Thursday, 17 September 2015

Friday Update Sept 14 to 18


Reminder:  Next week the students only have school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  THERE IS NO SCHOOL next Thursday because of Hari Raya Haji and on Friday because of a Faculty Inservice Day.

We have had a fun and busy week!!!! J This week we… 
*did an amazing job with our lockdown and evacuation practice!
*had our first counseling lesson with Mr. Pearson—he taught us that we can use “Do you want to play with me?” and “Can I play with you?”
*had a mini field trip over to our Elementary Library!  We met Ms. Cuthbert the librarian and took out some books for our classroom library.  The kiddos are really helping to make it their own and picked out some wonderful books that they are really interested in! (Of course Frozen and lego books made it in!)
*have continued talking about identity and our families.  Some of the students showed us their family pictures and talked about who is in the picture and what was happening at that time. (the other students will continue with this next week.)  We have had the pictures out but this is the first time that the cuties came to talk in front of the class and they did amazing!  If you haven’t sent in a family photo, please send one in!!!  We really want to have all of our families on the wall to refer to!
*I shared something about my family that led us off into an amazing project! I told the students about one of my favorite memories as a child about growing up in a Ukrainian Canadian family and seeing the stained glass windows when we went to church. Each different piece told a different story.  The students were asking about what stained glass windows looked like, so we found pictures together on the computer and in books. Liam said they look like pictures his family has—a few of the pictures were mosaics and the kids were enthralled by the stained glass and different mosaic pictures. They wanted to make one to tell a story—together we started hunting around the classroom and the ECC for things we could make our own mosaics.  See the next blog post for more. J
*the students wanted to continue to look at S, so they cut out snakes and made SLIME!!! (Don’t worry-it easily comes out of clothes!)
*we explored shapes with pattern blocks and rubber bands and geoboards, as well as with shape stickers.
*we used beads and pipe cleaners for fine motor skills—the kiddos want to decorate the classroom!
*I have been doing beginning of the year assessments on the cuties and will continue next week.


PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
I look forward to meeting with all of you to discuss your child’s progress. The pre-K teachers will be holding Parent Teacher Conferences on October 15th and 16th. During conferences we will discuss your child’s strengths as well as goals for the year. You should be getting an e-mail from the office at some point over the next couple of weeks to sign up for a time.

UN DAY and BEING A PART OF OUR CLASSROOM
UN Day will be held on October 9th—we will attend an Elementary School Assembly in the High School Gym.  As part of this celebration, students are invited to dress in the native costume of their home country, a costume representing their heritage or even a costume of a country in which they have lived or visited. 

A big part of our learning at school revolves around identity, our family, our community and special celebrations.  UN day is a part of that, but in addition to the things we are doing in the classroom, we would like to invite parents to be a part of this over the next few weeks.  We would love you to come in and share about your family, your culture, your traditions or celebrations…the list is endless! The cuties LOVE to cook, you could come in to teach us how to cook something (anything from something cultural to your family’s favorite sandwich on the weekends,) you could read us a story (we have already had a couple of parent readers in and the kiddos are very enthusiastic,) you could show us flags, decorate some artwork special to you or your culture, celebrate a tradition with us….really anything you would like to do!  The best time for us is between 8:20 and 9:15. (You do NOT need to do something that entire time though!) You could do something with the entire class, or just a small group of students (we would make sure that the kids rotated so everyone had a chance with you of course.)  Please let me know a date that would work for you. J

REMINDERS/IMPORTANT DATES
Thursday September 24th:  NO SCHOOL-HARI RAYA HAJI
Friday September 25th:  Faculty Inservice—NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
Friday, October 9th :  UN DAY—wear clothes from home country
Thursday/Friday October 15th/16th :  Parent-Teacher Conferences
*Return red library bag and book on Monday
*Please return Identity/Family Banners when they are finished.
*Let me know if you would like to share something about your home country for UN Week, and what date and time you would like to come in.
Thank you!!!  Have a wonderful weekend!  Lynsey

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