October 17, 2011

October 17, 2011

Dear Parents,

Welcome to the third edition of the newsletter. Students are continuing to work hard and to get into the habit of bringing home their folders. Its a bit of a challenge with the Kindergartens as they are only here half time but I think we are starting to get into the routine. A couple things to note around the school we had a Ned presentation last Wed. Students were inspired with the message to Never give up, Encourage others, and Do the right thing. As part of the presentation students can purchase Yo-yo's. They will be on sale until next Wed. Proceeds go back to the Ned company. Grade 7/8 students are organizing a Food Drive called Halloween for Hunger for the local food bank. You can send along your canned foods anytime or on Halloween you can watch for the students as they trick or treat for canned goods. Finally, if you are not aware General Lake also has a blog designed to keep everyone up to date with the events happening around the school. You can access this at www.generallakenews.blogspot.com.

In the classes:

Kindergarten: Students are continuing to develop their sound symbol correspondence. We have now completed work with S,T, I, E. For the next couple of weeks we will work on P, N, C, and K. We have been working on identifying the sight words including the, I, am, as, it, you can. You can reinforce this at home during your read alouds, by drawing attention to these letters, as well as the sight words. Here's one of our favourite songs we refer to as 'serious business':

Arubisha, Arubisha, Arubisha, Sha Arubisha, Arubisha, Arubisha, Sha: Feet Together, Head up, Arubisha, Arubisha, Arubisha, Sha; Arubisha, Arubisha, Arubisha, Sha, Feet together, Head Up, Shoulders back,....It continues adding different actions each time. Ask your child about the last action. It will definitely put a smile on their face.

Grade 2: Student have continued their author study of Phoebe Gillman. We began making a sock pig which we will continue to work with throughout the week creating profiles as well as writing using the procedural writing format to describe how we made the pig. You can assist with this by asking your child to explain how they made their pig including list of materials and steps involved. We also will be doing mini-lessons involving syllabication and review of vowels and consonants. This will reinforce some of the work done in their Immersion class.

Grade 7/8: Students are pretty excited about the up and coming 'Halloween For Hunger'. Students are asked to collect canned food instead of trick or treating for candy this year as part of their 'WE day' promise to act locally. Students are also continuing to read Craig Keilburgers 'Free The Children' book sparking many interesting conversations, as well as written activities. You can reinforce the work in school by talking with your child about the issues we have been discussing including children's rights, child labour and poverty. Students in this class have been responsible for the morning announcements and will take a leading role in our up and coming Character Assembly on October 31st.

Thank you for your continued support. Hope to see everyone at the Parent Involvement Committee symposium on October 22 at Fellowes High School. More information and registration available at www.renfrew.edu.on.ca

Have a great week Ms. Legault