Winter Wonderland

Hello Parents!

It always amazes us how fast time flies when you are having fun! It is hard to believe the holidays are almost upon us.

A couple of things to note first; since it is almost the holidays, our Christmas store is now opening up for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Students who bring in some money will be given the chance to buy gifts for their friends and families if they so desire. Everyone did their walk-through last week and are very excited to explore the store once again.

As the first half of our year winds down, report cards have been sent home and as many of you may have noticed, the grading scale has been changed this year. We are now grading on a 4 point scale rather than a 5 point scale. As a result, grade level has now been determined to be at a 2. Although your child may have grades which appear to be lower than last year, this is not the case. The basic overview for each assigned number is listed below:

1 - The student demonstrates limited and insufficient understanding.

       The student struggles to use knowledge and skills to engage in learning tasks.
       The student can experience success when learning situations are rehearsed and highly
       structured 

2 - The student demonstrates an adequate and simplistic understanding.

      The student uses knowledge and skills to engage in common learning tasks.
      The student experiences success in familiar learning situations. 

3 - The student demonstrates an in-depth and well-developed understanding.

       The student uses knowledge and skills to engage in a variety of learning tasks.
       The student experiences success in familiar and new learning situations. 

4 -The student demonstrates a subtle and thorough understanding.

      The student uses knowledge and skills to engage in complex learning tasks. 

      The student experiences success in novel, diverse, and unique learning situations. 

If you still have questions about your child's report card then please let us know! We would be happy to answer any questions. 

Now on to what we have been working so hard on in class!

During our writing periods, students have been working hard on writing their own stories in order to create a class library. They have recently chosen what they believe to be their best story, made sure it was nice and tidy, and submitted it to be laminated for display! We are going to be holding an open house in our classroom on Wednesday, December 15th from 10:45 am - 11:45 am in which teachers and parents can come and explore our books and ask our authors questions. Everyone is very excited to share what they have done!

In Science, students have been put into their own navies and have been experimenting with building their own boats. In one of our biggest challenges, we tested how heavy of a load each groups boat could carry. The boat which carried the heaviest load was able to support 7 pieces of plasticine cargo (about 7 small cubes). Everyone was very supportive of each other in their groups and all in all did a great job!

Creating our boating hats for the navies!

During Social, we have moved right along into our Inuit unit. We have learned about how the land in Nunavut is vastly different from our own, how people travel, what they wear as well as how they create some of their pieces of art. We had the chance to have an in-class field trip where we made our own soapstone polar bears to take home. The class worked hard and they turned out fantastic! We would also like to give a big THANK YOU to our volunteers who were able to come in and help us out! We would also like to thank TPet and our wonderful guides Twila and Kimberly for teaching us about Polar Bears and how to make them out of soapstone! 

We would also like to take this time as we finish up our final week to wish everyone a very happy holiday! We can't wait to see all of our Monkeys and Frogs when we return on January 7th!

 - Miss Code and Ms. Gloge