Upcoming Dates / Reminders:
- Thank you to those who have brought back students' indoor shoes after the break and have already returned the report card envelopes. If you haven't yet, please send them in so we can reuse the envelopes for the final term.
- Class and school photos are happening this Wednesday, April 6th. All students will receive a class photo at no extra charge. If you would like to purchase whole school photo, an envelope went home on Friday for the $10 payment. Please return the envelope with payment on or before the 6th or simply recycle the envelope if you are not interested in the whole school photo.
- Scholastic orders went home today. Please have orders in by Friday so we can place the order on the weekend.
- Read Around the Room this Friday, 8:40-9:00am in our class. All are welcome.
- Popcorn Day is on Friday.
- Next Monday, April 11th is a Non-Instructional Day for students. Our Saanich District elementary staff will be collaborating on the new curriculum at Lochside.
- Every year I like to invite our Moms in for a Mother's Day Celebration. This will happen the morning of May 6th when we usually have Read Around the Room starting at 8:40am. We will have a special presentation ready for you and should be done before 9:30am. I'm giving lots of notice so moms can make arrangements to be here. If you cannot make it, consider asking Grandma, an aunt, or another special lady in your child's life to attend.
- We have changed pick up procedures for the final term. Usually the students line up and wait for Miss Norris before leaving but as they are growing, maturing, and getting ready for Grade 1, I would like to give them a little more responsibility. I will continue to walk them out to the outside door and say 'Goodbye' to them, but if they see their adult, they are free to walk over to them. If they do not see their adult, they will go to our usual line up spot against the wall and wait for their adult. I will stay outside until each student has been picked up. After school care students will continue as we have been. I pass them directly to their caregiver. If you have any questions/concerns, please come talk to me.
We have so enjoyed our Cultural Suitcases and just have a couple friends left to share. We will be starting our 'Scientist of the Day' box on April 5th. A notice went home before the break about this next Special Helper job. This is meant to be a fun job and the experiment does not need to be fancy. Seeing what food colouring does to celery or carnations is just fine, for example. It is suggested that you practice the demo with your child before their day. This activity allows your child to build on their oral presentation skills and is tied in with learning about Science which all children have a keen interest in.If you are looking for more science experiment ideas, check out these links:
- http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html
- http://www.schoolofdragons.com/how-to-train-your-dragon/science-experiments
- https://sciencebob.com/category/experiments/
- http://www.kidspot.com.au/things-to-do/collection/science-experiments
Classroom News:
Virtue: Our virtue this month is Integrity. We will use story to talk about being loyal to others, being true to yourself, and being your best.
Literacy: This week we will be looking at the letters L and F. We will practice printing them and forming them correctly. We also talked about the sounds they make and noticed what our mouth does to get ready for this letter, i.e. tongue goes to the top of the mouth, or teeth are on the bottom lip, etc. A stop motion studio has opened up in our classroom. We are using our class iPad and the Lego Movie Maker app and some toys in the classroom to tell a story through video. As we create stories, we will use them as a discussion to talk about story parts; i.e. characters, setting, problem/conflict, ending, etc. We have introduced these elements while listening to stories and it will be neat to see the children come up with their own stories using these elements.
Math: This week we will be decomposing the number 3. We will use concrete materials and draw different ways to show and make 3.
Science: We will be moving into a new topic: Spring! We have begun to talk about signs of Spring and will start to share our wonders about Spring.
Gym: We will be starting a parachute unit this week.
Computers: Today we warmed up in the computer lab by playing and creating in Tux Paint. Next we tried a new PBS Kids game called 'The Quiet Machine' where we matched the first sounds in words. You can try out the game here: http://pbskids.org/lions/games/