Week of September 14 - 18, 2026

Students have transitioned very well into their new class and successfully learning the new routines. We are enjoying getting to know each other.

Here are a few updates and reminders:

Technology News:

We have received our class set of Chromebooks. Each student in our class has been assigned their own class Chromebook to use. Over the next couple of weeks, the students will receive a copy of their board-issued email and new password for this year. They will then practise logging in to their Chromebook using their new password. Once we have practised that a few times, we will learn how to login to their new Google Classroom (coming soon).

A copy of your child's login information will be sent home once they are comfortable logging in and using these features. This may take a few weeks until we all become comfortable with all of this new learning.

In the meantime, you are asked to complete our school board's Responsible Use of Technology agreement form for your child/children. Instructions can be found HERE

Reminder to Parents to complete forms on Parent Portal

Every SEPTEMBER Parents MUST complete the following documents.

• Consent for Use and Disclosure of Student information

• OCSB Student Verification form (ONLY if there are changes)

• Responsible use of Technology

Please log into the Parent Portal to access each form.

**IMPORTANT TO DO**

Visit  “Quick Links” on our  SCHOOL WEBSITE  for links or see below.

1. Please sign up for School Messenger to receive important updates.  LINK 

NOTE Please select ‘general' to receive Weekly news from Principal/Office and "teacher to parent messaging" in order to receive emails from teachers. This step must be completed for each child.

2. Please sign up for School Cash online. LINK

3. Please sign up for the Parent Portal with the OCSB. This is where you will access report cards etc. LINK

4. If you would like to volunteer in our school please complete the necessary Vulnerable Sector Check paperwork. LINK

5. Please review with your child and complete the Acceptible Use of Technology online submission. Instructions can be found HERE

St. Gabriel Meet the Teacher Open House:

Please join us on Thursday September 17 between 4:30pm - 5:30pm for our St. Gabriel Meet the Teacher. You will be able to tour the school, see your child's class, and meet their educators. This will be a ‘drop-in’ format so you can come and leave as you need between the hours of 4:30 and 5:30. We encourage your child(ren) to come and be your tour guide.

Dismissal Routine:

Please send an email to your child's teacher or call the school to let us know if there are any changes to your child's usual routine (picking up early for an appointment, picking up in person rather than taking the bus, etc.). This will help ensure smoother transitions and allow us to keep your child safe.

Our Topics and Learning This Week:

In Math, we have almost completed our first units on counting. Both the Grade 2s and 3s will have an assessment task this week in order to assess their learning during our skip counting units. Our next Math unit for both grades is about numbers. In Grade 2, students will begin with a review of how to read, count, represent, compose and decompose, add and subtract whole numbers up to and including 20. In Grade 3, students will focus on representing numbers and place value up to and including 999. 

In Language, we will continue to explore how to write a complete sentence and how to write a paragraph. We will spend some time in the coming weeks learning how to develop interesting opening and closing statements, and detailed sentences in between. We will practise adding adjectives and descriptive words to our writing to make it clearer and more interesting.

In phonics, last week we learned about the long a vowel. This week, we will learn about the long i vowel sound as in the words ice, bike, side, ride, five, and kite. The long vowel sound is the same as the vowel's name, I. The vowel i says its own name, I, when there is a silent E at the end of a word. Reminder: The E does not make a sound so we say it is "silent" ("silent E" or "bossy E"). 

No new heart words this week.

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.

In Family Life, we have been discussing how we are each unique, with unique names, unique likes and dislikes, and unique family traditions. In Religion, we are working on our Samaritans on a Digital Road unit and learning how to be positive digital citizens who model the gospel values during their online citizenship.

**Reminder to please send an email to your child's teacher or call the school to let us know if there are any changes to your child's usual routine (picking up early for an appointment, picking up in person rather than taking the bus, etc.). This will help ensure smoother transitions and allow us to keep your child safe.

Homework:

This week, your child will bring home some phonics homework to help review skills. Please have your child return this homework next Monday, September 21st. The reading homework should be kept at home for the week to practise reading more than once per week. Thank you in advance for supporting your child at home by helping them review their phonics skills when the home practice is sent home.

If possible, the Ministry of Education recommendation is that Grade 2 students should be reading or reviewing concepts for 20 minutes at home daily. The recommendation for Grade 3 students is that they should be reading or reviewing concepts for 30 minutes daily at home if possible.

In addition, your child may occasionally bring home some of their unfinished classroom work to complete at home, or work in which they need to make their corrections or review concepts with you at home. Thank you in advance for your support with this and for helping your child return this work to school when finished.

Looking Ahead:

Tuesday, Sept. 15 - Wear dots to celebrate International Dot Day Thursday, Sept. 17 - School Meet the Teacher Open House 4:30 - 5:30

September 23- First Popcorn day - sign up using schoolcash online

Wed., Sept. 30th - National Day for Truth and Reconciliation/Orange Shirt Day

Thurs., Oct. 1st - School Terry Fox Walk

 Week of September 8 - 11, 2026

September Topics of Study:

The following are some of our current and upcoming topics:

Math: 

Our focus in Math for the next couple of weeks will be on counting skills. The curriculum expectation for the Grade 2s is to learn to count to 200 in a variety of ways, including by 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 20s, 25s, and 50s, using a variety of strategies and tools (for example, whole and partial number lines, 100- and 200-charts). The curriculum expectation for the Grade 3s is to learn to count to 1000 in a variety of ways, including by 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s, 20s, 25s, 50s, 100s, and 200s, using a variety of strategies and tools ((for example, whole and partial number lines, hundreds charts)

See below for the Grade 2 and Grade 3 parent summary letters outlining some key ideas in Math for this week:

Grade 2 Counting Forward Parent Letter here

Grade 2 Counting Backward Parent Letter here

Grade 3 Counting Forward Parent Letter here

Grade 3 Counting Backward Parent Letter here

Language:

In Grade 2, we will review how to write a complete sentence, including correct uppercase letters at the beginning of each sentence, and punctuation at the end. The Grade 3s will begin to learn how to write a paragraph.

