December Newsletter 2016

Important Dates to Remember!

December 8: Christmas Gala at MMH 6:30-8:00pm
If you are new to our school, a Christmas Gala is an evening of Christmas activities, dance and snacks at the school. It is meant as a family fun night out to participate in various Christmas crafts and activities throughout the school. I hope we can see you all there.  (Once again, for those new to the school - we alternate each year between Christmas Gala and Christmas Concert. Next year will be a concert year.)

December 2: Hot Lunch orders due online

December 13: Hot Lunch

December 19-23: Caroling in the gym at 8:30am

December 15: Fieldtrip to Galt Museum (busses provided!)

December 22: Skating Fieldtrip to the new ATB Arena 9:45-11:00

December 22: Cookie decorating in the afternoon. Please send candies/sprinkles to top our treats!  (cookies and icing will be provided!)

December 23: Dress Like Christmas Spirit Assembly pm/last day before holidays

January 9: First day back after school!
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If you would like to drive/supervise on the skating trip please message or email me or send in the form that is coming home soon! Thanks a bunch!

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LA: A Sense of Place Inquiry Unit/ Read Across Canada continues

Reading Strategies: Readers Give themselves a comprehension check by asking:  1. Who is in this part?

2. What just happened?

3. Does this fit with something that already happened, or is this new?

Picture of the Day: Inference vs Observation/Reading longer and stronger/set up systems for finding & sharing great books

Math: November Math Daily Warm Ups, Number Sense: Numbers to 1000 Unit: We are busy showing large numbers in 2 different ways and remembering the many different FORMS we can show numbers in:

standard form: 345

written form: three hundred forty-five

expanded form: 300 + 40 + 5

base ten name: 3 hundreds 4 tens 5 ones

Science: Testing Materials and Designs Unit: today we formed our company called Payne Construction and learned what a fair test is so that we can work hard as engineers this month to test beams, arches, and pillars. 

Social: India Unit (Celebrations, geography, climate, clothing, resources, foods and more!) We've learned where India is in relation to Canada, discussed the population of both countries and how that might affect the quality of life in each. We've also found some of the important geographic features and major cities in India. We wonder if and how they celebrate Christmas there.

Theme:  Christmas

Earth Rangers and U o L Drama Presentation

Here are a few of the fun activities that we have been enjoying at MMH! We had Earth Rangers on Monday 21st...

...and the University of Lethbridge performed several plays for the students on Tuesday 29th!

Spelling sorts and Partner Reading

November Newsletter

Thanks so much to everyone who sent treats for our party yesterday! They were delicious. The kids had fun parading through the halls and I’m sure they had a great night of trick or treating! Also, thank you to the many parent volunteers who drove and helped supervise our swimming fieldtrip!  Here’s a look at our month of November!

LA: A Sense of Place Inquiry Unit/ Read Across Canada continues

Reading Strategies: Setting goals and tracking progress, Picture of the Day: Inference vs Observation/Reading longer and stronger/set up systems for finding & sharing great books

Math: November Math Daily Warm Ups, Number Sense: Numbers to 1000 Unit

Science: Testing Materials and Designs Unit

Social: India Unit (Celebrations, geography, climate, clothing, resources, foods and more!)

Themes:  Remembrance Day, Canada

Words of the Week: humorous, remembrance

Spelling Program Update!

WOW! What an amazing group of spellers we have! The kids have been doing very well on their Friday tests and came home last night with a NEW ORANGE NOVEMBER spelling menu glued into their yellow spelling scribblers. Please continue to choose an activity each night from the menu and return books on Friday to be checked. I told the kids they could have a free night off for Halloween and to go ahead and choose T-Th.  There were a few yellow books that had gone missing so I handed out some new ones and asked the kids to take good care of them.

 

How to Book Your Parent Teacher Interview

November is always an exciting time with the opportunity for teachers and parents to celebrate student learning through the interview process.  Parent Teacher Interviews will take place at MMH in November.   Grade 1 to 5 interviews are scheduled for November 24 and 25.  Instructions on how to book your parent teacher interview are here! 

