What a wonderful day we had on Friday out to MacSkimming! We were outside almost the entire day and we learned SO much about Pioneer Life!  A real, learn to do by doing experience.

A huge thank you to our parent volunteers who joined- you were SO lovely and SO helpful!

I have posted some pictures below to capture our day.

There will be NO spelling this week as we work to wrap up our Living and Working in Ontario group projects as well an enjoy an incredibly busy Education Week at WEJ! We will also be starting Telling Time in Math and I am continuing to post EQAO review Cahoots for the students in the Google Classroom. The latest one is due tomorrow by 3pm. I see many students were practicing and completed the Kahoot early Saturday morning.

Monday – Music Monday Assembly for students in the gym. Food Drive Begins

Tuesday – Scientists in School and EXTRA Earth Day Spirit Day. Students are encouraged to wear brown, blue, green and white and old clothing as we part take in a yard clean up.

Thursday – DJ Malik from Montreal presenting his Anti-bullying show.

Friday – Igloo Experience in the Gym. Food Drive Ends.

Thank you for signing our field trip permission forms for this Friday and special thanks to our volunteers! Coming along with us are Clara’s Mom, Logan’s Mom, Eric’s Mom, and Wenger’s Dad. We had so many parents offer to come, I have written your name down to be at the top of my list for next time! We could not do this without you! The students (and myself) are looking forward to the pioneer village experience! Please refer back to the earlier blog post for what to pack and expectations. The high tomorrow will be 19 degrees and partially overcast! We will be leaving at 9:30 sharp, so please be here or your child will be placed in another Grade 3 class for learning tomorrow.

Please do not send your child with money tomorrow. There is no food to purchase and no gift shop.

Here is the OCDSBs link to more info on our destination tomorrow: https://www.ocdsb.ca/cms/One.aspx?portalId=55478&pageId=1223163

Dear WEJ Students, Parents & Guardians,

           This year W. Erskine Johnston PS is taking a simple, but very meaningful initiative into our hands by supporting ‘The Kanata Food Cupboard.’ We will be taking donations of canned foods, non-perishable items, gift cards and monetary donations the week of May 6th-10th. 

The most needed items for the Kanata Food Cupboard are:

– Canned Fish (tuna fish) & canned meat
– Canned vegetables & fruit – Legumes (canned or dried) such as kidney beans, black beans and lentils
– Cereal
– Dried pasta & pasta sauce
– Peanut butter, jam, pudding, juice boxes
– Rice, especially jasmine and basmati rice
– Canned stews & chilli

– School snacks (granola bars, and crackers), pudding, fruit cups, applesauce and juice boxes  

– Dates, prunes, figs

– Soups

– Baby diapers (especially size 3-6), baby food, formula

– Shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, deodorant, body wash, toilet paper

– Grocery store gift cards

– Monetary donations to the Kanata Food Cupboard (tax receipts will be issued)

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/w-erskine-johnston-public-school-food-drive/

Please check the expiration date on all non-perishable food items. Sunscreen is not accepted. Peanut and other nut products are permitted as long as they are fully sealed. 

     Your participation is greatly appreciated and we would like to help many members of our community needing food assistance.

 Thank you in advance for your support,

WEJ Staff

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I have just received a printout from the main office, I am missing 8 field trip forms. Your child cannot attend the trip without the proper permission forms. Please check your email for the form, it was sent out a week ago. It is all done by an electronic link now, no more paper copies.

Also, I have 6 parents who would like to volunteer. Thanks SO much for your offer. Unfortunately, I can only take 4. Those parents have already been contacted and those parents will be responsible for supervising a small group of children.

ALSO …

I am excited to announce that Scientists in School will be visiting our classroom on Tuesday, May 7th. The ‘field trip that comes to us’ will be presenting a 90-minute session on soil and plants. This interactive and hands-on presentation will complement your child’s learning for our upcoming science units on Soils in the Environment and Growth and Changes in Plants.

Scientists in School was founded on the principle that students learn best when they get to be the scientists – doing science instead of just reading or hearing about science. The name Scientists in School does not refer to the science experts who are brought into the classroom, but rather, to the students themselves. During Scientists in School workshops, your child becomes a scientist in school.

The workshop the class will be participating in is Get the Dirt on Plants! In this workshop, the students will dig into the exciting and connected world of soil and plants. They will explore the importance of soil by investigating soil layers and experimenting with water retention. They will also dissect a seed, learn about seed dispersal, and examine plant growth up close!

