Week At A Glance - December 17 - 21st

Monday, December 10, 2012

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

We only have nine school days left meaning that we are busy getting things done in the classroom like our social project, our math unit on addition and subtraction (test next week), and a piece of descriptive writing in ELA.

With the days getting colder and it getting closer to Christmas, we want to make sure all your children kick off the holiday season energetic and healthy! So please make sure you are sending your child to school with a winter jacket. Lots of kids are coming to school in hoodies. Also, there is a flu going around, so if you're child is sick just give the school a call so we know why they're absent.

Last week we had our first bookstore event for the reading program that we started awhile ago. It was a great success and the kids had fun. Several didn't get to participate because they didn't do any reading or story maps to redeem tickets. I think it has motivated some to kick it into high gear which was great to see as well. We are starting it again after Christmas. It would be greatly appreciated if you have any old toys or books that are suitable for a grade four if they could be donated towards our reading program!

A new week at a glance has been posted as well.

Have a good week,
Mrs. Stefan

December 4, 2012

Hi all!

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! This month is going to fly by and before you know it Christmas holidays will be here. With that being said, on the last day of school there will be a hot dog hot lunch. Each student can have up to two hotdogs for free and then any additional hot dogs will be $1. The school newsletter will now be online only. Paper copies will only be going out to Kindergartens and Grade Ones. At the back of the newsletter is the hot dog hot lunch form. Print off the form and check off how many hot dogs your child would like and send in the money for any additional ones. I will print off some forms too, as some kids have mentioned they don't have a printer at home or it's not working etc.

Also, check out the new At A Glance for school happenings and a big thank you goes out to those who have donated money for the playground fundraiser!

That's all for now,
Mrs. Stefan

Interviews

On Wednesday we spent the first part of the afternoon at Creighton Lodge. This was a great experience for the students and the residents of Creighton Lodge were beyond happy to see the all of the kids and answer their questions. In ELA and Social Studies, we have been learning about who first settled in Canada and more specifically, have been looking at our province of Saskatchewan. We have learned about the settlers and what they did on the prairies. We interviewed the residents to see what life was like when they were young and compared it to now to understand how things have changed.

 

 

 

The grade fours did an awesome job at being bucket fillers at Creighton Lodge :)

 

 

In other news, the new Week At A Glance has been posted.

 

Student led conference are next week, we are spending some time on Monday and Tuesday practicing in partners so everyone feels comfortable and confident showing off their work to you all.

 

Report cards go home on Monday.

 

 

Everyone needs to bring a piece of cardboard to school for Art on Tuesday and any things found outdoors that they would want to use for their project like rocks and twigs or indoor items like toothpicks or clothespins, etc. Ask your child what they are going to be creating!

 

 

A big thank you goes out to all of you that have been sending pennies and small change with your child to school. The grade fours are currently in the lead with for the "Spread the Net" fundraiser our school is doing. The grade sevens are only a couple dollars behind us, so the competition is close!

 

 

Fundraiser sheets for the playground were sent home in the agendas. We are selling Sobey's gift cards - a great gift idea for the Christmas season!

 

 

Enjoy the weekend,

 

Mrs. Stefan

It's that time....

Report cards and interviews are right around the corner and we are busy trying to get all the different activties and projects we are working on completed so you all have lots to see and hear about during interviews. In math we are finishing up on estimation and moving on to mental math, in ELA we have just finished writing a piece on the early settlers and are going to go to Creighton Lodge on Wednesday to interview some of the residents to see what life was like back then and compare it to how it is now. Permission slips will be going home soon for this. In social we are researching First Nation and Metis leaders and artists and we will be looking at how their culture is still present in SK today and what other cultures make up SK as multicultural week starts next week.

Just a friendly reminder to let me know if your child is going to be away, if they are gone for a couple of days or more, I can prepare some things ahead of time for them to get finished before they leave.

A new week at a glance has been posted!

Have a great week!

Our Visit to Creighton Lodge!

Yesterday morning we enjoyed the warmer temperatures by heading out with the grade ones and walked to Creighton Lodge. Since we are bucketfillers in grade four and the grade ones are as well we thought it would be nice to do something together where we filled peoples' buckets in the community, in other words, make others feel special. Going to Creighton Lodge was a great experience for all of the kids and the residents really enjoyed their company. They all spent some time introducing each other and asking questions and then everyone worked on a Halloween craft together! It was awesome to watch the kids interact with the residents and we hope to go again.

 

 

Have a great day!

 

Also, a friendly reminder that book orders are due on Friday.

