Welcome back to school!

I hope you all had a restful break. It is exciting to return to school and note the warmer temperatures and signs of Spring.

Tomorrow is Class Photo Day – I just wanted to let everyone know that class photos are scheduled for tomorrow. I am not sure of the time of day but I will request early in the day.

Wednesday Outdoor Learning – We will be walking to the park every Wednesday afternoon. Please send your child to school dressed for the weather as we will go to the park regardless of weather (unless it is torrential downpour). Thank you to the following parents for offering to accompany us on our adventures: Anita, Annie, Parm, and Oliver’s grandmother.

Masks at school – As you are aware, masks are not mandatory in classrooms anymore. I have told the class that I will not be wearing my mask when I am distanced from the group (storytime, teaching to whole group, in gym, and outside). I will try to wear my mask when I am working closely with the students.  If you wish for your child to continue to wear a mask at school, please talk to your child at home about this. I will not be reminding students to wear their mask or give out spare masks.

Good bye to Reet – We will be saying goodbye to Reet later this week. We will miss you and wish you all the best at your new school!

Happy Spring Break!

It hardly feels like “spring” with snow flurries this morning, but I think everyone is ready for the “break”.

The class has continued to grow and develop together as a team this term. You should all be so proud of the awesome little people that you are raising. As their teacher, I absolutely love being a part of their progress and development!

Pow Wow Dancing

We had the opportunity to join an online lesson about Pow wow dancing. The lesson was quite detailed and long but the class was patient and persevered.

Card Games

The students learned the card game “war”. If you have some time over the break and a deck of cards, ask them to teach you how to play it.  “War” reinforces the math concepts of greater than, less than, and equal to. We also had a great discussion about winning/losing and being a good sport.

A few reminders:

-school reopens on Monday March 28

-please return your child’s report card envelope after the break if you did not send it today.

Wishing you a wonderful break!

Spring is in the air! It has been so lovely to enjoy the warmer days and begin to observe the first signs of spring.

We have been busy this week continuing to discuss our theme of families and learn more about the science of rainbows.

Gymnastics

For the month of February we have had the opportunity to explore the gymnastics equipment. I tried to capture one photo of every students but unfortuantely some students were absent that day. Here are some photos of the kids climbing, jumping, balancing, and hanging.

Making Rainbows

We were fortuante to have a glimpse of sunshine today so we could make rainbows using glass prisms!

Math games

We have been reinforcing addition (even 3 digit addition) and number recognition by learning new dice games. Lots of fun this week!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hello everyone,

Sorry for any miscommunication about the bookfair.

I clarified some questions with Mrs. Dias:

• students are welcome to bring money in a labelled ziploc bag or envelope to purchase books at the book fair tomorrow (Wednesday)
• there will be smaller items like pencils and erasers available for sale ($2-$5)
• online orders will be handed out next week at school

Mrs. Dias appreciates the support as a large portion of proceeds is given back to the school library.

Thank you!

Hello families,

Mrs. Dias, our school librarian, has asked me to send this link to families. The Scholastic book fair is happening this week. Our class will visit the library on Wednesday to have a look at the options available for purchase.

It is probably easiest for you to purchase online using the link below so so money needs to be sent to school.

Scholastic gives a generous portion of all book sales back to our school library.

https://virtualbookfairs.scholastic.ca/pages/5171073

Thank you for supporting our school.

A short week but a great week!

We are continuing to celebrate and learn more about families. I love hearing about all the special things your families do together. It is wonderful to see your children’s faces light up when they talk about their families. Please continue to send in family photos or send me a digital file of your family so I can print it.

As you can see, our bulletin of family photos is really coming together!

2’s Day

Your child may have told you about “Twosday” which was a special day because it was Tuesday Feb. (02) 22, 2022. We celebrated by doing “#2” activities. We counted by 2s, brainstormed things that come in pairs, and read “Two Too many”.

Pink Shirt Day

We recognized Pink Shirt Day by drawing ways we can be kind friends on our own paper pink shirts and wore them all day long.

Our Alphabet Letter Exchange

I thought I would share a photo of our completed Alphabet Letter Exchange Bulletin board. Every one of these letters arrived in the mail. We sent the letter Z to 25 classes and, in turn, they sent us a special letter too. This has been such an awesome project!

Our Art work will be in a show!

A teacher at Alpha Secondary asked Kindergarten teachers if we could contribute art work for the Drama class’ set design of the performance “Everything I need to know I learned in Kindergarten”. Well, of course, I was so excited to offer some artwork from our classroom for their set design. I look forward to sharing photos of the completed set!

Friday Feb. 25 is a Pro-D Day-No school for students

See you on Monday!

Family Day weekend

I just want to remind everyone that Monday, Feb. 21 is Family day so school will be closed. I hope you are able to spend some special time with your children on this day.

Family photo request

As a part of our unit learning about families, students are welcome to bring a photo of their family to share with the class. If you do not have a hard copy, feel free to email me a digital image and I can try to print it on my colour printer. Family day would be a great opportunity to take a family selfie!

Story Workshop Lessons with Ms. Dias

Our class is very fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in a series of “Story Workshop” lessons where the students are encouraged to take an active role in creating stories using hands on materials.

They have also had the opportunity to become the characters in the stories. Thanks to Ms. Tang for the photos!

Valentine’s day in our classroom

Many students distributed Valentine cards on Monday. The kids had a great time reading their cards from their friends.

