Hello families,

Halloween is in the air! We have been learning about the pumpkin life cycle this week. Your child brought home a little book about the pumpkin life cycle that they can practice reading at home.

We ended the week by making “Spooky Pumpkin” art. They made their own shade of orange by mixing red and yellow! We had lots of scissor practice by cutting out the pumpkins, eyes, mouths, moons and teeth! Lots of fun!

Letter of the week

We learned about the letter Tt this week. You may want to review the following letters and sounds at home: M,S,F,B and T. The Grade 1s can also practice listening for the beginning end end sound of words. For example, “mast”. They should be able to tell you that “m” is at the beginning and “t” is the end sound.

Halloween Fun at school

On Friday Oct. 29, students are welcome to wear a costume to school. I suggest wearing some comfortable clothing under the costume or bringing a change of clothing for later in the day. I find that the children like to change out of their costume for the afternoon. Please also send a bag to carry their costume home.

I will ensure that we have lots of fun Halloween activities throughout the day but we will not be serving treats or goodie bags that day.

Please refrain from sending food to share or goodie bags on this day.

Pumpkin Carving Contest

Some of the older students in the school are hosting a Pumpkin Carving Contest. If you choose to particiapte, you can carve a pumpkin at home and bring it to school on the morning of Oct. 28. There will be three categories for awards: scariest, most creative, and silliest. Pumpkins can be picked up after school on Oct. 29.

Reminders:

No school for students on Oct. 22.

Have a lovely weekend!

Happy “half way through” October!

This week we have continued to learn about signs of Fall and patterning.

We have explored various patterns including AB, AAB, ABC, AABB, ABBC, and many more.

We began “literacy centres” which is a time when we explore letters, sounds, words, and many other literacy based activities.

We made beautiful leaves for our classroom tree while practcicing our fine motor skills. We needed to use our hand muscles to squeeze the paint and release it onto the paper. It was cool to watch the colours blend into one another.

Hand washing: I have noticed that many students are not very serious about hand washing. So today we covered our hands in germs (glitter) and we needed to wash as long as it took to wash away all the glitter germs. I hope this made an impact so they remember that thorough hand washing is not just a quick rinse.

Grade One Book Bags

The Gr. 1 students brought home their book bags today. You will find 3 books in the bag. Please practice these books many times throughout the week. The bags can be returned every Friday in order to receive new books. Next week, I will exchange them on Thursday since Friday is a Pro-D Day.

Reminders:

Friday Oct. 22 is a Pro-D Day so there will be no school for students.

Please remember to send your child with rain boots and rain gear on rainy days. We go outside EVERY day!

Library books can be returned every Wednesday or sooner.

Have a lovely weekend!

Hello families!

Every Wednesday our class will visit our school library with Mrs. Dias.  Last week, your child brought home a library bag with 2 books from our school library.  We hope you enjoy reading these books together. Please return the books by Wednesday every week so your child can take out new books. I have shown them where to place their books in our classroom when they return them.

Please also note that we have gym (physical education) class every Monday and Tuesday.

I also want to mention that apparently a coyote has been seen close to the school grounds. I have shown the class a picture of a coyote and spoke about what we should do if we see one. I know many of you play on the school grounds in the evenings and weekends so please be aware.

Have a great week!

All about apples this week!

Apple Activities

Many of the activities this week were inspired by these two stories: Ten Apples up on top and Ten Red Apples.

Ten Apples up on top is a silly story about balancing apples on characters’ heads! Of course, we all wanted to try too!

We learned the song “One little, two little, three little apples”.

When we read Ten Red Apples, we matched the number of apples on the tree in the story to the number of cubes on our ten frames.

Letter Sounds

Every week we learn about one or two new letters and their sounds. This week we learned about Ss. The Grade 1s do whiteboard spelling and printing books while the Kindergarten students learn the letter sound and practice printing the letter on their whiteboard.

Thanksgiving / Being Grateful

The students will be bringing home “I am thankful..” activity today. They did an amazing job at listing countless things that they are grateful for in their lives.  I hope you and your family have the time to discuss all of the things that you are grateful for too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy October!

Wow, October arrived so quickly! Thank you for your patience during this choppy week. I don’t know about you, but I’m really looking forward to having a full week of school next week!!

Math Lessons

In math, we continue to play games and learn more about numbers to 10. We made number crowns and played a dice game.

We also listened to a story titled One is a Snail and Ten is a crab. 

Click on this link to watch and listen to the story with your child.

Orange Shirt Day

For Orange Shirt day, we listened to some stories written about indigenous people who attended Residential Schools and spoke about ways that we help each other feel better when they are feeling hurt.

If you would like to watch an age appropriate video about Orange Shirt Day please click this link about the student who had her orange shirt taken away when she arrived at residential school:

Phyllis Webstad

Then we created orange hearts for our classroom to remind us to be kind and helpful to others.

Today we read a story called All are Welcome and created a “welcoming” display of ourselves.

Communication Bags

Today the students will be bringing home their “communication bag”.

Grade 1s will have their planner and calendar inside. Please sign the planner and return the following day. Any papers in the bag can stay at home. The Gr. 1s will have their IXL password in the front cover of their planner. If you have not tried IXL, please log in this weekend to try out the program. It is wondeful to support our classroom math program with this practice at home.

