Happy Holidays!

Dear Families,

Thank you all so much for the cards, the gifts, and the warm wishes. I am so grateful. It has been a pleasure to work with each of the students in my class, and I look forward to the rest of the year!

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season,

Mme Hamilton

Santa's Workshop - Elves Needed!

If you are available on December 19, please consider volunteering for Santa's Workshop. For those who do not know, Santa’s Workshop is a “mini-store” set up in the library on Dec. 19. Students from all grades take turns coming by the workshop to purchase a few new items to give to their family members over the holidays. School volunteers and staff members buy and donate these gifts. Items are priced very reasonably from 25¢ to $4.00.

This year, we are still seeking more parent volunteers in order to make our workshop possible. Even if you can only take a short shift, please contact Mrs. Roach at the main office about volunteering. Without the help of volunteers Santa's Workshop will not be open this year.

Winter Carnival - Dec. 13

Thank goodness I have such wonderful students! They reminded me today that I have not sent any notes home yet about the Winter Carnival!!!

Please join us on December 13 between 6:30 and 8:30 pm for the annual Winter Carnival. There will be tables where families can make winter crafts, as well as tasty cookies to decorate and devour. At 8:00 pm we will be caroling. Make you sure you dress warmly because there will also be sleigh rides outside!

Le moi intérieur

Students have been discussing "le moi intérieur" or the inner self during recent health classes. Together, students created these two posters to represent thoughts and activities which have a positive or negative impact on the well-being of the inner self. As you may guess, "destructives" means actions, thoughts, or behaviours which may be destructive to one's emotional well-being. "Épanouissantes" refers to actions, thoughts, or behaviours which nourish the inner self so than it can grow and thrive. Our eventual goal will be to analyse how our inner selves and our outer selves are connected. Students will learn to recognise the ways in which their actions, their level of physical activity, and their nutritional choices will all impact their feelings and their behaviour.  

 

 

Class Phone List

In response to parent requests, we are making a class phone list this year. Once finished, I will send out the list to all parents/guardians for our class in hopes that it will help you to organise playdates and to build students' sense of community outside of school.

If you still want your email or phone number added to the list, please email the information which you would like to include. I would like to send out the completed list this week.

Three-Way Conferences - Thank You!

Thank you all for joining me at three-way conferences last week. It is incredibly helpful to have the opportunity to speak face-to-face with parents and students, so that we can celebrate progress and make plans for improvement together as a team.

If you were unable to meet with me for any reason, please consider making an appointment with me over the next few weeks. You can contact me through the school number or by email.

Thank you again for all of your support!

SNOOK

Every Wednesday morning, students and parents are welcome to join in SNOOK, or snack and a book, in the Library. Please feel welcome to meet us for SNOOK starting at 8:30 am every Wednesday!

Drawing Club

A few weeks ago, several students expressed an interest in forming a drawing club. In order to encourage the positive leadership that these students are showing, Mme Brown and I are teaming up to facilitate the new Drawing Club.

Once a week, students Grade 3 and up are welcome to join us to learn more about drawing and to hone their skills. Our club will meet after school on Monday from 3:30 pm to 4:00 pm.  We will not meet on holiday Mondays. Students and parents are responsible for arranging safe transportation home.

If you have expertise in this area which you would like to share, please let me know, or join us on Monday afternoons. Please contact me if you require more information.

3-Way Conferences

This post is just a reminder that you can sign up for a 3-way conference on November 28 or 29 by contacting Mrs. Roach at the main office. We call the first set of interviews 3-way conferences because we want to encourage students to come with their parents to discuss progress with teachers. I hope to see you all then!

Saskatoon Food Bank Collection

As the holidays draw nearer, many members of our community will not have enough to eat. Ecole Victoria students have begun collecting non-perishable food items to donate to the Saskatoon Food Bank. If your family would like to make a donation, the donation bins will be at the front office until November 28.

Remembrance Day Art

Students worked hard last week to create original, imaginative works of art for Remembrance Day. As a class, we read the poem In Flanders Fields aloud, and then we tried to visualise the scene from the first stanza. Students chose their materials and created art that they felt best represented that scene. Here is the students' work:

Safety Tips for Halloween

The Saskatoon Police Service would like to remind the public to keep Halloween safe this year. These tips come from a news release the police sent out yesterday. Please consider the following safety tips: Parents - Ensure younger children are accompanied by an adult when trick-or-treating. - Older children should trick-or-treat in pairs or groups. - Know the route your children will be taking and when they will be home (routes should be well lit). - Children should carry flashlights, glow sticks or wear reflective tape to make them more visible. - Instruct children not to eat their treats until they have returned home and an adult has had a chance to examine them. Avoid homemade treats and throw away anything that looks suspicious. Children - Do not trick or treat alone. - Wear a costume that is easy to move around in and is easily seen at night. - Cross streets only at corners and in crosswalks. Obey traffic signals. - Stay on well lit streets. - Never go inside a home or enter a stranger's car. - Wait until you return home to eat treats. Motorists - Drive slowly and cautiously. - Keep alert for children crossing the street. Have a safe and happy Halloween!

