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.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the families!!!
Have you had your big feast yet? If not, I hope you enjoy it. My family and I had our big feast on Saturday and so now we are just eating all the leftovers...just as yummy the third day in!!!
This last week at school we spent a lot of time talking about gratitude, gratefulness, thankfulness and things and people we love. I have been very proud of the beautiful words that the children thought, voiced and then wrote! I am grateful for all the children and their wonderful parents that in our class. With our buddy class (Mr.A) we did a little writing/art project on gratefulness. The projects are outside Mr.A's room if you would like to take a look!

Not only did we talk about Thanksgiving and gratitude but Mrs. Montagano also spent some time talking about perseverance. Perseverance is October's Virtue. Every month the school wide virtue changes.We started with Friendliness and are now on Perseverance. During Mrs. Montagano's teaching time on Friday she spends time teaching these virtues. She started with reading the story Tortoise and the Hare and then spent time discussing what it means to persevere. Especially in the beginning of the year when the children feel like everything is soooo hard.That reading, writing, math is so difficult...this is when we like to remind them that things get easier and that you just have to try and try and then one day...you have it!

In science we talked about Travelling Seeds..how seeds travel and how you can find plants growing in truly amazing areas. We will continue to look at seeds in different fall plants...the apple, the sunflower, and the pumpkin. We will look at their lifecycles and then we will look at some fall animals...the canadian geese, and the squirrel and see how plants and animals differ. We will also do some gardening...cleaning up our gardens and getting them ready for winter...as well as look at planting a little bit of garlic. WE have a busy month ahead!

Reminders:
1) Thursday. October 12th---Individual School Photos. Send your child with a clean face..hahah. unless you like peanut butter faces..then Im good with that too!
2) Conferences....Parent teacher conferences will be held on October 18th and 19th...there will be early dismissal on those two days at 200pm.
3) Play first---eat second. The children are dismissed at 1210 to go and play..there has been a slight change with the bells..there is a bell that is rung at 1230 so that those children who are hungry can come in a little earlier to eat their lunches...otherwise they can stay outside till the second bell which is at 1240. The lunch parents try hard to keep the children focused on eating their lunches but it is often difficult to keep them on track. Please have a chat with your child and remind them to start with their main food before heading off to the fruits. I think that many children are still getting used to this reversal and are forgetting to eat when they come in. Let me know how you feel it is going as Mrs. Biorn would like feedback.
4) Home reading books need to be brought back every day as during drop everything and read (DEAR) the children read to a partner in the class. This is a very important part of our daily reading.
5) Indoor shoes are necessary if your child comes to school in boots. They need to change from their boots into the shoes before entering the classroom and especially before they go onto the carpet.
6) Just a reminder that we have gym on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays....so no flipflops or sandals or dresses or skirts for the girls on these days.

With that...have a great Monday.
Enjoy the pictures!
I will see you tomorrow.
teri

Reading together from our Home reading books.

Katie, a UBC volunteer, does the weekly spelling tests with the Grade 2 children.

Halloween is really coming soon..can you believe it??

Some of our Thankfulness writing...in the style of Todd Parr

How Seeds Travel.

Our seeds table.

Part of our Me unit....math about us.

Working on our Turkey art.

Good Morning Parents,
A big thank you to all the families who came out to our Open House on Thursday. It was great to see you and have a little chat. For those who were not able to make it out, I hope you got your outline and the timetable of our week in your child's back pack. The outline gives you a general idea of what we do in the class on a daily basis.

Thank you to everyone who donated money for the Terry Fox Foundation.The children ran on Friday in the rain and were soooo excited and positive about the run.The little raindrops did not deter them from running laps around Bayview school. We ran for 30 minutes. They were sooo happy to be able to run for the spirit of Terry Fox. What great attitudes they all had!! You should be proud.

Some reminders and requests:
1) Home reading is very important for your child. It is important that your child reads daily at home with the parents. Daily reading with the parents...one to one, increases your child's confidence and ability to then transfer their knowledge to all the tasks that we do in class. Please read with your child, make sure that the book and bag gets put back into their backpack so that we can read together in the classroom with a buddy during our DEAR time which is every day after lunch.

2) With the wet weather coming I understand that the children will be wearing boots to school. Please have shoes for them to change into so that they do not come to the carpet with wet and muddy boots. They do a lot of carpet sitting and if they are walking onto the carpet with their boots on it will also get wet and muddy. Thank you for that.

Some Pictures for you to enjoy!
Have a great weekend and I will see you all on Monday.
Teri

AFter the TErry Fox run!

Our silly faces!

Our Fall art!

Mrs. Appleby is working on the community with the kids.

Writing about TerryFox,

Its Fall!

Mr. T talks about Empathy!