Good morning R7A Families,

Hope you stayed warm and off the ice this weekend. Looks like winter may be creeping into Ottawa for a while.

Macskimming Field Trip on Monday: Please ensure your children are on time for school and have their permission forms if they have not handed them in. We leave after attendance on Monday morning. Everyone should have boots, snow pants, a warm jacket, hat and mitts/gloves. All students should have an extra pair of socks and bring lots of water and food. We will be back by dismissal. I will try to take lots of photos and share them in the next blog. Thanks to the volunteers coming along and to Ms Prokaska who helped with the permission forms while I was away.

Parent-teacher interviews on Thursday: 4:30 – 7:15 p.m. and Friday: 8:30 – 11:15 a.m. Interviews are held in the large gym so that you have a chance to speak to as many teachers as you need to. Please remember that these interviews are designed to be brief. If you need to speak to a teacher for a longer period of time, I suggest you make an individual appointment. I look forward to meeting you or seeing you again. By all means, bring your R7A student to join in the discussion. THERE IS NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS ON FRIDAY.

In Language Arts, this will be a finish-up week with students presenting Ideal School projects, speaking about current events and working on their 4th vocabulary assignment which is due on Monday, November 27. There will be a review assessment of all 4 assignment words and concepts at the end of next week. If there is time, we will be starting a read-aloud and comprehension activities. As I wrote last week, the book is Hana’s Suitcase. Ms Austin, Ms Davies and I will also be assembling reading groups for some fun activities in December.

In Geography this week, we will be starting our big project on environment, adaptation and natural disasters. The project and a checklist to help students stay on task will be posted on Google Classroom by Tuesday. In Visual Arts, we will be completing the students’ adaptations of Morning Star.

Tea and Noses: not two words you often see together, true. Please donate one box of kleenex to the class so that your children are not using rough paper towel on their delicate noses. As well, Thursday is read-aloud and tea day, and everyone should have a mug at school. I bought strong peppermint for this week; I hear it has calming properties…

Hope to see you on Thursday or Friday. Keep warm!

Ms Swail