Welcome to Grade 1! 

Dear Grade 1 SJA Parents/Guardians,

            I am beyond happy and excited to inform you that I am one of the Grade 1 teachers for this academic year at St. Jude's. You are receiving this email because I am your child’s Grade 1 teacher. We wish you a warm welcome to this very busy year. We hope that you have had a restful summer and are now eagerly looking forward to getting back to school. We hope that this email will answer any questions that you may have.

            I (Samantha Gandy) will be responsible for teaching your child their core subjects of English Language, Math, and 6 Units of Inquiry (UOI). The bulk of your child's school day will be around these three areas. The inquiry units are usually structured around social studies and science concepts. In this year's inquiry units we will be learning about rules, responsibilities and relationships, organization, the prehistoric era, cultural art forms, inventions and habitats. Most of our English language learning (oral & listening, reading, and writing) and art expectations will be learned through these UOIs. We are always looking for guest speakers that will visit the classroom. Please let me know if you have a connection to a specialist that would be able to visit our class to talk about this year’s UOIs.

St. Jude’s Academy Grade 1 Programme of Inquiry 2019 – 2020

Unit 1 - Rules, Relationships and Responsibilities

Central Idea: People living around the world all have relationships, rules, and responsibilities.

Lines of Inquiry: 

- Important relationships within the community

- The importance of home, school and community rules 

- The changes of rules and relationships over time

Key Concepts 

Change,Responsibility, Connection

Unit 2 - We are going Prehistoric 

Central Idea: Animals can change and adapt over time

Lines of Inquiry: 

- Ways we gather information to tell us about Dinosaurs.

- Animals that lived on Earth during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

- How animals and plants survived or became extinct in the prehistoric period.

Key Concepts

- Causation, Connection, Change

Unit 3 - Outrageously Organized

Central Idea: People often use organization as a system to establish order. 

Lines of Inquiry: 

- Reasons why people use systems of organization.

- Strategies to organize ourselves at home, school, and in our community.

- Consequences of a presence or absence of organization.

Key Concepts

- Causation, Connection, Change 

Unit 4 - Inventions, Innovations and Discovery 

Central Idea: Inventions are a response to challenges and opportunities, and impact our daily lives.

Lines of Inquiry: 

- The origins of different inventions and how they have changed over time. 

- Events that lead to the creation of important inventions. 

- Significant inventions and their inventors 

Key Concepts

- Causation, Function, Form

Unit 5 - Art Attack

Central Idea: People use art forms to express their culture.

Lines of Inquiry: 

- The art forms of local and international cultures both past and present. 

- How art is used for expression and communication.

-  How art can demonstrate various cultural experiences (e.g. language, beliefs)

Key Concepts

- Perspective, Form

Unit 6 – Animal Kingdom

Central Idea: Diverse habitats support unique communities of living things

Lines of Inquiry: 

- Needs of plants and animals within various ecosystems. 

- The characteristics that define habitats around the world. 

- The ways human actions can affect ecosystems.

Key Concepts

- Change, Responsibility, Form

      As an IB school we value character development, an attitude of being a life-long learner, and showing action as a result of learning. The IB Learner Profile Attributes represent some of the traits we value at SJA. We strive to provoke our students to ask Big Questions - the kind you cannot Google the answer to. We encourage students and families to celebrate stories of action with us. If you see your child taking the initiative to ask questions and find answers on their own, please let me know. Send me an email or a picture that describes what your child is doing. 

SJA Student Policies 

Attached to this email you will find the SJA Parent and Student Handbook and the SJA School Code of Conduct. Please read them, sign the last page of the handbook and bring it to class in your child’s agenda by Friday, September 13^th.

To help ensure students safety, parent volunteers are required to submit a clear vulnerable sector check. Please see the SJA Parent and Student Handbook for more information.

Orientation Evenings

We have scheduled two orientation evenings. This is also a good time for new families to pick up your FOB if you have not already done this. FOBs will give you access to the school building from 7:30 am – 8:45 am, and again from 3:45 pm – 6:00 pm. Wednesday, August 28^th: PYP Orientation (JK – Grade 6), from 5 pm – 7 pm

Parents and students are invited to visit the school, meet their teachers, see the classrooms, and ask any questions they may have. There is no general session this year. You can meet your class teacher in their room (Room #18) and specialist teachers in Room 29 (Mrs. McMillian- Music, Mlle. Jessica- French and Emily Vasconcelos- Gym)

Thursday, August 29^th: Upper School Students Orientation (Grades 7 – 12), starting at 3:30pm 
Students are invited to visit the school to collect their schedules, locate their classrooms, locks & lockers, meet their teachers, and more. 

Thursday, August 29^th: Upper School Parents Orientation (Grade 7 – 12), from 5:45pm – 7:45 pm
Parents are invited to visit the school to meet the teachers and ask any questions they may have. Please RSVP for the Wine & Charcuterie Event by August 26^th. 

Hot Lunch Program  

Please know that the website closes end of day Aug 30^thby 3:00pm and is unable to reopen for September ordering. Please see the end of this email for more instructions. 

Homework

Please know that all grade one classes receive the same amount of homework as listed below. 

Students will receive reading folders to track their daily reading. Students are expected to read for 15 minutes each night. Please initial their reading log daily, as they will be rewarded for completing these pages. 

Students may periodically bring home incomplete work from the day to finish that night. They will also receive review packages for upcoming tests a few days prior to the test. 

Weekly spelling words will be posted on my blog every Monday for the week. Students are expected to complete one sentence for each spelling word, which will be due every Friday.   

Agendas 

Your child will receive an agenda on his/her first day of school. Please read and sign your child’s agenda every day, as important dates, announcements and homework will be included and updated each week. Students need to bring their agendas back and forth to school each day. This is another way of communicating with me. 

