March 5, 2014

Time for another update...

Thank you to all of you for taking the time from your busy schedules to meet with me last week.

Please start to bring in your gently used children's books for our Primary Grades Book Exchange. Please ensure that these books are at a Grade 1-4 reading level (approximately). Each child who donates at least one book will be invited to choose a different book to keep. All books that aren't selected by students will be donated to classroom libraries. In the next couple of days, I  will announce the date of the Book Exchange. I will also be looking for 1-2 volunteers to assist.

2B students proudly displaying their Kindness Kids Club application forms.

"You've been RAC'd, Tirzah!" 

Theme: Last week was R.A.C. week. Some highlights included hugging former teachers, making RAC notes with our Kindergarten buddies and delivering them to office staff and administrators, and bringing flowers to our lunch supervisors and cheesecake to the janitorial staff. On the hundredth day of school, we challenged each other to complete 100 acts of kindness (collectively). This goal was easily met by both groups of students.

Our 100th Day display with photos.

Speaking of the 100th day of school, we celebrated rather noisily... The poor preschool class below us must have thought there was an earthquake. You can see photos on display in our classroom.

How many times can you hop up and down in 100 seconds?

We also enjoyed learning about the winter olympics and keeping track of the medal count. A highlight for both classes was watching the Canadian Women's hockey team win the gold medal!

2A shows off their Olympic booklets.

What a terrific job the students have done with their Community Worker presentations! I'm so happy that a representative from each family was able to attend for each child. I have had several former students in my classroom over the past few weeks, looking at our milk carton town and reminiscing over their own presentations. I am confident your children will also remember this experience for years to come!

Our next topic of study is Matter (Solids, Liquids, and Gases). On Monday, we will have a scientist from High Touch High Tech demonstrate all kinds of hands-on experiments. Prepare to get a little bit messy!

Math: I hope that the package I provided during conferences does a good job explaining some of the mental math strategies we have been using for adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers.  This week and next, we will be sorting 2D shapes and 3D objects using two attributes, as well as identifying these shapes as part of objects in our environment.

Language Arts: Thank you to everyone who brought home the Pet Pals for a weekend. We will be mailing Rufus and Tigger back to Saskatchewan and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our own pet pals, whom we haven't seen since October.

The first WIN (Writing is Necessary) Home Writing story is due tomorrow. I can't wait to read all about the crazy sandwich inventions!

Reminder: Don't forget that next Tuesday the 11th is our ice skating field trip. If you offered to volunteer and have not heard back yet, please direct your inquiries to our gym teacher, Mr. Noel.