Happy Friday!

Today the students started off with their weekly spelling test. This week’s words were a review of several lesson over the past few weeks. Later on in Language we also reviewed using proper tenses and how those impact the message presented in the sentence. In the afternoon we continued to work on in our Novel Study. Today we read together as a class then continued to solidify learning and comprehension through an independent activity in our Novel Study folders.

In our UOI students continued to work hard on gathering information and preparing for their presentations. In class today we had a chance to go to the portables to work at on of the computer labs. Students projects are coming along nicely! Ask your student what they did in class today to prepare their UOI summative.

This afternoon we were able to meet up with our reading buddies from Ms. Chang’s class. During that time Ms. Chang and I saw a lot of mentorship from the grade three’s. 

Homework: Read for 20 minutes and record in the reading log, language pages 111-112, practice Spelling words, and Math review for test.

Important Information: 

Next week is Spirit Week! Here is the breakdown of events:

March 3: Crazy Hair Day

March 4: PJ Day/Pancake Tuesday

March 5: Backwards Day

March 6: House Colours Day

March 7: St. Patrick's Day

Please return field trip form for Mountsberg Conservation field trip is Monday March 3rd. Please have students dress warmly in their gym uniforms and be sure they wear boots. They are more than welcome to participate in wacky hair day (I know I will)!  

We have an exciting event coming up on March 6th.  All SJA students and teachers are taking a trip up to the Maples!  This trip will be a great opportunity for students and teachers to see our new 'sister school' and connect with one another.

Students will have an opportunity to tour the Maples, play on their 5 acre playground, and have classroom visit time.  Grades 5 - 8 will be competing in a friendly basketball game between the schools.

Math test for unit 7 test Thursday, March 6^th, 2014.

Pioneer Day will be Thursday March 6^th, 2014. A letter went home this past Thursday about the day held at SJA. All students are asked to dress in 'pioneer style' clothing and bring a lunch that would have been enjoyed during pioneer times (the clothing shouldn't have zippers or bright prints and the lunches should be wrapped in wax paper or a tea towel). 

Registration has now been opened up to the public.  If you have not yet returned your re-registration package for next year please do that quickly so that your child doesn't miss a spot!

St. Jude’s is starting their very first Soccer Club. Try outs are the third week of March. The team will be made up of students 10 and under.

Hot lunch order forms for April are due Mach 7^th.

March Break runs from March 10th - 21st.

We are excited to announce the commencement of our recorder program as part of the SJA Arts Curriculum for grades 1 through 6. Recorders will be used as a means to explore, practice and showcase the musicality of the students at St. Jude’s.  The recorder program will begin in Term 3, and will be a large part of the Term 3 Art assessments.

Students may choose to bring in their own recorders from home if they are already in possession of the instrument in the soprano range. Families also have the option of buying a recorder directly from St. Jude’s for $10.00.  These recorders will become the possession of the student to be used throughout Term 3 and will be taken home with them to keep at the end of the program.

We look forward to the enjoyment and education that is sure to follow this exciting musical program!

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson and Ms. Barber

Happy Thursday!

Today was very exciting, the students spent the morning hearing the top 3 students from each grade present their poems to a panel of three outside judges and the entire school! As a new teacher to St. Jude’s I found this morning an amazing opportunity for the students and a true indication of what a diverse program St. Jude’s offers. As for the students, they were engaged in the poems and all have something to strive for next year! Our class members that presented were Sofia, Angela and Arin, all three of them did a fantastic job! Students observing were active audience members. Participating well in the role of an audience member will go towards Drama marks for the students. When your children get home ask them what they liked most about the oral presentation competition!

In the afternoon we continued to work hard on our UOI. The students are all gathering great information and brainstorming about their independent projects. Below I’ve added some pictures of the students hard at work!

**this is a reminder that the Unit 6 Math Re-test will be held on Friday, February 28^th, 2014. Parents have received an email about this already if your child will participate in the re-test for this unit.

