Thank you to everyone who came out last week for Student-Led Conferences.  It was great to chat with you and to listen as your child took you through their learning.

Coming up this week ...

Humanities



For the next little while we will be focusing on persuasive essay writing.  Students have used the book "Hey Little Ant" as a starting off point, and had to choose whether or not they would let the ant get squished or let the ant go free.  We have talked about fact and opinion, and how it is important to have facts that back up your opinion when you are trying to be persuasive.  To assist with this, students did some research into ants and compiled their information into a "Persuasion Map".  They are now using the Map to write their initial essay.  Here is the checklist that students were given to refer to during writing:

Persuasive Writing Checklist
Introduction: Did you …
  • Start with a hook to grab the reader’s interest?
  • Identify the topic?
  • State your opinion clearly?
  • Give a brief summary of the main reasons for your opinion?
Body: Did you …
  • Present your reasons in a logical order?
  • Provide supporting details, facts, and examples for each reason?
  • Use one paragraph for each reason?
  • Avoid general words such as “great”, “nice”, “awesome”?
  • Allow your voice and passion to show through?
Conclusion: Did you …
  • Restate your opinion?
  • End with a strong, positive statement?
Overall: Did you …
  • Use important words such as:

  • Split you work up into paragraphs?
  • Check for COPS (Capitals, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling)?
  • Include a title?
  • Include your name?

French

We will continue learning about vocabulary in the "Who Am I?" unit.  This week we will focus on personality traits, and will be writing a sentence on our cube to describe our own personality traits.

Math

As a school, we have decided to begin doing Number Talks at the beginning of math lessons.  These are short, 10 minute talks designed to improve student number fluency.  Each day in our class we will do a Number Talk based on a different operation.  Today was multiplication, tomorrow will be division, and Thursday we will look at addition.  Here are some of the strategies that came out of today's multiplication talk:




Reminders and Upcoming Events:
- This Thursday we will do our regular Home Reading and Learning Commons book exchange
- Students will need their Home Journals for Friday
- On Friday the Kindergarten and Grade 3 classes will be hosting an assembly from 8:30 - 9:15
- Friday is also the next Movie Night.  The movie is "Coco" and doors open at 6:15
- February 12 - 14th will be Cultural Games
- February 15th and 16th is Teachers' Convention, there will be no school for students on these days
- February 19th is Family Day
- February 20th - Mr. Barker returns for the second part of his practicum
- February 23rd - Flex Friday and Fun Lunch

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