April

Wiebe Weasel April Newsletter

Class Website: http://sites.tvdsb.ca/webpages/wiebea/

Dear Parents & Guardians,

Can you believe that Spring is upon us? Time’s flying! It seems as though March came in like a lion and out like a lamb-lion!!! Nice to see spring starting to show its face a tiny bit here and there! Hopefully it’s soon here to stay! I trust everyone had an enjoyable March break despite the sporadic weather! I have seen so much growth from the new year, that I believe your children are ready for the remaining challenges that lie ahead! Thank you for your support in helping your children reach their goals and meet expectations that sometimes appear too difficult to attack at times!

Our first field trip (to Jaffa) was a huge success. Despite the weather, students had a spectacular time while learning about Maple sugaring and tasting a sample too! Be sure to check out the pictures!

Easter will soon be upon us, and in keeping with tradition, students are going to take part in an Easter Celebration on Thursday, April 14^th. As part of the events, we’ll be having a traditional Easter egg hunt. If you are able to send in a package of cello-wrapped Easter eggs for our hunt, this would be greatly appreciated. (These are the ones that often come in a net pouch/bag with chocolate eggs the size of your thumb tip and cost around $1-$2 per pack). We’ll be placing them in plastic eggs for safety, then some “Easter Bunnies” will hide them around the yard for a fun-filled, old-fashioned Easter Egg hunt! Afterwards, of course, we’ll share our treasures and spread them out over several days! During the rest of our day’s festivities, we’ll be completing various Easter-related math, language and art activities and decorating eggs. If you are able to provide your child with some hard-boiled eggs, please send those in as well. These will be sent home in the same container they come to school in. Students are welcome to bring in treats to share with the class for our party (as long as they are nut-free, store bought and individually wrapped). Thank you in advance for assisting in the ways you do.

April appears to be quite a busy month (like all of them, I suppose!) so be sure to check out the dates listed below.

Enjoy the weather that will hopefully be in our favour soon!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Wiebe ☺

Dates to Remember

April 1 - MAJOR TEST on everything taught since Kindergarten... study hard!........

...................Just kidding - April Fool’s Day!!! 😊

April 1-12 - Bring in chocolate eggs for egg hunt (if you are able)

April - 14 - Easter Party (bring hard boiled eggs to decorate, if you can)

April 29 - Reading Genre (Sundae) BINGO due (sheet in planner)

Weasel Website: http://www.tvdsb.ca/webpages/wiebea/

***Please refer to our class website or the “Stream” in child’s Google Classroom if you misplace your newsletter. You’ll find a copy of each newsletter as well as additional information, resources, and photo galleries.***

Curriculum Corner

In Language, we’re trying to “look good and sound smart” as we communicate our thinking. We’re working through a variety of skills to improve our reading and writing. Students have been encouraged to inference and make predictions as they read, provide examples from texts to prove their ideas, make connections, and explain why their answers are relevant or important. We’re also reviewing reading strategies - things we can do when we get stuck on words, understand what we read and improve fluency. At this point, students should be fairly fluent readers and be able to use expression effectively. Forming and defending an opinion is also something that is coming up this term as we learn to read and write for meaning, and as we perfect our paragraph writing skills. Your children have come a long way since September, and they continue to soar. Your support at home makes a tremendous difference! Thank you!

In Science, we’re finishing up Structures and then we’ll end the year with Plants & Soils.

In Math, we’ll be exploring some tricks to solve problems in Algebra (relationships between addition and subtraction facts i.e.: 18-6=12 and 12+6=18; the associative property: 17+16 = 17+3+13 and this is easier because 20+13 is 33; and missing numbers in equations 25-4 = 15+ ☐, or balanced equations). We’ll review congruency, explore symmetry, grids, and transformational geometry, followed by probability and review multiplication/division, addition and subtraction. Addition and multiplication are things we use quite often in our daily lives, so it is helpful to have these facts at our fingertips!

Literature Links & Home Reading this Month

I can’t stress enough the importance of encouraging your child to read regularly at home. Whether you read to them, or they read to: themselves, you, a friend, a stuffy, or to a sibling; reading is such a valuable component of our lives. Please continue to find ways to make reading a part of your regular schedule, even on road trips, reading signs and maps - reading is in more than just books!

Hopefully you and your child have seen the benefits of regular reading at home. Perhaps that incentive alone is enough to keep the drive going for regular reading.

Have your child read this newsletter to you. To make it more valuable, have them pre-read it for understanding and fluency. Afterward, have them hunt for compound words, contractions, words with 3 syllables, proper nouns, plurals, punctuation, abbreviations and whatever else comes to mind!

Speaking of reading... This month for Home Reading (much like March), students will receive a “Tasty” Reading Genre BINGO card that could earn them a delicious prize when completed! Based on the number of boxes “read”, students will earn designated numbers of toppings for a deeeeelicious sundae! Please see the attached BINGO card in your child’s planner for more details. Happy reading!

1 Minute Survey

I often wonder whether or not the class photo gallery (found on our website and google classroom) is worthwhile to families. To determine whether I should continue posting pictures, please indicate below, which best describes your use/opinion of the gallery. Feel free to be honest, and do not feel obligated to write your name if you’d rather not.

Thank you for your help. Mrs. Wiebe

Please select all that apply.

⃝ We visit the gallery often. ⃝ We visited the gallery once or twice.

⃝ We’ve never visited the gallery. ⃝ We visit the gallery occasionally.

⃝ We enjoy the gallery. ⃝ We see no value in the gallery.

⃝ We hope additional photos continue to be added.

⃝ We share the gallery link with other family members (grandparents, etc.).

⃝ We forgot about the gallery but plan to check it out periodically throughout the year.