News Week of March 17 - 21, 2025
WELCOME SPRING!
I hope everyone had a safe, restful, and fun March Break.
St. Gabriel School Lenten Project - Shepherds of Good Hope
In the spirit of Alms Giving, the families, students and staff of St. Gabriel School are asked to help support The Shepherds of Good Hope by collecting some of their most needed items.
The Shepherds of Good Hope is one of Ottawa’s largest non-profit organizations dedicated to helping homeless and vulnerable people 365 days a year. Please visit https://www.sghottawa.com/ for more information about how they support the needs of our community.
We know the difficulties and hardships that so many members of our community have been dealing with over the past few years. The St. Gabriel community has always responded to these needs with tremendous generosity and support. In particular, the items listed below are especially needed at this time. Each grade has been assigned an item to give.
● Adult Toothbrushes - Kindergarten
● Shaving Cream - Grade 1
● Deodorant (roll-on and stick preferred) - Grade 2
● Body Wash - Grade 3
● Bar Soap - Grade 4
● Adult size socks - Grade 5
● Shampoo and Conditioner - Grade 6
If you are in a position to donate some of these items to support our Lenten project, it would be very appreciated. We will accept items until April 17, 2025. Thank you for your continued support in helping St. Gabriel to gather and share!
World Down Syndrome Day Friday, March 21 - Rock Your Socks
Our class will honour the day by wearing our fun, mismatched socks. Each year on March 21st, we celebrate World Down Syndrome Day, to raise awareness. People with Down Syndrome have an extra chromosome (they have 3 copies of chromosome 21 - hence 21/3, 21st of March!). For more info: https://www.worlddownsyndromeday.org/
Earth Hour Saturday, March 22 - 8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
Join us on Saturday for Earth Hour in Canada. If everyone in Ottawa unplugs from electricity for just one hour, we could prevent 41. 6 tonnes of carbon emissions! https://www.earthhour.org/
Wacky Weather
Although we may still have some cold weather later this week, Spring begins on March 20th. The warmer temperatures will mean that the schoolyard will become even wetter and muddier this week. Please help us keep our students, school, and classrooms dry and clean by reminding your child to wear appropriate outerwear such as splashpants, boots, and a warm jacket. Extra socks and even a change of pants are highly recommended. Thank you for your support.
Our Learning
Grade 3 EQAO Homework:
Later this week, the Grade 3 students will bring home EQAO preparation "at-home" packages to help them prepare for the EQAO provincial assessment to be completed in May (dates will be shared when we have them). The "at-home EQAO preparation packages" will be sent home with your child, in paper format, at the end of each week and must be returned back to school on the following Friday. We encourage your child to complete a few questions per night to make it more manageable. We encourage you to review the concepts with your child. This is the perfect opportunity to improve your child's confidence in these areas. Do not worry if your child is not able to complete all the questions as we will be taking up and reviewing each question in class on Fridays when the packages are returned.
Most of your child's preparation is taking place at school but we have heard from students and parents that they would like help in feeling well-prepared. The ministry EQAO assessment is based on students' cumulative learning of the curriculum from all grades up to and including Grade 3. The "at-home" practice packages have been prepared by a team of Grade 3 teachers and are meant to be a link between home and school, and are designed to allow parents to see the sorts of concepts that may be assessed and the types of questions that have appeared on the EQAO assessments in the past. Additionally, there is a link on the ministry EQAO website to an online practice test and we will soon be exploring the Language and Math practice tests. Thank you for your help and support in improving your child's confidence and feeling of readiness for the provincial test. The most important thing is that your child is not feeling anxious about the test.
Language:
During our phonics lessons, we will review what we have learned about open and closed syllables and compound words.
A closed syllable has only one vowel and the vowel is followed by one or more consonants. The vowel sound is short. Examples of closed syllables include hop, kick, fast.
Open syllables have only one vowel and the vowel is the last letter in the syllable. In an open syllable, the vowel is long. Examples of open syllables include hi, go, she.
A compound word is a longer word made up of two smaller words. We can combine two closed syllables to make longer words made up of two smaller words (compound words).
Examples of compound words with two closed syllables are:
sunset (sun + set)
stepdad (step + dad)
hotdog (hot + dog)
backpack (back + pack)
cannot (can + not)
himself (him + self)
This week's new heart words: Review *friend, *because
Please have your child practise the heart words we have learned so far in class: the, I, a, said, to, do, of, see, he, be, me, from, you, what, have, look, book, are, was, your, want, go, no, so, goes, says, they, their, were, talk, walk, could, should, would, or, for, who, by, my, one, once, use, two, does, many, any, been, into, *friend, *because.
Math:
In Grade 3, how to estimate and calculate the perimeter of various polygons using standard units of measure (e.g., centimetres, metres). We will also explore how to measure the area of 2-dimensional shapes using non-standard units and standard units, such as square centimetres.
In Grade 2, we will continue to work on adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers. Our focus is to explore strategies for adding and subtracting numbers less than 100 (e.g., using a number line, hundred chart, manipulatives such as counters or ten-frames, drawing objects, and using mental strategies). This week, we will review how to add 2-digit numbers by using multiples of tens (counting on by tens).
Your child will also practise solving word problems that involve 2-digit addition and subtraction. We will review how to communicate and show our thinking (How did we determine our answer?; What strategy did we use? How can we explain our strategy?). We will review the steps to solving a problem, including writing the final answer in a complete sentence when solving a word problem. Please have your child practise adding and subtracting at home, with an important focus on encouraging your child to explain his/her thinking.
Link to Grade 2 Adding Two-Digit Numbers MathUP parent summary letter #1 here
Here are some other strategies your child may use to add:
Important Dates:
Monday, March 17th: Wear green for St. Patrick's Day
Thursday, March 20: Rock Your Socks for Down Syndrome Awareness Day!
Saturday, March 22: Turn lights off during Earth Hour 8:30-9:30 p.m.
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