Good Morning Parents,
I hope everyone is enjoying the festivities that are happening all around us. There is such an excitement in the air.
Well just a few more days of excitement at school to add to their enthusiasm. To keep this brief I will list what is happening every day next week and you can mark it on your calendar. I think there will be a lot of excited boys and girls and so I will be trying to keep it pretty calm!!!

Monday, December 18th:
9:00 am
Join us in the gym for off to a singing start, Karaoke style.
We will sing for about fifteen minutes and then head back to class.

Tuesday, December 19th:
9:00 Off to a singing start

Wednesday, December 20th:
NO off to a singing start as group three of our cooking groups will be making latkes for the rest of the class as part of our Hannukah Celebrations.

Thursday, December 21st:
Off to a singing start and then we will immediately walk into the lunchroom for our pancake breakfast and our little visit with Santa. The children are invited to bring a $3 dollar donation for the Covenant House (we watched a video on this at our last  assembly so the children should know where the money is going to). The children are also invited to wear their Pajamas on this day.

Friday, December 22nd:
Off to a singing start,
Assembly
1100-12 Desk clean up...please send your child with a plastic bag to clean up any surplus "treasures"
Afternoon from 1-245 Ms. Biorn is showing a video in the gym for all the children while the teachers cleanse the classrooms and get it all ready for the New Year.

I hope I haven't forgotten anything, I think that's the bulk of the main activities. I will be continuing with math, spelling and reading on a daily basis, so please send their home reading back every day. We will keep the classroom calm, even though the air around us is very exciting!!

Thank you sooo much for such a wonderful 2017. I am loving working with your children. They are such a joy to teach.
Thank you for sharing them with me!
Have a great day.
teri

Good Morning Everyone!
We had such a great time making gingerbread houses yesterday that I thought I would post all their pictures today. What a lovely group of children making and working hard on their little candy houses for the afternoon.Thank you to Emelia (Francesca's mom) and to Abby and Katie for volunteering their time to fill candy bowls, icing and for the clean up afterwards. The help was certainly appreciated!

I will send an update of next weeks activities later, but for now the pictures.
TEri

Good Morning Everyone,
Its blue skies on the north shore..so if you are stuck in the fog, you should come on over..it's beautiful over here!!
First off I want to thank everyone who came out to the Xmas market. It was great seeing so many of our class there enjoying all the wonderful things that were offered. Thank you to Amelia who spent a lot of time and energy setting it up...also to all the parents who supported her by volunteering at the various stations. And a sincere, heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported my starving artist  (Abby) who sewed and hand painted pencil bags, pouches. She felt the love and support from all of you. Thank you so much. If  you do need an artist to do anything for you, she is willing to sew, create, paint etc. Feel free to ask me for her email address if you need anything created.

Now for some important information:
1) Tomorrow, Monday the 11th, the children will be walking to the Outreach Centre to sing a few xmas carols to the seniors there. We will be joining Ms. Rossignols class to give the seniors some cheery songs. We will be leaving at 1100am to walk there and be back by noon. If the children have a festive hat to wear, that would be great! If not, that is fine. If you would like to walk with us and sing, feel free to come along.

2) I am in need of another lunch parent for Tuesdays. Ina, Max's mom can no longer do this day. If you are able to do the lunch supervision on this day, let me know. If not, that is not an problem as then the children will just eat in the lunchroom.  Email me if this day works for you.

3) Gingerbread house making will be this Friday, the 15th. For the activity we need a rinsed out and dried 250ml carton. It can be a cream, milk , juice etc...but it does have to be the small size as the other sizes simply do not work. If you have extras we would gratefully appreciate them. Please send them by Tuesday so we can create the structures.
The children are also being asked to bring a small bag of candies to share with the class. We are going to take the candy and dump it into a big bowl to share. Some possibilities include smarties, lifesavers, licorice bits, marshmellows, candy canes.....etc. I think you have the idea...hahaha..

3) This Friday at the assembly we will be performing our dance that we have been practicing with Lisa Sars, our dance Artist in Residence. For the dance, we are asking the children to come dressed in comfortable and colourful KID clothes...the dance is about a class of students being a little naughty...The children will be dancing in bare feet so do need to take off their shoes...and socks..so do not send your girls in leotards. You may have had a little sneak preview on Fresh Grade..it is very adorable.

Finally...
The deadline for donations for our love hamper is Monday morning at 900am. Thank you for your generosity and kindness. Your gifts of love will definitely bring a big smile to our family!!

