November Calendar

We tried to pack our November calendars in our pochettes today, but one was left behind in the hall. If you haven't received yours, let me know!

Dufferin Park Day

Hi Salle 202 families,

Our first trip of the year was a great success! We had a lot of fun at the park today. It got a bit chilly in the afternoon, but overall we were lucky with the weather and the kids all had a fantastic time. Thank you SO much to the many many parents who came with us, brought wagons, roasted marshmallows and passed out stickers, making this day very easy for all the teachers.

We spent the morning playing in the sandpit and structure area. Some of us played our favourite ball game, Soldat (I lost a lot), some of us played a card game (I lost both times), and some of us coloured. We also saw a huge hawk (I hear this is a normal thing in Dufferin Grove) in the morning and again in the afternoon. Can you see it sitting on the log in the picture below?

In the afternoon, we decorated our little pumpkins and we got to bring them home today. 

Then, we went to the campfire and enjoyed the warmth while our parents served up roasted marshmallow and graham cracker sandwiches. Miam miam!!!

Our students walked in beautiful two-by-two lines going to and returning from the park, and nobody ventured onto our neighbours' grass. Miraculously, we had no accidents and I only gave out one band-aid all day! It was a great practice for our next outing!! Thanks to everyone for preparing your children so well.

Please scroll down for info about Halloween day at Dewson, and happy weekend!

Tamara

Park Details & Halloween

Dear parents,

Thursday is our walking trip to Dufferin Grove. We're very excited!

If your child has a Dewson t-shirt, please have them wear it on trip day. If you do not have one, no worries, but do consider purchasing one at the next opportunity. It is very helpful to have these bright shirts on when we are off-property! Please remind your child to wear layers so that they are prepared to stay outside all day no matter what the weather. Note: We will be using permanent markers to decorate our gourds, so it's not the day for our favourite outfit!

Students will need to carry one bag containing their lunch, snacks and a water bottle. As the note explained, students may also bring activities or equipment as long as they can carry them independently.

Thursday will be super exciting, but there's more... Halloween is right around the corner!

We know how much kids like to celebrate Halloween at school, and we want the day to be fun for them. We are not planning a "party", but we will certainly plan some Halloween-y crafts, games, stories and music to get us in the spirit all day. We also welcome students to wear their costume to school on the 31st. We just ask that you leave any pretend weapons at home (e.g., devil's staff, sword etc.).
At Dewson we have a no food sharing policy at all times, including holidays. There was a page about this in the package of school forms that you received on the first day of school. Please do not send candy or treats for the class. If you feel compelled to send a little something for our class, you can always find thematic stationary and little party favours at the dollar store (we have 25 students in our class). However, there is no need to send anything at all. Dominique and I will have a little treat for everyone.
After Halloween, we expect that students will be allowed to bring a little candy in their lunch... I will most definitely be doing the same!! Please make sure any treats are nut-free and let's reinforce the importance of eating our healthy food first, and saving our treats for after lunch. (Fun Aside: one of my favourite questions to answer is "What is my main food and what is my snack?" - I love that the kids are thinking about this and trying to do the right thing!)

In anticipation of Halloween, we started working on some art to display on our hall board. We each drew a Halloween creature using white or gray oil pastel. Then, we painted over it with watercolour. The watercolour doesn't stick to the pastel (a technique called resist) and a little salt sprinkled over the top soaks up some paint, leave a kind of spooky look! Cool eh?

Last week, we opened our listening centre. We learned how to carefully handle a CD and get set up to listen by ourselves or with a partner. We listened to one book as a class, learning how to tell when it's time to turn the page. It's become a popular centre, especially during quiet time, and we absolutely adore seeing the kids engrossed in listening to a French book. Books on CD are sometimes featured in the Scholastic catalogues, and while they cost a bit more, they are a great way to get kids excited about reading!

Another cool building project happened during centre time... this is a playground, complete with a teeter-totter!

Finally, I snuck into gym a minute before the end of class to get an action shot!

Mots de la Semaine

We have started to make our way through our collection of Halloween stories (ask what happened in the story that my brother Darcy wrote!), and have been learning some thematic vocab. Here are some words for this week:

un squelette

un fantôme

un monstre

une citrouille

une sorcière

See you soon!
Tamara

Moon Sand

Thank you SO much for signing up to donate moon sand! I'll do my best to remind you via the blog. You can send it in a ziplock bag or disposable container. On weeks like this when we are expecting many donations, we may hold some back for future weeks when we don't have so much.
Salle 202's first moon sand donations are coming this Monday from:
Eloise, William, Malaika, Edith, Kinga and Elodie.
Merci!!

Les Couleurs

Dear parents,
I apologize for the massive mistake on the park trip note. On the top portion, the date is October 26th (correct), but at the bottom (volunteer return portion) it says the 27th. Can you believe that 3 other people proof-read this note and none of us caught it?? Anyway, the 26th is correct. Please don't come on the 27th!

