Montaganews--December 18, 2012

I can't believe this is my last day of teaching for 2012!  Time sure does fly when you're having fun!!  Let me start by saying a HUGE THANK YOU for my gift.  You are all very generous and your sweet words in the card means everything to me.  I continue to feel so incredibly lucky to teach your wonderful children.  They are a kind, thoughtful, cheerful, positive, hard working bunch of learners.

Today they are bringing home their Patterning & Sorting work and their Friendship work.  I think you'll enjoy reading their "Perseverance Suitcase" the most.   If there's any work incomplete, it's probably because they were away on a Tuesday or several Tuesdays. If it was important, I always try to make sure they understand the concept.  If you'd like to have your child do the work at home, by all means, go for it.  It's totally your & their choice.   You may also notice your child bringing home a lot of 'fun sheets' or maybe not at all.  Some of the students really love these thinking sheets and some don't and that's ok.

One of the highlights of today was our Reader's Theatre performance of The Night Before Christmas. Theo, Emma, Marc, Nicole, Lucas & Fletcher did a great job performing it twice! First to our class, then to Ms. Jung's class and Ms. Y. This story wasn't an easy one to read but this group showed fabulous perseverance. Well done!

final rehearsel in the hall with Ms. Morris

1st performance to our own class

they decided to bow afterwards holding hands. :)

In January, we'll start SHAPES in Math and The HeartSmart program in Health & Career Education.  The HeartSmart Program teaches children about healthy living focusing on 3 key aspects of heart health: eating healthy food, being physically active and living smoke-free. 

I wish everyone a relaxing, enjoyable holiday filled with all that you all enjoy doing together.  See you in 2013!

Keep reading!
Ebru Montagano

Montaganews--Friday, Dec 7 & Monday, Dec. 10

The last two days have been busy & very enjoyable.  I embarked on an Art lesson that I think turned out beautiful.  You may want to rush out and buy a frame for this one folks!  As I always tell the students, Ms. Taylor got the art genes in our family (then they ask me, "Are you & Ms. Taylor really related?" to which I respond with, "Well not blood related but pretty close...she's in my work family.")  Anyways, the art is up on the bulletin board above the cubbies: WINTER BIRDS inspired by the book "Snowballs" by Lois Ehlert. 

We had our OWL presentation today. It was fabulous.  The students were really interested, learned alot, and asked some great questions. One of the most important things they learned was what to do if they ever see an owl in nature.  Ask them to tell you about how a 3 month old baby owl fell off a tree in the North Shore.  It was a sad story that they'll probably never forget but which will always remind them to treat wildlife with respect. They also got to see and touch some pellets and 2 stuffed real barn owls. Thank you to Henry for baking owl shortbread cookies for us to share.

Our LOVE HAMPERS got picked up today.  Wow! I am not sure how many boxes other divisions put together but I think we may be the winners.  THANK YOU THANK YOU to all of you for your amazing generosity!!

We are wrapping up our PATTERNING & SORTING unit in Math. We did a little bit of Math work in between our Art project.

Friday's COOKING GROUP made delicious minestrone soup and then the students got to eat it Friday afternoon.  What a great afterschool snack! Thank you to Mindy & Diantha for doing it this Friday.

I heard the CHRISTMAS MARKET was a huge success on Saturday.  There are still some goodies being sold in the office.  I just bought some tea today...I couldn't resist the turkish one.  Thank you to all the wonderful parents for organizing this fundraiser!  I will miss Anja's amazing announcements with "Merry ALMOST Christmas"-she definitely has a gift for this kind of thing!

I won't be here tomorrow...there'll be a guest teacher.  The children know this already.  I hope they enjoy their day with the substitute teacher.

That's all for now,
Ebru Montagano

Montaganews---Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012

Wow! 3 weeks since I wrote my blog.  I feel I should say a few words about the last time I was teaching Div. 10. That week (Nov. 13) it was my son Anthony's turn to come in to class.  He loved being here and was a great help. I think some of the boys enjoyed having him around too as he interacted a bit more than Olivia.  I have to admit, it was nice being in here today with only my teacher hat on instead of both teacher & mommy hats.

Last week was fun...thank you for releasing me to make another class' transition between two teachers smoother.  I appreciated all the love I received seeing everyone every day and the best thing was sitting next to my sweet partner at recess and lunch, like the good ol' days.  She shared great recipes with me too as we shared lunches.  I love my Tuesdays here and being here everyday last week reminded me that...and I'll quote Mr. Hodgson from Friday's assembly here.... BAYVIEW RULES!

Today in our wonderful Room 209, we:
-talked about PERSEVERANCE.  A book called Doggie in the Window demonstrated the meaning of this big word.  Some of the kids already knew what it meant. It was a really feel good discussion.They said things like:
       - it's when you keep trying
       - it's when even when it is hard, you just don't give up

-MATH-now that we've been using manipulatives to sort & pattern and done some worksheets on it, we officially defined the words"pattern" and "sorting" today.  We are nearing the end of this unit.  Encourage your child to do some simple patterns ( ie. ab ab) and some harder ones (abba abba abba or aba aba aba).  Teaching grade 6 math last week made me realize how important recognizing patterns is.....they are everywhere in math and we often don't realize it.  I thought it was cute when I made that connection for those grade 6 s....I liked reminding them about how they use the stuff ms Taylor and I taught them in grade 1 & 2 now!-READER'S THEATRE-our 2nd group performed the story: The Ant & The Caterpillar.  It's a great story about preparing today what you will need for tomorrow and work first, play after.  Thomas, Serena, Julia, Bilal, Nils, Macy, Gavin and Ella (sub for Annie) did a fabulous job reading and using their voice to act.  Ms. Jung's class, Ms. Y were our first audience and our second performance was for our big buddies in Mr. A's class in the afternoon.  Both audiences loved us & applauded lots and lots. :)  

-JOURNALS--they wrote about perseverance OR their weekend OR both OR something else.  This is their personal writing time...as opposed to creative writing. I noticed how well the Grade 1s are sounding out.-COMPUTERS with Mr. A--they got to have their favourite time of the day.*Camp Read-A-Lot was tonight. I took my kids and we enjoyed the experience. It was sweet seeing many of our students. What a wonderful event Ms. Yamashita puts on!  I'm all for any excuse to promote reading....and this one got our home reading done for the night in an extraordinary way! YEY! Next year, I must remember to bring a flashlight. Until next Tuesday...stay warm...Ebru Montagano

Good sunny Sunday!!!
What a pleasure it is to look out my back window and see the white snow on Grouse Mountain with a blue sky back ground.It looks unbelievable!! I hope everyone has had an opportunity to get outside in this glorious weather!!!

So this last week we have been busy on our birds and our classroom   has now transformed from a pumpkinny classroom to a classroom full of bird information and bird paintings. I love when we switch themes and love how all the children embrace what we are doing by bringing bird things to our display table. We have had a great time so far learning about the parts of the bird, what makes a bird a bird, watching a Discovery Video about birds and then doing a true or false on it, singing an Ugly Duckling song and then doing some reflecting and writing about ugly duckling's feelings and how we have even had feelings that were similar to an ugly ducklings, learning about Paul Klee's famous art called the Cat and the Bird and finally ending our week with Emma doing a presentation on Hummingbirds. I will have photos attached of some of the exciting things we have been doing, but please feel free to come in and take a look at it up close and personal!!

Important information:
1. Danceathon pledges are overdue. Please if you are sending in, do so now.

2.There is a list attached to our Christmas hamper donation box, highlighting the families’ needs & wishes.  Please make a note on this form, detailing the item(s) donated so that you can see what has already been given.   This will help minimize duplicates, and would allow families who have not yet made a donation see which family member could use a little more attention. Thank you for participating in this special program…the Christmas Hampers are gratefully received by the families, and are selected by staff & community workers at Hastings Elementary.

Thank you!

Andrea (Henry's Mom)

3.Exciting news.....Ms. Jung and I have booked a presentation called OWLS for Monday December 10th from the Northwest Wildlife Preservation Society. They will be coming to our class to talk about: a) owl myths, facts and adaptations, b) owls of B.C. c) owl characteristics, behaviours, diet and habitat d) threats to the owl. To help cover the cost of the presentation each student is asked to bring in $4. Please bring in the money by  next Monday December 3rd. This presentation will support our current science unit on Birds.

4. Reminder that this Friday November 30th is a Professional Day. The staff will be learning about Project Chef.

5. Our class along with Mr.A' s class is making some cute little crafts for the Xmas Market. To help us out with our activity I am looking for those gloves that you have that are lying around the house with no partner...those small gloves (I think they are called magic gloves)...I essentially need only the fingers off of them...i need a total of about 15 gloves...not pairs, or about 8 pairs. They will be the hats on the snowman's head. So if you have any or wish to buy us some, we would appreciate it very much!

I think that is it for now.

Enjoy the pictures and I will see everyone tomorrow

Teri

Emma giving her presentation on the Hummingbird.

the little bird art project is a colour wheel of birds where the children were asked to first paint in the primary colours of birds and then mixing the primary colours to get the secondary colours...aren't they "tweet????

What makes a bird a bird??? Feathers, hollow bones, and laying hard shelled eggs makes a bird a bird!

Hi parents,
I hope everyone had a great weekend and are ready and rested for the upcoming week. I will be teaching all week (even on Tuesday) as Mrs. Montagano has agreed to do one week for Mrs. Applebee as Mrs. A has gone off on her maternity leave as of Friday. We will miss Mrs. Apple bee and wish her the best of luck. I look forward to seeing Mrs. Montagano on a daily basis, as I usually do not get that privilege at all!!

First off, what a wonderful danceathon we had on Friday. The children boogied to the waka waka, the YMCA(Macy mispelled you know) and other amazing dances. They were all sweaty and hot and very much enjoyed their popsicles after the dance. So, for those of you who haven't handed in your Danceathon pledges, it is time to collect them and get them into the school. Our goal is to raise $6000.00 ( or even more) to put towards Project Chef.

Secondly, on Thursday there was information sent home about our Holiday Hampers (Love Boxes) for families from Hastings Elementary. Our family is a small one...a single father with a little seven year old boy. Contributions to make their holiday better can be sent starting tomorrow. They will be picking up the hampers on December 11th, so December 10th will be the last day for sending items in. If you are sending a gift card or a gift certificate, please give it directly to one of the teachers or Ebony so we can hold on to it so it doesn't get lost or misplaced. Also it is suggested that one needn't wrap the gifts, but if you wish to send gift bags of wrapping paper they would greatfully accept it.

Looking back at our week:
1. We had Catriona come in and we looked at worms. We have now started our own little worm home, they are sleeping and doing their "thing" outside in the hallway. We don't need to feed them till the beginning of December due to the generous amounts of lettuce that the children fed them with already. We are going to see how much compost our little red wigglers can make for our spring planting. I will be attaching pictures so you can see some of our little friends.

2. A big thank you to our UBC student nurses who came in and talked to the children. They did an amazing job on teaching the children how to wash their hands and how long they should wash their hands for. Hopefully this will help us keep the cold germ away. Ask your child to show you how to properly wash your hands. 

Next week:
1. Spelling on Monday...test on Friday. Letter I will be the focus for the grade ones.
2. On Tuesday we will talk about the Parts of the bird (of all birds). and what those parts do.
3. On Wednesday and Thursday we will have math...the grade ones are learning and practicing their beginning addition and subtraction skills.
4. On Thursday we will also be going to the library to use the computers to watch and play a little game about Hugo....an Oliver Jeffers book (the australian/irish author that we have been studying)
5. On Friday...cooking for one of the grade two groups....and some bird art in the afternoon.

And a whole lot more!
I hope everyone stays healthy...see you on Monday!!
Teri

Our Ubc student nurses reading a great story about this little girl who spreads germs throughout a zoo.

Good Morning Everyone,
I hope everyone has enjoyed their extra day off and will enjoy today as well.
Today I want to talk about our Remembrance Day Assembly. For those of you who could not make it you would have been so impressed by the beauty of the assembly, the wonderful voices of the children, the amazing poppy procession that our group along with Ms. Jung's participated in. It truly was an assembly that showed the true spirit and essence of our school. Everyone from the kindergarten children (awwww) to the grade 's took part in the assembly. The gym was decorated with artwork from all the classes and all the children were so respectful and well behaved. If you want to see the assembly talk to Kathy (Jackson's mom from Ms. Jung's class) as she videotaped the entire assembly and she may be able to send you a clip.(I am not sure how she does it).

Throughout the week the children had been working and talking about peace and what Remembrance Day is all about. They worked very hard on some wonderful writing and some beautiful artwork to commemorate this special day. I will be posting some pictures of their work for you to see.

Enjoy the pictures and I will see you on Wednesday (after Ms. Montagano's day on Tuesday).
Hope the sun shines a little for all of us today!

The children listening to the morning message right before we were off to Ms. Jung's class to learn our Poppy Procession.

Cheers,

Teri

we used watercolour crayons to create this artwork.

To create the background the children used chalk pastels and then when they achieved the colour that they liked they used sharpie to draw in their poppies and watercolour paint to paint in their poppies.

After our writing the children used chalk pastel on black paper to get this beautiful effect.

Montaganews--Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2012

Today was a special day.  It was a special day because Olivia, my daughter, came to work with me.  Tomorrow is technically "take your kid to work day" for the high schools and so I figured hey...for me, it can be today, even if my kid doesn't go to high school.  Perks of the job I guess....

Today we:
-started our new Reader's Theatre play: The Ant & the Grasshopper.  Thomas, Serena, Gavin, Macy, Annie, Nils, Julia are in this one.
-talked about sharing as part of our FRIENDSHIP unit.  We also watched a Todd Parr video on friendship.
-learned about SORTING in Math.  We used a great book I have and in there they use socks to teach about the 'sorting rule'.  Now that I've done this lesson, feel free to ask them to sort the laundry for you. Tell them it's their Math homework. (You are welcome!)
-wrote in journals
-made a birthday card for Bilal. Happy Birthday Bilal!
-did Dance Mat typing during computer time with Mr. A. 

Don't forget the fabulous fieldtrip to VAN DUSEN Gardens TOMORROW!  Send your child to school dressed for rain AND with booster seat.  See Ms. Taylor's last post for further details.

HAVE FUN!  I want to come tomorrow too.....

See you next Tuesday, after a loooonnnnggg 4 day weekend.

Ebru Montagano

Hi Parents,
What a lovely day it was today...the sun was shining and so were the children's smiling faces!
What a little bit of sunshine after a particularly wet weekend will do to us!!
Halloween has come and gone so thank you for supporting the no more treats coming to school rule. The children all seem to be bringing their healthy food and all seem to be eating up everything during our lunch time. Thank you to the lunch moms who support the children with opening thermoses, overseeing that they do indeed eat their main food and then get out as quickly as they can to get some fresh air. We couldn't do it without you!!

We have been working on our Remembrance Day writing and art on Friday and today. The children have written some wonderful pieces on what peace looks like to them (Fridays project) and what they could do to make the world a better place. They really put some thought behind what they wrote. Hopefully you will get a chance to come into the classroom and read their wonderful words. Their peaceful writing and chalk poppy art will be put up in the gym for our Remembrance Day assembly.

Starting this Thursday we will no longer be working on pumpkins or Remembrance Day but we will be starting our unit on Birds and then more specifically Owls. We will be writing (like we always do) what we already know about birds and what we may wonder. I love this unit and have soooo many ideas, both for writing and for art! If you have any stories (fiction) on birds, we would love for you to send it in so we can share it with the children.

With that, just two very important pieces of information for the rest of this week.

1. Our field trip to Van Dusen gardens is this Wednesday. WE will be going rain or shine ( I am hoping for sun). Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to drive. It is very important that your child dresses appropriately for this outing. I am encouraging them to wear rain boots even if it is sunny as the areas we may visit may still be muddy. Please send jackets with hoods, no umbrellas for the outing, as they just get in the way when we are touring with our docents. Finally all children must bring their own car seats. Please remember this as we may not have any extras in the school. We are eating our lunch early, around 1120 and then we will be leaving the school around 1145. We should be back at the school by 245. Keep your fingers crossed for sunshine.

2. On Thursday will be our Remembrance Day Assembly. As in the past many years our class along with Ms. Jung's class will be involved in doing the Poppy Procession. For this occasion we are asking that the children are dressed in black, red and white (a combination or all one colour) and that they are reminded that this is a somber assembly and that we are expecting "stellar" behaviour! All parents, and siblings are invited to this assembly which will be at 1100 in the gym.

