I hope that everyone has been enjoying their Winter Holiday and that you were able to spend some time out in the brief snowfall that we had.  I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures during your vacation when we return to school. 

The last week of school was a very busy one for our class.  We spent lots of time with our Buddies in preparation for the Christmas Concert (which was amazing!) we also saw them while we made graham cracker houses and we joined them in eating pancakes in the gym.  

I hope you enjoy the rest of your holidays and have a wonderful start to the New Year.  The school will re-open on Monday January 8th. 

Ms. Pasqualetto :0)

Well at least that is the colour our class needs to be wearing for the Christmas Concert on December 19th.  The concert date is fast approaching and it is the day the kids have all been working so hard towards.  There will be two performances (afternoon and evening) that all students in the school are performing in.  If there is any reason that your child will be absent please let us know ASAP.    For our costumes Mr. Turpin has asked that students wear as much green as they can including green gloves.   

Aside from practicing for the performance our class has been busy ringing in the season.  Ms. Dente led the class through a directed drawing of a reindeer (you can see their work above their coat hooks in the room).  We have also been reading lots of winter books and discussing our favourite activities to do in the Winter.   One of my favourite activities to do is to build gingerbread houses and decorate sugar cookies.  On December 21st we will be making/decorating graham cracker houses with our big buddies.  A short note was sent home on Friday asking for small nut free candies to be sent to class by Dec 18th so that way the kids will have them to decorate their houses with.   We are doing the gingerbread houses in lieu of a class Christmas party however if you are wanting to send something in please reach out to Nancy or myself.   A reminder that we are a peanut aware classroom and we now have 16 students in our class.  

It has been wonderful learning more about each student with their All About Me bags.  The kids are doing a wonderful job telling about the artifacts they are bringing in and why they are special/important to them.  When we return from the Winter Break the students can resume bringing a single item for their special helper day.  The January special helper calendar will be sent home with your child’s report card on December 20th.  

I hope you had a wonderful weekend! 
Ms. Pasqualetto :0)

Wow!  I can hardly believe that there are only 4 days left to November.  Time is going to fly by in December with all the great things that we have planned at school. 

Last week the students were all rock stars while we were watching the Aqua Van presentation in the morning and then during our small presentation in the afternoon.  Even though some students were hesitant at first to touch the sea urchin most really enjoyed seeing it up close as well as the sea star.  The students got to feel an Orca’s jaw and teeth and touch a piece of baleen.  While it wasn’t the same as actually going to see the animals in their natural habitat or visiting the Vancouver Aquarium it was a neat experience to have in our very own gym! 

Reminders:

Ms. Solomon is hosting our Scholastic Book Fair in the Library this week.  If you plan on visiting don’t forget your ballot that was sent home in the small book fair flyer a week or so ago to enter the draw for free books (I will also be sending home the classroom December Scholastic flyers this week if there is anything you would like to order from there.)

This week we are starting to collect for the WE Scare Hunger Food Drive Hamper donations.  Our class is collecting jarred/canned pasta sauce specifically but any non-perishable food donation would be greatly appreciated.  

The Christmas Concert will be on Tuesday December 19th so mark your calendars.  

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Last Tuesday when we visited the Apple Barn we all tasted Jona Gold apples.  They were juicy, crisp and nice and cold.  We learned about where apples grow, how they are made into cider at the farm and about the different things we make using apples. 

The Apple barn gave us a bag of apples to take home and after we did an apple investigation in class we decided to make a batch of apple sauce.  On Thursday morning after discussing safety around using a slow cooker, knife and washing our hands we set out to make applesauce.  To save time Ms. Pasqualetto peeled the apples and all the student helped to slice them using an apple slicer and then helped to dice some of the slices into pieces using a butter knife. 

The apple pieces were set to cook in the slow cooker for 4 hours! hoping to be turned into some delicious apple sauce that we would eat during our centres time in the afternoon.  Unfortunately our applesauce sampling would have to be delayed by a day though due to a three hour power outage in the area.   The class finally had a chance to taste our class made applesauce on Friday and the general consensus was a two thumbs up! 

Well it was a rocky start to our Tuesday but fortunately a few of our classes (including us) were still able to go on our planned field trip to the Pumpkin Patch/Apple Orchard.   The kids were amazing while the teachers were trying to figure out the logistics of being shorted a school bus (due to a breakdown).  Thank you to the parents who were able to join us (and drove all the way out to Abbotsford!) the trip would not have been able to go ahead without your flexibility.  

The students enjoyed what was for many of them their first time on a school bus.  There was lots of singing, chatting, playing eye spy with our seat mates to help pass the time and a few students even fell asleep.  Things that we noticed on the journey, buses make us the same height as big dump trucks, there are lots of police cars on the freeway and the trees are beautiful colours of red, yellow and orange.  

Due to the bus mishap we were a bit late arriving at the patch so our snack was cut short and we promptly went for our hay ride to choose the perfect pumpkin.  All the kids were awesome at making sure they made good decisions and a few even changed their mind a couple of times when they themselves realized their choice was too heavy.  With our pumpkins secured in our bags we boarded the hay ride again to go to visit their country store.  We learned about their resident Queen Bee and her workers who help to pollinate the apple trees and we then watched a video on how they make their apple cider on site and got to sample some of their cider and it was delicious.  Next on our tour was a brief visit with the animals which for some was their favourite part.  After washing our hands we watched a demonstration of how apples are sorted using a sorting machine before sitting down to have our lunch. 

