Good afternoon everyone,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Tomorrow is a Day 2 (music and tech – please bring working charged laptop). All Spring Fundraiser roller skating money ($40) and permission forms are due tomorrow, Tuesday, April 2^nd. Please remember that the $40 goes towards improving SJA!! Please return the last page of the report card with your comments by Friday, April 5.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, April 2^nd is our Autism Awareness Day. For $2, students will be able to wear a blue t-shirt (only a blue shirt please) and casual pants to show their support. Students who do not want to participate will be required to wear their full school uniform.

What is Blue for $2?

• Across the world, schools are participating in Autism Awareness Day where wearing the colour blue celebrates inclusiveness, understanding and acceptance.
• Wearing blue is in support of those who are on the Autism Spectrum. Donating a $2 provides you with the opportunity to wear blue on Tuesday, April 2^nd to support Oakwood and everyone on the Autism Spectrum and their families. 

Why is Blue for $2 important?

• Wearing blue on World Autism Awareness Day shows your support and raises awareness of how we all should care about everyone on the Autism Spectrum.  

What is Autism?

• Autism impacts the way individuals communicate, understand other people and learn
• Their senses are effected – either over stimulated or under stimulated (e.g., busy places might be really overwhelming or certain clothes might be uncomfortable)
• As a result their emotional, social, developmental skills are impacted

What will the funds go towards?

• All funds raised during Autism Awareness Month go towards much needed sensory equipment and other learning tools to support our student’s developmental needs. 

Spelling Bee packages and lists were sent home. Please use the list to study for the in-class competition. The Grade 5 Spelling Bee in-class competition will take place on Thursday, April 4^th, first thing in the morning. The top 6 from all Grade 5 classes will move onto the SJA Spelling Bee Competition. The Grade 6 spellers will make their way to the Grade 6 class on Thursday, April 4^th as well, were the top 6 Grade 6 students from all Grade 6 classes will move on to the SJA Spelling Bee Competition.

Spring Fundraiser is just around the corner! Spring Fundraiser will take place the week of Monday, April 1^st to Friday, April 5^th. Order forms have been sent home today and are due by this Thursday, March 28^th. There will be a popcorn day, ice cream day, PJ, day, electronic day, and dress up day. Please note we have extended the deadline until Tuesday, April 2^nd to bring in the $40 to attend the Spring Fundraiser trip to roller skate at Scooters on Friday, April 12^th. Students will also receive a ballot to fill out for a chance to pie a teacher of their choice in the face!! How many of you want to pie Ms. Cass again – that right…she got it good today??? Let’s bring in that money and see!! **Students who choose not to participate in the Spring Fundraiser field trip are expected to be at school that day, as Mr. Conte will be sticking back to teach. ** To date we have Chesley, Elina, Himmat, Ronit, Munira, Rajan, Liliana, Joshua, and Aarnav who could have a chance to pie a teacher of their choice. I hear Ms. Jaskolka is a popular choice!!

Such a good sport Ms. Cass!!

Important dates/items:

Monday, April 1 – Friday, April 5 – Spring Fundraiser

Monday is Neon/80’s Day

Tuesday is Popcorn Day

Wednesday is Ice Cream Day

Thursday is PJ Day

Friday is Casual Day & Dance Party (JK-Grade 2)/Electronics Day (Grades 3-6)

Thursday, April 4 – Grade 5 and 6 in-class Spelling Bee

Monday, April 8 – JK-Grade 3 Spelling Bee

Tuesday, April 9 – Grade 4-8 Spelling Bee

Friday, April 12 – Spring Fundraiser trip to Scooters (11:30-2:00)

Thursday, April 18 – SITS workshop & Easter Spirit

Friday, April 19-Monday, April 22 – No School – Easter Weekend

Tuesday, April 23 – Rock climbing, bake sale & summer uniforms begin

Wednesday, April 24 – Bake sale & casual day

Tuesday, April 30 – Silent Dance

Unit of Inquiry

Today we learned about classifying tree. We can classify them into two main groups – coniferous (pine trees) and deciduous trees (maples). From there we can classify them by needles or scales or by compound leaves or simples leaves. We did some reading, classified some pictures and went outside and classified two trees in our recess yard!

