Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 Dear Children;

   I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday with your families. We're lucky to have all this snow to play in now. I bet you are making snow angels and skiing and toboganning.
  I have missed you! I have pneumonia, but am getting better and hope to see you when school starts again on January 7th. Have a great holiday!!! 

                                                                 with lots of love from Ms. Whitehead

Festivals of Light, Celebrations of the Human Spirit

    On Monday we will begin 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 Divali, Yalda, 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.

We Need Socks!

  If you have some white or colourful socks which perhaps have lost their mates or have a little hole in them, we would like to use them for our secret Christmas craft. Please send in any clean white or coloured socks that you can spare and we will recycle them into something great. Thank you for your help!

Interview Schedule is Up!

Dear Parents;

   The interview schedule is ready. Please sign up. If it is possible for you to come in during the day, please leave the evening spots for those who need them. Thank you!! I am looking forward to talking to you about your child.   


http://www.signupgenius.com/go/508084DAFAB2AAA8-interview

Pattern Party!

Wednesday 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 our lovely dot crowns and graphing the number of patterns we are wearing and generally celebrating all our work on patterns. We will be displaying our fabulous pattern paintings on a new bulletin board called Kindergarteners in Patternland. You can come admire it when you have your interview. Please remember that interviews begin Thursday and that Friday is a PD day.

Parent Teacher Interviews

We are having interviews soon to discuss how your child is adapting to Junior Kindergarten. There are no progress reports for Kindergarten so parents are given an interview time instead. Interviews will be held Thursday November 15th during school time and in the evening, and on Friday November 16th in the morning. A supply teacher will be covering the classes on Thursday so we will meet in another room and I will post the location beside the classroom door. Our room is 23. PLEASE NOTE: Friday is a PA Day, so there will be no school. I am creating a Sign Up Genius page soon to plan the schedule of interviews. If you have another child in the school and have an interview for him or her, we will try to coordinate interviews for families as much as possible. Thanks for your help!

Picture Retake Day

If you would like your child's picture taken again, you must let me know by note or email before November 6th, the retake day. Thank you!

Pictures Are In!

Your child will be bringng home the proofs for her or his pictures today. Please return them by Friday, November 2nd, whether or not you wish to order any. It is up to you. All the children will receive a class picture free when they arrive. Thank you!

A Very Sweet Hallowe'en

While your child goes trick or treating they can also help with our latest school outreach project, Hungry Hallowe'en. They can collect food donations for the local food bank. Each class has a box for these donations and the class who fills their box the fullest will receive a prize. Please consider supporting this project.
There is also a modern version of Unicef boxes, a program called Make October Count for Kids: http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/action.retrievestaticpage.do?ea_static_page_id=1466#. Their goal is to send five million more kids to school. So now there will be great costumes, piles of candy and a better world. Very sweet.

Hallowe'en Plans

Wednesday, 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 morning class will see part of the Hallowe'en assembly that Mrs. Bricker is holding, and hear some more great music.
  

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

                

Email Roundup Time

We would like to have a class email bank so that we can easily and efficiently contact everyone. Instead of me spending a long time typing in the ones I have, can everyone please email me at sarah.whitehead.jk@gmail.com and I will put together a list for my use and for the volunteer coordinators' use? Thank you for helping us save time!

Kilometre Club

Each Friday students from JK to grade 8 are invited to come to school at 8:30 to run. They run a circuit and volunteers keep track of how far they run. We map all the kilometres run on a map of Canada.  JK, SK and Grade One families run together. If you are interested in this activity for your child, please send me a note and I will send home a registration form for you. Happy Running!

Our Note Totes

Dear Parents;

   Each child now has a large ziploc bag with her or his name on it. Please check them nightly and send them back to school. We often have things to send home to you. You are also welcome to send notes to school in them as well. The children are learning to give them to me if they have a note for me, or to give them to you at the end of the day. They are pretty proud of all their independance. Thank you for your help with this system of communication.

P.S.  If your child's note tote gets lost, please feel free to make another one and send that in.

Our Blog Has Pets!

At the bottom of this blog are our daily puppy and our rainbow fish. Each time you tap the mouse you feed them some lovely fish food. Have fun!

I-Walk Day is Coming

Wednesday, October 17th is I-Walk day here and we celebrate this by walking to school if possible. If not, park further away when dropping off your child or walk an extra time around the block on the way to the bus stop. There will be festivities here in the yard before school to continue the celebration of walking, with helpers from Dovercourt. I think a little beaver mascot named Phys might come too!

