December 2025

Language

It’s been a busy and rewarding week in Language as we wrapped up our Book Talks and celebrated five fantastic weeks of reading together! 📖💬 Students shared their thinking through thoughtful reading responses, practicing how to answer deep questions by using evidence from the text while also including their own ideas and reflections 🧠✍️.

Students also completed a 4 Square vocabulary activity (not the outdoor game 😉). They selected four words and: wrote a definition, used each word in a sentence, identified a synonym and an antonym, and added a picture to support understanding 🎨🔤. Throughout the weeks, you may have noticed our weekly vocabulary mini-lessons, designed to help students build stronger word knowledge and explore strategies they can use to better understand unfamiliar words.

We also explored theme through a mini-lesson, with students identifying themes in their novels and explaining how the text supported their thinking 🎯📘. To wrap it all up, students wrote a book review, reflecting on their reading journey and sharing their opinions.

It has truly been a great five weeks of reading! 🌟 I’ve seen noticeable growth in fluency, and students are encouraged to continue reading aloud for at least 20 minutes each night at home 🕰️📚. In the spring, we’ll return to Book Talks with new and more challenging novels, revisiting these skills and building even stronger comprehension along the way.

Math

This past week in Math, students wrapped up our time with Dash by diving into coding Dash through engaging, real-world challenges! 🌍💡 Our focus was on how the world is becoming increasingly automated and how people are needed to code robots to perform a wide variety of important jobs.

We kicked things off by coding Dash to help with recycling ♻️. Students scattered different coloured LEGO pieces around the room and were challenged to design and build an attachment for Dash that would help complete the task successfully. From there, they created programs that allowed Dash to move around the space, collect, and sort like-coloured pieces into piles—ready for “recycling.” This activity required planning, problem-solving, and lots of creative thinking 🧠🛠️.

Next, students took on the role of museum curators 🎨🏛️. After learning about 10 different works of art, they designed a gallery space, sorted the artwork, and coded Dash to lead a guided tour. It was wonderful to see students create different pathways based on similarities among the artworks, showing thoughtful connections and advanced coding strategies.

Today, we wrapped up the week with Minecraft Education 🎮✨. Students participated in Hour of AI: The First Night, a puzzle-filled world where they used a little code, emerging AI skills, and plenty of creativity to build shelter before sunset. 

Next, we’ll be moving into Scratch for Science, and I can’t wait to see how our coding journey continues 🚀💻.

Science

This week in Science, both Grade 4 and Grade 5 students completed KWHL charts together as a group, sharing what they already know, what they want to know, and how they plan on finding out this information. This activity supported reflection, discussion, and helped guide our next steps in learning.

The Grade 4s spent time exploring energy, sources of light, and the properties of light, discovering some incredible facts along the way—like just how fast light really is! 💡⚡ On Tuesday, they put their learning into action by designing a light maze. Using flashlights and the reflection off CDs, students experimented with how light travels and reflected it from the start to the end of their maze. Creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving were on full display 🔦🪞.

The Grade 5s focused on understanding matter, particle theory, and the three states of matter—solids, liquids, and gases 🧊💧💨. Their Tuesday experiment challenged them to hypothesize about the best way to melt ice and explain why. Students tested table salt, salt from our outdoor bin, sugar, hot water, and cold water, carefully observing the results and continuing to analyze the science behind what worked best.

It was a fantastic week of inquiry, hands-on experimentation, and scientific thinking—students truly demonstrated curiosity and engagement! 🌟🧪

Also, our coding focus is shifting into Science! Students set up their Scratch accounts and began exploring Scratch Challenge Cards as we prepare to use Scratch for our next Science project 🚀. These challenges are a great way to spark creativity and practice coding skills.

Students are encouraged to explore and experiment over the break if they have some time—see what they can create, test out new ideas, and have fun coding! 

Social Studies

This week in Social Studies, we continued with our inquiry-based learning, with many students identifying their guiding question and getting ready to begin their research 🔍📚. Students have been thinking deeply about cause and effect, perspectives, and how geography and beliefs shape societies.

Some of the thoughtful questions students are exploring include:

• How might the mountains in Greece have impacted the development of this early civilization? ⛰️

• Why did First Nations and Métis peoples help and care for European settlers and explorers? 🤝

• What teachings, values, or beliefs in First Nations and Métis cultures help explain their attitudes toward settlers? 🌿

• How did various Indigenous Peoples view European newcomers, and what factors might account for differences in their views?

