Monthly Archives: December 2017

One More Week Until Holidays!!

We are in the home stretch!!! One more week until everyone is hopefully able to take some time to rest and rejuvenate!

Here is what you need to know for the upcoming week!

Monday- Concert rehearsal is at 1:00. Please send your child in their concert clothes. Girls-white top and dark bottoms…Boys-white collared shirt, long neck tie (preferably-unless you only have a bow tie) and dark bottoms. No one has let me know that they don’t have a tie, so I have high hopes that we are all “good to go”. This was actually the Ask Me Question for the weekend. Your only task is to be ready for the rehearsal. No written response is required. If you’d like to leave me a note, feel free! I’ll still be checking the Home Reading folders!

Tuesday- Teija is having her bake sale to raise money for the Kiwi bird! (An email reminder was sent on Friday I believe)

Wednesday- Concert Day! Show times are 10:00, 1:30 and 7:00. Time is running out…get your ticket order forms in before it’s too late!!! I will not be in the classroom until 6:30 (before the evening show) so please don’t send your child until then

Thursday- It’s our final Sing-A-Long of the season! We meet at 1:00 in the gym…join us if you’d like!

Friday- PJ and movie day!! The 3/4 classes as well as Room 125 will be watching The Lion King to help prepare for the Circle of Life performance we are doing in February. Many kids aren’t familiar with the movie. I am super excited to watch it with them!!! Who am I kidding…I am also very excited to wear my PJs to school!!! It’ll be a great way to send us off into the holiday break!

Other things to note!

-Thank you again for being so generous with the Holiday Hampers and the Santa for a Senior initiatives. The families in our community who receive the hampers are overwhelmed with the generosity of the school. This weekend I spoke with a friend who volunteers sorting gifts for Santa to a Senior. She raves about the program and how much the gifts mean to the seniors. Even if the kids will never meet the seniors the truly make an impact with their cards, letters and gifts.

-I hope the kids told you about the Art that we purchased from the Painting for a Purpose program. They each wrote a letter to Kristi-Marie (who works for the CanU organization as well as bring an EA at our school). She was blown away with the kindness of your children. When I read the letters I was close to tears. These kids are such wonderful little humans and are going to change the world one day! They want to make the world a better place, whether it’s from giving food to those who need it, gifts and letters to people who are often feeling lonely or by encouraging me to make a donation in lieu of buying them a class gift. You should all be so proud!

-We are going to be making some kindness cards for each other this week. This is something we did last year and the kids were so excited to make a card and surprise one of their classmates!  I can’t wait to do this again! We will try to post the final products on See Saw!

Here we go! One more week! It’ll be busy…but wonderful!

Have a safe and happy holiday.

Until 2018!

Danielle

 

Learn As We Go!

Hi!!

We only have 2 more weeks until the Winter break! That’s so unbelievably crazy! I’ll keep today’s post more about things we need to know to make sure we all know what to expect for the last two weeks of school!

-Ask Me… this week’s question had us trying something new! I posted the question as an activity in See Saw in hopes you’d be able to do it from home. We talked about how that might not work, but that we wouldn’t know if we didn’t try! Well…it didn’t work as planned! On my class app there is a spot for activities but that doesn’t appear to be on the family version. To fix the problem I have resent the question as a note that was put into everyone’s journal. I hope you see it…if not we will see if anyone remembers the question (about our experience with coding with Jon from the STEAM program). I think we will try this again next week so I can write more details for parents. Any thoughts?

-The Santa to a Senior program was a huge success! I was able to pick up 4 pairs of fuzzy socks with grips, 4 boxes of soft cookies, 2 types of body wash AND together with Room 122 we bought 6 boxes of Boost to help supplement the diet of seniors in this program. You were so generous! Thanks so, so, so much. Sarah is going to love our gift and the kind words from the children. I’ll be delivering all the gifts with Cathy after school on Monday 🙂

-We are currently writing in a “Gratitude Journal” as part of our mindfulness practice. We come in right after lunch and sit and write until 1:15. This is a time to reflect on what we have and how we show our gratitude. It’s a time to write. Not to focus on having perfect spelling and grammar. We haven’t decided if I will even read them yet. Sometimes it’s nice to write for ourselves and not worry about someone else being the audience. Thanks to Tamara for the idea!!

