October 27-31, 2025

               

We hope everyone enjoys a safe and fun Halloween on Friday! Please refer to the email/newsletter that Mrs. Smith sent home regarding appropriate costumes to be worn at school for Halloween (should your child choose to wear a costume). Students may also simply wear orange and black that day! Also to note: please save all of the candy/treats collected for home consumption as we are focusing on healthy eating here at school!

In Language, we are working on visualization and we are continuing to work on answering comprehension questions in full sentences.

In Math, we are finishing up Place Value (our SWYK will be Tues./Wed.) and then we will begin our work on three-digit addition and subtraction with and without regrouping along with word problems. At home, please challenge your child with word problems involving addition/subtraction with and without regrouping. There is an example at the bottom of this week's blog. It is important that students are able to know all of their math facts to 20. Daily oral practise (asking the question verbally) with an adult, of simple equations (i.e. 5+4) will help your child to become more confident when answering math problems on their own. 

Science - we are finishing up our study of soils in the next few weeks and will begin forces next!

Drama/Music - We are having so much fun dancing, singing and acting out the song "There Was an Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything". We will hopefully be presenting our 'act' to the children in the daycare here at St. Isabel on Thurs.!

Homework:
Word Wall Words: crash, drink, eating, made, nice

Important dates:

Nov. 7 - PD Day - no school for students

Nov. 11 - Remembrance Day

Nov. 13 - Progress Reports available on the Parent Portal

Nov. 20 - Parent Teacher Interviews (more details coming soon)

Math Challenge
1) There are 127 dancers in the Nutcracker Ballet. Another 176 people design costumes, manage the stage and sell tickets. How many people are needed all together to create the Nutcracker performance?

October 20-24, 2025

                                     

We hope everyone has enjoyed being outside the last few weeks to experience this fabulous fall weather we have been having! We know colder days are ahead but for now we will enjoy these beautiful days and stunning colours!

Math: Our Place Value unit will hopefully be finished this week and we will have our 'Show What You Know' as soon as we are done. By the end of the week we will have learned about estimation and rounding numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 (54 rounds down to 50, 627 rounds down to 600, 67 rounds up to 70 and 356 rounds up to 400). 

We will begin working on adding and subtracting 3 and 4 digit numbers with and without regrouping using a wide variety of strategies that we have learned (using the hundreds chart, number line, manipulatives, drawing out images). We will also begin including word problems that involve addition and subtraction. Once we show our thinking (how we determined our answer), students must write the final answer in a sentence for all word problems. Please review these concepts at home as many students find this a very challenging unit and will benefit from extra review!

For a resource that explains the importance of math fundamentals and how parents can help at home please take a look at the following Link.

In Language, we continue to work on our recount writing unit. This week we will also incorporate a few media literacy lessons (next week is Media Literacy week in the OCSB schools). Media Literacy is when we use our critical thinking skills to help us determine if what we are reading/seeing in the media world is accurate or credible. 

Each week we focus on different features (context clues, determining important parts, new vocabulary, fiction vs non-fiction) to help us with our reading and comprehension. Next week we will incorporate the idea of how visualization helps with our understanding. We encourage our students to read nightly and to apply what they have learned in Language to their daily lifestyle.

Health - last week we did a big lesson on fire safety. Did you make a fire safety plan with your child?

This week we are beginning to learn about nutrition. We will be talking about Canada's Food guide and discussing the importance of healthy eating. We are encouraging healthy snacks and meals in our lunch bags that we bring to school. Please save all of the Halloween candy collected next week, to eat at home, where children can brush their teeth right after eating and help us promote our healthy eating habits here at school!

Homework:

• Nightly reading out loud (students can access extra books via Sora on the student portal)
• Math facts (doubles, addition facts to 20)
• Practise new WWW: countries, was, to, too, two

Challenge:

Math

What number goes in the question mark space to complete the following number sentence?

6 + ? - 5 = 20

Looking Ahead:

Wednesday, October 22nd: Class Photo and Picture Retake Day

Friday, October 24th: St. Isabel Halloween Dance Party (family event)

Friday, November 7th: PD Day (no school for children)

Thursday, November 13th: Progress Reports available on Parent Portal

Thursday, November 20th (4 p.m. - 8 p.m.): Parent Teacher Interviews (more info will be shared in the coming weeks)

October 13-17, 2025

                 

In Language Arts, when reading, we are discussing the terms: genre, making connections (to help with understanding), context (how it helps us know how others are feeling) and visualization! 

There won't be any new Word Wall Words this week. Review last week's words for our SWYK on Fri.

We will also be learning about recount writing. A recount, in writing, is a retelling of something that happened in the past. Each student will be choosing an event to write about using transition words (first, then, next, after, finally) and describing the event in order. Our last sentence is an opinion about the event.

Students are able to reserve popular books online using Sora. Students use their OCSB student login information to reserve books for 14 days. Students can read reserved books on any device. Sora can be found on the student portal.

In Math, we are writing numbers in different ways (e.g. base ten pictures, expanded form, etc.). The place value of numbers help us compare numbers. Our addition unit will be underway soon and we will move into regrouping with three- and four-digit numbers. Practice your math facts daily. Do you know your doubles (6+6, etc.)? Can you skip count by 2's, 3's and 4's fluently?

Zorbits is a math game you can play at home. Zorbits can be found on the student portal.

Homework:

30 minutes of:

- reading out loud each night (parents, please ask your child questions to check for understanding).

- skip count by 2's, 3's and 4's 

- adding doubles to 20 (4+4, 8+8, etc.)

- Review WWW: exciting, laughed, community, country

Looking Ahead:

Friday, October 24th: St. Isabel Halloween Dance Party

Thursday, October 22nd: Class Photo and Picture Retake Day

Thursday, November 13th: Progress Reports available on Parent Portal

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0E49A9AE23A0FF2-51596852-stisabels 

October 6-10, 2025

                                      

Language: Our focus in writing is creating our own paragraphs using 5 sentences (opening sentence, 3 supporting details, and a closing sentence). 

Math: We have completed the Data Management Unit and will be having our SWYK (Show What You Know) on Tues. Last week we learned about the Mean (average or fair share) and Mode (the item or number that occurs most often in a set of data). Please help me review these two math concepts! Our next math unit will be on Place Value. We will focus on representing numbers in different forms (standard, word, numbers & words, pictures and expanded). We will also learn to compare numbers (greater than/less than) and order numbers from least to greatest and vice versa. 

Science: We are continuing to learn about the components that make up soil and how living things can help and even harm our soil.

Looking Ahead:

This Week:

October 10th: PD Day (no school for students)
October 13th: Thanksgiving Day (no school for everyone)

Homework:

-30 minutes of reading out loud each night (ask your child questions about what they have just read to check that they are listening to themselves and paying attention to the details)!

-practise adding doubles to 20 (4+4, 8+8, etc.)

-We will be using the same WWWs for the next 2 weeks as both are short weeks. Please practise:

WWW: laughed, exciting, community, country