What are we learning next?

 Our next unit of study wil be the Alphabet. The children will doing alphabet puzzles, use stencils to practise their letter shapes and fine motor skills, write in a special book with black board spaces on it, read alphabet books and play lots of alphabet games. They will look for foods that start with the letter of the day in their lunches and play with letter magnets. Each day we will have a letter of the day and add another verse to one of our songs. Your child will probably sing it to you. It is to the tune of Frere Jacques and we will sing it every day: A starts apple A starts apple Aaaa, Aaaaa, Aaaaa Aaaaa, Aaaaa, Aaaaa, B starts balloon B starts balloon  Bbbbb, Bbbbbb, Bbbbb Bbbbbb, Bbbbbb, Bbbbbb. And so on through the letters. You will soon receive a sheet with all the letters and their sample words. You can post it somewhere visible and use it when you have time to review the sounds and letters. The children will learn to use the alphabet posted on the wall to help them sing the song and think about the alphabet. They enjoy coming in to the classroom every day and predicting what the letter of the day will be. We will be continuing to have a new letter each day until we have covered them all. There will be a few pauses to celebrate Chinese New Year and Valentine's day and we should be done the unit by the middle of February. We will put the letters together and read some easy rhyming words like cat and mat. As you know, each child learns to read at his or her own speed and there is no pressure on them at this age, but whatever step they are at in the hundreds of steps to reading they can enjoy this unit and continue to progress.



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After the Party

 Thank you all for coming to our party and joining our celebration of festivals of light. It was a lot of fun. A big thank you to all of you for coming and for bringing treats. Another, very BIG thank you to the children for singing and dancing so well for their audience. Well done!!! Finally, thank you for all the gifts, cards and words of appreciation to the teachers. It has been a busy and challenging fall and we are glad of all your support and help. The children are mostly well established and our class is a settled and happy learning place. We are very proud of how far the children have come since the fall. It has been a lot of work for us, but also for them, so we hope they enjoy the holidays and get lots of rest. The first term is always the hardest. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah and Happy New Year to everyone!

Pyjama Day on Friday

The student council has declared Thursday, December 19th to be Pyjama Day. The children can wear their jammies to school and bring their slippers, robe and a favourite stuffed animal toy. It will be a cozy last day! There will be no school again until January 5th.


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Party of Lights

 Dear Parents, Grandparents, Friends and Relations;    

   You are all warmly invited to our All Holidays Party on Wednesday, December 17th in our classroom, room 23 at 10:00 OR 2:00.  The library where we usually have our parties is not available so we will have it in our room. We do not have space for everyone at the same time, so have split the class in half. There is an invitation in your child's backpack with the time for you to come to the party. Please do not switch as it will be too crowded. If there is a problem about your time, please send me an email and we will see if we can sort it out together. 
  We will be singing you some of the songs we have learned and having a few seasonal treats. If you can bring in a few nut-free treats we would be very happy to have them. It should be a great part of our Festivals of Light unit. See you there!

Aurora Borealis, the Kindness Bear

We have a new class mascot, a small white polar bear who watches for kindness through the day. At 3 o'clock we get together on the carpet and tell her what kind things people have done for us that day. She will also be visiting your houses to get to know the children and have some imaginary adventures. She will come to your house sometime in the next few months, with her travel journal. You can take pictures of her adventures, draw and write a short story in her book about her visit to your house. She can stay about 3 days with you and then please send her back to school to tell us about her trip. We are starting at the end of the alphabet with the W last names and working backward to the A last names. The class is very excited about this project. We hope you enjoy it too!

Here is a link to a kindness calendar with ideas of kind things to do each day:

http://www.coffeecupsandcrayons.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Random-Acts-of-Christmas-Kindness-Printable-Calendar-for-Kids.pdf

What We Do Each Day

If you would like to either prepare your child for the day or find out how his or her day went, here is our schedule:

9:05  Come in, take off boots, put lunch on cart
9:06  Cubbies
9:07  Quiet reading on the carpet/ Attendance
9:15ish O Canada
9:20   Dancing Time
9:30  Circle Time;  Songs, Story, Lessons
10:00  Centres, including snack, blocks, math, printing, art and sensory bin
10:50   Gym
11:30  Washroom 
11:35  Centres/ Library each Friday
12:00   Lunchtime
12:40ish Dressing for Outside Play
1:00  Outside Play
1:30  Relaxation Time
2:00  French (Days 2 and 4)/Quiet Centres
3:00  Tidy Up, Dressing for End of Day
3:30  Go to Dismissal spots

