A BEARY GOOD START

A BEARY GOOD START
As part of our new unit on bears, we have shared several bear stories (the children were particularly enchanted by the stories by Jez Alborough) and we have created a den for a bear as a cooperative class project. Our first version utilized materials found in the classroom, and we will be planning others that will involve materials brought to school. The den has already been a favourite spot for the children to read a book or do a puzzle with a Kindergarten friend.

One of the dens we will be building over the next several weeks will be made from 4L milk jugs. We will be making an appeal to children from the entire school to bring in their (well rinsed!) milk jugs to share with us for our project.

Home Reading logs are being filled very quickly and the children are very anxious to exchange their book each day. As each sheet is filled, a sticker will be added to your child’s folder to give them a visual sense of their progress. PLEASE let me know if this is not a fun, snuggle up and read time for your child. If your child does not want to read at home, or they want you to read a book from your bookshelf instead, feel free to read it to them, talk about something silly in the story that you liked/they liked, then log the book onto the sheet and send the book back to school. If you jot me a note that you have had to make changes to ensure your child’s enjoyment of your reading time, that would be appreciated. I am working on reading strategies during my mini-conferences with the students at school.

BEACH PARTY
This Friday, your child may bring “summer wear” (no bathing suits, please!) to Kindergarten. Some ideas: a “sun hat” or any hat that is not a toque (!) will do just fine, sunglasses, sandals/flip flops, shorts. If it is very cold outside we will wear shorts over our pants, just in case there is some emergency for which we must go outdoors. However, if the weather continues as warm as it has been thus far this week, we will wear our shorts indoors, put on snowpants for recesses, and change back to pants at the end of the day!


Some of the activities we are planning include:

Beach party invitations
The children very much wanted to invite their parents to the party, so if you would like to join us for the last class to have treats with us, that would be fantastic. If your work schedule precludes you from attending, we have prepared the children for the idea that they can take home a treat for you instead!

Inflatable boat filled with water for some indoor splashing fun (and a lesson on less, more, and conservation).

A dance party to some beach music by Jake Chenier and reggae artists who perform children’s music.

Party food – While I had planned on bringing the treats, the children were very excited at the prospect of bringing something, too. Please do not feel that you need to do special shopping or baking, but if you have some beach party snacks that your child would like to share, they are welcome to bring it to class.


STAR OF THE WEEK
Thank you to S. and her Mom for: sharing interesting facts about you, fun illustrations of the time Wazo and Zazo spent with you, puppy figure estimating, photos, playing a puppy guessing game, and giving a presentation on dog bite prevention. Thanks, also for bringing Dizzy and Brick for a visit from Woofs and Wags doggy daycare. This week’s star is R., and we will be estimating Lego blocks in our jar this week.

Do you have any of the following items at home? For projects at school we will be using:
4 L milk jugs with lids
1 L milk/cream containers


Thanks for helping us to
Reduce-Reuse-Recycle


DATES OF NOTE:
Wednesday, March 10th
Report Cards sent home with students
Tuesday, March 16 – Thursday, March 18th
Sign up for a Conference with your child and their teacher is outside the school office.
I would love to speak with each and every parent with their child.
Friday, March 12th
Beach Party in Kindergarten

~Thank you for all of your support!
Mrs. Lorianne Butterfield