Happy Halloween to Everyone!
We had a FANTASTIC day!!
The kids looked awesome!!
The fun started with a great assembly and a school wide costume parade. Then after recess the children got to carve their pumpkins and after lunch we did a bit of monster painting and then picked up our pumpkins (after looking at them in the gym..wow) and were all waiting eagerly for our night out!
Stay safe...and dry...
and have fun.
We will start collecting chocolates for the shelters starting tomorrow and into next week. Any unwanted chocolates, candies etc...will be greatfully accepted!!
Enjoy the pictures.
teri

Good Morning Families,
Did you hear the rain last night? Wow, it was torrential. Good thing I decorated my yard in the day time! Let's keep our fingers crossed that Halloween night will be dry for our children!! Speaking of Halloween, it's just around the corner. In fact the highly anticipated day is on Wednesday. Last Friday we had our local Constable come in and talk to the children about being a safe Pedestrian. How they need to use their eyes, ears and brains when walking and to remember to always Stop, Look and Listen when coming to an intersection. The constable also discussed being safe on Halloween night. Please review safety rules with your child and see if they remember what the constable said. I want all the children to have a fun and safe night. To continue along the Halloween lines...every year there are two things I talk about with the children and one of them is that candy and treats are fun to eat...but at home where it can be monitored by the parents. Please do not send any candy, chips, chocolates etc to school with your child as we all know..it's not the type of energy that helps us out in the classroom. The children know that I will ask them to give me their candy if they bring it in...so please let them have it at home....OR...another thing that we do on a yearly basis is talk to the children about the people who do not get to go trick or treating and often will need the treats more than us. We encourage the children to save some of their treats and then donate the rest for the homeless shelter in North Vancouver or to the Covenant house which is a shelter for homeless and runaway youths. They always appreciate these treats very much and it gives the children an opportunity to give back as well. They get the fun of trick or treating and the ability to share, learning something important about empathy. I will have a box in my classroom as well as in the office. The entire school is encouraged to participate in this opportunity to be kind!

Activities coming up:
1) Katrine (Alex's mom) will be coming in on Monday to give the children certificates for participating in our Be Active campaign. Please send the little sheets/cards in with your child on Monday so we can show Katrine how well we did being active.

2) P/T conferences begin on Tuesday and will run for the next couple of weeks in the morning and then on some afternoons next week. If you havent booked a time with me, please come in and see me for a time.

3) Halloween is this Wednesday. The children are invited to come in with a costume. WE ask that the costume is a safe costume for them to be in the classroom with. It cannot have an unremovable mask, as that is not safe, nor any weapons, swords, sticks that are attached. It is important that they are able to move and work in their costumes. We will be having a costume parade in the gym with the entire school in a morning assembly, then carving pumpkins after recess and then viewing the beautiful and scarey pumpkins after lunch. It will be a full on day of Halloween activities. So if at any point your child wants to get out of their costume, make sure they have clothes underneath or other clothes that they can change into.

On this day the children are all asked to bring a hollowed out pumpkin and a carving tool. The pumpkins must be hollowed out from the bottom, leaving the stem attached at the top. If you do not understand ask your child, i drew them a diagram or come in and ask me. I will show you. The children will all be in the gym together in their colour groups carving away. It is a fun day for all!! 

4) Finally, our field trip to Van Dusen gardens is this Friday. It will be on Rain or Shine. Please send in your permission slips if you havent already done so. If I do not get the permission slip then your child cannot go. Also on this day, it is very important that your child has their booster seat with them. If you cannot provide them with a booster seat, let me know and I will be able to get you one. At the last minute this will be impossible.

This was a long letter...thank you for being patient and reading to the end. Some pictures of the learning that we have been doing!!
Have a great Sunday!!
teri

Learning how to label the parts of the tree.

The children were asked to label the trees and then talk about what the job of the parts were.

The grade twos are in the staff room writing about their cooking experience.

Max and Kenta finish off making the scones.

They were a hit!

UBC nursing students came in to talk about handwashing.

While one group got some "germ" on them the other group was checking to see what a germ might look like on their hand.

Deana came in to talk to the children about the Spirit Bear. That the Spirit Bear is really a white black bear!

 

The Pedestrian safety talk.

The spirit bear activity.

What we learned about the spirit bear.

Happy Halloween from my house to yours!

Good Morning to all my families,
Havent we been sooo lucky with such a wonderful Fall so far.
The weather has been lovely! It has given us all a chance to be outside and embrace the sunshine while it is there.The children have been so happy to run and play (me too!!) It has been easy for all of the children to incorporate their one hour of activity as part of the BeActive challenge! When asked by Katrin on Wednesday if they had been able to do some activities for at least an hour a day the stories were endless. So good for you all!! I will be including some Off To a Running Start pictures for you to see their excited little faces as they run on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Before I go on, I would like everyone to welcome our visiting guest student, Max. Max is visiting from Hamburg for a couple of weeks before he continues on his journey with his family. He is travelling with his siblings and parents all around the world????...well he is travelling for a year but as his English is at a beginners level, I'm not quite sure where he is travelling? But if you see this smiling, blonde little boy, that is Max! Say HI!!

This last week we started our looking at Trees unit. We read a few books on trees and wrote our I Like Tree poems, plus spent some time outside looking and drawing trees. We looked at how a Maple tree looks like and how a pine tree looks like. We were still life artists drawing "en plein air"...out in the open air, like Van Gogh did. We will be labelling our pictures this next week and learn what the various parts of the tree do. We learned that the lifecycle of a huge tree is the same as a little sunflower and worked on explaining how the lifecycle works. This next week we will continue to sort and learn about the various trees. Does anyone know if we have a Cedar tree in the neighbourhood that we can walk and take a look at? I have a First Nations Book that I would like to read to the children called the Six Cedars and I would like to do that while sitting under a Cedar Tree. Let me know if you know where one is.

This past few months Mr. T has been working on the Care Kit with the children. Care is an acronym for "Challenge Abuse through Respected Education". These last two months he has introduced personal safety and the care kit to the students. They have talked about how each person's body is unique, special and different and how each persons body is private. He has talked about keeping care of your own body and is introducing the understanding of personal safety to the children....Your Body is Yours! The children understand and have been working on Personal Safety Rules...
Talk: Say NO!
Walk: Get Away
Squawk: Tell someone you trust. Keep telling until someone helps you.

If you have any questions, please come and ask Mr. T or myself we would both be happy to talk to you.

Finally I would like to acknowledge the children who have been participating in the cross country running. Wow, that is awesome fitness!! You have all showed such great school spirit. Their was a huge cross country meet on Thursday afternoon and 8 of our children participated in it. I cant wait to hear their stories!!

With that,
Enjoy your Sunday. Spend time playing in the leaves and embracing our lovely fall weather.
See you tomorrow.
Teri
Thi

Things that make us grumpy!

Our lovely Van Gogh sunflower paintings.

Brainstorming about Fall and writing definititions.

Getting Ready for OTARS

Go Max go!

The children reading during DEAR. Please help your child bring their book back EVERY day as we do read in partners every day. This is a very important part of our learning. Grade 2's...please remember!!!

Kennedy and Max reading a Halloween story.

They help each other with words.

They listen to each other and share their accomplishments.

They learn to listen respectfully to their friends.

They are proud of each other.