The week that was...

Dear room 211 families, 

 It was a hectic week in room 211. Unfortunately family kept me out of the class on Wednesday, but the students did fairly well without me I hear. On the horizon, you can look for permission forms regarding our skating program, and the trip to Parliament Hill for November 14. FYI Skating day this year will be on Thursdays. Check our specific days and times when the form comes home later next week. The first skate will be mid November.

The office would like me to remind families that we still have only received student levees from 10 out of our 25 students in room 211. I know it is a volunteer fee, it’s just quite abnormal to get such a low percentage of the classroom choosing to not send him this week. This money goes towards the purchase of pencils paper books rulers erasers markers pencils crayons glue paint construction paper or card stock Bristol board and other resources that your students will be using throughout the year. Obviously these materials would cost for much more to purchase yourselves.  If this is simply slipped off of your plate and you have forgotten about it, no worries, that’s why am sending this reminder. 

This week in class students continue to explore seems dealing with Canadian government and Canadian regions in social studies, we worked on a range of writing topics, including some questioning work around The game invented by a former Churchhill parent called 20 Q. Ask your child about it, or go online and check it out with them. 

http://www.20q.net/

In math we continue our exploration of patterns, Making links between the numbers and the values in a series of figures, and developing strategies and formulas to extend our patterns and our understanding.   We have also continued our exploration of basic operations. This week students were introduced to the idea of multiplying by tens hundreds and thousands. Ask your child what it means to think multiplicatively. We are trying to shift some of the mindsets from the primary ideas of additive mathematics into a more junior mindset where they think about ways to solve problems with multiplication .   Of course it goes without saying that those who are struggling with their number bonds and their basic times tables are finding some of this work more challenging. If you have time to work on any of this with your children it would be a huge benefit for those looking to support learning happening in class. 

 Finally, before wishing you a happy weekend, I would like everyone to put  October 30 on their calendars as that is the night of our annual math freaks come out at night event. Our class will be hosting this Churchhill tradition. More information will come next week, but it is a math family event that is focussed on Halloween themes. We will be preparing for this all week long leading up to the 30th. The event will happen in the evening from approximately 530 until seven. More to come on that topic! Have a great weekend.