Gérald Laroche - musician & artist

Gérald Laroche is a Juno award winning musician and visual artist who spent the day in our class and school. He visited École Assiniboine thanks to a grant from Canadian Parents for French. In the morning he spent time with our class teaching some simple shortcuts to sketching and drawing characters. He taught us the basics to drawing a stickman and how to add movement to a drawing. He also explained how to add details such as shoes, hands and faces. He was able to teach us how to add details to the drawing and tell a story. In the afternoon he presented a concert where he played various harmonicas and other percussion instruments along with his storytelling. We even had the chance to stand up and dance!

TWAS - October 4

This week our class decided to write a community TWAS entry. Students were given a topic and wrote about what we did as a group.

In English, we did "Words Their Way." We did a blind writing sort with our words. What we did was write the words in our booklet in the correct column after our partner read the word aloud. We also read chapters 3 & 4 of our novel study Little House in the Big Woods. We did a drawing about a part of the book and wrote sentences about the connections we had with the book.
 - Ethan, Olivia Kennedy & Matthew

This week at school, we did a readers' theatre play called "La rentrée". It is about school objects that can talk to each other. We also learned how to identify nouns and articles in sentences. We used our highlighters to mark the words.
 - Shea, Nicholas, Ro & Caitlyn

Our main subject in sciences humaines is how to resolve conflicts and be a good citizen. You cannot solve a conflict without finding a peaceful solution. You can do that by compromising, using your words or moving away from the problem. If the person who is bothering you does not stop, you have the right to go to a teacher or a responsible adult that you trust to help you solve the problem.
It is important to respect private and public property. If something is private property, it means it belongs to someone and you need to get permission from the person who owns it to have anything to do with it. Public property means you have the right to do something with it - although you still have to respect it.
- Hannah E., Parker, Tanner & Julia

This week in music we started choir. We're doing a song called "Take These Wings". It is about a sparrow dying and a baby sparrow starting life. We also started Orff. We are doing a play about birds fighting. In art we are learning about textures and did a texture picture.
- Hannah T., Malikie, Jeremy & Diana

 In math, we learned about how many ones, tens and hundreds are in a number. We had a lot of fun doing math this week. We also did some mental math activities. We did a review of addition strategies. In math we also worked with Mme Kwiatkowski.  We did a dance with the hundred chart showing the multiples of 2, 3, 5, 7 & 10.
- Kamal, Anna, Caleb & Elise

In sciences naturelles, we are learning about sounds - high, low, soft, loud, pleasant and unpleasant. We wrote down sounds we like and ones we don't like. If we didn't have vibrations, there would not be sounds. Sounds go in all directions and if it hits a wall it will bounce off and keep on going.
- Dylan, Anaïs, Bren & Amber

Thanks for reading about our week. If you wish to leave a comment, click on the link below.

Divisional Cross-Country - October 3, 2013

The divisional cross-country race has changed from 1:30 to 1:20 pm. We will be leaving École Assiniboine at 12:35pm and we are expected to return at 2:15 pm.
We need some volunteers to help with the run and as supervisors on the bus. If you are available, please let me know via email: clachance@sjsd.net or phone at (204) 885-2216

Thanks,
Mme Lachance

Regular Bedtimes

I recently read an article entitled "Regular bedtimes better for young minds". This article discusses the importance of a regular bedtime and how it affects school performance. The study suggests "consistency of your children's bedtime is associated with positive performance on a variety of intellectual tests." The researchers found that children performed better if they went to bed at a regular time each night.  If you are interested in reading the entire article, click here - http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/08/regular-bedtimes-better-for-young-minds/

Here is some additional information I found on the Kids Health website. It provides information about the amount of sleep needed for School-Age Children

"School-age kids need 10 to 12 hours of sleep a night. Bedtime difficulties can arise at this age for a variety of reasons. Homework, sports and after-school activities, TVs, computers, and video games, as well as hectic family schedules might contribute to kids not getting enough sleep.

Lack of sleep can cause irritable or hyper types of behavior and may make it difficult for kids to pay attention in school. It is important to have a consistent bedtime, especially on school nights. Be sure to leave enough time before bed to allow your child to unwind before lights out."

Team Building Activities

Since the beginning of the year we have done several activities to learn more about our classmates. We did a People Hunt, daily questions about our friends and some community building games. We also worked in cooperative groups to build a structure or object using only the supplies provided: tinfoil, star stickers, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and tape. The groups were very creative and made the following: a hot air balloon, an ocean, a book, a dinosaur, a dog and a nature garden. By working together, we learned about how to work as a group and share materials. After the activity, we had an opportunity to talk about what we could have done differently.

Terry Fox Run - Friday, September 20

Annual Terry Fox Run - Friday, September 20th 2013

Once again, École Assiniboine will be supporting the Terry Fox Foundation by walking and donating a Loonie or a Toonie to cancer research.  Please help us make a difference by sending $1.00 or $2.00 with your child by the run date!  If you are interested in joining us, please do so.  The event will take place at 2:15 p.m. on Friday, September 20, 2013. (Rain Date: September 27)
Parent Volunteers are always welcome and needed!!!  Please email M. Senecal at rsencal@sjsd.net to let us know if you are able to help out.

Back to School - September 2013

Today was a wonderful first day of school. We spent the morning playing community building games and learning about our new classmates. We learned that "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is a very popular series and that many students went camping this summer. We also organized our school supplies into the various bins and everything was colour coded! In the afternoon, we completed a reading survey to learn about our reading habits. We also read a funny poem entitled "Welcome Back to School". We then headed to the gym where M Senecal talked about signing up to be a leader for various intra-mural activities throughout the year. Finally, we went over the bus rules and got ready for home. It was a first day filled with fun and a little dancing!