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.