Good afternoon!

The students started off the day today with their weekly spelling test.  The marked spelling tests will be coming home with all students tonight.  I asked that all incorrectly spelled words be re-written ten times each (including the bonus word).   During our IB unit of inquiry today, we had to have a change of plans, as our sculptures were not dry and therefore were not ready to be painted.  Instead, we moved on to our next project which is a poetry project!  The students were asked to write rough copies of poems about the environment.  As a class we did a brainstorm of everything we have learned in our Sharing the Planet unit so far, and the students were asked to use some of those ideas and turn them into poems.  When we come back next week they are going to do their poem good copies, and then a painting to accompany their poetry.  In the afternoon we had an art lesson.  The students learned all about a famous Russian artist named 'Wassily Kandinsky'.  Kandinsky has a famous style of showcasing trees.  As a class we did our own version of Kandinsky trees which came out very nice!   They also went to French and P.E classes.

Homework:  Read for 15 minutes and record in the reading chart, practice weekly spelling words, practice Arts Night song, finish rough copy of environment poem, and locate flags for Arts Night.

Important information:  
Some important dates are coming up.  Please make a note of the following:

June 6th- Arts Night 7pm  (All families are friends are welcome to attend.  All classes will be presenting)
June 8th- Grade 6 Exhibition Presentations  (Grade 6's will be presenting their final PYP assessment from 1 - 3pm.  This is a large assessment piece that all IB students must successfully complete in order to graduate from the PYP program.  Come and see what it is all about!)
June 12th- SJA Spelling Bee
June 13th-  SJA Graduation Night 
June 15th- Last day of school (1/2 day).  This is a fun day.  Children are welcome to bring in treats if they would like to help celebrate our learning this school year.

Our class is performing at Arts Night with all the other classes at SJA.  Our class has been working hard getting ready for this fun event, and I really hope that all friends and families are able to attend.  Our class' costumes for the event are going to be 'spring inspired' clothing.  This could mean spring coloured clothing (light pink, blue, yellow, green, purple), spring prints, etc.  Please encourage your child to practice their Arts Night song at home.  Here is a link for the song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d87N9GIW2I .  All children have a copy of the lyrics in their home folders.

I haver asked the students to being in flags they may have at home to be used during our class' Arts Night performance.  We are looking to wave flags from around the world as we sing the song.  If any families have flags at their homes that they could send in to be used for this purpose, that would be great!  I am going to start collecting flags on Monday and will have them sent back home to you as soon as our class finishes their performance.

The SJA Choir is having our next performance at Arts Night.  I hope that all students have been practising our choir song at home!  We are asking that members of the choir come to school wearing 'spring colours' for our performance.  This could mean nice spring colours, flower prints, etc.  

Information for SJA Summer Camps are now available.  SJA offers a range of camps over the summer months with a variety of themes ranging from karate camps, to writing camps to traditional summer camps programs.  Please contact the school for more information about these exciting programs.

If your child is part of the SJA choir, please make sure they are practicing the choir song at home.  You can find the song lyrics athttp://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/theparenttrap/doyoubelieveinmagic.htm and play the song for them at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKyGyH9mWHk.  The choir's next performance is going to be at Arts Night on June 6th.


Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Nelson