The H1N1 vaccination will be given at our school on Thursday, November 5th for all JK and SK students only.  The rest of the school needs to wait until a later date. 

 This is a “B” day but you may accompany your child to school so s/he can get the shot. 

You need to go to the main office by 9am and the office staff will direct you to the appropriate room.  Please bring your signed consent forms to school with you.  You will need to wait while your child gets his/her shot.  There are only a total of 40 JK/SK students (I’m not sure how many are getting the vaccine)  but the wait shouldn’t be too long.

Tomorrow is school spirit day, students and staff are invited to dress up in costumes – no weapons, no masks.  We will be doing some fun Halloween centres and have a mini-celebration. 

If you are looking for extra activities to do with your child on the computer at home, please review the “website links” page of this blog.  I have recently added more educational sites to the list.  There are a lot of great activities online and that can be printed at home. 

Thanks to the parents who signed up for volunteering to help in the room for special activities, to make playdough, helping prepare things for crafts, bake for special occasions and to volunteer their time. 

I sent home a list of playdough recipes to the parents who volunteered for this – on the top of the list was a month.  You may bring in playdough anytime that’s convenient for your during that month.  Feel free to use your own recipe as well.  One parent made a tasty edible playdough and it was quite a success – unfortunately I don’t have the recipe but I’m sure the internet has some good ones!  Thanks also to all the parents who sent in store bought playdough.  Playdough is a valuable tool in a Kindergarten room – while the children manipulate the playdough they are building, strengthening and working the fine muscles in the fingers that are used to control scissors and pencils.   It is especially good for children who have light printing and need a firmer grasp on the pencil to use playdough at home as well.

Parents who signed up to help prepare crafts - throughout the year, as things are needed, I will check with you when you pick up your child to see if the timing works for you to assist with preparation at home.

People who signed up to bake for a mini class celebration - there are currently 19 students in the room and you may bring whatever works for you – crackers and cheese, juice, cupcakes, fruit, veggies, cake, etc.  If you choose to bring in juice, please send glasses.   

Friday, October 30 – Halloween -  Doan Family (she already knew before this post -lol)

Friday, December 18 – Christmas – Baldwin Family

Wednesday, February 10 – Valentine’s Day -  Garthshore Family

Wednesday, March 31 – Easter -  Brown Family

Friday, June 25 – Last day of school -  Coleman Family

Parents who signed up to volunteer working 1 on 1 with the children for a special craft (xmas, valentine’s day, etc.) a seperate schedule will be sent home with your child tomorrow it  lists timeframes, activities and further details. 

Thanks to all the parents who are supporting the program in a wide variety of ways, it is greatly appreciated and the children directly benefit.

This Friday, October 30, is school spirit day and all students are invited to dress up in costumes – refer to October 15th  post for additional details.

Next Monday, November 2,  scholastic book orders for the month of November are due.  If the order is a present (ie. xmas gifts, etc.), print “surprise” on the top of the order and I will return it to you without your child’s knowledge.  Also, for gift orders, please directly give me the order (in a ziploc or envelope) when I come outside to greet the class in the morning or hand it to me at the end of the day as I dismiss the children.    When it comes to notes and book orders, I appreciate  people letting me know (at 8:30 am when I come outside) that their child has something to give me so that I can make sure they remember.   

The students are still reminded every morning to check for library books and notes and they are becoming more responsible.   Library books only need to come back every Wednesday but can be returned any day. 

 If your child has forgotten to hand something in to me, send them back into the class to give it to me at the end of the day when you pick them up.  Thanks for all your support with teaching this important skill.

Everyone should have received a cover page with your child’s handprints and several completed paintings.  Please continue to add any additional paintings/artwork that your child completes over the course of the year. 

Our trip to the orchard was a nice day with lots of hands on learning.  Thanks to all the volunteers who came on the field trip.

If the school bell goes before 8:30 am due to temperatures below -20 degrees or heavy rainfall it is still necessary for the parents to remain outside.  If this sitation arises, please ensure that your child enters the school through the Kindergarten doors.  There will be a staff member on duty in the hall who will assist your child in getting ready to attend class.  Once the regular parent volunteer arrives she will also be able to come into the school and help the students – I will ensure that duty staff  is aware of the names of these parents.  Thanks.

The school council Spirit Day is Friday, October 30.  All students are allowed to dress up in costumes and both Ms. Noel (the other Kindergarten room) and I are allowing our classes to participate.   If your child prefer, your child may simply dress up in black and orange colours rather than a costume.

 Two school rules -NO MASKS and NO WEAPONS – these rules have  safety implications, please speak with me if you’d like further clarification. 

Costumes must be worn over top of regular clothes so that if your child wants to remove it  they can easily do so by themselves.  Our class will be participating in some fun Halloween centres on that day.

October 14 – Scholastic book orders are due along with all permission slips and money for our trip this Friday.  Thanks!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday!

If you signed up to chaperone for the field trip, please come to school on Friday morning with your child.  At 8:30 am you will be invited into the building with the class.  We will review the rules and you will be assigned a small group of children.  I don’t phone individual parents, everyone who signed up is welcome to attend. 

I sincerely appreciate that all of you are supporting the morning entrance policies.   During our Wednesday circle the class will review the rules so the children realize the parents must stay outside (I received feedback that the children weren’t aware of this – thanks for this important information).  I will also encourage the students to practice doing  zippers and buttons at home.  Please take time to help your child with these important life skills. 

Thanks to all the parents who have been sending in stickers, post-its and foam shapes for our writing centres, these will be welcome all year.  If you have any gel pens, or unique paper, please send those in as well.  It’s also a good idea to have these types of materials in a box at home.  The children really do have more interest to write when they have access to colourful and bright tools.

In math we are doing a lot of work involving sorting and classifying objects into sets (groups), based on an attribute (a sorting rule).  For example, “these items are all red and have bumpy edges”.   

In language we continue to follow the jolly phonics program.  Our writing genre is fictional (make-believe) narrative writing.  At home, reading these types of stories and discussing the characters (who), the setting (where), the problem and the solution of the story would reinforce our school lessons.  We are also talking about the beginning, middle and ending of the books.  Generally, the beginning tells us who and where the story takes place, the middle tells us about the problem and the ending tells us the solution.  If you and your child feel like writing a short story -you can scribe (write the words) and your child can illustrate it, send it in to school.  We are always happy to share written work from home at school.

Thank you to all parents for adhering to the school policy of saying their good-byes outside.   The locker area is barely big enough to accomodate the 40 Kindergarten students and gets quite congested so saying farewell outside helps  minimize some of the chaos and allows us to focus on and see the children who need assistance.

 The sign posted on the school door states that no one should be entering the  building before 8:30am, no exceptions please.  There is no supervision inside the school to deal with incidents.  

Backpacks are only to be brought in at the 8:30 bell by the student, this is a requirement for all grades.  Students need to get in the habit of being responsible for their own possessions.   We are trying to foster an attitude of independence and self confidence.  

  If you need to speak with someone prior to 8:30am please enter through the main doors of the school, go to the office and they will contact the staff member you need to see.  Notes are also a great form of communication, students are reminded to hand in all notes and books every day prior to beginning our lessons.