Welcome to Ms. Jesseau’s Grade 4 Class

When we make good choices, we all achieve success.

Parental Involvement

Home Suggestions- Mathematics

Play counting, card and board games

Identify and play with fractions using food, cardboard shapes, folding paper

Play What's my number? Give clues: I am thinking of a 2 digit number; It is an even number; The first digit is 5.

Estimate and measure lengths and widths and distances in the home and neighbourhood (table, bed, tree, size, door). Use non standard units such as hand, foot, spoon or standard units such as centimetre and metre

Keep a personal calendar

Identify and use coins and paper money and explore banking practices

Identify amounts, sizes, weights when cooking/baking and when shopping

Read a thermometer and note temperatures from radio/newspaper/TV

Play coin toss games, predict, record and discuss the results

Identify repeated patterns in your home and neighbourhood: floor and bathroom tiles, sidewalk, fence posts, wallpaper borders, greeting cards

Identify shapes in the environment as you walk, ride, play, shop (windows, traffic lights, doors), in your home, as you cut sandwiches in different shapes, sort coins, sew buttons, use food containers, other containers, watch TV and chat

Explore 2D and 3D shapes

Cut out half a picture and draw the other half, use a small mirror or two to discover symmetry in the environment, fold and cut paper to create symmetrical shapes

Estimate times, costs, amounts in daily interactions.

Challenge your child with quick mental drills

 

ABC Public School

1234 Respect Street

Ottawa, Ontario

K1A 9Z8

To contact us:

Phone: 613-555-1234

Fax: 613-555-4321

E-mail: anne.jesseau@ocdsb.ca

Two Sculptors

 

I dreamed I stood in a studio

And watched two sculptors there,

the clay they used was a young child’s mind,

And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher; the tools she used

Were books, music and art.

One, a parent who worked with a guiding hand

And a gentle loving heart.

Day after day the teacher toiled

With touch that was deft and sure,

While the parent laboured by her side

And polished and smoothed it over.

And when at last their task was done.

They were proud of what they had wrought;

For the things they had moulded into the child

Could neither be sold or bought.

And each agreed he would have failed

If he had worked alone,

For behind the teacher stood the school,

And behind the parent, the home.

There will be plenty of opportunities during the school year to accompany us on school  outings, volunteer during the school day or help to extend and expand upon your child’s learning at home. 

Regular newsletters will be coming home with your child’s homework package so you can stay involved in what we are doing in the classroom.

If at any time you have concerns or questions, please feel free to email me or call the school office.

And check this website often, this is another way that you can stay involved in your child’s learning.

Home Suggestions-Listening and Speaking

Listen to the radio, TV, live performances, for stories, songs, plays…

Borrow cassette and/or video tapes of stories and/or documentaries from the library

Use Computer software for language development

Sing songs

Tell jokes

Listen, locate and identify sounds in the environment

Recite Nursery rhymes and poems

Listen to discuss (conflict, interesting words, how an author builds suspense)

Vary instructions and messages to ensure understanding; take time to explain meanings of unfamiliar words and world events

Discuss situations in real life (family meetings) or from newspaper, TV, videos, stories to:
clarify concerns, predict outcomes, obtain information, identify cause and effect

Develop thinking/reasoning skills

Discuss character, plot, setting and style

Develop a deeper understanding of the message/problem

Teach necessary instructions, phrases and messages e.g. teach telephone manners, how to ask for specific help or directions and how to relay messages (how to make a long story short)

Ask open ended questions to encourage discussion........Don't ask: "How did you do at school today"

Ask: "What song did the teacher sing. Can you tell me the words?" ,"What was the funniest thing that happened?", "What did you pretend at the sandbox?"
 
Ask: "What if…" and "why" questions: "What would happen if we didn't shovel snow?",
"Why do you think the birds fly south?"

Take time to explain meanings of unfamiliar words and to build vocabulary

Play sound/word/spelling games: tongue twisters, rhyming words, opposites (up-down), synonyms, (nice-lovely), words that begin or end with the same sound, identify silent letters (knife)

Have your child's hearing and vision checked regularly