News This Week

The Life Cycle of a Pumpkin
I hope your children had the opportunity to "teach" you about how a pumpkin grows with their "mysterious orange plate project". The children showed tremendous enthusiasm for this Science/Art/Language activity. Thank you to the parents who helped us put the finishing touches on our project on Wednesday and had the opportunity to witness the "Busyness" and focussed attention of the children, even at the end of a long school day.

No School
There is no school on Friday, October 22nd. On this day teachers from all over Manitoba will be attending SAG (Special Area Group) training and information sessions.

Fall Supper
We do look forward to seeing you at the Annual BSLS Fall Supper and Auction on Saturday, October 24th. This is an important fundraiser put on by the parent association (PIP), but is also a wonderful family evening of dinner, with a craft-bag for the kids, and opportunity to connect with other families.


Our First Field Trip of the Year
Our class has an opportunity to visit a Winnipeg Fire Hall as a culminating activity for our Fire Safety stories, talks, and activities. If you are able to drive for this event, please contact the office or me (lbutterfield@bsls.ca) to request the necessary forms to transport other children in your vehicle. Please complete these forms by Tuesday, to ensure that we are all set for our trip. The K class has been very responsive to the behavioral expectations in different settings, but it would be wonderful if you could talk to them about the safety aspect of staying with their group and asking the firefighters before touching items in the fire hall. Also, thanks for sending your child's car/booster seat to school that day so that they can travel safely to and from the fire hall.

Volunteers
We love having parents to volunteer in our classroom. Now that our classroom routines are more established and the children have made strides in developing connections with their classmates and teacher, I hope to maximize on your time in the classroom. There are many daily "maintenance" jobs (paint, art supply preparation, filing, materials prep, etc.) in a Kindergarten room that run much more smoothly with eager volunteers, and I am excited for this to begin in the last weeks of October.

Pumpkin, Pumpkin on a Vine...
You may have noticed our schoolwide "pumpkin patch", which is a tradition at BSLS. Each child will be carving a pumpkin (our Reading Buddies from Grades 5 & 6 give us important one-on-one help with this activity!) and will have the opportunity to take them home.

We will be celebrating "Pumpkin Day" at school on Friday afternoon, complete with a costume parade, group dance in the gym (the children have been learning dances in Phys. Ed. with Mrs. Bemister that the whole school will do together that afternoon), and treats provided by parents. If you are one of the families who will be providing that treat, you will have received a reminder e-mail from me at the end of this week. If you are still uncertain, feel free to chat or e-mail me with any questions.

Regarding costumes: I have been asked to pass on a school policy that there be no scary costumes, no masks, and no weapons with costumes at school. This is a highly anticipated event for the children, and having a costume at school inspires a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. Thank you to the parent-helper for that afternoon at school.

Fall Weather
After a delightful warm stretch of weather, the temperatures have been cooling off considerably, and warm jackets and mittens have begun their arrival to school (THANK YOU!). Since the tracking of mittens, hats, and other clothing is a very time-consuming activity in Kindergarten, I need to thank you in advance for labelling all your child's items. Some parents use specially-designed labels, but many have also found permanent markers on labels to be a very effective method.

It is a season of Thanksgiving, and our upcoming week of celebration certainly seems to reflect that. Thank you for all of your support for our school activities and Kindergarten work. Have a wonderful week!