Our Classroom Costumes

8th Annual Pumpkin Carving Day

Today we had our 8th annual pumpkin carving day with our high school buddies.  This year we were lucky to have the help of Mrs. Gagne's Grade 9 and 10 class to help us carve.  They were so kind and helpful when we carved AND they even played with us on the playground! Thank you for such a wonderful day! 

As we learn to write...

We have been working very hard on our writing in the first 2 months of school! We are SO proud of the progress that all of our students are making!

I just want to send this as a reminder about what beginning writers often create.  It tends to follow the basic rules of sound and is considered phonetic. This type of writing is what we are looking for as they become writers. As we work on our writing this winter, you will see a progression from the phonetic to the proper spelling of words.

The following letter is a perfect example of what we read every day at school and it is one of my favorite types of writing to read!  Don't be alarmed if your child is writing in a similar way.

Thank you again for the continued support at home!

Happy Writing!

Pumpkin Investigations

Yesterday we investigated our classroom pumpkins!  We categorized our pumpkins in groups of small, medium and large and measured their height with Linking Cubes!

We also predicted if our pumpkin would sink or float and then tested our predictions!

A very special thank you to Jackie MacLean and Shirley MacLean for donating their extra pumpkins for us to use!

You can read about our pumpkin investigations here, on the student blogs:

https://kidblog.org/class/MrsElder/posts

Scholastic Orders

This afternoon your child brought home the November Scholastic book order catalogs.  If you are interested in ordering, please return the order form AND a cheque (I am not able to accept cash) by Tuesday, November 3rd.

I have also opened the Pay Online option for our classroom, which allows you to pay for the order online.  There are instructions in the catalogs, and online but please feel free to let me know if it is not working or if you have any questions.

Thank you and happy reading!

Halloween Celebrations on Friday

We will be celebrating Halloween on Friday afternoon in our classroom.  Students can change into their costume at dinner time and wear costumes for the afternoon only, as we will be pumpkin carving in the morning.  We have a few fun activities planned for the students to help us celebrate!

Thank you for your support, and if you have any questions or concerns please let me know.

Pumpkin Carving

We will be pumpkin carving with Mrs. Gagne's class this Friday morning ~ Yay!

A few things to note:

1) Pumpkins can be brought to school as soon as possible.  Please write your child's name on the bottom of the pumpkin.
2) Pumpkin carving tools can also be brought to school.  These tools should be in a container or bag and will be returned to you on Friday after school.  We have discussed with the students some of the necessary things they may need, such as something to scoop with and a sharp knife to carve.
3) Grade One and Two students will not be using the sharp carving tools.  Their buddy from the high school will be handling any sharp knives and tools.
4) Pumpkins will be brought home Friday afternoon

Thank you and Happy Halloween!

5K Challenge

The annual 5K Challenge will happen Friday afternoon at 1:30, weather permitting.

We will head out down the paved road towards "The Bridge" and there will be water stations along the way.  We will have a few adults to walk with our class but if you would like to help us out by being in charge of a few students, please let us know.  We do not have to walk the entire 5K, and you and your group can decide the best distance for you.

Our class is being asked to dress up as a team so we have decided to be the Blue Jays.  If you have any Blue Jay jerseys or shirts please have your child wear them on Friday.  If not, please wear clothing items that are blue.

There will be activities (at the school) for the kids after the challenge is done.
If you are able to help us out by taking/walking with a few kids, please email:

elder.christa@prairiesouth.ca

Thank you!

Pumpkin Carving

We will once again be carving pumpkins with Mrs. Gagne's (formerly Miss Rachul) class this year. Our plan is to carve pumpkins the morning of Friday, October 30th.

More information will be given shortly, but I want to give everyone an opportunity to find a pumpkin.

Drive Away Hunger

All food donations for the Drive Away Hunger campaign must be brought to school tomorrow.

Thank you in advance for your support, and donations, for this project!

Fundraising with DFS (Dieleman)

On Friday your child brought home catalogs for school fundraising from DFS,  There is an information sheet included in the package that outlines ordering procedures, payment options, online sales, etc.

All orders are due back at the school on Friday, October 30th.  Thank you in advance for participating in this fundraising effort.

Life Cycles of a Frog and a Butterfly

In Science we have been learning about the life cycle of a frog and a butterfly.  Today we did a blog post about what we know.

Please have a look at our posts, leave a comment and pass along the following link to family and friends around the world! Thanks so much!

https://kidblog.org/class/MrsElder/posts

Book Orders

Today your child is bringing home the October Scholastic catalogs.

If you are interested in ordering any items, please return the form(s) and a cheque ( I am not allowed to accept cash) by Friday, October 9th.

Thank you in advance for your orders!

Email Addresses

We are trying to update our list of parent/family email addresses.
Please send an email to the following address, using your most active email address.

elder.christa@prairiesouth.ca

Thank you in advance

A Few Reminders

Many students have the Daily 5 goal of working on sight words.  Please continue to do daily word ring practice as those are the most common words found when reading.

Drive Away Hunger donations will be accepted at the school. Any non-perishable items can be brought to the school and we thank you in advance for your donations.

Each child in the classroom has a Daily 5 goal that they are working on.  Part of the process is being able to declare and describe their goal and we are working on this.  Please ask your child what their reading goal is (or where their owl is placed on the CAFE menu) and allow them to describe it to you.  These goals may change from week to week, so check in with your child to see what they are currently working on.

Picture Day

Tomorrow is picture retake day.  If your child is having retakes done they will start at 9:00am.  Please let us know (via note or email) that your child will be going for retakes.

We will also have our class picture done tomorrow as well.

Photo of the day by Josie

Today Aaliyah brought her cute little bunny for Show and Tell! We loved meeting her!

Reading Strategies and Daily 5 ~ Looking at the Pictures

Looking at the Pictures

It is so exciting to watch your children learn to read! Here in school we are teaching children all kinds of reading strategies to use when looking through books. One of the favorites of beginning readers is to "Use the pictures to help me figure out the words." This truly is one of the best ways for beginning readers to learn to read.

We teach children that even grownups use pictures sometimes when they read. When you're fixing the vacuum you look at the diagram. Even cookbooks and car repair books have pictures that match the words. Doctors even use pictures when they read! Nonfiction books may have words that are too difficult, but your child can learn a lot by reading the pictures. It is a great first step toward research and report writing.

If you feel concern that your child is relying on pictures too much, or you are tempted to cover up the pictures so they only look at the words, rest assured that reliance on pictures at this stage is not only completely appropriate, but encouraged.

So read a book, or newspaper, or magazine, or recipe together tonight!

Happy Reading!