We will also begin our UFLI phonics lessons this week. We will begin with a review of some basic skills learned last year. Over the next couple of weeks, your child will bring home some phonics homework to help review skills. The program used by grades 2 and 3 is the UFLI Phonics program. Thank you in advance for supporting your child at home by helping them review their phonics skills when the home practice is sent home.

Our first phonics lessons will review long vowel sounds. We will begin by reviewing the long a vowel sound, as in ape. The long vowel sound is the same as the vowel's name, A.

The vowel a says its own name, A, when there is a silent E at the end of a word, like in the words made, tape, cake, and same. **Usually, when there is a silent E at the end of a word it makes vowels say their names, or long vowel sounds. The E does not make a sound so we say it is "silent" ("silent E" or "bossy E"). 

After our long a vowel sound, we will review the long i vowel sound as in the words ice, bike, side, ride, five, and kite. The long vowel sound is the same as the vowel's name, I. The vowel i says its own name, I, when there is a silent E at the end of a word. Reminder: The E does not make a sound so we say it is "silent" ("silent E" or "bossy E"). 

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: who, by, my

Please also review the following "heart words" that your child would have learned with their previous teacher: 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.

Homework:

The Grade 2s and 3s will bring home their first phonics homework next week.

Religion, Language, and Media Literacy:

This week, the Grade 2s and 3s will begin a unit called "Samaritans on a Digital Road", in which we will learn about how to be good digital citizens and how to be safe and respectful when using technology and the internet.

Health & Phys. Ed.:
      
We are learning the routines and safety rules for physical education. We will also work on our travelling and locomotion skills (e.g., hopping, galloping) and play a few simple cooperative games.

Housekeeping Items:

If you haven't already done so, please consider sending indoor running shoes for your child.

In addition, we will use pencil crayons and coloured fine tip markers most often so it would be helpful for your child to have their own at school. It would also be very helpful for your child to have a pencil case (or two) to store pencil crayons, markers, etc. Some of the marker and pencil crayon packages (original packages from the store) are already starting to fall apart in your child's supply storage bin. Please label all of your child's belongings (lunch boxes/bags, containers, backpacks, shoes, rubber boots, winter boots, outdoor clothing, etc.) with their full name. This will help avoid confusion and lost items.

School Communication

In order to receive all school communication, please register at: 

 http://ocsb.ca/schoolmessenger/. Please ensure you have checked off both “General” and “Teacher to Parent”. 

Agendas

Student agendas are being sent home daily. Please check and initial the agenda every day and ensure that it is sent back to school in your child's mailbag (plastic ziplock bag). It is helpful if it is left open to the page that corresponds to the current week, so that students don't have to find the page each time.

Thank You

Thank you for all the supplies you sent in last week with your child.  

IMPORTANT:  CLASS BLOG

It is very important that you check this class blog every week as there will be important news items as well as information about our topics of study. There will occasionally also be links to suggested websites for your child to visit.

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, Sept. 15 - Dot Day: Wear polka dots to school. We

will honour the day with fun dot activities.

Dot Day Website here

Sept. 30 -  Truth and Reconciliation (Orange Shirt) Day

 Welcome to Grade 2/3 - September 1 - 4, 2026

Welcome to Mrs. Maidment's Grade 2/3. I am looking forward to a fun year with my new class! This blog will be updated at the beginning of each week and will include news, updates, and learning goals for the school year. Please check it each Monday. 

Parents will receive a paper copy of my beginning of the year welcome newsletter. After that, most letters will be sent via School Messenger. All of our OCSB schools use the SchoolMessenger communication platform to send automated phone calls and emails to parents. Therefore, it is very important that you have signed up to receive all school communication electronically. You MUST register and/or update your school messenger account/preferences at ocsb.ca/schoolmessenger. Kindly ensure you have checked off both “General” and “Teacher to Parent”.

Below is a reminder of some suggested items to send in with your child. These supplies don't all need to be purchased for the first day of school. *Please label all personal belongings with your child's name.

If possible, please send the following items with your child: pair of clean gym-appropriate shoes (labelled with your child’s name), 2 boxes of facial tissues, 1-2 pencil cases (to store pencil crayons, pencils, erasers, scissors, etc.), 2 erasers, 2 glue sticks, pre-sharpened pencils, box of sharpened pencil crayons, coloured markers (fine-tipped), black Sharpie markers (one ultra fine and one fine), scissors, 2-3 dry-erase whiteboard markers, scissors, and a pencil sharpener with shaving case. These items do not need to be purchased for the first day of school. We will have materials accessible to students to begin the school year.

Students are highly encouraged to also bring in a labelled bag with extra socks and pants in case they get wet on rainy or snowy days.

**Please ensure your child is able to open lunch containers independently. Please practise at home.

IMPORTANT: Allergies

Due to severe, life-threatening allergies in students in our class this year, please provide food that does not contain peanuts or any tree nuts when sending your child's lunch and snacks to school. Please see the letter sent home for more information. Thank you for helping us ensure that all of our students are safe.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog. Looking forward to a great first week!