Dear Families,

We had another fantastic week at school! Below you will see just how amazing it was :) Thank you for taking the time each week to read, support, and celebrate your child's learning!

The blog serves as a vehicle that helps drive learning from school to home!

Student-Led Conferences:
It was a true pleasure meeting with all my students' families this week.  Thank you for taking the time to attend and help celebrate and enjoy all your child's achievements thus far in the school year.  

I am extremely proud of each learner as they clearly, confidently, and calmly led his or her conference by sharing their self-assessment (Progress Report), personal goals, and their "Star" and "Arrow" pieces of work.  It was their chance to shine and they certainly lit up our hearts and minds!

  

Throughout the conferences, I experienced many heart-warming moments with parents and I really appreciate and value all your positive and constructive feedback.  I will use it to continue to provide my best as an educator for your child's academic, social, and behavioural needs.  Meeting the needs of my students is of utmost importance to me and I will always work hard to ensure they receive a compassionate, caring, and safe environment to learn in.  

Again, thank you for your continued support, cooperation, and understanding.  If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school or via email pgill@scdsb.on.ca

Poinsettia Fundraiser:

As per the school website on Tues. evening, I am re-posting a message from our School Council to inform families who may not have had a chance to see the message below due to this busy conference week.  

"Attention Parents & Guardians,

Bradford Greenhouses informed us today to let us know that the 10" Poinsettia Tree did not grow to the height they had hoped for!

If you would still like to purchase the 10" Poinsettia Tree it will be $35 instead of $40 and will sit about 4" shorter.  In total the height of the tree will be 32" (from the ground). The pot is 10" tall.    Please make the correction on your child's order form if you are ordering the Tree. 

Thank you for your understanding,

Nottawa ES School Council"  

Health Learning Goal:

We are learning about active and healthy living.  On Tues. I did a lesson surrounding Canada's Food Guide.  It is a tool to help children and adults to make healthy food choices.  We examined an important chart which shows us the recommended amount of servings we should be consuming according to our age and gender.  Students found this process quite intriguing as they compared their serving to their younger and older peers in the class.  Ask your child about the four food groups and how many servings of each food group they are encouraged to have each day :)

Writing Goal:  We are learning to write a Recount.

We have been going deeper into our thinking when we write a personal Recount (retelling an event in sequence).  Students are enjoying planning, drafting (rough copy), and publishing (good copy) their writing pieces using Google Docs.  They may choose to access these recounts on a home device too.  

On Wed. students worked on these docs and the ones who finished had the opportunity to read a peer's writing and provide them with descriptive feedback such as a STAR "I really like how you..." and an ARROW comment "Next time you can..."  The purpose of this feedback is to help improve their achievement for their next piece of writing.

Isla and Graydon reading each other's recount to offer feedback  

Success Criteria - The 4 Parts to a Recount:  

_ I can include a title for my recount.

_ I can explain the orientation (when, who, where, why?).

_ I can have a logical sequence of events (what happened? First, then, next, finally).

_ I can evaluate and provide a personal comment (how do the events make the writer feel?).

Using this Learning Goal and Success Criteria, students are working hard on completing Recounts and they will share their writing with a peer and provide each other feedback (star and arrow comments) to improve their achievement.  I am looking forward to reading and celebrating their growing writing skills!

Websites to Visit:
www.spellingcity.com is a program that will assist in our “Word Study Program,” it's both interactive and FUN!  Please give it a try with next week's words :)

www.math3.nelson.com & www.math4.nelson.com

Both of these math websites offer games, questions to help build upon math skills that we're currently working on and it follows the Nelson math resource I'm using in class.

Kindness PASS IT ON:
On Wed. we received a delightful surprise from Mrs. Shaw's Grade 5/6 students (see pictures below). They took the time to give us a nutritious snack with a hand written message to each of my students to fill our buckets! You should have seen the kids faces light up!  We will now pass this gesture on to another class in the coming weeks to boomerang KINDNESS (what goes around comes around).   
A few weeks ago, I shared the video link below.  It's a useful reminder for giving KINDNESS EVERY DAY!!  Together we can make a difference.  Keep filling buckets boys and girls!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU

Holiday Concert News:
On Mon. you will receive a note in your child's agenda about this special event!  Although it is considered a Primary Concert, but due to my class being a split grade, we will be inclusive and have our Grade 4's participate as well!  Hooray!  I know this will bring joy to my students!  Mr. Morin has been working hard in his music classes to prepare the students to share a song at this concert :)

The concert will be taking place on Wed. Dec. 14th: 

• Dress Rehearsal @ 11:30am 
• Evening Performance @ 6:30pm  

Growth Mindset:

"Encourage others to do the right thing!"

Thank you boys and girls for establishing this mindset as a class family!

Thank you Lola for the sweet gift!

Namaste,

Miss Gill