This week

Hello

I thought I'd update you on a few things:

In art, we are going to be starting a new project that will require some searching at home. The kids should be looking for labels/packaging (cereal boxes, pop drinks, juice, milk). They need to choose a design where the name of the product contains the same amount of letters as their own name. They are to bring this packaging in to class ASAP (tomorrow if possible). They will be recreating this design, emulating the style (fonts, colouring, design elements) while advertising themselves rather than a product.

In language arts, we are wrapping up our look at procedural writing. To do this, the students are creating their own recipes (fake or real). The focus of this activity is the use of sequencing words, imperative sentences, and word choice (for interest and to help make directions clear).

Next week, we will be starting something new and exciting in math. With the support of Terra (a new teacher to Churchill), we will be dividing the classes of Maggie, Ray, and Tiiu into 4 groups. These will be our new math classes. This is something that the grade 3/4s have been doing with success. We are very excited to give this new idea a go. I will pass on new information to you as it comes.

This will mean a change to our homework routine. The likely scenario will be that the students' math teachers will hand out a homework duotang much like our old one. I will add cursive sheets to the duotangs of those who need it. This duotang will likely be handed out and due on the same day as it is now. Starting next week, the reading response will also become part of the homework routine. We have been doing them in class with my support for the past couple of weeks. Next week, I will let them fly solo.

We have also started to discuss our Haunted House. It has become a tradition that the students in my class have organized a haunted house for the entire school. This year, we have taken a new approach. We are looking at this project as a business. Our first task was to establish our goals for our haunted house. Next, we created a survery to assess what our customers are scared of and some of their thoughts on haunted houses in general. We will be analyzing this data and making decisions based on what we can infer. Then we will create a plan and move forward from there. I know that I will need help as the day approaches. We will definitely need some support to build our set and we will probably need a hand or two on the day of.

There is an upcoming field trip to the War Museum. I believe the field trip form will be going out this week. We will be going on October 30th. Please mark the date in case you'd like to volunteer.

I think that is it for now. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns