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