Beautiful park day!

What a full week! On Tuesday, our school celebrated Pride month with a lovely ceremony before school, and some special storytelling in the afternoon. We welcomed back Fay and Fluffy, who had done an after school workshop earlier this year, and they told some great, age-appropriate stories (while dressed in their amazing and extravagant garb). I was impressed with our students who were able to explain who Fay and Fluffy were and could even explain why we celebrate Pride. We talked about accepting people no matter what they look like, and never teasing anyone who might have a different family structure than our own, be it one parent, one mom and one dad, two moms, two dads, or two parents that live in two places.

On Wednesday we began the day with a special presentation about how milk arrives in our homes. Our presenter, and her assistant Milkshake the cow, was excellent and had a cute little song explaining each step of the process from cow to table. The workshop culminated in us getting to shake up some cream and make butter. Anyone who wanted to got to taste the fresh butter on a cracker and boy, was it delicious! Fresh butter is something else! Ask your expert what some dairy products are!

Also on Wednesday we had our final visit from our reading buddies. To thank them for their work with us, we made them cards and invited them outside for freezies and a game. Merci Salle 216 et Mlle Gleason!

We've also had some surprise performances this week. First by our class singers and band (complete with MC), then a delightful surprise for me in the morning, two girls practisinging our O Canada actions before school began (they match with some of the French words - you should definitely ask to hear/see this!), and finally a puppet show by a visiting librarian. She was reminding us about their summer reading program and events. Please check out the Toronto Public Library sites for fun workshops and storytelling this summer (some are even in French). You can visit any branch to get your materials to participate in the summer reading program. The kids collect stickers for each book they read!

Today, we spent the afternoon at Dufferin Grove with the other kindergartens. We had a picnic lunch and then had plenty of time to play and enjoy the sunshine. I especially love the giant sand pit at Dufferin. I gathered our students around briefly to watch the "rain" pour down from the tap and carve its way through the sand to the "ocean". It gave us a good visual of rain water making its way through streams and rivers to the ocean, helping to answer the last inquiry question on our sheet.

Happy last weekend!