Merry Christmas

It is the Fourth Week of Advent already, and December is flying by!  We have had a very busy couple of weeks!  Today was our Advent Mass, and the Kindergarten children, together with their parents,  did a lovely job of the readings and songs.

Last week we enjoyed a concert by the St. Peter's Band.  They played many favourites and Christmas carols to get toes tapping and hands clapping!  It was great to see so many former students playing an instrument and participating in Band.  They encouraged our students to join Band when they go over to St. Peter's.

Our Craft morning was a great success, thanks to the assistance of our parent and grandparent volunteers - Mrs. Chamberland, Mrs. Sinkus, Mrs. Smillie, Mrs. McKay and Mrs. Polecar - who assisted at the various craft stations.  We hope you enjoyed the completed crafts that your children brought home!

Hour of Code was also a great success, the children really enjoyed learning more about coding and stretching their thinking and problem solving skills!  We will continue to work on coding skills throughout the year.

The Gr. 4 students have participated in a number of STEM challenges - most recently designing Santa's sleigh and ramp.  It was a very competitive challenge, and the designs were well thought-out.  If you follow the pictures on Twitter, you may have seen some of the last minute adjustments made.  We will continue to participate in STEM challenges in the new year, as it develops their communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills.

The Gr. 5 students assisted in sorting, counting and packing the donations for the Shepherds of Good Hope Advent project this morning.  They happily sorted and packed over 1 000 items for the Shepherds, ranging from combs and other toiletries to socks, mittens and mugs/cutlery.  Such generosity from the community is wonderful to see!  Thank you so much!

Tomorrow the students will participate in Chantons Ensemble, a sing along arranged by the French Teachers (Mme Corriveau) to promote the French language and Christmas spirit!  We will also have our last Advent Liturgy, for Week 4.

On Friday, we are planning a movie afternoon for students, and have decided to make it Pajama Day as well!  All students (primary and junior) are invited to wear their coziest jammies to school on Friday to watch a movie in the afternoon.  

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Have a wonderful holiday with your families, and travel safely.  We'll see everyone in 2017!

Another Snow Day!

Wow, that was a lot of snow that fell this morning, and continued throughout the day! Hopefully everyone got home safely without too much delay.

Our Advent celebration that had been planned for Monday afternoon was postponed until Tuesday afternoon, as most of the children who were to do the readings were absent.  We also have our Faith Assembly in the morning tomorrow, and certificates will be presented for Hope.

Thank you to those students and families who have contributed socks to our basket that we are collecting for the Shepherd's of Good Hope!  Your warmth and generosity will make a big difference in the life of someone this winter!  You can continue to send in donations until Thursday, Dec. 22. if you have not yet had a chance to do so.

We are having a Christmas Craft morning in Grade 5 (homeroom) on Thursday, Dec. 15.  If any parents would like to volunteer to assist with a craft for the morning, please let me know!  We have the materials and instructions for several crafts, and are always open to new ideas!  You can make one of our crafts with the kids, or make a craft of your own - just let us know what materials to have ready for you.  We will be setting up around 9 a.m. and will be finishing up around 11:45 or so,  Thank you!

We are wrapping up our final math topics before the break.  Gr. 4 will be having a review day tomorrow and a short quiz on Wed.  They were told in class that the topics covered would include:
-read, create and understand different graphs (stem and leaf, pictograph, double bar graph)
-label parts of a graph
-answer questions regarding data represented in a graph

Grade 5 will be creating their final double line graph using data we gathered from weighing their schoolbags.  We will be plotting their data along with the data from another Gr. 5 class at Chapel Hill Catholic School, and calculating the Mean, Median, Mode and Range of both sets of data.  It will be interesting to see what conclusions they can draw from the data from both schools!  The other class will be completing the same activity using our data as well.  We will then have a quick quiz on reading graphs - which they have already shown some proficiency at - and calculating Mean, Median, Mode and Range.  I am hoping to be able to have the quiz on Tuesday or Wednesday next week, depending on how many more little interruptions come our way!

In Language Arts, the Gr. 4 have mostly completed their Procedural writing assignments, and many students have shared them with the class.  They were to put 6 steps together with pictures and instructions, using sequencing words, to tell how to do something.  For the most part, they were very well done!  In Grade 5, they are completing their brochures on "How To Be a ....".  Most students are putting a lot of effort into their brochures, and they are turning out beautifully!  I am very impressed with their work!  For those who are finished, in both grades, we will be doing Christmas writing activities.