These questions highlight students’ growing curiosity and ability to think critically about history, culture, and multiple perspectives 🧠🌎. After the break, we will continue our inquiry, diving deeper into research and using evidence to support our thinking as students develop their understanding even further.

Physical Education

This week in Physical Education, students wrapped up basketball for the final time and put all their skills into action! 💪🏃‍♂️ We played a variety of games and saw students hustling to pass the ball, create scoring opportunities, and work collaboratively to win games. Teamwork, communication, and effort were on full display throughout each activity 🤝🏀.

As we head into the new year, we’re excited to move on to new sports and new challenges, continuing to build skills, confidence, and a love for active living! 🚀⚽

The Wrap-Up

It’s been a busy few months of school, and what a wonderful way to wrap up 2025! 📚🌟 Students have been working hard, exploring new concepts, and sharing their creativity in every subject. As we head into the winter break, everyone is set for some well-deserved rest and fun.

Students were given Winter Break Game Kits 🎁, designed to encourage some unplugged time, laughter, and creating special memories with family and friends. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to relax and recharge.

I look forward to seeing everyone back on January 5th, bright and early at 8:45 ⏰. Have a safe, happy, and restful winter break! 🎉☃️

Language

This week in Language, we continued working on our Book Talks, diving even deeper into the texts we’ve been exploring. With only a handful of pages left, we’re excited to finish our books and wrap up our assignments later this week! 🎉📖

To support our reading and strengthen our understanding, students engaged in several meaningful mini-lessons and assignments:

🔤 Vocabulary: Same & Different

We explored synonyms and antonyms, helping students expand their word choice and sharpen their comprehension.

🧠 Character Traits & Text Evidence

Students examined characters more closely, identifying key traits and backing up their ideas with strong evidence from the text.

🔗 Text-to-Text Connections

Using Venn diagrams, we compared our current books to others we’ve read, noticing similarities, differences, themes, and patterns.

📘 Story Sequence

We looked closely at how the events in our stories led us to this point, building a clearer picture of plot development and structure.

To end the week on a creative note, Friday was a highlight! ✨ We viewed the reflection animations students created in Adobe Express last week, and they were fantastic—thoughtful, creative, and a wonderful celebration of their learning. 🎬🌟 Next week, I'm looking forward to another great week of reading and sharing!

Math

This week in Math, we blended coding with measurement to deepen our understanding of perimeter, area, and efficient programming. Using Dash, students took on a series of hands-on challenges that stretched their thinking and sparked plenty of excitement!

🟦 Perimeter Challenge

Students explored the question: “What shape can you create with a perimeter of 1 meter?”

They programmed Dash to test different possibilities, noticing how shapes with the same perimeter can look completely different.

⬜ Area Challenge

Given an area of 2400 cm², students explored all the possible rectangles they could create. They compared the perimeters of each rectangle, discovering how shapes with the same area can have very different perimeters.

🔁 Minimizing Code With Loops

We practiced using loops to write more efficient programs—fewer lines of code but the same strong results!

📏 Using Variables for Precision

Students experimented with variables to help Dash travel precise distances, building a stronger understanding of how coding and Math work together.

🎉 Maze Craze Finale!

To wrap up the week, we completed our final Maze Craze, and the students outdid themselves. They designed some incredibly challenging mazes, and their peers worked hard to code Dash through each twist and turn. The teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving on display were amazing! 🌟

It was a fantastic week of Math, coding, and collaboration! We have one more week with the Dash robots. Next week we're all about solving real-world problems with Dash.

Science

We’ve had an exciting week in science as we wrapped up another unit of learning!

Grade 4s completed their unit on Habitats & Communities, discovering how living things interact and depend on each other.  Grade 5s wrapped up their studies on the Conservation of Energy, learning how energy moves, changes, and is never lost.

To celebrate our learning, students worked in groups to complete the last column of our KWHL chart — “What We Learned.” Using sticky notes, they shared their new knowledge and added it to our classroom chart. It was wonderful to see so many great ideas come together! 🧠✨

We also began exploring texts for our next science units:

💡 Grade 4s are diving into Light & Sound, two forces we experience every day.