Step 1:  Open to Parents Tuesday, November 1.  To register, please click on the “Parent Teacher Interview” button on the home page or under the “Quick Links” section of our website http://mmh.lethsd.ab.ca. Please click the “Register for an account” link

Step 2: Enter all the information into the required fields.  Please make sure to select Parent in the “Tell us who you are?” drop down menu and then hit submit.

Step 3:  Once you have successfully logged in please select the date you wish to schedule a time.

Step 4: Book Your Parent-Teacher Interview - You will see the teacher’s schedule.  From the times listed please select one and click the “Book” button.  After booking your appointments you can print off your schedule.   You can log into the system at any time to view your bookings, print, cancel or reschedule appointments by going to the specific day you have booked and at the bottom of the page view your appointment time by clicking on “View my Parent Teacher Interview Schedule”.  You can also book additional appointments with other teachers as well.

Important Dates to Remember!

Nov. 1 Start scheduling your interviews

Nov. 1 - Dec. 14 Sock it to ‘em. Please donate new socks for local charities for Christmas. 

Nov. 1, 8, 15,22, 29, Junior Choir 3:10

Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 After School Skate: Free at the ATB Centre 3:30-4:30

Nov. 4 Deadline for Hot Lunch Orders

Nov. 7 Deadline to order MMH Clothing: use Cash online

Nov. 9 School Council Meeting at 7pm

Nov. 9 Remembrance Day Assembly 10:30am

Nov. 10 Professional Learning Day/ No School for students

Nov. 11 Remembrance Day/ No School

Nov. 15 Hot Lunch Day (gr. 1, 2,3 )

Nov. 16^th Swimming at Nicholas Sheran 10-11 (leaving at 9:40) drivers needed see below

Nov. 17 Dress Up Like Your Favourite Book Character / Spirit Assembly 9:00am Rock Your Mocs

Nov. 21 Report Cards Come home/ 2:00 Earth Rangers Assembly in the gym!

Nov. 24 Regular classes dismissed at 11:35/ No school in afternoon due to P/T interviews

Nov. 25 No School for students/ Parent Teacher Interviews

Nov. 28 Beef Jerky pick up day

Spelling Lists for the week of Oct 24

Green Group

stop

star

stem

stamp

stump

dish

wish

rush

cash

shed

Red Group

spider

dive
fire
nine
slide
five
bike
dice
smile
cake

Blue Group
jogging
begging
setting
stopping
spelling
using
skating
closing
brief

Swimming Day October 25, 2016

Dear Parents,                                                              

The Grade 3 Team has decided to take the kids swimming. Our class will be going on October 25 from 10:00-11:00 at Nicholas Sheran Pool.

In order for every child to be transported to the swimming pool, we will need to have parent volunteers. Our class will be leaving the school at 9:40 in order to be at the pool and ready to swim by 10:00. 

If you are able to help with the driving please send me a quick email! A hard copy of this will be coming home tomorrow as well if you prefer to send in the form!

Thanks so much for your support! Have a great night!

Linda

Strings in Schools

MMH is lucky to be welcoming the Strings in Schools program from the University of Lethbridge Conservatory of Music into our building this year. 

Classes will run mid-November to end May, or may begin sooner should the minimum number be met sooner.

We require a minimum of 8 students to run the class, and our maximum will be 16.  Registration is first come, first served; the first 16 students to return the form and payment will be in the class.  Violin rental is available through the conservatory or local stores.  All information is included on the registration form.  If we do not reach the minimum, cheques will be returned and the class will not run. 

Classes will run 1-2 lunches per week on the stage, and are offered for students in grades 3, 4 and 5.  If the minimum number of registrants is met, classes will be one day/week from 11:50-12:20.  If we have 16 registrants, an additional day will be added at no additional charge to families.

 Next Wednesday, October 12^th, we have a grade three student bringing her violin to school to come around and deliver the forms.