Finally there will be no school Friday, it is Vancouver's district day. There is no school on Monday as it is the stat holiday for Remembrance Day.

Have a great week and I will see everyone on Wednesday!
Cheers,
Teri

Montaganews--Tuesday, Oct. 30...

....the day before Hallowe'en was surprisingly fabulous here in Room 209! We really worked hard today and the mood in the air was absolutely wonderful.  Today the students really showed me that they are here to work first and then play....and it's not even November yet!  But it's true....they showed me an important student skill today: understanding that when they start a piece of work, they need to remember to finish it, that day or the next day, doesn't matter when, but it needs to be done and not forgotten...because the teacher will never forget.  I call this "owning my own learning". 

So, today:

-Naomi, Will, Henry, Lauren, Kaia performed our first Reader's Theatre, "The Teeny Tiny Woman" to the class.  They did a great job reading with expression.  Ask them how it went....
-Grade 1s are bringing home "The Adventures of Jolly Ghost".  Please ask them to read it to you or read it together with them.
-Grade 2s are bringing home "What Am I?".  These turned our fabulous!  This work is the reason I dismissed them late today. My apologies.  I just wanted them all to have the opportunity to read theirs out before taking them home.
-finished off our pattern trains. 
-went to the library for our book exchange. Naomi, Will, Lauren, Henry & Kaia performed the "Teeny Tiny Woman" to Ms. Jung's class & our librarian Ms. Y.   Yey! They were fabulous again!
-had computer time with Mr. A
-made birthday cards for Henry.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY Henry! (on Friday)

Have a SAFE & HAPPY Hallowe'en!!!
Trick or Treat,
Ebru Montagano

Doing some Halloween Writing...can you guess who is your child by their clues??

Happy Sunday everyone and soon it will be Happy Halloween...(thus the orange font).
This blog will be primarily about Wednesday, October 31st...so read carefully for details...the kids are soooooooo excited and have been getting exponentially more and more excited as each day passes, so you don't want to miss any of the important information that I am going to send you!!!

So this Wednesday the children, staff and even parents are invited to dress up in their Halloween costumes for the big day!!!
The morning will begin with a school parade that has been organized by Mr. Toczak and Mr. Hodson. Every class will parade in their costumes through the entire school one class at a time...that way they can show off their costumes as well as have an opportunity to check out some of the cool costumes. After the parade the children will have the opportunity to go to the gym where there is a movie being shown. Now this movie maybe scarey to some. It has been made by Mr. Hodson and it will include some of the kids and teachers from the school and apparently there are some scarey parts (Ms. Jung was scared!!). So, if you think your child will be scared and will not enjoy a scarey movie (now I havent seen it) then please let me know. Ms. Yamashita has offered to show a non-scarey Halloween movie in the library for those who don't think they want to watch the school movie. I will tell the children as well and give them a choice, but I would love your input as well.

On this Wednesday this will be NO off to a running start.

Just a note about costumes. I would like you to keep in mind that the children will be wearing their costumes all day so make sure they are comfortable as there will be math and other work where they will be sitting on the carpet. If you think that after the parade that their costume would not lend itself to being worn all day, please send another change of clothes along so that they can slip out of the costume. Also, if you or your child are worried about it getting wrecked before the big night....have a change of clothes handy as recess and lunch can be rough on costumes!!

One more thing about Halloween and the fun treats that you will be certainly collecting. I will need your help and support on this one. We talk all the time about healthy and unhealthy foods. In fact Mrs. Montagano may be doing a four food group unit before the end of the year. Even though we all LOVE (me too) treats, they are not foods that keep our bodies sustained positively throughout the day and I have found that when the children bring their candy and chocolates to school there is definitely an increase in their hyperactivity and lack of attention. So, for the two days after Halloween the children are allowed to bring a treat, but after that I am asking that you keep their treats at home and dole them out after dinner. Thank you for your support on this one!!!

The pictures I am attaching are of all the pumpkin activities that we have been doing. We have been busy pumpkin scientists!
Thank you for your support.

PS. We will be having a small halloween party from 200 till 300 after Math. We will eat some popcorn, maybe play some bingo games, have some free play and then be dismissed.

Talking about fall!

