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Whats happening in

Gill-Ville Jr. Area Comp . December 2012

http://teachers.wrdsb.ca/GILLK

Teacher Website:

Mark your Calendars

Character Education:

January R.M.i. milk and food orders due Thursday, Dec. 6th Character Ed. Assembly Friday, December 7th RMi Special Lunch Wednesday, Dec. 12th Kids Creations Trip Friday, Dec. 14th Winter Concert Celebration Dates: Wed Dec 19th 12:15 & Thurs Dec. 20th 9:30
Pajama Day School Spirit Day

What We Are Learning:

The students are currently working very hard on a research project about different ancient civilizations. Each student is learning about a different region and will share their learning with the whole group when the project is complete. We have been using books and online sources to find information that we will be using to create an informative brochure about their region. We have been using research skills to find facts and then working hard to share the information in our own words. We will be sharing our brochures with other students in our school and in other classrooms around the world. We cant wait to show off our great learning!

During the month of November, our focus was on the INTEGRITY key. We discussed making good choices and doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching. You show integrity when you do what you know is right. After our class meeting, we selected Andrew as our Student of the Month winner. Congratulations for showing integrity! For the month of December, our focus will be on Balance. We need to make sure we make choices that help keep a healthy body, mind, and spirit. We learn that too much of one thing is not a good thing and that variety and moderation is the key!

Friday, Dec. 21st Last Day of School for 2012 Friday, Dec. 21st First Day of School for 2013 Monday, January 7th

Homework:
Keep reading those homework stories each night. With repeated exposure to the texts, your child should be moving up a level every few (3-5) weeks. Discuss the ideas in the stories to ensure the meaning of the text is being understood! Remember to bring your folder back on Fridays!

Winter Concerts:
This year we are hosting two performances of our holiday concert. Both shows will be the same so you can choose which concert you would like to attend. The first show takes place on Wednesday, December 19th at 12:15 pm and the second performance occurs the next day at 9:30 am.

Nutrition for Learning:

We have been sorting our lunches each day into the four main food groups with an additional group for fats and sugars. The students are recording the number of servings of each food group that is represented in their lunches. Many of the students are surprised to learn that their lunches contain more fats and sugars than any other food group! We have been talking about eating a balanced diet and fueling our brains for learning by giving it healthy, nutritious foods. Please assist your child in packing foods that will boost their brain power and help their learning at school!

Kenyan Fundraiser:
We are very excited with the results of our Kenyan Art Auction that took place last month. We put 20 items in the silent auction and each item was sold when the auction closed. With some additional donations and the art sales, our class raised just over $1000 for our blogging buddies in Kenya. The smiles and cheers were big in our classroom as we counted the funds and calculated our totals. It feels really good to help out others who are in need. We are very proud of our fundraiser and cant wait to share the good news with St. Lawrence Orphanage school when they return from their holidays.

Learning Buddies:
We have been working with our kindergarten friends in room 19 to help them learn how to take turns and follow instructions. We have been teaching them strategy games and have also been reading to them and teaching them their numbers through card games.

Winter Weather:
As the cold weather arrives its becoming more important to bring hats, gloves, and boots. Students also need a pair of indoor shoes at school.

Museum Visit:
We really enjoyed our trip to the KW Museum last month. We started our day participating in the Technically Speaking program where we worked in groups to listen to instructions to guide us through developing our own stories. We used the various museum exhibits as the backdrop for our photos to create the setting for our stories. When we returned to school we used the images from the trip to publish our stories using different apps on the class ipad. One group published their story using iMovie. Another group used Little Bird Tales and the last group used Voicethread. Each of our stories will be added to our class wiki site where parents can view them there. http://gill-villeans.pbworks.com During the afternoon we were lucky enough to tour through both the China and Avatar exhibits. In the China exhibit we learned lots about rock carvings and oil paintings that depicted life in ancient China.

In the avatar exhibit, students were able to interact with games and digital activities in various rooms. The favourite activity placed the students in a scene from the movie. They had to follow directions on the floor to complete the movements for the scene. The computer used their movements to make the character move in the scene! You can learn more about our trip by visiting our class blog and read the student posts about the trip. http://kidblog.org/gill-villeans

Happy Holidays:
The Gill-Ville staff would like to wish you a wonderful holiday season. We look forward to continued success and learning in 2013! See you next year!