We had a great week here in the Grade 5 classroom…and am AMAZING Friday adventure, hiking up Lindeman!  The weather was a little chilly at the top, but that didn’t stop us from having fun!  I am so proud of the class, the way they encouraged each other while hiking up Lindeman.  Students were positive, cheerful and LOVED being in nature!  This will definitely go down as a highlight of the year for me!  I have posted A LOT of photos at the end…so keep reading!

A few things coming up…

New Bible Memory Verse:  This month’s theme in chapel is on prayer and we will be learning the Lord’s prayer this month.  The new passage is on the blog and I will be sending sheets home on Monday.  I will still keep the testing for this weeks verse on Wednesday as I think it is pretty easy.  Matthew 6:9  “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”.

Spelling:  election, wait, quit, signal, admit, travel, language, noun, verb, rapid.  The spelling words are on spelling city.  This week I either need to have students get 10/10 on spelling city in class OR I will need a note from home (in planner or email) stating 10/10 was achieved.

Orange Shirt Day on Monday:  Students can wear casual bottoms and an orange shirt this Monday.  Shirt does not need to be solid orange but should contain a good portion of orange.

Comfort Kits:  These are due on Friday.

Upcoming Dates:

Friday, Oct. 11 – Knights Day

Monday, Oct. 14 – Thanksgiving

Oct. 22 – Individual and Class Photos

Oct. 25 – Hot Lunch/Knight Day

Oct. 29/30/31 – Scholastic Book Fair

Oct. 31 – Fall Colour Day

Enjoy the photos of our field trip to Lindeman Lake!

We have pairs of tickets available for the Chilliwack Chief’s games this weekend.  Friday and Saturday evening at 7pm.  If you would like two tickets (one adult and one child) then please let me know.  They will be given on a first come, first serve basis.  Thanks!

We have had a busy week here in the Grade 5 classroom!  The students are settling in well and September is shaping up to be a great month full of learning!  We have some reminders and things coming up so please keep reading!

Lindeman Lake – We are looking forward to our field trip next Friday to Lindeman Lake.  This is a rain or shine field trip, so please ensure that your child has proper clothing – dressing in layers is recommended.  Students will need to bring a bag lunch as we will be eating up at the lake.  We would love for parents to join us and meet us at the trailhead at 9:45.  Dress is casual – it is Knight’s Day but students can wear play clothes if they prefer.

Hot Lunch  – we are hiking next Friday and will not be on campus to enjoy hot lunch this month, which is why forms did not come home.

Toonies for Terry – We will be participating in an elementary Terry Fox Run on Thursday, September 26th.  We ask that students bring a Toonie on the 26th.  All the money collected goes towards cancer research.

Orange Shirt Day on Monday, September 30th – On this day we will be participating in activities that will help students understand the history of residential schools as well as reconciliation.  Students are able to wear orange shirts on the 30th or they can also wear their uniforms.

Class Store – we will soon be opening our first class store.  We would love some additional donations to get our supplies stocked up – small bags of Halloween candy or items from home no one uses anymore would be great additions to our store.

Planners – we are asking parents to now sign planners each day.  We are encouraging students to get their planners out for their parents when they get home from school.  Please also encourage your child to get their planners out so you can read it over and sign it.

Gym Strip – we have gym every Tuesday and Friday.  Please ensure that your child has their gym strip at school these days.

Spelling – the spelling words will be posted on the blog each week so please ensure that you check here for the words.  They will also be posted on Spelling City so your child can practice – the link for Spelling City is also here on the blog. If your child goes on Spelling City and gets 10/10 on the test please write a note in their planner and they will receive a bonus mark on Friday’s quiz.

Word for next week:  notice, noticing, noticeable, escape, visit, produce, pattern, trouble, laugh, laughter

Pictures – I fixed my picture problem…oh the joys of a new phone!  These pictures are from our first week of reading buddies.  I LOVE how excited the students are to have grade one buddies – I saw amazing kindness, gentleness and leadership from our Grade Five’s!  We also were working on reading skills – metacognition – in the first set of pictures.  Students were ‘thinking about their thinking’ and using these skills to ‘read’ wordless books.  They did an amazing job!  Enjoy the pictures of these lovely kiddos!

