Cold Weather

   It looks like the cold weather may be here to stay! Don't forget to remind your children at home to dress warmly and to bring hats and mittens... we had some pretty cold hands after lunch recess today!

    Litterless Lunches have started at St. Francis, and they happen every Thursday. On Thursday's members from the Eco team will go around to each class and check to see who has brought a completely litterless lunch. Each students with no garbage in their lunch will earn a ballot to be entered into the weekly draw from various prizes.

   Mrs. Miller

Congratulations to all students who completed their first Math test on Patterning last Friday! Everybody worked so hard and I am very pleased with the results :) All of our hard work on Patterning since the beginning of the school year was shown! Students also completed various other Patterning related assignments last week, such as a Patterning Booklet, and they even created their own "quizzes" for their friends to complete.

   Now that our Patterning unit is finished, we will be starting a new Math unit this week: Data Management; students will start exploring graphs this week.

   With Halloween looming around the corner this week will have many themed activities to help us get ready for the big day! On Friday we kicked off the theme by having students create their own Jack-o-Lanterns in Art. First, we listened to the story "The Bumpy Little Pumpkin," and then students were challenged to create their own "imperfect" Jack-o-Lanterns. I was blown away by the hard work and creativity that went into their creations!

      In science we will be starting to wrap up our Unit on Growth and Change in animals in the next couple of weeks, so check back here soon for some more information on a culminating activity that the students will be completing for the unit.

    I hope everybody had a safe (and dry!) weekend.

 Mrs. Miller

First Math Test and Halloween update.

    We will be having our first math test of the year this Friday! The test will finish up our unit on Patterning and will also test a bit of their number sense skills. We are spending the week doing some review and practice questions so that the students are prepared for Friday :) Here are some of the topics that the test will be covering:

                           - Extending and creating repeating, growing, and shrinking patterns.
                           - Creating a pattern with 2 changing attributes.
                           - Identifying the pattern core.
                           - Naming the pattern in different ways (i.e. number, letters).
                           - Counting by 2's, 5's, 10's, and 25's.

 
   Here is also an update on Halloween activities this year, as posted on the St. Francis web page:

Students and staff are welcome to bring a Halloween costume to school on Friday, October 28th. Students will be given time to change into their costume shortly after lunch. Starting at 1:30 p.m., we will be parading in the school. Each class will be invited to select the best costume representing their class and staff will vote on the best three costumes in the school. Winners will get a small prize. On Monday, October 31st, students and staff will be invited to wear orange and/or black clothes. Happy Halloween!


 Have a great night!

     Mrs. Miller

     Mrs.Miller is back on-line! Sorry for the lack of updates recently but I have been away on and off all last week battling a bad cold and stomach bug; I am feeling much better!

    A quick reminder that tomorrow (Tuesday) is picture retake day AND class picture day. So even if your child is not getting an individual picture retaken, please dress them how you would like to see them in the class photo :)

   Thank you for continuing to check the blog on a regular basis, there will be many more updates this week!

       Mrs. Miller

There will be no library visit this week due to our day off yesterday for Thanksgiving. Please remember to bring your current book home before next Monday, thanks!

  Mrs. Miller

Happy Thanksgiving!!

   I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

   Before our week started I wanted to let everybody know that there has been a new rule implemented at our school that affects some of our classmates: Pokemon Cards are no longer allowed to be brought to school. Pokemon Cards have been a growing problem out on our yard these past few weeks and there was an incident last Thursday out on the school yard where a student in our school got seriously injured in an argument over Pokemon Cards. Please do not allow your children to bring these to school, please keep them at home from now on. Thank you!

  This week our school is holding its Thanksgiving Mass, being held in the gym on Wednesday at 9:30am.

   We have a week full of activities and learning opportunities so please continue to check the blog daily for updates on what we are learning and doing in class! The students are so excited to share their work with you.

   Mrs. Miller

At the end of the week I like to wrap up our week of Math lessons by having a variety of Math Centers where students can practice things that we have been working on in class. Here is a snapshot of what our students were working on today! Enjoy your long weekend :)

  Mrs. Miller

Using attribute blocks to build, create, and extend growing patterns.

"Make 10" game where students work on number sense by making "10" with the cards on their mats.

Math games on the IPad and playing with the OSMO.

Connect 4! Working on our subitization, number sense, and addition skills. 

Creating a pattern booklet following different pattern rules (i.e. AB, ABBA, ABC patterns)

Putting together skip counting puzzles.