Week of December 11-15

Dear families,

My apologies for not doing the blog last weekend - I'm feeling much better, thank you for all your well wishes. The viruses going around this time of the year seem to be whoppers. We will be doing an inquiry about Germs and Healthy Habits in January so we can start off 2018 very healthy! Please help keep our classmates healthy by reminding your children to keep their hands out of their mouths. Thank you!

Lots of news to catch up on, in no particular order:

The children's BEAR inquiry work went home last week. Well done, cubs!

Bubbles the Class Beta Fish needs a home for the holidays! We are going on a family ski trip to Quebec until December 31. If you would be willing to take of Bubbles, please let me know! I will clean his tank beforehand, so all you have to do is feed him once a day.

Our classroom is officially Santa's Workshop! The children are making Christmas cards, wrapping "presents," reading holiday books, we are singing carols at the piano, Alfie the Elf is here, made little Christmas trees and ornaments, are making Stars of David of Hanukkah, wrote and mailed a letter to Santa, and much more!

In Science and Nature, we learned about Reindeer (Did you know they are good swimmers? and read a booklet. We also learned why it can be sunny and still snow, and that the Earth moves around the sun.

In Numeracy, we counted how many small triangles fit inside the big triangle that is our paper Christmas Tree. We also tallied and graphed (a.k.a. Data Management) whether the children A) had a fireplace, B) had a Christmas tree, C) like Candy Canes. The JKs did a "mitten mix up" matching/sorting exercise, and the SKs used stones to help them write the combination of 10 in several different ways (i.e. 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6 and so on).

In Literacy, the children wrote Christmas Cards to mom and dad, wrote a letter to Santa, did the MY Read and Write booklet, read and coloured a booklet called Sharing Cookies, are learning several songs with lyrics, are completing a Winter Word Wall with their Reading Buddies, and wrote and drew an accompany picture to "In the Winter, I....."

In Art, I showed the children how to draw various Holiday things on their mini white boards. Following steps is an important skill and the kids are getting very good at it! It's so great when they realize they can draw things just using simple shapes and a few details! They also wrote the words of the things they drew. The children are also enjoying painting holiday things at the painting easel, and they are painting a Hanukkah ornament. The children also traced, cut and decorated stockings. Their scissor skills are really improving!

In Daily Physical Activity, the children really enjoyed playing with the sleds and shovels in the snow this week! We were not able to use the gym because of the Holiday Concert and a volleyball tournament, but hopefully gym will not be cancelled next week. Please ensure your child have RUNNING SHOES at school so that s/he can safely participate.

We read How the Grinch Stole Christmas (one of my favourite books to read!) and then watched the 1966 movie. We are making a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast them.

Thank you so much to Rielle's Dad who was our mystery reader this week! Thank you as well to the parents who volunteered for Pizza Lunch!

The children did a wonderful job singing "Santa's Little Helpers" at the Sharing Assembly. Belated congratulations to Everleigh who received a certificate for EMPATHY. Evelyn and Anilee received certificates for KINDNESS and CARING. Mrs. Mosun and I are so proud of you!

Next week is the Holiday Craft Party on Thursday (don't wear your best party clothes - there may be glue and paint!), more Carol Singing, we'll read and do some activates related to the beautiful book The Polar Bear Express, and we'll do some "Magic Christmas Light" painting. Stay tuned!

It is our turn to have the iPads next week so we will also do some Coding activities.

That's the news for Room 166! If you are going to be away next week please let us know so we can ensure your child's mail bags go home in advance. Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.