Dear Families,

This morning all staff and students participated in a Remembrance Day assembly to express our gratitude to all those who have, are and will serve our country.  We are blessed to live with safety and freedom.  Canada is remarkable.  Each day we sing O'Canada, during this time, I ensure that my students and I demonstrate our utmost respect and take time in our own way to say 'thank you' for being part of a wonderful community, country, and world.

I am so proud of my students who participate in choir with Mrs. O and Ms. Stewart. Today at the assembly, 4 girls from our class sang 2 songs with such love and compassion.  Way to go Isla, Hannah W., Lola, and Katelyn!!  You represented our class beautifully.  

Parents who were able to attend, thank you for joining us and sharing your energy and time.  To all the staff members involved in organizing this Remembrance Day honouring, thank you for all your hard work!!!  

Later in our day, I had the students think, brainstorm, and write about “How We Can Bring Peace to Our Classroom.”  Their responses were excellent and I am confident they will implement these words into their daily actions.  Below are some pictures of us writing our peace messages.

Choir Girls

 

Happy Remembrance Day!

Jack working on his Legion Remembrance Day Poster

Progress Reports:

This evening you will have received your child's progress report.  I have encouraged my students to carefully go over the Learning Skills portion of this report and not focus solely on the 'letter (E, G, S, N),' but to read the star (areas of strength) and arrow (areas for improvement) comments. Each child has many areas of strength and areas of growth to celebrate!  It was a joy to write these report cards as I had the opportunity to sit and reflect upon each of my students.  It brought a smile to my face because I'm blessed to teach and have YOUR child in my class everyday!

'Success Criteria' for Learning Skills & Work Habits:

This week, I had students work in small groups to collaborate as a team to come up with their own 'Expectations' and 'Criteria' of what each Learning Skill "Looks Like, Sounds Like, and Feels Like."  The purpose of this activity is to encourage students to set their own goals to help them reinforce their strengths and improve their achievement in the areas of:

• Responsibility
• Independent Work
• Collaboration 
• Initiative
• Organization
• Self-Regulation  

We will be referring to their 'Criteria' that they've established throughout the school year!  I believe in the importance and value of having my students' input and voices heard.  I strongly feel this activity will serve as a purposeful tool in helping the kids put effective work habits into place to achieve their personal best in their academic, social and behavioural learning.

Here are some pictures of what the students came up with!  We'll have a closer look at these when I see you next week for your child's student-led conference!!

Book Fair:

The Nottawa Book Fair will be held the week of Nov. 15th - 21st 

Operation Hours:

• Tues. Nov. 15th - 3:30 - 4:30pm
• Wed. Nov. 16th- 3:30-4:30pm
• Thurs. Nov. 17th - 3:30 - 7:30pm
• Fri. Nov. 18th - 9:00 - 11:30am
• Mon. Nov. 21st - morning

​The book fair will be open during school hours for students to shop as well. 

***Please ensure money is secured in  a labelled baggy to minimize losing it throughout the day.

Graphing:
It was an exciting time Wed. and Thurs. during math!  Students had the opportunity to create their own survey question, collect the data from peers/family, and then use Google Spreadsheets to create their bar graph.  Student engagement was stellar as we got to explore a new techie way to transfer our learning through a new tool - spreadsheets!  We will continue to balance our learning between paper/pencil tasks and using technology meaningfully so students build skills in both areas :)

A special thank you goes out to the Grade 3's who taught the 4's about how to use this program!!  You ROCK :-)

Katelyn helping guide Alexis 

Now she's helping Hannah N. too!  Excellent work!

Google Sheets:
Over the weekend, please have your child share his or her bar graph from google spreadsheets.  They must sign in their google drive account (they know how :).  If you don't have google spreadsheets you may have to download the app.  The students loved working together to figure out this tricky program, and their results are outstanding!  Here are a few completed graphs.

Picture Orders:
All picture orders are due Tuesday.  Please have your child return it in his or her agenda bag and I will give it in to the office.  Thank you.

Big Box Fundraiser:
Our big box fundraiser to support our school music program came home to families this evening. Please read the instructions found on the green sheet attached to your box.  We thank you for your support.

Growth Mindset:
"Everyone you meet is fighting a battle which you may know nothing about.  Be kind.  Always."

Thanks Brock for this powerful image!!

Namaste,

Miss Gill