Outdoor Learning Parent Volunteer Request

After Spring break, I am hoping to have weekly outdoor lessons with the class. Outdoor learning provides extremely rich learning opportunities that cannot be replicated indoors. In order for this to happen, I will require one or two parent volunteers to accompany us for supervision. We will be walking to the park area just north of Brantford School.

If you are able to accompany our class any Wednesday from 1pm to 2:45 , please email me with the dates you are available. Even if you are able to join once, I would be very grateful!

Have a lovely long weekend!

Ms.C.

Hello families!

This week many of our lessons focused on what it means to “be a good friend”. Your children can read this poem “Friends at School” very well!

Walk to the mailbox

Hopefully, you have received a special surprise from your child in your mailbox! They were so excited to walk to the mailbox and personally mail it to their families! Thanks to Ms. K for joining us on our walk!

Valentine Friends

Valentine’s Day

Students are welcome to wear red, pink, and/or white on Monday.

Please remember that if your child chooses to bring Valentine cards, no treats/goodies should be attached.

We have made Valentine mailboxes so the students can personally deliver the Valentine cards to their classmates.

A few dates to remember:

Monday Feb. 21 – Family Day – School closed

Wednesday Feb. 23 – Pink shirt day (students are welcome to wear pink.)

Friday Feb. 25 – Pro-D Day. No school for students.

Enjoy the lovely weather this weekend!

Lunar new year and Canada at the Olympics

February always brings so many special holidays and memorable events.  The first week of February has lived up to the expectation!

In addition to celebrating Lunar new year this week, we brought team spirit to Brantford school to cheer on Team Canada at the Olympics. We spoke about the athletes’ accomplishments and all of the hard work that it took to for them to compete at the Olympics.

Number Blocks

I am usually not a supporter of screen time for young learners, BUT I have discovered Number Blocks (on netflix and youtube). It is an amazing show to introduce math concepts and reinforce learned skills. You may have heard your child talk about this show because I have been showing them some episodes to support our lessons in class.  I could not resist ordering the Number Blocks friends for our class! Here they are!

Grade Ones are focusing on subtraction and addition to 18.

Kindergarten students are learning to break apart a number in 2 parts (example, 7 can break into 3 and 4).

Reading at Home

At this time of the year, the Grade One students’ reading skills are developing immensely. Continue with reading as much as possible at home.  The more they read the better readers they become! If you need more books or your RAZ kids password just email me.

Kindergarten students brought home their “Alphabet Books” today. Please keep this book in a special place to read and read again often. On each page, they can draw 2 pictures of objects that begin with that letter.

Valentine’s Day

On Monday Feb. 14, we will celebrate friendship on Valentine’s Day. Students are welcome to bring Valentine cards for their classmates. Valentine cards can be store bought or home made. As a school. we have decided that we do not want to have food/goodies/treats/toys attached to the Valentine cards. Receiving the card is more than enough fun-let’s keep this simple!

So if your child chooses to distribute Valentine cards on Feb. 14, please ensure there is one for every classmate, only send the cards, and encourage your child to write the names of their classmates on the cards themselves.

Please add Selihom’s name to the “Frienship List” that was sent earlier in the year. There are 20 students in our class.

Have a lovely weekend!

It’s great to be back!

It felt wonderful to be back in the classroom with the students this week. I am blown away with their progress since December. There is noticable growth in all areas inlcuding reading, math, socializing, following routines, and overall independence.

Foxy and Friends

This week we began to look at the parts of a story using a series of locally written books about a character called Foxy. We have really enjoyed created our own stories with all of the animal characters.

Family Celebration/Show and Tell

You will have noticed that your child came home with a February calendar, a yellow notice and a large white paper titled “Cultural Celebrations.” Please take a moment to read the notice and make a note of your child’s designated “show and tell” date. If you have any questions about this project, please email me.

Mitten Math

We are practicing counting by 2s. We had fun counting our mittens! Try counting your socks by 2s at home!

Hockey skills in gym

We were lucky to have Julianna lead us in some hockey skills development this week. It is always fun to try new equipment! Thanks Julianna!

Kindergarten Reading

The Kindergarten students are becoming superstar rhymers. Using their rhyming skills they were able to read 10 words that rhyme with cat. They know how to blend a first sound with “-at”. Amazing to see this develpment happen!

We are almost finished learning about every letter of the alphabet. Please review letter sounds with your children when you are reading together. The more practice the better!

Wednesdays in February

For the month of February, Ms. Tang will be teaching our class every Wednesday. The class knows her and she is very excited to work with this amazing group. I need to attend some appointments with my own children so I have found that it is best to have a set day of the week to work with.

Valentine’s Day

On Monday Feb. 14, we will celebrate friendship on Valentine’s Day. Students are welcome to bring Valentine cards for their classmates. Valentine cards can be store bought or home made. As a school. we have decided that we do not want to have food/goodies/treats/toys attached to the Valentine cards. Receiving the card is more than enough fun-let’s keep this simple!

So if your child chooses to distribute Valentine cards on Feb. 14, please ensure there is one for every classmate, only send the cards, and encourage your child to write the names of their classmates on the cards themselves.

Please add Selihom’s name to the “Frienship List” that was sent earlier in the year. There are 20 students in our class.

Our decomposing pumpkin

It has been very interesting to watch our pumpkin decompose. Have a look if you are walking through the schoolyard.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ms.C.