Hello Parents,

Just a quick message to let you know that students in our class are welcome to wear their PJ’s to school on BOTH Friday Dec. 11 and 18. We have a few students who will not be here next Friday so we wanted to make sure they can participate this week!

Also, your child will be bringing home a folder with some of their work from TERM 1 today. Please make time to go through their work with them so they can tell you all about their learning.

Please RETURN the folder by next week. You can keep all the papers from inside the folder but I would appreciate to have the folders returned.

PLEASE KEEP THE WORK AT HOME AND RETURN THE FOLDER BY NEXT WEEEK.

Thank you to the families that have returned their “Special Family Celebration” homework. I am sending home extra copies today for those students who think they lost their paper. If you have time to complete this with your child, it would be very special for them to have the chance to share with our class.

Thank you for your support at home!

I hope you have all had a wonderful week! Your children have been busy. Have a look at some activities from this week:

Our class created beautiful cards for seniors in care homes. The kids were so proud that they would give some cheer to people that may not get to see their families this holiday season.

We had a special lesson with Mrs. Dias (our school’s teacher librarian). We learned about “event writing” where we focused on the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

Finally, have a look at our big I SPY CHRISTMAS board. We had fun today writing clues to go with the pictures.

Have a lovely weekend!

I hope you all enjoyed an extra day together on Friday!

A few classroom updates:

-Over the next few weeks, we will be learning about Winter celebrations and traditions from around the world. Your child will have some homework relating to this next weekend.  They will be encouraged to outline the details of a special holiday that your family celebrates. I will be sending home a form for your child to complete with your help next Friday.

-I will be adding books to EPIC about various holidays that are celebrated around the world. Please encourage your child to read/listen to these stories.

-This week our class will be completing very special Christmas cards for seniors in care homes.  We have spoken about “filling each others’ buckets” by doing kind things.  We agreed that creating special cards would be a kind way to bring joy to seniors who will not be able to see family members this holiday season.  These cards will be delivered to care homes through an initiative called “Cards for Seniors.”

-Puzzles!!!  Our class has really enjoyed doing puzzles lately. Puzzles are an amazing way to spend time together as a family, work with others towards a common goal, problem solve and develop spatial awareness (and they are lots of fun too!)

If you would like to borrow a puzzle or two from our classroom for the holidays, just let me know.

Reminder that the last day of school before the Winter Break is Friday December 18.

Hello families,

A few reminders:

-please check your “School Cash online” account to pay for your child’s planner, mathletics, and RAZ kids.

-Friday, Nov. 27 is a Pro-D Day. No school for students. I will be attending a math workshop in the morning and a “Social Story” workshop in the afternoon.

The students are really excited about the Solar System! Have a look at their amazing art work.

We have started classroom jobs this week. Every student has a certain responsibility for one week then they will be rotated through other jobs. They are showing such care and interest in keeping our classroom organized and tidy.

Here is our song that we learned this week. Sung to the tune of “Farmer in the Dell”.

Your child brought home some “bat” homework. This is completely optional for families that have time to work on it.

Grade 1 students should be able to write at least 3 sentences using the following sentence frameworks: Bats can…, Bats have…, and Bats are… Grade 2 students should be able to write 6 sentences using those frameworks.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I am hoping everyone is enjoying these brisk autumn days.

Today we enjoyed a presentation from Earth Rangers. Ask your child all about the interesting animals that we learned about via zoom!

By now, all of you should have access to three online learning sites: Mathletics, Raz Kids, and Epic. It has been wonderful to see so many students accessing them and practicing their skills from home. Normally, I advocate for limited screen time for young children, but because we should reduce the number of resources that go back and forth from home to school, I have opted to use these sites this year. If you would prefer to receive paper books for your child to read at home, please let me know as I have a full set of early reader books that I typically send home. I am more than happy to arrange for paper books to go home.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hello families!

Please click on the link in this email to access the full blog entry.

Phases of the Moon

Thank you all for encouraging your children to observe the changes in the moon and night sky every evening. The students are very excited about looking deeper into “the Solar system and Space.” Please continue documenting the phases of the moon on the blue sheet that was sent home this week.

RAZ Kids

I am sure your child has already mentioned RAZ kids to you. They were very excited about it! Inside your child’s planner cover (or on their planner bag in a few cases), I have taped their passwords for RAZ kids. It is an online reading program that offers leveled books suited for your child’s reading level. We spoke about having “just right fit books” to help us become better readers. I have assigned every child a level to start with. When you log on, you will be able to access books suited for your child. When you think your child is ready for more challenging books, click “Level up” or contact me. I demonstrated to the class how to access the books and how to gain awards for reading books. Normally I do not support “rewards” for reading but the way this program works is that it gives “stars” that the student can exchange for changing their avatar. I have found it really motivates the students to read more and more. If you have a chance this weekend, please give it a try.

Peace

This week we had some great discussions about what “Peace” means to us. We talked about what it “feels like, sounds like, and looks like.” Here are the wonderful ideas that the class came up with!

