It’s hard to believe we’re on the last week of school. The students have really grown and changed over the year.

This week the boys and girls have been finishing up their advertisements. They are using advertising techniques in really neat ways to promote their grade. They have also been finishing up learning all of the letters, both lower case and upper case in cursive writing. They are excited to write their names.

In math, we finished learning about mass and capacity. They have been recognizing the appropriate units to measure things with, ie. kg vs. g and L vs. ml. We have also been playing a fun game of               ” Around the World” to practise and learn the multiplication tables. Many of the children have been motivated by this game to practise.

Report cards go home today. Please fill out the bottom section of the last page and return to school.

There will be an end of year assembly on Thursday at 9:15. Everyone is welcome to attend. It will last about 2 hours. We are also celebrating Canada’s 150th that day, so please encourage your child to wear red and white that day.

It has been a pleasure teaching your child this year. I wish all of you a wonderful and safe summer with your families.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Almeida

It’s hard to believe we are into the last 3 weeks of school. The children have had a very busy few weeks. The grade 3’s did a fantastic job during the EQAO testing. They persevered through difficult questions and put forth their best efforts on all of the tests. The Gr. 2’s enjoyed spending extra time doing French with Mme. Heidt and her class.

Over the past few weeks the children have begun to learn how to cursive write. We spend about 15 minutes each morning learning to write 2-3 new letters. We are hoping that by the end of June they will have learned how to write all letters both upper and lower case. This is something they are all very keen to do and I’m sure they would love to continue to practice these new skills at home over the summer.

Last week we began a discussion about advertising techniques and tricks. We talked about how advertisers use, humour, celebrity endorsement, questions, bandwagon, slogans and statistics to convince people to buy their products. The students will be finishing up the year working on their own advertising project. The children will be advertising their grade for future students. They will be using the techniques and tricks that we discussed to sell their grade to other children.

In math, we will be reviewing multiplication and division to the 7 times table. Again, this is something the children are interested in and it would benefit all of them to practice the basic facts at home on a daily basis through games and fun drill. We will be finishing up the year learning about capacity and mass.

Next week it is the Stonecrest Summer Send-Off on June 20th. It is a great opportunity for the children and their families to come to school in the evening for some fun and games. It is also a great time to raise funds for our school. Please consider helping out by baking goodies for the bake table.

Here is a letter from School Council:

 

Dear Parents & Guardians,

 

CALLING ALL

Kindergarten to grade 8 PARENT BAKERS!

 

To support the Stonecrest Summer Send-Off taking place on Tuesday, June 20 from 5:30pm -7:30pm, we are accepting any baked goods (homemade and store-bought), that will be sold at the Bake Sale Table that evening.  You are welcome to send in your donated baked goods whole (for example a banana loaf), or in single or small servings (two cookies in a baggie).

 

Wondering what to bake?  Here are some suggestions:

 

cookies bars donuts

cake loaf cakepops

cupcakes muffins etc.

 

Please send your baked goods, on Tuesday, June 20th, to your child’s homeroom teacher.

 

Thank you for your contributions, and we hope to see you on June 20th from 5:30pm -7:30pm!

 

 

It was great to see how excited the Gr. 3’s were on Thursday as they participated in the Stonecrest Track and Field Day. Despite the hot weather they put forth their best efforts in the events that they participated in. The Gr. 2’s enjoyed hanging out with some of the other grade 2 classes as well as helping with some of the track and field duties.

EQAO begins on Wednesday and runs for the rest of the week and into next. The Gr. 3’s will be writing EQAO in Rm 112 with Mrs. Almeida from 9:15-11:15 each day (May 24th, 25th, 26th, 29th, 30th and 31st).  If needed, students will be given more time to complete the test each day while they eat their lunch in the library. If students are away on one of the testing days there will be make-up time on June 1st and 2nd. Students will be allowed to chew gum during the testing sessions. If you would like your child to have gum, please send them with a pack to chew.

The Gr. 3’s are ready for this experience. They have been exposed to different types of EQAO questions and have been coached about how to handle a testing situation. Please remind your children that there is nothing for them to be worried about when it comes to the test. It is a chance for educators to see where students are achieving and what improvements need to be made in teaching practices and curriculum.

The Gr. 2 students will be spending their mornings doing french with Mme. Heidt and her class of Gr. 2’s.

Enjoy the rest of the holiday!

Many of our families have been very busy with taking care of their properties as well as their neighbours over the past week. I hope that everyone took some time this weekend to rest and celebrate    mothers.

This week the grade 3 students will continue to read various texts and work through some EQAO practice questions. Both Gr. 2 and 3 students will continue to work through the writing process to write, edit and revise various pieces of writing. The Gr.2’s have been looking at poems and will continue reading and writing poems over the next few weeks.

In math, the students have been learning about surveys and data collection. They have been making bar graphs and pictographs to display various data. This past week we have been finding the perimeter and area of various shapes. This week we will look at fractions.

Our grade 3’s will be participating in the school Track and Field days on Wednesday and Thursday. Just a reminder that Friday is a PD day and that next Monday is a holiday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Stonecrest Families,

I hope that everyone is staying safe this week-end. I know that some of our families are coping with flooding and many are volunteering to help those in need.

Please let me know if there is anything you need. I would love to provide lunches next week at school for the students whose families have been evacuated or whose families have spent the week-end volunteering. Just e-mail me your child’s likes for sandwiches, fruit and veggies.

tammy.almeida@ocdsb.ca

Take Care Everyone!

