Happy Chinese New Years (Gung Hay Fat Choy)
Happy Groundhog Day (the american puxatawney and the canadian whiarton, both saw their shadows...six more weeks of winter)
Happy First day of February (can you even believe that it is February)
and finally GO SEAHAWKS GO!!!!
Look at all the things going on just right now...not only is it busy on the February calendar for everyone...but it will be a busy month in our classroom as well.
We have worked hard at learning all about matter and our final experiment will take place on Monday where we will make a gas by introducing baking soda to vinegar...that is soo much fun. Last week Blake's dad (Gord)joined in the fun by helping us make ice cream. Did you know that making ice cream in a bag takes a very very very long time and boy were the children patient with squeezing and squishing their bags. Many took them home and put them into the freezer and told me later that it tasted DELICIOUS. Thank you to Gord for helping clean up all the salt, water and cream spillages.
We will be starting our Penguin unit next week and the children are very excited about this. We will look at a variety of penguins, where they live, how they are different from bats.....as they are birds, their habitats, enemies etc. It is a fantastic unit. I know that right now Ben is so excited, he cant contain himself!!! Very cute! If the children would like to bring in any books or items to share and add to our penguin table that would be great!
In math the grade ones are working on adding and subtracting to ten. They are learning some simple strategies like plussing and minusing zero and one, without using their fingers. They are working on remembering to look at the symbols when they are doing their math, so they do not do silly mistakes. We do a lot of games, hands on activities and then workbooks. With the grade twos we are excitedly working on our double digit adding without regrouping. This week we will start on our double digit subtracting without regrouping. To help them do their math quickly we are also learning many strategies to get us to the next level, so far the following strategies have been taught: zeros, plus and minus one, counting on, plus ten, plus nine...ask them about the plus nine strategy and continue practicing these strategies at home.
We are almost finished our platter that will be auctioned off at the Under the Sea gala at the end of February. It is a very enjoyable time where there will be many things to bid on, as well as our beautiful platter that all the children have drawn and painted. I think ours is one of the nicest platter...i know, i am very prejudice!! But it is always very beautiful. I hope that you are going to the gala, as i would love to see you there!
Coming up this week:
1. This Thursday afternoon a rock trio from the Yukon, called Speed Control will be singing and rocking it out in a Rags to Rawke, showing and singing songs from way back to now. It should be a great event if you would like to join us.
2.This Friday (time to be established..maybe in lieu of our assembly) we will be hosting a first nations storyteller called Wes Nahanee who will tell stories and entertain us with messages from his culture. He is a story teller who uses humour and laughter as a tool for healing. You are also more than welcome to join us on Friday as well.
Finally:
Thank you time:
1. To Patrick for coming in on Thursday afternoon and talking about fire safety and what to do if you were on fire, if your house was on fire and different aspects of his job. The children were very excited to see what Patrick has to wear when he goes out on the job.
2. To Ben's family for donating some money for me to go shopping for some home reading books at the early novel stages. I was able to add some really good literature to our early novel readers.
3. To my lunch moms and dads for coming in and keeping our children nourished and making sure they eat! Its' not always easy.
4. To my cooking moms, thank you, we are eating some delicious things in class and the children love going. They cant wait till it's their Friday.
And with that, have a great Sunday.
I hope you are getting out there and enjoying the sunshine.
See you on Monday.
Teri
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