*Math review packs for Unit 7 (a shorter unit) have been sent home tonight. The unit 7 test will be held March 6^th, 2014. Please pay close attention to the circled questions in the review package as they will be VERY similar in style to the test questions.

I've added some pictures below from yesterday during our UOI summative and today's grade 3 finalist. 

Homework: Read for 20 minutes and record in the reading log, practice Spelling words, and Math review slides, turns and reflections in math workbooks.

Important Information: 

Math re-test February 28^th for unit 6.

Math test for unit 7 test Thursday, March 6^th, 2014.

Registration has now been opened up to the public.  If you have not yet returned your re-registration package for next year please do that quickly so that your child doesn't miss a spot!

Please return field trip form for Mountsberg Conservation and cheque by Thursday, February 27, 2014.  

St. Jude’s is starting their very first Soccer Club. Try outs are the third week of March. The team will be made up of students 10 and under.

Hot lunch order forms for April are due Mach 7^th.

Next week is Spirit Week! Here is the breakdown of events:

March 3: Crazy Hair Day

March 4: PJ Day/Pancake Tuesday

March 5: Backwards Day

March 6: House Colours Day

March 7: St. Patrick's Day

March Break runs from March 10th - 21st.

We are excited to announce the commencement of our recorder program as part of the SJA Arts Curriculum for grades 1 through 6. Recorders will be used as a means to explore, practice and showcase the musicality of the students at St. Jude’s.  The recorder program will begin in Term 3, and will be a large part of the Term 3 Art assessments.

Students may choose to bring in their own recorders from home if they are already in possession of the instrument in the soprano range. Families also have the option of buying a recorder directly from St. Jude’s for $10.00.  These recorders will become the possession of the student to be used throughout Term 3 and will be taken home with them to keep at the end of the program.

We look forward to the enjoyment and education that is sure to follow this exciting musical program!

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson and Ms. Barber

Good evening,

Students started off the day working in their creative writing folders. The students were asked to write about a fictional story of their choice. To start off the lesson we had a brief discussion about the qualities of a fictional story. Some interesting stories included waking up in a video game, using wishes from a jeanie and an elaborate party. After the discussion, students worked independently on their stories. Later on we compared ‘drank’ versus ‘drunk’, ‘took’ versus ‘taken’ and ‘gave’ vs. ‘given’.

Next we moved into our Unit of Inquiry, during this time students continued to read on in the books provided as well as circulated onto the two computers available in class. Today students looked at brainstorming ideas and concepts around their independent projects.  After that students started to think all about what they already knew about their topics. Ask your child tonight how their inquiry project is going.

Later on in the morning we started reflections, the third and final grid transformation we will explore (we have already discussed slides and turns). To start the lesson we went back to the grid table and reviewed the qualities of slides and turns. Then we looked at reflections and what specific characteristics make them differ from the other transformations. In the afternoon we completed a math assessment to use as a standardized measure to see how much the students improve throughout the year.

Homework: Read for 20 minutes and record in the reading log, language 109-110, practice Spelling words, and Math 142-143.

Important Information: 

Registration has now been opened up to the public.  If you have not yet returned your re-registration package for next year please do that quickly so that your child doesn't miss a spot!

Please return field trip form for Mountsberg Conservation and cheque by Thursday, February 27, 2014.  

St. Jude’s is starting their very first Soccer Club. Try outs are the third week of March. The team will be made up of students 10 and under.

Hot lunch order forms for April are due Mach 7^th.

The Oral Presentations event is this Thursday, February 27th.  JKA-Grade 3 poetry starting at 9:00am.  Grade 4-9 speeches starting at 12:15pm.  ALL families and friends are encouraged to attend this event to support the SJA students and to hear from/interact with three very exciting judges (Angela, Arin and Sofia will represent the grade threes)!