Biodiversity is another short unit. We will have roughly 3-3.5 weeks of learning and 1/5-2 weeks for our summative, which will be due sometime during the last full week of April. More information to come in the upcoming weeks.

HOMEWORK

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Inquiry into Mathematics

Today we looked at estimating percents. Remember when we think of percent, we need to think ‘out of 100.’ Here is an example –> Sylvie has a collection of 197 sports bobble heads. About 25 percent of them are hockey players. Estimate the number of hockey players.

Step 1) Round 197 to 200.

Step 2) Find 25 percent of 200.

Step 3) Find an equivalent fraction with the denominator 200…25/100 = 50/200 (25 x 2 and 100 x 2). Therefore, 25 percent of 200 is 50.

->Of the 30 students in Larry’s class, 14 of them take the bus. Estimate the percent of the students who take the school bus.

Step 1) Round 14 to 15, which is ½ of 30. Therefore 14 is almost ½ of 30.

Step 2) ½ = 50/100 (percent is out of 100 – 2 x 50 and 1 x 50)

So, almost 50 percent of the students take the bus.

  

It is looking as though our math test will take place somewhere around Wednesday, April 10^th. I will confirm the date once we get closer.

Points to remember:

Remember what we do to the denominator we must do to the numerator. If we multiply the denominator by 3, then we must multiply the numerator by 3 as well.

Remember to simplify your fractions and convert improper fractions to mixed numbers.

How to add/subtract fractions - if the fractions have the same denominator, we simply add/subtract the numerators. For example, 1/6 + 4/6 = 5/6 & ¾ - ¼ = 2/4 = 1/2. However, if the denominators are different our first step is to find the lowest common denominator. For example, 1/3 + ½ = 2/6 + 3/6 = 5/6 & 5/6 – ½ = 5/6 – 3/6 = 2/6 = 1/3.

Percents - we want to keep the number 100 in our mind. When changing a fraction to a percent, we use the numerator to help us. For example, 23/100 = 23 percent. If we have a fraction that is over 10, 20 or 25, we need to make it over 100. We will need to multiply 10 by 10, 20 by 5 and 25 by 4. Remember to do the same to the numerator. For example, 6/10 = 60/100 (10 x 10 and 6 x 10) = 60 percent. We also looked at decimals. Remember if it is out of 100, then there will need to be two spots filled in after the decimal point. For example 23/100 = 0.23 and 7/100 = 0.07.

HOMEWORK

-MMS pg 124-125

Inquiry into Language

Today we worked on our Student-Led Conference package and began our spelling lesson #25.

Hatchet Literature Circle - This time we have added two other roles. There will no be a summariser, connector, literary critic, discussion moderator, and word wizard. Each week students will individually read the assigned chapters and complete their role in class. At the end of the week each group will come together and share with their group.

The groups (for sharing) – all work will be done independently:

Group 1 – Vishva, Aarnav, Div, Aanika, and Joshua

Group 2 – Ronit, Emana, Manny, Liliana, and Himmat

Group 3 – Mitansh, Jasmeet, Munira, Chesley, and Elina

Group 4 – Eva, Rajan and Willem

Due dates:

Chapters 1-3 due Friday, March 29^th

Chapters 4-6 due Friday, April 5^th

Chapters 7-9 due Friday, April 12^th

Chapters 10-12 due Thursday, April 18^th

Chapters 13-15 due Friday, April 26^th

Chapters 16-19 will be a culminating activity with due date to be announced.

HOMEWORK

-Practice Spelling Bee

-Finish spelling lesson #25

Have a wonderful night.  

Love Mrs. Hocevar