Lemonade and Cookie Party Tomorrow!

I hope you all received your invitations to our party tomorrow at 2:00 in the Library. Please come and celebrate our junior kindergarteners and their year. See you there!

Important Notes and Dates

Dear Parents:

   Here is the calendar for the rest of the year:

As Soon As Possible   Return all Library books!
                                     Return all Borrow-a-Books!

June 9                Artists in Residence Visit: Rag and Bones Puppet Theatre , Presentation and Drama                             Workshop
June 12               Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast
June 17              Puppet Show given by Intermediate Students of Mrs. Peggy Morris
June 18              Teacher Appreciation Lunch
June 23              End of Year Celebration  Lemonade Party PARENTS INVITED! 2:30 to 3:30 in                                  Library, Report Cards come home
June 25               Last Day of Classes
June 26               PD Day

Volunteer Breakfast

If you or any of your family members volunteered in the classroom this year, please come to the Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast this Friday morning from 8:30 to 9:30 in the library

. See you there! And many thanks for your help!!!

Happy Mothers' Day!

Here are some thoughts about you from our class:

Getting Ready for the Trip

We will be outside all day Friday and it will be hot. Please put on lots of sunscreen and send a hat and water bottle. We will also need their lunch and a set of extra clothes. Thank you!

Book Fair Tomorrow

Please send in a Loonie tomorrow in a baggie with your child's name on it if you would like them to get 2 books at the book fair. We are going at 11 am.   Thank you!

Volunteers for the Trip

Thank you to all of the parents and grandpa who volunteered. We would like to include anyone who would like to come. The only challenge is that there is not quite enough room on the bus. We have 11 volunteers and 7 spots for them. The volunteers are:

Nada, Heather, Chantal, Jeremy, Sara, David, Samantha, her sister, her dad Fred, John or Jessica, Erin . Please email me at sarah.whitehead@ocdsb if you either really need a spot on the bus or would be happy to drive. We can carpool volunteers if  you like. There is parking under the War Museum. Please contact me tonight and we can finalize our plans. Thanks so much!

Suddenly Summer!!

It's so nice out all of a sudden! However, we only have one tree in the playground and it has no leaves yet. Please send a sun hat and sun screen with your child. Thanks so much!

All About the Field Trip

We are counting down the days to the FIELD TRIP to the OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL CHILDRENS' FESTIVAL!!! We are going all day on Friday, May 8th and need lots of volunteers to supervise small groups of children, with our help.  There is room for some volunteers on the bus and more if you would like to meet us there. 

We will see a performance of Jack and the Bean. It looks delightful. There will also be time to visit the displays and do many other science, music and art activities. 

We will have a picnic lunch. If the weather is wet we can still do all the activities because they are in tents. Please dress your child for the weather because they will be outside all day!

The trip permission form is coming home today and MUST be returned for your child to go on the trip. Please send it right back in tomorrow so you don't forget. 

The cost of the trip is $5.00. This is because we have been given a grant from the Westboro Business Association and from the Broadview Parents' Council. We will also use some of the voluntary school fees. Thank you to all of our sponsors!!!

Thank you for your help making this amazing trip happen.

 Here is the link to the festival: http://ottawachildrensfestival.ca/

Earth Day Celebration Tomorrow (Wednesday)

Our school is wearing blue and green tomorrow in honour of Earth Day. Please wear earth colours.

Save The Date!!!

May 8th will be a wonderful Field Trip Day. Please save the date. More info very soon!!!

Please No Umbrellas

A raincoat, rain hat, splash pants and boots are enough. An umbrella in the hands of a small child becomes a weapon or a threat to the safety of eyes. Please keep the umbrellas at home! Many thanks.

Wear Pink Tomorrow!! (Wed, April 8th)

Tomorrow is an anti-bullying day and the school is marking the day by having everyone wear pink. If you don't have pink, red will do. Thank you!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Year of the Sheep or Goat! We have been celebrating in room 23 with paper lanterns, golden fish kites, art and some treats. Monday we had a visit from our Cultural Liason Officer, Ming Wang. She told us about the holiday and showed us a slide show of its history. Still to come are pomelo tasting and chicken dumplings. Of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, the children in this class are born either in the year of the tiger or of the ox (the January babies are oxen.)

