First of all, a huge congratulations to the students on their cell projects!  I loved the variety of projects that came in yesterday and was so impressed with the effort and creativity the students put into their cells!  Well done!

It is our dear classmate, Andy Han’s last day tomorrow, as he is heading back to South Korea on February 1st.   We will be having a little farwell party for him tomorrow afternoon.  If the students would like to bring some snacks to share tomorrow they are welcome to!

Next week we are doing a mini animal research project for our Science unit.  Each student has chosen an animal to study and I am asking for them to bring in some material on their chosen animal.  It does not need to be a lot of information as we are filling out a small cube with room for a few notes on each topic.

Topics include: food, interesting facts, habitat, and physical characteristics.

http://www.seaworld.org is a great website – look under animal information.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com  – look under animals (on top bar).

This information needs to be brought to school onMONDAY, FEBRUARY 4TH.

Thanks!
Mrs. Goosen

A few items:

Math Mania is tomorrow evening from 6:30 – 8:00.  We hope to see you there!

Ski Trip:  please meet at school at 6:30 as we are leaving at 6:45.  We should be back by 4:45.

Sorry that this spelling list is out late – I forgot my spelling book at school!  Here are the words for this week:

whether

compete

wrestle

realize

folks

concern

whistle

succeed

forfeit

office

ought

altogether

wreath

exception

vary

various

ninety

error

liquor

official

Hi Everyone,

We just wanted to let you know what’s going on in class right now.

In Science, we’re studying the Classification of Animals.  The cell projects are due on Monday and if any parents want to pop in at 2 pm to see them, please feel free!

In Math, we’re doing a major unit on Multiplication with Decimals.  We noticed that the majority of the students have been struggling with the multiplication process, so we’re going to take a step away from our math-u-see workbooks and make sure that our understanding of the multiplication process with decimals is clearly understood before moving on.  Please see the link below for a step-by-step guide to the multiplication process as we will teach it.

Multiplication Process

Social Studies this term brings us to a look at countries around the world.  We are focusing on the country of Japan and currently the students are creating poster projects about Japanese sports and arts.    It’s amazing the excitement that comes from pictures of sumo wrestlers.  🙂

In Language Arts our writing focus right now is poetry.  The students just completed haiku poems (to link with our Japan unit) and they are on display in the classroom.  In Reading, we are working on our critical thinking skills by creating deep-thinking questions while reading.  We’re learning that strong questions should not always be answered in the book we’re reading, but rather the answers should come from our brains.

Upcoming dates to remember:

Thursday, Jan. 31:   Ski Trip

Friday, Feb. 8:  Pro D Day

Monday, Feb. 11:  Family Day Stat – no school

Enjoy the rest of your week!  Mrs. Derksen & Mrs. Goosen

There will be a yearbook pre-sale!  All yearbooks purchased by February 14th will be $30.  After the 14th the price rises to $40.  Yearbooks can be purchased after school in the foyer.

I am super excited to announce that Erica Lee won an art contest over the Christmas break.  In December we worked on our Stately Nutcrackers, a project which I had found on a fantastic art website called ‘Art Projects for Kids’.  The art teacher from the website was offering three prizes for the winter art projects she had shown on her site.  I took some pictures of the student’s art and submitted them…and Erica won!  The class recieved a $100 gift card to Michaels.  I went on Friday and bought a class set of watercolour pencils, lots of watercolour paper, some watercolour brushes and a special gift for Erica!  I have included the picture of Erica’s ‘Stately Nutcracker’…she did a fantastic job!  Congratulations, Erica!

Mrs. Goosen

I hope you are all having a great weekend!  Here are a few things coming up this week:

We will be using the student collections for Science tomorrow.  I had intended on using them the first week at school but then changed my plan and started with cells instead of classifying…so we are now ready for the collections!  Please bring approx 20 – 25 items tomorrow.  We will use them…promise!

Thursday, January 24th is KNIGHT’S DAY. Students can wear jeans and their knight’s t-shirt.  If they do not have a  knight’s shirt they can wear their uniform.

Here are the spelling words for this week.  Due to the field trip on Friday students will have a spelling test tomorrow for last week’s words.  Below are the words for this week:

business

biscuit

stomach

process

chimney

choir

chorus

drought

medal

favourite

conversation

burglar

ache

electrician

bruise

volume

hymn

lily

discovery

scissors

On Tuesday, January 22nd the students will be having a Science quiz on the needs and characteristics of living things & cells.  I have sent home a study guide and have extras in the class if needed.  I also have attached a copy of the study guide here, if needed.

Thanks,
Mrs. Goosen

Cell Study Guide

Over the next 4 – 6 weeks the students will be studying and writing poetry.  The students had an opportunity to read various poems today and selected one that they would like to read to the class.  We will have a poetry tournament, where students read their poems and then votes are cast for the ‘favourite poem’.  Below I have included the dates for the first round of readings.  This information is also in the student’s planners.

January 15th:  Andy & Jack / Mark & Cooper

January 16th:  Michael & David Balzer / Kaytlyn & Soraya

January 21st:  Tia & Hunter / Mikayah & Erica

January 22nd:  Micah & Emily / Jackson & Janae

January 28th:  Kennedy & Sydneigh / Spencer & David Brodie / Faith & Dayna

Also wanted to remind you that skating is tomorrow morning.  Students can wear play clothes and must bring a helmet.  We will leave at 10:15 and our skating time is 10:45 – 11:45.

The students received their first at-home Science project – a model of a 3D plant or animal cell.  The project outline went home today and is due back on MONDAY, JANUARY 28th.  I have included the outline here in case it gets lost etc.  and also included some pictures of animal and plant cells.  The project is on two links as I added a bonus section for the students to do, if they would like.

Students are encouraged be as creative as possible!  A quick google search on ‘3D animal cell model’ or ‘3D plant cell model’ will show you lots of fantastic examples of models for your child to look at.

Have fun!
Mrs. Goosen

The Incredible 3D Cell Project

Cell Project – Part Two

Here are this week’s spelling words:

pierced

deceived

reign

weird

division

accelerate

appearane

absence

circle

source

nation

national

minute

autograph

automobile

television

telephone

microphone

dilemma