A new chapter

Anticipation of Christmas and report cards is quickly building, as we move toward Christmas vacation. There are only 14 school days left before our winter holiday if you can imagine! Today we began a new read-aloud, since we have finished up Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. We are reading I Want To Go Home, a great book by Canadian author Gordon Korman. It is a long-time favourite of mine; a very humorous, engaging book with great characters and stimulating dialogue and vocabulary. We covered the first few chapters today, and will be responding to it as we go along.

Gym was outside today, and will be for the next week or so as Christmas Concert season hits full pace. I have advised students to dress warm for this reason. We played soccer and 4-square, and I think the fresh air did us well for the rest of the day. The class spent more time working on a survey they will bring home for science as well. The survey focuses on habitat depletion, and will hone their research, information gathering and data management skills. These surveys will go home on Monday.

A memo went home today, giving details about signing up for parent-teacher interviews on Tuesday. You can sign up for back-to-back slots by altering your child's name slightly for the second slot. For example, enter Bob Jones for the first slot, then Bob V. Jones for the second one. If you are having any problems, please let me know.

Tomorrow we will be moving on to the second-last unit in math, and finishing up brainstorming for our French stories. I have also been taking the time this week to use our morning "Saviez-vous que?" sessions as a lesson in grammar or style when speaking french. This has ranged from simple things like pluralization and masculine/feminine nouns to more complex concepts involving verbs, adjective placement and advanced grammar.

I think everyone will be happy with Report Cards tomorrow. We have come a long way this year, and continue to move along every day. In your child's Report Card envelope, you will also find a letter from the principal and a copy of your child's Grade 3 CRT results. As always, if you have any questions please get in touch with me. Talk to you soon.