or kilts – no shorts), with a sweater, or navy hoodie as well.

We are looking forward to our field trip next Friday to Lindeman Lake, joining up with Mrs. Goosen’s Grade 5 class.

This is a rain or shine field trip, so please ensure that your child has proper clothing – dressing in layers is recommended.  Students will need to bring a bag lunch as we will be eating up at the lake.  We would love for parents to join us and meet us at the trailhead at 9:45.  Dress is casual – it is Knight’s Day but students can wear play clothes if they prefer.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall long weekend. The sun did manage to peek it’s way through the early morning clouds. Despite my allergies, I was able to enjoy the weather and get some things done. I just wanted to make you aware of some upcoming events happening in the next couple of weeks.

Toonies for Terry

On September 26, students from Grades 1 to 6 will be participating in an event called “Toonies for Terry”. As you may know, we have participated in this wonderful event for the last few years, helping to raise money for cancer research.

As part of “Toonies for Terry”, students from the elementary classes will be taking a few minutes throughout the day to run around our school field. We are also asking each student to bring in a toonie to help support this wonderful cause and help the field of cancer research so that, one day, we can develop a cure for this terrible disease. Students may bring their toonies at any time up to the day of the event.

Orange Shirt Day

This event is a little newer to us. Orange Shirt day is a day of reflection and thoughtful discussions around injustices that occured to First Nations children sent to Residential Schools. However, it is also a chance to reflect and discuss injustices suffered by children all over the world. As the Orange Shirt movement states, “Every Child Matters” and this day is a great opportunity to discuss why this topic is so important and relevant. Intermediate students will be joining High School students in doing a couple of activities closely tied to our Social Studies curriculum. Orange Shirt Day is Sept. 30 and Intermediate students are welcome to wear orange shirts on this day or the standard uniforms.

With the beginning of a brand new year, comes new procedures and routines for our students. One of the new procedures we wanted to make you aware of is with our planners. As a department, we want our students to be more aware of the ways they can be successful, both in school and in life. One way to do that is by giving students the tools they need to be organized. Each year our students get beautiful new planners.  We feel that not only are these planners a useful tool of communication between parents and teachers but are also an important way for students to organize their school activities and assignments.

To better utilize our planners and use them more effectively, the intermediate department would like to make the following changes:

• Students will be adding items into planners on an almost daily basis (with some rare exceptions for those times when there are no items to share).
• Planners should be checked daily and signed by parents. Teachers will also check planners daily.

We hope that these changes will help relieve any confusion as to how planners are being used as well as help our students be more successful in building important organizational skills.

Blessings
The Intermediate Department