Halloween

Tomorrow we will be having a fun Halloween afternoon. Nothing fancy but we will be playing some games. Students are welcomed to bring a treat for each student but please remember to make sure it is nut-free. 

There will also be a quiz on nutrition in Science on Monday. Students should use a copy of the food guide, nutrition notes and old assignments to review for it. There will be some matching and short answers. 

 We have just started our Social Studies dioramas so they will have 3 double classes to work on it next week (that is over 6 hours of class time!) Students are welcome to bring their own supplies in. 

For Math homework students must count and sort their Halloween candy they collect. This should be done on a tally sheet. Instructions will be given on Friday. They wil use this data to complete some graphing activity. 

Another reminder is picture money was due today (you can do it online too). Also a new book order went out and they are due November 6. This is a great opportunity to get your kid excited about reading. I remember getting to pick out one book in every order and was excited when it arrived.  (Yes they were around back then but the books were only $1.25 each.) 

Sorry for the delay but our formal spelling program will start next week and I will be trying to do a Monday to Friday system. I will also be sending home Boston pizza reading sheets for any student wanting to do complete home reading. I do not use a home reading program in grade 5 but if a student needs extra support then a program will be set up. 

Have a great Halloween and check back for photos on the weekend. 

Potlatch success!

We had our potlatch today and it went well. (Okay I am a little tired, kind of life having a birthday party for 24 kids.) The food was delicious and thanks to those who brought it in. Also thanks to those who brought in their gifts. We were short a few but we managed to find enough stuff in my treasure box! 

Also I have to send a huge shout out to the moms who helped set up the food, serve it, and clean up. Thank you Mrs. Paterson, Mrs. Gaulton and Mrs. Arnason. Here are some pictures of the day. 

We will be starting our dioramas next week so if you have a box about the size of a paper box you can bring it in, along with any supplies you want to use. There will be 4 double classes to work on it in the class.

(Also I hope everyone had a chuckle about my spelling error in the social studies letter home! 😜 I will be correcting that one!)

Potlatch update

Tomorrow is the potlatch! The students will not need lunch. I have two parents who are helping set-up so the students will eat at 11:30 and then go out for a recess break. After lunch the students will share their totem pole and mask. Then we will play the gift stealing game to represent status. In order for this to take place I need every student to bring their assigned/chosen items. Please check below to verify. If you have gift beside your child's name then you need to bring in 2 gifts valued between $2 and $3. Hey can be dollar store items and need to be wrapped. They can even be wrapped in newspaper or paper. Any questions email me at wjensen@sjsd.net and I will get back to you ASAP. 

Drew-perogies/sour cream

Brayden- buns/butter

Garrett- meatballs

Julia - cheese and crackers

Ashly- casserole

Blake- macaroni 

Abby - hash brown casserole

Maya- drinks

Kyra - veggies and dip

Ava- salad

Sophie - fruit platter 

Jersey - salad or dessert

Any food can be sent in cold and we will warm it up or put in oven. Just send any instructions. Also plan for 25 people! 

Bringing gifts are:

Samuel

Jaime

Branden

Ian

Josh

Amber

Michael

Noah

Iliana

Diana 

Liam

Tyra

Hopefully you have all seen or heard about the letter that was sent home Ocotber 13th and this is not a surprise. If not then I told the kids they better suck up to their parent and do the dishes for them tonight. They should also start the conversation with, "I have something I forgot to tell you and I have learned my lesson..."

Mask making

Huge thanks to Mrs. Paterson for helping out in the class today. Things went well, except for the odd eye brow hair sacrifice! Here are some pictures. Also someone has volunteered to bring macaroni and cheese now.

SS letter that was sent home...

Also perogies are taken for the potlatch so cross them off your list! I have two parents for Friday so we do not need anymore helpers. Thanks 

October 18th

Reminder that tomorrow is mask making in the afternoon. We are still looking for any parent volunteers. The more the merrier. We will be starting right after lunch.

Also I have parents signed up for meatballs, buns and butter, zucchini casserole, and cheese/crackers. You can just write a note in the agenda or leave it as a comment on the blog. The students will not need a lunch on Thursday. 

Something happened to my original blog from Friday and so I will repost a picture of the letter that went home with the kids tomorrow at school. 

We will also be starting our dioramas soon in social studies and I will post an outline for parents on the blog too. This project will be done at school unless a student does not get a lot done in class time. Hope everyone had a good weekend! 

October 9th

Today was our second day with our artist in the classroom. Lynne is working with us to make haunted houses out of clay. The students really did a great job. She will be back next week after they are fired in the kiln so we can glaze them. We will be completing a creative writing assignment to go with them called "House For Sale". Look for them on display in front of the office just before Halloween. Here are some pictures.

Some of the students also participated in the Divisional Cross country meet. The course was just over a mile (1.2 to be exact). Boy were they fast! The fastest boy was from Athlone and finished it in 4:40. Here are some pics:

We finished our first math centre rotation today for place value and the small group instruction seemed to work well. I will try and post a video soon that shows the strategies used in our class. A great game we played on the iPad was Mathdoku! The kids thought it was going to be a price of cake but to their surprise it was quite a challenge, even on the beginner level. You might want to try it to help with your number sense. 

A few reminders for you as well:

- picture day is Tuesday

- hot lunch forms are due back on 14th

- book orders are due back on 14th

- chess club has started at lunch on a Day 6. 

- soccer forms are due back ASAP.

- I will need some parent volunteers soon to help make plaster casting masks but I will need to work around the artists schedules.

Have a happy thanksgiving! 

October 6

Things are progressing well in class with some of our routines. We have completed a round of guided reading where the students learned about text mapping on a scroll (just a photocopy of an nonfiction text that had been attached to form a continuous story.) Our first one was just two pages but the kids learned a lot from using these pre-reading strategies, without even reading the text. 

We had our first quiz and most students passed but a few learned to double check their quiz over before saying it is complete! They will be handed back as soon as two students complete the quiz as they were away. Everyone does already know their mark. 

We have TIA staring this week on Oct. 8 and 9th. We are using clay and will be making Haunted houses to go along with our descriptive writing activity. 

The autobiographies look great!

Tell me the secret word is Gimli. The first 5 students will get a treat!