Thursday 19 June 2014

Last time we need help, I promise

Dear parents, the following note is coming home today. We will need at least 2 parents to come with us, so please email me if you can come. Everyone is welcome to join us at the park.


Chers Parents,

            Congratulations! Your children have worked hard this year and we would like to celebrate by going to Dufferin Grove Park on Monday June 23rd. Area 24, along with two other grade 1 classes, will leave Dewson at 10:00 am and return by 2:00 pm at the latest. The children will get a chance to play on the playground, participate in games and Area 24 will enjoy a picnic lunch. Children are welcome to bring skipping ropes, a Frisbee, or a game to play with friends (please no balls, I will bring some from the school). Students are responsible for carrying and keeping track of their belongings. Parents are welcome to come join the celebrations.
            Please ensure that children are dressed for the weather, including sunscreen and hats. Children should bring a water bottle and litterless lunch and snacks if possible.
            No permission forms are required since all walking excursion forms have been submitted. If it is rainy, we will simply cancel and have some fun at school.

Thank you for all your support this year,

Mlle Mitchell

I'm also wondering if anyone would be willing to come in for an hour or two either Tuesday or Wednesday next week to repair one last batch of books and fix up the labelling on our borrow-a-books. I'd love to have this done before I pack up for the summer. Please let me know, thanks in advance!

Thank you, everyone, for supporting our reading program this year. Obviously I am beginning to get things packed up and will need all the classroom books to be returned. Please have a good search of the house and return all white books and classroom books by next TUESDAY. Our librarian has kindly offered to loan out books for the summer, an opportunity I hope everyone takes advantage of!

Though we will keep up our reading, writing, math and science work until almost the last day of school, we will have a few special things to celebrate the end of the year. Our park day Monday, a movie day mid-week and a celebration next Friday afternoon. Happily, our math unit has been full of games as well. Ask about the new spinner game we played yesterday!

Also, ask about the story we heard today. This afternoon I told the story - or rather the music told the story - of Pierre et le Loup. This is a famous piece of music by Prokofiev that truly tells the story of Peter and the Wolf. Each character is portrayed by a different instrument and you can tell what's going on by listening to what the music sounds like. For example, when the cat climbs the tree, you hear the clarinet play an ascending line, when the wolf is jumping to catch the bird, you hear the horns play quick shots, and the flute doodle above. I encourage you to ask your children how the music told the story, and to listen to it again, I'm sure you can find it easily on YouTube!

Finally, you may have heard about a special presentation we had Tuesday afternoon. We learned about Native Culture through an exciting dance performance by Tribal Vision. Ask your child what the costumes looked like and what their favourite dance was. Ask them also what a stereotype is and to give an example of a common stereotype we hold due to some movies and TV shows that depict native peoples.