Good Morning Parents and children,
Are you enjoying the beautiful sunshine?? The rain that fell last night must have cleared the sky of all that spooky fog and brought us some lovely blue skies. I for one, after writing this blog, will be going for a nice long walk on the seawall. Its so lovely to not have to colour in a square of our calendar in green...for pea soup fog!!

So we have had a great last week.
Our week started off with a visit from Elaine a nutritionalist who is sponsored by Kins Market and Cobbs Breads to spread the word on Healthy living and Healthy eating. So on Monday morning Elaine came in and talked about eating all the colours of the rainbow. She talked about the nutrional values in many of the foods and told the children that the brighter and darker the colour of the fruit or vegetable, the better it would be for you. She showed the children and told the children how many of each of the food groups they should be getting and then after a lively and hearty discussion, the children all left with a sample of a mandarin orange and a beautiful slice of fruit bread. The children were very enthused and excited about the workshop and hopefully it will show by the enthusiasm that they will have in maybe helping select more darker fruits and vegies to consume at home!

This week we talked about Scarecrows. We read some scarecrow stories,then drew some scarecrows, which led us to writing about scarecrows. When we do writing activities we do lots of brainstorming first, and talking about what can we tell or say about what we are going to write about. After discussing it as a group, with each other, then drawing our scarecrows...we then begin the writing process. Brainstorming ideas really helps the children when they begin their own writing...stops the "I don't know what to write about" scenario. I hope you have an opportunity to take a look at their writing. They really are all coming along so amazingly. Some even wrote on the back of the paper. OnThursday we used Water Colour Liquids to create a close up shot of our Scarecrows. I put them up early Friday morning before my workshop (which was a science based workshop)....many great ideas to be used later in the year.

An issue that has been coming up this year has been lunches.
Some of the children are so hungry at recess that they consume all their lunch at that time and when lunch comes around, and they are hungry again, they don't have anything to eat. I have talked to some of the children and suggested that they try to eat a bigger brekky, only take one snack outside and /or to talk to their parents about packing a little bit extra for those hungry birds. They are growing. Ask your child if they are needing some extras in their lunch. Also a few have complained that what they are getting, they don't really like and will refuse to eat it. Please again talk to your child and maybe you can build their lunch together...let them help you so that there are no complaints...i appreciate the support.

Next week:
1. We will be studying pumpkins all week. I have purchased one pumpkin for each child (thank you to a donation made by a parent to do these little extras) and we will be drawing them, cutting them, exploring them and then finally painting them. This will be in lieu of many other scarier parts to Halloween....kids are just finally going to the washroom on their own...and I don't want to change that!
2. On Wednesday our super Y librarian has booked a presentation for the entire school which will start at 9:15 and will be help in the gym. The presenter is a rock and roll literacy expert by the name of Sigmund Brouwer. He will sing his way into our lives. He is a writer but he puts many things to music. The grade 6 and 7's saw him last year and apparently he is amazing. If you would like to come and see him, you are more than welcome to join us for the presentation.
3.On THursday, October 31st...halloween...there will be no off to a running start as we are inviting you to allow your child to dress up in a halloween outfit and join us once again in the gym for a Halloween Assembly. The children will have the opportunity to do a little parade of their outfits for the entire school.They will get to model as well as view all the other neat outfits that have been created. Please keep in mind that your child will have to be in their outfit all day long, so make sure it is comfortable. Also, please do not send any weapons or big things that might go with the costume that could get lost or broken or hurt someone else.
Thank you.

With that,
I hope you have a great day and enjoy the posted pictures.
Teri

Constable PatAllen, during our Pedestrian Safety talk

Hi Parents and Children,
Did I tell you how thankful I am for all the wonderful children that I am teaching this year.Thank you! Also a big thank you to all the parents who came and met with me for our Parent -Teacher conferences. It was so nice to see some dads as well as the moms for our chats. I loved telling you all about the successes that your child is achieving and I loved getting to know everyone. As I said to you all, we have an open door policy in our classroom, so anytime you would like to chat or come in to volunteer or visit, that door is always open. Feel free and welcome to come by. A continuing thank you to my lunch parents, the kids are eating and filling their bellies so that they have lots of energy for the afternoon, it is noticed. Thank you to my reading dad who comes in and listens to the children when he can. Thank you to my cooking mamas....we are making some wonderful things. And thank you for the continued donations to our classroom. We have filled three boxes for the Food Bank, just from our class alone. The boxes will be picked up at the end of this month, so if you haven't contributed and you still would like to, our boxes will still be available.

