Good Morning Parents and children,
Its another beautiful morning here in Vancouver. I hope everyone is enjoying their days in the beautiful sunshine! I hope everyone has had an opportunity to go to our newly cleaned Jericho Beach!
All the primary grades spent their morning cleaning the beaches and as of Thursday they were pristine. We are hoping that they will continue to be this way. We started our morning with a great talk from Jill, a parent at Bayview as well as the organizer for keeping our beaches and streams clean.She talked about the sea creatures who are affected by the floating debris especially the six pack plastic holders. The children were very concerned about this. What we did find on the beaches was not so many of the plastic holders, but a lot of cigarette butts. Our group alone collected around 120 cigarette butts and I think the other groups did as well. Thank you to all the children and all the parents who helped make this experience so valuable.

In class we have started our Insect unit. We have talked about what we already know about insects ( a ton!!), the anatomy of an insect, the differences between insects and spiders (we did a venn diagram), and this last week we focussed on a very important insect...the bee! We spent a few days talking about the bees anatomy...we were all surprised that only the female bee has a stinger, not the males..hmmm. We drew pictures of bees, painted bees and wrote facts about bees...we ended our friday with making stuffed pastel drawings of bees (you should have seen the creative classroom...chalk everywhere!!!) We also tried some old german honey cookies that the grade ones made in cooking. So, we have been busy. Next week...we will look at ants!!

Have you noticed another young lady in our class?
Elena is our student teacher from Lichtenstein (sp?). This next week is her last week and we will miss her. She has been a wonderful addition to our class!! This week she will have an opportunity to talk about Lichtenstein and Switzerland, she will also do an art project with them. If you have the chance to come and say hi do!

Important notices:
1.We have a field trip coming up this Thursday to the Pacific Spirit Park. The notices went home last Thursday and are due in on Monday. At this point we have a little more than half in and are desperate for drivers. The field trip is only viable if we can get drivers to get us there and back. Thus far, I have drivers for about 15 children....so if you think you can drive, please please let me know. We will leave around 910 and be arriving back at the school around 1130.
This field trip is a chance for the children to look for slugs, bugs and other insects and learn about forest etiquette. It is a wonderful field trip. Please talk to your child about behavioural expectations prior to the field trip! The forest will be our classroom on this day so appropriate listening and manners will be expected as well.

2.This Thursday afternoon will also be baby Dahlia's last baby visit. I am not sure if it is officially her birthday, but it is close...and so we will be celebrating her first year of life on this day. Kaycie will be making cupcakes and we will be having a small birthday party for Dahlia on this day. The kids are pretty excited!! Dahlia has gotten so big and so interactive. It has been a joy to do this amazing Roots of Empathy program!

With that,
I hope everything is going well with everyone.
Enjoy the pictures.
Teri

working on our bees!

gracie, my niece joins gaby for some free play

cooperative play after our art

our cleaning crew!

You can see that Samara got right into her art!!

Boys group....look at how much garbage!

Angela takes on a group.

Over One hundred cigarette butts for our group!! YUK

Good Morning and HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!
I am wishing all you mamas out there a wonderful Mother's Day. The children were sooo excited about their beautiful cards that they made and wrote for you...some of their words brought tears to my heart!!!!! They were also excited about their magnets...their queen of their hearts pictures...they had so many stories to share about their wondeful mamas...we could have done activities allll day on you!!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful day today! If you havent seen yourself as a Queen of their heart yet...come into our hallway and you will see yourself (mamas) immortalized in paint, with some beautiful acrostic poetry to read as well. 

We had a very busy week this last week:

1) High Tech High Touch came in and talked to us about Newton's Laws (very high level of thinking). Then the children proceeded to test out all of his Laws. I have pictures at the end for you to look at.

2) We also had our baby visit. Dahlia and Ebony came in. Dahlia is just getting cuter and cuter...we all just want to coo and play with her when she comes in. She is really crawling now and interactive with the toys and the children.

