Good afternoon!

We started off the day today by continuing with the graphic stories that we began yesterday.  The students completed their graphic stories about The Gingerbread Man and had a lot of fun doing it! In our IB unit of inquiry today we continued studying The Group of Seven which we began yesterday.  We continued viewing a PowerPoint presentation about The Group of Seven, the introduction of the Canadian Group of Painters, and the importance of Emily Carr.  Please ask your children tonight to share with you what they reflected on in their journals about these important Canadian figures.  If they are bringing home their journal for homework, they must finish reflecting on two important facts they learned about The Group of Seven.  During math today the children worked on comparing masses of various objects (grade one) and predicting the terms of different patterns (grade two).  We also had another whole-school rehearsal for the upcoming Gala which looked great! The students went to P.E and french class today.

Homework:  Read for 15 minutes and record in the reading chart, practice weekly spelling words, math pages 138 - 139, complete journal entry and Cursive page 118 - 119.

Important information: 

• If you have not yet sent in the $26 and ROM trip permission form, please do so as soon as possible.  The form and trip money are due by next Monday, February 13th. 
• All children have brought home a poem they are responsible for memorizing and then reciting in the oral competition.  The in-class judging of the poetry reciting will take place on Wednesday, February 15th, and the winner from this contest will go on to compete in the school-wide competition on Thursday, February 23rd to compete for 1st, 2nd, and third place.  Parents, families and friends are invited and encouraged to attend the final competition on the 23rd to watch the students compete.  The competition begins at 9am.
• The costumes for the Gala are changing!!!  Please send your children in whatever 'fancy' outfits they were going to be wearing for the night of the Gala.  You do not need to send them in red and white which was the original design for the class performance.  The choir outfit remains the same. If you have already secured a red and white outfit, please feel free to send your child wearing it as it will be a nice way to represent the Valentine's Day holiday.
• Gym will be on Tues and Wed for the entire month of February.
• The Gala is happening this Saturday!!  This is a very fun night for the students and families, and all classes will be performing.  Please make sure to send in the ticket money as soon as possible because ticket sales are ending in the next day or so.  You must have paid for your tickets prior to Gala to be able to attend.  I have been given a list from the Parent Guild with names of families who have not yet paid for the Gala tickets: Chidiebere, Conliffe-Layne, Lindsay, Yousif, and Norris.
• If anyone has accidentally ended up with Ninara's gym sweatshirt at their house please send it back in to school.  His name is on the inside tag.
• Ninara's family is going to be supplying a pizza lunch on Monday, February 13th in honour of his birthday.  Cheese and pepperoni pizza is going to be brought in for all of the students in the class.  Children will not need to bring an additional lunch on Monday due to this birthday celebration. 

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson