October Newsletter and Calendar are up on the blog – please check them out for important dates and information for upcoming events. Just click the “Class Newsletters and Calendars” link to the right.

Student portfolio binders are being sent home today. Please read the front page inside the binder, sign the green sheet, and spend a few minutes with your child looking through your child’s work samples. (Do not remove the work samples – we will continue adding to the portfolios throughout the year, and everything will be yours to keep in June.)

Please return the binder by Monday! Thanks!

We have been working on increasing (counting on) number patterns and decreasing (counting back) number patterns. Today two handouts are being sent home. One handout is about increasing patterns and the other is decreasing patterns. One of the pages has a back side that can be used to practice these types of patterns. Have your child create a pattern rule and then colour it in on the chart. Alternately, you can create a rule for them to colour.

You do not need to send these handouts back to school – they are yours to keep. We will be completing a math assessment on these skills on Friday or Monday.

Thanks for working with your child at home!

Please sign up for parent/student/teacher interviews. A note was sent home on Friday, and the bookings opened this morning. The website is www.schoolinterviews.ca and the code is 7579y.

Also, a pink note is coming home today. We are looking for volunteers for our annual Family Fun Night! If you are able to help out for half an hour, please fill out the pink form and return it to school asap.

Thanks so much!

We had a very busy day at school! The pancakes were a hit this morning, but the rain definitely was not! We weren’t able to go outside today because of all the rain, so we had a LOT of energy in the classroom.

A note about signing up for Parent/Student/Teacher interviews is coming home today.

We started these watercolour paintings yesterday by drawing the leaves in pencil. Today we added a black outline to each leaf using a Sharpie, and then used watercolour paints to paint the leaves and the backgrounds. We learned about warm and cool colours – we used warm colours (yellows, oranges, reds, pinks, even light browns) for the leaves, and cool colours (blues, greens and purples) for the backgrounds. I think they turned out wonderfully! I love how all of our leaves are similar and yet so different!

Have a great weekend!

We had a great afternoon walking in the Terry Fox Walk with our Care Partners in grade 1S! Here are a few photos of us!

Don’t forget – Picture Day is tomorrow! Since we are in grade 3, our photos are taken near the end of the day. If any children are absent tomorrow, they will have their pictures taken on Tuesday. Retakes are in October.

Important Dates Coming Up:
Sept 19-20: Picture Days

Sept 21: Terry Fox Walk (wear GOOD runners, no boots or sandals)

Sept 23: Pancake Breakfast from 7:30-9:00

Oct 6: Family Fun Night (a note will be coming home this week asking for volunteers)

Oct 7: No School (Teacher Prep Day)

Oct 11 & 13: P/S/T Interviews (a note will be coming home from the office in the next week or so)

Our first unit in Health is studying what makes who we are. Our focus in this unit is recognizing the importance of nurturing our Inner Self through positive self-talk and reflection. We will also focus on how our feelings and thoughts guide and influence our personal behaviour. We are also focusing on how we all have similarities and differences, and we can focus on our differences as positive aspects of ourselves.

Here are the poems we wrote on the first day of school. We were focusing on how we were feeling about starting our new school year with new friends, a new teacher, and a new classroom! (And for one of us, a new school too!)

Here we are on one of the first days of school! We’ve got a great group of kids in our classroom!

This week we read the story “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. In the story, the main character, Vashti, learns to believe in herself. In the beginning, she thinks she can’t be an artist, but with the help of her teacher she discovers that as long as she tries, she can accomplish a lot more than she ever believed was possible! In the story, she creates dot artwork using watercolour paints. So, we decided to create our own dot art to match!

Here are our creations! We love how even though we all started with the same goal (creating dot art), we have all ended up creating works of art that look so different!