Here are some dragons. The dragon symbolizes the coming spring. Unlike Western dragons they are bringers of water and rains and good crops. We learned that in the winter they live in the bottom of each river and lake and wake up in the spring. 



Here is a sample of a Chinese New Year card that people would send to each other. You can see the lanterns, the fireworks and the lucky red colour everywhere. The children are wearing the new clothes they receive as part of the celebrations. They might also have had a haircut!

These are dumplings which would be part of the big family dinner that everyone would eat together. They come in many shapes. These look a little like purses full of money. One of the wishes for the new year is prosperity. We had some fried dumplings to sample the other day at school and will try steamed dumplings soon.

 Here is a dragon for the Dragon Dance. On New Year's Day there will be many dragon dances for people to see. We are having a little one here, with lots of noise- makers to scare away any bad luck.

Here is another great Chinese dragon, this one on the top of  a beautiful building. Happy New Year!

Mud Season !!

                                    


Now that we are at last entering Mud Season, please make sure your child has an extra pair of mittens, pants, underpants and socks and a plastic bag for the wet things in her or his bag every day. For some reason the children think that their splash pants and boots make them impervious to water and we get a lot of wet legs, toes and fingers. We go through a lot of extra clothes, so please keep your child comfy and up to date! Thank you so much.

What Comes After Zed?

 We have finished our Letter A Day and now have begun our next unit, which is Fairytales!

We will be reading stories about castles,

                                                 enchanted animals,

and all your favourite characters.

So that's what happens after the Zed!   

Twin Day!!!

Friday is the last day of school before the March Break and another School Spirit Day, Twin Day. Your child can pair up with a friend and dress the same OR join the classroom teachers and dress like us. We are wearing black pants and blue tops. If your child would like to be twins with us they can wear blue and black too.
Next week is March Break. Have a wonderful holiday and see you March 23rd!

Winter Carnival Volunteers

Thank you to all the volunteers for Wednesday's Carnival. You will be helping our team, the Winter Flash. Please come to room 23 at 11 am and we will get everyone organized and ready to go. See you soon! 

HOW many children?

In case you needed to know how many Valentines to make, there are 31 children in the class, and of course, one charming teacher and two lovely ECEs. Plus there's Mme Durnin, our fabulous French teacher. Hope no one has to go back to the store for more supplies!

Family Day

I forgot that new-fangled holiday called Family Day!! Our Flag day will be on Tuesday after you have enjoyed your families. Thanks.   

Our Flag is Fifty!!!

The newly designed Canadian flag was officially raised for the first time at noon on Parliament Hill on February 15th in 1965. We would like to celebrate its fiftieth birthday in our class on Tuesday, February 17th. We will do some crafts and have a special story and song. It would be wonderful if all the children could either wear something with the flag on it or wear lots of red and white. Thank you for your help in another celebration in room 23. 

Date for Cards and Celebrating Valentine's Day

One of the parents asked which day to send in the Valentine cards, since there's a PA day and the 14th is on the weekend. Please send them on Thursday, Feb 12th. The 11th is our Winter Carnival (volunteers still welcome!!!) and so Thursday is the best day. Thank  you for making it an exciting and special time.  

Valentines cards

This is the weekend to get ready for Valentine's day. How to address the valentine cards? We ask that the children just put From and not To as it makes delivering the 900 plus valentines much less of a chore. The children can just put to my friend, or leave that part blank, and put from and their name, eg. From Gregory. They will each have a turn to put their valentines in all their big Valentines envelopes, but we will not have to spend hours helping them read them all and finding all the names that match. We can do some other activities to learn to read and write their friend's names, but it's much better to keep their cards simple. Thank you for your help to make this a fun day of friendship!

U is for UFO

We have reached letter U and read this funny story about a boy in a plane and an alien in a UFO today.

Then we received a parcel, just like the boy in the book!

It was some alien walkie talkies! 

We had a good time playing with them and drawing pictures of aliens and UFOs and rockets. 

Tomorrow we are learning V is for Valentine. I wonder what we'll make?