Sunday, March 6

Dear families,

This week we started practicing our "popcorn words" which are words that pop up frequently (high frequency words) and that are important to recognize. We are learning to identify, read, and sing them to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb":

like in to no am a that
can me yes
I of the
said we he is was go see and
it big my-y went


I will send home a copy of this "popcorn song" for the children to practice at home! We will be doing a lot more activities with these important words.

This week we completed a fun "scratch art" activity, in which the children coloured both sides of a piece of card stock completely with various crayon colours, then painted a layer of black paint on top. The next day, they scratched words and designs into the surface, "magically" revealing the colours underneath!

We also completed "counting snowballs" number-writing activities, in which the children practiced writing their numbers 1-20. Some JKs are still reversing some of their numbers (2,3,7 and 6 are common) but they are improving which is terrific!

A scholastic order went home this Friday and one more set of order forms will go home Friday, March 11. Please return your orders by April 1st. With the bonus coupons I received from Scholastic I was able to purchase a very nice cash register through the Teacher's Rewards Catalogue. The cash register will go in the Home Centre in the Spring when we start our unit on Money! I also purchased some good quality Canadian play money. Thank you very much for your orders!

This week the JKs also did pattern matching work and sequencing work (a melting snowman), and the SKs continued working on their Phonics duotangs. I sent them home this weekend -- please ask your child to complete their few remaining pages so that we can have them all complete by the end of the week and can start our new series of sounds.

Thank you very much to our Parent Volunteers of this week: Tate's mom was a Mystery Reader, and Siri's mom and Charlie's mom did our white TDSB bags and snuggle books. Thank you!

As you know, there were three cases of head lice in the class last week, as well as in some other classrooms. The children have since returned to school with no further concerns. However, please be sure to check your children for the next week or two and to not share hats. Thank you.

That's our news for now. This week we will be doing some fun numeracy- and literacy-based St. Patrick's Day activities as well as learning the popcorn words.

If you are planning to be absent from school before or after the March Break please be sure to let the office know. Many families plan to take an early or late March Break and it helps Mrs. Sheppard in the office if she knows the reason for a child's absence.

Thank you!

Mrs. Tyndall