Welcome back!  We hope you all enjoyed the Christmas season.

ELA: A spelling list of adverbs was sent home with your child today to practice for the week. When practising, please encourage your child to say the words in a sentence so they can learn to effectively use adverbs in the right context. We will also continue working on inferring through stories and real life situations.  This week students will complete a winter scene art project - look for it in the hallway by the end of the week!

Math:  This week the grade 4's will be looking at multiplication patterns and using arrays to divide.  The grade 3's will be learning strategies to add 2 digit numbers.  Just as with the grade 4's, we will be practising mental math strategies of manipulating the numbers to add or subtract before we introduce the "stacking" method with "carrying" numbers.  I want them to have a solid understanding of place value and number manipulation before learning short cuts.

Social Studies: Part of our study of "life in Canada" includes learning about power and authority, citizenship, and ways of resolving conflict.  This week we are going to be engaging in activities to help students understand their psychological needs (belonging, freedom, power, fun) and how to fulfill them positively (based on Diane Gossen's work on restitution and unfulfilled needs).  We will be brainstorming, critiquing case scenarios, taking a needs inventory, and discussing with other students who have similar needs how to fulfill them in a "deep" way rather than a "cheap" inappropriate way.  Through this our goal is to have a healthy understanding of authority, recognize and exercise active citizenship, have strategies to solve conflict, and build a closer class community.

Christian Education: As we continue reading stories in Genesis, we will be memorizing some fundamental verses that demonstrate how God created the world, loves his people, and wants desperately to save them and have a relationship with him.