October 15 - 18

Hello Parents/Guardians! 

W.O.W (Words of the Week) Words:

1. not
2. red
3. me
4. jump
5. make

Bonus words:

1. thankful
2. leaf
3. pattern

Weekly Highlights:

• In literacy, we continued to practice our secret stories and focused on using the classroom visuals to help us read and write new words. We read the books “Leaf Man” and What to do With a Leaf” and then created our own leaf creatures. The students wrote two sentences telling about the creature they created.
• We had the opportunity to work with our artist in residence, Ryan Jason Allen Willert.  He taught the students about the buffalo teachings (take responsibility for your actions, say you are sorry, forgive yourself and forgive others) and he will be creating a mural that will be on the wall in our multipurpose area.
• This week in math we started our unit on repeating patterns.  Students were introduced to the vocabulary: pattern, core (part of the pattern that repeats), terms (the things within the pattern).  They practiced identifying the core of a variety of patterns, extending patterns, figuring out the missing term in a pattern and telling the pattern rule. Here are three fun games you can play related to patterns:
• https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns
• https://www.abcya.com/games/shape_patterns
• https://www.sesamestreet.org/games?id=25577

• We have now finished printing all of the uppercase and lowercase letters.  Now that we have printed all of the letters students are expected to print mostly using lowercase letters.    
• In Science we continued to learn about Fall.  Students demonstrated what they have learned about the season of Fall and what happens with people, animals, and nature. Our Fall people are now up on display on our seasonal bulletin board outside our classroom.
• Thanksgiving weekend is here. We focused this week on being thankful or grateful. We read a story called “Being Thankful” by Mercer Mayer. The main character gets a thankful rock from his grandmother to remind him to always be thankful for everything he has. The students talked about what they are thankful for and each student painted their own thankful rock to take home.
• We are enjoying meeting with our grade 6 buddies Tuesdays and Thursdays and with our grade 4 buddies on Thursdays.  The grade one students love the opportunity to practice their sight word knowledge, read their songs & poems duotangs, and read their books with grade 6 buddies and make a buddy book with their grade 4 buddies.

Reminders:

Remembrance Day:

Please see the message below from the grade 6 teachers regarding Remembrance Day.

Dear Parents,

The grade 6 students will be presenting the Remembrance Day Assembly this year on November 8 starting at 10:30 am. We are asking that students wear a white top and black bottoms that day. Also, if you have any family members that were part of a war, were peacekeepers or are currently part of the Canadian Forces, please send a picture either by email or a copy so that we can honour them on this day. Please include their name, rank and war/peacekeeping mission that they participated in. Also, if you could please add your child/children¹s name. Pictures can be sent to lareeve@cbe.ab.ca

Thank you for your support,

 The Grade 6 Team

Home Reading:

The home reading program is off to a great start!  Thank you to those of you who have been reading with your child.  

Inside the bag they should have a “Just Right Book” at their current reading level as well as a writing journal.  Please ensure that the writing journal and home reading book are returned in this bag.  As a reminder, students should read the book and then write a sentence about it.  Please have your child copy the date and the title of the book.  The sentence should not be a copying activity.  We want the students writing their own sentence using kid spelling (this may mean that they only record the first and last sound of each of their words).  If you are concerned that the teacher will be unable to read your child’s message you can scribe underneath their kid writing what they have written.  Once they have completed their sentence they should bring their home reading bag back to school to exchange their book for a new one. We ask that your child read and respond to a book at least twice a week.  It is your child’s responsibility to hand in their home reading bag when they are ready to exchange their book.  They are also responsible for selecting a new book from the home reading book cart.  If you feel that the level your child is taking home is too easy/hard please write a note for you child’s teacher.

Headphones:

We are kindly requesting that parents send in a pair of headphones in a plastic bag labeled with your child’s name.  We would like to use these headphones during our Daily 5 stations when doing listen to reading (Raz-Kids).  The headphones will be stored in your child’s individual book box and be kept at school to be used until the end of the year.  Please do not feel obligated to get fancy expensive headphones, dollar store headphones will work fine.  Please ensure that your child is able to independently put on and take off these headphones.  Thank you to those of you who have already sent in headphones.

Hot Lunch:

We now have the school year's lunches/snacks available to order in our Hot Lunch system. You can go in and order the whole year all at once if you like!  Here is the link to the hot lunches system for your convenience:  https://simonsvalleyelementary.hotlunches.net .

Please note below is a list of all the lunches and snacks for the 2019/2020 school year. For all orders the latest you can pay for orders will be the week before the lunch/snack date. The first lunch is coming up on October 17th and if you would like for your child(ren) to participate in this lunch, you need to pay for your order by Thursday, October 10th, 2019.

Communication Books:

Please make sure to check your child’s folder and communication book each day and return it to school. Please also remember to clean out the folder each day, leaving only the communication book inside.