Wacky Hat Day

Friday, November 30 is Wacky Hat Day!

Come to school wearing your favourite wacky hat to show your 

Clairlea spirit! 

November 26 - 30

Hi all

It was great to connect with you all again during parent-teacher interviews. I am blessed to have such an involved and supportive group of parents. Thank you!

Food Drive
Our crew in Room 206 is organizing a school-wide food drive to support local food banks. The need is greater than ever and we look forward to the support of the Clairlea community who are always so supportive of charitable contributions. Look for flyers coming home with all students in every grade. 

In Our Class
We are continuing our learning in numbers and patterning, writing solid, descriptive paragraphs, reading for comprehension and understanding that good readers always have good questions about what they are reading. Our inquiry process is taking us back to ancient civilizations where we are learning how to navigate online content as well as learning how to cite information when we did not write it ourselves. We are remembering internet safety and ask before venturing outside the TDSB's Virtual Library. We understand that our early communities in Canada include First Nations peoples and we are learning about how interactions with First Nations and government policy has shaped their lives and continues to this day. We are continually learning and consciously aware that the world is made up of many religions, beliefs, languages and cultures. People have come and will continue to come to Canada in a variety of ways and for many different reasons. We must work diligently to ensure that while we may not always understand or agree, we are kind, considerate and always respectful of differences. We are learning that drawing is communication and comprehension and we can use drawing or sketching to help us write and express our understanding about ourselves and our world. Coding is patterning and we can make Dash and Dot navigate closed polygons with looped patterns. There's lots going on in Room 206.

I have a number of pictures to post and will do just that in another post. We have October and November birthdays to capture and celebrate and I'd like to share Rita Joe's I Lost My Talk that our class and Mme Bertrand's class recited at our Aboriginal Assembly on Friday.

Also, a huge shoutout to Eva for making the Clairlea Girls' Grade 5 & 6 Volleyball Team. Yes, she's only in Grade 4 and that's why she is so very amazing!

Here are some up and coming dates.

Upcoming
November 29th - Clairlea Reads first bookclub meeting for our Grade 4s who are participating. See you at lunch!
December 7th - PA Day
December 20th - Holiday Concert - 6:00 - 6:30 pm for Grades 4 - 6. 

• Please bring a non-perishable food item to support local food banks; 
• Pizza for sale on the evening of the concert. 

December 21st - Last day of school before the break.
January 7th - First day back after holidays.

A fun and busy time ahead. Hold on to your hats.

November 12 - 16

Hi all

1. Parent / Teacher interview request forms have gone home (last week). Thanks to those who have returned them. A date and time has been stapled into your child's agenda. Looking forward to meeting you all, again.
2. Progress Reports go home on Tuesday.
3. PA DAY is Friday November 16th. No school for students. 
4. Clairlea's Scholastic Book Fair is happening, right now! Come browse the bookfair - it will be open during Parent Teacher Interviews. Lots of really great books for all ages. Students will get a chance to browse and purchase during the day. 
5. Spirit Wear - sizes in the office for you to try on. Here's the link for you to purchase https://clairlea2018.itemorder.com/sale
6. Lost and Found - there are many, many items sitting in our Lost and Found. When you are in for Parent / Teacher interviews, please stop by the table in the downstairs hall by the office.
7. Aboriginal Assembly - Friday, November 23rd. 

Our crew in Room 206 very much enjoyed the trip to the Royal Winter Fair. Thank you to all our awesome Volunteers. Could not have happened without you! Pictures to follow.

Update

Hi everyone

Here is an update and some pics.

Housekeeping

Field Trip on Thursday to Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. 

• Reminder to pack a lunch and water, comfortable clothes and shoes for lots of walking. 
• Parent Volunteers - thank you. I will send home a letter tomorrow with details. 
• There are still some outstanding permission forms - please return those asap. Thank you!

Snack Program

• Just an fyi - there are a lot of snacks from the paid snack program that are not being eaten. I know parents have paid for these snacks, but I think there are a lot of snacks coming from home, as well. In addition, sometimes kids are eating double the amount of snacks (from home and snack program) - not sure how you feel about the type of snacking and the sheer amount of snacks being eaten. Just thought I would put that out there. 

Dressing for the weather

• Because of the amount of rainy days we seem to be having, our kids are spending morning recess, lunch recess and afternoon recess inside, in the classroom. This past week, we had 3 consecutive days of inside recesses with maybe a short recess outside and that was combined with Halloween general craziness. 
• 23 students in a classroom all day, day-after-day, is a recipe for tears, fights, very physical behaviour and unmotivated learning. 
• Please send your child to school with clothes for rainy days - proper boots/shoes, rain jacket, umbrella, hat, etc.  I will be taking the class for walks, regardless of the weather. They need fresh air and exercise so we will make the best of the weather we are given and get outside at some point during the day.  

What's been going on in the classroom?

Open-concept Classroom

• We have been experimenting with an open-concept classroom. Kids learn best when they are allowed to collaborate and move freely, unrestricted (to a certain extent) in an open space. 
• 21st century learning is about teamwork and collaboration. Desks in rows, restricted movement, top-down teacher-driven instruction is outdated and that type of classroom design was for the "ease of teaching" and not geared toward "student learning."  
• Feedback from the kids was that open-concept was an unresounding success - but we will work at phasing in for some parts of a day, rather than just throwing all desks and tables out the window. 
• After a shared reading about asylum seekers coming to Canada, we worked on a design and media piece in an open-concept space - as much as I could do in our room.  These pieces then formed the basis for our partnered procedural writing with Google Docs. 

Chromebooks

• Our Grade 4's have been working on Chromebooks (Google Docs, Slides and Virtual Library) since September.
• In the last 2 weeks, I have graduated the Grade 3's onto Chromebooks, too. 
• As with any new learning, all students are approaching the concept from many different places along the continuum. 
• Some kids are comfortable with Chromebooks as they use bigger desktops or laptops at home while some of our students have older siblings who are fluent on Google Apps for Education and therefore have been exposed to Docs and Slides. Others have used mostly touch-screen technology (parents phones and i-Pads) and are becoming familiar with the keyboarding skills required for using a laptop. 
• There are learning curves, and that's why we are here - to learn. Regardless of the entry point, Room 206 loves Chromebooks. 

Hour of Code

• I have sent home passwords to Hour of Code website. 
• Ms Brown (Library, STEM, Grade 7/8 teacher) set up the Grade 3's on Hour of Code website last week while the Grade 4's were working on Dash and Dot robots. 
• Grade 4's will receive passwords this week and I will pass them along. 
• I will keep passing along websites for students to try at home, via TDSB's Virtual Library. 

Halloween

A rainy few days ahead. Hang on tight! 

Ms V.