Dear Parents,
It’s hard to believe we are halfway through our school year! The students have had plenty of opportunities to collaborate and to work individually. As you know, the agenda is the regular communication tool between home and school. However, the agenda can only give snippets of what we do as a whole. Below is a quick summary of the happenings in 4/3V:
- Our class, together with the Kindergarten classes, will be hosting the Ash Wednesday Liturgy at 1 and 2 pm. Fr. Jose will join us at the school, and as always, we would be delighted to share this time of prayer with you. During rehearsals, it shows that the children look forward to making this time of community prayer special.
- Our focus for Religion in the last couple of weeks has been the Sacraments of Initiation, in which the children will demonstrate the symbols, actions, and meaning of the sacraments by creating a poster.
- Tied with our District's theme of Love Kindness, in Health we are looking at conflict resolution, in other words, how can we solve problems while keeping in mind rules, compassion, and communication.
- For Spanish, we continue to build on vocabulary and to practice topic-specific words and phrases in many situations. We are currently learning how to use expressions to describe everyday routines and events. Soon we will start a special project that will showcase their speaking skills.
- In Math, the Grade 3s are well into their adding and subtracting units. You may have seen practice sheets going home. We have also been reviewing basic facts so it becomes easier when adding and subtracting bigger numbers.
- In Social Studies the Grade Four students are digging deep into Alberta’s past, and learning about Alberta’s cultural roots, which they will share with their classmates Presentation tool in Google docs. The Grade 3 students are currently working on comparing Services in Canada to those in Tunisia, Peru, India, or Ukraine, and they will be presenting their projects as well, using the Google drive.
- In Science, the students continue to conduct experiments to test how different simple machines are able to make a task easier, and how shapes can strengthen a design. These units are combined with an Art Project: small groups will use the knowledge and skills learned in Science to design and construct a small city block, which they will build from recycled materials. The students can’t wait to finish their Science/Art masterpieces!
- ELA update: The grade 4s have now finished their novel study, “Bunnicula”. They culminated the project with a Haiku poem. The grade 3s are just concluding their novel study, “Charlotte’s Web”. They wrote a friendly letter to Charlotte from the perspective of her babies. Both of the projects were on display for the school’s open house. We are concurrently working on our new unit. The students are learning how to write a narrative story. So far, they have learned how to introduce their stories with an entertaining beginning and provide elaborative detail. The unit is based on Barbara Mericonda’s, “The Comprehensive Writing Guide”, which is endorsed by our district. The purpose of the unit is provide the students an opportunity to write their own exciting narrative stories. The students will then learn how to write an expository piece. The students continue to work on their monthly book reports. I am very pleased to see that students are reading my comments and making the necessary adjustments in order to improve their marks. The students also continue to learn and practice their handwriting skills. - Ms. Mandziak
As always, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. Happy Valentine’s Day. We hope you can join us for our Ash Wednesday Liturgy. Many blessing to you and your family.
-Srta. V.