1) Lesley Kenny- Writer and Co-Editor for Descant (Canadian Literacy Magazine)

2) Bruce Hunt- Founder of Toronto Speakers Academy, President of Downtown Toronto Toastmasters Club and Chief Organizer of Fear of Public Speaking (meet up group)

3) Brianna Locke- Youth and Student Engagement Provincial Leader

Ms. DaCosta's Grade 2 class along with Brianna will be having a final Rainbow Loom rings ($.50) and bracelets ($1.00-$2.00) sale in support of school supplies for World Vision.  All SJA students, teachers and families are encouraged to show school spirit and reflect on how much we can and are making a difference for children around the world.  The sale will be from 11:30-11:50 in Ms. DaCosta's classroom (right across from the gym).  Thank you!

We look forward to having you all at SJA for this exciting event and Congratulations to ALL SJA students!

Please email Ms. Farmer at kfarmer@stjudesacademy.com if you have any questions.

Next week is Spirit Week! Here is the breakdown of events:

March 3: Crazy Hair Day

March 4: PJ Day/Pancake Tuesday

March 5: Backwards Day

March 6: House Colours Day

March 7: St. Patrick's Day

March Break runs from March 10th - 21st.

We are excited to announce the commencement of our recorder program as part of the SJA Arts Curriculum for grades 1 through 6. Recorders will be used as a means to explore, practice and showcase the musicality of the students at St. Jude’s.  The recorder program will begin in Term 3, and will be a large part of the Term 3 Art assessments.

Students may choose to bring in their own recorders from home if they are already in possession of the instrument in the soprano range. Families also have the option of buying a recorder directly from St. Jude’s for $10.00.  These recorders will become the possession of the student to be used throughout Term 3 and will be taken home with them to keep at the end of the program.

We look forward to the enjoyment and education that is sure to follow this exciting musical program!

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson and Ms. Barber

Happy Tuesday!

The students started off with a writing activity, which was to create a class survey and represent the data effectively. The students had some unique ideas about what survey their fellow classmates about. Some memorable survey questions were: What is your favourite sport? And what is your favourite food?                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Surveying and graphing the information including all elements of graphs is an important skill your children can use to express information. Later on in language we completed our last Olympic Games activity. Today we put a spin on it and completed a creative writing activity where I asked the students to write a letter to an athlete and tell either their favourite sport or what they have learned about the Olympics as well as ask any questions they might have.

Next we worked on our UOI, today was the first day of our summative task. Students were busily brainstorming what they wanted to do for the research project. Students seem keen to get started on this summative. I cannot wait to see what they come up with!

Name - Summative Topic

Angela – Pioneer Children

Aziz – Blacksmith

Shrihan - A day at school for a pioneer child

Sofia – Aboriginal children

Mark – Tinsmith

Seanna – pioneer families

Arin - pioneer Doctors

Zuri – Aboriginal chores

Alex – Pioneer

Ninara – Pioneer travel

Christina – How Aboriginals have helped pioneers

Aryan – Pioneer homes  

In math we continued to explore the in our Motion Geometry unit. Today we tackled turns on grids. First we reviewed the qualities of a slide then we introduced the properties of a turn as a class. After working as a group that activity students completed practice problems from the text in small groups to continue learning the concept of turning shapes on a grid. In the afternoon we also had a chance to work on ABeka.

Homework: Read for 20 minutes and record in the reading log, Olympics letter, practice Spelling words, Math 142-143, and ABeka 67-68.

Important Information: 

Registration has now been opened up to the public.  If you have not yet returned your re-registration package for next year please do that quickly so that your child doesn't miss a spot!

Please return field trip form for Mountsberg Conservation and cheque by Thursday, February 27, 2014.  

This Wednesday, February 26^th is Casual Day, for those students who have paid to participate.

At the end of the month, Thursday, February 27^th we will have our Lower School Oral Presentations event (Angela, Arin and Sofia will represent the grade threes)! All parents and guardians are encouraged to attend this exciting St. Jude’s event.

Below is a picture from our summative work period and Math class!

St. Jude’s is starting their very first Soccer Club. Try outs are the third week of March. The team will be made up of students 10 and under.

Hot lunch order forms for April are due Mach 7^th.

