September

Good afternoon parents.  I hope everyone has had a great first few weeks of the 2017-2018 school year at East Elementary.  There are a few updates I would like to remind everyone of as well as talk about where we are headed and what we have been studying at the start of the year.



Odds and Ends

• A reminder that every Tuesday is our Library day.  Encourage your children to keep their library books until they come to school on Tuesday.  

• This Friday, Sept 29th, is the Terry Fox Run.  The weather is supposed to be fantastic, over 20 degrees and sunny.  Please have your children wear comfortable clothes that day as we will be outside for the whole afternoon.

• Hot lunch orders for October are due this Friday.

• This October at some point, I will be away for the birth of my wife and I's twins.  I will be gone as soon as I get a phone call, which could be in the middle of the school day. There will be plans in place for where the students go the rest of that day.  Sub plans will be ready to go for the following day(s) and the students know this.  I just want to give you the heads up so you don't hear a different story from your children about why I had to leave with little/no notice.

Language Arts

Spelling:

 

All of the spelling words come home with the students every Monday.  If they are absent or do not remember to bring them home, they are all posted on the blog by lesson in the Spelling Words tab. 

Phonics:

In phonics, the students are practicing identifying beginning and ending sounds in mainly short vowel words.  It is very important that your child is able to identify the letter sounds and know which 5(6) letters are vowels, (A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y (gym).  By now, the students should be able to hear a sound and identify the letter that makes that sound.

Writing:

Our focus in writing  at the start of the year has been in sentence writing.  The students should know and be able to write a sentence that has an upper case letter at the beginning, as well as a period at the end, signalling the end of their thought or idea.  We have also talked about never starting a sentence with the word "and".  If you see your children writing at home and using the word "and" as the first word, correct them and have them erase it.  This is an example of a frequent use of the word "and".  "Today I went shopping. and I ate toast."  Two completely unrelated ideas connected with the word and, after a period has been used.  Once you finish a thought, use a period.  Start the next thought fresh without using and at the start.

Math

In math we are currently working on our basic math facts and reviewing addition to 20.  Most of the students in the class would benefit from practicing their basic math facts at home, whether it be with flash cards, writing single digit equations on a white board/piece of paper, rolling dice and adding the values, or flipping two cards and adding the values (no face cards). Weekly, in class, the students will play math games that encourage the growth of their basic math fact knowledge.  Maybe they could teach you a game or two.  

Science

In science we began the school year with the Hot and Cold Temperatures unit.  So far the students have learned different types of weather that can bring hot or cold temperatures, or types of weather that can occur when it is hot or cold.  We have learned what the definition of heat is and that everything on earth has some amount of heat in it.  We have studied what a heat source is and that different buildings are heated in different ways (a furnace vs a boiler). We looked at different ways we can heat up or cool down a house.  In later weeks we will learn how to read a thermometer and properly add the red line for certain temperatures.  We will also look at insulators and insulating materials, and then build an insulating container.

Social Studies

In social we are currently doing a review unit of mapping.  We have talked about what makes a map a map (top down view, a legend, a compass rose). We have looked at city maps, world maps, floor plans, and how they are similar and different.  We are currently talking about symbols and how they are used on maps and in our every day life.  We will also be discussing where to find Canada, Alberta, and Leduc on the map, as well as the 3 communities we will be studying this year.  By the end of this review unit, the students should be able to find things on a map, label a compass rose with the four cardinal directions (N, S, E, W), as well as navigate with directions.