Montaganews---Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012

There was excitement in the air today! The students seemed to have lots to tell each other and be excited about....mmmm....is it because it's almost October 31st?...I'm not sure.  But in any case, we made it through the day and got some work done too.

The most exciting part of the day was at 11 o'clock.  This was when Ms. Y, our fearless librarian, announced over the p.a. that we should D.E.A.R for 20 minutes!!...let me translate: Drop Everything And Read. She encouraged us to do this because it was national D.E.A.R day yesterday and since she isn't here on Mondays, she wanted to do this with us today.  She made the teachers and staff D.E.A.R too so it was really something else. Maybe you should try D.E.A.Ring at home, especially when you need 20 minutes of absolute quiet time to simply...read...read anything, even the newspaper.

The other notable part of today was starting our puzzle pieces.  I talked to them about how each student in this class is like a puzzle piece and when we put the pieces together we make up the wonderful class of Division 10.  I use this metaphor to illustrate how we need to take care of each other during our learning journeys and playing time, inside these walls and outside on the playground too. 

That's all from me today....
See you next Tuesday, have a great rest of the week.
Ebru Montagano

Good Early Morning Parents!!!
The rain is pounding down and the family is sleeping, even the cats, and like always the early morning bird is up!
I hope everyone had a great longer weekend and did something special on their Professional Day. I unfortunately had to postpone my art course at the 4 cats due to the fact that my daughter Abby severely sprained and possibly broke her ankle. Thus we were at clinics xraying her ankle and getting supplies to help ease her pain. Awww.....it was a climbing injury. So, 4 cats was great at allowing me to change my art course to several Tuesday evening lessons beginning in early November. So when I start learning some new techniques there, I will be sharing them with your sweet ones!

Thank you to everyone who came out and spent time with Mrs. Montagano and myself during our intake conferences. I loved having the opportunity to talk to you about your child, listening to you and hopefully being able to help set up some strategies for ongoing success with them. As I said during the meetings, our door is always open, feel free to drop by anytime to discuss concerns and issues.

This past week we started our unit on pumpkins. We started with our standard....what do I already know about.....I typically start this way with all of my science units to show the children how very clever they are. That they know so much already about things and that by the end, they will know even more. This is called learning!!! We also looked at how a pumpkin grows and started a project of putting it together that we just didn't quite finish up on Thursday. You will see it completed on Monday and then hanging in our classrooms. They are looking very amazing already.

In the library we have been working with Ms. Yamashita on a author study. Our author was born in Australia (like Kaia) and was raised in Belfast (like Lola) and his name is Oliver Jeffers. He is an author and illustrator of the cleverly written book.....The Boy who loved Books and many other wonderful stories. Ask your child about him.

Next week we will continue to work on pumpkins and I could use a hand if it is possible. On Thursday afternoon from 130 till 230 we will be looking at all aspects of the pumpkin, measuring it, checking to see if it floats or sinks, cutting it open and counting the seeds etc. For this I would like one parent per table group....so if I could get four or five volunteers I would very much appreciate it. Let me know if you can join us for an hour this Thursday afternoon.

With that stay dry, enjoy your Sunday and I will see you on Monday. If it is raining note that Off to a Running Start may be cancelled and it would be important to bring indoor shoes to school.
Cheers,
Teri

Hi Parents,
You will likely get two blog notices today as Ms. Montagano who is so organized will likely be sending hers off today too...she does have parent teacher interviews, so I may beat her to the draw!!!

I have enjoyed the few conversations that I have had already and look forward to meeting all the parents over the next few days.

This week will be a short week as we have a province wide professional day on Friday, October 19th. I will be attending some art workshop on the north shore and maybe one day your children will get to experience what I will be learning.

This week we have talked about Fall and what happens in the fall and as usual we have teamed that with a couple of beautiful art projects that will be adorning the hallways and inter sanctums of the classroom as well. Come in and take a look. This week will also be the start of our pumpkin unit. We will be learning about pumpkins, their life cycle, their uses etc. In all likely hood we will be focusing in on pumpkins more so than Halloween (which is already a very heightened time of excitement for children). Stay tuned for some great pumpkin projects and pumpkin writing.