Thank you to those who have already volunteered. We have enough parents to go ahead with the trip, but we will welcome as many parents who wish to come on this outing. I did not mention in my last post, although it is in the letter, that we are asking $3 for this trip, to cover the cost of marshmallows and a gourd for each child. If you could get that to us by Friday, that would be great. Please ensure there is a name with the money!

We got our picture done this morning, everyone behaved sooooo nicely and I think it's going to turn out really well! First time in a few years that I haven't had someone upset about their outfit - good job!

This week we are working on learning our colours. We did a classroom search for items of every colour and made colour groups. Here is what we found!

Words of the Week

Let's forget the English colour names for this week!

jaune

rouge

bleu

violet

vert

In our centre time, I've seen some great designs (turtles and flowers out of connecting pieces), some beautiful art, I've tasted some delicious playdough pizzas, and I even was treated to a gourmet meal at our restaurant, complete with a menu and a bill!!

"This is a picture of everyone trying their best." - Nayeli

Today's mail

Hi parents,

Today you are receiving two notes from the kindergarten team. One explains an upcoming walking excursion to Dufferin Grove Park. This is coming up quickly on October 26th. Please let me know ASAP if you are able to join us. We would love to have as many parents as possible for this first outing so that we can do an excellent job reinforcing safety and behaviour expectations in preparation for longer journeys.

The second note is another favour... a request for homemade moon sand for our outdoor space. I shared with our team how successful room 202's playdough calendar has been, and everyone loved the idea. We decided to use the same format to ask all kindergarten parents if they could contribute a batch of moon sand at some point, to our shared outdoor space. I've already mentioned how much our class has been enjoying the tester batch I made last week, and it's a super simple recipe. I do, however, recognize that you have already agreed to make playdough for our class, so I feel a bit uncomfortable asking you to do yet another job for us. If you are able, that's wonderful - thank you - but it is optional, so please don't feel pressured.

Last Friday's first show and tell was very successful! Our sharers all remembered, and came prepared with something to say about the item they were sharing. Great job! Looking forward to the next 5 this Friday!

Final reminder: tomorrow is picture day!!

Thanks, Tamara

Au Village des Sons

Bonjour!

It's been a fun week so far in salle 202! Let me give you a few highlights...

On Tuesday we left our outdoor crayons in the sun all morning, and when we went out after lunch, we discovered that they were melting. Some clever students figured out that crayons, like candles, are made of wax, so they melt when heated. We had fun doing some finger painting with the very squishy ones, and we set up another experiment to see if we could melt more, but the sun wasn't as hot in the afternoon. A very cool discovery - and we have the finger painted proof on our science board now!

We came up with a good game to play using the rubber paddles that we have outside... limbo!!

I tested out a Moon Sand recipe (you'll hear more about this later) and we set up a new sensory centre. Students really enjoyed the soft feel of the moon sand and made shapes and letters out of it. I've also been receiving lots of little playdough gifts from the playdough centre. It's so wonderful to know that we will be receiving new playdough every couple of weeks, as it allows us to save and dry small creations, and we don't have to worry about the colours getting too mixed up. Thanks again for your contributions!

Mme Dominique also made a new letter game which has us matching up the upper and lower-case version of each letter. She made them in the shape of ice cream cones, so this game is tons of fun!

We are up to the letter D now in the letters that we have spent time working on. To help students really develop good connections between the letters and their sounds, not only are we talking about letters each morning, circling them in the message, working on our printing and trying to work them into our centre time, but also, I have a great book about letter sounds that I'm slowly reading to the kids. It's about le village des sons, and each letter or vowel combination is a character. So far, I've told stories about a (who has a toothache and screams "aaaaaa", but then gets better and says "aaah"), b (who eats too much, gets a big belly and can't stop burping "b b b") and d (who always carries a backpack with dice in it, but stutters when he asks anyone to play with him "d-d-dice"). The kids are really into these short stories and I think the stories are helping us differentiate, especially between often confused letters like b and d. Ask your student to tell you the stories of Petit b and his brother d.

Wednesday morning was a bit of adventure... our first rainy drop-off of the year, and we really hadn't discussed the procedure even one little bit. If it's raining at drop-off, all kindergarten classes will meet in the downstairs kindergarten hall. The upstairs classes will be lining up by room 101 and the on-duty teacher will be present in the hall until we come pick up the kids. Rainy day pick-up for home kids is in the SE stairwell.
Thank you for being so flexible as we get our new independent morning routine going. You had clearly read my message before Tuesday morning, and got into the new routine even before the Principal sent her formal email out. The kids did manage to make it to Dominique and I on their own, and, even though you had been so helpful in gathering your children to me for attendance, it was even easier with fewer bodies standing around. Yay us!

Don't forget that next Tuesday is picture day!!

Mots de la Semaine
Here are some snacks that we eat frequently in our class. As we offer them to the kids, they always answer in French with "oui" or "non merci"!

une pomme

une orange

une tomate

le lait

le fromage

Show & Tell

Dear parents,

I mentioned at curriculum night that I would let you know about show and tell. Dominique and I have decided to have an opportunity for show and tell once a week, on Fridays mostly. On their turn, students may bring 1 home item to show and tell (or it can be a performance!) and we will make time after lunch, before going outside. The special item should be kept in the school bag except at show & tell time.

