Halloween

Just a reminder that kids are encouraged to wear costumes tomorrow, however, masks and weapons are not permitted.

Kindergarten dances at 930 tomorrow, so feel free to join us in the gym! Wear your dancing shoes!

Letter T this week for PAT

We Scare Hunger

Our school is taking part in a food drive that starts today and runs until Friday November 4th. Please send in non-perishable food items. Some of the most needed items are:
Instant coffee
Cereal
Pancake mix
Syrup
Cookies
Crackers
Side dishes
Dry soups

Thanks

Pumpkin Investigation

We have been doing some pumpkin investigations.   Tomorrow we are going to carve our pumpkin.  The kids voted on the type of face and the scary face won!

Lock Down Drill

We had our first lockdown drill today. During a lockdown the children sit quietly in the cubby area. We turn out the lights and lock the classroom door and close the blinds. We tell the children we need to practice lockdown in case an animal gets into the school. We tell them we sit quietly with the lights out so that we don't frighten the animal in the hallway.  We explain that we have to practice this, just like we practice a firedrill.
The kids were awesome and very quiet.  We do two lockdown practices each year.

We are "Fall"owing Jesus

Have a look at our fall bulletin board!

Lost and Found

Is anyone missing any of these items?

PAT TIME

This week is the letter A.

Our first week of Pat went very well. Each child presented their item in front of the class.  We all usesd our "PAT hands" to sound out the word, then each child got a chance to choose one person to ask them a question about their object.  The purpose of this is to encourage asking good questions using who, what, when, where, why and how.  We want the children to ask questions that lead to "juicy answers" as opposed to simple yes and no answers.   For example, if someone brings in Superman, instead of a child asking "do you like it?", we want them to ask something like "what kind of power would you have if you were a superhero?"  Part of inquiry learning is asking good questions to deepen student thinking.
Practice the 5 W's (and how) with your child at home....have fun!

Rosary Apostolate

Today our class had our first visit from our Rosary Apostolate volunteer ( Mrs. Sparano) who will be coming in every month to teach the children about praying the Rosary.  This is something the whole school is taking part in.  Today the children learned  the Hail Mary using actions to go with the prayer.  In your child's mailbag is a Rosary for them to keep at home.  Each child was also given a colouring book that we will keep at school. This month we coloured the picture of the the first Joyful Mystery : The Annunciation of the Lord.  This is where the angel Gabriel tells Mary that she will be Jesus' mother.  We are very excited that our school will be taking part in this beautiful program!  Thanks Mrs. Sparano for doing such a great job teaching the kids today!

Sorting

The kids have been doing some sorting with natural materials and man-made materials.  Have your child sort objects around the house using different sorting rules (size, colour, shape etc.)

Leaf Investigation

This beautiful fall weather has prompted a lot of interest in leaves.  The children gathered some leaves from our playground and brought them inside to have a look at them.  This investigation captures what the children see, what they think about the leaves and what they still wonder about. This is the inquiry stance that we want to promote as children are naturally curious at this age. This type of investigation captures the children's observations, thinking and questions, which is what inquiry is all about.

Fog Inquiry

Today's foggy weather prompted a few of the students to want to do some research on fog.  Who knew that there were so many different types of fog: valley fog, ground fog, ice fog, steam fog

My Mouth is a Volcano

We  read this great story about a boy named Louis who thinks his thoughts are so important that he keeps interrupting everyone.  His teachers and parents tell him that he has a "volcano mouth".  It is a funny story that helps children understand the importance of listening to others and waiting for a turn to speak, because everyone should have a chance to be heard.

The Big Crunch

We had a lot of fun in the gym yesterday morning during The Big Crunch!  The entire school bit into an apple at the same time, WOW what a sound!  The purpose of the event was to promote healthy eating and what better way than to enjoy a perfect snack!  The apples were supplied by Halton Food For Thought.  Our class was amazing as the kids had to be really patient while over 700 apples were handed out to students, then we watched a short film about apples and then we counted down 3-2-1-CRUNCH!
We had great school spirit today with all the Blue Jay attire ....GO JAYS GO!

Apple Tasting

The class has voted....red apples are the favourite.  We are looking forward to the "Big Crunch" on Thursday. The whole school will be gathering in the gym and we will all be taking a bite from an apple at the same time.  Such fun!!

Week of October 11th

Tuesday October 11- Scholastic Book orders due
                                - Milk program starts

Thursday October 13- The Big Crunch--wear your favourite apple colour red, green or yellow
We will be doing some apple tasting this week!

Friday October 14- First pizza treat lunch if you ordered for your child
                             - our class reading buddies start.  Mr. Hundt's grade four students will be our  
                             reading buddies again this year.  They will join us after lunch every Friday to read
                             to our students

GO JAYS GO!!!

Feelings

 Last week we read a book called The Way I Feel.  We discussed  that all emotions are part of who we are. Sometimes we are happy or excited, but sometimes we feel sad, mad, frustrated or angry. We talked about our internal weather as being sunny or cloudy and then we talked about how we could change our internal weather when we have negative emotions.   One simple strategy is deep breathing. We breathe in slowly through our nose and out through our mouth, 10 times. This helps relax the body and calm the mind.
 Sometimes throughout the day, when the noise level gets too loud, we have the children stop what they are doing, sit quietly, close their eyes and we have a meditation minute.  This helps the children relax and refocus. We will be talking about other strategies in the future.

Busy Place

Our drive through and McDonald's have been a busy place!

This Week

 Our at home reading program begins on Monday, October 3rd.  The reading logs were sent home in your child's mail bag on Friday.  Each time you read a story to your child, please record it on the log. The log is to be returned on Thursday, November 3rd.  Happy Reading!

Friday October 7th is a PA day so there is no school for the children.

McDonald's

 Our drama centre is currently a McDonald's restaurant. The kids wrote a note to the store asking for some supplies. Miss Araujo delivered the note to one of our local stores and they were happy to provide us with some materials.   The children have been enjoying making their own hats and aprons and we even have a drive-through!