Reminder!!

Crazy Hair Day and Volunteer Breakfast tomorrow! Should be an interesting combination.

On a completely different note...

Here is a link to a hilarious blog post you might appreciate at this time of year:

http://jenhatmaker.com/blog/2013/05/30/worst-end-of-school-year-mom-ever

Hope it helps you get to the end of June.  

Our Social Calendar for the Rest of the Year

Here are our Important Dates for June:

June 8th         Kindergarten Play Day 12:15 to 1:30

June 9th           Volunteer Tea in the Library  8:30 am

June 10th         PA day. No school

June 22nd       Lemonade and Cookie Party and 
                               Moving On Ceremony



Invitations will be coming home soon, but please save the date. We will be celebrating all the learning and growing of this first year of school and sending the children along to SK. Parents, siblings and grandparents are welcome. Lemonade will be provided and donations of nut free cookies are welcome. 

Royal Ball Tomorrow!

The children are most cordially invited to a Royal Ball at the palace, to be held on Friday, May 27th. Dress is princely attire, princess gowns or formal wear. Golden crowns will available at the ball. There will be dance classes held in preparation to this glittering event so that the children may brush up on their waltzes.

Summer Weather Plans

Dear Parents;

    Now that the weather has jumped to Summer mode, please make sure your child has a full water bottle, sun hat and has some sunscreen on. We play outside for the better part of an hour, so they need protection. Thank you for your help!

Play dough Makers

If you can make a batch of play dough for the class in the next few weeks, that would be wonderful. There are lots of recipes online, or you can use this one;

Next

Colored Playdough

---

Materials

• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 tablespoon cream of tartar
• Food coloring
• Saucepan
• 1 cup flour

Directions

1. Combine water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a saucepan and heat until warm.
2. Remove from heat and add flour.
3. Stir, then knead until smooth. The cream of tartar makes this dough last 6 months or longer, so resist the temptation to omit this ingredient if you don't have it on hand.
4. Store this dough in an airtight container or a Ziploc freezer bag.

Next: Kool-Aid Playdough

Thank you so much!    

Volunteer Tea

You are invited to the Volunteer Tea on Thursday, June 9th at 8:30 in the Library. If you have come in to class, helped on a field trip or done anything extra to help, please join us and be thanked! Looking forward to seeing you there.

URGENTish

We have a chance to do some very cool tshirt printing with car parts tomorrow. If you have a plain
 t shirt for your child, please send it in!! I will pick up some extra ones in case you don't get this last minute message. Even though I read the website repeatedly, I missed this. Thanks to Kate for picking up on this!!

Field Trip!!

Forms are coming  home tonight for a field trip next week. Please fill them out and send them back tomorrow before you forget. We are going to the Children's Festival and will see Will Stroet and the Backyard Band as well as enjoying all the other events on the grounds. We hope you can come along and enjoy the day with us (and help keep us safe on our trip!)

Here's the link:

http://ottawachildrensfestival.ca/?gclid=CjwKEAjw3qu5BRC-0uCw8O6Y5zcSJAA_WtdLGTcGIR2RXSgG3iqkHI2J3PQtxw-Agp3qhYR2ra0yfxoC6jvw_wcB


Here's Will:

http://ottawachildrensfestival.ca/will-stroet/

Book Bonanza Class Visit Tomorrow!

Our class will visit the book fair tomorrow afternoon. Please send in a few dollars so they can buy a couple of books. Please put the money in a baggie or an envelope with their name on it to simplify the shopping experience for the teachers. Thank you.

Thank You!!!

Thank you to Kate Rule-Cartwright for organizing  us and coming in to class on Monday to make our gorgeous sun prints. They are beautiful and so many people are enjoying the art that our class has made. Parents please stop by our classroom to see them! I will post a picture of our prints soon as well.

Dental Screening

There is a very kind public health nurse coming in to do a quick dental screening on Monday, May 2nd. She will just have a brief look into each child's mouth. It will be very short and non-scary.

Toys at School

We have always asked that children keep their own toys at home. Please check your child's backpack and help us to keep their toys at home. It will save many problems and interruptions. Thank you!

T Shirt Reminder

If you haven't already ordered a Broadview centennial t shirt for your child and you would like one, please send in the purple form tomorrow. Many thanks!

