October 30 - November 3, 2023

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone enjoys a safe and fun Halloween! Please remember to save the candy/treats for home consumption as we will be focusing on healthy eating in class as part of our healthy eating unit.

School Halloween Guidelines:

- Simple costumes, no accessories, no costume mask

- Culturally-sensitive costumes only

- No changing clothes at school

**Please do not send in snacks to be shared at school

Important Message From the Principal about Culturally Sensitive Halloween Costumes: 

Please make sure to consider a thoughtful approach about whether the costume is culturally sensitive and appropriate. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, cultural appropriation is, “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect the culture.” Halloween is a fun event and with some creativity and imagination, parents can help their child(ren) with deciding on a costume that aligns with a culturally sensitive Halloween. Being proactive can help all of us to avoid uncomfortable situations at school and in our community and can help us ensure that Halloween is a fun event where all students feel safe and honoured.Looking forward to seeing all the creativity!

Our Learning This Week

Language:

In Writing, we will practise our recount writing skills again this week. The students will be asked to recount their Halloween experience if they participated, or something they did on the weekend, or another personal experience (e.g., a birthday, a special family experience, a time they got hurt, one of our spirit days from last week, etc.). We are working on adding more adjectives and details to our writing to 'bump it up'. 

In grammar and word work, we will continue to learn how to use adjectives. During our phonics lessons, we are completing our review of the short o letter sound. Our next letter sound in our phonics lessons will be the short e sound. This is one of the most challenging vowel sounds in English. Please watch this video to help your child correctly identify and make the short e sound.

Math:

We continue our unit about representing numbers in different ways and place value. In Grade 2, students are learning how to read, represent, compose and decompose whole numbers up to and including 200, using a variety of tools and strategies, including base ten materials, and describe ways they are used in everyday life. We will begin this week in Grade 2 Math with a review of several different ways to represent 2-digit numbers, including ten-frames (link to website for parents explaining ten-frames here), base ten blocks, the number word, tally marks, counters. Next, we will break apart numbers into parts (e.g., groups of 5) and put parts together to make a number. We will also practise representing numbers to show if they are odd or even, and then work on representing numbers to 200. 

Link to Grade 2 Parent Summary letter Composing and Decomposing Two-Digit Numbers here

Link to Grade 2 Parent Summary letter Odd and Even Numbers here

Link to Grade 2 Parent Summary letter Representing Numbers to 200 here

In Grade 3, students are learning the same skills as the Grade 2s, but with numbers up to and including 1000. This week, the Grade 3s will continue to practise representing 3-digit numbers using place-value concepts and base ten materials. We will then represent 3-digit numbers as combinations of tens and ones, using multiple tens to get to the hundreds digit. We will also compare the representations by looking at what they tell about a number. 

Link to Grade 3 Parent Summary letter Comparing Representations of Three-Digit Numbers here

Link to Grade 3 Parent Summary letter Exploring 1000 here

Homework:

This week, your child will bring home some homework. Your child's homework will be due back at school on Monday, November 6th. 

The Grade 3s will be given a homework sheet about adjectives. The Grade 2s will be given a homework sheet that is a follow-up to our short o phonics lessons from last week, and includes some irregular "heart" words. 

Reminder about "heart" words: 

Many common words present challenges to children because they are irregular in some way. These words contain letters or letter combinations that do not follow the most common letter-sound correspondences, and those must be learned “by heart,” hence the term “heart” words. Some words are permanently irregular (the sounds of the letters are unique to that word or to a very small number of words) and others are temporarily irregular (words in which we have not yet learned the letter-sound correspondences in the word). Last week's "heart" words are: said, he, be, me, from.