Upcoming Events

• August 28 PYP Orientation, 5-7 pm 

• September 2 Labour Day (No School) 

• September 3 PD Day, IB Training (No School)

• September 4 First Day of School, Term 1 Begins 

• September 4-6 Neophyte Week  

    

• September 6 Spirit Day: House Colours Dress Up 

• September 13 Terry Fox Run (Lower School)

• September 19 Welcome BBQ 

• September 20-27 Fall Fundraiser 

• September 25 Casual Day

• September 30 Orange Shirt Day (PYP)

Uniform 

Students are to come to school on Wednesday, September 4th in their gym uniform. Required gym uniform days are Monday and Wednesday ONLY. After a holiday Monday, students will return on the Tuesday in their dress uniform. Students are to come to school in their full-dress uniform Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Please ensure that all uniform items are labelled with your child’s name. Please make sure your child has a pair of black dress shoes and a pair of gym shoes, which will be left at school daily. 

Gym and dress shoes cannot be worn outside. To avoid any discomfort in case of washroom accidents, send in your child’s backpack an extra change of clothes in a plastic bag to be left in their bag or cubby. 

Blog 

Please visit the class blog daily, as it is a way to stay connected, see what we did during the day, or to find important dates and homework. The blog will tell you the units we are working on, what we do in class daily, homework and assignments, test dates, school events, and other important information. Please click this link to visit my blog: https://gandygr1class.blogspot.com

Food Allergies 

Please be advised that St. Jude's is a nut free facility. When purchasing items for your child's lunch, please read the packages carefully. If the label says, "may contain nuts", please refrain from sending that item. Look for products with the nut-free label.

First Week of School

The first week of school is Neophyte Week. We will take some time to get organised in our classroom, get to know each other, become familiar with the layout of the building and boundaries during recess, our schedule, and play some house games. We end the week with Spirit Day where students come to school dressed in their house colours. 

A NOTE FROM THE LIBRARIAN, MS. HAYWARD 

Hello!  I hope everyone has had a great summer and is excited for back to school. I am looking forward to a great third year in the St. Jude's Academy Library. 

We accomplished a lot last year in the library.  We catalogued over 2,300 books in our collection.  We had successful Recess Readers sessions. We started out LIT Club (library helpers). Our Enchanted Forest Book Fair was a huge success allowing us to get over $2,400 worth of new books and resources for the library.  The Library also held some fun contests. And, of course, we checked out a lot of books for the voracious readers at SJA.  I hope to continue all these things and more. 

Please check out (and follow) the library blog at www.sjslibrary.wordoress.com for all things library and literacy related. See you soon

Hot Lunch Program

Below are the instructions for returning families:

*if you have a sibling joining SJA this year please keep in mind you can only use one email per child. 

Step 1 Logon to website http://mydigitalmailroom.com/sja - if you forgot your password or email used please contact bsmith@stjudesacademy.com

Step 2 Across the top menu bar you will see several options, please scroll over MY ACCOUNT, change grade and teacher to reflect new year. Select SAVE

Step 3 across the top menu bar you will see several options, please scroll over MANAGE LUNCH, a drop-down menu will appear, select ADD NEW LUNCH FORM.

*Don’t forget to select payment method BEFORE ordering 

Below are the instructions for new families:

**If you have more than one child you will need to use different email addresses for each child. Only one child can be registered and ordered for under a single email address. 

Step 1 Go to website http://mydigitalmailroom.com/sja

·      Select register an account 

·      Select grade 

·      Select class 

·      Select teacher 

·      Enter in student information

·      Accept terms and conditions and select Register

Repeat for additional students. 

Step 2 across the top menu bar you will see several options, please scroll over MANAGE LUNCH, a drop-down menu will appear, select ADD NEW LUNCH FORM.

*Don’t forget to select payment method BEFORE ordering

After-Care Program
New Parents 

• You have been sent an email to sign up with a pin
• Please download the FREE Kinderlime app via APP Store, Google Play etc. Or Visit the website https://www.kinderlime.com <https://www.kinderlime.com/>

Complete MUST HAVE information about your child(ren) on APP/Website 

• Phone number(s)
• Updated pick up permissions
• Allergy/Medication information
• We strongly suggest you set up automatic payments through the app/website to ensure you will not incur late fees for monthly invoices. 
• You can also choose to pay monthly through the app/website.
• Through the app/website you will be able to digitally access monthly break downs (printed copies will not be available)  
• View App/Website daily to see sign in/out times. 

Returning Parents 

• Update the MUST HAVE information about your child(ren) on APP/Website 
• Phone number(s)
• Updated pick up permissions
• Allergy/Medication information
• If you have not already done so we strongly suggest you set up automatic payments through the app/website to ensure you will not incur late fees for monthly invoices.

If you have any questions/comments regarding this new addition, please contact the Students Services Coordinator at bsmith@stjudesacademy.com

Contact Information

Please email me letting me know how you would prefer to speak at the end of each our Unit of Inquiry. I will be in contact with you 6 times of the year on top of our 2 student lead conferences. In this email, I would like to know if you would like an update on your child by email, phone or in person.

I will also be using the classroom app ‘Remind’, to send out updates about important class information. To sign up for notifications, please download the app and click the link https://www.remind.com/join/missgandys. Classroom code is missgandys.Further instructions will be on the blog! 

I believe that open lines of communication between the parents, students and teachers are the key to promoting an educational climate that is conductive to learning. Please feel free to contact me at any time if there is a question or situation you would like to discuss: sgandy@stjudesacademy.com

I look forward to meeting you and having a wonderful school year!