Halloween Happenings

 Just a quick note to let you all know what is happening for Halloween! On Wednesday, October 31^st it will be black and orange day instead of wearing costumes (save those costumes for evening trick-or-treating festivities). At 11:00 we will be having a school wide hallway dance and the grade 8’s have some other activities planned for the school. In the afternoon we will be watching a Halloween movie and doing some fun activities in our own grades. I am providing an allergy free snack in the afternoon for the kids while we watch our movie. The only thing that I ask the kids to bring (and only if they want to) is a drink for themselves such as juice, pop, chocolate milk, etc.

 

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Reading Buddies

Yesterday we had a great morning reading to the Kindergartens. We each selected a book from the library and practiced reading it beforehand. We then went to the Kindergarten room where each Grade Four student was paired with either one or two Kindergarten students. Everyone really enjoyed the activity and were fully engaged during the reading!

 

 

Reading with the Kindergartens was great practice for reading to someone and it was a great listening practice for the Kindergartens, it also was a great way for the Kindergartens to learn about some of the other students in our school.

 

 

In other news, I have posted spelling flashcards under the ELA page. These are words that we are using in class right now or are words that I have noticed being spelled incorreclty on a recurring basis. I will add/change these words as the school year continues.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hi all,

Hope everyone is surviving the crazy winds and cooler temperatures. Fall is for sure here to stay it seems. Just a reminder that if your child ordered Taco in a Bag, that is tomorrow so no need to pack a lunch. Tomorrow is library, please be sure your child doesn't forget their library books at home. New book orders went out a couple days ago. The final day for book orders before the order is submitted will be Thursday, November 1, 2012.

I hope all of you have read the letter that was sent home regarding the reading program that has started. I'm hoping this motivates your child to read and stick with a chapter book and finish it from start to finish. Remind them to be reading and encourage them that reading is fun!

That's all for now,
Have a great evening!

Fun with Buddies!

Friday was a busy day for us in Grade 4. We wrote a Math test in the morning and then we got ready for the United Way Telethon. The kids did an awesome job singing and really did a good job representing Pleasantdale School! In the afternoon we paired up with the grade eights and did some buddy activities. The grade eights wrote stories and had us read them and then we read books or chapters from our books to the grade eights. The kids really liked it! Check it out!

 

This week coming up we will be starting a new unit in Math on whole numbers, begin writing a descriptive story, and wrap up what we are learning in Science on rocks and minerals.

 

 

Picture money is due on Thursday, October 18

 

Taco in a bag is Friday, October 19

 

 

Have a great week,

 

Mrs. Stefan

Friendly Reminder

Just a reminder that there is Telethon tomorrow in the morning. Everyone is to wear black pants (or dark if don't have black) and a white shirt with no messages on it. It is also Jersey Day tomorrow ($1 donation to United Way). Jerseys can still be worn, white t-shirts need to be underneath for Telethon.

Math test tomorrow as well.

Check out what some of the grade 4's learned today or thought was the best part of the day under the "Today I learned..." page!!

Taco in a bag forms and money due Monday, October 15
Picture Money due Thursday, October 18

Those that ordered "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" from the Scholastic Book Orders did not recieve their books yet because they are on backorder. They will be sent to the school when they come in.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Today in Science we were working on our dioramas of our SK landscape or landform. In Math we are writing story problems where we have to solve for an unknown number. We will be practicing more with this tomorrow and be putting our story problems on our blogs on Friday (time permitting). We will have a Math test on Friday. Tomorrow we will spend lots of time reviewing so everyone will be ready.

Starting tomorrow we will also have "blogger" groups where students will be blogging under the "What I Learned..." section of this blog. Be sure to check in and see what your kids have been learning or having fun with day-to-day in the classroom. Each group has a certain day that they will get to blog under this section so everyone gets a turn.

Friday, October 5, 2012

This week we finally got to use the computers! Everyone was excited! If you check out your child's blog, the links to their blogs are on the right hand side (they can help you too!) you can see that we added a Science page and we have uploaded a Saskatchewan landscape photo. We are now busy making dioramas of those scenes - so stay tuned for a photo of our final product!

School pictures are being sent home today. Orders will be due October 18th!

Also, be sure to send your kids to school on Friday, October 12th with black or dark coloured pants and a white shirt with no messages on it for the Telethon performance.

Under my blogroll on the righthand side there is a link to a typing game, it's called "typing" on the blogroll. This is a fun typing game that helps get kids into the habit of typing with both hands and learning where all of the keys are located. Even five or ten minutes on it at home if your child already gets to use the computer would be good practice for him/her.

I hope you all have a great long weekend and enjoy some turkey and pie:)

Happy Thanksgiving,
Mrs. Stefan

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012

Happy Thursday! Just a reminder that there is no school tomorrow!