 

Other homework ideas:

- Daily reading out loud (students can access extra books via Sora on the Student Portal)

Book ideas for 7 year olds: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1634 

Book ideas for 8-9 year olds: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/835

- Practise addition facts (doubles, adding numbers to 20)

Looking Ahead:

Monday, Oct. 30: Dress in a crazy hat or hairstyle

Tuesday, Oct. 31: Halloween Day - Wear costume or orange, black, purple, green

Wednesday, Nov. 1: All Saints Day

Thursday, Nov. 2: Photo retakes -  click here to sign up

Thursday, Nov. 2: Gr. 2/3 library books due

Sunday, Nov. 5: Daylight Savings Day - Turn back clocks

November 8 - Popcorn day
November 9 - Remembrance Day at school
November 10 -  P.D. Day (no school for students)

October 23 - 27, 2023

Halloween is an abbreviation of "All Hallow's Eve", which is also known as "All Saints Eve". It is the day before an important day in the Catholic church, All Saints Day. The Catholic origins of Halloween date back to more than 1300 years ago during the vigil of the Feast of All Saints.The day of October 31st is a feast day dedicated to remembering loved ones who have died. Traditionally, families would lay out a feast for the spirits of loved ones who got to return home for this one evening. That helps explain why we give a treat to kids dressed up as ghosts. Here is more information about the Christian roots of Halloween festivities. 

At St. Gabriel, we are having a Halloween Spirit Week starting on Wednesday of this week until and including Halloween, which is next Tuesday, October 31st. Each day, there will be special themes and activities. Here are a few:

Wednesday, Oct. 25 - Pumpkin Patch Plaid or Patterns Day

Thursday, Oct. 26 - Throwback Thursday 

Friday, Oct. 27 - PJs or Comfy Clothes Day

Friday, Oct. 27 - St. Gabriel Family Halloween Dance 

Monday, Oct. 30 - Scary/Crazy Hat or Hair Day

Tuesday, Oct. 31 - Halloween: Wear your costume or dress in orange, black, green, or purple colours

School Halloween Guidelines:

- Simple costumes, no accessories, no costume mask

- Culturally-sensitive costumes only

- No changing clothes at school

**Please do not send in Halloween treats or snacks to be shared at school.

Our Learning this Week

Language: 

In reading comprehension, we will work on using our schema to make connections when reading in order to understand texts. In Writing, we continue to practise our recount writing skills. This week, we will review how to write a good opening sentence when writing a recount. At the beginning of next week in class, your child will be asked to use the criteria on our class anchor chart to write a recount about what he/she did on Halloween, or, if your child won't be celebrating Halloween, something he/she did on the weekend. 

In grammar and word work, we will review common nouns and proper nouns and begin our focus on adjectives. In phonics, we will continue to review short vowel sounds. So far, we reviewed the short a sound and short i sound. We will work on the short o sound and short e sound in the coming days. 

Math:

We continue our unit about representing numbers in different ways and place value. In Grade 2, students are learning how to read, represent, compose and decompose whole numbers up to and including 200, using a variety of tools and strategies, including base ten materials, and describe ways they are used in everyday life. So far in Grade 2, we have been focusing on representing 2-digit numbers. In Grade 3, students are learning the same skills but with numbers up to and including 1000. So far, the Grade 3s have been representing 3-digit numbers using base ten materials. 

Link to Grade 2 Parent Summary letter Representing Two-Digit Numbers here

Link to Grade 2 Parent Summary letter Composing and Decomposing Two-Digit Numbers here

Link to Grade 3 Parent Summary letter Representing Three-Digit Numbers here

Link to Grade 3 Parent Summary letter Comparing Representations of Three-Digit Numbers here

Homework:

This week, your child will bring home some homework. Your child's homework will be due back at school on Friday, October 27th. 

The Grade 3s will be given a homework sheet about common nouns and proper nouns. The Grade 2s will be given a homework sheet that is a follow-up to our short i phonics lessons from last week, and includes some irregular "heart" words. Many common words present challenges to children because they are irregular in some way. These words contain letters or letter combinations that do not follow the most common letter-sound correspondences, and those must be learned “by heart,” hence the term “heart” words. Some words are permanently irregular (the sounds of the letters are unique to that word or to a very small number of words) and others are temporarily irregular (words in which we have not yet learned the letter-sound correspondences in the word). Last week's "heart" words are: said, to, do, of, see.