“Sing Together” for Remembrance Day Assembly

Here are the words to the song that we will be singing for the assembly. Please practice this weekend to ensure that your child knows all the words. It is sung to the tune of “Frere Jacques”.

Ms. Aujla sent an email about confirming parental consent for students to be recorded for the assembly. If you do NOT wish for your child to be filmed for the assembly video, please let me know. Otherwise all students will be in the recording and the link will be shared with Brantford families to view. Recording will be happening on Monday. We will watch the completed video on Tuesday.

Please note that school is closed for Remembrance Day on Wednesday November 11.

Movement Break

Sometimes when we have time between classes, we have a “movement break”.  The students wanted me to send the link for “Tooty Ta” which is a funny song and dance that has become one of their favourites.

Click here for Tooty Ta 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly Update for Oct. 30

We enjoyed a lovely day full of Halloween activities. We did some Halloween math with spiders, went on a Halloween Hunt for the Five Golden pumpkins, and finished the day by watching “Spookley the Square Pumpkin”.

A few things to note:

-A reminder that Brantford School encourages students to walk to school if your family is able to do so. Please consider parking one block away and walking the one block to school. This would help with traffic congestion and safety around the school. Both parking lots are not for parent use.

-Next week, I will be sending home information to log in to an online math program called “Mathletics” (the login code will be taped to the inside cover of your student’s planner). This is a wonderful way for your child to practice math skills at home. There will be a small fee that I will need to collect for registration in this program. I will send more details about that at a later date.

-There will be no school on Wednesday, November 11 for Remembrance Day.

-Please remember to send a fork/spoon in your child’s lunch if they require one that day. I have a few dsiposable ones but we are running through those quickly!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Weekly update Oct.22

Hello everyone! What a beautiful stretch of weather we have been enjoying! We were able to get outside today to plant daffodil bulbs in our class garden. We found lots of weeds, worms, mushrooms, and root systems while we prepared the garden.

For our art lesson, we created different shades of blue by adding white and black paint. Check out our amazing “Moonlit skies”.

Reminders:

-Friday October 23 is a Pro-D Day. No school for students.

-You may have received an email alert from “School Cash online” indicating that $7 is due for your child’s planner. Please pay on “school cash online” when you can. Thank you.

-Please be aware that nuts are not permitted at school due to allergies/sensitivities of students in our classroom. This means no peanut butter, almonds, or other nuts. Please be mindful of this especially if your child brings a Halloween candy to school.

-Students are welcome to wear a Halloween costume to school on Friday. I recommend that your child wears some comfortable clothing under  their costume so they can easily change if they wish to do so. We will be celebrating Halloween with a few simple Halloween activities in our classroom.

-After Halloween, please limit one treat per day in your child’s lunch and only send nut-free option.

Hello families!

This week we learned how to make “orange”. We mixed our own shades of orange and created these amazing jack-o-lanterns!

Here is our weekly poem titled “Bats, Bats, Bats”. Ask your child to read it to you!

Epic Books

By now, you should have received an email inviting you to sign up for epic books online. I encourage you to sign up to receive an additional 2 hours of access each week. Epic offers quality stories and grade level appropriate reading material. I have assigned students books that I think they will enjoy reading. You will see the books that I have assigned by clicking on one of the headings in the top right corner.

Dress for the weather

Thank you for sending your children prepared for the weather. As the weather becomes colder and wet, please continue to have your child wear rainboots and rain jackets to school. When students need to change into their extra clothing when they get wet, it takes away from our classtime. Please also make sure you replenish your child’s extra clothing to keep at school.

Dates to remember:

Friday Oct. 23 – Pro-D Day. No school for students

Friday Oct. 30 – Halloween celebration in class. Students are welcome to wear a costume to school (no scary masks or weapons permitted). Please send a change of clothes for students to change into if they do not want to wear their costume all day. If possible, sending your child with comfortable clothing under their costume is optimal.

Have a wonderful weekend!

This week, the class had the opportunity to play with “Imagination Playground” which is a set of large foam blocks. Have a look at some of their creations:

Through our Second Step Program lessons, we learned of ways that we can ignore distractions and how to be assertive. We compared asking for assistance by being passive, aggressive, and assertive. We all agreed that being assertive is a much more respectful way to ask for help. We learned how to ask for help by following three steps. #1 say “Excuse me.” #2 State the problem (eg. I lost my jacket.) #3. Ask for help (Can you please help me find it?).

Library

We visited the library and chose two books to take home. Please return the books by Wednesday each week. Mrs. Dias, our librarian, will hold all returned books in “book quarantine” for one week before putting into distribution again.

Our Schedule

Our schedule has changed numerous times over the past weeks but I think we have a finalized schedule now.  Our class goes outside to play at 11:45 to 12:05, returns to the classroom at 12:05 to eat lunch until 12:30. Then, they have an outside recess from 1:30 to 1:45. We also have a morning snack in the classroom round 10:30 with a movement break following.

Blog/website

You will receive an email alert when I publish a new entry on our blog. Our blog/website can always be accessed with the following link

https://sd41blogs.ca/capitanioj/

I hope you have a lovely long weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Please note that school will be closed on Monday, October 12 for Thanksgiving.