Holiday Weekend Update: Sunday, October 9

Happy Tofurkey Day! I know. Everyone in my family rolls their eyes at me when I say that too. I do hope that everyone in our little community is finding time to be grateful together with those they love the most.

This flock of turkeys appeared in our classroom this week.

Field Trip: The permission form for our field trip to the Science Center was sent home on Thursday. Mark Wednesday, October 19 on your calendars. All the primary and junior classes are going together (grades 1-6), but we will be attending grade/division specific workshops that touch on our science curriculum. More to come on that when the details are ironed out. I've saved a copy of the form for each of our kiddos who were absent on Thursday and will send it along on Tuesday. I also have extras if they are needed.

Switch Day: Thursday this week we will be following a Monday schedule, so we will have our library book exchange that day.

The Big Crunch: Can you imagine what it looks and sounds like when the entire population of a school bites into that many apples at the same time? Well... we will find out on Thursday.

We Scare Hunger: Our annual food drive is up and running this month. We are collecting non-perishable food items in our classrooms for the month of October. All donations are appreciated. There are prizes for the classes in each division who collect the most items. Let's win it!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Weekend Update: Sunday, October 2

Welcome to October! (Wait a minute. Where did September go?)

This month we will be watching the leaves on the trees as they continue to change and fall. We will also be discussing Thanksgiving traditions and celebrations. Later in the month we will be discussing Halloween, including safety and the community helpers who are around to make sure we are safe if we choose to go trick-or-treating. We also have a field trip coming up. More details on that are on the way. Did you know that you can find the Ontario curriculum documents online? Here's the link: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/

Indoor shoes are a must: As the weather changes, it's becoming more and more crucial to ensure that our kiddos have proper indoor shoes at school. Muddy and wet shoes should not be worn in the classroom because mud and water on the floor are not only unpleasant but they can also create safety hazards. On our Phys. Ed. days, Tuesdays and Fridays, the kiddos cannot participate in gym activities without proper indoor shoes.

Extra change of clothes is highly recommended: Since school started, we have had several unexpected circumstances that have caused several of our kiddos to need a change of clothes. Accidents do happen! Please ensure your child has a season appropriate change of clothes available at school in a clearly marked plastic bag.

Raz-Kids: The school board has asked us to be patient while they work on centrally populating our class rosters in Raz. As soon as I have confirmation that it's set up, forwarding that info to our families will be my number one priority.

Wednesday, October 5 is Walk to School Day: Our Eco Club is encouraging everyone to walk or bike to school this Wednesday.

Two Short Weeks!: Because we have a four day long weekend coming up, we have two short weeks ahead of us. This Friday is a PD Day. Monday is Thanksgiving. I hope everyone has a wonderful time with their families. 

Have a wonderful week!

Weekend Update - Sunday, September 25

All ready for week 4 folks? September has blown by and now we're at the end of it already. Just a few reminders for this week.

Terry Fox Run Day: This Tuesday we will participate in our annual Terry Fox event. The kiddos should come prepared to spend lots of time outside depending on the weather—hats, sunscreen, sweaters, etc.

Open House & BBQ: Wednesday evening from 6:00 - 8:00 is our open house and BBQ. I'm looking forward to mingling with the 1/2 parents—especially the ones I haven't met yet.

Last Call for Scholastic: Technical difficulties made me unable to enter the Scholastic order last week. I'm ready to go for it now, and any last minute orders will be entered on Monday. If you don't have the flyers, but still want to place an order, you can do so by looking them up at http://www.scholastic.ca/clubs/ and providing me with the following information:

• Name of the flyer you're ordering from
• The title of book and book number from the order form
• The price including tax from the order form
• The payment (online payment number or cash) 

Have a spectacular week!

Ms. S

Weekend Update: Sunday, September 18

I hope everyone is well as we wind down the weekend. Just a few things to mention...

Picture Day: I almost forgot. Picture day is tomorrow (Monday). Hopefully everyone brings their most beautiful smiles.

Scholastic: Our first round of Scholastic forms went home last week. The due date for orders is Thursday this week. I'll place the order that day and we should receive the shipment within about a week. Sometimes it's faster than a week!

Shoes: We are getting into mud season. At this time of the year the field the kids play on is often very muddy. Please ensure your child has a pair of indoor shoes so we can keep the mud off the carpet and out of our learning spaces.

Call for Building Materials: We would like to fill a bin with building materials for our classroom building space. For the next couple of weeks, please send in the following household items as they come available:

• paper towel and toilet paper rolls
• empty tissue boxes
• clean plastic bottles/jars and lids 
• empty egg cartons
• styrofoam trays from the grocery store
• anything else you can think of that might be useful in our building supplies bin 

International Day of Peace: There will be discussions at school this week about International Day of Peace (which is this Wednesday). This web site, http://peaceworks.tv/index.html, should be useful in helping families continue the conversation at home. 

Raz-Kids and Dreambox: Still waiting for the board to sort these out for us. Stay tuned. Login details will be taped into everyone's agenda once they are available.

 

Weekend Update: Sunday, September 12

I hope everyone enjoyed the first weekend of the school year. This week we will continue to work on getting to know each other as well as setting up the norms and expectations we will follow in our classroom. We started working on the contents of our class time capsule that we will open in June. Ask your child about what we are including in the time capsule.

Parent Volunteers: Please remember that any parent who wishes to interact with students in the school (in the classroom, on field trips, etc.) must have a current vulnerable sector police check on file with the office. Contact the local police for information on how to obtain a police check. They often take several weeks to be processed, so the sooner the better.

First Week Forms: Thank you so much to all the families who have returned the massive package of forms that were sent home on the first day. For those who have not yet returned them, please send them to me ASAP and I will forward them with my class set to the office.

Onward! Have a great first full week of classes.

First Day Back!

Welcome to 2016-17! What a pleasure it was to meet the wonderful members of class 1/2. 

We had a busy day learning about lots of procedures and expectations and getting to know each other. We met our two French teachers, Madame Tscherner and Madame Kreczko. We also met our coverage teacher, Mr. Cuthbert. We read a picture book called First Day Jitters and had a discussion about what emotions we might have been feeling on our first day of school. We even spent some time drawing our self portraits, which family members will have a chance to see when they stop by during our open house on September 28.

Stay tuned for more updates as the week rolls on. I don't update the blog every day (who has time for that when we're having so much fun in grade 1/2?), but I do try to provide an update at least once per week. In order to be notified of the updates, I encourage parents to connect to me via Remind.com (the link to instructions is on the main page of the blog).

A stack of forms was sent home with the kiddos today along with their new agendas. Please return those to me ASAP and I will forward them to the office.

Big thanks,
Ms. S

Setting up Remind Notifications

Remind is a notification system that many teachers use to keep their families updated about the goings on in their classroom. I would like to use it to notify the 1/2 parent community when there's a blog update. I will also use it for urgent messages, such as when we have a snow day or if a field trip is cancelled due to bad weather.

Our class code for Remind is: 3kk33g
You can click this link for easy access: https://www.remind.com/join/3kk33g

If you would like more information about Remind, please check out their FAQ at: http://help.remind.com/hc/en-us

What is Remind and What Makes Remind Safe? is a particularly good place to start: 

http://help.remind.com/hc/en-us/articles/201342445-What-is-Remind-and-what-makes-Remind-safe-