This month we are focusing on the following:

Language

- answering questions in full sentences to stories

- procedural writing

Math

 - algebra! – note going home April 18th and making concepts of more, less and equal

Science

Earth Day

energy – what types we have and how to conserve

Reading Minute Raiser – our goal is 7000 minutes!

This Thursday our class will be doing some Easter activities related to curriculum. These will include: match the egg halves, a writing piece about what animals lay eggs, Easter word search and discussing Easter family traditions. Please feel free to bring in a small treat for the class if you want. I will be providing a fruit tray and a traditional Easter Bread for the students to try and to also explore a food that another culture enjoys at Easter (though it might be part of your tradition as well). Have a great Easter! Kerri McKay

Apr2012calendar

Dear Parents,

We have been learning about energy in science. We are talking about sources of energy – both primary and secondary (food, electricity, gasoline, muscles, wind, sun, batteries), what uses energy, conservation techniques and why it is important to conserve energy for the planet. Earth Hour happens to be at the perfect time inour unit for parents to be a very important part of this learning. If you are able, please have an Earth Hour at home this weekend. The community Earth Hour is at 8:30 pm on Saturday but another time would work too. This is a great time to discuss energy users in your home (and vehicles) and ways that your family can conserve our precious energy, resources and save the planet! It starts with you!

Thank you so much for your support with your child(rens) education.   Kerri McKay

Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us this time! A green permission form will be in your child’s agenda. It must be signed in order for your child to go on the Field Trip . It just shows your acknowledgement that your child we be on the Field Trip that day. Hot dogs and Hot Chocolate remain the same. Please remind your child to bring their mug! Cheers!

Good afternoon!

Please see note about practise for the assembly in the agenda. Thanks! Have a great weekend!

Our class mini-homework is due on Fridays if possible. I will also collect on Mondays if extra time is required. Please leave a note in the agenda if this is the case.  Thank you.

We are starting geometry this week. We are talking about 3-D shapes – cone, sphere, cylinder, cube and (rectangular) prisms. To help at home, have your child(ren) find some of these shapes among the everyday objects at home. For example, cereal boxes are rectangular prisms and soup cans are cylinders. Playing an “eye spy” type game is a fun way to provide more practise at home as well. Enjoy!

Good day everyone! I finally have this fixed.

It seems that we have at least two volunteers for the field trip and one parent who is tentative. I just wanted to make sure we had enough adults so that we can go. We need three. I will post tomorrow if one more parent is needed. Thank you for you support! We are very excited about our field trip and the opportunity to learn about animals in winter at Tiffin Conservation Area. Hopefully we will see some more wild animals there than on our science walk last week at Sunnybrae!

Mrs. McKay

Dear Families,

 Thank you to everyone who came to our class parent teacher conferences. It was a pleasure speaking to you about your child’s progress. Please call anytime with questions or concerns. You can usually reach me after school until the office closes at 4:30.

On Thursday the Rick Hanson Tour will be stopping at Sunnybrae! They will arrive at 3:20. We may be dismissing a few minutes late. Although the students will be outside the front of the school for this event near the end of the day, they must come back inside to pick of their gear and to be dismissed. Dismissal will be as usual from the classroom and out the primary doors at the back of the school.

 This month we will be very busy in class with not only our regular program but preparing for our Christmas Presentation on Wednesday December 21^st and making some Christmas art and crafts. Thank you to everyone who has been bringing in coat hangers and toilet paper rolls. We have enough coat hangers now. I just haven’t done a final count for toilet paper rolls!

In language, this week the students will be writing a letter to Santa. As well they will be continuing their writing about small moments and will be doing their literacy centers in reading and word study. Keep up the great work reading nightly at home. I am seeing some great progress with reading skills. We will continue to work on reading and comprehension strategies in guided reading groups.

 Math this month will consist of a lot of measuring – linear, area, capacity, mass and time. Mrs. McNair will also continue with number sense (counting up to 100 and backwards from 20, counting by tens, etc).

 In Social Studies we are learning about children’s rights and responsibilities both at school, home and around the world.

 Have a very safe and happy holiday season! I look forward to seeing all the little smiling faces and hearing about holiday events in the New Year!

 Warmest Regards,

 Kerri McKay

 P.S. The spelling words for December 12 – 16 are best, be, boy, car, eat    - and for December 19 – 23 they are jump, kick, make, made, no.

December 2011