Important Dates and/or Reminders:
- We are nearing the end of January and have 6 more school days for our Cultural Suitcases. Thank you to those families who have already sent in their cultural 'suitcases.' We have loved hearing the stories of our ancestors and mapping where families have come from prior to Canada.
- Lochside Trail walk is on Wednesday, weather permitting. Feel free to join us by signing up here.
- Grade 4s will be starting the FSAs this week. Thursday and Friday they will be doing some practice sessions on reading comprehension and math in the computer lab with Mrs. O'Leary, in preparation for the FSAs the following week.
- Family Literacy Day is coming up this Friday, January 27th. Families (parents and grandparents) are invited to join us for reading in the classroom from 8:40-9:05am. Bring a book to donate to the PCEC "1000 X 5" Children's Book Recycling Project bin by the library. Lochside has been an avid supporter of this Program since 2008 and has donated 5623 books to date. Lochside has also been the recipient of 1978 bags of books to the Strong Start Centre, 862 bags of books to the Kindergarten classes, and 440 single copies of books for Kindergarten Orientation sessions.
- NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 30th. This is the first of 2 extra non-instructional days from the ministry this year, supporting teacher inservice on the new curriculum. I will be joining our Lochside staff looking at resources on inquiry-based learning and spending some time collaborating with colleagues.
- Grade 5 parents, mark your calendars: Camp Thunderbird meeting is Tuesday, Feb.7 from 6-6:30pm in the Lochside Library.
- We have space in the computer lab in the morning for Reflex Math. If your child could use some extra practice, our lab is open at 8:00am every morning and is supervised by an EA. Let me know if your child would like to use this time to practice their facts and I can put their name on the list.
- Morning routines reminder from Lochside staff: We would like to remind all parents that students are to play or wait OUTSIDE the school building until the bell rings. This time allows our teachers to complete their preparation and planning for the day. If the weather becomes inclement, the bell will be rung to bring the students indoors. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
- Sign In / Sign Out: We would like to remind everyone to please sign their child(ren) IN at the main office when arriving late and sign OUT when leaving earlier than the dismissal time at 2:48. This is an issue of safety and security. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
- This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend an iOS Summit in Vancouver put on by Ed Tech Team. I came back with many ideas on how to use iPads (& technology) to transform our lessons, not just enhance them. I came back with a Google Cardboard viewer (think virtual reality) and we went to the Eiffel Tower! I was also the lucky winner of an Ollie Sphero----an app-enabled robot. The kids had fun checking out these tech gadgets today.
Spelling
- Unit 17 focuses on the diphthongs 'ou' and 'ow' which spell the /ou/ sound you hear in bough and coward.
Reading/Writing Studio
- This week we are starting to talk about theme in literature. This week the students will be introduced to acceptance, perseverance, courage, and cooperation. Today we talked about acceptance and noticed that our read aloud 'Wonder' includes the theme of acceptance.
- Students have been diligently working on their tic-tac-toe writing forms. It is exciting to see them be independent, focused, and engaged in their writing assignments. I will post finished products on their FreshGrade portfolios.
Numeracy
- We continue to use different strategies in multiplication this week: Grade 4s are looking at skip counting, patterns in the multiplication chart, and patterns such as 4x2, 4x20, 4x200. Grade 5s are practising using mental math.
Social Studies
- We are finishing up looking at immigration this week. Students have chosen a group to research and find out about who have come to Canada in the 1800s and 1900s. Groups we are focusing on are: Mennonites, Ukrainians, Doukhobors, Hutterites, Chinese, and Japanse immigrants. We are looking at push/pull factors for coming to Canada, hardships, location, ceremonies/traditions, and contributions to Canadian society. We will also look at Canada's treatment of these groups.
Gym
- We continue to work on our basketball skills in class with some more passing practice this week and game play.