January 5-9, 2015

Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you all had a restful holidays with your kids and got to spend some quality time with your family and friends.
This week we are spending a bit of time getting back into the 'swing of things'.
We will still have a spelling test on Friday with the 10 new words.

The students were informed about a Lego Building Competition that is coming up. Although more information will be going home in the school newsletter, here are some rules:
-Lego kits cannot be used, however, the pieces from the kits can be included in the final piece
-Lego is the only item that can be used
-All submissions are due by Thursday Jan 29 at 3pm
-Pieces must be ORIGINAL and cannot be larger than 15" x 15"
-Students will be asked to 'name' their piece
-We do not recommend parents going out and purchasing Lego. Students have been asked to use the Lego that they already own.
-This is completely optional. There will be a winner from each Division (Grade 1-3 and Grade 4-6) who will receive a beautiful Lego masterpiece book.
-Judging will occur Feb 2-12 and a winner will be announced on Feb 13 at the Assembly.
ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED BETWEEN MONDAY JAN 19 AND THURSDAY JAN 29 AT 3PM
*Please look for more information or email me.

LA
I loved reading the journal entries this week. We focused on their holidays, what they did, any presents they got, who they spent time with, etc.
This week in phonics we will be reviewing long and short vowels that rhyme.
In our writing, we are discussing how to make an exciting beginning of a story. An exciting story beginning includes: an action, dialogue, a wonder/worry, and a loud sound. As a class, we brainstormed some ideas (focusing on an action, dialogue, a wonder/worry, and a sound) about a girl going into the woods when suddenly, she is met by an animal. Each student was then able to try writing their own story beginning. The students were very creative!
Each week, we focus on our writing and parts of our writing, but the students also get a story prompt for them to practice using these writing skills learned in other lessons.
I encourage you to ask questions after your child has finished reading at home. Some examples are: "What is happening in the story?" "Who is the main character?" "Where does he/she live?" "Who are his/her friends?" "What is the problem in the story?" "What happened before this part in the story?" These types of questions are important to improve your child's comprehension and allows them to focus on parts of the story that piece together.

Math
We are coming to an end of our Patterns unit. We will have a short 'test' next week to check for their understanding of the unit.
Also, our Numbers to 100 unit is almost done, but we still have a few lessons left. One of the lessons this week is focusing on 'comparing numbers' and being able to determine (between 2 groups) which has more. We will also be looking at a sequence of numbers and determine a number that is missing. For example: 24, 25, 26, ___, 28, 29. Which number is missing?

Science
We are still focusing on our 'Hot and Cold' unit. The students are really starting to apply their knowledge to other areas (school atmosphere, noticing things at home that are hot and cold, etc).
We are going to have a field trip on Feb 2 to the Telus World of Science. Keep your eyes out for a information pack coming home about this Field Trip.

Social
Our discussions this week in social are about mapping and directions. Using a compass rose can be confusing at this age, but they are really getting the hang of it. On Tuesday, we used a 'paper map' and 'Google Maps' to find East Elementary School. They really enjoyed using both maps, but loved the fact that they could use the 'street view' to see the school.