Photo Retake Day

This Monday, November 4th is picture retake day. Please let me know if you wish your child to have another picture taken by sending me an email at sarah.whitehead@ocdsb or a written note in her or his note tote. Thank you!

What we are learning at school

If you have looked at the Ontario curriculum document for kindergarten you will have seen that there is a lot written there. We decided to make a quick reference chart for us all to use in the class. We  pulled out the 8 main ideas and will be using them as touchstones throughout the year. As we observe the children, we will set goals for them in reference to these ideas. Here they are:

1) We are connected to others.

2) We contribute to our world.

3) We have a strong sense of identity and well-being.

4) We communicate effectively.

5) We understand numbers, measurement, shapes, patterns and collections.

6) We are building an understanding of the world around us, of the environment and of technology.

7) We make healthy choices and develop our physical skills.

8) We are open to artistic activities.

Tissues, please!

There are lots of children with sniffles in the class and we have used up all our tissues. If you have an extra box you can donate to the class, it would be much appreciated. We can also use bottles of hand sanitizer! Thank you!!!

We Scare Hunger

Happy Halloween!

Did you know that 1 in 5 parents said they have skipped meals to ensure there was enough food to feed their children? And that in 2012, 14% of food banks ran out of food making them powerless to support families who simply didn't have enough to feed their families?

This fall at Broadview the H.E.L.P club is holding a halloween themed food drive to support our local Ottawa food bank. The collection of non-perishable food items will run from Friday Oct. 18th until Nov. 1st. All items can be sent to school with your child. Items in high demand are:  rice, flour, pasta, canned fish and meats, stew and soup, canned or dried beans, canned fruit and vegetables, 100% fruit juice, canned or powdered milk, cereals, tomato sauce, peanut butter, baby products ( formula, diapers, baby food).

Thanks for your support!

The HELP club, Mlle Amanda and Mlle Coughtrey!

 

Trip Prep

As you know, this Thursday is our first field trip! We have enough volunteers, but if you wish to go, you are welcome to drive out and meet us there. It is on Fallowfield Road. Admission is $6.50 for adults. The schedule for the day is : 1) Ride the bus out to the farm
                                                          2) Be divided into two large groups and do three activities;
                                                          train ride, petting barn and a video
                                                          3) Lunch at picnic tables
                                                          4) See the animals further out and play on the play structures.
                                                          5) Ride the bus back to school.


Here is a digital copy of our reminder/ information letter for the trip:

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

 

Dear JK and JK/SK Parents and Guardians,

A reminder of our field trip to Valleyview Farm this Thursday, October 24^th.  We will be leaving the school at 10:30 and arriving back about 2:15.

As the weather forecast is calling for cool and cloudy, with a possibility of showers we strongly suggest that you send your child dressed in layers and wearing rubber boots, as well as mittens and a warm hat, as we will be outside for most of the time.

We will have an earlier nutrition break at school and then our later nutrition break at Valleyview.

As this is the first field trip for our classes, we ask that you remind your child to stay with their adult supervisor at all times, and to be a polite listener on the bus and at the farm.

We are looking forward to a great trip with our classes.

Sincerely,

 

JK and JK/SK Teams

Library Tomorrow!!!

Since we were going to miss last week's trip to the library because of the PD day,  we sent the books back to you to enjoy for another week. Tomorrow we will have our second visit, so please send them back again. Thank you!

Red and White Day on Thursday!!  It's a Broadview Spirit Day on Thursday so if you like, wear red and white to celebrate our school and its colours.

Field Trip!

We are going on our first field trip, to Valleyview Farm, on October 24th. We will send you home the trip forms and more information soon. We can't wait to go!

• 
• The Little Animal Barn is home to our little animals. Most of our new babies begin life here in the Spring.
  

4750 Fallowfield Road, Nepean.

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

Our focus the first month was on building up a sense of belonging in our class, how to choose and make friends and on how to go to school. We began with the question of how to make and be friends. Our focus now is on Patterns. This will help to structure their thinking and give them a framework for many of the other concepts we will cover this year. We will be learning that anything that happens over and over is a pattern. We  will look at visual patterns such as stripes and spots and talk about rhyming words and repeated words in books and how they are a pattern. We will sing a song with a repeated pattern and will also do many musical rhythms. We are also learning that the days have a pattern and the seasons have a pattern. We will be creating lots of patterns in our crafts. If you have a chance to point out or find patterns with your child during the day, that will reinforce the concepts for them. It could be visual patterns, or rhymes in their books or other repeated things. Also, with all the topics this year your child is very welcome to bring in books from home on the subject to share with the class. (Please make sure his or her name is on the books, of course.) At the end of the unit, in early November, we will have a Pattern Party where they can wear as many different patterned clothes as possible. It is a great unit and we will have a lot of fun with it.

We are looking forward to welcoming parents and grandparents in to the class soon as volunteers. If you would like to be the volunteer coordinator and help to organize the schedule and round up volunteers, please let me know! We will help you set up an online sign up page and link it to our blog. Thank you!!

Welcome to our Blog!

Dear Junior Kindergarten Families;

Welcome to our classroom blog! Please bookmark it or link it to your email so you always get our updates. We will be using this as our newsletter instead of a paper letter, so it is important for you to keep checking in. On our blog you will find some notes on what we are learning in class so you can talk about these at home as well. There will also be reminders about our activities and their dates. There will also be links to other information, such as articles on curriculum and a sign up calendar for volunteers.To keep it safe, there will be no pictures of the children, but there may be pictures of their art from time to time, and other surprises! We hope you like our blog. Thank you for reading!