Mr. Lafrance's Class Newsletter
Just Another Update
Here Comes Another Week
Sunday, September 21, 2014
I wanted to first say a huge thank you to all of you who attended Meet the Teacher this past Tuesday. It was a wonderful experience for myself, and I hope you too! The main message that I received was that things were going well for everyone and that our time spent in the classroom so far has been successful. That was great news. As you know this is my first year at Hopewell and teaching grade 3 so your feedback is important and much appreciated.
I also want to apologize for the lack of photos on the stream and the newsletters not coming as frequently as you're used to. The class iPhone has been experiencing some technical difficulties. It's my old iPhone that I used for many years and it sometimes grows exhausted and needs a little break. With that being said, I'd like to ask a favour; if anybody has any old apple iPods, iPhones, or iPads that you are not using, we would love to borrow them for the year in our classroom. They will be carefully used and stored in a safe place. At the end of the school year, these would be returned to you. I know with the constant upgrading of these Apple products, I am hopeful that there may be a few that have been left behind and forgotten. As we come to the end of September and into October, there will be much more of a need for these pieces of technology in order to reach our goals of being educated in a 21st century classroom. As the tech representative at Hopewell this year, I am presenting some ideas to the administration to get more of these tools at the school, but this is a transition that will take some time.
There are endless possibilities in terms of apps and how they can enhance education. The ability to have technology at our fingertips for our own inquiry is one piece, stop animation videos are fun and engaging, music and videos to enhance our understanding of concepts being taught in class, and so on...
If you'd like to contribute, please send me an e-mail prior to sending it into school. I'd rather have an arrangement made with you before it comes to school.
On another note, many of the students in our class are doing a fantastic job with Cross Country so far. With doing such a marvelous job and exerting ourselves so early in the day, I have implemented a short ten minute snack upon arrival at school to recharge our batteries. The students are allowed one small, yet nutritious snack.
Finally, in the last newsletter I had indicated the possibility of passing on parent e-mails so that you're able to communicate amongst eachother. At this time, I will not be passing on any e-mails. To protect everyone's privacy, I do not want to be the channel for passing on information which could stand the potential of being misused. With that being said, if any parent would like to take this on, please send me an e-mail and I will send that e-mail out to the class parents to respond to should they want to share their e-mail addresses.
That's all for now... please see below for more important information, reminders, and upcoming events at Hopewell.
Sincerely,
Mr. Lafrance
Collaborative Inquiry
Collaborative Artwork
Peek-A-Boo Folders
Coming This Week...
Meet Danika Molly
What are we studying?
This week...
Language Arts (with music integrated): we will continue the spelling program, but now looking into the short vowel sounds. We began a poetry unit last week in which we are looking at various poems that used rhyme and rhythm. The students also attempted to write a short poem collaboratively. We will continue to explore more poems and further our understanding but looking at some songs and including body percussion and other simple instruments.
Mathematics: we will continue with our number sense and numeration unit. We will continue to explore place value, rounding, number lines, and some simple subtraction. There will be new BUILD Math Centers this week for the students to cycle through to help with a hands on approach to further developing their abilities in math.
Social Studies: we have begun looking at living and working in Ontario. We will continue to look at maps of Ontario and understand how the landscape influences land use and employment in various places throughout Ontario. Looking ahead, we will conduct an employment survey to see if we can get a better understanding of our own community and towards the end of the unit, students will be required to become experts of a chosen community somewhere in Ontario.
Phys. Ed: more ultimate frisbee and cooperative tag games.
The Arts: continuing to develop our water colour techniques in visual arts. This will be integrated with our poetry unit a bit further down the road as we create a painting to match the emotion of a seasonal poem created by the students.
... and so much more! That's just the tip of the iceberg. Don't forget you can check out the photo stream and homework being sent home to further engage in the on-goings of our classroom!
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