October 31

As Halloween approaches, the students and I took time today to review the guidelines for costumes on October 31. Students must arrive at school wearing their regular clothes. They will wear their normal clothes for the morning. Students may choose to wear a costume in the afternoon. If they choose to dress up, students must change or put their costume over their clothes independently. Costumes with weapons, blood and gore, or other innappropriate content are not acceptable at school. Likewise, students should keep in mind that they will still have recess outside in the afternoon. They must wear or bring with them suitable outdoor clothing so they stay warm. Have a great weekend! 

Operation Veteran

Just a reminder that those families wishing to participate in Operation Veteran fundraising should send donations next week. All money raised goes towards providing free lunch to veterans who visit the Canadian War Museum in Ontario.

If you would prefer to donate money to help veterans living in Saskatoon, we will have a poppy sale closer to November 11. Money raised from poppies helps support those veterans living in our community.

Xtra Math and Typing Web

Students benefit from extra time at home spent practicing basic math facts (computation) and typing skills. Practice of these skills will help them to complete tasks more efficiently; they will also be able to take on more challenging tasks because the basic skills will already be in place, providing a strong foundation for success.

On the right-hand side of this page there are two website links to Xtramath.org and Typingweb.com. These websites offer free and easy to use drills and games for your child to practice at home. We will continue to practice these skills at school as much as possible, but at-home practice is essential to encouraging high achievement and self-efficacy.

Please take a moment to test these sites with your child. They do not need to practice these skills daily, as I realise how busy many of the students are after school! If you have questions about your child's specific needs, please contact me as always.

School Dance

The first School Dance is this Friday, Oct. 26. Students need to bring $1 to help cover the cost of the dance. Please send your child with $1 on Friday, October 26.

Je présente…

This week, students are presenting short stories in front of the class so that I can assess each student's oral proficiency in French. The goal is not at all to memorise a long story. Students should simply choose a topic to introduce to the class, and be prepared to answer questions about that topic or story. I have advised them to choose something that they find easy to talk about, rather than a topic requiring a lot of unfamiliar vocabulary.

Students and I discussed last week how I would be evaluating them. The rubric that I am using comes from the Canadian Association of Immersion Teachers (http://www.acpi.ca/index.cfm?M=3191&Repertoire_No=2137989657&Voir=menu). The same rubric is used in all Saskatooon Public Immersion schools to evaluate French oral proficiency.

Education Week Photostory

 

Please use the following link to enjoy our class photostory for Education Week 2012. The Photostory contains a sample of each student's writing in which the student recounts a story (in French) about feeling a strong emotion.

http://video.spsd.sk.ca/uploads/HamiltonJ2012101411347.wmv

October Class Newsletter

Last week I sent out our October class newsletter by email. If you did not receive the newsletter, or if you require a paper copy, please leave a note in your child's agenda. I hope that everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving!

Les dictionnaires

Mme Hegarty remarked today that some students were not using their French-English dictionaries when asked. When we investigated, we discovered the reason: some students do not have French-English dictionaries at school.
 
While an all French Dictionary is a very useful tool, it has a different purpose. If you were able to find a children's French Dictionary with images, that would work in place of a French-English Dictionary in some cases; however, many of the French Dictionaries that I saw are too advanced for our students to use with comfort when searching for specific words.
 
I know that Madame Hegarty plans to use French-English Dictionaries in Science class, so please ensure that your child has a French-English Dictionary at school. Students from Mme Ollerhead's classroom each received a Dictionary at the end of last year which would be perfect for this year!
Thank you for your cooperation.

Way to Be

A little pink slip may come home with your child in recognition of good behaviour. Any teacher can present a slip to a student at any time to recognise that the student is demonstrating respect, responsibility, good listening, etc. Please sign the slip and send it back to school so that your child enters in our weekly draw.  Every Friday, I will draw a slip and put that student's name in the Way to Be Friday morning announcements. That student will win a small prize.

Small Change to Due Dates

In response to a change in our schedules at school, I am adjusting our weekly due dates:

- Mondays - spelling or dictée work is due
- Wednesdays - spelling quiz or dictée takes place

I hope that this will also give students more time to complete the work without feeling rushed.

