Good afternoon everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend. Ours was a busy one. We had two birthday parties, skating, friends over for the Leaf game, and we spent Sunday morning on the slopes. It was the boys first time skiing and they truly enjoyed it!

They did so good!!

Mr. Oliver has asked that students bring in their device on Wednesday to do a research project.

Please ensure you are sending your child to school with proper outdoor gear! Students will not be kept inside for recess if they do not have the proper outdoor gear.

A big shout out to Mrs. Smith and Mr. Foster’s Grade 1 class for raising over $500 for Sick Kids through their market. Great job, Grade 1’s!

The MYP’s are holding a food drive. Please bring in you donations. The food drive will run until Friday, January 26. All donations will be donated to a local food bank.

A note from Ms. Helen, our Admissions Coordinator - As you are aware, the re-registration season is upon us and we have recently sent home packages with your child(ren). We value your loyalty and commitment to our school community and would love to continue our partnership by offering priority enrollment for our current SJA families. We kindly ask that you take a moment to review your financial statement and complete the information in the package and make any necessary changes to your place of residence, employment, email changes or any medical information that the administration should be aware of. Please be aware that in order to secure your child’s enrolment, it is imperative that you submit your re-enrollment package and fees no later than February 12, 2018 at 4:00 PM. After this date, all available grade-level spaces will be open to our families on waitlists who will then have the opportunity to secure any vacant positions.

A note on speeches - In Grade 4, students are expected to write and memorize a 3-5 minute informational speech on a topic of their choice. All work is to be completed in class, unless otherwise stated. We will begin with a guided writing activity, were we will take each paragraph a day at a time. I will write an example and then they will write theirs. We will have about a week to write rough copies, a week to write good copies and about a week to memorize with plenty of opportunity to perform in front of the class. On Wednesday, February 7, two students from each Grade 4 class will be chosen to compete in our SJA Oral Competition Day, on Friday, February 9. A letter was sent home, along with deadlines.

A note about Jump Rope for Heart - St. Jude’s Academy is please to be holding a Heart and Stroke Foundation Jump Rope for Heart event on Tuesday, February 20^th, 2018. All money raised will support the Heart and Stroke Foundation in their mission to promote children’s health and fund vital heart and stroke research.

Jump Rope for Heart encourages kids to get active by skipping rope while they collect pledges for heart disease and stroke research. They also learn the importance of living a healthy lifestyle and giving back to their community. This year marks Jump Rope for Heart’s 36^th Anniversary and the Heart and Stroke Foundation is striving to get 1 million kids jumping in close to 4,000 schools across Canada. Let’s be part of it!

We need your help to reach out School fundraising goal of $1000.00.

Please help support your child’s fundraising efforts by registering them online at JumpRopeForHeart.ca and send out donations request emails to friends, family, and colleagues. Online fundraising is the quickest way to reach all of your contacts and online donors receive and automatic tax receipt.

Please visit JumpRopeForHeart.ca and start fundraising today!

Each student was sent home with pledge envelopes if you prefer to collect donations in-person. Please ensure that their pledge envelope is returned on the day of their school’s Jump Event Day.

Thank you in advance for your support.

A note from Ms. Bancud - The system is now open to order Hot Lunch for February. Lunch orders are due Friday, January 26^th, 2018. After this date, our system closes and is unable to open for February ordering.  Please make sure your child is under the correct

grade. http://mydigitalmailroom.com/sja  
All payments are due on Friday, February 9^th, 2018. This month's special is Vegetable Stir Fry with Jasmine Rice that will be available every Friday!

 Payment Instructions

• There are two options to pay for lunches. Cash and Freshbooks. 
• Shortly after completing your order, a Freshbooks invoice will be sent to your email.
• It may take one or two days to process your order to Freshbooks, so please be check your email diligently for the invoice.  
• We no longer accept cheque as a method of payment.

If you have any questions concerning the Lunch Ordering site or Freshbooks, feel free to email me at dbancud@stjudesacademy.com

A note from Ms. Ross about After Care - After care invoices have all been sent out via freshbooks – please be sure to check your junk mail. Payments can be made online and are due January 29th.

A note about March Break Camp - Registration forms were sent home back in October. We have had many students sign up since then and especially the last few days. If you are interested in registering your chid for our amazing March Break camp, please send in the completed registration form, along with the $20 one-time non-refundable deposit in order to secure your child's spot (this could be paid in cash or through fresh books). This year there are two options to chose from the first being lunch and two snacks provided or the second being send your own packed lunch and a discounted camp rate! We also have daily rates available. Please contact Ms. Smith bsmith@stjudesacademy.com for more details. 