Kindergarten students will not have planners but please check your child’s communication bag daily, take out any papers from inside the bag, and then return the bag to school every day. You will find a mask for your Kindergarten student in their bag today.

Mask Mandate

As you have probably heard, all students K-12 are now required to wear a mask at all times indoors. Of course, the students will be removing their mask to eat and drink so I encourage them to have a landyard for their mask. Otherwise, we end up with masks all over the floor and tables. A landyard helps a lot! Ms. Aujla is going to look into purchasing a landyard for primary students but I am not sure how long that could take.

Friendship List

I would like to send out a “Friendship List” to all our families so you have parent contacts (phone numbers and emails) to arrange playdates, etc.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW if you would not like to be included on the friendship list. The information will only be shared with families in our class and I will remind everyone not to share the info with other people.

I also want to mention that the MYed system does not send emails to hotmail addresses. You may miss important information sent from the Burnaby School District if you have a hotmail address. I recommend submitting an additional “non-hotmail” email address to the office to ensure you receive important info.

Have a lovely weekend! Hopefully the weather cooperates and we can enjoy some beautiful Fall weather outside!

Hello families!

We have arrived at the end of our third week of school! Our class has so much to celebrate. Our Kindergarten students have learned all the routines for playing and learning both inside our classroom and outside on the playground. The Grade One students have taken on a leadership role helping the K students and they are being more independent throughout their day.

It is my hope that this blog will serve as a communication tool between home and school. Please check it regularly for school information.

There are 2 ways to access this blog.

1) Every Friday you will receive an email with a link to the latest blog entry. By clicking on the link (it is not highlighted) you will be able to see the photos and read information.

OR

2) Bookmark the following link and click on it whenever you would like to have a look at the blog.

http://sd41blogs.ca/capitanioj/

A bit about our classroom:

We start every day with “Table Time” when students choose an activity that is prepared on a table. This is a time to reconnect with peers and begin our day in a calm and inviting way.

Throughout the day, there are many opportunities for play (or “Exploration” time) as well as some more structured lessons. I read many stories throughout the day and often use the stories as a springboard for our lessons (see our activity inspired by the book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).

In Math, we begin by doing a whole group lesson followed by some “hands on” learning on the carpet.  The Grade 1s will usually have some “seatowork” on paper to follow up with the activity.  The K students will then have the opportunity to do more hands on activities with the occassional math seat work.

Here are some photos from a math lesson this week:

We are exploring the number 10: ways to make 10, using 10 frames, making groups of 10…

The K students helped make lots and lots of groups of 10. So much counting practice!

Art activities are always available to the students during exploration time. Have a look at the beautiful “name” art created this week using dried beans and seeds! I am sure your child would love to sing the “Higgelty Piggelty” song to accompany this project.

As you know we particiapted in a Terry Fox Run at school today. I was so proud of the students for trying their best to continue to run even when they were getting tired. Have a look at these drawings of us as we run with Terry!

Important Dates to Remember:

Monday Sept. 27 – Pro D Day – No school for students

Wednesday Sept. 29 – Orange shirt day – students are invited to wear orange.  Please do not feel the need to buy orange clothing. I will have little paper shirts for them to colour and pin on if they would like.

Thursday Sept. 30 – School closed for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation

Monday Oct. 11 – Thanksgiving Day – School Closed

Info for Grade 1 families:

We will begin using planners on Oct. 4. I will include their IXL passwords in the front cover of their planner.

Have a lovely weekend!

xo Jennifer

Hello families!

I have just finished entering all of your emails so I hope you receive this message.

This is just a test to see if my blog is set up correctly.

I will ask parents at the door tomorrow if you received a notification of a blog entry via email.

Thank you!

Jennifer

Hello everyone!!!

I hope all of you have enjoyed a restful, fun summer full of lots of family time.

I am very excited to see all of my friends from Div. 14 tomorrow.

Ms. Aujla has asked our class to line up in the undercover area beside our classroom to limit the number of parents outside the primary wing. I will meet you there at 8:45 on Tuesday, Sept. 7. Dismissal will be at 9:45 in undercover area. Our class will be staying in our classroom for this week. I will introduce them to Mr. Ehl who will be their teacher for this week while I am with the new Kindergarten students.

The students will find out their new classrooms and teachers by next week.

I cannot wait to see you all!

xo Ms. C.

PS I will be bringing some sunflowers that grew from our sunflower seeds. Do any of you have sunflowers that grew from your seeds?

I hope you are finding ways to stay cool! I just wanted to note that school tomorrow is from 8:55 to 10:25.

We will be cleaning out desks, sorting work, and watching a year end assembly.

Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow for our final day of this memorable school year! Xo Ms. C.

Sorry that I missed posting our weekly blog update on Friday. I could not stay in that hot classroom any longer!

I hope you are all finding ways to stay cool this weekend.

Just a reminder that our last day of school is on Tuesday from 8:55 to 10:25. On Monday, we will be sorting through our work and supplies. The students should bring a bag to carry all of their things home on Monday.

Fun and learning from this past week:

Making a marble run with paper tubes

Newspaper towers Challenge

Potato Harvest: We found 40 potatoes in our tub!

And a visit from RCMP about bike safety!

We took a class photo with everyone. I will make sure everyone receives a copy as a keepsake from this school year.

See you on Monday! Please send lots of cold water, a hat, and wear appropriate clothing. It’s sure to be a hot one!