Last Day Before Christmas Break

We had a great last day together.  We played games and I do believe the highlight for most of the kids was eating the pancakes. Mmmm!  We also had treats sent in from families to share.  Please enjoy the photos.

            

One of my favourite quotes of yesterday was when E said, "She is using her senses."  I asked what sense and he said, "The sense of feel."  I said yes, she is using her sense of touch to feel where the paper is.

Have a Very Merry Christmas!  A wonderful break!  I can't wait to hear all about what the kids will be doing.  If you have time over the break.  I would love for the children to draw a picture of their favourite part of the holiday and try to sound out some words to tell me what they have done.  It could be as easy as playing with their cousin, pet, grandparents or flying on an airplane.

If I did not send you a thank you card.  I would like to thank you for the wonderful gifts as well as the pleasure to teach your child so far this year and can't wait to continue learning with them in the new year.

Christmas Celebration

The Christmas celebration was great.  I am sure all the children had an amazing time.  The songs were very well sung by the children.  I was glad that so many families could join in the fun.  See some of the great photos below.  The first two are from the Peppermint Stick song and the next ones are of the songs:  Frosty the Snowman, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas and Snowflake, Snowflake.

I have also added some photos of the parents making crafts with their children.  

     

The Week Before Christmas Break

I just wanted to give you all a list of things that are happening this week.

1. Home reading due on Wednesday this week
2. Christmas Celebration on Tuesday evening from 5:30 to 6:30
3. Small celebration on Thursday, I will be making pancakes in class and if you would like to send a small treat with your child to share that would be wonderful
4. Thursday dress up in Farewell to Funky 2015: season something will do, Christmas sweater, Christmas colours
5. Please scroll down and do the Survey
6. I will update the Volunteer Calendar for January, please sign up for anything that you will be able to help us out with (scroll down to find link)
7. There will be carolling for the children throughout the week.  Please try and make sure the children come in even though it is the last week as I have some fun activities planned.

If I find out anything else I will post it.

Number Song

We have finally finished the numbers 1 to 10.  Many of the children are doing a wonderful job of matching numerals to their quantity.  We are going to continue practicing this and are going to go even higher.  They were excited to share the number formation song with you so I attached it via the link as it was to large.  I recorded just the other day and the children seem very tired.

Number Song

Saint Nicholas Visit and Holiday Comparisons

We have been talking about the many different celebrations around the world that happen during the month of December.  One of the celebrations we talked about that I enjoyed as a child was Saint Nicholas.  In Germany, they put out there shoes in the beginning of December and if you were good Saint Nicholas would come an place candy and fruit in your shoe.  We tried it and you will not believe it.  He came.

There were oranges, candy canes and chocolates in our shoes.

They children were so excited as they came in.  They all really wanted to share and talk about the experience.

When talking about Holidays in different place we even compared Christmas in Canada, Italy and England.  How we did this is I would read a little story about Christmas celebrations and then we would talk about what was the same and different.  They were surprised when they heard Italy had fireworks for Christmas as well as writing letters to mom and dad saying that they would be good.

   

They liked that Father Christmas from England and Santa Claus wear the same clothes.  The children were able to come up with some pretty good comparisons.  I also want to thank Iona's mother for coming in and talking to us about Advent and how they celebrate at home.  We also talked about Hanukkah and the menorah and how Jewish people celebrate the holiday with the lighting of the candles.  Eight all together as the middle one we do not count.

The Letters "W" and "T"

Two weeks ago we learnt the letter "T" and last week we learnt the letter "W".  Here is our list of "W" words.  We had fun making these letters out of many different things throughout the room.  Printing the "W" was really tricky for a lot of the children.  The songs are below, we get a little mixed up on the "T" song but we are trying our best.

Scented Finger Painting

As we continue to use are senses we mixed it in with an art activity.  Scented Finger Paint!  First we learned how to waft gently with our hands.  Then I walked around with the different containers of paints and we made predictions on what each one smelled like. The children made some great guess. They were able to correctly identify cinnamon on the first try.  The peppermint one was a little tricky some of the children guessed candy canes or gum, not wrong but not super specific.  Then there was vanilla which the guesses were very broad from cake to candles.  The last smell was lemon and they all got that one correct as well.  Then I placed a dab of each paint in front of the children and told them to have fun exploring the different textures.  Some were vey careful to start only putting one finger in each paint others went all in.

