Core Competencies

We have been focusing on the first facet of Personal Awareness and Responsibility: self-regulation. Students have been learning to recognize feelings and emotions, as well as identify strategies used to regulate these feelings and emotions.

On a side note, one of the strategies I've been using this term in the classroom to help students focus better is aromatherapy. The favourite scent by far is Cedar. Students are even requesting to sit near the diffuser! We've gone to a more structured seating plan to help minimize distractions as well.

This week was an important lesson in our Kids in the Know program. We talked about common lures that students need to be aware of and referred back to our Root Safety Strategies.

They are:

1. Shout NO, run and tell someone
2. Keep and Speak secrets
3. Trust your instincts
4. Buddy system
5. Dignity and respect
6. If asked to go, and your parents don't know, shout NO!
7. If asked to share, and your parents aren't aware, say NO!

Please continue this conversation at home, as there are always a lot of what-if questions. Next week we will be talking more about online safety.

In Writing, we are working on persuasive writing. Students are learning to consider their audience and their purpose for writing as they plan ideas and write. This is a great unit to focus on word choice. We have explored personal persuasive writing topics and most recently, a creative letter writing activity where students wrote in role as a character from a story.

We have been exploring division concepts in math, trying to make the connection between multiplication and division. Next week we begin long division. We will also resume our Math minutes. Students should continue to practice 5-10 minutes with their flashcards every night. Three new facts will be added next week.

Our book clubs have launched in Reading. We have had our first discussion groups and completed our first response activity.

in French, we are working on talking about our own likes and dislikes, as well as the likes and dislikes of others. Here are a few samples of some of the work from this week:

Students interviewed each other in French to complete the following writing!










Finally, in art we are looking at the elements of art (line, space, value, colour, shape, texture, and form). Check out the art gallery tab to see a few examples (finished and unfinished).