We hope everyone is eager and ready to dive into the winter term! January will fly by quickly and we have a busy schedule planned. Reinforcing regular homework habits and encouraging daily Home Reading is a good way to support the growing and learning of the children as we head into the new year. The next couple of months are important for the students as it offers an opportunity to make improvements to meet or even exceed the grade level standards. We all need time to get back into the routine but we ask everyone to help their children remember to return all forms, homework and agendas to school on a daily basis. Thank you for your support in this area.
The students will be participating in a
speaking and listening based activity known as T.U.S.C. in Language Arts
class. The Totally Unbelievable Speaking
Club Meetings will take place twice a month beginning at the end of January. The program is explained in detail and
includes examples in class in order to clarify it for the students. The students will be assigned tasks and roles
two weeks in advance of the meeting.
Preparation and practice will be done at home as part of their
homework. A layout of the program will
be sent home for parents to read in order to better understand what it involves
and how it works. The class is excited
to begin our bi-monthly meetings. This
should turn out to be a fun and educational activity!
Language Arts Theme Study
Our
new Language Arts theme was sparked by the students keen interest in space as a result of the new Star Wars movie. The kids have already created their own aliens out of plastercine and wrote a descriptive paragraph entitled Meet My Alien. The
class has also been reading books on the Solar System and sharing their knowledge using Showbie. Reading to obtain information
is an important skill we will continue to emphasize as it is required in other
subjects. We will also be starting the process of publishing our
second major story by the end of the month.
As an extension of
our Holidays Around The World study we are going to be studying the country of
China and the Chinese New Year celebrations.
This is the year of the monkey and the date of the new year is February 8th. We are planning our own class celebration. They will be moving through
activity stations that will include crafts, learning activities, games and
food.
If
you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.
rnuytten@sjsd.net
