The last week of school this year!

Hi everyone,
I can't believe we are in our last week of school before the Christmas holidays!  It is a busy week for our class.  I know Mrs. Teague has a fun activity planned for Wednesday- please remember to send in $2 to pay for the icing!

I forgot to send my notice home for what we are doing Friday - it will go home today.  We are having a pancake breakfast, but in order to make this successful, I'm going to need some help!  Please let me know if you can stay to volunteer for that morning - from 8:30-9:30.  I also have a list posted on our classroom door of things we will need.  Please sign up to bring something there - or e-mail me to let me know and I'll add your name to the list!  It will be a pajama day - so send the kids in their jammies!  We will be joining Mr Mulholland's class at 9:30 to watch a movie.  After recess there is our Christmas assembly and sing-a-long!  Parents are welcome to join us!

I hope you all got a chance to see the Christmas play last week - our kids did great!  They were excited to be a part of it and you should all be proud of how well they did.  I don't know about you, but I have had "White Beard" stuck in my head all weekend! Ugh!

Christmas Countdown

Things are busy in Division 14!  You can feel the excitement in the air - the kids are looking forward to Christmas!  We hear a lot about Santa and everyone's Elf on the Shelf :)

There is a lot going on and there is a lot to remember - hopefully this list will cover most things. 

1) Please make sure you kids have warm coats and hats, scarves, mitts, etc.  It was REALLY cold out today (I was doing recess supervision and was freezing!).  There were quite a few kids who didn't have a coat.  I know they are running about keeping warm, but if they have a coat here, I'll make sure they wear it!

2) I've set up a temporary "lost and found" in our classroom.  There are coats, hats, mittens, socks (yes, socks!) water bottles and miscellaneous lunch kit containers in it.  Feel free to pop up and rummage through it before I sent it down to the school lost and found.

3) Report cards went home yesterday.  Please sign the back of the folder and return it AND the envelope so they can be reused for next term. Thanks!

4) We are setting up an "Imagination Station" in our class where the students use their imagination to make wonderful creations :)  We are collecting small items for this - things like milk jug or pop bottle lids, toilet paper rolls, different types of paper or "crafty" things they can add to their creations.  Things you find in your recycle bins! We don't have a lot of space, so only small items please!

5) Next Friday the 13th we will have our guest artist back in to finish up our secret project!  Please remember to have your kids wear clothes that can get messy as we'll be painting.

6) Finally - the Christmas concert is coming fast and the kids are excited!  There is a dress rehearsal on Tuesday and your child will need to wear/have their costumes.  Our class should be wearing red and green clothing and Santa or Elf hats.  If you don't have one, please let us know as I have a few extra Santa hats at home I can bring in.  My daughter needs an elf hat and I just picked one up at Dollarama in Cloverdale for $1. They will also need to wear their costumes on Wednesday and Thursday for the performance.  If you want them to leave their hats here - please have them clearly labelled and we'll keep them in a bag and hand them out in time for the show so they don't go missing.

Hopefully everyone got tickets for the show.  The two afternoon shows are during school time, but on Thursday Dec 12th, the evening show is at 6:30.  If your child can not make that show, please let us know as soon as possible.  You will drop your child off at our classroom at 6pm - we will be joining the other grade 2 classes for some Christmas fun while we wait for our part of the performance.  You can pick them up at our classroom at the end of the concert (7:30ish).  I'm looking forward to spending that "non-school" time with them!

Thanks for letting me bombard you with information!  Have a great weekend!

Papier Mache

Just a reminder that the Papier Mache artist is coming to our classroom this Friday afternoon to work with us. This will be the first of two Friday sessions (next week as well). Please ensure that your child is dressed in clothes that can get messy!