We have come to the end of our first full week!  The class worked hard this week on place value, goal setting, mapping skills, reading skills (metacognition – thinking about your thinking).  They met with their Grade One buddies as we had some important devotions on creating a classroom of trust and not putting a wrinkle in other people’s hearts (importance of kind word).  It was a busy week!  I have some important information to pass on…

Spelling: On Monday students will get their first spelling list.  We usually test on Fridays but due to our Pro D Day this week, students will have their spelling test on Thursday.  Students can practice their spelling words on Spelling City (found on the right hand of this blog) and if they get 10/10  this earns them a bonus mark on Friday’s quiz.  A note from home (in planners or email) with this information is needed.  =)

Spelling Words:  important, known, support, taught, caught, usual, a lot, double, flight, human

Bible Memory Verse:  Students have brought home their September BMV sheet.  They will be tested on Wednesday and have the option to write it out or say it orally.  Their first verse is Psalms 100:2 –  Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.  You will also find the verses under the Bible Memory tab at the top of the blog.

Parent Night on Monday:  Please join us in the gym on Monday evening at 6:30 for our parent night.  The first portion of the evening will be spent meeting your children’s teachers  and the 2nd portion will be gaining important information for this coming school year.  We hope to see you there!

Planners:  With the beginning of a brand new year, comes new procedures and routines for our students. One of the new procedures we wanted to make you aware of is with our planners. As a department, we want our students to be more aware of the ways they can be successful, both in school and in life. One way to do that is by giving students the tools they need to be organized. Each year our students get beautiful new planners.  We feel that not only are these planners a useful tool of communication between parents and teachers but are also an important way for students to organize their school activities and assignments.

To better utilize our planners and use them more effectively, the intermediate department would like to make the following changes:

• Students will be adding items into planners on an almost daily basis (with some rare exceptions for those times when there are no items to share).
• Planners should be checked daily and signed by parents. Teachers will also check planners daily.

We hope that these changes will help relieve any confusion as to how planners are being used as well as help our students be more successful in building important organizational skills.

Blessings

The Intermediate Department

Changes with Awards

Dear Parents,

We wanted to inform you of some changes being made to the Intermediate Department this year. Highroad Academy always endeavors to celebrate student achievement. However, we have increasingly felt that awards have become more and more detrimental to the growth of our students. Schools should be about learning and creativity in a safe and caring environment. In fact, our core values for Highroad Academy include:

– Strengthening the unique value and character of each individual.

– Inspiring passionate, creative, and responsible learners.

These values are all about empowering all students, not just the ones that are academically strong at the core subjects. We feel that handing out school academic awards at a year-end assembly promotes the opposite. The year-end awards promotes individuals as opposed to the efforts of all students working together.

For that reason, the Intermediate Department will no longer be giving out trophies for year-end academics or Term citizenship awards at a year-end assembly. Instead, students who receive A honours certificates for achieving marks above 86% in the four core subjects will receive a certificate in their report cards at the end of the year. We feel that this change will not only keep us aligned to the Primary and High School departments, but also help us to convey to our students that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM is important to our school.

Upcoming Dates:

Monday, Sept. 16th – Parent Welcome Night at 6:30

Friday, Sept. 20th – Pro D Day

Friday, Sept. 27th –  Lindeman Lake Field Trip & Knight’s Day

I will post some photos next week as I seem to be having some technical difficulties!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Good morning!  We have made it to the end of our first official week!  Mrs. Ellis and I would like to let you know how THRILLED we are to have such an amazing group of students in our class this year!  This week was full of fun get-to-know-you activities as well as some learning about Metacognition (thinking about your thinking), introduction to French, starting our classroom economy, ‘flashlight Friday’ and making some beautiful art for our classroom.