 

Other homework ideas:

- Daily reading out loud (students can access extra books via Sora on the Student Portal)

- Practise addition facts (doubles, adding numbers to 20)

Looking Ahead:

Thursday, Oct. 26: Gr. 2/3 library books due

Thursday, Oct. 26: Delivery of Farm to School Veggie Basket

Friday, Oct. 27: School Halloween Dance (6-8pm)  Link to poster

Tuesday, Oct. 31: Halloween

Wednesday, Nov. 1: All Saints Day

Thursday, Nov. 2: Photo retakes

Sunday, Nov. 5: Daylight Savings Day - Turn back clocks

 Week of October 16-20th, 2023

Now that Fall has officially arrived and the mornings are cool, please make certain that your child is dressed in layers and has warm clothes like a coat each day. The weather is often unpredictable and some children have not had adequate clothing at recess. Putting an extra pair of socks in your child's backpack is also a great idea for when little feet get cold and wet.

Curriculum Update

Language: 

In Writing, the children are learning about the features of recount writing and the students are using these features to write their own personal recounts (for example, their Thanksgiving recounts). The Grade 2 students are also working on "What is a sentence?", including how to write a complete sentence using capitalization and correct punctuation (e.g., a period, question mark, exclamation mark). In addition to reviewing how to write a complete sentence that makes sense, the Grade 3s are also learning how to write a paragraph. During our grammar and word work lesson, we are learning about the parts of speech called nouns. A noun is a person, place, thing, or animal. We will be exploring proper nouns and common nouns. In phonics, we will continue to review short vowel sounds, with a focus on the short e sound. Last week, we reviewed the short a sound and short i sound.

In Media Literacy, we continue to learn about how to be good digital citizens and how to be safe when using online tools, using the school board's unit: Samaritans on a Digital Road. 

Math:

We have completed our Grade 2 and Grade 3 units on patterning (repeating patterns with changing attributes, and increasing and decreasing number patterns). Both grades will participate in an assessment early in the week. Our next Math unit for both grades is about representing numbers. In Grade 2, students will learn how to read, represent, compose and decompose whole numbers up to and including 200, using a variety of tools and strategies, including base ten materials, and describe ways they are used in everyday life. In Grade 3, students will focus on the same skills but with numbers up to and including 1000. Both grades will also explore what makes a number odd or even.

Link to Grade 2 parent summary letter representing tens here

Link to Grade 3 parent summary letter representing hundreds here

Religion:

We have been learning that we belong to a classroom and school community, our family, and God's family. We will be discussing ways that we pray.

Visual Arts:

We continue our exploration of the primary and secondary colours.

Leaf press Art :

Students are asked to collect approximately 10 leaves from outdoors in a variety of colours, shapes, and sizes from outside (only already fallen leaves please). I recommend you avoid leaves that are very wet. Once collected, please help your child to dry and flatten the leaves at home for a couple of days. To learn how to carefully flatten leaves using heavy books, please watch the video linked here. At school, students will be arranging leaves to form a their own unique image. Please have your child carefully bring their flattened leaves to school in a bag (e.g, ziploc bag) for Wednesday, October 18th.

Dates to Remember:

October 16-20: National School Bus Safety Week

October 16: Deadline to order veggie baskets from Farm to School

Wednesday, Oct. 18: bring flattened leaves to class

Thursday, Oct. 19: Gr. 2/3 library books due

Thursday, Oct. 19: School Thanksgiving mass in gym at 11:00 a.m.

Thursday, October 26: Delivery of Farm to School Veggie Basket

Friday, October 27: School Halloween Dance (6-8pm)  Link to poster

 October 10 - 13, 2023

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! This is the time to reflect on and thank God for our many blessings. I am so thankful to have your children in my class!