This week:
1. This Thursday we had The Great British Columbia Shake Out. This is an annual earthquake preparedness drill. We reviewed the basic rules of Drop and Cover and Count to 60. We were in the library when we had this drill, so we talked about how if there were to be an earthquake you would have to know what to do, wherever you were. We learned that the reason you count to 60 is that there might be aftershocks and you don't want to be going out of the school if there was still shaking going on. The children were calm, well behaved and took the drill seriously. You might want to discuss this further with your children.

2. This Friday morning we had Constable Pat Allen come in and talk to the children about Pedestrian Safety. The children were already pretty well informed, but the he did review the basic concepts of Stop, Look and Listen, before you cross the road. He also talked about the construction that will be occurring in the Bayview area very soon, and how they should be very careful while walking to school and leaving the school when this happens. Ask your child what they learned on this day.

3. The Grade 2's cooked some delicious Apple Brownies. The children were so excited to be sampling such delicious treats. We took some pictures of the cooks in action, so you will get to see the process, i forgot to take pictures of their big smiling faces as they ate these delicious and healthy apple brownies. I have extra recipes if you would like a copy (Angelina B. loved them so much that they took a copy and will be baking this weekend!)

4. We are continuing with our Todd Parr unit in the library and read the book, Peace, in the beautiful and funny Todd Parr style. Then we wrote about what we felt peace was like. Peace is reading a book with your mom, while snuggling in bed. We really encouraged the children not to use Peace is don't....., no negatives only positive images. I am holding onto them for now and will be putting them up in November for Rembrance Day.

5. The grade ones went and worked on the computers today while in the library and while the Grade 2's cooked. Computer will be scheduled till xmas on Fridays and in the library. They learned how to log on, find the Bayview website, and go on the starfall. Everyone just got to play and look at the starfall activities. They loved it!

6. In art we made owl windsocks to celebrate learning (based on the story Twoo Twit) and to celebrate Fall....they look very fally and will be hanging in the classroom on Monday!

7. If you walk past the office and even into the office you will see some beautiful fall leaves made by the buddy classes......they made Miss May very happy!!!

And with that ...enjoy your foggy filled day and each other and I will see everyone on Monday!!
Teri

Our beautiful Van Goghs!

Catriona helping the kids out

oliver and nicole work on their seed packages

Hi Parents and children and a happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone!
This blog would have gone out early this morning but as many of you might know already...but I worked today. Mrs. King had to go to Toronto so I was lucky to work today with the kids. Over the next few days I will hopefully have met with everyone for a parent teacher conversation. So far, I have really enjoyed chatting and getting to know all my new parents and revisiting with all my former parents. Thank you to everyone who has come in already and to those who I will see later on.

We have had a very busy last week with lots of fun and learning.
This week:
1. We worked with Mrs. Yamashita in the library and continued with our Todd Parr unit. We heard the story  The Thankful Book by Todd Parr and all did our own pages for a class book. We also watched some of his video clips on the Smart Board. I am very proud of how hard all the children are working on their drawings, their writing and their colouring. Very impressive.

2. We talked about being Thankful with our buddies and all created a patch that is exhibited outside of Mr. A's classroom. In fact all week we talked about being thankful...where i was thankful for having such a wonderful class, they seemed to all be very thankful for their wonderful families....I concur!

3. This week we had a visit from Catriona, our SPEC gardener. Did we have fun looking at seeds and making our own seed packets. We talked about seeds and how they all had a baby plant called an embryo growing inside of it, just waiting to be nurtured for planting in the gardens in the spring. All the children will be bringing home a seed packet next week. I will post many pictures of the fun that we had working on this activity. We certainly are lucky to have Catriona come in.

4. One of the grade one groups made chunky applesauce today which we tried. It definitely was delicious. So now all the grade ones have had an opportunity to make applesauce, which we will use later on in our cooking projects. So far almost everyone has paid their $15 for cooking, but we are still waiting for around five people to pay. Please send it in with your child if you haven't done so already.

5. We continue to have our spelling tests on Friday. The children have been so proud of their excellent marks on their tests. Keep practicing the words at home, it just gets easier and easier for them and it definitely helps them with their own reading and writing. You should see how independent they are getting to be!

So this week there was early dismissal today and there will also be an early dismissal at 200 tomorrow. During this time, you might want to visit the Scholastic Book Fair in the library. It will only be open again on Wednesday.