 

As they continued to work with the paint they talked about the different colours they were able to make: pink, green, orange, purple.

Our Trip to Explore Winter in Bowness

We went to explore the signs of winter in Bowness Park.  Thank you to all the volunteers that braved the cold with me and the children.  I think we found lots of great signs and had fun looking at tracks and snowflakes.  Guess who made these prints?  Look how long are shadows are?  The water is even starting to freeze over.  With the afternoon class we saw a man drilling in the ice to see if it was ready for skating and he said not yet.  We also heard a big crack.  The morning class only went one week later and they were cleaning of the ice with snowblowers so that skating could start.  I hope you can find some time to do that during the Christmas break.

 

Sorry

I want to apologize for the lack of posts lately.  I will be updating it later today.  I just want to make sure everyone has received the invitation to the Christmas Celebration.  Please return it with the number of people attending as I need to ensure that there are enough chairs for you all to sit on.

No School Today

There will be no school today.  Scholastic orders are due on Monday in hopes of receiving the books before the break.

Quick Information for you

We will be having an evening family winter celebration on December 15th.  An official invitation from your children will be coming home soon.

If you have a few moments could you quickly complete this anonymous survey.  It focuses on a few questions that I have been asked by other parents.  Just click on the purple link below.

Survey

The Letter M

Today we had a great deal of fun.  We talked about all the different foods that we liked.

Then we learnt the letter 'M m' because when we like food we say mmmmmmm.  Then what better way to practise making letters than in cool whip.

"I made a little m."

I liked eating it the best.

"I made a capital M."

This is too yummy to write letters with.

Volunteering

I have been working very hard to get together a schedule for volunteering.  A parent showed this site to me so I have decided to use it so that you can sign up when you want to.  I will update the days as often as possible when I have spots.  If you would like to volunteer on a day that you do not see please email me.

VolunteerSpot (the leading online Sign-up and reminder tool) to organize our upcoming Sign-ups.

Here's how it works in 3 easy steps:

1) Click this link to see our Sign-Up on VolunteerSpot: http://vols.pt/onp5Pu (blue link works as well)
2) Review the options listed and choose the spot(s) you like.
3) Sign up! It's Easy - you will NOT need to register an account or keep a password on VolunteerSpot.

Note: VolunteerSpot does not share your email address with anyone.

Volunteer Spot

Let's Talk Science - Feast of the Senses

We had some volunteers come in to run some activities to reinforce the things we are learning about our senses.  The children were really excited to learn more about smelling, sight, hearing, touching and tasting.  They were a little sad there was nothing to eat.

This child is checking out a clicker and a bag of sand.

The first station is where they checked to see if they could hear through different objects.  Can you hear the click through the wood?  Can you hear the click through the water?  Can you hear the click through the sand?

We decided it was the most difficult to hear through the wood.

I like to call the next one the hide and seek box.  The children were asked to look through different holes and find objects.  It was very hard not to grab out the things we were seeing inside.

The next one was a smelling station.  We tried to match the scents with the pictures.  It was really tricky sometimes.

The last station was a feeling station.  We held different bags in our hands and felt what was inside the bag.  There was a picture attached to the bag.  The picture was of an animal.  That was our only clue to figure out what was inside.

To wrap up the time spent we all found a spot on the carpet and listened to a noise machine and tried to figure out the noise.

The Letter 'E'

This week we worked on learning the letter 'E e'.  We did this as we are exploring and becoming scientists.

The children's favourite part of learning new letters has been going to the different centres to try and make the letter out of found things.

  

They are also having so much fun learning the new songs.

We have also been working in our number books over the past couple of weeks.  I will post the songs when we have made it all the way to 10.

Remembrance Day and the letter "R r"

This week was Remembrance Day.  The children did a great job at the assembly.  We created a peace garden outside of the classroom.  We also created our very own journal pages on what peace is to us. You will be able to see them during parent conferences as they are displayed in the hallway.

