Les cinqs sens!

Yesterday we had tons of fun with Scientist Natalie! She taught us all about our five senses: sight, hearing, feeling, taste, and smell. We learned that our senses send messages to our brains and sometimes those are good messages and sometimes they are bad messages. We also learned that nerves run all through our bodies and they are what transport the messages from our senses to our brains. The students had a great time tasting, smelling, listening, seeing, feeling and exploring!
Thank you so much to Kayden's mom, Asif's dad and Lucas's mom who came in to help out :)
Here's a look at some of the fun:

Fun at East York Gymnastics!

We had a great time at East York Gymnastics Club on Wednesday. The students had lots of fun tumbling, jumping, climbing, running, and playing! Thank you so much to the parents that came to help us out! The day wouldn't have worked without you :)
Here's a look at some of the fun we had:

Scientist in the School

On Monday April 18th 2016, we have the exciting opportunity to participate in a Scientists in School workshop! Scientist Natalie will be coming to our class for the afternoon to teach us all about senses. She has asked me to arrange for 4 volunteers to help out with leading an activity. These workshops are always lots of fun and cannot happen without your help! All materials and instructions will be provided to you the day of. If you would like to join us, please let me know by sending an email.

Merci!

Overdue Library Books

Our wonderful librarian Ms Vincent has just informed me that a number of our students have library books that are overdue. If your child has an overdue book, or has not brought their book back from the previous week, they are not allowed to take a new book. Please have a look around your home and make sure you don't have any books from our library hanging around. If you think it's possible that you have a book at home but don't know the title, please let me know and I can find out what it is for you. If you know you have lost a book, please let us know so we can record the loss and get your child back to borrowing. Don't forget, we have library on Day 3 which currently falls on Thursdays. (Unfortunately last Thursday we were unable to take out new books because the Grade 8s were having their grad photos taken in the library but we will be going this week!) Please try to read your child's book with them when it comes home and make sure to return it before or on our library days!
Merci!

Playdough Request!

We have been going through a lot of playdough this year!! As such, we were hoping to have a few volunteers make us a new batch! If you'd rather just send ingredients, that would also be very helpful as the kids LOVE making it themselves :) Here's a great recipe we've found - the kids love it and it's super easy! Please feel free to use it at home as well.

Smelly Play Clay:
2 1/2 cups white flour (add a bit more if playdough seems too wet)
2 pkgs unsweetened Kool-Aid (you choose the flavour!)
1/2 cup salt
1 tbsp cream of tartar
2 cups boiling water
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Mix together first four ingredients.
Add boiling water and stir.
Add oil and continue mixing until cool enough to handle. Knead dough until it isn't sticky (you may need to add more flour here)
Store in air-tight container or ZipLock bag.

Merci!

We're Going on a Trip!

On Wednesday, April 6^th, our class will be walking to East York Gymnastics Club to participate in small group gymnastics classes with trained coaches! It will be a day full of fun and physical activity!

Your signature granting permission is needed, along with the $11.00 trip fee by Thursday, March 10^th 2016. Please place the signed permission form, emergency contact numbers, and cash in a sealed envelope or Zip-Lock bag.

A number of adult volunteers will be needed to supervise groups of children. If you would like to volunteer, please complete the relevant section of the permission form. We will contact you a few days before the day of the trip to let you know.

We will be leaving the school at 9:00 a.m. Please ensure your child arrives at school on time so we can get ready to go as soon as possible! Pick-up time will be 3:15 p.m., as usual.

Packing and dressing for the day

-          A packed litterless, nut-free lunch and snack is required. Please ensure that your child eats a good breakfast before arriving at school. We will be eating lunch at the gym once we have finished our class. If your child participates in the school snack program, we will serve it to them in the afternoon when we’ve returned.

-          Please ensure your child has a backpack appropriate for carrying their belongings for the day.

-          In order to participate in the class, your child must wear clothing that they can move around, jump, and play in – ex: sweat pants, leggings, or shorts and a t-shirt – and girls who have long hair must have it tied back. At the gym they will be playing in bare feet so there is no need to worry about having indoor shoes.

-          We will go to the club rain or shine so please dress your child appropriately to walk there  – please be aware that each student is responsible for carrying his/her own belongings. 

Special Dates to Note

Wednesday February 10 marks our 100th day at school this year! The students have been working hard to learn how to count to 100 (cent) in French. They are very excited! To celebrate, we are going to play some fun games, do some different colouring activities, and ask the children to share a collection of 100 things. We'd like them to count the objects out at home and bring them in for a show-and-tell. Please make sure the collection is small enough to carry! Some examples include: stickers, toothpicks, buttons, popcorn kernels, a picture with 100 things, beans, beads, or pennies. The children are really looking forward to this so please help us in fostering their excitement!

Also, since Valentine's Day falls in the middle of our long Family Day weekend, we will be having a small celebration on Tuesday February 16th. Activities will include games, treats, crafts, and fun! The students will each be making their own 'mailbox' for Valentine cards - if you would like to send cards or treats, please ensure there are enough for the whole class (28 students), they are nut-free, and you do not address them to each student - this makes the handing out process much easier!
Merci!

3-D Fun

As you know, over the past number of weeks, we have been exploring 2-D shapes. The children have been having a great time making shape art, sorting shapes, and finding shapes in the classroom. Please continue to work on this at home by asking them to find shapes in and around your home! Some of them are still having a bit of trouble with this.

This week, we are moving onto 3-D figures. One of the best ways to introduce these shapes is to compare them to objects that we see everyday. As such, we are asking that your child bring an item that is the shape of a cylinder (ex: a can), a cone (ex:a party hat), a sphere (ex: a ball), a pyramid (ex: a tent), a cube (ex: a dice), or a prism (ex: a box). Please ask your child to help you find one or a few of these shapes and BE CREATIVE! We will be putting together a  3-D museum to put all of the items on display while we talk about 3-D figures and then the items will be returned :)

Here are the French names for the 3-D figures we are talking about:

le sphère ~ sphere

le prisme rectangulaire ~ rectangular prism

le cylindre ~ cylinder

le cône ~ cone

le pyramide ~ pyramid

le cube ~ cube

Bonne Nouvelle Annee!

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a happy and restful holiday season!
Before talking about what's going on in the classroom, we'd just like to give a friendly reminder that it has been much colder since the break! Please make sure you send your child with snowpants, hats, mitts, neckwarmers, and boots EVERYDAY!!! We love to play outside and have a few extra of these things for a couple of children if they forget, but there have been a few cold days that some students weren't prepared and got very cold outside. It would also be helpful to send an extra pair of gloves/mittens as often they get wet in the morning and are still wet at lunch time. If you have any concerns about this please let us know :)
We've gotten right back into the swing of things in K3 and the students are working hard and excited to be learning again. Since the break we've been learning all about 2 dimensional shapes! We started off with a review of what shapes are and now we're moving into learning vocabulary in French and talking about how we can distinguish shapes from one another. This has lead to the students discovering that there are shapes all around us! They have been finding them in the classroom, outside, and all around the school. They've also been using shapes to make beautiful pieces of artwork.
Here's a few of the shapes that we've been learning about:
les formes  ~ shapes
le cercle  ~  circle
le triangle  ~  triangle
le rectangle  ~  rectangle
le carré  ~  square
l'ovale  ~  oval
la coeur  ~  heart
l'étoile  ~  star
le losange ~  rhombus
le pentagone  ~ pentagon
l'octogone  ~  octagon
l'hexagone  ~  hexagon

Here's a look at some of the fun we've been having: