Happy Monday!

We started off the day copying down the new weekly spelling words and working in spelling workbooks.  The students worked on short 'e' words (grade one) and 'le' words (grade two).  The marked spelling tests will be coming home with all the students tonight.  In our IB unit of inquiry today we started our new unit 'People Use Art Forms to Express Their Cultures'.  We had a discussion of what art means to you.  We discussed how people view art differently, and how different cultures can have different opinions of what art is.  The students all provided a definition of what art is, and drew a picture to illustrate it.  We also continued reading The Tale of Despereaux which the children are really enjoying.  In math today the students worked on length (grade one) and identifying pattern cores (grade two).  The students also went to french and P.E class.

Homework:  Read for 15 minutes and record in the reading chart, practice weekly spelling words, Spelling Workbooks page 74 - 76 (grade one) page 70 - 72 (grade two), math page 122 - 123, and cursive page 98 - 99.

Important information:   The energy letters that were completed on Friday are coming home with your child tonight.  There is a marked rubric accompanying it to show the level that was achieved.  Please keep your eye out for this item.  I have taken a photo copy of the letter, and sent it off to Miss. Elliot's class.  Hopefully we will receive some replies!

Candy can now be bought for 50 cents a piece at first recess.  This started today.

Our next casual day is taking place this Wednesday.  If you have paid your money for the year, your child may come to school in whatever casual clothes they wish.

Please mark Feb. 11th down for the upcoming SJA Gala.  The theme is going to be 'Love Through the Ages'.  This is a fun night for all friends and families to attend!  Ticket information went home with your child on Friday.  Please make sure to have a look for this valuable information.

Please see my posting from last week with information regarding the Khan Academy.  This is a fun online math program that can be used to practice math skills at home.  The children earn points and badges which they seem to really enjoy!  It is also a way to help develop computer skills which is another important skill for the children to be developing at this age.

We started our fourth IB unit for this year today.  The theme of this unit is 'How We Express Ourselves'.  Every IB unit has a central idea, which acts as the objective for learning for the unit.  The central idea for our next unit is 'People Use Art Forms to Express Their Culture'.  In order to reach this central idea, 3 lines of inquiry have been developed to help direct us towards meeting the central idea.  The three lines of inquiry for this unit are (1) the art forms of local cultures both past and present (2) the art forms of various international cultures (3) how art is used for expression and communication.  It was a great day today and I look forward to see the fun that is had through the rest of the unit!

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson

Grade One                  Grade Two
1. ten                          1. apple
2. red                         2. handle
3. jet                           3. able
4. went                       4. bottle
5. end                         5. table
6. rest                         6. uncle
7. egg                         7. candle
8. best                         8. purple
9. when                       9. turtle
10. wedding                10. people