Good afternoon!
The students started off the day today working on language.  In today's class the students used their Creative Writing folders and wrote stories all about a child who had something magical happen to them.  I heard a number of great stories using this topic, such as special visitors, aliens coming to earth and rich people giving to the poor.  Ask your child tonight what they wrote about!  During language the students also worked on their Language books where they continued practising their letter writing skills, and also practised their knowledge of periods, capitals and sentence writing. 

During our Unit of Inquiry today the students continued working on the concept of balance.  As a class we reviewed what we learned about balance yesterday, and began discussing how we can use scales and balances to help us discover weights and sort objects.  The students had a great deal of fun with this activity.  Ask your child tonight what they learned about weight and balance and their connection to forces!

During mathematics today the students had a review period in preparation for tomorrow's unit test on multiplication and division.  As a class we went through the textbook, lesson by lesson, to review what we have learned and explored throughout this unit.  The students then had time to work in pairs using their notebooks to pull out important concepts and questions to test each other and record down the important concepts they would like to remember.  As a fun way to end the unit, the students used flash cards to help them practice their multiplication and division skills for tomorrow's test.  Have a look at a few of the pictures from the students playing their flashcard game at the end of this posting!  The math unit test will take place tomorrow.

Students also went to PE  and French classes.

Homework: Read for 2o minutes and record in the reading log, practice weekly spelling words, and complete math at-home review package for tomorrow's math unit test.

Important information:   The Streetsville Bowl field trip is taking place on Thursday!  The bus will leave the school promptly at 9:40am and will return in time for the regularly scheduled lunch period. 

Tomorrow is casual day!

The SJA Holiday Food Drive is on now and running until the night of the Christmas concert tomorrow night. Please feel free to donate non-perishable food items for the food drive. All goods collected by the school will be donated to the Eden Food Back for families in need in our community.

The Christmas concert is taking place tomorrow at 7pm. All SJA families and friends are invited to attend! It is going to be a wonderful evening.  I will look forward to seeing everyone there!

The grade threes do not have costumes to wear for the Christmas concert.  Ms. Pattenick just asks that students come wearing Christmas colours if possible.  'Fancy clothes' are preferred.
The grade 7 - 9 students will be hosting a bake sale during the Christmas Concert to help fund-raise for their upcoming trip to Ecuador this summer. Your support would be highly appreciated!

December 19th is a red, green and white Spirit Day at SJA! Students are encouraged to come dressed in red, green and white!

The last day of school before the holidays is on December 19th, which is a full day of school. There is no school at all on December 20th. Families have the option of registering their children for a karate camp on the 20th if they so choose. Please contact Mr. Monaghan for more information. pmonaghan@stjudesacademy.com.

School does not resume until Tuesday, January 7th after the Christmas holidays.

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson

Happy Monday!

I am happy that families made it through this wintry weekend we just had to begin our last week of school before the Christmas holidays!

The students started off the day today with spelling.  All students copied down their new weekly spelling words and then practised reinforcing them in their Spelling Workbooks.  This week the students focused on consonant digraphs with their spelling words.  Students also had a chance to work on their journal writing today, where they wrote a reflection about their weekend.  Just as I suspected, students shared many stories about weekends spent out in the snow!  Students also practised the use of prepositions and prepositional phrases today during language.

During our Unit of Inquiry today the students explored the concept of 'balanced'  Students had a  lot of fun sorting various objects from lightest to heaviest using a scale to help them check their estimations.  Students also worked on determining weight ratios of one object to another which is an important concept to understand in this unit.  Students worked on reinforcing the concept using a reinforcement activity.  Ask your child tonight what they learned!

During mathematics today the students worked on using calculators to help them find multiplication patterns with numbers. Students saw how by using the functions on your calculator you can see patterns in numbers such as, 4, +, = ,= ,= ,= ,= ,= ,= ,= ,= ,= will give you an answer of 40.  So what you are really doing is adding 4 ten times, which is part of our 4 times tables!  The students had a lot of fun using their calculators to find patterns with this activity!  The students also worked on their Abeka Arithmetic where they focused on counting money, multiplication, addition, subtraction, division and telling time.  

Our next math unit test for our unit on multiplication and division will be taking place on Wednesday, December 18th.  A review package for this unit has gone home with all students last week to help them prepare for the test at home.  The questions I have circled throughout the review package are a direct reflection of the questions that will be asked on the unit test.  Please help me by encouraging your child to review this important study guide.  As always, we will be working on a unit review during our math period all this week to help students prepare for this unit test during class time.

Students also went to PE  and French classes.

Homework: Read for 2o minutes and record in the reading log, practice weekly spelling words, Spelling Workbook pages 65 - 68, complete the "Balanced/Unbalanced' worksheet if necessary  and Abeka pages 43 - 44.

Important information:   A field trip form has gone home with all students last week regarding our next class trip to Streetsville Bowl.  This trip will take place on December 19th, as part of our UOI which is exploring forces and movements.  The signed trip form and a payment of $9 is due back by tomorrow morning if your child is attending. 

The SJA Holiday Food Drive is on now and running until the night of the Christmas concert on December 18th. Please feel free to donate non-perishable food items for the food drive. All goods collected by the school will be donated to the Eden Food Back for families in need in our community.

The next casual day is on December 18th.

The Christmas concert is taking place on December 18th at 7pm. All SJA families and friends are invited to attend! It is going to be a wonderful evening.

The grade 7 - 9 students will be hosting a bake sale during the Christmas Concert to help fund-raise for their upcoming trip to Ecuador this summer. Your support would be highly appreciated!

December 19th is a red, green and white Spirit Day at SJA! Students are encouraged to come dressed in red, green and white!

The last day of school before the holidays is on December 19th, which is a full day of school. There is no school at all on December 20th. Families have the option of registering their children for a karate camp on the 20th if they so choose. Please contact Mr. Monaghan for more information. pmonaghan@stjudesacademy.com.

School does not resume until Tuesday, January 7th after the Christmas holidays.

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson