Week of June 12-16

Dear families,

Happy Father's Day!! I hope you are having a great day with your terrific little ones.

This past week was busy in Room 166! Most exciting I think was that our caterpillars became butterflies!! The kids were so thrilled! We fed the butterflies oranges, melon and orange juice for a few days, then released them into the playground. The SKs read and illustrated a booklet inspired by "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" called "The Very Busy Senior Kindergartner" which described what they did each month this year. The JKs finished writing and illustrating "I am very excited for SK because..." and all the kids are practicing songs for the next (and last!) sharing assembly and for the SK Graduation Celebration. The kids made a very cute keepsake book called "If the Kids Ruled Room 166!" They will each get a copy in Friday's mail bag.

On Wednesday LKS celebrated and thanked all our amazing volunteers that help make LKS such a wonderful school. Thank you SO MUCH for all your time and energy!!

This week in the computer lab with Miss. Santiago the kids reviewed all the TDSB programs they had worked on during the year.

In this Friday's mail bag were some summaries of sight words and summer homework ideas for the kids, including a summer journal and list of Grade One Sight Words for the SKs. I've also sent home the completed phonics and writing duotangs which the kids can review over the summer, along with their inquiry folders. It's important for the children to keep reading and writing over the summer months. :)

Thank you so much to Alex who brought in another great book about Canada! And to Henry who shared his family's beautiful Group of Seven art book! Wonderful!! Thank you also to Lucas' mom who was our Mystery Reader! This week we did "M is for Maple Syrup" (the tasting part was the best I think), "O is for Ottawa," "P is for Puck, Paddle and Pearson International Airport," "Q is for Quebec," "R is for RCMP and Rocky Mountains" and "S is for Salmon and Snow." The kids learned how to say hello is French, learned a bit about Ottawa - the Parliament Buildings and the Rideau Canad - and watched a BBC video of salmon swimming upstream and grizzly bears catching them! With our Reading Buddies, we wrote and drew a big picture about why we love Canada.

It's hard to believe that there are only 9 more school days left! Each day the Special Person takes down one of our "ice cream scoops" for our end-of-year count down. And Friday was Freezie Friday! I have a feeling that next Friday will be another Freezie Friday, and the last day of school will definitely be a "Freezie Thursday!" :)

Next week we will finish our ABCs of Canada booklet, make and eat Beaver Tails, and learn a lot of summer words. The SKs will read and draw them, and the JKs will read them and colour the pictures.

I hope you are having a wonderful Father's Day weekend!!!