Good Morning Families,

Well it was a very unique week last week.

At one point there were between 8 and 9 children away at a time. Thank you to the parents for being so diligent at checking the health status of their child and making a decision that was safe and healthy for the others. This may be a year where children will be staying home more often as to not spread the cold/flu and other viruses. Thank you for letting me know by email if your child will be away. I appreciate that very much! It keeps me in the loop as well, as sometime's the office does not have time to let me know!

This last week we spent a little bit of time every day outside, and that was fun! It would rain like crazy and then in the afternoon it would let up and give us some opportunities to run and play in the fresh air. On Monday we took our clipboards and paper out and sketched the fall trees. We will often take our clip boards out and do this. This is why I have asked for yoga mats. At this point I have cut up enough yoga mats to have little cushions to keep the bottoms dry for 14 children. I need one or two more yoga mats to have a complete set. So if you have some in your hidden areas, and arent using them anymore, our class would gratefully use them!

This week we worked on our math books. The grade twos are learning how to use their Jump Math book. This is a math book that will cover all the curriculum for the grade two's while teaching them how to read and make decisions of what to do. Following directions in a math book is a skill that is more complicated than the math itself!

The grade ones are working on printing their numbers to 10, without any reversals. Eventually the grade ones will also be receiving a Jump Math book as well. In the events if there is a school closure (fingers crossed that that doesnt happen) then the children will have a book to work from!

This week the children continued their social studies program with Mr. A. He is doing a community unit with the grade ones and twos. And Mr. T took the children for a bog walk.

The children worked on being respectful to visiting teachers as well as being respectful inside and outside. The outside is just an extension of our indoor classroom.

The children are really working hard on remembering their give me five! And how to be bees. What does that mean? Bee Fair Bee Safe and to Bee Kind. Daily the children discuss how they are feeling health wise and emotionally. They use words like...Im a 9 out of a 10 because..or Im in the green zone etc. We check in in the morning and after lunch. It's a great way for me to gauge how they are. And usually they are 10's when they come to school or in the "green zone". 

Thank you for remembering to:

1) Send their filled in school information packages back.

2) Send your child to school with Running Shoes from Monday to Thursday (GYM and OTARS)

3) Send your child with Indoor shoes especially if they wear boots to school.

As we have started our Home Reading program it is important to remember to establish a time daily to read with your child. Finding a cozy place and setting up a routine to listen and help your child is a wonderful way to see an increase in your child's reading ability! Please send the Home Reading Packages home every Friday and we will refill it on Monday.

Finally I have one last request. Please do not send candy to school in their lunch boxes. It is way too tempting for them. All the children want to do is eat their candy and chips instead of the healthy things that are in their lunches. I ask that you leave the sweet treats and potato chips for a home treat. We do talk about how our tummies are like the gastank of a car and we need to fill our gastanks up with good fuel to keep us running efficiently in the afternoon. Thank you!

Coming up next week:

1) Wear Orange for Orange Day on Wednesday. We will acknowledge our Residential Schools and have an assembly (virtually) that will address this with the children. And if you do not have orange..that is fine as all children are special and all children matter...it doesnt matter what colour you wear!!

I forgot my camera at home and as a result only took a few pictures when we did our art. The focus was on DOTS...Make a mark and see what happens. Everyone has an artist in them!!

With that..have a great day.

Hope everyone is well next week!!

xo

Ms. T

First blog out there this year!!

 

Good Morning parents and children,

This is our first blog together this year.

My hope is to do a blog entry every Sunday  (time permitted) to share pictures and give you an idea of the shape of our week. I will try to take many pictures as during Covid, the opportunity for you to come in to the classroom just to say hi or volunteer may not present itself this year. Fingers crossed that a vaccination will be in place for next year!

 

With that, welcome to our class! As I mentioned before we have a grade one two split, with 5 grade ones (lovely sweet children) and 14 grade 2’s. My grade 2’s have shown great leadership already and are embracing and helping the grade ones with remembering the rules and routines. Yes that is what we did for our first week of school. This first week was spent learning the daily expectations as well as following many safety rules for inside and outside the classroom. Some of the rules are typical school rules of respectful behavior and some are the new covid necessary safety rules. I will discuss some of them in this blog with you.

 

Starting every day we wash our hands. The children come into the classroom, hang up their jackets and put down their back packs and line up to wash their hands. We wash our hands EVERY time we come in from outdoors, and sanitize when we go out. That makes our routine easier to manage.If they sneeze, they wash their hands. They are getting very good at washing their hands, and thus all the lovely soap that has been sent in has been wonderful!! I give them a squirt of it on their hands and they rub it in like lotion and then when they start washing, magically the bubbles appear!! Thank you for the soap…I have appreciated it greatly!!

 

Once hands have been washed we gather on our carpet where I have tried to space their seating so that they cannot touch each other and are sitting fairly far apart. Once on the carpet we review our shape of the day, and discuss the variety of things we will do. One of my expectations on the carpet, a rule that is one I told them, that they always had to remember, is “when the teacher, is talking, they are listening”. Most are getting very good at this and are requiring very little reminders.

 

This week we:

1)      Discussed Bee Safe Bee Fair Bee Kind

2)      Give me Five..eyes, ears, mouth, legs and hands…how one gets ready to listen when the teacher is at the front..see if you can review both of these with the children. As you can see in the pictures, we always do a little project with both!

This week we also:

1)      Went outside to our little apple orchard and collected apples. We drew them in their apple tree and also as scientists observed their beautiful skin and shape close up. Then the next day we learned how to lable, we observed the apple in the inside after being cut, and learned how to make arrows and lable the parts. So we were busy.

2)      We did a lot of art…making self portraits…a few times! We are reading Todd Parr books, and they are lovely and funny and show the simplicity of portrait making.

3)      We learned how to play with our centers and our tubs! And how to clean up afterwards. Friday’s will generally be our afternoon of art and playing with tubs…as tub toys/manipulatives if left for three days are safe to play with the following week. Also prior to playing the children sanitize their hands as well as after playing.

As you can see we have had a busy week and a fun week!

If you can continue to review general behavior expectations, listening to the teacher, playing kindly and speaking kindly to their friends, then I would appreciate it. They are lovely children and I know that after a very long break, that they are excited to be back and will need a little bit of TLC to readjust to the long days! If you have any questions, please email me… I will try my best to communicate with you immediately.

Thank you soo much again for all the lovely supplies. I have received two yoga mats, which I will be cutting up..that will cover about six small squares for the children. If you see any in a garage sale etc…I could likely use about 4more mats to cut up!

Remember that we have gym Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…and that Tuesday and Thursdays are Off To a Running Start…so gym shoes for four days in a row!! A letter about OTARS was sent home with your children.

Home Reading will be starting on Monday, a letter will be sent home with your child as well as some books. Keep an eye out for them!

And with that….I think that’s it for this long newsletter.

Most blogs will not be this long!!

Enjoy the pictures.

And have a happy Sunday.

Teri Taylor

Working outside to draw the apple trees...Nolan and Felix are using their observational skills right now.

Jason, Emil and Kaito

Hana, Laurel and Ryker

Sunny and Piya

Ty, Luke and James

Alice

Jack

Campbell and Kento

Cameron

Our Class!

Hooray! You're here!!

Our fall display in front of our classroom...room 402

Bee Fair, Bee Safe, Bee Kind!

Give Me 5!

Learning about the parts of an apple...inside and outside and how to label.

Painting our self portraits.

Some went realistic.

Some were abstract..it was their choice.

Free play..trying to play together but apart.

Teamwork.

So much fun!!

Connie and James