Afternoon Changes

Unfortunately our school Education Assistant, Bonnie, has been transferred to a different school. She used to be a great help to our class by taking the bus and Dovercourt children to the small gym before the end of the day rush, keeping them safe until it was time to get on the bus. I will be taking over that duty now. To help with the walking children's dismissal, Mme. McCay will come to our dismissal spot each day and watch them until you come to pick them up. She has a list of the walking children for our class. She will bring her own walkers and I will take her bus and Dovercourt children for her. The one loss in this new plan is that I won't see you at the end of the day for informal feedback. If you need to speak to me please let me know and I will meet you when my bus duty is finished. It is not a long duty so it should still be a good time to chat if you have any questions or information for me.
The other change is that our coop student, Neva, has moved to a different assignment. We wish her well at her new placement! A few times a week we will  have a different coop student come by the class to help for a block of time. I will introduce them to you further as we get into this new routine.

OCDSB School Year Calendar link

Here is a link to the official school year calendar.
http://www.churchillalternative.ocdsb.ca/UserFiles/file/Letter_Elementary_SYC.pdf

Permanent Links

To the right of this window is the sidebar where you can now find the links to the volunteer calendar permanently displayed. Throughout the year you can use these links as they will be easier to find than going back through the posts. There is also a spot where you can register to have new posts sent directly to your inbox. That way you won't forget to check up on what's going on here. Yay, technology!

Afternoon Volunteers' Calendar

afternoon volunteers Afternoon Parent Volunteers Please put your name on any day that suits your schedule. We usually have just one volunteer per day. Not all days have to be filled. Most times parents stay for the whole afternoon, from 1:10 to 3:40. If you have less time available you are still welcome! Thank you for volunteering. It will be a fun day and we'll be able to do so much more with your help. CREATED BY: Sarah Whitehead CONTACT ME

Here is the link for the afternoon parents to sign up to volunteer. I have only set it  up for October and November so far, but Carrie will add some more dates soon. We're looking forward to having you in the classroom! 

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/508084DAFAB2AAA8-afternoon

Link to the morning volunteer sign up calendar

I have the first part of the year set up on a Sign Up Genius calendar for you. So far, it works. I entered the names that Meg has given me so far. Please give it a try!
You have been invited by Sarah Whitehead to sign up for "Morning Volunteer Sign Up Calendar." Please click on the link below to view the online sign up sheet.

www.SignUpGenius.com/go/508084DAFAB2AAA8-morning

We did make a Thanksgiving craft, but...

Well, it just took longer than we had this short week, what with picture day and all. The children are really doing a lovely job with their colouring so we will give them a few more days to finish it well and not rush them. Then we will send them home and you can enjoy them forever. In the meantime, if they are still keen to colour, here is a great page to print and enjoy. Our apologies for the delay!

Very interesting blog

Since we are celebrating food this weekend here is a fun blog link: http://insideinsides.blogspot.ca/ 
The children might like to see the animations on this blog. They are made by MRI scanning of fruits and vegetables and are very interesting. Maybe they can even guess which veggie or fruit is in the picture. Happy Thanksgiving!

Got it!

Picture day went well and we got all the pictures taken, so tomorrow you can go back to regular clothing. They did look spiffy, though!                       : )

No School Friday or Monday!

 

This Friday, October 5th, there will be no school as it is a PD day. Then Monday is Thanksgiving, so school is closed for the holiday. The children have worked very hard to learn their new routines and adapt to school. They have made a lot of great progress. It is great that they can have a little rest after all their efforts. Happy Thanksgiving! School will be open again on Tuesday. See you then!

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns!

    

Our focus the first month 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 theme of 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 are learning that anything that happens over and over is a pattern. We are looking at visual patterns such as stripes and spots and talked about rhyming words and repeated words in books and how they are a pattern. We are singing 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 themes this year your child is very welcome to bring in books from home on the topic to share with the class. (Please make sure his or her name is on the books, of course.) At the end of the unit, in early November, we will have a Pattern Party where they can wear as many different patterned clothes as possible. It is a great unit and we are having fun with it.

Roll Call

It would be very helpful if I could check that everyone has the address for this blog. I have sent home the address twice, but I know that little pieces of paper can easily get lost. So, can you each please send me an email just to check in? Then I will get in touch with those who haven't emailed. Thanks for your help!   sarah.whitehead.jk@gmail.com

Volunteering Starts Monday!!

