News for Week of May 4 - 8, 2026

Catholic Education Week 

This week is Catholic Education Week. There are several activities and events planned for us this week by our school board and in our school. Our Ottawa Catholic School Board spiritual theme this year is "Pilgrims of Hope: On the path to Holiness". This theme encourages us to welcome something good, such as peace, love, guidance, and grace, into our thoughts, prayers, and actions.

Education Week Activities:

Monday, May 4 - School-wide Math challenge; Recognition assembly

Tuesday, May 5: Mystery reader; Reading buddies

Wednesday, May 6: St. Gabriel Open House 8:15 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.; Clean the Capital

Thursday, May 7: School Easter Mass 10:00 a.m. at St. Isidore Church; Classroom door decorating tour and student voting

Friday, May 8: St. Gabriel School Open House 8:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.

Our Learning 

Language:

This week, in our phonics lessons, we will explore the -er sound, as in the words her, verb, fern, under, after, better, number, never, over.

This week's new heart word:  other, another

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, woman, women, both, four, fourth, forty, people, pretty, nothing, *other, *another.

Math:

The Grade 3s will finish up their unit about multiplication and division. We are exploring strategies for multiplying and dividing. We will also practise solving multiplication and division word problems. 

Link to MathUP parent letter about division strategies

Link to MathUP parent letter about solving problems with multiplication and division

The Grade 2s will continue to learn about location, movement, and coding, with more practice in describing locations on a map. 

Link to parent letter Describing Locations on a Map

In addition, in both grades we have been learning about money while studying our other units in Math and will continue to do so. The money curriculum in Grade 2 focuses on counting and representing coin amounts up to and including 200 cents, and dollar amounts up to $200 using combinations of bills. The money curriculum in Grade 3 focuses on estimating and calculating the change from whole dollar amounts and amounts of less than one dollar.

Grade 3 EQAO:

St. Gabriel students in Grade 3 will be writing the EQAO's (Education Quality and Accountability Office) provincial assessment of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics on May 26, 27, 28, 29. We will be completing the standardized testing online using Chromebooks during class time in the morning on these dates. Your child brought home their next EQAO homework booklet today. Just a reminder to please have your child return their EQAO at-home practice booklet to school on the due date even if it not fully completed as we will review it together in class to help with understanding. In this week's booklet, please remind your child to answer the open response questions using complete sentences, with proof from the text, and an explanation of their answer. This usually requires at least 3 sentences.