Each student will have 5 opportunities throughout the year, and I will include these on the monthly calendar. We will begin this week and get 2 turns each before Christmas break, then 3 after. We will, of course, make extra time if kids are away on their sharing day, but let's try not to forget when it's our turn. Thanks for your reminders!

Show & Tell Fridays

* Again, this is not 1 turn per child, each group will share on all 5 corresponding dates.

Oct. 13 Thurs. Nov. 16 Jan. 12 March 2 April 20	Alistar Arianna August Ava Sean
Oct. 20 Nov. 24 Jan. 26 March 9 April 27	Chase Chloe Dalila William Xavi
Oct. 27 Thurs. Nov. 30 Feb. 2 March 23 May 4	Edith Eliza Ella Elodie Eloise
Nov. 3 Dec. 8 Feb. 9 April 6 May 11	Malaika Max Mirabel Huxley Jude
Nov. 10 Dec. 15 Feb. 23 April 13 May 18	Kinga Luna Nayeli Noa Nora

Info & Update

Happy Thanksgiving!
We don't very often give our students a prescribed task - they usually have many many choices, even within our highly routined day! However, I couldn't send them home for Thanksgiving weekend without a decoration, so we made turkeys! We did have the choice between hand print feathers, or leaf feathers (using leaves that we gathered earlier this week). I think both versions look fantastic!

October Scholastic forms are also coming home and any orders are due by the 19th. Here are some recommendations from the Club de Lecture catalogue:
- 20F2 "Si tu veux dire merci..." - We are all about saying merci in our class, so students can help out when reading this book!
- 10F2 "Les émotions" - At this age, we are learning to deal with our feelings in a healthy way, so this book is fitting.
- 24F2 & 25F2 - These books are all English Robert Munsch books translated into French. Many students already know the stories in English, which means they easily understand and enjoy the story when read to them in French.

Naturally, I learned about one school event the 5 minutes after I sent the October calendar home. Tuesday the 17th is picture day. It's not a gym day, so we can wear whatever we wish and we'll do our best not to get dirty before the big moment.

Many students wore orange touches for Orange Day last Friday. Dominique and I decided to use the occasion as a way to talk about friendly behaviours that our class could use some practice with. We asked lots of students to role play situations that have come up at school, and demonstrate kind behaviour and problem solving. Some situations that we acted out were
- wanting to play with a new friend, using words not hands to get attention
- asking a partner to go to the washroom, and the partner saying YES!
- helping a friend who's sad or hurt, not simply walking by
- asking to be included in a game, and the group saying YES!

All of the kindergarten teachers and ECEs are currently spending a good portion of the day resolving small problems between peers, where often one person did something the other didn't like, and one or both students hit or pushed the other. We're confident that our students don't wish to hurt each other, but pushing or hitting seems to be an instinctive reaction. We always listen to what happened, have students apologize, and discuss what to do next time. We hope that students will begin solving problems with words, or come to a teacher right away, before the problem escalates. If you can reinforce the idea of keeping our hands and feet to ourselves, that would be great. It's a message that bears repeating.

You may soon receive an email from the administration about changes to our drop-off and pick-up procedures. We're trying to simplify, and make sure that all classes are doing the same thing. There isn't a big change for our class. We will still dismiss at our bench and "home kids" (as I call them) will wait with me or the teacher on duty until we see their picker-upper. Daycare kids will no longer come outside straight away, but will say with Mme Dominique upstairs to meet their daycare teachers. The main change that will affect you is in the morning. We are asking that parents say goodbye just outside the gate and we will have a staff member monitoring the gate to welcome students and make sure that no students are leaving the yard while the gate is unlocked. We hope that this will help with student safety at a time when we have all classes in the yard. We also wish to help students develop their independence by entering the school yard and coming to their teacher on their own. Now that we're into the second month of the school year, hopefully you feel comfortable with this too!

This week we observed students making some great designs at our math centre, some lovely drawings - some that illustrated our 3 to 3 poems - there was some masterful cutting of playdough going on and some very thoughtful make believe in the little house. We have updated our self-portraits for October and have added some new poems to our repertoire, including a much longer one that some kids learned in English last year and one that is very helpful in setting us up for quiet time. We LOVE hearing the kids speak French to us, whether it be a word, or a whole song. More students have earned their first prize, and many others are almost there!

Words of the Week

"J'ai fini" has quickly become the most popular phrase in our classroom, but we're glad to hear students using it in the right context. When we do poems, we often ask student leaders to select the next leader, but we specify garçon or fille, so that it's fair. They know what those words mean! We might need a little more practice on s'il te plaît (please). We know merci so well that it's kind of taken on both meanings... working on it!

s’il te plaît

j’ai  fini

un garçon

une fille

Have a lovely long weekend!