Take care and have a great day and I will see you all tomorrow.
teri

Good Morning Everyone,
It has been a couple of weeks since I have touched base with everyone via our Blog. I hope everyone has been well...and I ask that because I wasnt well one day last week and had to take a sick day to recover. Mrs. Bailey who subbed for me that day said that our class was the best class she has ever subbed for as the children were so well behaved. They listened to her, they listened to each other, they worked hard and were very kind and respectful. So I was very proud of all of their hard work as you should be too.

We have been hard at work this last week learning about SPIDERS! I think after all the information that the children are gathering, they are starting to think maybe spiders aren't so bad. The children have been learning about the parts of the spider, how to differentiate between a spider and an insect and next week we will be talking about the life cycle of the spider. One of the core competencies that we are covering when we look at spiders is in the Grade one curriculum we are looking at "living things have features and behaviors that help them survive in their environment" while the grade two's are looking at how "living things have life cycles adapted to their environment". By using Spiders as our focus we are covering both curricular expectations while doing and exploring an exciting creature..spiders. Sometimes parents wonder why we do a certain exploration or study and my philosophy has always been that if the children are engaged in something, then they will want to learn to read and write and learn everything they can about it. They find joy then in coming to school and doing all the activities without any negativity. So far it has worked great. The children are very excited about what we will be doing next! I love it!!

If you have received and have been looking at the Fresh Grade clips that I have sent you, you might have seen a video clip of us dancing with Ms.Jung's class. Lisa Sars will be working with our two classes for a total of four consecutive Fridays. Lisa is currently doing a dance residency with the intermediate classes but has extra slots of time for the primary children. We will be practicing to a song called "Hello Seattle" by Owl City if you would like to listen to it with your child. There may be a performance during one of the assemblies. I will let you know if we will be or not closer to our last class. The children are loving the opportunity to be working with Lisa again.

In Math, the grade ones have been working on numberation concepts. Our main concept has been beginnng place value. The children have learned that teen numbers can be describes as "10 and how many more". Our second numberation concept will be exploring numbers from 20 to 29, to understand that numbers in the 20s can be described as 2 tens and how many more.

Meanwhile the grade twos have worked hard on counting forwards and backwards from random starting points up to 100 by 1's, 2's and will be working on counting forwards and backwards by 5's , and 10's and will be taking a look at number patterns and seeing if certain number patterns are growing or shrinking and by how much. They definitely will need to be putting their thinking caps on for this. Please continue to practice counting forwards and backwards to 100 by 1's as this will help them as the concepts get greater.

Finally,
I know Jo has sent out a letter reminding you about the Refugee family that our family will be sponsoring. I have talked to the children and they are all keen on this project. Thank you for helping another family in need. I did tell them that gently used winter clothing that would fit them would be welcommed as well. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Coming up:
The holiday market held at Bayview is coming soon....i cant remember the dates. Our class is making adorable little owls to sell at the Market. Some children have really wanted to buy their own and I am giving the families the option to buy their owl before taking them to the market. The owls will be sold for 5. dollars each. If your child brings in the 5 dollars, I can send you home an adorable little owl.

With that, 
Have a great Sunday and I will see you on Monday!
teri

What we think we know about spiders.

The parts of a spider

Blow art...blowing hair..their's a spider in my mouth...eeeeeeek--art

Our adorable owls for sale at the holiday market

or for 5 dollars...the pinecones are the scented ones that will make your tree smell sooo byootiful!

Good Morning Everyone,
What a beautiful week of weather we have had! And today should be just as lovely. Go out and take in the beauty and absorb the wonderful colours of the leaves and the trees. They are simply spectacular!
So how many of you went to the Halloween Howl? The kids on Friday were bursting with excitement...yet, having said that they were so wonderfully focused and positive and very well behaved. They listened and learned from Mrs Montaganos student teacher Ms.Zahra, who has been teaching them about perserverence...the October's virtue. And Ms. Zahra told me that she was so lucky to have such a great group of children. I concur.
We had a busy week last week. We learned about the similarities and differences between the parts of a pumpkin and an apple..and then the differences and similarities between the lifecycles of an apple and pumpkin. We did a lot of Halloween writing, and art and everything is on the walls waiting for your viewing pleasure!