With that, I will see everyone again tomorrow and for the rest of the week.
Enjoy the pictures,
Teri

nick and samara work on their packages

free play

Good Morning Families,
Yes this is what I do on my days off. I blog to you! 
So to start off, I have to say how proud I am of all the boys and girls and how they are getting into their routines. They have been remembering to drop off their home reading in the morning, do their calendars and put them away and then begin the work that is on their desk until we get to the carpet. Yay!! Some of them are still requiring a little reminders to line up to pick up their items from their mail boxes to take home, which does include their home reading. So if you are not getting the home reading, that may be why...please help them remember.Also for parents who have children that go to daycare after, please encourage them not to pull out books and papers there as that is a great place for things to go missing!

This last week we:
1. Went to the library and talked about another Todd Parr book....called The Feel Good Book.Then we made our own Todd Parr inspired posters.They are beautiful and up inside the classroom.
2. We planted daffodils after talking about a daffodil and looking inside of a cut daffodil.We did some scientific sketches of the insides and learned how to label. Thankyou to Joanne (Simon's mom) who led a group of parents to help the kids plant these daffodils which will be beautiful in the spring.
3. We wrote about Fall and finished off some Fall pictures. The grade twos also read some facts about Fall to themselves, to each other and then had to do some writing about what they found interesting or what they have learned. All of this is in the hallway for your viewing pleasure.
4. One of the Grade one groups made applesauce ...thank you to Tania and Michelle ( who will be our grade one mom team leaders). WE all tried a little sample and it was very cinnamony...but very delicious.
5. We learned about Vincent Van Gogh and began our beautiful renditions of our Sunflowers...this is a work in progress and will be worked on all week. They are very beautiful.

 We did much more including: Math, spelling, phonics, reading and writing, socials, music....Do you see how busy we are on a weekly basis???

Reminders:
1. Cooking money due in....$15. for supplies for the year. Any money left over at the end of the year goes to a homemade pizza party.

This is a message from Mr.A
In the spirit of Thanksgiving Divisions 4 and 10 are collecting food to donate to the Vancouver Food Bank.  Every week the food bank helps feed up to 28000 people in our community.  Many of those people are children.  Please help your child participate in this worthwhile and important event by sending him/her to school with some non-perishable food (e.g. canned vegetables, pasta, peanut butter, etc.)  There will be a place to donate in every classroom.  Thank you!

AT this point the boxes have not arrived, so we are just collecting on the carpet where we sit.
Thank you for your support!

Thank you's to:
1. Blakes dad (Gord) who has been coming in to listen to the kids read. If you would like to do this, you will be welcommed as well.
2. A continuing thank you to the lunch parents...and the lunch parent volunteers. It really helps keep the children on track with the eating.
3. To Peter (Fletchers dad) for donating a camera to the classroom for our photography lessons for the grade 2's starting this Friday. Maybe later for the grade ones????

Finally,
Please remember to have shoes to change into if your child is wearing rubber boots to school.
It is very yucky outside and the boots tend to track more stuff in than shoes do.

matthew the student of the week last week.

Thank you for reading this and have a great rest of the week.

Macy...the student of the week this week!

Teri

Hello Parents,

It was great to start the day off with a run. Many of the children ran THREE laps around the school! They came back into class energized and ready for the day.

We are beginning to talk about nouns and where to find them in our writing. The students had fun coming up with persons, places and things. They too enjoyed correcting our new beloved doggy puppet (who we have to name) on where to find persons, places and things. He’s still learning and will need their support.

Patterns were continued in math. All students worked on pattern trains using the alphabet. Grade 1’s also worked in small groups finding the core of a pattern and predicting what terms continue that pattern. Grade 2’s worked on describing patterns in terms of changing shapes, sizes, colour and direction.

As a class we read and discussed what it means to make and be a friend. They shared ideas of inclusion, sharing, complimenting and the making of gifts to show affection. The students expressed their ideas in ‘talking bubbles’. These ideas were further reinforced as we went outside for a 20 minute breather. Students were frontloaded about the ideas of friendship first and then on their own or with some direction used these strategies for friendship making on the playground. It was a profound experience watching your children approach classmates they are not accustomed to playing with and tell them:

“I think you did a great job in your work today.”   (in reference to a worksheet a student was working on)
“Do you want to play with me?”
“There is room.”   (This was said when the tire swing was full but the students squished to make room for one more)

That is all for now.
See you next week.

Mrs. Jennifer King