June 1st - June 5th

Hello, Families, 

June has arrived and with it week #11 of distance learning! The signs of spring life and change have been numerous this past week. The heat wave prompted plants to grow in rapid time - one day the maple buds were semi-closed and the next day they were fully open. It was amazing to watch! Hopefully your family is able to get outside more and enjoy the fine weather we have been experiencing. Building outdoor body breaks into your daily routine is so important for the health and well-being of all members of the family.

There is a lot of information in this week's post. Please take a few minutes to read through everything carefully!

New Slide Deck and Today's Learning Goals
Here is the link to the new slide deck for the month of June: Gr. 4 Weekly Schedule (June). In Language today and tomorrow the focus is on self-directed reading and exploring the SORA app on the student portal. Students are also asked to write a descriptive paragraph of their shoes and school belongings. In Math today students are being asked to come up with review questions that I could use to create a Math Review Kahoot. The instructions for today's activities are on the slide deck.

Class Hangout:
There was lots of sharing at the start of our hangout this past week. Jessica is enjoying her pool and the soldering gun finally arrived, enabling her Dad to fix her scooter; Saphira has been enjoying a lot of time outside and has been alternating between her Mum's and Dad's homes; Naomi painted the garbage bin white that she and her Dad made together and the project is now finished; Austin went for a BBQ at his grandmother's place and continues to enjoy daily bike rides with mum; Danayit is still enjoying biking with her brother who got a new bike as his old one broke; Kristen's new patio set arrived and they are starting their garden; Layla got a new scooter from mum that is blue and black like the one she uses at her Dad's. She also got a new 18 foot slip-and-slide which she is enjoying in the heat wave; Mila finally got to meet her friend's new puppy; Nicky spent all of last weekend biking with his family and continues to have weekly movie nights and video calls with his cousins; Maryam made the exciting announcement that her family is planning to get a pet parrot; Daniella shared her plans to go swimming at her mum's boyfriend's pool; Sarah has been enjoying her backyard pool and had a competition with her siblings to see who could stay in the longest; Derel says there isn't much that is new except he is having tech issues and has to use his Mum's computer  to do his school work; Mrs. Heagle and Ms. Carisa had a good first 'Craft Club' on Tuesday; Mrs. Heagle also enjoyed having a 'We Chat' with her grand kids to celebrate her grandson's birthday.

As was mentioned in their Hangout Invitation, we will be doing a Kahoot on this week's hangout. It will be a bit of an experiment doing this on a hangout. If your child has a second hand held device (iPad, iPod, Tablet, phone, etc.) that they could use to log onto Kahoot during the hangout, it would be most useful. If they do not have a second device, there is no problem at all as they will simply open a second window on their computer and move in between the hangout and Kahoot. It should be interesting!

Returning Borrowed Tech Devices
The school board has made the decision that all electronic devices borrowed by students may be kept over the summer months and returned in the fall IF YOUR CHILD IS RETURNING TO OUR SYSTEM. If your child is moving to another school board in the fall, then you must let your child's teacher know and make arrangements to return any borrowed devices.

Collection of Student Belongings From School
Collection of Student Items will begin the week of June 15th. We are currently creating a schedule for all families of children in grades K-5. We are asking families with children in grade 6 to wait until AFTER the grade 6 Leaving Ceremony on June 19th so that all of the grade 6 leave-taking-items can be distributed at the same time. That means if you have a child in grade 6 and younger children at the school as well, you will need to wait until after the 19th as we have been asked to ensure that families only come once to retrieve items. Today's writing activity is a paragraph writing assignment asking students to describe their running shoes in detail (so that I can find them!). They can add an additional paragraph describing any other items they would like to be gathered for pick-up.

Attention choir members! 
Mrs. James still needs your help! Please read this important message from her:  We are in the process of creating a Thank You to share with our amazing choir directors for all of their hard work and dedication to the St. Augustine Choir. We are inviting all choir members to create a Thank You which will be incorporated into a Google Slideshow to send to them. Please feel free to use Google Docs or Google Slides which makes for easier sharing with Mrs. James @ carol.james@ocsb.ca  OR you could created something and upload it via email to Mrs. James.  Here are some ideas of things you could do: You could write a thank you note, draw a picture (in Google Slides OR draw a picture and upload it to Mrs. James), send a video message of thanks or even a video of you singing a song (which they would really LOVE) - OR - anything else you might think of to express your gratitude.  Please send your entries by Friday, June 5th so the slideshow can be completed and shared with our wonderful choir directors.

Link to School Newsletter: St. Augustine Weekly Newsletter

Have a wonderful week! If you have any questions or concerns or need to touch base with me for any reason, I can be reached each morning via email at: ruth.stratford@ocsb.ca

Sincerely,

Mrs. Stratford