Stay awake, be ready. You do not know the hour when the Lord is coming. Stay awake, be ready. The Lord is coming soon. Alleluia! Alleluia! The Lord is coming soon. As of today we have officially entered into the season of Advent. This week, students will hear the Gospel reading from this past Sunday and will reflect on the many symbols of Advent that they see around our school and the many symbols we will place on our prayer table as we transform our classroom prayer table for the holy season of Advent. Here is a short prayer that you may wish to recite as a family during this first week of Advent. God of love and kindness, may the light of this first candle help us to be light for others. May its light be a source of hope in the darkness. We make this prayer in the name of Jesus, our brother and Saviour. Amen Below is a short video about what Advent is really about. Students will see this video in class as well. Enjoy! Religion- November 20th marks the beginning of Bully Awareness and Prevention Week. During Religion we will have discussions about the definition of bullying and the different types of bullying that people can experience. We will hear stories with powerful messages about how to deal with bulling and how to stand up to bullies and help the bullies to stop what they are doing. Students will learn a "Don't Be A Bully" rap and will create some comic strips linked to Bully Awareness. These activities will be part of both Religion and Literacy blocks of learning. On Monday students will hear about the Feast of Christ the King and why it marks a special time in the Catholic Church. This week marks the end of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Students will reflect on ways that they grew in their faith throughout the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Literacy- Last week students had the opportunity to create a super hero who will "Be the Good News" to his or her community. Students have sketched the physical appearance of their super hero and have brainstormed the super powers their super hero will use to bring "Good News" and help his/her community. Students have made a plan that they will use to create a descriptive writing piece about their super hero. Students are very excited about the super heroes that they have creative. They've put their imaginations and creativity to good use throughout this writing activity. Our word work focus continues to be on contractions and the words that they represent. During literacy stations this week we will be integrated Religion tasks and Science tasks into the reading and writing tasks that we do. Math: Last week we continued to build upon our strategies for adding numbers together, though Math talks and Number talks. During these Math conversations, students are learning how to think critically (deeply) about which strategy they will use, how to share and defend the strategy that they used to solve an equation, how to question peers if they are unsure about the strategy a peer has used and describe how a "Beautiful Oops" helped them to grow as a mathematician. This week we will explore the relationship between addition and subtraction through Number Talks and other Math conversations. The video below is an example of what your child is engaged in when we say we are having a "Number Talk." Science- Students continue to enthusiastically work through the plant and soil stations on a Hyperdoc within their Google Drives. Students are having to think critically about the information they are learning about in these stations and are able to use digital tools to share the knew knowledge that they have acquired. It's exciting to watch just how engaged students are in their learning. Musical Theatre- Annie On Thursday of last week we attended our first musical theatre class with Ms. Robin Guy. She gave us voice warm-ups to practise and exercises to get our bodies ready to dance and interpret songs. We began to learn the song "It's a Hard Knock Life"and choreography to go with the music from the popular movie and musical theatre production Annie. Students thoroughly enjoyed this learning experience with a Musical Theatre expert from our community. All students participated with a "Growth Mindset." We will continue to rehearse our song and choreography during part of our gym blocks. Physical Education: This week students will continue to be engaged in skill building activities linked to volleyball. Last week students learned how to serve a volleyball and this week they will work on bumping and volleying. Enjoy this popular song and book with your family, as you have your own discussions about how important "Bully Awareness and Prevention Week" are. Religion: Last week students wrote poems or prayers for peace to remember the many men and women who gave freely of themselves so that we can live in a beautiful and free country. This week students will hear the Gospel from Sunday where Jesus assures His followers that even though they will go through difficult times, He will always take care of them and watch over them. We will recite the following prayer as a class to remind us of the message within the Gospel from this past Sunday. Heavenly Father, we don't know what the future holds, but we know that you hold the future. We know that we will be safe when we put our faith and trust in you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This week we will spend time reflecting on peace and why it is so important to take time to remember all those who fought for peace. Through stories and writing activities students will gain a deeper understanding of the important role that they play in bringing peace to our world. Religion: Late last week we explored a deep question during a Religion conversation. The question was "Why do we pray?" Students had so many thoughtful responses to this question. Afterwards students heard about the Beatitudes and how Jesus taught his disciples this prayer to guide them about how to live their lives. Students loved singing along to "The Beatitudes" rap song from our new Growing in Faith, Growing in Christ Religion program. This week, students will be introduce to "prayerful meditation" through a book called "In My Heartroom." Students will also hear the Gospel from this past Sunday and reflect on the message within it. To honour all those who gave their lives for peace in our world, students will write their very own prayers for peace.
Literacy: We continue to explore homonyms within our word work stations. After reading a few descriptive texts, we were able to develop a success criteria list for writing a descriptive text. On Friday we did a shared descriptive writing piece about Jesus Our Saviour. Students used our descriptive writing success criteria to guide them through the descriptive writing process. This week, we will continue to read more descriptive texts and students will work with a partner on a descriptive paragraph. Math: Last week during our Math Image work students found an unbelievable amount of Math in the photograph of the Parliament Buildings. So much Math vocabulary and Math knowledge comes from looking for Math in everyday images. We are so impressed with how students are able to communicate their Math knowledge when sharing our their findings,as well as with how they are building the knowledge of their peers when they share the Math that they see in images. This week our focus will be on strategies for adding and subtracting large numbers. Students will work through meaningful Math explorations where they will be asked to add and subtract large numbers. Science: Last week students wrapped up their Plants "Read, Record and Wonder" activities. This week they will embark on a variety of Plants and Soil stations to further build their knowledge about Plants and Soil. All stations involve reading, critically thinking about the information they are reading, recording and then sharing out the new knowledge they have built. Many stations include opportunities for students to use a variety of technology tools to share out their learning! Students will receive a "Hyperdoc" in the Science folder of their Google Drive that includes all stations. An exciting Science learning journey ahead for students and teachers! Visual Arts: On Friday we looked at some art pieces that were created using warm and cool colours. Students were engaged in a deep learning conversation about how the use of warm or cool colours changes the mood of a work of art. Using pastels, students worked to blend warm and cool colours on paper leaves. |
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