3) We had our big Earthquake Drill. The children were fantastic. We stopped, dropped and covered when we heard the rumbling and then when it stopped rumbling we counted to 60 then went outside and waited for 30 minutes to hear that we were good to go back inside. The children were quiet and listened carefully to instructions as we left. I was very proud of their behaviour and their attitudes.

4) On Friday we had our wellness run. The children were fantastic. Thank you to the parents, nannies, who walked with us to the beach and who stayed and helped with supervising them. I left the school with 22 and returned with 22...that was my goal. Kudos to Tiago, Matthew and Oliver who were the top three in our class for running! All the children did very well and after the run partook in some snacks of bananas, juice, water and granola bars. They really seemed to understand that exercise will not only help you have a fit body but a fit mind! Thank you to Brennan who organized this run!

This week:
This week will be our week of Sports Day activities.
We will be doing many activities around good sportsmanship int he form of reading, writing and art. This Friday the children will be participating in many fun sporting activities. I will be dividing them into colour groups on Monday so they will have a week to find a t-shirt that will match their team colour. Anyone is welcome to come and hang out with us. The more cheerleaders the merrier! I am hoping for a non-rainy day!! If you are not going to be here on Friday, please let me know. Also, if your child is wanting to order a hotdog....Monday is the last day. If your child wants to throw a pie at a teacher, the proceeds go towards the Children's Hospital. Minimum of five dollars donation per pie!!

With that, enjoy each other. Hug lots and snuggle more..they grow up fast!
Take care,
Teri

Read those laws...that's what we learned at our Workshop!

dahlia and mama

Baby Dahlia!

our running team!!!!

Look at the crowd...the entire school was here!!!

Good Morning Everyone!
I hope everyone had a great weekend and is off and running and energied for another great week ahead!
I would like to welcome our new volunteer to our class...her name is Michelle Jung. She is Ms. Jung's niece and is now volunteering on Monday mornings. She is an amazing volunteer who in just a few short hours got to know all the children's names. She is wonderful like her aunt...teahcing runs through their veins, as Michelle's mom is also a teacher. Hopefully I will remember to take a picture of her so you can see who your child is talking about! This week our work will be mostly about you (moms'), a very special person in our lives. We will read about how mama's our wonderful, write about them, draw them and create for them. I hope they will be coming home daily with hugs and kisses of love for you, because when we talk ..boy do they have some wonderful things to share!!! With that, some important bits of information for you read on for!! Have ag reat day!!

1. Our High Tech High Touch workshop is on Wednesday. If you have not yet sent your $9. please do so. Thank you.

2. Gymnastics continues...our classes are on Mondays, Thursdays and Friday. Please wear appropriate footwear and clothing. Off to a running start is on Tuesday's and Thursdays, please meet downstairs on these two days.

3. We have a Baby Dahlia visit this Wednesday...she is soooo cute and is moving so much...she is crawling and really wants to walk. She seems to love coming in and checking out all her new friends.

4. This Thursday, May 7th is our School wide Big One...our entire school will have a an Earthquake Drill...the entire school will be participating in a safe evacuation with simulated points of closure. We will work at evacuating the school in a safe and timely manner. Then the safety squad (a team of teachers, admin and janitorial staff) will go through the school to do their safety checks. This Big One will take a minimum of thirty minutes. We will be sitting in the field, rain or shine, while the safety checks take place. The children will be allowed to take their back packs and their jackets with them. So, this is what we are asking...make sure your child is dressed appropriately, in the events that it is raining...good rain gear. Also, as it is a fairly long wait, we are inviting you to help them pack one or two small items in their backpack that they can pull out to play with....no electronics please. In past children have brought a book that they can read, or felt pens and a notebook or colouring book...hockey/pokemon cards, crossword or puzzle books...something that will entertain them in their small confined space. Just remember this must all fit into their pack...no extra bags please.

5. Sports Day is May 15th. IF you are not going to be there, going on a holiday that takes you away earlier let me know as it will help me in planning the teams. There was a hotdog order form sent home for you...if you are interested in having a hotdog lunch prepared for your child on our day of sport.

With that...I think I have said it all!!!!
Hope everyone has a great week!
teri

exploring magnets