April 2012

Dear Parents,

I wanted to start off by saying thank you to all of the parents who have helped out with the field trips throughout the year.  We would not have been able to see musicals, examine nature or explore the science centre without your help in supervising the students.  The science centre was a lot of fun and I've put up some pictures from the trip on the "Photo" link of my website.  Since we were all off in different directions, I wasn't able to get pictures of everyone, but i think you can get the idea that fun and learning was had by all. 

We'll be starting our Inference unit in writing this month.  Inference is all about "reading between the lines", or understanding the unwritten message that the author is trying to share with the reader.  You can help your child develop this skill by listening to them read at home and asking them inference questions after they finish, such as: "What was the moral of the story?" "What do you think the character is thinking about in this picture?"  "Why did the character do that?"  

In math, we will spend another couple of weeks on two column addition and subtraction before moving on to money.  At the end of the month, we'll have our "garage sale".  It's a fun money activity for the kids to test their adding and subtracting skills(no real money is used).  It will involve "selling" old toys, books, trading cards that the child no longer wants and in return they will get a chance to "buy" items from other students.  The "bought" items will be theirs to keep.  It might be a good idea to start putting items to one side in the next few weeks.  It's a great way to clean out those items that are just gathering dust in the toy box and give them a new home!

In social studies, we will continue with our look at communities who live in the far north and in the deserts of Africa.  We will examine how people have adapted their ways in order to deal with such extremes of climate. 
 
As the weather warms up, the field tends to get muddy with the spring rains.  Please make sure that your child is able to have an indoor pair of shoes at school.  If a student has muddy or wet shoes after recess, they will not be allowed to wear the shoes into the classroom.

I'll be coaching the Clearmeadow Jr. Girls Basketball team this month.  It might be a little harder to track me down after school as I will be running practices and taking the team out for several tournaments.  If you need to contact me, please leave a voice mail.  I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Have a great month!

Sincerely,

Mr. C. Dinsdale