February 7-11th

Hello again, everyone and Happy Chinese New Year! We have many exciting things on the go.

This week, we will be continuing to learn about Chinese New Year. We are reading a variety of fiction and non-fiction books. The children are really beginning to grasp the difference between the two! Please continue to reinforce at home. Our shared reading is a poem/song called 'The Dragon'. We are touch reading and identifying sight words. We will also use this poem as a 'jumping off point' for some creative writing. Together, we will brainstorm adjectives describing dragons and then the children will draw and describe their own dragons. The students have all cut, coloured, pasted and read their mini 'Chinese New Year' books and will be bringing them home to read with you tomorrow. Enjoy!

Our Math centre this week contains "Lucky Penny" adding and subtracting as well as a missing number activity in which the children must help the dragon fill in the missing numbers along his path (from 1-30). Lots of counting at home (we're also learning how to count by 10's to 100), and reinforcement of the terms 'adding', 'subtracting' and 'equals' will really help our budding mathematicians.

The SK's had a wonderful Chinese New Year parade and party on Friday!We used Wednesday's 'snow day' to decorate the classroom (thank you to Adrienne, Markus, Abasfiofon and Davide). Thank you to Adrienne's parents for sending in lucky red envelopes and treats for all the kids! After we completed our dragon puppets we headed down the hall to visit our Grade 5 Reading Buddies (who gave each student a red lantern)...how nice! We also paraded by our Child Care friends and then to the main office to take a picture with Mr. Tayler. Ask your child to sing our "Chinese 'hello' Song" for you!

100's DAY!
This Friday marks the 100th day of school! It's quite a milestone and we will be celebrating! Watch for a poem, mini book and pretend sunglasses. I would also ask that parents help their child collect, count and bring in 100 items to share (buttons, pieces of cereal, stamps, coins, candies, beans, etc.). The purpose is to get your child counting to 100, to help them visualize what 100 looks like and to think creatively about what they could collect. Of course, we'd like to create a "100s Day" book, so please help us! Thank you!

CHARACTER TREE
The SK's have been talking a lot about the qualities of a good friend.We know that a good friend is someone who listens, shares, cares, helps, smiles, includes others, uses a friendly voice and solves problems calmly. Each day this week we will start with our 'Friends' song (ask your child to sing it for you). We will then share our ideas about how each of us can be a good friend that day. It's a good way to focus our energy and it helps set a positive tone for the day. Outside our classroom we have a large paper tree that is quickly getting covered in 'Character Hearts'. Students in all 3 Kinder classes, as well as the Child Care give these hearts to their classmates when they catch them doing something friendly. I think we may have to plant another tree for all of our hearts! What a kind group of friends.

SHOW AND SHARE
Please find the new February Show and Share schedule in your child's note tote tonight (Monday). The focus is on 'friendship'. Children are asked to reflect on something friendly that happened to them at school. They draw a picture and, with your help, write a one or two sentence explanation. Watch for the Show and Share case (paper will be inside).

GRADE 4 EFI PROJECT
Mms. Kerkoven's Grade 4 EFI class is conducting a school-wide survey to gather information about children's TV watching habits. A slip will be coming home tomorrow--please fill in what you can and send it back by Thursday. Thank you for helping!

SCHOLASTIC BOOK ORDERS
Scholastic order forms went home today and will be due back on Monday, February 14th. Thank you.

VALENTINE'S DAY
Valentine's Day is on Monday, February 14th and we will be exchanging Valentine's and having some treats! Our 'friendship' focus will carry over into next week.

REPORT CARDS
By now you've had a chance to look at your child's report card. Please call me, or stop by, if you have any questions or if there's anything you would like to discuss further. There is no interview time set aside by the Board for this term, but I am happy to meet with you, or chat on the phone at any time. Please do not hesitate.
Also, please return the signed page 3 of the report card if you have not already done so. Thanks.

That's all for now--have a great week!
Ms. Cox