I hope that everyone had a wonderful Spring Break and that the first week back was just as fun.  One of my favourite things to see when we come back from Spring Break is the progress that our potatoes make while we are gone.  Just before we left for Spring Break we planted our Warba seed potatoes even though their sprouts weren’t quite big enough.  I must admit that I had my reservations of what the plants would look like when we came back, but much to my surprise they are appear to be doing just fine.  In fact this year the plants seem to be a much deeper green colour and although they are growing fast they appear stronger than some of the crops my previous classes have grown. 

Pink Shirt Day is this Wednesday February 22nd.  As a class we have been discussing Kindness as a key virtue in our HAWKS acronym and as a school we have been celebrating the entire month of February as Kindness month.   The other day we had a group discussion about what kindness meant to us, how to recognize bullying behavior and what to do if we were being bullied or witnessed someone being a bully.  After our discussion we came up with four statements which were written on pink shirts and the students help decorate the one they felt spoke most loudly to them.

What a great Show! The class along with a few other divisions walked/took the skytrain to go and see Align Entertainment’s presentation of The Little Mermaid at Michael J Fox Theatre. The performance was captivating and many of us were surprised to see that there was an orchestra playing the musical score instead of a soundtrack. There were lots of similarities between the live performance and the movie version that we watched last week and we will be talking more about those similarities and differences next week when we return to school after Family Day. I hope that everyone has a wonderful long weekend and that you will be able to get out to enjoy the beautiful weather with your family and loved ones.

:0) Ms. Pasqualetto

On Tuesday, January 31st our class took part in a school-wide celebration of literacy. All the students in Div. 11 dressed up as book characters or wore clothes with words on them. It was fun to see who all our friends dressed up as! We started out the day with a special assembly where we saw examples of all sorts of literacy. After recess, students visited different classrooms to learn about the values attached to being Kitchener HAWKS – Helpful, Accepting, Working hard, Kind and Safe. We had a guest teacher, Ms. Reid, in to read a story to us after lunch, and enjoyed a visit from our buddy class. Our buddies read with us during the school-wide readathon. It was a day full of reading fun, and a great reminder of the importance of literacy! In the spirit of literacy day, Ms. Pasqualetto and I encourage you to continue reading to or with your student daily, and to attend our Monday and Friday family reading sessions when possible. Every day is literacy day in Div. 11!

Ms. Leppanen

Happy Lunar New Year! and thanks for stopping by the blog.  We have been busy in class learning about the Lunar New Year, making Lunar New Year crafts and preparing for Literacy Day next Tuesday. 

We had a special treat today when one of our classmates brought in their traditional Korean New Years outfit for all of us to see.  It was quite stunning with beautiful embroidery.  The student also taught our class how to bow and to wish each other a Happy New Year in Korean.  Everyone enjoyed our mini language lesson and we all had an opportunity to experience what it is like to learn phrases in a language that is new to us. 

Literacy Day is coming up next Tuesday (Jan 31st) and we were given the task of designing our door to look like a book cover.  The students voted on which cover they wanted to create and the decision was to do “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister.  We listened to a narrated version of the story produced by the Screen Actors Guild and then as a group we painting the background of the poster and then individually designed sparkly scales for the Rainbow Fish.  The door art looks amazing and I hope that you will have a chance to see it the next time you stop by the class. 

– Ms. Pasqualetto 🙂

 

Our class has been discussing what it means to be Kitchener HAWKS (Helpful, Accepting, Working Hard, Kind, and Safe students).  With Chinese New Year coming up this weekend I read the class a story called Sam and the Lucky Money by Karen Chinn.  We had a great discussion about what it means to show kindness to others and how we show appreciation for the gifts we are given. 

If you are interested in reading this book with your child I borrowed it from the Burnaby Public Library or it can be purchased from Indigo Books as well.

Thank you for visiting our class blog.   It is hard to believe how quickly the Winter Break went by.  We hope that you were able to spend lots of time with your family and friends and that you spent time in the fresh fallen snow.  As the weather is still very unpredictable please make sure that students come to school dressed appropriately.  All students should also have a change of clothes to keep at school or that they bring to and from in their backpacks in the event that they need them.  A change of shoes (runners) is recommended as well especially on days when we have gym class.

Ms. Pasqualetto and Ms. Leppanen

Hello! Welcome to our new class blog.  Our hopes are to use this as an interactive way for you to see what we are up to in our classroom.  We will also use this site as a notice board for upcoming events and important information.  We will continue to update our information whiteboard and send home class newsletters but as not all Parents/Guardians are able to visit our class, we thought this would be a great way to keep in touch.  As always if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at the classroom (at the door or a note in your child’s planner), by calling the school office, by leaving us a comment on here or by emailing us. 

Sincerely
Ms. Pasqualetto and Ms. Leppanen