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!