Thank you for filling out the Student Information sheets and handing them in so quickly.  We love reading these as it gives us important insights to your child and helps us understand them better.  Please feel free to send us an email or come in after school if you want to chat about anything.

We usually send out blog posts every Friday or Saturday – this will be an exceptionally long one as there is lots to tell you.  Usually it will have upcoming dates, spelling information as well as information about other things happening in our classroom or school. And, we love to include pictures so you can see what is happening in our classroom.   Let’s get started…

School Supplies – thank you for sending these on the first day of school.  Some students still need to bring in their oil pastels (can be purchased from Staples), Kleenex, Bibles and the prescribed amount of pencils.  If you could get those in next week, that would be great.

Pizza Day on Tuesday – Pizza day starts this Tuesday.  It is $2 a slice and pizza cards can be purchased from the office.

Bible Memory Verse – we are starting with Psalms 100:2-3 and the first verse will be due on Wednesday, September 18th. On Monday the students will been given a sheet with the entire passage and keep it in their binders.  It is also on the blog under the Bible Memory tab.

Class Economy – there has been quite a buzz in the classroom about our classroom economy.  Students have applied for, and received their first classroom job.  They will start earning money and hopefully not incur any fines this month.  At the end of the month students will pay $500 rent for their desk as well as receive their monthly salary.  With their profits, students have an opportunity to purchase items from a classroom store.  We would love donations from parents to help run this store.  I have purchased some things to get us started but this will not sustain us through the year.  A couple of chocolate bars, Halloween candy, unwanted toys from home, etc. make excellent store items.

Spelling – Spelling will begin the week of September 16th.  We will do both spelling and vocabulary work each week.  The students will have ten words that they will need to practice for Friday’s test and also do vocabulary work for those ten words.  This will also be due on Friday.   Students will have class time to complete these but they may need to be finished at home from time to time.  Spelling words will be posted on spelling city (link can be found on the right hand side of the blog…just follow way down) and if students get a perfect score on the spelling city test they will get an additional bonus mark on their quiz.  In order to receive this mark there must be a note in the planner or an email to myself (pgoosen@highroadacademy.com) stating that they got a perfect score on spelling city.  A certificate from spelling city can also be printed out and handed in.

Knight’s Day on Friday – Students can wear casual bottoms and Knight’s shirts/hoodies on Friday.

Dates for September

Friday, September 14th – Knight’s Day

Monday, September 16th – Parent Welcome Night (6:30 – 8:00 in gym)

Friday, September 20th – Pro D Day

Friday, September 27th – Knight’s Day & Lindeman Lake Hike (information to come home on Monday)

Enjoy some photos from Flashlight Friday this week!

We had a WONDERFUL first day of grade five!  We started our mornings off with a devotional based on the scripture from Philippians 4:6-7.  It talked about how the beginning of a new school year can come with lots of excitement but also with some worries and concerns as well!  We learned that it is ALWAYS best to give those to God – with prayer and a spirit of thankfulness.  We then got stickies and wrote some of our fears and worries on them.  We tore them up, put them all together in a glass bowl and saved them for the end of the day.  Mrs. Ellis prayed over our worries and concerns and also prayed a blessing over our classroom and for our school year.  At the end of the day we each grabbed a handful of our worry confetti and on the count of three threw it up in the air and shouted “Happy School Year!”  It was our way of giving all of our worries and concerns to God, and celebrate the beginning of a wonderful new year!

Welcome to Mrs. Goosen and Mrs. Ellis’s Grade 5 class blog.  We are so excited to be starting a new year with you and look forward to getting to know you and your families.

On the first day of school a letter will be sent home for parents.  It will be one of the last paper newsletters that you will see.  All class information, notifications, assignments, important dates, etc will be posted here during the year.

Please subscribe to our blog (on the right hand side bar) so that you will receive an e-mail when we make a new post.  Looking forward to a great year together!

Thought we’d share some pictures of our families!  Enjoy!