Pictures from this year

Link to be emailed to you soon so you can see the pictures and make books, etc! : )

Many Thanks!

Thank you all for your kind words of appreciation to Marion, Tiffany and me and thank you for the generous gifts! We have so many happy memories of this first year of Full Day Kindergarten and all your childrens' wonderful progress. Thank you for all your help to make this a wonderful year!!

Bird Songs!

We have been learning about birds this week and so the children might enjoy this link. Just click on the bird to hear its song! http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/volunteer/bird_songs_interactive.html

Special Dates to Note

Here are as many of the important upcoming dates as we can round up for now. If there are others we will let you know as soon as possible. * Thursday, May 29th Humane Society Presentation at 2 pm. * Friday, May 30th Canadian Geographic Super Giant Map Presentation * Please let me know if you do not want your child photographed by our guest presenters!!* All school library books due back to the library. * Tuesday, June 3rd Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast in the Library * Friday, June 6th. PA Day No School * Monday, June 9th Scientists in the Schools Presentation on Bugs *two more volunteers needed!* * Thursday, June 12th Election Day; Polls in the school, Teacher Appreciation Lunch * Monday, June 16th - Tuesday, June 17th Primary Musical * Wednesday, June 25th Lemonade and Cookie Party with the Parents! Report Cards go home * Friday, June 27th Last Day of School!

Skirts and Shorts

Since the children are very active and go to gym and outside play, they are moving around a lot these days. We would like to suggest that the girls wear shorts under their skirts so they can play everything the boys play and keep their privacy.

Tomorrow instead!

Apparently SOME of the classes are having the Humane Society presentation today and some are tomorrow. We are tomorrow, so if you ask your child about it today you will get even less information out of them than you may on a regular day! But Miss Tiffany saw the guest animal and it is very cute.

Scientists in the Schools

The parent council has given us funds to have a special science experience and our class is going to have Scientists in the Schools present to us on insects! This will be on June 9th. A letter is coming home today. We are looking for 4 volunteers to help with insect centres. You will get training from Petra, our scientist. If you can help out, please let us know on the letter we are sending home and return it to school tomorrow. Thanks for your help!

Mothers' Day Gifts

We hope you enjoyed your gift and have had a chance to see it lit up. Here is the link to the site that inspired us. http://herz-allerliebst.de/2011/11/03/die-laternenzeit/ Now on to Fathers' Day preparations!

Cats and Dogs

The Humane Society is coming to give us a presentation on Cats and Dogs on March 28th. We are sending home a form today with the information. Please use the form to let us know about any concerns, allergies or fears that your child may have and return the forms to school tomorrow. We will make arrangements for those children to be in another class for the presentation time if need be. Thank you for your help!

Hot Days!

Now that the weather is lovely it will be getting very hot in Room 23, as we face south and get sun all day. Please make sure your child has a full water bottle each day. We will also be outside to play, so they will need to have some sunscreen put on them before school and a hat to wear. We now have an extra fan, so we are set! Thank you for your help in keeping the children comfortable in the heat.

Pay It Forward Pizza

We got a $500 gift from the Westboro Business Improvement Association to help some classes at Broadview to go to the Childrens' Festival and we would like to pay it forward. We are having a Kindergarten Pizza day to raise money. We will donate this money to the festival to help a needy school to attend. The forms are coming home today and need to be returned by FRIDAY. Please just send them in tomorrow while you think of it. The cost is $2.50 a slice and they will all be cheese pizza. We will have the pizza on Tuesday, May 13th and be able to present the cheque in person to the festival when we go on Wednesday. Thank you for your help with all our projects!!!

Jars, please!

We are hard at work here in room 23 making some top secret, beautiful Mother's Day gifts and we need some clean, empty SMALLISH jars. Please send in any you can spare. We don't need the lids, though we can use them if they are available. Many thanks!!

Hurray! Tomorrow is May!! We are going to dance and go on a Field Trip soon!!

Tomorrow is May Day and we will be celebrating with flower crowns and some streamer dancing. Then we will be counting down the days until our FIELD TRIP to the OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL CHILDRENS' FESTIVAL!!! We are going all day on Wednesday, May 14th and we have room for a few volunteers on the bus and more if you would like to meet us there. We will see a performance of Frogz, a mime presentation that focusses on observing and imitating things around us. It looks delightful. We will also have time to visit the displays and do many other activities. We will have a picnic lunch. If the weather is wet we can still do all the activities because they are in tents. The trip permission form is coming home today and MUST be returned for your child to go on the trip. Please send it right back in tomorrow so you don't forget. Thank you for your help making this amazing trip happen! Here is the link to the festival: http://ottawachildrensfestival.ca/

Gymnastics!!!

Yesterday the children received a 50 minute Gymnastic class from Bubbles, a teacher visiting from Star Gymnastics. They had a very lively class and were so happy to try all the different stations. These included a mini trampoline, marshmallow stilts and a giant round pillow for them to do (supervised) back flips on. They surprised us all by being able to stand by a wall, put their hands down on the floor, walk up the wall with their feet and do a handstand! We took lots of pictures to show you in June. It was a great part of healthy active living week.

Still Need Tissues, Please.

Another reminder that we have run completely through our stock of tissues in room 23. We only have one box left, sent in recently. If you have an extra box or two to share, please send them in with your child. Thank you!!

What are your plans for next year?

Parents,please let us know what you prefer for your child for his or her Senior Kindergarten placement. The choices are English or Early French Immersion. Please send us a little note with your child's name and French or English, with your signature. This will be a great help in planning for the fall. Thank you!

Happy Easter, Good Passover!!

Happy Easter and Good Passover to everyone celebrating this long weekend. Have a wonderful break!

Happy Spring!

