A Little Sad, But Ready to Enjoy the Summer

Dear Parents,

I have had a wonderful year with your children! They are all so special and unique. I have enjoyed getting to know them, watching them grow and learn, been there for many moments of success and for a few moments of frustration. I am so proud of all of their accomplishments and know that they are going on to grades three and four ready for whatever challenges may come. 

We had a busy last week tidying up the class for the summer, finishing up work, and having some fun moments as a class to the finish the year. It has been a great privilege to teach your children. I wish the families who are moving far away all the best and look forward to hearing news from time to time on how things are going in your new homes. (Got to love Facebook for that!) To all of the other families, I look forward to seeing you regularly at Amherstview. 

Have a wonderful summer!

All packed up for the summer!

Museum, Pioneer Village, Play Day....Almost There!

It's the second last week of school and the end is in sight. This week in Language, the grade twos did the comptines "Fafoin" and "Le magicien" with the oin/ien sounds. The grade threes are working on the story "Ma grand-mère Groseille" with the dr/fr/gr/pr/vr sounds. They will finish up next week. 

In Math, the class is mostly finished up the unit on multiplication and division. Next week we will be doing some probability activities to finish up our Math for the year. In Science, the grade twos are finishing up the unit on Growth and Changes in Animals with a mini-research on an animal of their choice. The grade threes are almost finished the unit on Growth and Changes in Plants. 

On Tuesday, the grade twos went to Canada's Food and Agriculture Museum in Ottawa while the grade threes got to experience pioneer life first-hand at Upper Canada Village. The grade twos loved finding out about the animals, interacting with them and especially seeing their bathroom habits! :) The highlight of the day for most was the ride in the tractor simulator. 

On Friday afternoon, the class got to participate in Primary Play Day. We started at our class's station "Hoops/Skipping/Chalk" and rotated from there. It was a lovely day for it. 

Next week is our last week. We will be having a Book Swap on Wednesday as well as our year-end assembly. Information about the Book Swap went home today. The remainder of the children's stuff will be coming home over the next few days. If your child will be away the last day(s), please let me know ahead of time in the agenda. The students are welcome to bring a game and/or book of their choice on Thursday. 

Getting Into Nature at Gould Lake!

We're slowly winding things down. This was the last week for homework and "Des mathématiques pour tous les jours". Both duo tangs have been sent home. More will be coming home as we finish things up over the next two weeks. This week the grade twos read the comptines "Les trolls" et" Vroum!" With the tr/vr sounds. The grade threes finished up "Tratisse contre Brochin". They spent some time finishing up any unfinished writing pieces. 

The class finished up fractions earlier this week and we are now working on multiplication and division. I strongly encourage everyone to practise their multiplications tables regularly as the grade threes will be required to know up to 12 x 12 next year in grade four and the grade twos will need to know up to 7 x 7 next year in grade three.

On Tuesday, we visited Gould Lake. It was my first time there and I really enjoyed it. The class did a couple of nature hikes, learned a bit about First Nations in Canada, did a mapping activity, and learned about animals in Ontario, learned about plants and Mica mines. It was a wonderful day...except for the mosquitoes! Ugh! I have a lot of bites, despite applying bug spray several times throughout the day. 

On Wednesday we went go watch Mme Adamson's SK/1 class perform "Les trois petits cochons". They did so well. I think some of the students were surprised at how well the SKs spoke in French. For others, it was a nice reminder of what they had done in previous years when they were in Mme Adamson's class. Jump Rope for Heart got rained out today, unfortunately. It will now take place on Monday. It will be another busy week again next week with that, a visit from a librarian also on Monday, and our big trip on Tuesday!

Gould Lake

Looking for porcupines

Looking for Mica

Nachos and New Set-ups

It was a bit more of a relaxed week, now that EQAO is over with for the year. The grade sixes finished up on Wednesday and the stress level in the school seemed to go down a bit. We've had a few outdoor Phys. Ed. periods with the gym being used for EQAO. There'll be more with the grads coming up. Luckily the weather has been much nicer lately, but not too hot!

This week, the grade twos did the comptines "Les grimaces" and "Le professeur" with the gr/pr sounds. The grade threes are working on the story "Tratisse contre Brochin" with thr br/cr/tr sounds. Almost everyone finished up their good copies of their procedural writing piece. I learned about making nachos, making friends, drawing, playing Hide and Seek and a few other things from them!  😄 We did a reading assessment as well this week. Usually I have them all read the text to me but this time I just looked at their answers to the follow-up questions as I just finished up doing GB+ reading assessments with them as well. 

Most of the class are done or almost done the activities on fractions. We will finish up on Monday and then move on to multiplication and division on Wednesday. Rubrics for the time unit are ready to go home for signing on Monday with next week's homework. It will be our last week of homework!

As we finish things up, the students will begin bringing home their duo tangs and will start clearing out their desks over the next little while. It's an extremely busy time so please check agendas daily to keep on top of it all. On Tuesday, we are going to Gould Lake Outdoor Education Centre. They should dress for the weather, wear comfortable shoes for all the outdoor activities, bring sunscreen/bug spray, and have a litter-free lunch with lots of water. 

I'm trying to organize/tidy the class a bit before the summer. The students who finished early this week helped me get a head start on a new classroom set-up. They'll be helping me clean and organize the games and math manipulatives during the last couple of weeks. This ties in nicely with our school theme of responsibility: they are helping to clean as they have been using the items all year. Here are some photos of our new class layout, the carpet area is now separated from the desk area!

Have a great weekend!