We are on a five day schedule, Days 1 to 5. Here is the link to the corresponding calendar as the days move around a bit if there are PD days or holidays.  
http://www.broadviewps.ocdsb.ca/index.php?id=19

Festivals of Light, Celebrations of the Human Spirit

                             


We have begun our unit on Festivals of Light. We began with learning about why it is getting so dark outside so early. We will talk about the seasons and how the sun makes the seasons. Then we will learn about different celebrations around the world that use light at this time of year. Of course, there is a connection! If you have any books or decorations from your family's celebrations they are very welcome. The children can show the class what they bring in as a little informal Show and Tell. Please make sure their names are on everything that comes in so we can return them! Our unit will include  Chanukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa as well as the native story of how Raven brought the light. It should be a special unit with lots of wonderful stories and some extra spiffy crafts.

Pattern Party

Friday, November 14th is our Pattern Party. The children can wear as many different patterns as they can put on. Mix and match the pattern on shirts, pants and socks; the more patterns the merrier. At school we will be wearing some lovely dot crowns and graphing the number of patterns we are wearing and generally celebrating all our work on patterns.

Putting the Clocks Back

Some parents may notice that the time change is really affecting your child. We are seeing more tired children at school this week for sure! It seems that their inner clocks are still on the old time so they often wake up at the old time. The problem is that they are staying at school for what is to them an extra hour. Also, if they go to bed at the new time they are staying up for an extra hour, which can be a lot when you are so little. So this note is to ask you to consider gradually moving them from the old time to the new time by putting them to bed at their old bedtime for a few days, then gradually adding a few more minutes each night. Just a suggestion if you see they seem extra tired!

Picture Re-Take Day and Class Picture Day Wednesday!!!

Please remember that tomorrow is the class picture day and the day for re-takes. Please let me know if you want a re-take so I can get them done. So far I have just heard from Simon's family. Thanks!!

We Scare Hunger Project

Happy Halloween!

Did you know that 1 in 5 parents said they have skipped meals to ensure there was enough food to feed their children? And that in 2012, 14% of food banks ran out of food making them powerless to support families who simply didn't have enough to feed their families?

This fall at Broadview the H.E.L.P club is holding a Hallowe'en themed food drive to support our local Ottawa food bank. The collection of non-perishable food items will run from Oct.27th until Oct. 31st. All items can be sent to school with your child. Items in high demand are listed below.

Thanks for your support!

The HELP club, Mlle Amanda and Mme Jennifer et Mlle Coughtrey!

We Scare Hunger is back the HELP club has sent home orange notes about our campaign.

We Scare Hunger is a non-perishable item drive that runs the week of October 27th - 31st in support of the Ottawa Food Bank

The Help Club has organized a competition for The Kindergartens, Primaries and Juniors. The Super Cans are back but this time there is a spooky surprise prize inside for the winning classes.

Here are some videos you might like to see:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=80aVBx5d93A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TySrpYqNzFE&feature=player_embedded 

FYI The Most needed items are:Canned Fish, Meat & Stews
Canned Vegetables & Fruit
Cereal [Whole Grains]
Cooking Oil
Dry Pasta & Sauce
Baby Diapers
Baby Formula
Household Products
Juice [Boxes or Cans]
Legumes [Canned or Dried]
Peanut Butter
Personal Hygiene Products
Rice
Snacks [Think Nutritious!]
Soup

Thanks in Advance for your support of this campaign,

Be a  Hero and Help Hunger disappear,  the Super Cans await you,

Keeping Safe in Room 23

As you know, we had a secure classroom for most of the day yesterday. We stayed in our room and locked the door. While we were inside the children had extra time to play at the centres and then a little dance party to enjoy some of their energy. We had lunch and a few calm videos like Little Bear and then more centre time . When the all-clear was sounded we went outside and had an hour of playtime in the lovely warm afternoon. Then we came in and had dismissal time. We did not talk about the events happening downtown at all with the children. That discussion, if it needs to happen, should be with the parents. If we have any questions from the children today we will reassure them that they are safe and let parents know individually if there are any who seem very distressed. We plan to have a regular day and keep things calm and predictable for them. If you have any questions, please contact me through the school or by email. Thanks.

Hallowe'en Plans

Friday, October 31st  is our Hallowe'en party day. The children can wear their costumes to school. Masks and weapons should stay at home. If the costume is very warm, your child will need some other clothes to change into when they get too hot. They can also choose to wear orange and black or just a funny hat! Our party will include making a special craft, a costume parade to the office and back and a spooky song with ghost puppets. The class will also be part of the Hallowe'en assembly that Mrs. Bricker is holding, and hear some more great music. After the assembly we will change out of our costumes and pack them safely in backpacks so they get home safely. Please send regular clothes with your child on Friday. They could be orange and black!