Please Help Us with our Art Project

We will be making some secret art on Monday and displaying these at the Art Show for you.  If you would like to help, please gather some small objects of interesting shapes and send them in a baggie with your child. Some examples are nuts and bolts, shells, buttons of various sizes, natural materials like leaves or flowers. Please mark your child's name on the baggie so we can return things. Thank you for your help with this exciting project!

The Magic of Names

After reading Rumplestiltskin we talked about how important names are. We made these charming name leaves for a special tree and now we are wondering about our names. Why were our names chosen? Do they have a meaning? 
The children will be bringing home a sheet with a leaf shape on it. Please fill it out and send it back so we can make a small leaf book to celebrate their names. We are also making a Magic Name Tree. Thank you for your help!!
 (Bonus if you cut the leaf out neatly for us!!!) 

You Are Invited!!!

Wheels at School

We're very happy that the weather is getting nice enough for the students to ride to school and we want to encourage all that healthy exercise. Since we have no storage room in our class or halls, please put your child's bike or scooter on the bike racks and lock them up. Many thanks for your help with this happy time of year!

Polka Dots, Stripes and Plaid Day Tomorrow

Well the rest of the school finally caught up with our class. We had a pattern day in October and they are having one tomorrow. Please get out all your dots, strips and plaids and layer them on for a spiffy Spirit Day! 

Mud Season Reminder

This is pretty much what our class looks like after recess, so please make sure your child has extra pants, undies, shirts and socks. If you can send them in splash pants that is a great help. Thank you!!

Twin Day

We are all dressing up as people from the 1920's on Friday for Twin Day. Please dress your child in a light coloured dress  for the girls or white shirts and black pants for the boys. Thank you for your help!

Happy March Break!

Have a wonderful holiday. See you on March 21st!

What Comes After Zed?

 We have finished our look at the Alphabet and Chinese New Year.  After March Break will begin to read Fairytales!

We will be reading stories about castles,

                                                 enchanted animals,

and all our favourite characters.

Lots of fun happens after the Zed!   

More tissues, please!

We have just come to our last box of tissues. Please send in a box if you think of it! Many thanks.   

Friday Tie Day

Well, tomorrow is Tie Day for a school Spirit Day. The thought of 25 children in our care with loops around their necks makes us more than a little nervous, so here's the plan. We made some PAPER ties with the kids which they can wear. If you have other safe, non-choking, clip-on ties at home, they are welcome to wear those as well. Or they can wear them in their hair. Thank you for your help!!

Happy International Women's Day!

The class drew some superwomen and made some flowers to honour the women in their lives.
We are very proud of how well the children can draw!!!

Owls Everywhere

On top of our study of Chinese New Year, we are talking a lot about owls these days. The children are very interested in birds and owls have become a favourite. It is not hard to see why.

Please send sweaters and socks!

Dear Parents;

  It is a bit chilly in room 20 these days, and until we get it sorted out, please send a warm sweater with your child each day. Some extra socks are also helpful, especially once the weather finally warms up. While you are thinking about it, please make sure your child has a complete outfit of clean clothes in case of accidents. If any dirty clothes have come home lately,  please send in some new ones. Thanks so much!

Happy Belated Lunar New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Year of the Monkey! We are celebrating in room 20 with paper lanterns, dragons, Chinese brush art and some treats. Last Monday we had a visit from our Cultural Liason Officer, Ming Wang. She told us about the holiday and showed us a slide show of its history. Still to come are pomelo tasting and chicken dumplings. Of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, the children in this class are born either in the year of the rabbit or of the tiger. Children born before Feb. 3 are tigers! 

Here are some dragons. The dragon symbolizes the coming spring. Unlike Western dragons they are bringers of water and rains and good crops. We are learning that in the winter they live in the bottom of each river and lake and wake up in the spring. 



Here is a sample of a Chinese New Year card that people would send to each other. You can see the lanterns, the fireworks and the lucky red colour everywhere. The children are wearing the new clothes they receive as part of the celebrations. They might also have had a haircut!

These are dumplings which would be part of the big family dinner that everyone would eat together. They come in many shapes. These look a little like purses full of money. One of the wishes for the new year is prosperity. We will try steamed dumplings soon.

 Here is a lion costume. On Lunar New Year the lion gets lettuce and red envelopes from local businesses and brings them prosperity. We are having a little lion dance here, to bring luck to our school. We will also have lots of noise- makers to scare away any bad luck.

Here is another great Chinese dragon, this one on the top of  a beautiful building. Happy New Year!