-The concert song is really coming together! The We Belong winter concert is going to be lovely!! I hope you’ve read the email about clothing and are able to wear the requested clothing for the concert. Please remember-if you do not have a tie (boys only) let me know and we will find one for you! Notes about tickets went home on Friday. If you did not receive a note please check your child’s backpack and/or ask for an extra at the office

-A second “yellow” note was sent home on Friday as well. It is about a bake sale happening and asks for volunteers for baking and possibly helping out. A student in 126 is doing this as part of her genius Hour project. Please let us know if you are able to bake or volunteer on that day!

-We are carolling!! If you’d like to join us with the next sing alongs…please do! Sing along dates are: December 11 @1:00 and December 21 @1:00

-Thanks again for all your support with See Saw. The kids love it when we post something and parents like and comment right away! We hope you enjoy the “Public Service Announcements” as much as we like sending them!

Until next time,

Danielle

Take time to stop and smell the roses…or tree this holiday season!!

Happy December!

Good Morning!!

It. Is. December!!! Wow! There are only 3 weeks until Winter Break! We have some very exciting things planned for the month of December. Please stayed tuned through the blog, Instagram, See Saw and communications via email so you don’t miss anything!

Here is what happened in 123 last week and what to expect for this upcoming week!

-Our Math groups with 122 are in full swing! We are having fun with some hands on learning using manipulatives and the interactive whiteboard as well as practicing mathematical language to describe the mental math strategies we are using.

-We ‘met’ our Senior from the “Be a Santa to a Senior Program’. The kids are so invested in this program. We had such great discussions about how seniors can be alone at during the holidays. Our Senior, Sarah has some small wishes. We were surprised about her wish list because we find that we wish for so much during the holidays. I think seeing what Sarah was hoping for was humbling for many students. The students have already been bringing in coins for our senior and we will be accepting donations until 3:30 on Monday. After that I will be doing the shopping to pick up the items on her list. We are asking you to being a loonie or a toonie if you are able to. As part of our fundraising efforts we are also allowing kids to dress as a character from a book or movie  on Monday, December 4. Please consider that any ‘dress up’ items should be appropriate for school as we will also have a regular scheduled day (Yoga, Music, etc.). The letters, cards, poems, pictures and books that the class is making for Sarah are amazing. Your children are so kind, thoughtful and generous.

*This is also the Ask Me question for the weekend! It reads “Ask Me about “Character Monday”.  I’m hoping that you will have a conversation about who/what your child will be dressing up as and write a bit about who/what that character is and/or about why we are fundraising for our Senior. Part of the reason for this question is to make sure you are aware of the date and reason for “Character Monday”.

-Also in the Spirit of Giving, I’d like to thank you for the food donations for the Room 123 hamper and for Turkey Toonie Tuesday. The drive will continue until December 13. Just an FYI-if you cannot find our classroom bin…it is actually beside Room 122. I’ve put a label on it so you know!

-Reminders: Fun Lunch forms are due on Friday, December 8 and book orders were due on December 1. If for some reason  you forgot to get your order in, please see me and we will see if we can make it work for you. An email has been sent about what Room 123 will be wearing for the Winter concert on Wednesday, December 20. Parents of boys…if you do not have a necktie please let me know. Also, there is a Parent Council meeting on Wednesday, December 6. It is a brainstorming session to collect ideas for the nature playground/classroom (6:00-7:30 in the library).

-We had a bit of fun with Hudson (my Hudson!) last week. I told the kids that she ‘predicts’ the outcome of the Jets games! When I ask if the Jets will win…she ‘high 5s’ me if they will and doesn’t if they won’t! Yesterday (Friday) I asked her AND she hesitated for a moment then gave 3 quick high 5s. Some of the kids took that as…the Jets would win…by 3 goals! If you saw the game or the score you would know that it was a 7-4 victory for the Jets! I thought the kids would get a kick out of that! That win also put the Jets in FIRST place!

#GoJetsGo!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Until next time,

Danielle