Classroom Notes – May 2019

Catholic Education Week Activities – Last week was a very busy, but important week at St. Gregory School. From our opening school Mass at St. Maurice Parish, to our Book Fair, Open House and Choral Celebration – just to name a few activities – it was truly rewarding for all to highlight and celebrate Catholic education. Thank you to all parents who either participated or volunteered for one or more activities. An extra thanks to all for preparing your child each day for this busy week in the school.

EQAO – Today, a detailed letter was sent home explaining this provincial assessment and upcoming dates. All grade 3 and grade 6 students across the province are required to complete the assessment. As mentioned in the letter, it is imperative that your child is present and arrives punctually during the testing period. Our class has taken a positive, growth mindset approach throughout the year to all learning and students are well prepared. Individual results from this testing will be sent home early in the next school year.

Upper Canada Village Field Trip – This year, all grade 3 and 4 students will be going to Upper Canada Village on Monday, June 10. The focus of this day will be Medieval Times which corresponds to the grade 4 Social Studies curriculum. A field trip letter, permission forms and requests for volunteers will be sent home in the near future.

Warmer Weather Coming? - Although it has been an unusually cool and wet spring, the warmer weather will be here shortly. With this in mind, it is important that students are prepared for changes in weather. All students will be outside for recess – and sometimes gym – during warmer weather and it is important to send a suitable hat and a water bottle with your child. Many parents put sunscreen on their child prior to school arrival. Students may store sunscreen in his or her backpack as long as it is not a spray bottle.

PD Day and Victoria Day – Please be advised that Friday, May 17th is a PD Day and there is no school for students. All schools will be closed on Monday, May 20th for the Victoria Day holiday.

Always Learning in Grade 3...

In Math, we have been reviewing important concepts learned throughout the year in anticipation for EQAO. We have completed an unit on Probability and we have been busy learning about fractions. This week, students will learn about mass and capacity, as well as the appropriate unit of measurement (i.e. Kilogram/gram, Litre/millilitre).

In Language, we have been practicing a variety of reading comprehension questions from different types of texts (ex. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, media texts, etc.). Students are completing their final copies of the adventure stories. These amazing stories will be assembled into book for with our school book-binding machine. All stories will be sent home by the end of the school year.
In Science, we are finishing up our unit on Soils and the Environment. Next, we will complete our final unit on Plants.

With the Lenten season now over in our Catholic calendar, we are looking forward to our final Rosary Apostolate to pray together as a Catholic community. In Family Life, we are learning that families have commitments and that sometimes family decisions are difficult and require compromise.

In the Arts, we will begin a unit in Music. Students will learn to sing in unison by learning a round. After EQAO, we will complete our final unit in the Arts by focusing on Drama and readers’ theatre.

Each year, the last 6 weeks of school is very busy. Please continue to read the weekly memos online to be up-to-date with upcoming activities.

Thank you for your continued support!

Mr. Blais

Classroom Notes - March 2019

Spring is here? There is still a lot of snow and ice in our school yard and the temperature has been very inconsistent. Please be aware that the temperature greatly affects the condition of our school yard. Each year, our yard is always wet, muddy and filled with large puddles. Please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately each day for these changing conditions. It is still a good idea to pack extra socks, mitts, hats etc. in your child's bag, just in case.

Lenten calendars - Many students enjoy donating to our school-wide Lenten project by following the calendar that went home before the March Break. Thank you to all parents/students who will be donating their money later in April to support our social justice initiative.

Pasta Day and Bingo - Just a reminder that we will have another Pasta Day on Friday, March 29th. If you have ordered pasta, please remember to send a fork in your child's lunch bag to help reduce waste at our school. Also, we will have our second Bingo Day on Friday, March 29th. All money raised from bingo will allocated to our school-wide Lenten initiative. Thanks again for your generosity and assistance!

Rocks and Rings (Curling Lessons) - On Thursday, April 4th, our grade 3 class will participate in the Rocks and Rings curling program. This activity will be exciting learning and practice for our students. This activity will be held in our gym, not off school property.

Garden Tower Project - We have zucchini growing! The zucchini is still small, but growing very fast. If everything turns out, our class hopes to make zucchini bread/muffins and sell them to raise money for our Lenten initiative. Information and pictures to follow...

Good Friday and Easter Monday - These Holy days in our Catholic calendar will be Friday, April 19th and Monday, April 22nd. There is no school on these days.

Always Learning in Grade 3...

