Sunday, November 17, 2013

Week of November 18-22

Dear families,

We started last week with attendance at our LKS Remembrance Day ceremony and the children did a wonderful job of attentive listening. After the ceremony, the children discussed a time when they were brave and drew a picture (with a sentence for the SKs). They also made poppy art out of four hearts they cut out. Remembrance Day ties in well with the November TDSB character trait of Empathy.

It was a pleasure meeting with you this week to discuss your child's progress. If you were unable to schedule an interview time and would like to do so, please call the school or email me. Thank you.

The homework for the SKs this weekend was to circle the correct word to match the picture in the gingerbread man story line.

This week we started our second fairy tale - The Little Red Hen. This well-known fairy tale is about helping others, being responsible to your friends, and working hard. I read the full story out loud, the children's Reading Buddies read a simplified version to them, and the children have simplified versions in their Literature Pocket to practice at home.

We learned about the life cycle of a hen and about where flour comes from. We also talked about how water mills and wind mills used to grind grain. There is a wonderful working water wheel grain mill at Pioneer Village if you happen to go. We also talked about our local historic Old Mill and the Humber River beside it.

We also talked about and did a flow chart about friendship called "My friend is..." Next week we will write a booklet about this.

This weekend the SKs brought home Set 1 (of 8) of their Phonics Duotang. When your child has completed this set, please hand it in for a new one. The JKs work on their Phonic folders in class.

This week we will be saying so long to The Little Red Hen and hello to Little Red Riding Hood! We will also continue our numeracy lessons in patterning and measurement with cube-a-links.

Finally, thank you to Cole's mom who read a terrific book called "The Interrupting Chicken" that tied in perfectly with our unit, and thank you to Victoria's mom who was a terrific Mystery Reader as well. If you would like to be Mystery Reader please contact your Grade Parent. Children are so thrilled and proud when their parents come to class!

Thank you as well to Olivia's dad who did the white bags for the morning class.

I hope you have a wonderful week.