We are getting nicely settled in to our routines and are ready for you parents to come in and volunteer if you have some time and are interested. Please contact Meg Ogden ( meg.ogden@sympatico.ca) for morning times or Carrie Cuhaci (ccuhaci@mac.c) for afternoon times or me (sarah.whitehead.jk@gmail.com) to sign up. We are looking forward to your visits!

Jacket Weather

As the weather gets cooler the children are practising putting on our jackets by themselves. We use the popular Magic Flip method, or the Flip Flop Over the Top method as it is also known. Please help your child rehearse this at home if they need some extra time to master it. Here are the steps:
1) Make sure sleeves are right way out. If not, use the Shark Puppet to go down the tunnel, grab the end of the sleeve and pull it out.
2) Lie the coat on the floor with the front part open.
3) Stand at the hood end (this is key and confusing for everyone at the start)
4) Put your hands in the arm  holes.
5) Push your arms into the coat while flipping it over your head.
Sounds hard, but they learn quickly. Thank you!

Picture Day is Wednesday, October 3rd. The schedule is tight, so if we run out of time we may also have pictures taken on Thursday, October 4th. If you have a particular pose or background you would like, please send in the form from LifeTouch tomorrow or as soon as possible. Otherwise the photographer will choose something nice for you.

We are no longer Wheat Free!

Thank you so much to all the parents who were so helpful about avoiding wheat in snacks for school. There have been a few students move from my class to another class since then. Now we have no wheat allergies among our room 23 students, so the wheat ban is hereby lifted!

Calling all Morning Parent Volunteers

Meg Ogden, Andrei's mom, is coordinating the schedule for volunteering. Please e-mail her and she will start putting names on a calendar. We will update to an electronic calendar soon. Thank you, everyone!

Meg can be reached at meg.ogden@sympatico.ca

Indoor Shoes

                                                               

Please make sure your child has a pair of indoor shoes that can stay in the classroom. The easier they are to put on, the better. We have a red bin for the morning class's shoes and a blue bin for the afternoon class. When the weather gets messier it will be even more helpful to have these. A lot of sand is already getting tracked into the classroom. As the children often play on the floor, we really want to keep things clean. Thanks for your help!

Co-op Students!

We have co-op students to help the class! Yesterday we welcomed Chelsea Brosseau, a grade 12 student from Nepean with great experience working with children and an interest in the arts. She is doing a placement in the morning class until mid-January.  Today Neva Lavalley, also a grade 12 student from Nepean, will begin her placement in our afternoon class. She has also worked with young children and might even brush up her piano playing skills and play for our dance time. We are so glad to have these students in to help with the jk program. Please introduce  yourself to them when you see them in the yard and make them welcome.

Volunteers

I am looking forward to having parents in soon to volunteer. We just need a bit more time to get the children settled into their routines. If there is a morning parent who would like to help recruit volunteers, please let me know! For the afternoon parents, Carrie Cuhaci (Thomas C's mom) is helping to round up and organize volunteers. She will be sending home a note soon, or you can reach her at ccuhaci@mac.com .
Good news! Meg Ogden,  Andrei's mother, has offered to organize the morning parent volunteers. Thank you, Meg and Carrie!

A Wheat-Free Classroom

No Wheat Please! 




I hope you received the letter about snacks and safety for this year. We have a student who has anaphylactic reactions to wheat, so we must follow our school's anaphylaxis policy and minimize the risk. This means having no foods with wheat flour in them for the children's snacks. They can have things like rice crackers or baking made with rice flour as an alternative. I will be sending home (and posting) a list of snack ideas to help with this. Some good snack ideas are fruit, yogurt, veggies and dip, cheese, fruit smoothies and dried fruits like raisins. If your child carries a lunch with her or him, please pack it separately. It can contain wheat (bread, cookies, muffins, etc.) but should stay in her or his backpack at school. I will help them to remember which food to eat at school. Thank you very much for your help in making the classroom safe for everyone.

Special Bus Tags Coming Soon!

Soon we will be adding a bright yellow bus tag to the children's backpack. Please leave this attached and if you change backpacks please request a new tag. It is a Board initiative to help ensure the children's safety by identifying all kindergarten riders. Thank you for your help in this!

Welcome to our Blog!

Dear Junior Kindergarten Families;

   Welcome to our classroom blog! In it 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. 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!       

                  Ms. Whitehead and the am and pm classes.