Attention Parents!

The March News has been posted under the tab Monthly Newsletters.  I will also put a copy in the window tomorrow morning.

Our Favourite Things About February...

February started with Groundhog Day. We did lots of groundhog activities on that day.  We also made valentine holders with our big buddies in February.  We continued folk dancing in gym with Mrs. LaRiviere's class and Ms. Baldry's class and performed our dances for our parents and big buddies.  We celebrated Valentines Day and One Hundred's Day!  We got to use the iPods and wore pink to show our support for Anti-Bully Day!

My favourite part of February was...

Ali - absent today
Amanda - using the iPods
Crystal
David - Groundhog Day
Elyse - Folk Dancing
Faith - using the iPods
Gem - using the iPods
Joban - using the iPods
Joshua - using the iPods
Kaylee - using the iPods
Omar - using the iPods
Roc - using the iPods
Savio - absent today
Sophia - Valentines Day
Zahra - using the iPods

As you can see using the iPods was a big highlight of February and we hope to use them again soon.

iPods!!

Today we were lucky enough to borrow the set of 19 iPods that are on loan to our school right now.  We had them for the whole morning.  After our morning calendar routine, I brought out the iPods and showed the class the first app to check out.  We looked at ABC Touch, ABC Trace and Monkey Math.  The students absolutely loved exploring the different apps to learn.  After exploring the 3 apps, I announced that it was our usual center time, but if students choose to they could continue to use the iPods.  The majority of the students chose to keep working with the iPods.  They continued to use the apps we'd explored together, checked out other learning apps and even experimented with taking photos and making videos.  Here are some photos of us working on the iPods.

 ABC Touch 

 Find the letter "G"

 ABC Trace

 Working together makes learning fun!

 Monkey Math

I can't wait until we get to use them again!

Folk Dance

We have be learning folk dances in gym with Mrs. LaRiviere's class and Ms. Baldry's class since January.  On Friday we performed 4 dances for our parents and big buddies.  We performed Seven Jumps, The River Song (Can't Jump Josie), The KinderPolka and The Kindergarten Reel.  Here are a couple of photo's that I was able to snap and in the midst of making sure the students were doing the correct movements.

 "8 in the middle and you can't jump Josie..."

 KinderPolka

 Kindergarten Reel

 All finished

If any parents have more photos or even video of the dances and are able to pass them along via email please do and we can upload them to the blog.

A special visitor...

Today while we were doing math we had a visitor at the door.  It was Mrs. Spelliscy (another teacher from our school) and she had something special to show us.  It was a tiger skin.  As she walked into the classroom with the tiger, I watched 15 little bodies get up from their work and gravitate toward it. (I was unsure of the reaction they would have and worried some might be a little scared.) It was amazing!  Everyone was able to feel how soft it was and listen to the story of how Mrs. Spelliscy's father-in-law got the tiger skin.

Outside our window today!

Something exciting happened today.  IT STARTED SNOWING! This was the view from our classroom during the morning...

Unfortunately, by lunch time it turned to rain.

Big Gym Day

Every Wednesday is Big Gym Day at our school for the primary classes (grades K-3).  In the morning the teachers set up the climbing equipment, hockey nets, basketballs, bosu balls, and other various fun things.  We join Mrs. LaRiviere's kindergarten class for Big Gym Days every Wednesday morning.  We all love Big Gym Days. Here are some pictures of us enjoying ourselves today.

 Today was the first time the rollers were brought out and we really enjoyed using them.

 Acting like hermit crabs.

 Walking on stilts.

 Exercising.

Balancing.

Race to 100!

Today in math we played a fun game called Race to 100.  We played in partners and we each had a 100 chart.  We took turns rolling a die and colouring in that many squares.  The first person to 100 was the winner.  There was a lot of excitement in the class as students started to get close to 100!   

100 Days Smarter!

On Friday, we celebrated 100 Day!  It was such a fun day from start to finish.  We read books about 100; One Hundred Hungry Ants and Let's Count to 100.

 

We counted to 100 and we had 100 seconds of silence (it was tricky, but we managed to do it). We all brought a collection of 100 things.  We had some great collections; 100 rubber bands, 100 foot loops or other cereal treats, 100 pieces of pasta, 100 pennies, 100 sprinkles, 100 pieces of paper, 100 Cheezies, 100 Squeakies, and 100 beans.  We compared collection and found out which were the heaviest and which were the lightest using the balance scale from our science center.  We also worked together as class to put together a 100 piece puzzle.

After lunch our big buddies came to our room and helped us to make 100 Day eyeglasses.
How did you celebrate 100 Day?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Although we were missing a few students today we had a great valentines day.  

We started the morning by handing out our valentines to the heart pockets we made with our big buddies.  Once everyone had delivered their valentines we looked at what we had received and then put the heart pockets away until the end of the day.  At recess, Joshua handed out some delicious valentine cake pops that he had made with his Grandma.  Mmm.. they we so good!  During recess the grade seven students face painted hearts on cheeks of students that wanted it.  After recess we made a valentines glyph.   Yesterday, Mrs. MacFarlane told everyone that there would be a special surprise for those who remember to wear pink, red, white or purple. While we were making the glyphs Mrs. MacFarlane visited with a treat for everyone (a timbit filled with red jam).  After lunch we made a patch work friendship quilt with pictures of friendship.  Just before the end of the day we visited out big buddies to deliver valentines we had made for them. And they had special valentines they had made for us, too!
Here is a valentines slide show of all the activities we did today and some of the valentine activities we did leading up to Valentine's Day...

Splatter Painting Completed

Remember on Monday we told you about splatter painting?  Well everyone was able to splatter paint at some time during the week and by Thursday everyone's paintings were dry.  We cut giant hearts out of the splatter painted papers and glued them to large pink, red or purple backgrounds.  They turned out great!  Here is a little look at some of the paintings.  You will see more in the valentines slideshow Mrs. Morrison makes with all the special valentine projects we've been making and will make on Monday and Tuesday.

Meet Bones!

Dear Boys and Girls,

I am Bones the dog.  I have come to live in your class. I love getting letters from students. Tell me about you.  What is your favourite colour? What do you like? What centre is the best? Your teacher tells me you are good artists, so please draw me some pictures to go with your writing.
I promise to write back to you. So, please write soon!

Love,
Bones

This was the note that Bones wrote for the class.  Each student also received an individual letter from Bones!  We are all excited to write to Bones and put mail into her mailbox.

Bones even has special doggy writing paper.

Splatter Painting

 Today we started splatter painting. Not everyone got a chance today, but the rest will get a chance tomorrow or Wednesday.  Splatter painting is very fun because you just get to flick the paint on the paper and see what happens. But you have to be careful because it can also be very messy.  Stay tuned to see what we do with our splatter paintings once they are all dry...