Welcome to the 2020/2021 school year!

    This promises to be an interesting school year. I can honestly say that in my 20+ years as a teacher I have never experienced this before. I am very excited to get back into the classroom and have been working hard over the last month to prepare for this year. Your child's health, safety and happiness is my number one priority. This year we are a split grade, both grades 4 and 5. I have 10 years of experience teaching this split, so this is not a new role for me. 

Why a Blog? Over the years I have found this to be a more effective and environmental way to keep families informed as to what's happening. It is accessible to all family members and on any electronic device with the internet. This blog will be your key to knowing what is happening in our classroom, I will update it weekly to let you know what is going on and to give a heads up about what is coming your way. You can contact me at the school at any point and make a meeting time if you need to as well. 

Homework will be a little different this year. I will be giving some homework on Google Classrooms. I feel it is very important that the students become experts at using this site, in case we are closed down again. I will be teaching the students to use it at school and they will have little assignments to do at home. There is a big move to have students memorize their multiplication facts. Going online to continually practice these facts will be important. I will be setting the class up with individual accounts for math websites where they can practice these skills. It is okay for you to help your child with homework, they may need your guidance and assistance, and this will help you to understand what we are working on in class. I will be their teacher for the next 10 months, you are their teacher for life.

Math:  We will be starting the school year by learning to read, write and represent numbers. The grade 4s will be working with numbers up to 10,000 and the grade 5s will be working with numbers up to 100,000.   

Language:  We will be starting the school year review reading strategies and looking at the text features of a narrative. I will be kicking the year off with a read aloud by one of my favorite authors, Roald Dahl. 

In writing the focus to start will be writing proper sentences and larger sentences. Writing assignments will center around the theme all about me. 

Our grammar focus will be on the parts of a sentence including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. 

                                       

Physical Education: We DO NOT have use of the gym this year. We will be having an outdoor gym four times a week on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.  We will be going out as often as we can even if it is wet. Students must come prepared to go outside each day.

There is a trip form coming home in the Start-Up package from the school. This form gives me permission to take the students to the double soccer fields up behind the school (they are kind of hidden and you may not be aware that they exist). It also allows us to go to the baseball diamond and the outdoor rink in the winter. It is an important form to fill in and return. I hope to spend a lot of time learning outside as it is healthier for them and gives them a break from their mask.

Health will start with making healthy choices. We will focus on safety, healthy eating and the importance of exercise.

Science: 

Grade 4s will begin the year with Habitats. This is a great unit that provides a lot of outdoor learning opportunities.

Grade 5s will start with the Human Body. This unit works well with our unit in Health which is focused on Healthy choices.

Expectations: My expectations are that the students come to school each day prepared to learn, with a positive attitude and that they try their best. There are lots of new rules and expectations around COVID measures implemented in the school, I will be going over these with the students. Mr. Pearson will be addressing them in school communications and newsletters.

Contact:  If you have any concerns or would like to meet with me, please call me at school or send me a note and we can arrange to speak at a time that is good for both.

If you leave a message for me on the phone system be aware that I will probably not return if until the following day. These messages come to me as an email and I can not listen to them from my computer at school as the speakers are not functioning. Also, we no longer have telephones with an outside line in the classrooms, this means I can only call on break if the phone in the office is not being utilized. That being said if it is an emergency please speak directly to Donna or Lisa in the office. 

The school number is (613)521-5922.
My email address is peggy.macleod@ocdsb.ca




Looking forward to a fantastic year!!
Peggy MacLeod