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What a week!

Thank you all so much for your flexibility as the unpredictable weather changed our plans many times.

It was wonderful to see so many kids back at school today as the clearer roads allowed for safer travel.

Fun in the snow!

Literacy Week – Jan. 22 – 26

Next week our school will be celebrating all things related to reading and books!

There will be a special focus every day of the week:

Monday – students are invited to donate books that they do not read anymore to our “Book Swap”. Once all the donated books are organized, students will get to choose new books from the donated books to take home on Tuesday.

Tuesday – Book Swap Choice and Teacher Reading Swap

Wednesday – “Wear Words Wednesday” – students are invited to wear clothing that has words on it!

Thursday – assembly (tentative)

Friday – Cozy reading – students are welcome to wear Pj’s or comfortable clothing and bring a stuffie for reading day

So please have a look for any books you can donate to the book swap so your child can choose new books and bring them on Monday.

Have a wonderful “wintery” weekend!

Hello families,

I am so sorry that I was not able to make it to school today (Friday). My daughter had a bad fall at school yesterday so I spent Thursday evening waiting for an ambulance and in emergency. Fortunately no major injuries but she will be using crutches for a while. I am home with her today.

I am so thankful that Ms. Nelson was able to teach the class today.

A few notes:

-please return your child’s white report card envelope (you can keep the papers inside-i just need the envelope if you still have it)

-We will be starting to explore family connections as part of social studies. I am requesting that every student have a family photo to share with the class. I already have family photos from the following students: Kaiya, Amara, Leo, Sofia (all from Ms. Grippo that were used last year), and Vihana, Olivia, and Jaydon. If you do not have a printed family photo, feel free to send me a digital image by email and I can print it on the colour copier. Please ensure I have a photo by Jan. 31.

-Beginning next week, the special helper will be invited to bring a book from home for me to read to the class. Please think ahead and help your child choose a book that can be read in less than 5 minutes. Gr. 1 students are welcome to read the book to the class themselves if they wish to do so. You will receive a reminder the day before your child is special helper.

-exciting news! We will be going skating on Wednesday Jan. 31. I will send more info closer to the date!

Have a wonderful “wintery” weekend! Stay warm!

Happy holidays!

Thank you for all of your holiday wishes! I truly appreciate all of your support this term.  The students have grown in so many ways which are especially evident in their kindness to one another and dedication to learning activities.

From the Penguin revolution to pancake breakfast, we enjoyed a fun filled week, but now we are all ready for some special time with our families.

Wishing you peace and joy for the holidays!

See you in the new year on Monday January 8, 2024!

PS. The Grade 1 students were gifted a book from TD that they took home on Thursday. This is a book for them to keep.

More Gingerbread Fun!

We capped off the week with a hunt through the school for our gingerbread man who jumped out of the oven!  Luckily he was enticed back to our classroom when he saw our beautiful gingerbread house.

We all had a turn rolling out the gingerbread dough!

Dates to remember:

Wednesday Dec. 20 – Penguin Revolution Day – The leadership students are organizing a fun day for our school. We are welcome to wear black/white so we can look like penguins!

Thursday Dec. 21 – our last day of school before break – Students are welcome to wear their PJ’s to school and bring a small stuffie. We will be eating pancakes in the morning. Dismissal is at 1:55.

Friday Dec. 22 – no school

Have a lovely weekend!

Gingerbread Friends

We have read three versions of “The Gingerbread Man” so far. We will continue to read more adaptations next week.  The class is able to compare the different versions very well. We are keeping track on our chart.

“Oh Where is my gingebread man?”

We have been learning this pocket chart song this week (to the tune of “Where has my little dog gone?”

Gr. 1 Math

The Grade Ones have been learning how to sort information and represent it in a graph. This is a photo of how we put these holiday shapes into a graph.

 Glass Jars

Thank you so much to Kien’s family who has donated a lot of jars. I still need about 8 to proceed with a project for next week. Please send in clean jars without a label (tomato sauce, salsa, pickles, etc.) if you are able to do so.

Have a lovely weekend!

Wow! How can it be December already? The first term of school has flown by so quickly!

This is the time of the year when we see so much growth in all areas. I am definitely seeing growth in social skills, literacy skills, and math too! Amazing progress everyone!

Gingerbread Bakery

Our house area has been converted into a Gingerbread bakery while we learn all about the gingerbread man stories.

Adventures of Gingerbread Man

Throughout the month of December, the special helper will bring home the gingerbread man bag. They are invited to draw and write about gingerbread man’s visit at your home. Be on the look out for your turn! Olivia is the first to take him home this weekend!

Jingle Bell Walk

We lucked out with beautiful weather on Thursday for our annual jingle bell walk. The kids were so excited to share who lived in all the houses that we delivered our flyers to.

Glass Jar Request

Over the next 2 weeks, I will be collecting clean, label free jars for an upcoming project. If you have any to contribute I would be very grateful. Any size from 500ml to 750 ml will be great!