In Math, our students are learning about measuring the area and perimeter of various shapes. In area, we are learning to determine the area of shapes that have half squares/units. We have completed a unit in Geometry and students finished a summative test which will go home this week. Please sign and return the assessment. Next, we will focus on location and movement in Geometry by learning about flips, turns and rotations, as well as movement on a grid. We are continuing to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division using various strategies and word problems.

In Writing, gr. 3's are very busy writing adventure stories. We read and looked at the picture book "Jumanji" as a guide to write a successful adventure story. In this writing activity, students are focusing on a big problem, followed by a series of dangerous/exciting events that their main character must overcome. In terms of success criteria, students need to use a variety of punctuation (periods, commas, quotation marks, etc.), adjectives and action verbs. 

In Science, we have started a new unit called "Soils in the Environment." We will learn about soil composition, types of soils, composting and the importance of soil on society and the environment. 

In Religion, we have been discussing the many symbols of Lent, as well as our personal Lenten journey during this important time in our Catholic calendar. On Ash Wednesday, students received their ashes in the symbol of the cross during our school liturgy. We have talked about sin, prayer and forgiveness and they have a deeper meaning/reflection during Lent. As we get closer to Easter, we will focus on scripture as we anticipate the death and resurrection of Christ.

In the Arts, students have been creating a butterfly using symmetry and pointillism as a technique. Next, we will focus our learning of Music in the arts.

Now that the March Break is over, the school will become increasingly busier as we get closer to the end of the school year. That being said, I will be sending home some information about EQAO in the near future. Grade 3's will complete this provincial assessment during the last week of May and the first week of June. Students have been preparing for this assessment and we will continue to focus our learning on curriculum being covered and strategies to ensure success for all. We take a positive approach to this assessment and students will more than ready when the testing begins.

Thank you for your continued support!

Mr. Blais

Classroom Notes - January 2019

Valentine's Day Basket - Thank you to everyone who has generously donated to our class basket. If you have not yet donated an item and plan to do so, please bring in your chosen items as soon as possible. The Valentine's Day dance is a popular event at our school and all classroom baskets will be raffled off during this evening. On behalf of the St. Gregory team, thank you for your assistance and I hope that you are planning to attend. Good luck!

Classroom Garden Towers Program -  At St. Gregory, we are very lucky to have two indoor garden towers for students to learn about plants and a variety of recipes. We have worked collaboratively to make a plan to grow plants to assist others in our community. We will be growing carrots and zucchini and our students are interested in making carrot cake, carrot muffins and zucchini bread. We will be having some raffles at our school and perhaps a small bake sale. Our class has been researching charities in our community to donate to and we will make a decision shortly. More information will follow in the upcoming weeks regarding this project.

Zorbits - A letter went home this week outlining the Zorbits math app for student use at home. Our Board has purchased licencing for this app and it replaces Dreambox. Also, students have their login information glued into the front of their agenda. Zorbits is a excellent app for students to use at home for extra homework practice.

Report Cards - Term 1 report cards will be sent home on February 13th. Our learning skills focus for this term will be initiative and self-regulation. Please be advised that there will be no official sign-up for interviews. I will call those parents who I wish to meet with and schedule a time either before or after school. 

PD Day - Our next PD Day will be Friday, February 15th. There is no school for students on this day.

Always Learning in Grade 3...

In Math, we have just started a unit in Geometry and we will continue to learn about 2D shapes and 3D figures over the next few weeks. Students will build on their knowledge of geometric shapes and learn about right angles, angles less than/greater than a right angle, parallel sides and symmetry. A focus on the attributes of 2D shapes and 3D figures will also assist students during a variety of sorting activities. We are also learning about different strategies for multiplication and division.

In Language, we have been learning about and practicing how to write an organized paragraph. Students are continuing to practice reading comprehension strategies as well responding fully to short answer reading questions. Next, we will focus on persuasive paragraph and letter writing.

In Science, we have conducted a few experiments on strength and stability in our unit "Strong and Stable Structures." We have been learning about different types of materials as well as how shape and design make a structure strong and stable. Students know the similarities and differences between man-made and natural structures. Next, we will learn about struts and ties.

In Family Life, we will focus on the last two topics in unit 2: "Sisters and Brothers" and "What is a Friend?" In Religion, we will focus on several of the teachings and miracles of Jesus as we anticipate the upcoming Lenten season. We we learn about ways in which we can spread the Good News.

Thank you for your continued support!

Mr. Blais