What to remember:
1. Field trip notices need to be sent back before this Thursday so that I can start confirming details and organize parent volunteers. At this time a quick look shows me that we may be very short on drivers. So if you can drive and drop off and then pick up again...that would be very helpful.

2. The weekly spelling test is on Thursday this week as there is no school on Friday. The children have been doing very well!!!

3. Rainy weather=wet clothing. Please send appropriate outdoor wear. Please note that if they are wearing boots that I really need them to have shoes to change into as the carpet that they sit on can get very muddy if they are wearing their boots.

4. Continue to check for head lice as Ms. Jung's class has confirmed one case of headlice as well. 

Wonderful pictures of the grade ones cooking their applesauce muffins!
Thank you and have a great weekend,
Teri

one group taking a look at their seeds and filling in their recording sheets

Hello Parents,
Happy Belated Thanksgiving to everyone. Are you still eating the remains of the turkey like I am. I have had leftovers, made turkey soup and tonight the last of it has gone into my turkey pot pie....yum!!

We have been busy in the classroom these last couple of weeks.
We have had our guest gardener,Catriona  in twice already. Our first lesson was last Thursday where we took a look at how Seeds Travel. The children were challenged to look at a collection of seeds and sort them by their primary form of travel. The children enjoyed the hands on fun afternoon of curiousity and discovery. I was very impressed by their ability to take what they learned from Catriona and be able to look at seeds and see where they go. This Thursday (today) we had Catriona come in and talk about Mulching : the types of mulching and the reasons why we mulch. See if your child can remember why and what we use?? After the talk, Catriona worked with both grades. The grade two's harvested the basil and the grade ones planted the garlic. They were all very excited about their tasks. Tomorrow the grade two's will make some pesto sauce with all the basil that came in. I will be bringing in all the ingredients for us to make this aromatic pasta sauce. I am not sure when we will eat it...so i may freeze it and then we will consume at a later date. Meanwhile the grade ones will be doing their own cooking. They will be using the applesauce that they made a few weeks ago to make some cinnamony applesauce muffins...doesn't that sound great!!
Just so you know...besides the fun of cooking..there are so many elements of learning that take place during this time: sharing, taking turns, being safe and clean, measuring, and then watching the change (chemistry) and lastly the reading and the writing that takes place after the cooking has been done. The children are asked to do some writing about their recipe and what they are making. It is a fun way to learn. Thank you to my mamas who are helping out!!! We appreciate you.

This is Catriona doing her thing!

Important Information:
1. Spelling test tomorrow for the grade ones and twos. Grade twos have ten words and two bonus words. 
The grade ones will have six words tomorrow. The two they received on Wednesday plus the four they should be working on over the weeks.

2. Please return the VanDusen field trip forms. I am not charging anybody anything for the trip. It is thankyou to the PAC as they always give us a bit of money for field trips, so I thought we would use it now. The only thing i need is permission from you as well as DRIVERS!!!

3. Our Parent Teacher conferences are next Monday, Tuesday, Wddnesday and Thursday. It is not for the children, only the parent and the teacher. Please make sure you are prompt as if you are late, your time will be shortened as we are keeping to the schedule..

4. Home Reading is very important so try to make time for at least 15-20 minutes a day of oral reading...they read to you out loud...even the grade two's should practice reading outloud. They should be working on their fluency, speed, stopping at periods etc. After reading, it is important that the child remember to bring their home reading back so that we can exchange it on a daily basis. The grade twos need to bring it back and forth as well as often we have volunteers or my self who like to listen to them read.

With that, 
Enjoy the rain??????
I hear it is on it's way!!!
Take Care,
Teri

Montaganews-Tuesday, Oct 9

Hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving long weekend in the warm sunshine! We ended our day much more relaxed today so I feel like I accomplished my goal from last week....

Today we:

-talked more about friendship.  Today we got into talking about how to make a friend.  I was blown away with their 'recipes' on how to make a friend.  You should try asking them to tell you their recipe tonight if you have the chance...they are so perceptive!  We also talked about what to do when you & a friend can't decide on what to do (conflict resolution). We used my favourite story, Ladybug Girl & Bumblebee Boy to springboard into this discussion.  If you have a chance check out all the Ladybug Girl books-they're fabulous!  Also, here's the official Ladybug Girl website.  There are a few 'games' your child might enjoy playing on the computer. http://www.ladybuggirl.com/index.html

-'lassooed the core of a pattern' in math.  Ask your child to tell you what this means.  Hint: we used pipe cleaners...

