Happy New Year to all of my wonderful students and their families!  I can't believe how quickly the last 4 months have gone.  I'm looking forward to a wonderful new year of laughing and learning with your child!

Robina Baker Elementary School is blessed to have the most wonderful Parent Advisory Council!  Over the holidays they spent countless hours renovating our staff room and creating a wonderful space for us to relax with our colleagues.  Thank you so much to the community for their donations and to the Parent Advisory Council for doing this for our staff!

Congratulations to our VIP Student this week......Mr. L!  We really enjoyed learning more about you and we especially loved hearing about your dream to swim with the dolphins!

During our assembly this week, Mr. T was given the Student of the Week award.  I am so proud of the improvements you have made this year.  Keep up the great work!

Curriculum Update for the Week of January 5-9

Language Arts

To kick off the New Year we read a great story called "Squirrel's New Year's Resolution."  This mentor text inspired the class to make their own New Year's Resolutions and Goals for 2015.

During Writer's Workshop we focused on identifying Story Elements.  After reading "The Abominable Snow Teacher" the students filled out story maps to identify the characters, setting, problem and solution of the story.  

This week the students worked on contraction word sorts.  A contraction is a shortened form of one or two words.  In a contraction, an apostrophe takes the place of the missing letter or letters. Some contractions are: I'm (I am), can't (cannot), how's (how is) and wasn't (was not). 

Math

We started Unit 3: Addition and Subtraction in Math this week.  During math workshop we focused on using strategies and properties for basic addition facts as well as relating addition and subtraction facts.

Science

We also started our Hearing and Sound Unit in science this week.  I began the unit by reading the story "The Listening Walk."  This is a story about a father and child that take a walk together and listen to the sounds around them.  Then our class went on our own listening walk to identify the sound we hear inside the school, as well as outside.  After our walk we filled in a KWL chart to identify what we "know" about sound and what we want to "learn" during the unit.

Social Studies

On Thursday the grade 3 students at RBES enjoyed the day being immersed in the India culture.   The students rotated between the 3 classes participating in various activities to celebrate India.  In Mrs. Ferguson's class the students made chapatis, dressed in traditional Indian clothes and had the opportunity to have henna tattoo art done on their arms.  Mrs. Forchuk and Mrs. Tewitz taught the students how to do Rangoli art and gave the students some tasty Indian treats.  In our class the students played an Indian board game called Pachisi.  They also decorated India flag cookies and tried a bit of Bollywood dancing.  The students really enjoyed the day.  Thank you to all of the parents who sent food and came in to volunteer for the day.  Also I would like to send a big thank you to Mrs. Ferguson, Mrs. Tewitz and Mrs. Forchuk for all of your hard work organizing such a great day!