This week has been a busy week in Grade 4. We have been doing reading and math assessments. We are also kicking our in class reading program into high gear. There are five steps and we are doing two of them so far. We have been practicing "Read to Self" and "Read to Someone". Both of these different reading strategies will help with reading fluency, comprehension, and speaking orally. The kids are loving it!

We are going through books like crazy and it's really exciting to hear students say "Mrs. Stefan, I loooovvvvvveeee my book". I'm excited too to see how the kids progress throughout the next couple of weeks and months!

Below is a couple of pictures of some of the Grade 4's practicing "Read to Someone". They were so into what they were doing, they didn't even notice I was taking pictures :)

Have a great weekend,

Mrs. Stefan,

Busy with Rocks!

Last week we were busy with our rocks that we collected from outside. We were testing them for limestone and if any magnetic minerals were present. Ask your child what they all did to figure these two things out!

Busy at work - looking for magnetic minerals

                           

 Testing for limestone, watching and listening for a fizz sound.

Open House

Just a reminder that open house is tonight! Come stop by to see some of the things we've been working on in class! It is running from 5:30-7:00. Check out the classroom and then enjoy a burger at the BBQ which is being put on by the School Community Council (SCC). The SCC is also looking for new members to join their team. It's a great way to become involved with the happenings in the school, meet with other parents and work together to make the school an even better place! The first SCC meeting will be held on Monday, September 24th at 7:00 p.m.

Also, just a friendly reminder that we are a peanut/nut free school so please avoid sending any foods that contain the above to school as we do have some students with severe allergies this year.

Thanks!

Mrs. Stefan

Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012

Hello,

Just thought I'd mention to check your child's agenda today. They went home quite thick! Scholastic book orders went home and subscriptions for Highlights and Owl. These magazines aren't a required subscription but I know some of your kids love to read so they might be worth a subscription for your home! With all of theses great opportunities available to us as readers we had a really good discussion today about what "good fit books" are and how to choose a book to read that's right for each of us. Ask your son/daughter about it! Also, please bring back the photo forms for picture day as soon as you can!

Thanks,
Mrs. Stefan

Monday, Sept. 10, 2012

Today we kicked off the week by exploring outdoors for different types of rocks. We noted observations about the rocks we collected and tomorrow we will be classifying these rocks according to different properties as well as some rocks that I have on hand. The kids are very excited about this! If your child finds any rocks or has any rocks from a collection at home they may bring them to class to show and talk about them, just be sure that they are sent in a zip loc or container with your child's name so they don't get misplaced.

There were no agenda notes today.

Enjoy the evening,

Mrs. Stefan

We Made It!

Well, we made it through our first week of school! A lot of it was spent getting organized and familiar with each other and the classroom but I think we're ready for the busy week of learning ahead of us!
We ended the week celebrating our "fourth day in the fourth grade" - ask your child about some of the things that we did in the classroom.

 

 

This week cross country is starting so if your child is participating in this, practice will be at noon on Monday and a bag lunch must be brought. Milk will also be starting up again on Monday too. Those that stay for lunch have told me that they are really liking eating in their own room much better than in the combined lunchroom from last year. So far everything seems to be going great with this too.

 

Thank you to all of you that filled out the parent surveys, after reading them I have come to the conclusion that it is best if we avoid sending class treats to school for birthdays, etc due to several allergies amongst students. If you still really want to bring something, please contact me ahead of time and all treats must be nut, peanut, dairy and gluten free. I will be sending a quick note home about this as well.

 

 

Have a great week!

 

Mrs. Stefan.

Hi All!

Well, we made it through the first day! It was exciting and busy, making the day go by super fast. We spent the day getting organized and familiar with the classroom and some school routines. I am very excited to work with your children, it's going to be a great year!

Just some reminders for the week that I know of so far:
Please fill out the questionnaire attached to the welcome letter, this will help me know a few more things about your child and important contact information. The demographic sheet needs to be looked over to make sure that all of the information is correct. If anything is incorrect please fix it on the paper. Demographic sheets need to be brought back regardless if correct or needed changes. More information will be in the newsletter going home tomorrow about these sheets. I would like a family photo brought to school as we're going to put together a family tree in our classroom. The photo your child brings is up to you - it doesn't matter the size, if it's photocopied, black and white, etc. Just something that you're okay with your child using in our classroom. Please send back the questionnaire, demographic sheet, and family photo in your child's agenda by Friday, September 7. 

Your child's agenda will have information in it on a daily basis regarding events, due dates, tests, etc. Please be sure to check it everyday and initial it so I know it's been checked! Thanks so much!

Stay tuned for more information and exciting classroom learning experiences that we will be having!

Cheers,
Mrs. Stefan