Good afternoon!

We had a great Valentine's Day together today!  Everyone had a lot of fun and are coming home with treats and kind messages from friends.  We started off the day today by having a whole-school Valentine's Day game.  The houses all competed against each other for house points.  This was a very fun way to celebrate this fun holiday.  When we returned to class the students worked on language where they practiced working with root words, picture words, finishing sentences and cursive.  We also read another chapter of The Tale of Despereaux which is getting really interesting!  During math today the children worked on comparing the masses of various objects (grade one) and length and order (grade two).  We also had some time today to do a practice recital for tomorrow's in-class poetry competition.  The students all presented their poems to the class again, and were given tips to help improve their performance for tomorrow's competition.  As a reminder,  here are the 5 elements they are going to be graded on during tomorrow's competition (1)  How well they listen to the other presentations (2)  How prepared they are with their poem (3) How clearly they speak (4) Their volume during the presentation (5) Their enthusiasm- body language, expression, facial expression etc.  Please go over these important elements with your children while you are practicing with them at home.  They also went to music and P.E classes.

Homework:  Read for 15 minutes and record in the spelling chart, practice weekly spelling words, cursive pages 126 - 127, and Jump Math pages 144 - 145.

Important information: 

There are a number of exciting and important dates coming up.  Please make a note of the following:

• Tomorrow is NOT a gym day.  Students should come to school in their regular SJA uniforms.  This is because Mr. Browning is going to be away at the AGO tomorrow with the 4 - 8s.  Gym day is scheduled for Thursday instead, but because we are going to be at The ROM, our class is going to miss Thursday's gym class.
• Tomorrow is the in-class poetry competition.  Our class is reciting their poems along with Mrs. Haag's class on stage in A2.  This is where the winners from each class will be announced for the whole-school oral presentation competition on February 23rd.
• Thursday is our class ROM trip.  Lunches should be sent with the children.  Backpacks are not allowed to be brought into the ROM.  Lunch bags will be left in a class cubby to be used at lunch time.  The bus is leaving the school at 9am sharp.  Please make sure you are not late on Thursday, as your child will miss the bus.
• Please make sure all children come in their full SJA uniforms on Thursday and not their gym uniforms for the ROM trip.
• Friday is a P.D day.  There is no school on Friday.
• Monday is Family Day.  There is no school on Monday.
• Tuesday, February 21st is the SJA Pancake Eating contest.  All houses will compete to see who can eat their stack of pancakes fastest for house points!
• The whole-school oral presentation contest is on Thursday, February 23rd.  Parents are welcome to attend to watch the children compete.  The judging starts at 9am.

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson