September 29 - October 3, 2025

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation Tuesday, September 30:

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (originally known as Orange Shirt Day) is on Tuesday, September 30. On Tuesday, September 30th, staff and students are invited to wear an orange shirt to participate in the day.

Each year on September 30th, people from all over Canada are invited to wear orange in honour of The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and to remind ourselves that Every Child Matters. Wearing an orange shirt on September 30th is an initiative to commemorate the residential school experience, to witness and honour the healing journey of the survivors and their families, and to commit to the ongoing process of reconciliation. The inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation was recognized by Parliament in partial fulfillment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 80.

The origin of Orange Shirt Day is based on Phyllis Webstad’s story of having her new orange shirt, that her grandmother bought her, taken away on her first day at Residential School. It was replaced by the school uniform. (Phyllis’ Story).

For more information about why we wear orange on September 30th, see official website:  http://www.orangeshirtday.org/

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation provides an opportunity for each of us to recognize and commemorate the legacy of residential schools. This includes quiet reflection and participation in school and class activities.

Your child will be learning about the Indian Residential School system in Canada and about reconciliation through participating in this week's stories and activities. The Residential School System was an attempt to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian society and to educate them in an environment that removed them from their families and their culture. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission defines reconciliation as “an ongoing process of establishing and maintaining respectful relationships.” First Nations educator Pamela Toulouse says, “Truth and reconciliation are even more necessary in a world that is challenged and for our children and youth who have inherited it.”

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 be posting very much on our class Hapara Workspace. Many students are just learning how to login to their class Chromebooks.

Topics of Learning

Language: 

In Writing, we continue to learn about how to stretch out our sentences and add details, without writing run-on sentences. We also continue to learn about how to put several sentences together on a topic to write a good paragraph. 

In grammar and word work, we will review common nouns and proper nouns. We will also continue our beginning lessons in our phonics program, UFLI. Last week, we reviewed short vowel sounds and the "-flsz rule" during our phonics lessons. The -flsz Rule (or "Floss Rule") reminds us that in a one syllable word, if a short vowel is followed by an f, l, s, or z, then the consonant is doubled. For example, in the following words: off, sniff, staff, doll, bell, dress, grass, pass, buzz, fuzz, fizz. NOTE: There are a few rule breakers or exceptions to this rule: bus, if, as, plus, this, chef, gas, us, pal.

One part of our phonics lessons consists of a few weekly "heart words".

What Are "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).

This week's heart words are: your, want

Please also review the following "heart words" that your child would have learned last year: the, I, a, and, said, to, do, of, see, he, be, me, from, you, what, have, look, book, are, was.

Homework this week:

The Grade 2 students will bring home their first UFLI phonics homework this week. It will consist of a review of some of our Heart Words, short vowels, and the FLSZ Rule (see above). Please have your child keep it at home for the week and practise reading the words and story each day. Have your child return the homework next Monday, October 6th.

The Grade 3 students will also bring home phonics homework to review the FLSZ Rule. This homework will be due by next Monday, October 6th.

Math:

In Math, we continue our study of increasing and decreasing patterns. In Grade 2, the learning for students is to identify, extend, and describe growing number patterns and represent them in different ways. In Grade 3, students are practising finding, describing, representing, and creating growing number patterns using charts, number lines, and pictures.

Link to Grade 2 parent summary letter Representing Increasing Patterns here

Link to Grade 3 parent summary letter Relating a Pattern to a Rule or Picture here

Physical Education:

We are beginning our soccer unit. We will be practising our dribbling and trapping skills.

In Visual Arts, we will continue to learn about the primary and secondary colours and the colour wheel.

Important Dates:

Tuesday, Sept. 30th - Wear orange for National Day for Truth & Reconciliation 

Thursday, October 2 - School bus safety presentations

Friday, October 10 - P.D. Day: No school

Monday, October 13 - Thanksgiving: No school