May 12, 2026

 

Thank you to all of you who were able to join us for the Open House last week. It is

always a pleasure to share the children’s learning with parents. I am so proud of

all of them. 

Thank you to the parents who were able to join us on our field trip. The children

had a lot of fun finding different creatures in the pond. I hope you heard all

about it.

The students are working hard. In math, we continue to work on Algebra. In Language,

we continue to learn new phonemes. This week we are learning about /er/. We are

learning to code using Ozobots this week. 

I want to express my deepest gratitude for your continuous support throughout this year.

It has been a true privilege teaching your children and watching them grow. Your

partnership and kindness have meant the world to me.

I am pleased that Mrs. Leah James will be stepping in to lead our class for the rest

of the term. She knows many of the children as she worked with some of them in

Kindergarten. I have full confidence that the students will continue to thrive under

her care.

Wishing you and your children a wonderful and successful conclusion to the school year!

Sincerely, 

Giovanna Smith

May 4, 2026

Catholic Education Week starts Sunday, May 5 and ends on Friday,May 10. This week is dedicated to showcasing how important Catholic Education is in your child’s life. Many activities have been planned this week. 

Open House - Monday, May 4 - Drop by between 9:15-10:15

I hope you can pop in to check out some of the things we have

been working on these last couple of weeks. The children are

excited to share their learning with you :) 

Entrepreneur Fair - Tuesday, May 5

The students in grade 4 have been busy in their Entrepreneur

Program. On Tuesday, we will visit the fair to see what they

are offering. The rest of the school will have a chance to

purchase some things that they have created. If you can,

have your child bring some change to purchase some items.

They suggested $2 to $10 dollars. 

Baxter Field Trip - Thursday, May 7

We will be going on our field trip this coming Thursday, May 7 to the Baxter Conservation Centre. A note came home on Friday with important information. Please review it to have your child ready for this fun day! Remember we are going rain or shine! We are excited for this special day. 

As always, please continue to write me a note in your child's

agenda or call me at the school if you have any questions

or concerns. I’m looking forward to a great week of

learning and fun. 

Sincerely,

Giovanna Smith

April 27, 2026

 

Last week was another success in learning! We hope you took advantage

of the beautiful weather this weekend and spent some time outdoors.

It's hard to believe, but this is our final week of April, and we'll be

heading into May soon!

Baxter Field Trip

Our field trip to the Baxter Conservation Centre is coming soon. Thank you

to all of you who send the forms back to school so quickly. I think I am

only missing 3. Please send it back as soon as you can.  We are excited

for this special day. 

Open House 

As I mentioned in last week's post, we will be having a school wide

Open House at St. Cecilia on Monday, May 3 between 9 and 10 am.

This is a great way to check out some of your child’s work in the

classroom, check out a grade 2 classroom (to get ready for next

year), or the rest of the building! 

                                                  

Our Classroom Learning

In language, we continue to learn some new types of poems. We are also learning more phonemes to help us become more fluent when reading. In math, we have been solving lots of fair-share word problems. It is amazing to see how they are showing their thinking. We will begin to learn some algebra.The children will learn to determine whether given pairs of addition and subtraction expressions are equivalent or not. In the gym, we are working on learning how to skip. The children have improved so much! We will begin our Unit 4 in Family Life. Here is a some we have been listening to at school. It is always a favourite and the children usually ask me to share it with their parents so they can listen at home as well.

Easter Hallelujah An Easter Hallelujah - 10 year old Cassandra Star & her sister Callahan

I look forward to working with the children again this week. As always,

please write me a note in your child's agenda if you have any

questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Giovanna Smith :)

April 20, 2026

The Prize-a-Palooza was a huge success! 

Thank you to all of you who bought tickets, donated prizes or donated your time to help run the event. We were lucky to have 6 or 7 winners from our class. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful school community at St. Cecilia.

Save the date… 

    

On Monday, May 4, we will be having an Open House before school. More information will come from the office soon. This will be an opportunity to pop into the school to see some of the children’s work and you can also check out a grade 2 classroom in preparation for next year. Hope to see you there! 

Our Field Trip to Baxter Conservation Area

We are waiting to get our paperwork back from the board regarding our field trip. I hope it will be back to us this week so it can get to you. It will be a quick turnaround once it is in your hands. Please do your best to return it as soon as possible. The date is on Thursday, May 7, 2026. Parents are welcome to join us if you have your VSR check completed.