If you have questions, please direct them to Nicole Baker at nicole.baker@lethsd.ab.ca

or to the conservatory directly.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

October Newsletter 2016

It’s hard to believe that it’s already October! The first month of Grade 3 has flown by! We’ve been working hard on learning routines and have jumped into all of our beginning units.  Here’s a quick peek at what’s been going on in the four cores!

LA: Daily 5, Reading Across Canada Challenge

Reading Strategies: Read like books are gold! / Choose within reach books/Make Predictions

Math: Patterning Unit

Science: Scientific Method/ Hearing and Sound Unit

Social: Mapping Unit

Themes: Terry Fox, Roald Dahl, Orange Shirt Day, Fire Prevention Week, Bats

Words of the Week: Ethical Citizen and Engaged Thinker

Spelling Program

We are starting our spelling patterns program this month and you will see some spelling homework coming home tonight!  The spelling books will come home every Monday with a new word list written by your child. The students will be working on these words in school but will also have a list of activities to choose from each night. Please take 10-15 minutes each night Monday through Thursday to help your child choose which activity they want to try out and to complete the work in the spelling book provided.

These books will come back to school on Friday for me to look at and a spelling test will also happen every Friday (unless there is no school, then we will have it on Thursday). I have completed a spelling inventory of your child’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to spelling patterns and have grouped them so each child is getting instruction on the patterns they struggled with. We do word sorts and hunts with these patterns throughout the week with the goal to help your child recognize these spelling patterns and to apply them to other words rather than just memorizing for the test and then forgetting when applying during real world writing or typing. Each Friday your child will be tested on the 5 new words, 5 old words (to keep them mastered) and 2 surprise words that fall within the same spelling pattern to see if they are able to generalize the pattern to new words.

Thanks so much for your help getting this program up and running! Your time at home is greatly appreciated and I hope to see some great gains for our spellers this year!

Important Dates to Remember

Oct. 4, 18, 25 Junior Choir

Oct. 10-14 Fire Prevention Week “Don’t Wait Check the Date!” Replace smoke alarms every 10 years

Oct. 10 Thanksgiving: no school

Oct. 11 Professional Learning: no school /Minister David Eggen visits MMH 1:00-1:30

Oct. 12 Mission Impossible starts in the gym 

Oct. 13-18^th Scholastic Book Fair 8:00 – 4:00 / except Friday 14th 8:00 – 12:00.   

Oct. 14 Deadline for hot lunch orders

Oct. 17 Picture retake day

Oct. 20 Dismissal at 11:35 today/ no school in afternoon due to Professional Learning Da

Oct. 21 Professional Learning day: no school

Oct. 25 Hot lunch gr. 1-3

Oct. 31 Halloween parade 12:45 (students will change into costumes at noon) (Thanks for volunteering to send treats for our party, if you signed up you will be receiving an email soon! We have 26 students and no nut allergies!)

Bird Projects, Face Painting, Beach Day and Picnic Time!

As part of our bird project we had Mrs. Price offer to come in and face paint all the different types of birds that we were learning about. She did an amazing job of the long billed curlew, black capped chickadee, white american pelican, great horned owl, swainson's hawk, and mallard. WOW! Thank you so much for your time and talents, these were fantastic! 

Of course we had to mix in some amazing sea creatures for our Beach Day theme! Check out the seahorses and sharks! Rumour has it there will be even more face painting at the  Year End Picnic on June 28th.

Watch backpacks this Friday for a note coming home with reminders about the Year End Picnic. Special thanks to everyone who has already volunteered to bring watermelon, drive supplies, help supervise, cook and so much more! 

June 29  Last Day of School / Class Party-thanks so much to everyone who has signed up to send treats on this day :)  Also, just a reminder that this is a  HALF DAY.

Twins Triplets and Shaved Heads!

Whoever thought you'd see those words together in a sentence? That's what happens when you combine an MMH spirit assembly and some amazing students, parents, and teachers to support cancer research! Take a look!