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson and Ms. Barber

UOI - Summative Project

Summative Assignment

Feb. 25-March 7

Throughout our Unit of Inquiry we have explored Where we are in Time and Place. The students have participated in an inquiry unit, which has considered place and time with specific reference to pioneers and aboriginal groups within Canada.  We will formally begin our summative assignment for this unit tomorrow Tuesday, February 25^th, 2014. Each student is expected to complete an independent research project on a component of Pioneer or First Nation life. The student will also be expected to present their findings through a presentation to the class. The presentation style is open-ended, I to encourage students to communicate their learning through whatever mode that they prefer. Students are welcome to create dioramas, slide-shows/PowerPoints, a 3-D model, poster board, student made artifact etc.

I am very excited to see what the students come up with for their independent research projects.

Mrs. Nelson and Ms. Barber

Categories and Criteria
Knowledge and Understanding	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the topic chosen. Research should include: ·         Depth and breath of topic ·         Information presented should be accurate and relevant to the topic	Demonstrates little to no knowledge and understanding of the topic. Has completed no to minimal research. Information presented is not accurate or relevant to the chosen topic.	Demonstrates minimal knowledge and understanding of the topic. Has completed minimal research. Information presented is somewhat inaccurate or irrelevant to the chosen topic.	Demonstrates moderate knowledge and understanding of the topic. Has completed moderate research. Information presented is mostly accurate or relevant to the chosen topic.	Demonstrates vast knowledge and understanding of the topic. Has completed extensive research. Information presented is completely accurate or relevant to the chosen topic.
Thinking	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 3
Generates aspects of the assignment that are connected well and supported by learning from class and the field trip. Demonstrates creative and critical thinking by including all essential parts of their chosen components (for example, if researching the role of a tinsmith one might consider the tinsmith’s exact occupational duties, role in society, average wage, a typical day for a tinsmith, typical gender, tools they might use, who they work for directly, etc.).	Research was not connected to the topic. Information was not transmitted in an interesting or creative manner. Presentation or presentation aid was not at all informative of the decided component of pioneer or Aboriginal life.	Research was somewhat connected to the topic. Information was transmitted, but not in an interesting or creative manner. Presentation or presentation aid was somewhat informative of the decided component of pioneer or Aboriginal life.	Research was connected to the topic. Information was transmitted in an interesting or creative manner. Presentation or presentation aid was informative of the decided component of pioneer or Aboriginal life.	Research was very connected to the topic. Information was transmitted in an extremely interesting or creative manner. Presentation or presentation aid was extremely informative of the decided component of pioneer or Aboriginal life.
Communication	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 3
Expresses and organizes information to present research in an interesting and holistic manner. Communicates to the audience (grade threes with prior knowledge) with purpose and maintains their attention. Uses appropriate presentation skills (speaks clearly, uses appropriate vocabulary, explains their topic well).	Research was poor, fragmented, or incomplete. Did not teach the audience anything new about their topic. Could not maintain attention of class. Poor presentation style.	Research was fragmented. Taught the audience something new about their topic. Could somewhat maintain attention of class. Adequate presentation style.	Sound research. Taught the audience new things about their topic. Maintained attention of class. Good presentation style.	Extensive research. Taught the audience many new things about their topic. Maintained attention of class very well. Great presentation style.
Application	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 3
Transfer knowledge of the topic through their presentation and presentation aid. Demonstrates an ability to make connections to the topic, from class, field trips, personal experience and life situations to enhance the significance of the topic.	Did not show understanding through presentation or presentation aid. Made no connections to class, field trips or life situations.	Barely showed understanding through presentation or presentation aid. Made little connections to class, field trips or life situations.	Adequately showed understanding through presentation or presentation aid. Made some connections to class, field trips or life situations.	Showed understanding considerably through presentation or presentation aid. Made many connections to class, field trips or life situations.