We have been working on our skipping skills. So many of the children are improving. We have been practicing in the gym, in the school yard and even in the classroom! They are so excited. Hopefully some nicer weather will motivate them to keep skipping. It is amazing exercise! 

In Language, we continue to work on WW’s. Thanks for your support with that. The children have been working on adding more details in the writing. We will soon begin to learn about Poetry.

In Math, we have been working on fair share problems. I listed the grade 1 expectations and included a sample problem. We will continue working on these this week.

• Use drawings to represent and solve fair share problems that involve 2 and 4 sharers and have a remainder of 1 or 2.

• Recognize that ½ and 2/4 of the same whole could be equal.

• Use drawings to compare and order unit fractions representing the individual portions that result when a whole is shared by different number of sharers, up to 10 sharers.

 

As always, please write me a note or call the school if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to another great week of fun and learning. 

 

Take care,

Giovanna Smith 😊

April 13, 2026

 

Language

We continue to read texts in the Flyleaf series. Please feel free to use the online resource. It is free until the end of June. Students are starting to work on using connecting words to make their sentences a bit longer, for example, and, but, because or so.  

https://flyleafpublishing.com/e-book-library

Home Reading Bags

Please send back your Home Reading Bags as soon as you can. I do have a lot of my own books that I am still willing to continue to share with you to practice with your child. However, I also have been using some resources from the school library that I need to share with some of my colleagues. Please take some time to look around the house for any St. Cecilia resources that you may have borrowed (there will be a stamp on the cover or inside page). I am missing a few books at this time. Thanks for your help.

Please help your child pack his/her library books for our book exchange this week.

Math

We  will begin our learning of fractions. Here are some tips to let you know what the children will be learning and how you can help from home. These 3 links come from Math Up ( a math resource we use at school) and they will only work for 14 days then the links will expire. 

Sum It Up - Halves and Fourths

Sum It Up - Unit Fractions

Sum It Up - Fair Shares

Science

Last week we had a fun week building our robots! The children were excited to build them on their own. This activity helped them with their creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and some collaboration. The children were very excited as they were able to share their creations with the kindergarten students and some of their former educators. It was pretty special to watch them share their robots. I hope you had a chance to read their writing about their robots as well. They all did a great job. 

Scientists in Schools Workshop - Monday, April 13

The students will participate in a hands-on science workshop Monday morning. We are lucky to have this opportunity. There is a fee for the school for this workshop. We use the funds from the student’s activity fee to help to pay for it. Thank you to those who have already paid. Last time I checked in with the office we were only missing 2 families so thanks so much. The children will be excited to participate in this learning experience.

Physical Education 

We have been working on skipping this month. The children have participated in various jumping activities. The students are so excited. I have been working on building their confidence with the long rope. A few have already learned how to skip with a short rope.

As always, please write me a note in your child's agenda or call the school if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to another great week of fun and learning. 

Sincerely,

Giovanna Smith 😊

              

April 7, 2026

 

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend, and you were able to connect with family and friends.

Easter Prayer

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ is risen!

Loving God, we praise and thank You for the gift of new life that You gave us through the resurrection and ascension of Your Son Jesus Christ. May our lives reflect the Good News of our salvation as we strive to build Your kingdom through our loving service to others. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

In Language, we continue to work on WW’s. Thanks for your support with that. We will not have new words this week. With the two short weeks, it is tough to get through our regular activities. The children have been working on adding more details in the writing. We will soon begin to learn about Poetry. 

In Math, we continue to work on Measurement. We are also continuing to work on  solving word problems. 

In science, we continue to learn more structures. We will also participate in our Scientists in Schools workshop on Monday next week. Thank you to all of you who paid for your child’s activity fee. If you haven't paid yet, please do that this week through SchoolCash Online. 

In religion, we will work on Alleluia Banners and we continue to learn more about Jesus. The children were very curious about Holy Week. Please ask your child what he/she learned. I sent home their Holy Week writing. I hope you had a chance to look it over. 

 

As always, please write me a note or call the school if you have any questions or concerns. I look forward to another great week of fun and learning. 

 

Take care,

Giovanna Smith 😊