Now we have finished our study of Fairytales (and the weather seems to have started to cooperate) we will focus on Spring. We have been noting the changes around us and we will begin to make a list of signs of spring. We will enhance that by starting a nature table. If you find anything of interest in your walks and at the park or in your gardens, we would love to have it for our table. It is such a lovely time of year and we will have fun doing nature studies, planting seeds, reading about farms and new baby animals and doing lots of fun crafts in great pastel colours. Welcome, Spring!

After the Ball

We had a lovely time being presented to the king and queen and waltzing around the ballroom today. Everyone looked wonderful in their crowns and jewels and special finery. We had so much fun we had another ball in the afternoon! Thank you to all of you who helped make this day so special. I took lots of pictures and a little video of each class, so you will get to see how things went at our end of year get together and slide show.

Tissues, please!

We have run completely through our stock of tissues in room 23. If you have an extra box or two to share, please send them in with your child. Thank you!!

Book your Carriages Now!

There is a flurry of preparations here at the palace of Room 23, getting everything ready for the ball on Wednesday. Be sure to book your golden carriages now!

The Royal Ball

The children are most cordially invited to a Royal Ball at the palace, to be held on Wednesday, April 16th. Dress is princely attire, princess gowns or formal wear. Jewelled necklaces and golden crowns will available at the ball. There will be dance classes held in preparation to this glittering event so that the children may brush up on their waltzes.  

Spirit Day next Thursday, April 17th

Next Thursday is Sports Jersey Day, so the children can wear their sporty clothes and join in the fun.

Mud Season is Upon Us!!

Mittens and Pants and Undies and Socks Now that we are at last entering Mud Season, please make sure your child has an extra pair of mittens, pants, underpants and socks in her or his bag every day. For some reason the children think that their splash pants and boots make them impervious to water and we get a lot of wet legs, toes and fingers. We go through a lot of extra clothes, so please keep your child comfy and up to date! Thank you so much.

St. Patrick's Day Plans

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We will be celebrating all week with rainbows, green and leprechauns. Please wear lots of green tomorrow (Monday) and rainbow clothes anytime this week. See you soon!!

Thursday is Twin Day!!

Thursday is the last day of school before the March Break and another School Spirit Day, Twin Day. Your child can pair up with a friend and dress the same OR join the classroom teachers and dress like us. We are wearing black pants and turquoise tops. If your child would like to be twins with us they can wear green or turquoise and black too. We are also going to see the school play, Clowns, at 10am, so it will be a special end of the week.

Sweater Day for Wildlife

On Friday the whole school is wearing sweaters to raise awareness of climate change. We are hoping to turn down the heat in the school to save energy. Sweater Day was an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund and now has been taken on by Broadview's HELP club, who do various things to benefit the community. Wear your sweater with an animal on it, with natural colours or pictures or your tackiest sweater. Join in!!

Wear Pink on Wednesday!!

Wednesday is Pink Day across Canada, an Anti-Bullying project. We will be reading a few stories about the subject and having a short discussion. If the children have anything pink they would like to wear that is another way to participate in the day. Anything pink will do! We will also make a pink craft so that everyone can have some pink to wear in case some don't get this note in time.

What Comes After Zed?

 We have finished our Letter A Day and now have begun our next unit, which is Fairytales!

We will be reading stories about castles,

                                                 enchanted animals,

and all your favourite characters.

So there's a lot that happens after the Zed!   

Preparing Valentine Cards

This is the weekend to get ready for Valentine's day. How to address the valentine cards? We ask that the children just put From and not To as it makes delivering the 400 plus valentines much less of a chore. The children can just put to my friend, or leave that part blank, and put from and their name, eg. From Gregory. They will each have a turn to put their valentines in all the bags, but we will not have to spend hours helping them read them all and finding all the names that match. We can do some other activities to learn to read and write their friend's names, but it's much better to keep their cards simple. Thank you for your help to make this a fun day of friendship!

Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year! The Year of the Horse!!

Happy Year of the Horse! We are celebrating in room 23 with paper lanterns, golden fish kites, art and lots of treats. Thank you to Russell Shen (Tim's dad) for bringing in dumplings for us to try. Yum!! He also taught us how to write Spring Festival in Chinese characters. Thank you also to Miranda Yu (Mark's mom) who sent in gorgeous red and gold decorations and lots and lots of yummy treats; oranges, cookies, chocolate coins and red envelopes with lucky money! Today we had a visit from our Cultural Liason Officer, Ming Wang. She told us about the holiday and showed us a slide show of its history. We got to taste spring rolls! Still to come are pomelo tasting, tea tasting and chicken dumplings. Of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, the children in this class are born either in the year of the rat or of the ox.

•Positive Character Traits: Charming and ambitious •Negative Character Traits: Short-tempered and sometimes sneaky •Most Compatible With: Dragon, Monkey, Ox

•Positive Character Traits: Dependable, trustworthy, patient •Negative Character Traits: Stubborn, hot-tempered •Most Compatible With: Snake, Rooster, Rat.

Here are some dragons. The dragon symbolizes the coming spring.



Here is a sample of a Chinese New Year card that people would send to each other. You can see the lanterns, the fireworks and the lucky red colour everywhere. The children are wearing the new clothes they receive as part of the celebrations. They might also have had a haircut!

These are dumplings which would be part of the big family dinner that everyone would eat together. They come in many shapes. These look a little like purses full of money. One of the wishes for the new year is prosperity. We had some fried dumplings to sample the other day at school and will try steamed dumplings soon.

 Here is a dragon for the Dragon Dance. On New Year's Day there will be many dragon dances for people to see. We are having a little one here, with lots of noise- makers to scare away any bad luck.

Here is another great Chinese dragon, this one on the top of  a beautiful building. Happy New Year!