❄️ Grade 5s are beginning their unit on the States of Matter, discovering how materials can change and move between forms.

🧪 Looking ahead to next week…

We’ll be doing a couple of hands-on experiments as we begin building our new classroom KWHL. Students have already completed their own individual KWHL charts and will bring their ideas, questions, and predictions to help guide our class discussion. Collaboration makes science even more exciting! 

We can’t wait to keep exploring, questioning, and experimenting together! 🚀🔬

Social Studies

This week in Social Studies, both grades continued diving into history through inquiry and exploration!

Grade 4s are studying Early Societies before 1500 CE, comparing how different groups around the world lived, worked, and organized their communities.

Grade 5s are investigating the Interactions of Indigenous Peoples and Europeans prior to 1713, focusing on early relationships, trade, and the impacts of contact in what would eventually become Canada.

To guide our learning, we worked together to create group inquiry questions using a Q-Chart.

Physical Education

This week in Phys. Ed., our class had a great time building basketball skills and putting them into action through fun, fast-paced games!

We focused on developing two key skills:

🎯 Shooting — practicing proper form, aim, and follow-through

🤝 Passing — working on chest passes, bounce passes, and moving the ball with accuracy and control

To put these skills into play, we enjoyed a few basketball games, including a new class favourite: Bump!

Students had a blast competing, cheering each other on, and showing great sportsmanship.

These activities not only helped us improve our shooting and passing, but also strengthened our teamwork, communication, and strategic thinking on the court. 🌟

We've got one more week of Basketball and we’re excited to keep building our skills as we continue our basketball unit! 🏀💪

The Arts

This week in Music, students explored rhythm in an exciting hands-on way by working in body percussion groups. Using a variety of sounds — 🤚 tapping, 👏 clapping, 🤏 snapping — students began to understand how different rhythms feel and sound when they become the instruments!

We also practiced reading musical notation, focusing on how different notes work within a composition: quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes.

Through body percussion, students experienced what these rhythms really sound like, helping them connect written notation to real, physical movement. Groups worked together to create short rhythmic patterns and began experimenting with layering sounds to build musical textures.

It’s been wonderful to see students collaborating, keeping steady beats, and gaining confidence as young musicians! 🎼🌟

The Wrap Up

We’ve had a busy and exciting week, and it’s hard to believe there’s just one more week before we head off for the winter break! ✨

🍬 Candy Cane Grams Are On Sale!

Our candy cane fundraiser is in full swing!  $2 for 1 or $5 for 3.

Students can write a kind note to friends, and the candy cane grams will be delivered directly to classrooms. Sales run until December 17th, so there’s still time to spread some holiday cheer!

🎤 Next Thursday: School Assembly

We’re looking forward to our upcoming assembly where we will:

• Celebrate the Character Trait of the Month — Empathy!

Students who have shown exceptional empathy will be recognized and honoured.

• Hear from our First Lego League Team!

Team members will share highlights from their competition and receive their participation award. We’re so proud of their creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving!

As we head into the weekend, I hope everyone enjoys some rest and relaxation. 🌟

Have a wonderful weekend, stay warm, and I’ll see you on Monday! ❄️😊

Language

In Language, we’re getting to the good part of our novels—most classes are halfway through (or even past it!), and the excitement is definitely building! 🚀 Students are diving deeper into their stories, and our discussions are getting richer each day.

This week’s mini-lessons focused on:

• Vocabulary: exploring prefixes and suffixes to help unlock the meaning of new words.

• Point of View: considering how a story changes when told from different perspectives.

• Creativity with Technology: using Adobe Express to create animated reflections of their novels so far—so much fun! 🎬💡

We’re heading into the homestretch of these incredible books, and conversations around big themes like family, identity, technology, and race continue to spark thoughtful insights. 🌟📚

Math

This week, students had a blast tackling a variety of coding challenges with Dash! They explored new ways to think like programmers and strengthened their problem-solving skills. 🧠💻

Our focus included:

🔁 Creating loops to make repetitive movements easier and more efficient.

✂️ Shortening code by finding smarter, simpler ways to achieve the same task.

🚦 Testing different program starts to see how sequence affects Dash’s actions.

🔀 Using If/Else blocks to help Dash make decisions and respond to different conditions.

🔢 Connecting our learning about variables and using them in our code—an important skill that will help us measure and use exact distances in next week’s challenges.

