Week of Oct. 28

This week has been an exciting one and it's only Tuesday!  With Halloween just around the corner, the children have been eager to draw pictures and make creations with Halloween on their minds!  They have been very excited to share about their costumes and what they are hoping to get in their bags on Halloween night!  In the classroom, we have been exploring with many different slimy materials such as spaghetti with eyeballs, slime with bats and orbeez balls with pumpkins.  Tomorrow we will be conducting a science experiment with ice in the shape of brains.  We will be predicting which brain will melt the fastest.  One will have salt one top, one with crayons on top and one with glitter on top.  Stay tuned for our findings!  We will also be working on a STEM challenge with cubes, popsicle sticks and rubber rats.  The goal is to try and make a fence for 5 rats to fit on.  It should be fun!

Our letter this week is the letter "m" and our word is "am".  Please continue to practice letter recognition and sounds with your child.  Make it fun!

This afternoon, we talked about our feeling and the things that make us feel happy and sad.  The students did a great job illustrating how they were feeling today.  We had many feelings going on in our classroom today!

On Thursday, the children are invited to wear orange and black.  Please do not send your child to school wearing a costume.  We will also be playing in a school wide bingo game.  We are asking for a $2 donation for United Way. 

On November 1st, Progress Reports for grades 1-6 will be going home.  Kindergarten students will be receiving their Initial Observation Report on Wednesday, November 13th.  Interviews for grades K-6 will be held on November 14th from 4 pm -8 pm.  More information will be sent home soon on how to book a time for an interview.  We look forward to chatting with you!

Important Dates:
Picture Retake Day- Nov. 6th

WEEK OF October. 21st - Important -Please read!

Today we started our word and letter exploration.  Each week, we will be looking at a letter and a word of the week.  The intent is that the letter of the week is for the jk students and the word of the week is for the sk students.  The word of the week is a high frequency word that we call a "popcorn" word.  These popcorn words are words that are found in simple books which are easy to sound out for the children.  We will get a new letter and word every Monday.  Our activities on Monday will involve this letter/word at some of our tabletops.  I would encourage you to check the blog at the beginning of the week so that you can ask your child to point the word out during nightly reading (sk's), practise printing the letter/word with their magic finger, think of words that have the letter sound in them, etc.  Make it fun! 

Our letter of the week is the letter "a".  We learned that this letter makes 2 sounds ("ahh' and it says it's own name "a").  We had lots of fun with the letter a.  All the children with an "a" in their name stood up.  We noticed that most of the kids in the class have an "a" in their name so it must be an important letter!  We also came up with a list of words that have an "a" in them.  

Our word of the week is "a".  We read a poem about pumpkins and the children had fun "buttering" the popcorn word!  We will do this every Monday.  We will read a poem together and keep an eye out for the word of the week.  The children will take turns "buttering" the word of the week.  This means they will colour the word in yellow. See the pictures below from today.

The sk students then went on to write a sentence or a thought using the word "a".  We are working on building their confidence and independence.  They did a fantastic job today and we are so proud of their work! See pictures of their work below.

We also explored a variety of pumpkins today.  There were small, medium and large pumpkins on display.  The students became scientists by exploring them using magnifying glasses.  They drew detailed pictures and described their work with words.  The walls in the classroom are filled with these bright and gorgeous pictures!

The students experimented with different tools at the art table today and had a blast.  We put out sticks, twigs and paint and they got creative.  Many students painted Halloween pictures and Fall pictures.  They are all really cute!

Every Friday, we will be meeting up with our Grade 2 reading buddies from Ms. Clouthier's class.  Last week the kids LOVED sitting with their buddies and listening to them read.  There were many familiar faces and even a few siblings in the class!

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered on our walk to the Beaver Pond.  We really appreciate all the support from volunteers.  Without you, field trips would not be possible. The kids had a great time and were excited to come back and look at the treasures they found on the walk.

Reminders:

Photo Retake Day - Nov 6
Halloween Dance -Fri. Oct 25th from 6-8 pm

Week of October 16th

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family.  Hopefully the turkeys made it home in one piece and decorated your Thanksgiving table! The kids were so excited to bring them home and show them off.

Today we went out on a leaf hunt and found gorgeous leaves in a variety of fall colours.  The children searched for different types, sizes and colours.  We read a story called "The Leaf Man" and were inspired to make beautiful creations with the leaves we collected.  Some of the leaves from the morning were laminated so we can do leaf rubbing and leaf exploration on Friday.

We have been practising our printing using proper pencil grip and proper letter formation with the jk students.  They are doing a great job with printing their name using an uppercase letter followed by lowercase letters.  Our sk students have been using their knowledge of letter sounds in their free writing.  Today, they wrote about what they are most thankful for.  We noticed that we are very blessed and have so much to be thankful for.  Our goal is to make the students feel confident when writing and to know that it is always okay to make mistakes.

On Monday, we will be starting our letter and "popcorn" word routine.  The blog post on Monday will explain what exactly this routine is and how you can support your child with their learning.  Please continue to check the blog each week for important information regarding our classroom community.

We are excited about our plans to walk to the Beaver Pond on this Friday, October 18th! A gentle reminder that you must have a criminal reference check done in order to assist as a volunteer. So far, the weather looks promising! Please be sure to send your child dressed appropriately for the outing including suitable footwear.  Volunteers are asked to join us right away at the 9AM bell. We will organize ourselves to leave right after attendance and bathroom visits.

Here are some pictures from today:

Week of October 7th

This week we will be talking about Thanksgiving and all the things we are thankful for.  The students came up with a list of things this morning and made a special book for our "book nook".  They were all very excited to share what their Thanksgiving traditions are with the class.  On Wednesday, we will be making a cute decoration for your Thanksgiving table.  We hope you like it!

Tomorrow we will be going to mass at St. Isidore Parish for 10 am.  We will be leaving the school around 9:40 am and taking the bus to the church.  We will return back to school for 11:15 am.  If you have not sent in the permission form, please do so by tomorrow morning.  Your child will not be able to attend without the signed permission form.  Please make sure that both sides of the form are signed.

Friday is a PD Day which means there is no school for the students.  We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.