It was great seeing many of the students today dressed up in their comfy PJ’s. I’m looking forward to seeing what characters will show up in the classroom tomorrow.

Over the past few weeks the students have been reading fiction and non-fiction pieces looking for the main ideas and finding supporting details in what they read.  The Grade 3’s will be using these skills as they will be given some practice EQAO reading passages and questions to answer. Both Gr. 2’s and Gr. 3’s will be reading various passages and using words like “first”, “next”, “then”, and “finally” to write summaries of what they have read. All of the students will be completing their Personal Narratives started last month and they will continue to be given opportunities to write paragraphs.

In math, the students completed a Geometry Quiz. Many of the boys and girls had difficulty with this quiz and we will be taking up the quiz tomorrow. I will be re-assessing them on 2-D and 3-D shapes and their attributes later this week. Over the past few days we have been looking at multiplication. The students have learned about using pictures, arrays and counting by easy numbers to help with understanding and figuring out multiplication questions. We will continue with multiplication for a few more days before we look at division. Any extra practice of multiplication facts at home would be beneficial to all of the students. The Gr. 3’s will continue to be given some practice EQAO math questions over the next few weeks.

Hope to see many of you at the Family Dance this coming Friday. It is always a great time for families to have fun and connect with other families in the school community.

A lot has been going on in our Gr. 2/3 class over the past weeks. It was great hearing about all of the fun times the students had over March Break.

In English, the children have been completing their chapter books and book study. They have been learning about characters, setting, story problems and solutions and vocabulary. They also have been practising looking up unfamiliar vocabulary in the dictionary and by using google. They were given new words for their Word Study on Monday and they will be given a Word Study Check-Up on Friday. The students read a short Personal Narrative about a boy and his father. They have been brainstorming, planning  and writing their own Personal Narratives. This week we will begin to discuss main ideas found in both fiction and non-fiction texts. We will also begin paragraph writing. We will do some group writing of paragraphs, using the format of, topic sentence (main idea), supporting sentences and closing sentence. The students will then begin writing their own paragraphs about various topics.

In Math, we finished a quick unit on measurement. The students experienced some difficulty with the quiz that was given, so we went through the quiz together fixing mistakes and clarifying their understanding. Continued practice with telling time, counting money and reading thermometers at home would benefit all of the children. We are finishing a unit on geometry. The students have been identifying  attributes of various 2-D and 3-D shapes. They have had fun making shapes using different items ( geoboards, paper, pattern blocks). This week the Gr.3 students will begin some EQAO practise questions while the Gr.2’s will work on some review activities. All of the students will be beginning some multiplication activities.

The students had a great day today on the field trip. They all had fun shopping and looking around at the vast display of french books. They heard a real author being interviewed and some were fortunate enough to be part of some of the fun games and quizzes during the presentation. They also enjoyed listening to the famous character, Geronimo Stilton. At the end of the day many of the children were entertained by a cartoonist and his neat sketches. All of the students had excellent behaviour and enjoyed a great day being immersed in french. A huge thank-you to all of the parents who came along to volunteer.

On Tuesday, the children took home a portfolio of some of the math and language activities that they have been working on over the past term. Please go through the items and return the empty folder along with the checklist back by Monday. On Wednesday, the students received their report cards. If you have any questions or concerns with regards to the report cards (math, English) please e-mail me and we can set up a time to meet or talk on the phone.  tammy.almeida@ocdsb.ca

In math, we have been continuing a unit on Measurement. The students have learned about time, temperature and currently we are working on money concepts. Next week we will be moving on to measuring length, perimeter and area.

In language, we are finishing up the chapter books that we started in December. We will be moving on to paragraph writing next week and the students will receive their new Word Study words on Monday.

The students did a great job of reciting their poems to the class last week. There were lots of unique actions and props used and many had great expression during their presentation. All of the children enjoyed listening to their peers present. It is not always easy to get up in front of a group and speak but all of the children persevered and made it through. Well done 2/3’s!!!

This past week we have begun to talk about different forms of media (e.g T.V, radio, books, magazines). We have also been discussing the meaning of targeted audiences. We have been reading various stories that are “Blue Spruce Award Winners”. Once we have read 7 of these books the children will choose their favourite book. They will then create a movie poster to represent their book.

The children completed an assessment on addition and subtraction strategies. We will be correcting these this week and the children will be bringing them home for parents to look at and sign. Currently we are working on telling time on analogue clocks. The Gr, 2’s are expected to be able to tell time to the nearest quarter hour, while the Gr. 3’s are expected to tell time to the nearest five minutes. We will continue with time this week

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It was great to see all of the students back after the holidays and to hear all about their favourite gifts and activities.

This past week the children were given a Poetry Presentation Assignment. The students will be practicing reciting the poem they have chosen or have been given. They will focus on eye contact, volume, speed and expression for their presentation. We look forward to hearing the poems on January 24th.

The students were given new words on Wednesday for their Word Study. Their Word Study Check-Up will take place on Friday, January 27th.

All of the children are working on a Book Study. They are focusing on the main characters of their books this week.

In math, we are finishing up adding and subtracting double digits. The students have been taught various strategies to solve these types of questions. Some of the strategies involve mental math, some using manipulatives and others for basic alogorithms. It is important for them to find the strategy that works the best for them. This week we will begin a new unit on Measurement.