Students jumped into each activity with curiosity and creativity, and it’s exciting to see their confidence grow as their coding skills develop! 🌟

Next week, we’ll take things up a notch with measurement-based challenges—students will use coding strategies and variables to solve distance and movement tasks. 📏🤖 We can’t wait to see what they accomplish!

Science

This week in Science, students proudly completed their habitats and conservation of energy projects, designing sustainable animal sanctuaries—and they are incredible! 🐾🏞️

Students created a wide variety of habitats, making sure to include everything their animals would need to thrive. They also thoughtfully considered how to use renewable and non-renewable energy sources in responsible ways. 🔋🌍 Along with their models, students wrote short reflections explaining the key features of their sanctuaries and the choices they made.

Next week, we’ll bring our unit to a close by adding everything students have learned to our KWHL charts, then we’ll be ready to dive into our exciting new topics:

💡✨ Light and Sound for Grade 4

🧪🌡️ States of Matter for Grade 5

Social Studies

This week, students launched a new inquiry by exploring the big question: How can we learn from the past? Together, we began uncovering how communities and cultures from long ago can help us better understand the world today.

Grade 4 Focus 🏞️

Grade 4s are exploring how different early societies lived before the year 1500. We will be looking closely at how they used the land, water, animals, and plants around them — with a special focus on one First Nations community and one Inuit community. Students will be examining how the environment shaped each community’s way of life, traditions, and survival. 🌿🐟❄️

Grade 5 Focus ⚓📜

Grade 5s are beginning their study of the early interactions between Indigenous peoples and European explorers and settlers in the land that would later become Canada. We’re investigating how these early relationships — both positive and challenging — continue to influence Canada today. 🇨🇦

Across both grades, students have already begun crafting rich, thoughtful questions to guide their inquiries and areas of interest. Their curiosity is leading the way, and we’re excited to see where their investigations take them! 🔍💭

Physical Education

This week in Phys. Ed, students continued building their basketball skills, with lots of practice in ball control, dribbling, and shooting. We worked on keeping steady control of the ball while moving up and down the court — a skill students are getting noticeably better at! 🚶‍♂️🔵🏀

We also played Bump, a fast-paced and exciting shooting game. Here’s how it works:

• Players line up at the free-throw line with two basketballs.

• The first two players shoot; if the second shooter scores before the first shooter, the first player is “bumped” out.

• If the first shooter scores first, they pass the ball to the next person and the game continues.

It’s a fun way to practice accuracy, speed, and staying focused under pressure!

Students are showing great improvement, teamwork, and enthusiasm as they sharpen their basketball skills. 🏀✨

The Arts

In Music this week, students showcased their rhythmic talents by performing their 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 rhythms — and they did an amazing job staying in sync with their group members! 👏🎶 Their teamwork and focus really shone during these performances.

Afterward, we moved into connecting body percussion with musical notation. Students revisited what quarter notes, eighth notes, whole notes, and half notes sound like, this time using claps, stomps, and taps to bring the rhythms to life. 👐👣✨

Everyone worked hard, had fun, and stayed engaged. There are more performances on the horizon!

The Wrap-Up

December is in full swing, and what an exciting week it has been! This Sunday is the Robotics Competition for our Grade 5 team, and we couldn’t be more proud. 🤖🎉 Over the past couple of months, students have worked hard to sharpen their coding skills and develop an innovative solution connected to the field of archaeology. Their dedication has been incredible to watch, and I’m looking forward to celebrating their achievements at the competition on Sunday! 🚀🏆

With winter weather officially here, we’d like to remind students and families that layering up is a great idea. 🧣🧤 We go outside every day—often multiple times—for recess, so warm clothing is essential.

A quick note for Physical Education:

👟 Students should come prepared with running shoes on Day 3 (Wednesdays) and Day 5 (Fridays). Boots aren’t allowed in the gym, so please help your child remember to pack their runners.

Looking ahead, Craft Night is coming up on Thursday, December 11th from 4:00–5:30 PM! 🎨✨ Thank you to all the families who have sent in donations for the raffle baskets—they are very much appreciated. We welcome all families to join us for an afternoon filled with fun, creativity, and community.

We have two more weeks until winter break. Our last day of school for 2025 will be Friday, December 18th. 

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend! Rest up, stay warm, and we’ll see you on Monday! 😊❄️