Good afternoon everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful night. We celebrated Kase's birthday last night with Kraft Dinner and a Smarties Treatza Pizza from Dairy Queen!

He is such a ham!

Tomorrow is a Day 4 (music and library). HOUSE TIES tomorrow please!! Scholastic orders are due on Monday.

It seems as though the cold weather is here to stay. Please ensure that students are sent to school with proper outdoor gear - winter coats, hats, mitts, winter boots, scarves, etc. Students will not be allowed to stay in at recess if they are not dressed accordingly. I thank you for your support. 

A note regarding speeches – Due to our growing population at SJA, this year speeches will be split into two days. On Thursday, February 7^th, JK-Grade 2 will recite their poems and stories and on Friday, February 8^th, Grade 4-8 will recite their speeches.

Jump Rope for Heart – It is that time again! We will be participating in Jump Rope for Heart on Thursday, February 14^th. Donation packages have been sent home. You can make a pledge using cash or you can donate on the website - jumpropeforheart.ca. House points will be rewarded to each student who brings in donations. If we meet our school goal of $2500, students will be rewarded with a fun activity. Let’s see what we can do SJA!

A note from Ms. Melissa regarding re-registration packages - Just a friendly reminder that re-registration packages are due no later than Monday, February 11.  After this time, spots will be opened up to the public and your child will not be guaranteed a space for next year.  We look forward to seeing you back for next year!

A note from Mr. Foster, Ms. Gandy, and Ms. Brasil:

As part of our summative assessment, the Grade One classes have decided to open a market to complement our organization unit. The market will include fruits, vegetables, drinks, and other healthy snacks. It will be held in rooms 25, 28 and 29. The market will take place all day Thursday, January. 24^th and Friday, January. 25^th. All profits made will be donated to the Sick Kid’s Hospital.

Book Fair – Ms. Hayward and her book fair crew have already begun discussing our book fair. It will be taking place during the week of February 4^th to 8^th.

Don't miss out on your chance to reserve your spot for our March Break Camp!!

Important dates/items:

Wednesday, January 23 – First ski trip

Thursday, January 24 & Friday, January 25 – Grade 1 grocery store

Tuesday, January 29 – Bake sale – we are hosting – please bring in nut free items, and please avoid bringing in may contain items

Wednesday, January 30 – Bake sale and casual day

Unit of Inquiry

Today we continued to learn about the digestive system. We wrote a pop quiz where we labelled the parts of the digestive system. A thank you to Mitansh’s mom who came to speak to the class about smoking, an act she did in the past, and how it affected her health. There were a lot of questions after she left so we continued to talk about it about. Drugs and alcohol did come up, however I recognise that not everyone is aware of those topics, so we kept it very minimal. 

As per the notice sent home, the students in Grade 5 will spend a period learning about the reproductive systems tomorrow, Friday, January 18th. Mr. Conte and Mr. Orr will take the boys, while myself and Ms. Cass will take the girls. We will focus on images, proper terminology and puberty. Please let me know if any concerns arise. 

We will be beginning our summative on Monday, January 21^st. This will be a group project, where groups will explore a system we did not cover in class. Information was sent home today. Presentations will begin Thursday, January 31^st and will continue on Friday, February 1^st.  

Mitansh's mom explaining that he was the reason why she quit smoking

HOMEWORK

-Sign and return digestive quiz

-UOI summative due Thursday, January 31^st

-Presentations are Thursday, January 31^st and Friday, February 1^st

Inquiry into Mathematics

Today we learned how to plot ordered pairs on coordinate grids. Remember that the bottom axis is horizontal (the x axis) and the other axis is the vertical axis (the y axis). The first number in the ordered pair goes on the horizontal axis and the second number in the ordered pair goes on the vertical axis.

**NB** We have altered the dates of our math test. As we did with our pre-assessment, we are going to combine the math tests. Instead of writing the Data Management test on January 21^st, we are going to jump right into Probability. This unit will take us one week from Monday, January 21^st to Friday, January 25^th. We will do a small review on Monday, January 28^th and then will spend the rest of the week writing the math test. Students will be expected to come up with a survey question, six options, and will be required to survey 50 people. Students will use tally marks and then will transfer their data to a pictograph and bar graph. Next, they will be asked to infer at least five different things from their graphs. Students will also be given data to create a line graph and scatter plot. Finally, students will be asked questions about probability. This most likely will take us three to four days.

Points to remember:

To find the mean you add up the total number and then divide by the total number of data. For example if the numbers in our data are 8, 10, 6, 4 you add them up to get 28 then divide it by 4 to get 7. Therefore your mean is 7.

The mode is the number that appears the most in a given set of data. For example if the numbers in our data were 3, 6, 4, 8 4. 2, 9, 4 our mode would be 4.

To find the median you first need to order your data from least to greatest. Then whichever number falls in the middle is your median. For example if our data numbers are 1, 3, 2, 9, 5, 7, 8 I arrange them in order 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and the middle numbers is 5 so that is my median. If there happens to be two middle numbers you add those numbers together and divide by 2. For example 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 7, 8, 9 I would take 5 + 5 = 10/2 = 5.

Be sure to remember your titles, labels, appropriate scales when constructing your graphs.

Pictograph - uses pictures and key to show data

Circle graph - shows parts of a whole

Bar graph - compares choices by how much or how many

Line graph - shows a variable over time

Scatter plot - shows how two sets of data are related - it is a graph of ordered pairs on a coordinate grid

HOMEWORK

-Data Management and Probability test begins Tuesday, January 29^th

^{-MMS pg 74-75}

Inquiry into Language

Today we continued speeches. This week will be spent doing a guided writing activity where we will spend each day writing a certain part of our speech. Today we focused on the third body paragraph.

Shannen has been put on hold in class for the next little while. Students will be reading a couple chapters each weekend. Once speeches are over in February, we will begin our literary circles.

Persuasive speeches - we will be beginning our persuasive speech writing next week. We will have roughly four weeks to write and memorize our speeches. The first week will be spent completing a guided writing persuasive speech. The weeks to follow will consist of editing, revising and memorizing. Students should have any research needed for Monday.

HOMEWORK

-Finish your third body paragraph

Have a wonderful night!

Love Mrs. Hocevar