Please note: there will be no dictée work coming home until after the long weekend, due to the two shortened weeks. I know the students are thankful for that!

Nutana Harvest Fair

On Thursday morning, students will walk over to Nutana Collegiate at 9:30 am to participate in the Nutana Harvest Fair. Students will take part in a variety of activities, before enjoying a snack and some entertainment. We will return to the school for 11:45 am. Parents and caregivers, please feel welcome to join us; however, please notify me in advance if you plan on coming to any excursion.

Students were already advised that our "team colour" is silver or grey. Please attempt to wear something silver or grey, but more importantly, dress for the weather! We will be outside for the entire morning, with no opportunity of going in to warm up if the weather is chilly.

Mistakes Happen!

I came across this picture which made me giggle. Students have already seen a similar one in class, but I thought that it was fitting in light of tomorrow's first dictée. I hope that this image will serve as a reminder: we all make mistakes! What matters is how we learn from them.

 



http://weknowmemes.com/2012/06/ive-made-a-terrible-mistake/

 

Destination: Conservation - Our Environment Club

Mme Hegarty and I are leading this year's environment club, "Destination: Conservation" at École Victoria School. For that reason, we wanted to highlight some events happening in Saskatoon next weekend for World Rivers Day.

On Sunday, September 30th, you may wish to accompany your child/children to participate in the following community events:

River Landing Hike:

Join Girl Guides Saskatoon for their public hike along River Landing. This hike will stop at River Landing as well as possibly make it to the Water Treatment Plant. Enjoy the beauty of the South Saskatchewan River in this interpretive hike and learn about Girl Guides too. The walk runs from 1pm until 3pm. Please arrive at Friendship Park at 12:30pm to pre-register.

Who’s/What’s in our River?

Greg Fenty from the Saskatoon Zoo Society will be in the park giving you the scoop of what special organisms live in our river! There will also be an interactive biological artifacts display. Great for kids!

Friendship Park and River Cleanup:

Trash Dashers Saskatoon invites the public to come on down and help keep Friendship Park and our riverbank clean Sunday, September 30th at 3pm. Girl Guides Saskatoon will also be participating in this event.

More details on these and other events can be found at the following Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/102435269914373/.

Information courtesy of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society - http://www.environmentalsociety.ca/.

The Destination: Conservation Environment Club will be having our second meeting on Wednesday, September 26th at 12:05pm in Mme Hamilton's classroom. Students of all ages are welcome!

FYI Grade 4 Parents - CAT/4 Testing

Between September 17th and October 4th, our grade four students will be participating in a division-wide standardized achievement-testing program with the Canadian Achievement Test (CAT/4). The CAT/4 will provide teachers with useful information about student performance in the areas of reading, mathematics computation and numerical estimation. The tests require approximately 3 hours to complete in a group setting and will be administered over several testing sessions.

In addition to the CAT/4 testing, grade four students will also complete the Test of Cognitive Skills (TCS). The TCS is a standardized aptitude test that examines sequences, analogies, memory and verbal reasoning. The TCS requires approximately one hour to administer in a group setting.

During the testing periods, our Grade 4 students will work in Mme de Tilly's room with her Grade 4s. Her Grade 5 students will complete work independently under my supervision, while I teach our Grade 3 students. I will cover concepts and material specific to the Grade 3 curriculum.

Changes to Dictée and Spelling

Spelling and word work will come home every two weeks. We will alternate French and English each week. Students receive assignments on Tuesday, and they have until Friday to complete and return the work to school. Each Tuesday there will be a short quiz before I hand out the next assignment.

Initially, I planned to do English every week, but we decided as a class to alternate French and English to make our homework load more manageable. Sorry if the change causes any confusion!

Our first quiz is this Tuesday in English. Your child's goal should not be memorising the spelling words, but to do the work. In this way, your child both demonstrates responsibility and seeks to understand the connections between the words on the list.

The work on the poem L'arbre for our first dictée is due this Friday (students noted the due date change in agendas). The actual dictée will be next Tuesday, Sept. 25. Again, the goal is not memorisation but understanding. Next week's dictée will ease students into the process with a fill-in-the-blank quiz; I will read the poem to the students and they will write in the missing words.

Welcome!

Welcome to a new school year!

This blog space will provide a means of communicating important information about our class. I will post reminders about upcoming events and special assignments throughout the year. In this space, you will also find updates about our learning goals and our areas of study. 

Please note: as this website is open to the public, I will not post names, images, or personal information about students or about myself. Please contact me through my school email or by sending a note in the agenda if you have questions about any of the information on this blog.

Please send me an email confirming that you were able to access this blog from your preferred email address. I will use your email address for future communication.

 
Check back regularly to keep up to date!