Research Tips:

o       Did I record the sources of my information?

o       For example, I found out that tinsmiths are important to a pioneer village because they create bathing tubs for families.Bathtubs at that time differed greatly from the bathtubs we use today in many ways. In pioneer times families would share bath water and bathe much less frequently than we do now. I found out about this on our field trip to Black Creek Pioneer Village and I read about it on a website.

o       Did I choose a topic that has a lot of information available?

o       When searching for information on a computer did I choose the best key words?

o       Are all my facts true?

o       Did I explore a lot of parts of my topic?

o       For example, if researching the role of a tinsmith I might research the tinsmith’s exact occupational duties, role in society, average wage, a typical day for a tinsmith, typical gender, tools they might use, who they work for directly, etc

o       Do I now know a lot about each part of my topic?

Happy Monday!

I hope everyone enjoyed the sunshine this weekend!

In today's class the students started off the day working on spelling!  All students copied down their new weekly spelling words into their spelling books and then worked on reinforcing their words in their Spelling Workbooks. For homework students are asked to complete Lesson 24, which reviews previous week’s list words. It is important to review spelling words to ensure retention of the spelling and meaning of previously tested words. During language the students also worked on a reflection of their weekends in their journals.  We had a chance to share about our weekends where we heard about many interesting things like events with relatives and trips to the mall.  

During the Unit of Inquiry time today the students continued to discuss the importance of aboriginals to pioneers when they arrived in Canada. Today we talked specifically about the Anishinabe group and how they aided the settlers. After a discussion about the Anishinabe group students completed a comprehension activity. Students have also been making some great contributions to their A-Z Dictionaries. Ask them tonight which letter they completed today.

This afternoon we completed the St. Jude’s Math Assessment. The math assessment is a test of the student’s knowledge in math. The knowledge presented provides educators with a standardized measure of the student’s ability in math.

Please remember you will need to send in a Bristol board or 3 panel board with their child by Tuesday so they can begin to put together their summative presentations together.

During mathematics today the students explored sliding, one of the three types of motion examined in our Motion Geometry unit. We began by placing shapes on a table grid and discussing the directions the shape can slide. After working as a group that activity students completed practice problems from the text in small groups to continue learning the concept of sliding on a grid.

In the afternoon all students took one hour to all complete the Grade Three Math Assessment. The assessment is similar to the OWA completed last week; it was not supposed to be prepared for by the students. The math assessment provides educators with concrete evidence of each student’s progress in math.

Students also went to PE, and French classes.

Homework: Read for 20 minutes and record in the reading log, Spelling Workbooks 97-100, and Math 138-139.

Important Information: 

Registration has now been opened up to the public.  If you have not yet returned your re-registration package for next year please do that quickly so that your child doesn't miss a spot!

Please return field trip form for Mountsberg Conservation and cheque by Thursday, February 27, 2014.  

This Wednesday, February 26^th is Casual Day, for those students who have paid to participate.

At the end of the month, Thursday, February 27^th we will have our Lower School Oral Presentations event (Angela, Arin and Sofia will represent the grade threes)! All parents and guardians are encouraged to attend this exciting St. Jude’s event.

The Oral Presentations event is this Thursday, February 27th.  JKA-Grade 3 poetry starting at 9:00am.  Grade 4-9 speeches starting at 12:15pm.  ALL families and friends are encouraged to attend this event to support the SJA students and to hear from/interact with three very exciting judges. 

1) Lesley Kenny- Writer and Co-Editor for Descant (Canadian Literacy Magazine)

2) Bruce Hunt- Founder of Toronto Speakers Academy, President of Downtown Toronto Toastmasters Club and Chief Organizer of Fear of Public Speaking (meet up group)

3) Brianna Locke- Youth and Student Engagement Provincial Leader

Ms. DaCosta's Grade 2 class along with Brianna will be having a final Rainbow Loom rings ($.50) and bracelets ($1.00-$2.00) sale in support of school supplies for World Vision.  All SJA students, teachers and families are encouraged to show school spirit and reflect on how much we can and are making a difference for children around the world.  The sale will be from 11:30-11:50 in Ms. DaCosta's classroom (right across from the gym).  Thank you!

We look forward to having you all at SJA for this exciting event and Congratulations to ALL SJA students!

Please email Ms. Farmer at kfarmer@stjudesacademy.com if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Mrs. Nelson and Ms. Barber