Friday, February 6th, 2026
Upcoming Dates
February 11 Wear Red and Hearts for Valentine's Day
February 12 & 13 Teacher Convention - NO SCHOOL
February 16 Family Day - NO SCHOOL
February 25 Fun Lunch - Coco Brooks Pizza
February 26 PINK Shirt Day
February 27 Non-Instructional Day - NO SCHOOL
March 17 Wear Green for St. Patrick's Day
March 18 Fun Lunch - Subway
March 19 & 20 Parent/Teacher Conferences
March 19 NO SCHOOL for Kindergarten
March 20 Parent/Teacher Conferences - NO SCHOOL
March 23-27 Spring Break - NO SCHOOL
Recommended areas to focus on at home to help your child:
**Highlighted areas are the ones we are either focusing on right now, or the ones that they need the most support with.
- Reading every night:
- focusing on fluency (can they read without stopping to sound out each word),
- expression (changing their tone of voice to match the punctuation and dialogue of characters), and
- comprehension (ask your child questions about the story while they read or after they finish).
- Math
- addition and subtraction, both with and without regrouping (this could be practiced using worksheets or card games like addition or subtraction war)
- skip counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, and 25s (a great activity to practice this is by counting coins)
- Reading time on an analog clock.
- Place Value: expanded form, written form, standard form, and block form
- 3 digit Addition and Subtraction with regrouping
- 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, 100 less: Write down a set of numbers and have your child calculate what the number would be if you were to have 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, or 100 less.
- Skip counting by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, and 25s
- Counting money (especially coins) is a great way to practice skip counting.
- Adding and Subtracting decimals
- using money to pay for items, whether in a store or pretending at home is a great way for kids to practice adding and subtracting decimals in a hands on, practical way.
- Multiplication and Division facts
- spelling (you could also practice this skill playing games like 'Horse' using a basketball, net, and choosing different words to spell).
- printing mechanics (are the letters legible, is their a clear size difference with capital and lowercase letters, are their spaces between the words)
- punctuation and capitalization
- Using nouns, adjectives, and verbs within their writing
- Opinion writing: have your child tell you their opinions on things either in verbal or written form, but have them give at least 3 reasons why they have that opinion, and have them further explain each reason as well.
- Persuasive writing: have your child write about something they want, and ask them to give at least three reasons why they should get it, and have them add lots of detail to their writing.
- Writing letters, focusing on formatting and expanding ideas.
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Literacy:
- We began listening to the story podcast, The Unexplainable disappearance of Mars Patel, and each day we have focused on a different comprehensive strategy.
- On Monday, the students created a sounds and visualizations page in their podcast journals, where they had to focus on creating an image in their head of what was happening in the story. When sound effects were used, or when a character said something to describe what they were seeing, the class had to draw an image of what that would look like to them. This has been a challenging skill for them, as they are transitioning from reading picture books and comics, to reading chapter books where their minds have to do the work to visualize characters and settings.
- On Tuesday, they did a 5 senses page, where they had to identify the ways the 5 senses were used to create interest in the story. They could draw or write about the ways these sense were utilized, and this helped them realize that adding details to a story, even if they are small, help the listeners visualize the setting and stay interested the story.
- On Wednesday, they did a quotes page. In this task, I explained that as they get older, they will sometimes need to write things down as they are being spoken, just like we do when writing dictations in literacy. So their job was to listen carefully, and write down quotes from the characters in the story when they said something that stood out to them. Some things stood out because they were important to the story, others were funny things the characters said, and some were things that they believed to be clues to the mystery.
- On Thursday, we did a Pre, During, Post activity, where they needed to write 3-4 predictions about what they thought was going to happen in episode 4, then they wrote down main events or important details that happened during the episode, and then they wrote 3-4 reflections or predictions after the episode finished.
- On Friday, we had a free listening day, where students could listen to the current episode without doing a task in their podcast journal.
Math:
- We continued our new unit on Multiplication and Division. We practiced using arrays for multiplication and division, which was a challenging task for many students. I would recommend practicing these at home, using the pages in the multiplication/division booklet I sent home last week.
- We have been beginning every math lesson with our warm-up brochures, where students practice their multiplication facts for each grouping. So far, they have completed the warm-ups for multiples of 1, most of them have finished for multiples of 2, and some have begun multiples of 3.
Science/Social:
- We have been learning about Metis history and culture, and identified symbols that represent key features of their culture (such as the Metis Sash, beadwork, the fiddle/violin, and the Metis Flag with the infinity symbol. We watched some videos of professional Metis Jig dancers, and then learned how to do some Metis Jig dance moves!
- For Science, we have been learning about forces and energy, and how push and pull forces cause things to move. We completed some centres for each, and then watched a Bill Nye episode to see more experiments and science in motion. Then we went to Mrs. Coleman's room and paired up with students from her class, before creating Hoppers out of cardboard, and learning about how tension can create enough force to cause objects to jumps.
Art:
- All week, we have been learning about the Olympics and what they stand for. We made a visual journal about the Olympics and drew symbols that represent the games. Then I made a list of 25 countries that are participating in this years games, and hid them around the room for an Adopt-a-Country scavenger hunt. After each student found a country, they learned 5 facts about their country, and 5 symbols that represent their country. We then talked about how each country comes out together in the opening ceremonies wearing clothes that represent their nation. I gave each student a jacket template, and they got to design a team jacket for their adopted country. Then we learned about the tradition of athletes trading pins with athletes from other countries, and each student got to create 6 pins for their adopted country and trade them with other kids in the class before decorating their team jackets with their new pins.
Health:
- We have been learning about how we can keep our bodies healthy in gym, by following the EASY steps recommended by the Heart and Stroke Foundation. We took a closer look at nutrition and how we can fuel our bodies with healthy food. We also took time to learn how to properly read and understand Nutrition Fact labels, so that we can determine what is an "every once in a while" snack vs. an "okay to have every day" snack.
- We did a Social-Emotional learning task where we read the story The Good Egg, and then discussed how sometimes we have felt like the good egg in the story, who gets very frustrated by the other eggs being bad and how it takes a toll on our mental health. We then made a poster about things that are inside and outside of our control, so that we know what things are worth focusing on. Each student took their poster home, and on the backside, they all made a list of 3 things they are good at, 3 things other people do that bother them, and 3 things that they can do to calm themselves down or bring themselves back up if they are upset.
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