It should be a wonderful learning opportunity for the students! I will share many photos.

Mrs. Lewis

The Grade 3s have an exciting educational opportunity to visit the MacSkimming Outdoor Education Centre Pioneer Village on May 3rd. The students will enjoy experiential learning experiences about Canada’s earliest communities, which connect directly to our curriculum. Students will have an opportunity to discuss and compare the lives of Indigenous communities, to that of the European settlers during the early 1900s. Students will visit a one-room schoolhouse, build a log cabin and use some antique tools, in this hands-on discovery of life long ago.
We will be looking for at least 2 parent volunteers per class. We will be traveling by bus to the village location at 3700 Wilhaven Dr. leaving at 9:30am and then returning to school at 2pm for the last period of the day. Students will also have a lunch break during their time at the Education Centre. We are excited to offer this field trip to our Grade 3s! Please check your email for the permission form to sign for your child to participate!

The Village Field Centre Information Package (1)

For a cross-curricular art/social studies activity, the students investigated the natural features found in the Canadian Shield as part of our unit on Living and Working in Ontario. The students were also introduced to the art of the famous “Group of Seven” painters. These artists painted numerous scenes across Ontario, but the majority of their most famous pieces were created in the Canadian Shield region. The students were tasked with choosing a photo from a collection I provided and recreating the scene in paint, employing the style of the Group of Seven. The students were also asked to write about the natural features they included in their paintings and to name the community depicted in their landscape. These paintings are currently proudly displayed in the hallway downstairs in the catwalk. The students are getting a lot of praise from passers-by! As you can see, the students did a wonderful job on this art project!

Good morning parents,

I promised to keep you in the loop and let you know the moment I do too. It’s official, our Grade 3 EQAO assessments are to take place the week of June 3 to 6.

For more information:

• Sample Assessments – Students, parents and educators have the opportunity to become familiar with the digital assessment and its platform through EQAO’s online Grades 3 and 6 sample assessments.

○     Grade 3: Sample Test

Happy Sunny Sunday – what a glorious day it was!

I hope however you enjoy tomorrow, it is safe and making memories and full of joy.

For those children staying indoors or those looking for something to supplement what we are doing in Math, I have scheduled a post to go live tomorrow morning in the Google Classroom with Math activities. The students will see this note:

Happy Solar Eclipse Day! Here are some Math tasks to do if you are staying inside today.
Friendly reminder your Robert Munsch Book Cover is DUE tomorrow and you should be reviewing your PIONEER package for our QUIZ also on Tuesday.
Have fun with the Kahoot! We will post the podium first thing TUESDAY morning!
1. Make sure you are done up to slide 51 in the Math assignment posted on April 4th. We will continue in class on Tuesday and PLEASE do not “TURN IN.” You will not be able to work on other slides with the class if you do.
2. Enjoy the Kahoot
3. 4 Knowledgehook Missions have been set. Not due until April 14th, but I know many of you will want to complete the mission for points. (your login and password is in your agenda)
See you on Terrific Tuesday friends!
-Ms. Lewis

You will have noticed “Making Clothing the Pioneer Way” in the Friday Folio. This is taken directly from a past EQAO test. To get a level 4 on written response/comprehension questions. Students must 1) Restate the Question. 2) Use Proof direct from the Text and 3) Add their own idea. “I think…”

We are just starting to dabble in EQAO, our school has not been given our test days -YET. This usually falls anywhere between the last two weeks in May and the first two weeks in June. Stay tuned , I will let you know as soon as I do too.We will do plenty of practice questions in class to supplement what curriculum strand we are working on at the time. Here is the link to the EQAO website to see past test questions and learn more. https://d3d9vqrpii4nuo.cloudfront.net/#/en/student/primary-assessment

Being as we have missed two weeks of Working with Words -Spelling; I will hand out the new weekly unit on Tuesday and give students extra time in class to work with their words.

Our new unit in Math is Financial Literacy – making changing and purchases up to $10 and in Social Studies we are looking at Living and Working in Ontario – we will do a Group of & inspired Visual Arts project on Friday!

Last week the students had a blast hearing and listening to each others’ Robert Munsch stories. Some were the best I’d seen in years! Round of applause for these fabulous, young storytellers!!!