December 15 - 19, 2025
School Advent Project
The Advent season has arrived and Christmas is just around the corner. As we have done in past years, we will support families in need from our adopted school, St. John the Apostle. Each family is invited to make a donation through School Cash Online. Monies collected will go towards the purchase of grocery store and WalMart gift cards so the families we are supporting can purchase essential items to meet their needs. We encourage the students to complete a chore at home to earn their own money so that they experience the gift of giving. We will be collecting donations until Tuesday December 16th.
St. Gabriel Christmas Market December 17th
Our annual Christmas Market is returning. Students will have the opportunity to choose special gifts for their family members using donated items from our community. As we did last year, a minimum $2 donation is required to participate. This contribution supports our Advent outreach project, helping families in need during the holiday season. We kindly request that donations be submitted by December 17th in order for students to participate.
Volunteering Opportunity - Help Wanted
On Wednesday, December 17th, we are looking for volunteers to come help the students choose and wrap presents from the Book Market for a family member.
If you can spare one hour or more, please Sign up here .
Our Learning
Language:
We have been learning about adjectives, nouns, verbs, capital letters, and punctuation. We will continue our writing focus on descriptive writing and how we can use adjectives and interesting descriptive vocabulary to paint a picture in the reader's mind.
Our next UFLI phonics lessons will focus on the _ge ending. In this ending. the letter g says /j/ when it is followed by a silent E, like in the words page, age, and huge and also words such as cage, stage, and strange. The E at the end of the word does not make a sound so we say it is "silent" ("silent E" or "bossy E").
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.
Math:
We will continue to work on our unit about addition and subtraction. In Grade 2, we are practising our recall of and understanding of addition facts for numbers up to 20, and their related subtraction facts. We have practised using the doubles, doubles plus one, and doubles minus one strategies. We will continue to explore how to make ten and rearranging numbers or using friendly numbers to add. Here are some ways to show our strategies for the addition strategies for smaller numbers:
Link to Grade 2 Parent Letter about Adding By Making Ten here
Link to Grade 2 Parent Summary Letter About Rearranging Numbers to Add here
In Grade 3, we continue 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). Later on, we will learn how to add and subtract larger numbers. We will also begin to work on solving word problems that involve addition and subtraction. We will focus on 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 also learn 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, as this is a challenging skill for many.
Dec. 20 - January 4th - Christmas Break: School closed
Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a restful holiday!