-went to the library for our book exchange time.  The students went crazy over the ants invading the tree!  Our librarian, a.k.a "Super Y" is truly amazing!  Students are encouraged to memorize their student number which is also their library card number.  If you want me to tell you what your child's student number is so you can help them memorize it, send me a little note in the book bag and I'll write it on a sticky note for you.

-had computers time with Mr. A

-wrote in journals...mostly about Thanksgiving long weekend.

-had free time.

Have a great rest of the short week....

Ebru Montagano

Montaganews--Tuesday, October 2, 2012

We had another fabulous day in Room 209.  The students are settling in so nicely and are truly a lovely bunch.  Tuesdays seem to be jam packed with learning & fun and so I'm finding it difficult to let them go at 3 o'clock! My goal is to improve on this as I know you need them back :)

Today we:

-started the day with a quick little reader's theatre performance by Thomas & Will. They read the "I Like" story from the You'll Read to Me, I'll Read to You book.  It's a great book to read with a partner because there is a line to read in a different colour for each person.  I love anything that promotes reading!  Each student will get to do a reader's theatre performance this year. If you'd like to know more about reader's theatre, check this link out: http://www.aaronshep.com/rt/whatis.html

-talked about FRIENDSHIP...what does it mean to be a friend?...what is a friend?   We read one of the Frog & Toad stories called "Garden" to kickstart our discussion. You'd be so touched by their definitions.

-made up more patterns. This time, AB patterns and ABB and ABC and ABBA, and the tricky ABA, etc.  We clapped our patterns, used colours, used unifix cubes and then made pattern trains on paper with crayons.

-went to the library for our weekly book exchange time.  *Please remember to send the library books back for Tuesdays. 

-had computers time with Mr. A's substitute teacher.

-read a story chosen by birthday boy Lucas and made his card. Happy Birthday Lucas!

-wrote in journals. 

I'll be here Friday afternoon...see you then!

Ebru

Hello parents,
I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful sunshine that we are having. What a lovely way to end September. Did you know that we made history for the warmest (dryest) September? I think with such a wet spring, that we were deserving of such beauty!

First off I want to thank all the parents who were able to come to the open house and for those who couldn't, i missed you! It was nice to touch base with some of the dads that don't get the opportunity to pop in as often as the mamas do. I hope you had opportunity to read my overview...which didn't really tell you much more than the blog has been doing, but now you have it in hard copy as well as the daily schedule to check out as a reminder.

Secondly I would like to congratulate the children on an amazing job during the Terry Fox Run. We did a mini warmup in the gym led by a former parent in our classroom, Lani, then we walked to the beach, did our 30 minute run, walked back and then had to say good bye to 14 of our cross country runners who then proceeded to do an amazing job at the cross country meet. What a busy, energetic day for our children.

In class we have been working hard on our apple unit. On Friday we talked about the seasonal life cycle of the apple tree, we did some writing and then some art really looking at how the apple tree changes at each season. We will do one more lesson on the apple/apple tree then move on to taking a look at pumpkins and the similarities that they have to the apple.

Next week we will be putting more of a focus into Thanksgiving as it is just around the corner. Can you believe how fast the month has flown by and now it is Thanksgiving???

On Thursday, Catriona, our partner from SPEC will be joining us to talk about travelling seeds and how nature affects how different seeds get planted. Catriona has worked with the kids in our class as well as Ms. Jung's class for the last 4-5 years and has done an amazing job of introducing our children to the life of a gardener. Over the year we will do many lessons with Catriona about gardening and what is involved with being a gardener. We will be planting crops at the church across the street and then harvesting our crops when they become available. For the past five years it has been free, but as costs of gardening supplies and Catriona's time have become more costly, we are being charged 5 dollars per child to make this program viable. Because I think this is such an amazing program I will be covering the cost out of our classroom fund that we have been given by the PAC......so thank you PAC.

With that, I have a few pictures of some of our activities that we have done. Unfortunately I had forgotten to take the camera to the park so these are just a few photos of our work.
See everyone tomorrow,
Enjoy your last evening together,
cheers,

teri