Merry Christmas!

Swim to Survive

Don't forget!  Our first day back after the holidays we are going to Walter Baker for Swim to Survive! Please return permission slip if you have not done so!

Some Reminders

If you have not returned your Swim to Survive permission form, please send in as soon as possible. It looks like we are heading out to Walter Baker the first day we get back to school after the holidays. Don't forget to pack a bathing suit. towel and any other items necessary items:)
This Thursday we will be presenting our version of the Little Drummer Boy at the Holy Redeemer Christmas concert.  The fun starts at 9:00 in the gym!
Tomorrow we are having our Ugly Sweater Day at school.  If you don't have a sweater, you can wear Christmas colours instead.

Ugly Sweater and Shirt Day

Please dress in your ugly Christmas sweater (or shirt) this Wednesday!

Ben vs. Empire

Scientists in School and More Green Screen Fun

On Friday, we had Scientists in Schools visit us for their Forces-of Course! workshop.  Here are some pictures and videos of the workshop.  Shout out to our parent volunteers- Sayeda's dad, Teagan's mom and Warren's mom.  We really appreciated all you did for us!

Busy Week!

Our Christmas Concert is coming up!

This week we were lucky to have Ms. Amanda assist us in a Christmas art activity.  We created a beautiful Mary using acrylic paint and cool colours like blue and purple.  They can be found in the front foyer of the school.  If you get a chance be sure to check them out!  The class did an excellent job of following Ms. Amanda's directions and the students should be proud of their efforts.

On Thursday we had Scientist Renee from 'Let's Talk Science'  come to visit us to investigate Forces through hands on activities.  We created Pom Pom Launchers and Balloon Cars.  It was a fun and educational afternoon and a special thank you goes out to Ottawa U for this awesome program!

Holy Redeemer had its first annual Christmas Shopping Day on Friday.  Students were excited to pick out presents for their family members and all money goes towards the Kanata Food Cupboard. Thank you to everyone who donated and sent in money.

We had to say goodbye to our friend MJ this week.  She is moving to Orleans and we will miss her a lot.  Lucky for us, she dropped by during the Christmas Shopping Day so we could say goodbye one more time.  All the best MJ!

MJ and Zoe

We got into the holiday spirit by using the green screen to create Christmas cards.  Loads of fun!

Christmas Shopping Day

Snow Day and Trim the Trent

Homework and More Elves!

More Elf Shenanigans!

Wrapping Mr. Rodgers

Hour of Code, Mashup Math and Build with Chrome

We had an awesome day today!  Andrew O'Hara, a software designer, joined us for the Hour of Code. Some students coded Minecraft, others tried Star Wars and a few tried out Moana.  It is definitely a great activity to introduce students to coding and further developing a growth mindset.  On Friday, during math stations, we will continue coding with Scratch on the ipads and code.org on the chromebooks!

We are also participating in the 12 Days of Christmas Mashup Math.  They can be quite challenging but we are getting better at figuring out strategies to solve the problems. Working with a partner sometimes helps!

Some students were able to solve the mashup very quickly,  I showed them an online Lego building site called Build with Chrome and guess what?  They took to it like ducks to water!  Check out some of their creations...

In Science, we consolidated our learning about buoyancy from yesterday,  Buoyancy is a pushing force that allows things to float.  Ask us how many gems floated in our boats!  One group was able to float 24 gems.  Way to go! We capped it off by watching our favourite scientist, Bill Nye, explain all about the concept of buoyancy.  Great day everyone!

Don't forget to practice our song for the Christmas Concert.  We are learning the dance moves to go along with them too:)
Thanks to the students who have brought in canned goods for our food drive.  I will double the amount we collect...I really want to wrap Mr. Rodgers and trim Mrs. Trent!

Second Week of Advent

Homework

Reading, Math and Dancing Elves!

As a reading focus for the past few months, your child has be working on “visualization”.  This is an excellent strategy for readers to use when recalling details in a text.  Making a picture or mental image assists readers in understanding what they read by creating images in their mind, based on the details in the text and their own schema (prior knowledge). We also have been making connections to what we are reading.  When reading, a student might think to themselves how a story reminds them of a time something similar happened in their own life.  The text might remind them of another story they read.  A book may also remind them of something that happened in the world (text to world connections).  These connections help readers to understand parts of the story, how a character feels or make them think about how they would respond if they were in the text.  Reading really is THINKING!
On Fridays, we have math stations before heading off to gym.  We are becoming very good at choosing activities that interest us and staying on task for longer periods of time.  

Prodigy is a favourite!

Using the smartboard

More Prodigy math fun!

We had more elves dancing at Holy Redeemer on Friday.  They have some smooth moves!