Hopefully everyone received the new December calendar yesterday!

Have a lovely weekend!

Colours everywhere!

Our exploration of colour and colour mixing continued this week using stories such as Mouse Paint, Mix it up, and Rabbit’s Colour Book as springboards for our activities.

We were busy mixing colours to make colour wheels and learn about primary and secondary colours.

Our colour collages are looking great! If you have any scraps or little objects that can be added to our collages please send them to school.

Jingle Walk

On Thursday we will be walking through the neighbourhood delivering flyers to homes to advertise our school’s donation campaign.

Please make sure your child dresses for the weather especially on Thursday.

EDI survey info

On Monday, Kindergarten students will receive a very important notice about EDI surveys. Please look for it in your child’s backpack on Monday.

Library Books– please return every WEDNESDAY in their library bag!

Grade 1 book bags – please return every MONDAY to receive new books.

Have a great week!

Our week at school

Diwali

Thank you to the PAC for providing us with the supplies to make our own diyas and learn more about the holiday called Diwali!

Colours

For the next few weeks, many of our lessons will involve exploration of colours. Many of my favourite stories like Pete the Cat, Mix it up, and Mouse Paint will provide us with a stepping off point for learning.

Check out our “Pete the Cat” creations where we learned about speech bubbles.

Colour Collages

Over the next 2 weeks we will be collecting items that we can glue onto our group colour collages.  Please help your child look for scrap papers, food wrappers, and other miscellaneous items that we can sort based on colour. These items will not be returned as they will be glued onto collages. For example, a purple milk cap or a red kit kat wrapper. Your child can bring these any day over the next 2 weeks.

Jingle Bell Walk

On Nov. 30, our class will be walking along Brantford St. to distribute flyers for our Jingle Bell Walk. We will be giving information to neighbourhood houses that we will be collecting food and toy donations.  I would love to ask for 2 to 3 parent volunteers to accompany us from 9am to 10am on Nov. 30.  Please email me to let me know if you can volunteer.

Holiday Concert

Our class will be participating in a concert on Tuesday Dec. 19. We will be having an afternoon and evening concert.  More information about tickets will be sent from the office.  Save the date!

Our class will be singing “Must be Santa”. I am sure the class will love to sing for you!

Gr. 1 RAZ Kids online

Gr. 1 students will have password and website information on the inside cover of their planners. Please feel free to use this program at home for additional reading practice.

Gr. 1 Book bags

Please read these books multiple times throughout the week and RETURN on MONDAYS. I allocate time every Monday to select new books for the students. On average I am only receiving 2 out of 6 book bags on Mondays! Please listen to your child read, you will be amazed at their progress!

PAC Thank you

Huge thank you to the PAC for purchasing our new favourite toy for our classroom…plus plus blocks! These are an amazing toy and I’m very appreciative to our PAC for using their funds to buy these for our classroom. Thank you!

Please note that Friday Nov. 24 is a Pro-D Day. School is closed for students.

Have a lovely weekend!

Remembrance Day

Many of our lessons this week focused on peacefulness, ways to spread peace, and how we can help ourselves feel peaceful. We also learned about the importance of Remembrance Day in Canada.

The class did a phenomenal job performing “Little Poppy” and singing their song at the Remembrance Day assembly.

Poetry and Song books

Every week we learn a new poem or song. At the end of the week the students add the poem to their own “poetry and songbook”. We re-read all of their poems every week. This opportunity allows for lots of awesome reading and sharing!

Imagination Playground

We are fortunate to have these really cool play blocks at our school for the month of November. The kids were working together today to create some awesome structures.

Have a wonderful weekend! Please remember that school will be closed on Monday.

Halloween fun and outdoor activities

This week started with lots of excitement surrounding Halloween!

The students had a wonderful time dressing up in their costumes, marching in the parade, and participating in the Halloween assembly.

Alphabet Exchange

As part of our alphabet exchange, we prepared our letter Z’s and mailed them to 25 other schools in British Columbia. Everyone was excited to drop the letters into the mailbox! We have received 3 letters so far and cannot wait until more arrive in our school’s mailbox!

Garden time

We have been learning about the pumpkin life cycle. We collected all of the extra pumpkins in our school and placed them into our garden bed. We will be watching the pumpkins decompose over the course of the next few months, learn about composting, and observe this process as an important part of the life cycle. Perhaps we will even notice new pumpkin plants growing in the spring!

We also planted some bulbs today so we will have some beautiful flowers to enjoy in the Spring. Thank you to Amara’s family for the soil donation. Thank you to Bulbs 4 Kids for the bulb donation.

Playtime photo – check out the cool zoo!

Dates to remember:

Wednesday Nov. 8 – Photo retakes for students who were absent on photo day or who wish to have a new photo taken

Monday Nov. 13 – School closed to observe Remembrance Day

Friday Nov. 24 – Pro- D Day – School closed for students