Remaining Acts of Kindness From our Classroom Advent Calendar

December 19th - Let someone go ahead of you in line when you are at the grocery store. (Eva)

December 20th - Make cards for front line workers or seniors living in seniors homes. (Ellyana)

December 21st - Surprise your neighbour with a freshly shoveled driveway/walkway. (Elyam)

December 22nd - Be grateful for the gifts you receive this Christmas but especially the gift of the birth of                             Jesus our Saviour. 

December 23rd - Call family and friends to let them know you are thinkin gof them and that you care.                                     Keep in touch with those you love, but are unable to be with,  this Christmas. 

December 24th - Enjoy time with your family as you get through the last minute Christmas preparations                                 Watch a Christmas movie together, play games, talk and enjoy eachother's company!

December 25th - Today Jesus was born!  It is a day to be joyful and happy and to spread the wonderful                                 news of His birth!

30 Book Challenge - Report On Progress!

Whoo hoo! We have read 200 books as a class! Encourage your child to keep reading over the holidays! If we continue at this rate, we will certainly reach our goal of 570 books! Way to go, Grade 4/5!

Christmas Spirit at School!

The Christmas Spirit is alive at St. Augustine School! On Monday we calculated the money that our class raised for the 'Angel Tree Advent Project.' Our class alone raised an impressive $91.25 ! We had lots of fun perusing the site on Amazon to select purchases for the local Boys and Girls Club.  To finalize one of our choices we voted but for the most part, there was a lot of agreement on what to purchase. In the end we selected LED room lights, a Crayola art set and a big a box of Lego Creator.  We had to remember to leave money in our budget for taxes but in the end we managed to spend all but $3.34.  Any leftover money was shared with other classes to help with their purchases. It was definitely a rewarding experience and it gave me a window into which toys are appealing to kids this age. Hmmmmm. 

All the classes schoolwide are participating in a 'Goosechase' game this week! This involves a series of Christmas-themed tasks that each class must complete by the end of the week for points. THe team with the highest point score wins!  So far we have come up with our team name and motto (The Snowflakes - where each one is unique and special), we've done a Christmas dance, hummed a Christmas tune for Mrs. OBrien to guess, said 'Merry Christmas' in a dozen languages, decorated our door and written a review of our favourite Christmas story (The Grinch Who Stole Christmas).

We continue to read Christmas stories each day at school and work through our kindness-themed class Advent calendar. The students are recording the daily kindness tasks in their agendas so check them out! 

Yesterday we dressed up as characters from our favourite Christmas movies. Check out the picture below and see if you can guess who some of us are? 

Coding on Scratch!

 

For the last two Fridays during math class, we have been exploring the coding program 'Scratch' which all of the students have access to via the student portal. We spent the first week setting up accounts and passwords.  Once we got the accounts set up, we began to work through the tutorials together. Let's just say that the students are definitely the experts and I am learning alongside them! There are a few students in the class who have some experience with the program and I am learning so much from them.  We will be doing more coding this coming Friday but I encourage the kids to explore this from home as well.  We would love to share their individual creations on Scratch!

Exploring with Symmetry Today in Math Class!

 

Advent -Week #2

Yesterday marked the second Sunday of Advent. The theme week one was Joy and this week it is Peace. Our Advent liturgy will take place at 11 am today in our classroom. 

We have a few things happening in our classroom throughout Advent and in preparation for the birth of baby Jesus at Christmas. 

Classroom Advent Calendar - The students brainstormed acts of kindness for each day in December. They write these in their agendas each morning. 

Christmas Stories -Each day we open a ‘present’ from underneath our mini tree which is a Christmas-themed  read aloud. This has been a long-standing tradition for me and I find the kids love it (okay- maybe I like it a little bit too). 

Community Action -This past week we made Christmas cards for folks living in seniors residents. Our cards will be delivered to ‘The Ravines’ and ‘The Duke of Devonshire.’ It’s a small thing but I can tell you a lot of JOY went into making those cards. Nearly 100 % of students in grade 4/5 have already donated money to the school-wide ‘Angel Tree Project’ which will benefit the local Boys & Girls Club in our community. We will ‘shop’ with our donation money this coming Monday December 14th! It has been very touching to witness the genuine enthusiasm of the kiddos in grade 4/5.