Good Morning Families, I hope everyone had a lovely longer than normal weekend!! While you were enjoying your family time, I was listening to many speakers talk about racism and the effects of racism in their life. They all said teaching children about anti racism begins at a young age so that as they get older and older they will know how to treat everyone with respect, and understanding. Starting with learning about kindness and gratitude is a start but then having conversations within your family and within the classrooms about how some people have suffered with inequality. There is a term called "micro agressions" that the teenagers talked about. That things that seem so little and just a joke, isnt a joke and that we as adults have to be careful what and how we use our language with our peers, as those words that we say around children become words that children say around each other. And those words become very hurtful!! It was a very interesting perspective for me as well!! This last week we spent an afternoon on our Indigenous Studies. We revisited the Coast Salish seasonal round. The Coast Salish (which include the Musqueam, the Squamish and the Tsleil-Waututh Nations) have different activities depending on the season and what food and materials are available sometimes moving to different places to harvest food. The children learned that during Fall Coast Salish communities traditionally are getting ready for the upcoming Winter season. After the lesson the children wrote down what they learned in their learning log. We will be learning about the traditional Winter activities next week. We spent a lot of our week talking about Gratitude and Thankfulness. We wrote and talked about things that we were grateful.The childrren all agreed that they are very grateful for their families and for coming to school. We created a gratitude tree. This is part of our Ninja Kindness project that we are working on. As part of our Ninja Kindness Project we have taken on working with Covenant House (just like Ryan Reynolds!!). We have collected candy, we have collected socks...(just from our class alone we have collected two big boxes of socks), there is another one starting to fill from the other classes! Our last collection for this year is for pasta and cereal to help get them through the winter holidays. Apparently cereal and pasta are two things that the teens at Covenant House love and go through...so I thought why not? Why not collect some yummy cereals and pasta. So if you wish to continue supporting Covenant House in our Kindness Ninja month, send a box of pasta or cereal with your child. And thankyou very much for all that you have already been doing. This next month we will focus on some holiday activities and continue with learning about gratitude, love and kindness!! With that...please take care of yourself. Take care of your children. Stay safe! and Be Happy!! Enjoy the pictures. xo teri

Good Morning families, Thank you soo much for all that you have done to support your child in our Kindness month. Thank you for the socks!! We are on box number two of socks!! The other classes are beginning to send some in as well!! Yay! We will do socks for one more week adn then shift to our final community kindness collection!! We have been working very hard at being kind in the classroom, in the school, in our community, at home, and in the world. It is a ripple effect. I have been showing and reading many books about kindness and really showing them the language of kindness. When we write we talk about specifics...not just i will be kind to my sister. What will you do to be kind? They are learning that a smile, a hello to someone is a kind thing to do. To think before one reacts is kind. It was World Kindness Day last Friday and we talked about the importance of being kind in our daily life. When we are kind to each other it makes all of us happy. Thus we have become Kindness Ninjas. I will be sending home a Kindness "bingo" card of ideas for your child to work on on Monday. As they fill things out, and successfully accomplish their goals for the week, I would like them to bring the card back on Thursday and we will talk about it in class together. If there are lists to make, they can write it on the back..they can attach papers to it as well. I will let them know what to do on Monday. This is part of the SEL lessons that I like to introduce the children to..SEL is Social Emotional Learning. What is Social Emotional Learning? "It is the process through which children and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to undersatand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions." Social and emotional learning skills is critical to being a good studen, citizen and worker! In class, I try to foster the children's SEL throughout the day through our conversations and interactions. Sometimes it's explicit teaching and other times, it's careful and intententional modelling of expected behaviours. It is exciting to be a part of your child's social development!! Many parents have emailled me to ask if I have any needs or wants for our cabin. We are great right now and have plenty of soap, wipes, sanitizer..so thank you. We have a lovely vacuum..thank you. If you are cleaning out your christmas decorations and would like to send some twinkle lights...i do have some..but as the days get darker, maybe we can find a place for more twinkly lights. Do not go out and buy them, but if you have extra, they would be greatfully accepted! We are studying leaves and have spent a few days outside looking at leaves, collecting leaves, identifying the parts of a leaf. In the pictures you will see us learning how to use the loupe...a science tool for looking closely at objects (it is a magnifying glass). The children are learning how to handle tools carefully and are becomming really skilled at drawing and labelling what they see. We are so lucky to have our portables in such a lovely location!! We are able to go outside and just be one with nature..we all love it!! And with that..please remember that: 1) The children need to be dressed for outdoor play! I am seeing some great muddy buddies in the class..this sure has been keeping them dry! Also please have some shoes here for indoor use....or slippers with rubber soles that they can keep here!! 2) This Friday is a professional day so there will be no school..that is why the children need to bring their kindness bingo cards back on Thursday..and if they forget, I will accept them the following Monday. And with that..have a great Sunday.Stay safe and healthy!! xo teri taylor

Good Morning Everyone and Happy Sunday to you all!! In class this week (and for the next few weeks) we will be talking about Kindness, Generosity and Giving back to others. We read a book called "Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed" and it's a story about a little girl who made a difference. She picked some blueberries and she gave them to a neighbour, she just left them there as a surprise. Then the neighbour made blueberry muffins and gave them to five people and made their day super happy. The story goes on to talk about how a little random act of kindness changed their day and not only did they feel happier being the recipient of a gift of kindness, but it made them want to also share their good will with others. The story ends with all the people in the world being affected by the one gift of kindness that an ordinary little girl started with her gift of blueberries. That is the message that I am trying to impart to the children. Just a little smile, a little hello, a holding the door for someone is something they can do. We will be talking about the little things that can "fill your bucket" and things that can be "bucket dippers". We already have a class full of very caring and loving children. My hope is to help them understand what they are doing, makes a difference. On Friday I asked the children if they could have a wish that would change their parents life (it could be for mom, dad or both) what would it be? Well moms, most of the children wished that they could give you a button to press so that your house could magically clean!! I would love that button as well!! Our candy collecting inititiave went very well. We collected two giant boxes of candy to give to Covenant House. Already we have one full box of socks just from our class alone!! We spread the word to the other classes and hopefully we will be able to deliver a few boxes of socks to Covenant House. I know they are very much appreciated!! Thankyou for helping your child in our acts of kindness month! I took a lot of pictures of our art! We learned about the history and the lifecycle of the poppy. We looked at the difference between baking poppy seeds and planting poppy seeds. They are different. We planted some poppy seeds in a pot outside. Hopefully we will see them grow and blossom in the spring!! Enjoy the pictures and enjoy your day together. I will see all your precious lovelies tomorrow. xo ms t