I hope you will have a wonderful time trick or treating! We will talk about your adventures on Monday. We will also learn about the Mexican Day of the Dead, which is the day after Hallowe'en. The fun continues!

             

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns!

Our focus the first weeks was on building up a sense of belonging in our class, how to choose and make friends and on how to go to school. We began with the question of how to make and be friends. Our focus now is on Patterns. This will help to structure their thinking and give them a framework for many of the other concepts we will cover this year. We will be learning that anything that happens over and over is a pattern. We  will look at visual patterns such as stripes and spots and talk about rhyming words and repeated words in books and how they are a pattern. We will sing a song with a repeated pattern and will also do many musical rhythms. We are also learning that the days have a pattern and the seasons have a pattern. We will be creating lots of patterns in our crafts. If you have a chance to point out or find patterns with your child during the day, that will reinforce the concepts for them. It could be visual patterns, or rhymes in their books or other repeated things. Also, with all the topics this year your child is very welcome to bring in books from home on the subject to share with the class. (Please make sure his or her name is on the books, of course.) At the end of the unit we will have a Pattern Party where they can wear as many different patterned clothes as possible. It is a great unit and we will have a lot of fun with it.

More Socks also, please!

As many children are enjoying exploration of the water and mud features which nature has provided for our play yard, splash pants, boots and EXTRA SOCKS are a good idea. Please send some in. WE will send you back the wet muddy ones. You're welcome.

Snacks and Lunches

It's a long day in Room 23 when you are three or four. To keep up our energy, we refuel often. We have a morning snack, lunch and then an afternoon snack every day. The children are usually pretty hungry for morning snack and we have to remind them to only have one thing so they will have enough to last the day. For most children it would be good to have a few things for morning snack, lots for lunch and one or two again for the afternoon. We help them to find their snack foods and to space out their food through the day. It would help them if they had lots of choices, whether they end up eating them all or not. It's good to have a variety of choices for them. That way they will at least eat and be full. We are encouraging them to eat a protein or a fruit/veg or both for their first snack. They need another protein and some fruit and veg for their lunch and then for their last snack we encourage them to finish whatever is still in their lunch bag. We are seeing all kinds of creative lunches coming in; wraps, boiled eggs, soups, pastas, little pots of lunch meats, cheese squares, sandwiches cut with cookie cutter shapes, celery with wow butter and raisins, little jars of seeds. We know it's a challenge packing lunches every day, so we wanted to let you know how much they help the children's day. Thanks for all your hard work!

Red, Black and White Day Thursday!

It's our first School Spirit Day this Thursday! Wear Broadview colours of Red, Black and White and we may win the coveted Golden Boot trophy for the class this month!

Picture Day is Coming!

Picture day for individual pictures will be October 1st. In November we will have a re-take day and the class picture will be taken then, so you can dress them up twice! I will let you know that date closer to the time.

Thank You

Thank you to all the parents who came to the Meet the Teacher last night. I know it is a tricky time of day when you have little ones. If you were not able to make it we completely understand! The main information that we shared has been send to everyone. Please note that there is an email attached to this blog, sarah.whitehead.jk@gmail.com or you can use my school email, sarah.whitehead@ocdsb.ca. I only use email for passing on simple information. If there is anything important or at all complicated, I will phone you or write you a personal note. Please do the same if you have any concerns to communicate to us. I am sure you are wondering how your child is doing at school as it is a challenging transition time for the whole family. I will write you each a note to let you know how she or he is doing and send it home in the backpack express. I will try to have one for each child by next Wednesday. If you are able to volunteer at all in the classroom we would be very appreciative. I promise it will not be difficult and it will probably be a lot of fun. Plus, your child will be thrilled, of course! We are so happy to meet all of your charming and capable children and will work hard to give them a special year. They already have settled in so much and are really excited to learn. It is wonderful to see. Thank you for all your help to make this a great year for them.

Welcome to our Blog!!

Dear Junior Kindergarten Families;

Welcome to our classroom blog! Please bookmark it or link it to your email so you always get our updates. We will be using this as our newsletter instead of a paper letter, so it is important for you to keep checking in. On our blog you will find some notes on what we are learning in class so you can talk about these at home as well. There will also be reminders about our activities and their dates. There will also be links to other information, such as articles on curriculum and a sign up calendar for volunteers.To keep it safe, there will be no pictures of the children, but there may be pictures of their art from time to time, and other surprises! We hope you like our blog. Thank you for reading!