Upcoming Dates & Events

Monday, January 22 – Medieval Times permission forms and money were due today

Thursday, January 25 – UOI Religion Rules Summative Due and presentations begin (more information to come soon)

Friday, January 26 – Good copy speech due (in-class work only) & UOI Summative presentations & February hot lunch orders due

Friday, January 26- Sunday, January 28 – Memorize speech at home – must be 3-5 minutes

Monday, January 29 – Friday, February 2 – In-class speech recitals

Monday, January 29 – After care payments due

Tuesday, January 30  - Bake Sale

Wednesday, January 31 – Bake Sale and Casual Day

Wednesday, February 7 – Final in-class recital where 2 students will be chosen to move forward to the SJA Oral Competition

Friday, February 9 – SJA Oral Competition & February hot lunch money due

Tuesday, February 20 – Jump Rope For Heart event and pledges are due (our SJA goal is $1000.00)

MATH:

Our decimals unit may by very challenging, so we are taking our time. We will be spending 2 days on a few lessons to ensure our students are understanding the concepts. This unit will take us to beginning of February. Our unit math test will take place on Tuesday, February 6.

Today our focus was on estimating sums and differences. This is when we use our rounding rules to round up or down then we simply add or subtract.

Key points to remember:

 A fraction represents parts of a whole and is written like ½ (one over 2 or one-half). The top number is the numerator and represents the part of number. The bottom number is the denominator and represents the whole number. For example, ¾ (three-fourths) is a square with four whole parts and three parts are shaded in. 1/10 is one-tenth and 1/100 is one-hundredths. We also discussed equivalent fractions. Equivalent means equal. For example, 2/4 = ½, 2/6 = 1/3, and 5/20 = ¼.

Decimals are another way to write a fraction. The decimal separates two different numbers. The numbers on the left side of the decimal represent the whole number and the numbers on the right side of the decimal represents the parts of numbers. For example, 1.32 = 1 whole and 32 parts or 1 and 32 hundredths.

Equivalent decimals are decimals that are written and said differently but equal each other. For example 1.3 = 1.30, even though we say (1 and 3 tenths & 1 and 30 hundredths) and write them differently.

A key point to remember when rounding decimals is .00-.49 we will round down and .50-.99 we will round up. For example, 11.22 will round down to 11 and 56.76 will round up to 57. A whole number does not have a decimal.

Homework:

-MMS pg 54-55

Rounding Rules!

LANGUAGE:

SPEECHES - A kind reminder that all speech work is to be completed in class only, unless otherwise stated. Students are also reminded to ensure they are paraphrasing, putting their research into their own words.

Today was supposed to be our spelling activity day, but I thought we could use the extra time for our UOI summative. We will try to get to our spelling activity sometime this week. If not we will do it next week. It is a review week so no spelling test this week. We also visited our reading buddies.

The introduction must include a greeting, and introduction of yourself and your topic, a hook (a statement/question that grabs the audiences attention), and a sentence that outlines what you will be taking about in your speech (your three body paragraphs).

The first body paragraph is a straightforward paragraph, however students need to support their ideas with information from their research. It should begin with the general topic for this paragraph, have ideas with supporting details, and an ending sentence leading into the next topic/body paragraph!

The second body paragraph is a straightforward paragraph, however students need to support their ideas with information from their research. It should begin with the general topic for this paragraph, have ideas with supporting details, and an ending sentence leading into the next topic/body paragraph!

The third body paragraph is a straightforward paragraph, however students need to support their ideas with information from their research. It should begin with the general topic for this paragraph, have ideas with supporting details, and an ending sentence leading into the next topic/body paragraph!

Our conclusion is when we sum everything up by reminding our audience what we talked about in our speech.

Homework:

-Finish rough copy of UOI summative

We love visiting our reading buddies!

UNIT OF INQUIRY:

Today we continued to work on our summative project, which is due Thursday, with presentations begin then and carrying onto Friday. For this summative, you will be creating your own religion or doing a research project on the religion you practice. This will be an independent project and you are required to bring in any material you will need. You will need to have the name of your religion, information on the founder, names of your sacred text, scriptures and sacred building. You will also need to explain your traditions and beliefs and include an eye catching display board and pictures. Please be reminded that all work is to be complete in class only!

Homework:

-bring in materials for your UOI summative project on Tuesday

-Finish rough copy tonight so good copies can begin tomorrow

-Summative due Thursday, January 25 with presentations beginning that day

-Medieval Times money and permission forms due today

I hope you have a wonderful night!

Mrs. Hocevar J