This year the book fair is being offered virtually. 

​Scholastic Virtual Book Fair from November 16 - November 30, 2020.   
Visit our school’s Virtual Book Fair site using this link: 
 
https://bookfairs-canada.myshopify.com/pages/5149198

​We had our first bout with some cold symptoms this week in 78. I was away two days with a runny nose, and missed another because I needed to stay home with my son. We had at least a few students away each week, and finished off the week with 9 students away. Hopefully the long weekend will let us get back to full strength for next week. 
 
We have some exciting news for next week, we have Reid Simmons joining us as a student teacher. Reid will be with us until November 6th. Reid attends Nipissing University, where he is completing teachers college. This is a neat experience for me as Reid’s parents both taught me when I was in high school. Reid will spend the first week and a half observing and helping in the class before working up to where he is teaching half of the day. After his 4 weeks this fall, Reid will be back February 15thand be with us until March 12th.

Week 3 all wrapped up! 

Despite the many new challenges while at school in COVID era, we are settling into our routines and getting closer to our goal as a classroom. If you haven’t returned health forms, please do so as soon as possible. Due to the rising COVID numbers, public health has decided to postpone the vaccinations until a later date. I will keep you updated.  

We started a new language unit focusing on reading strategies, specifically the strategies we use before starting our reading. We continued to practice writing paragraphs following a proper format, and considering who we are writing to. In math, we finished our first spiral that centred on the geometric properties of 3D shapes. Everyone completed their first weekly math quiz and should be very proud of their learning. Today we began our new spiral that will have us learning to solve problems using area and perimeter. We continued to look at Canadian history over the last 15-20 thousand years. Once we have an understanding of the big picture we will begin diving into the details. 

I want to start by sharing how excited I am to be back in the classroom with all of my 7/8s! This year may look a little different than others, but I know it will still be a great year for all of us. 

We have made it through the first two weeks and are starting to get into a bit of a routine. There a lot of changes to the flow of the day, and a lot of new routines and expectations for students. I think I have sprayed sanitizer a few thousand times already, and asked students to space out just as many times. It certainly is not an ideal situation for Grade 7 and 8s, but they are adjusting and we are making the best of it. 

These weekly updates are new for me, so if there is anything you want, please let me know. My plan is to include some highlights from the classroom, upcoming material or events and general reminders. 

Last Week
In the first couple weeks the focus is on building relationships and setting the tone for the school year. We have discussed and completed some classroom activities on Global Citizenship and the importance of "failing fast." We have also completed a variety of reading and writing tasks that helped me understand the needs of each student in Language. In math class we have focused on learning through problem solving, and getting comfortable with making mistakes. We are well on our way to an excellent math community that learns together. In geography we began the year with a general focus on the 5 themes of geography and will be finishing personal "5 Clue Challenges" this week. Students chose a location and create 5 clues about the location based on the themes of geography. This assignment is due on Wednesday and many students are well on their way to completing it. 

Next week
In the coming week we will continue our focus on Global Citizenship and what it means to us. We will also begin learning about how our brain works and the process of learning new material. In language the focus will continue on writing good paragraphs and we will begin a focus on reading strategies. In math class we are going to start our first spiral, which will lead up to a quiz on Thursday. This first spiral has a spatial sense focus and will centre on classifying and describing shapes based on their geometric properties.  

Other 
Please complete and return: health forms, media consent forms and immunization forms.

Make sure to follow along @themr_tee 

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