Before spring break!!

Hi Parents,

Today would have been our first day back to school and today I would have been giving and getting lots of hugs...so today I send everyone a big virtual hug!! School life for the next little bit will be a little bit different. And to be honest..no one is really sure what this will look like. We just spent one hour with the entire teaching staff on a program called Teams. During this time Mrs. Biorn talked about what the job of "us" the teacher is...and at this point it is still a little unclear.  So to start we were told to ask the following question..."what technology do you have at home for your child to use???"

and "how confident are you in using technology??"

and finally because I am not that techno-savy..my thought is to make hard copy of projects and units...how would you feel about picking things up from the school once a week? once every two weeks? and is that something that you would prefer..hard copy lessons? or technology based activities?

I heard that for children in the early primary grades that one hour a day is the expected amount of work that the children should do. But also knowing that cooking, outdoor play and exploration, gardening, planting,  painting, drawing, counting and daily reading is all part of the day.

To me...if your child writes a journal entry a day..does some math, reads for about 30 minutes a day..then that is awesome! 

Thank you to all the families who have reached out and thank you to those who have sent me pictures of the things you are already doing. I love hearing from you! Feel free to touch base with me whenever and I will let you know when i will be in the school to pick up your supplies...your desk items etc.

Know that with each other..we will get through this time...just stay safe and healthy!!

I have posted pictures from the last two weeks of school.

I took tons of pictures of the children working, planting and creating their nests..not all children were at school the last week when our nests were being made...but those that were..wow..they sure turned out to be the envy of all "robins".

Enjoy the pictures and please respond to me regarding your technology at home.

love you all tons

xoxo

ms. t

Happy first day of March to everyone!!
Well it started off very sunny up here in North Vancouver...and the closer it gets to lunch...the cloudier it is...hmmm...I think thats what they say about spring weather...just wait a minute and it changes!!

We had a fantastically busy week last week with many different performances, assemblies and class pictures, and finally to end the week our last day of skating. I have many skating pictures for you at the end of this blog. I must say all the children improved so much with their skating and many of them attempted to even try play hockey. I was very impressed by everyone's attitude and determination!

This last week we also read a lot of stories about "being human"..and that as a human we make mistakes and that it is okay if you make a mistake...because it helps us learn and when we make a mistake, we correct it and move forward from there. Some of the children are finding this concept of "forgiving themselves" very difficult. That it is okay not to understand something..but if you try and try, and use the skills that you know you have that it will get better and that things will get easier. Thus the activities of the week were mostly centered on...how an oops can be beautiful, how they are unique and special ..and how it is okay to make a mistake. Perhaps talking to your child about this and reinforcing that learning new things is difficult even for adults..but it does get easier.

We had a lovely Pink Day where the class was a sea of pink and pinkish...we spent the afternoon with our family teams talking about Pink Day, the origination of it, watching the video and then making our own little pink stick puppets. I do think that the children understand the concept of diversity by their very accepting comments.

Coming up this week:
1) Our parent/teacher/student conferences will be held Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with an early dismissal on Wednesday and on Thursday. I have changed the outline for our conferences just a little due to our location. So when it is your time, I will sit down with both the parents and the children to have a little chat about their goals and any concerns that any of us
has. After about ten minutes I will leave you and your child(ren) to look at the classroom and at some of their work that they have done. During this time another family might come in...but that does not mean that you have to leave if you are not finished looking at their work. I hope this to be a positive exchange, and a wonderful celebration of your child and their successes. I am looking forward to seeing everyone!

2)This Friday (March 6th) and next Friday (March 13th) is our classes turn to do the popcorn sales. I think that Neve's mom has signed up for both, but we need another parent for both as well.  The proceeds from these popcorn sales will go towards an upcoming field trip to the VanDusen Gardens onMay15th. We will be doing some pond explorations. The current cost is about 16 dollars a child but we could reduce that greatly by the sales. I am also told that we have the opportunity to sign up for more spots in in March as there are available times left. Let me know if you want to do MORE!! haha

3) I am also in need of a volunteer for this Thursday before lunch...likely around 1100ish (just after recess) as we will be making our little mini greenhouses with our milk jugs. If you have a milk jug, send it by then, if not it is not a problem as we will share one for two children! Having an extra parent to help with the planting would be very helpful. 

4) Also...the week after I will also need a parents help to plant our spuds in tubs!
Every year for the last "many" years our class and ms. jung's class has grown our own potatoes and it is sooo much fun! We plant, we watch grow and then we harvest at the end of June and feast on the delicious potatoes with butter and sourcream..yum! I was thinking of Wednesday afternoon to be doing this as I will have a ubc volunteer as well. Let me know if you are available Wednesday at around 130pm that is Wednesday March 11th.

I think that's it for now.
Take care and have a lovely rest of the day.
I will see you all on Monday.
Enjoy the pictures!!
teri

Can you make a duck with the 7 lego pieces? Last week it was Nolan, this week Lily tried.

This is Emil's duck.

And this is Neve's duck...all a little bit different, yet all ducks!

Our Sea of PInk for Pink Day.

What we did in our family groups.

So on this day we went outside for our Nature Walk. We watched a video on how different animals look for food. We talked about what a woodpecker does and how a woodpecker looks for food. We went through the forest trying to listen and look for signs of a woodpecker, but we didnt see or hear one, but we saw a hummingbird!! That was pretty neat!

Felix was photobombing all the shots! hahah

Our last skating day!