Animal Reports

As we are reaching the conclusion of the term and our Science unit on Animals, your children have started a research book on Animals. They spent an afternoon enjoys a mountain high pile of animal books and then gave Mrs. Teague a list of the top three animals they wanted to learn more about. They have now been put into small groups of 2 or 3 and given an animal to research. Over the next month they will be writing an All About... book.  If you have any nonfiction books at home that fit one of our categories feel free to send it in for us to use! (Make sure it is clearly labelled so we can return it.) We would also encourage you to take your child to the public library and sign out a book or two on their animal. Additionally, it would be a great idea for your child to look up some interesting facts on their animal on the internet. These can be written in their planner or brought in on a slip of paper in the planner pocket. National Geographic Kids has a great section full of animal facts. Ask your child which animal they have been given to study and let the research begin!

Here are the animals that we will be learning more about:

Beavers, Snakes, Cheetahs, Alligators/Crocodiles, Dolphins, Deer, Eagles and Bears. 

I am also including the rubric for the report. This will be used to assess your child's progress. The students and I will discuss these goals in class and talk about the scale from 1 to 4.

Mrs. Teague

November 24

Some parents have been asking about when their child can exchange their home reading books.  They all are assigned to a day of the week when they can go exchange their books at silent reading (after lunch).  Encourage them to remember to bring their books to exchange on their day!  If you find the level of book they are reading at is too easy or too hard, please let us know and we'll be sure to read with them and re-evaluate where they are at. 
Monday - Simon, Evan, Quinton, Grace
Tuesday - Zak, Tia, Rachel
Wednesday - Katalina, Daniel, Cohen, Carel
Thursday - Owen, Quincey, Quinn, Amaris
Friday - Arjun, Tyson, Chloe, Peyton
 
You should have all received a notice home about the guest we have coming into our class this Friday to teach us papier mache!  We are all very excited for this.  If possible, please send a 4x6 or 3.5x5 photo (landscape orientation, not portrait) of your family or of your child.  We won't actually need this till after it is finished in a few weeks, but I know I am not always on top of developing photos so if you are like me, this will give you some time :)

Our class will be performing some songs in the Christmas Concert this year! This year our Christmas Musical, "A Pirate Christmas" will be held on Wednesday, December 11th at 1pm and Thursday, December 12th at 1pm and 6:30pm.  Stay tuned for more information!

And finally, just so you aren't thrown off on the days of the week, Mrs Tan will be working on Wednesday and Thursday this week, and Mrs. Teague will be working Monday, Tuesday and Friday.  

November 15

I hope you all were able to enjoy a great long weekend last weekend.  We had a Remembrance Day Ceremony at school last Thursday.  There were a lot of parents there, but if you weren't able to attend, I wanted you to be able to see the banner that Mrs. Teague put together with the kid's artwork - it was beautiful! It looked so lovely hanging in the gym with banners from other classes.  I meant to snap a picture of it that day, but forgot!  I rehung it quickly on our wall so you'd be able to see it.  The kids should be proud of this!

A reminder that the kids have Library on Thursday mornings.  Please help them to remember to bring their library books in the book bags that day so they are able to take out new books each week!

Hopefully you noticed that the kids came home with a lot of homework today :)  The Second Step worksheet shouldn't take them long. They can return this to me next Thursday.

I'm very excited about the map assignment!  We spent a lot of time talking about it today and I hope they are as excited to map their rooms as I am to see the finished products.  I showed them an example I made (I mapped my daughter's room) and told them I'd post a picture of it here for them to look at if they needed help or ideas.

The project instruction sheet goes over what is required on the map - title, legend, symbols, compass, labels.  They know it should be a "birds eye view". We spent a great deal of time also talking about what it means to make it neat.  They should use a ruler to make straight lines.  They should do the map in pencil first, but can outline it with a fineliner when it is ready.  They can use pencil crayons or crayons to colour it - please no felts.  They should use their very best printing!  This is due NEXT Thursday. Oh - I also told them it is much easier to map a tidy room - so hopefully you'll have some clean bedrooms this weekend too ;)

Have a great weekend!