Next week will be a busy week as well...but lots of FUN as well.
So some reminders.
Tuesday...Halloween...
1) Bring hollowed out pumpkin..hollowed from the bottom.
2) Bring carving knife...safety one.
3) Wear a costume...make sure there are no violent attachments..ie..guns, swords, knives (even plastic ones). Have clothes under the costumes so they can slip out of their costumes easily while in class as often they become very uncomfortable wearing them all day!
4) The day will be set up with: an assembly and costume showing first thing in the morning, then we will carve our pumpkins in our family groups from recess to lunch, then after lunch we will do some halloween activities in class, possibly watch a video (if I can get my tv and video hooked up??? any helpers to do this would be gladly accepted???) and just keep that part of our day calm. Then I will dismiss them to you at 300 to go out and have fun trick or treating!
5) Finally our rule about candy....and treats...and sweets...The children know that the candy and junk food is to stay at home and to be consumed at home. We have talked about the importance of healthy eating in the classroom and that it is okay to have treats but in moderation and under the watchful eye of their parents. So I ask that you encourage the children not to bring their supply of candy to school just leave it at home.Thank you.
6) For anyone who would like to donate any of the children's surplus candy and extra treats I will be collecting this in  separate box from the food bank box and taking it to the homeless shelter in North Vancouver. They always welcome these kinds of treats there. We will be talking about this with the children as well.

Wednesday...Professional Day...enjoy sleeping in with your child after a night of trick or treating.

Food Bank:
We will still be collecting into November. We are hoping to collect around three boxes per classroom to provide food for those who are not as fortunate as we are. So if you can send some stuff it, it will be greatly appreciated.

Lice:
Please continue checking your child's hair. So far I have not received any notices. That is good news.

With that,
Have a great Sunday.
Enjoy the pictures.
teri

Our Halloween art, dictionaries and guess who writing.

The lifecycle of the pumpkin.

The parts of the pumpkin

Learning about pumpkins.

Good Afternoon parents and children!
I hope everyone got outside to play a little bit before the wet, soggy clouds have begun to roll in. I did and actually got a few sun rays...was sooo warm and beautiful.
First off I want to thank everyone for coming in to talk about your children and their education over the last week. It was wonderful meeting all the new parents and also great for me to say hi and reconnect with all my former parents. You have great children and it is always a bonus to be able to share their strengths and make some new goals for them. In the last two months, I can say they have already fallen into a great routine, are eager and excited and are very socially responsible. Yay to you!! And Yay to them!

On Friday I was learning a new way of communicating to parents called Fresh Grade. I sent everyone a link to it as well as an invite for you to sign up. Mrs Appleby has walked me through the process of Fresh Grade and I hope that I can make her proud by sending you pictures of your child and their learning over the next year. I am learning so hopefully I dont make too many mistakes..forgive me if I do. Im excited about sending you little video clips and samples as we go along. Let me know how I am doing and if you are getting them!

Have a great day and I will see you all on Monday.
teri

A few reminders:
1) Our Food Bank box is right outside the classroom. Thank you to everyone who so quickly sent in food for the food bank.We will be collecting food till the end of October. Our goal is to collect about three boxes per classroom. I hope we can reach our goal...and even superceed our goal! Thank you to our class rep..Jo (Theo's mom) for sending out the request early last week.

2) Off to a running start will go on through out the year unless it is raining torentially. Come upstairs on Tuesdays and Thursdays and check..as well as if you are in the school, listen to the announcements..often times they will say if it is cancelled.

3) On Halloween...after recess the children will all be gathering in the gym to carve their pumpkins. They will be divided into their colour/family groups. They will each need to bring in a pumpkin that has been cleaned out from the bottom..slice the bottom off, clean it and then send it in a bag for your child to carve. Please send a carving knife for your child to use. We anticipate this to be a lot of fun! In the morning of that day, the children will be attending an assembly and will be able to do the costume walk around the gym and show off their costumes. In the afternoon of that day, the children will stay in the classroom and do Halloween activities and perhaps a little Halloween video...nothing toooooo scarey. I usually keep it pretty calm as the evening is always a little exciting anyway!!

Finally:

 I've received confirmation that there is a case of lice in the Division 11 classroom (that is Ms. Jung's classroom).I know that many of the children from both classes play together, and as of late, have many birthday parties together.  Please check your child's hair on a daily basis for the next little while so that we can catch these little critters before they really start to spread. 

If you find lice, please let me know so that I can further alert families, and if necessary, contact the school nurse. Perhaps girls at this time need to tie their hair back and everyone to be reminded not to share combs at school or hats.

Good luck! 

Pictures:

These pictures are very late in coming. A few weeks ago Gareth, Bella's step dad came in to clean up our gardens with all the children. They cleaned, they planted and they learned. Thank you sooo much Gareth. The children loved the experience. This is the only group that got photographed because I forgot to send out the camera. My apologies!

The brussel sprouts that we planted last year.

Our first family grouping run by Fuzuki and Henry.

What we collected from our garden.

Learning about apples.

Our Thanksgiving art!!

Working on our walking line, apple art!

This is Deana, our first nations worker reading a story called "The Two Sisters" It is a story about how the mountains (that we call the lions) got it's First Salish name.

This is the book that she read. What a wonderful book!!

Learning about Diwali.