Student gmail Account Login Information:

Just a reminder that last week, your child brought home their school board gmail account login information. It was sent home in the front pocket of their agendas and, for privacy reasons, should not be kept in the agenda. Please place it somewhere convenient at home. This login information can be used by your child at home to log in to our class Hapara Workspace (English). In the beginning, while we get used to using the Workspace at school, I will not post too much on our Workspace. We are just learning how to login to our class Chromebooks.

Our Learning

This week in Writing, we will continue to learn how to write a personal recount (recounting a personal experience). We use an anchor chart/criteria chart for the features of a recount (title, opening, events, closing/conclusion, past tense verbs, time order and sequence words such as first, next, then, after, finally, the next day ... etc.) to write about something we did on the Thanksgiving weekend. At home, you can help by asking your child to recount an event to you using the order and sequence words first, next, then, after that, finally. In our study of media, we will continue our unit on how to be good digital citizens and how to be safe when using online tools, using the school board's unit: Samaritans on a Digital Road. 

In Math, we are nearing the end of our patterning units. This week, we will continue our learning about repeating patterns and changing attributes. The Grade Twos will practise recognizing and creating repeating patterns. The Grade Threes will describe, continue, and create repeating patterns that change in more than one way.

Link to Grade 2 Repeating Patterns Parent Summary letter here

Link to Grade 3 Repeating Patterns Parent Summary letter here

Toward the end of the week, we will have an end of unit assessment task in Math to assess what we have learned during our patterning unit (Thursday or Friday).

Important Dates:

Thursday, October 12 - Library books due to Learning Commons

October 16: Deadline to order veggie baskets from Farm to School

October 16-20 National School Bus Safety Week

Week of October 2 - 6

Happy October! It's hard to believe that we are beginning our second month of Grade 2/3! We have settled in and are well on our way in our learning adventures together.

Friendly Reminder:

Please have your child bring in a pair of headphones (over the head please) to school to use with his/her class Chromebook. This enables each student to take advantage of hearing the sound on interactive activities such as Zorbits, RAZ Kids, and other curriculum-related videos/activities, as well as when using Google Read and Write features.

Student gmail Account Login Information:

Please ask your child to give you their school board gmail account login information. It will be sent home in their agendas this week and, for privacy reasons, should not be kept in the agenda. Please place it somewhere convenient at home. This login information can be used by your child at home to log in to our class Hapara Workspace (English). In the beginning, while we get used to using the Workspace at school, I will not post too much on our Workspace. We are just learning how to login to our class Chromebooks.

Language: 

In Writing, we will begin our study of recount writing (recounting a personal experience in writing) for the month of October. We will create an anchor chart/criteria for the features of a recount (title, opening, events, closing/conclusion, past tense verbs, time order and sequence words such as first, next, then, after, finally, the next day ... etc.). We will continue our beginning lessons in our new Phonics program, UFLI. In Media Literacy, we will continue our unit on how to be good digital citizens and how to be safe when using online tools. We are using the school board's unit: Samaritans on a Digital Road. 

Math:

We will continue our study of patterning. This week, we will finish exploring growing (increasing) patterns and representing patterns in different ways (e.g., using pictures and counters, number lines, numbers, and charts). Next, we will learn about repeating patterns and changing attributes. The Grade Twos will practise recognizing and creating repeating patterns. The Grade Threes will describe, continue, and create repeating patterns that change in more than one way.

Link to Grade 2 Repeating Patterns Parent Summary letter here

Link to Grade 3 Repeating Patterns Parent Summary letter here

Religion:

This week we will prepare for Thanksgiving. We will discuss what we are thankful for and how we can use prayer to show that we are thankful.

Physical Education:

We have begun our soccer unit. We will continue to practise our dribbling and trapping skills.

Important Dates:

Friday, October 6 - P.D. Day: No school

Monday, October 9 - Thanksgiving: No school