Despite the hiccups the kids report that they had a great time and I think most would have loved to have spent the entire afternoon on the big jumping pillow.    

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Thank you for coming to speak with Ms. Dente and I this past week during our Parents as Partners meetings.  We always find the information that is shared during those times to be very helpful for us as we are building relationships with our new students.  It is also really nice to have the opportunity to speak to our parents after the children have had a couple of weeks to settle in to their new norm of attending school full time.  As we mentioned in the meeting if there is every any questions or concerns our door is always open and if you can’t make it to the school please send a note, call the office or fire us a quick email. 

We have our Public Transit field trip this Thursday afternoon. We will leave the school as soon as the children are finished their lunches and return by 3pm.  As we will be going rain or shine please send your child dressed for the weather. 

Please visit my this week in Div. 12 tab weekly on this site for reminders/info about our week (basically the same info that I write up on the white board in the window) but with more details.  New blog posts are sent out via email newsletter but edits to blog pages are not.   You will also be receiving subscription email notices from the e-port site.  This is because I am having your parent access passwords created using the emails I collected from you at our meetings.  Once I have everything up and running I will send home a notice with your actual log on ids and passwords.   Please see me if you have any questions. 

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Ms. Pasqualetto :0) 

The school year is officially under way and there has been a whirlwind of activity in the annex.  The students are having a great time learning the different routines and meeting/making new friends.  So far the favourite activities seem to be centres/playtime with gym and playing outside on the playground not far behind in votes.  

In class we have also started to talk about Terry Fox, what being a hero is and perseverance.  As a school we are participating in our Terry Fox run next week on Thursday and we are raising money for the Terry Fox Foundation.  Any student who brings in a donation will be able to enter their name in a raffle for a Terry Fox T-shirt.  Lets see how much we can raise! 

Thank you for your prompt attention filling out all of the forms that we have been sending home.  It is very important that you check your child’s backpack nightly for their home communication folder to see if anything has been sent home that requires attention.   Thank you to those of you who have already returned the action items.  A list of communication that requires your attention is: 

– Student verification package- please double check/fill out accordingly and return to the classroom asap.  We are Division 12 for when you fill out the forms. 
– October School Meal Order – Order envelopes have been sent home.  If you wish to pay online access has now been set up (if you have difficulty please see Ms. Z in the office). 
– Parents as Partners time request forms were sent home and are due by tomorrow so we can schedule meeting times.  
– PAC BBQ rsvp. You will pay for your meal at the BBQ on Wednesday October 27th but the form is to help the PAC with ordering enough supplies for the event.  I hope to see you all there.  

– September Scholastic order forms will be sent home this week along with a letter explaining the program.  

Welcome Back!!! Stay tuned for exciting info about our new class for the 2017-2018 year. 

Last years Div 11 students will report to their same classroom (A6) for drop off and pick up until they get placed in their new classroom (hopefully by Tuesday September 12).

This years new Kindergarten students should follow the schedule they were provide at the Welcome to K event in June.  On Monday September 11th all K students will report to the small gym to find out where their classroom will be for the week of Sept 11-15 and hopefully the remainder of the year! 

POTATOES !!!

We harvested our SPUDs in Tubs and had such a fun time exploring how potatoes grow and what other creatures and things we could find in the soil. 

We grew 15  Warba potato plants in 3 tubs and at first we didn’t know what the harvest would be like.  Our weather has been so strange the past few months going from cold, to rainy, back to cold, then to super hot and all over again.   Ideally we would have liked to harvest in another week or so but with year end festivities we were running out of time, and the weather cleared up on Wednesday just long enough for us to do the harvest. 

Some of the great things we found during our harvest were: potatoes and lots of them, all different sizes and the seed potatoes that started the whole process.  Bugs – spiders, bugs with lots of legs, bugs with wings and some we didn’t know what they were.  The class were great at picking out all the potatoes no matter how big or small and dusting them off before we packed four ice cream pails full to the brim.    The students then sorted through the dirt to remove any leftover roots, stems and leaves before we put the soil into the new planter that had been built in the front of the school.  Once back in the class we sorted our bounty by size.  Our total was 123 medium/large potatoes and 129 mini potatoes that would have grown into edible ones had we let them grow a bit longer. 

The best part of all was eating the steamed potatoes on Thursday with sour cream, cheese and ketchup as toppings.  Even some of us who aren’t fans enjoyed the delicious food that we grew. 

 

 

On Tuesday May 23rd Div. 11 had the chance to visit the fire station as part of our study of the local community. The fire station sure is busy! We got there and had to wait for the fire fighters to come back from their call. Once they got there, they were called out again within five minutes! We were fortunate that another crew came back so we were able to have our tour.

The students enjoyed spraying the fire hose at a traffic cone. Many of them managed to knock it down! Ms. Leppanen and a few of the students got to try on some fire fighter gear, which was quite heavy! We got to sit inside the fire truck and some of us were brave enough to slide down the fire pole. We learned about how fire fighters help keep our community safe, and some things we can do to stay safe in case of an emergency.

We are very grateful for the fire fighters at Fire Station #5 for taking the time to show us around their work place. Thank you to the two parent volunteers who came with us – we hope you had fun too! Fire safety colouring books arrived yesterday as a gift from the Fire Station – look for them in your student’s backpack on Monday!

Ms. Leppanen