Dear Parents and Players,

            Language books did not make it home last week, but I WILL be sending them home today or tomorrow for your review!  Please sign rubric and return tomorrow.

THRoW:  Last week was the first time students were assigned a Compare/Contrast paragraph.  I marked them and gave some feedback.  Please read over with your child before beginning this week's paragraph.  Remember to begin with a Venn diagram to organize your thinking.  Then write a stoplight paragraph following my format that is glued inside your child's THRoW books.

MATH:  Tests on Fractions are coming home tonight to be signed and returned tomorrow. We are going to be doing a brief unit on Division (as we already learned about multiplication).  This is a very brief unit and will be assessed on Monday of next week, since this Friday is a PD day...  I will send the Math duo tangs home with you this weekend in place of The Great Poetry Race.  This unit will be a combination of three smaller units to attain an overall mark for Number Sense:  Fractions / Multiplication and Division / Money.



DENTAL SCREENING FIELD TRIP:  GRADE THREEs ONLY

There is a field trip that will be taking place on April 6th, 2017 for the GRADE 3s only.  Our school was selected to travel to St. Clair College for a dental health screening.  THIS IS OPTIONAL. Whatever you decide, please complete BOTH forms; one is for the school bus trip for our school and the second is for consent to participate in the screening.  Return at your earliest convenience.  ALL FORMS must be returned completed.  Those who are not participating will still attend and enjoy instruction on oral health care.

I will be staying back at the school with my grade 2s.  Mrs. Ferrato and Mr. Dennis will be attending with my 3s.  This is an AM only field trip.  We will be back at school by 12:00pm.

PD Day this Friday - No School

It is a professional development day.

Coach Wilson

Secret Question:  What is 10 divided by 2?  That means, 10 equally divided into 2 groups, how many in each group?

Dear Players and Parents,

           It's been a great start back from the relaxing March break!

Writing:
The first couple of days back, students wrote a paragraph about their March break in their writing books.  I will send it home for your to sign and return this week.

CHALLENGES FACING STUDENTS:

1. Creative but detailed topic sentence.

I want students to move away from writing this kind of topic sentence...
      NO!  'My March break was awesome.' 

instead, write...
      YES!  'This March break I spent an amazing four days with my 
                         family in Toronto doing all kinds of interesting activities!'

The second topic sentence actually tells the reader what they are going to be writing about and answers who, where, and when.  Please read over your child's paragraph and discuss ways to bump up their level by improving on areas where they earned a low level on the rubric. 

     2.  Editing and Revising

Students simple do not want to take the necessary time needed to go through a check list to make sure they have correctly editted and revised their writing.  Here is the check list that I have available for EVERY student to attach to their writing tasks.  I will glue a copy of each to their writing books and THRoW books so that you can make sure they use these very helpful tools after writing.

MATH - We will be wrapping up our portion on Fractions in Number Sense this Friday.  Please review with your child tonight and tomorrow by going concepts in their blue duo tangs.

That is all for now,

Coach Wilson

SECRET QUESTION:  Which is larger, one half or three quarters of a pie?  Illustrate to support your answer.

Welcome back Team Wilson players and parents and HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

This week, we are going back to our THRoW book to work on compare and contrasting paragraphs. This type of paragraph needs a special graphic organizer (not a web that we have been using for regular paragraphs) that better suits its needs. It's called a Venn diagram like seen to the left.  It is used to show the similarities and differences between two things / people / places.  We have been working on how to write a compare and contrast paragraph before the March break and now is your child's turn to write their very own.  In your child's THRoW book is an example of this type of paragraph.  Students need to come up with two things they want to compare and contrast and then fill in the graphic organizer to brainstorm all of the similarities and differences before writing the paragraph.  When finished, select the best two similarities and best two differences and write a paragraph.  Remember to use helpful transition words such as "One difference is ...Another difference is ...".


How to Write a Compare / Contract Paragraph

Sentence 1 - Topic sentence - introduce the two things you will be comparing and contrasting.

Sentence 2 - Write about one similarity.

Sentence 3 - Write about another similarity.

Sentence 4 - Write about a difference.

Sentence 5 - Write about another difference.

Sentence 6 - Closing sentence
When finished, I ask that students STOPLIGHT PARAGRAPH it using a green, yellow and red coloured pencil or pen to show the topic sentence, detail sentences and closing sentence.  Students ALL know how to do this very well.



Wednesday:  World Down Syndrome Day - wear crazy socks day



By the way, THANK YOU diligent agenda signers!  It's been very helpful in keeping the lines of communication open between us!
That's enough for now...

Coach Wilson

SECRET QUESTION:  Who did Mrs. Wilson meet on the March break?

In the works....

Social Studies:  Google Slides Presentations

Gr. 2 - Country Study
Gr. 3 - Land Regions in Ontario
Team Wilson has been learning all about using mytools2go on the computer!  Every student in our school has a student account for my tools2go.  Since it is online, it can be accessed from home.  Ask your child about the current project in Google Slides.  Each student has received (in green duo tangs) the 'must haves' for this project.  Feel free to allow your child to work on this project at home.  All projects will be due by the end of this month. They know how to sign in and are learning about all of the features in google slides.  I encourage them to explore all of the neat things you can do in creating a presentation.  This sure beats the o'l poster project that involves a lot of printing, cutting and gluing! 

Coach Wilson

SECRET QUESTION:  Draw two strips of paper to show how 1 fourth of a strip of paper CAN be longer than 3 quarters of another strip.

Happy Monday Parents and Players!

Thank you parents for signing the agendas so diligently!  I appreciate the attention to your child's success, thank you!

This week, parents, please sign your child's Reading Response next to my assessment / grade and comments.  I want to make sure parents are SEEING what students are submitting to me as completed.

Math Tests:  Coming home tonight are the math tests from last week.  I'm sorry it took me a couple of days to get them back to you.  Some of the achievements are quite low.  Please look over your child's test with them and make necessary corrections where needed.  Fortunately, there will be two more sections to factor in for their overall Number Sense mark for the report card.  For those who failed (received a mark of 'R') the retest will be on Friday.  Please review nightly with your child.
Currently, we are learning about Fractions and how to represent fractions of a whole, of a set and of a length.

There will not be a new Poem this week, as the grade 2/3s are busy writing their OWN authentic poems!  So, that being said, we will also bypass the Great Poetry Race over the March break as well.  So, no poetry will be sent home the upcoming weekend.

Coach Wilson

SECRET QUESTION:  Who won the Great Poetry Race today for reading "I Often Contradict Myself" so well and with expression and fluency?

Parents and Players!
Final Review tonight for Math test tomorrow...

Gr. 2:

• identify, extend and describe patterns with 1, 2, 3, and 4 changing attributes (size, colour, shape, and position)
• write the pattern rule in words (including all changing attributes). 
• balancing equations

Gr. 3:

• identify, extend and describe geometric and number patterns
• create and extend tables showing patterns in geometric patterns
• write pattern rules for growing and shrinking patterns
• balancing equations

Coach Wilson

SECRET QUESTION: What number comes next in this number pattern? 
5, 6, 5, 7, 5, 8, 5 ___