February 9-13

Hello again everyone, 

This week we had half the class make the correct prediction about Groundhog Day. Shubenacadie Sam did not come out of his burrow this year due to the weather, so they counted it as a no shadow year. Even though this is a pretty silly tradition, it provided us opportunities to talk about weather patterns, seasonal changes and cultural traditions. 

We started learning about the Olympics this week and we will be following Canadian athletes over the next few weeks of the Olympics and Paralympics. We will be practicing our graphing skills while we track our medal count. We will continue to learn about the different winter Olympic sports and then the Paralympic sports as the games continue.  

We also started to learn about Black History Month and will be focusing on reading books featuring characters and authors from the Black community.

We continue with our daily learning centers in both numeracy and literacy. These centers are an excellent opportunity for students to practice previously taught skills. It also allows me an opportunity to work with small groups so that we can work together on a more personal level to help students with reading, teach more complex skills to a smaller group or complete assessments. 

This week we began writing, and the students were very proud to be considered official authors. The prompt was to write about their favorite winter activity and to draw a detailed picture portraying that activity. Students took great pride in listening to the sounds of each word and writing down the sounds that they heard. The goal with our first few writing pieces will be to build confidence and independence. As we progress, we will focus more on writing correct letters to match the sounds and hear all of the sounds in a word.

Next Thursday, February 12 we will have a small Valentine’s party in class. Students are invited to exchange Valentines as part of the party. Below you will find a list of all the first names of our class members for the Valentine cards. West Kent students are also invited to dress in red and pink for the day as well.

On Tuesday, February 10, the Grade 6 classes are hosting a Bake Sale to raise money for their year end activities. All West Kent students are invited to make a purchase and each item will be $1. If you would like to send money for your child to participate in the bake sale, please send the money labelled in their homework bag on Tuesday.

This Spring, KA will be participating in Student-Led Interviews. This is different from a traditional Parent-Teacher Interview and will take the place of the traditional interview. Your child will attend the interview with you and will show you some of the skills they have been learning. I will help your child along the process and will be contributing as well. This will take a little longer than traditional interviews, so when you sign up for your time (which will be made available online after February 17), it will be for a 30min slot. The goal is for the parents to be able to see what their child is learning, rather than just listening to me describe it, and for the students to feel a sense of pride and ownership in their abilities. If for any reason you would like a time to chat with me without your child present, please just let me know and we can arrange that as well.

Next Week in KA:

Monday, February 9, Day 1: Music

Tuesday, February 10, Day 2: Mrs. Mac, Phys. Ed, Library & Bake Sale

Wednesday, February 11, Day 3: Music

Thursday, February 12, Day 4: Mrs. Mac & Phys. Ed

Friday, February 13: PD Day (NO CLASSES)

Enjoy the weekend, 

Lisa 😊

Class List:

Stuart

Milla

Renn

Airlie

Leon

Kalina

Vos

Alexander

Piper

Peter