We also worked on the letter "R r".  The children surprise me every week as they learn new letters and come up with words that start with that letter.  They also tell me about some of the things they talk about at home.  You may look at "Rockey" and think I made a mistake but that is how one of the students said that a friend spells their name.

The students are always so enthusiastic to learn the new songs.  They all really want to be in the videos that we post for you to hear.

 

Conferences Coming Up Next Week

I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that there are parent - teacher conferences next week. You can sign up the same way you did before.  If you forget how to do it you can go to the Belvedere Parkway main site, click on parent and there is a tab to click for signing up.  There are time spots all day Thursday and Friday.  The children will come to school like normal on Thursday but there will be no school on the Friday.  I also wanted to let everyone know that if you are working in a split home and would prefer separate times that is fine.  The children will not be attending these round of conferences.  If you have any other questions please feel free to email me.

The Letter "S"

This week as it snowed we decided to focus on the letter "s".  The students all came up with some great words.

In the afternoon, after starting to talk about Remembrance Day J said, "Solider starts with S."  We all agreed and he felt very proud.  To try and work on recognition of the letter "S" we went into different centres in the classroom and tried to make the letter our of things we found in each place. (See pictures below) We also practised writing them in the sandbox.  The letter "S" is a little bit tricky and we sometimes turn it around.

           

           

               

Reminders and FYI

Just because I am not sure all the forms have made it home.

1. There was a blue form sent home today that I would like returned as soon as possible.  It has information about volunteering as well as a question about the different things your family celebrates.
2. There was a form in the home reading about a pizza and dance night. November 4th from 6 to 8 in the gym.  There is pizza to buy and other fun things. (If you do not have the form please email me if you need to be added to the list. $2 for a slice of pizza)
3. For Remembrance Day we will be doing a can food drive as well as collecting money for the Poppies. (Red form came home)
4. Please dress your child for cold weather.  We will go outside to do some learning and drawing and we will need snowpants, coats, mittens, boots, hats and maybe a neck warmer.  If you are afraid of your child misplacing mittens please put them on a string and thread them through the coat sleeves.
5. Home Reading not being returned.  I know that some of you are very good at returning home reading and filling out the paper.  Below is a sample of what to do and what the bag looks like in case you have misplaced it. (They are small paper books with only a few pages.)

Letter P

We began our study of the letter "Pp" last week and have finished it this week.  We came up with some pretty neat words as you can see.

They also have had a great deal of fun learning the song for this one.  The class below is showing you how we "pump".  Some of us were a little silly and that is okay as we were still singing the song and can find the letter "Pp".

Pizza Day

There were a few forms handed in with no names on them.  If you think one of them may be yours could you please email me so we can make sure your child gets the pizza that you paid for.

We are also dressing in orange and black on Wednesday.  My guess is to hide the pizza sauce on our shirts and faces.  Please send your child in their costume if you would like on Thursday.  If you are doing this please don't send along any accessories that they may take off as I would not want them to be sad that they do not have it for Halloween.

Home Reading and Halloween Celebration

Please make sure to send in all home reading books on Thursday this week (I take it all home to put in new books on the weekend).  They are the little paper books that come home in the plastic bag.  If you have lost your home reading log please let me know. It is very important to keep track of how they are doing with the different books that are sent home.

We will be wearing our costumes on Thursday.  If you would like to send in a treat to share with the other children please ensure that there are ingredients lists if you would like them to share at school so that I can make sure that no one will have any allergic reactions.  We currently have 23 students in the morning and 21 in the afternoon.  On that day we will do a few Halloween themed activities.

Butterfield Acres Trip

The children had a great time at Butterfield Acres Farm.  They were all very tired on the way back to school. The children started by walking up the hill and then they took a little tractor ride to the location where we hunted for the pumpkins in the trees.

After everyone found their own pumpkin we went on to the decorating houses.  The first room had markers for us to use to colour with.  The next room had a variety of things they could glue on to their pumpkins.

Then it was time to go and see all the different animals.  From what the children said they like the pigs and the goats because they tried to escape.  They also had fun petting the bunnies and sheep.