Our Elf is busy when we go home!

Shhh!  Elfie is sleeping!

Elfie likes to colour!

Riding on the train with some friends!

Cards, anyone?

     Welcome to the last week of school in 2017!  The children are busy with special activities for this wonderful time of year.  We completed our "This is Me in December" pictures this week.  Miss Santiago and I love watching the children's development as they continue to add more details to their pictures and write sentences using their sound knowledge, sight word vocabulary and environmental print in the classroom.  The Junior Kindergarten students completed a colourful book about reindeers and the Senior Kindergarten students wrote a book about a Christmas tree.  The books are included in your child's mailbag this week.  Please look carefully in their sound review books or poetry books for work.  The January calendar was also sent home on Friday.  Please keep it in a safe place for next month.  Enjoy the new poems and songs in your child's poetry book this weekend.  We also discussed Hanukkah this week and the children made menorahs.  On Tuesday, the class made ornaments with their Reading Buddies.  They are on display on the Christmas tree in the front hall.
     The children loved playing in the snow this week.  Thank you to everyone who sent in extra mittens with your child.  We play outside at lunch and then often have outdoor play first in the afternoon.  There is no time for mittens to dry, so an extra pair is a necessity.  Also neck warmers are much safer than scarves, since they have no loose ends to get caught on equipment.  Just a reminder to please label all clothing that your child brings to school.  With 27 children, we have many pairs of mittens, boots and snow pants etc in our classroom.  We want to get everything back to the correct owner and having names or initials helps Miss Santiago and I very much.  It also helps other teachers who find mittens etc outside or in the hall.
     Thursday morning we went to the gym to watch the teachers, including myself, play dodgeball with the Terry Foxers and winners of the Terry Fox trivia contest.  It was a fun school activity!  In the computer lab, Miss Santiago introduced the children to Bookflix.  You can access Bookflix through the virtual library on the LKS website.  The children explored fiction and non-fiction books.
     We are having our Holiday Party on Tuesday, December 19.  Thank you to our volunteers and those bringing food to our celebration.  Please check the December calendar for more details.  Children may wear their Santa hats, reindeer antlers etc to the party on Tuesday.
     Miss Santiago and I would like to thank you very much for our very generous Christmas gifts.  We will have fun shopping and buying something special.  Thanks again.  We love teaching your children and consider it a privilege to be a part of their learning.
     Mailbags will be sent home on Tuesday as usual.  Please return your mailbags and we will keep them over the holidays.  Mailbags will not be sent home on Friday.  Enjoy reading your favourite books at home and hopefully some new books will be presents!
     Check Mr. Currie's twitter account.  There is a tweet of our students using the Code-a-pillar.
     Wishing you all the best during the holidays.  Enjoy this time with your family and friends.

This Week:

Monday-Library (A), Computers (B)
Tuesday-Christmas Party 9:00-11:20 
               Snuggle Up books exchanged
Wednesday-Library (B), Computers (A)
Thursday-First Day of Winter
Friday-Music
            Last day of school before the holidays!

See you on Monday, January 8!
   

Hour of Code in Room 159

Coding with snowmen and astronauts

Watching the code-a-pillar follow the directions

Coding our code-a-pillar

Creating coding maps based on the Gingerbread Man

Coding with Miss Paska

Writing code to move the snowman to the mountains

We did it!

Playing Box Island on the iPads

     Welcome to the cold temperatures of December.  It is wonderful to see the children dressed so warmly.  Just a reminder that we are outside 2 or 3 times a day unless the weather is dangerously cold.  Please make sure your child has all of his/her winter gear so they can enjoy our outdoor time.  We had a busy week celebrating the Hour of Code in Room 159.  Enjoy the pictures above.  The children completed a variety of fun tasks involving coding.  On Monday, we borrowed the iPad cart and the children played Box Island, a fun coding app.  Box Island is available for free from the Apple App Store.  The children also had the opportunity to write code to move a snowman to the mountains avoiding dangers like fire and hot chocolate.  Later in the week, the students each created a Gingerbread Coding Map and then challenged a friend to move the gingerbread man to his/her house.  We sent this home on Friday, so you can play with your child.  The class is also enjoying using our new toy-the Code-a-Pillar.  The children sequence instructions and then the caterpillar follows the code you have created.  In the computer lab, the children used the Google coding activity and also explored germs and bacteria on Pebblego with Miss Santiago.

The class completed their December calendar and explored different patterned paper to create a fancy Christmas tree.  Miss Paska discussed healthy meals with the students and they each created a healthy meal they would like to eat, following the guidelines of 2 fruits, 2 vegetables, meat, grains and a dairy product.  The children also played Silly Bananas, a tag game with Miss Paska in the gym.  This was Miss Paska's last week in Room 159.  We will miss her very much and wish her all the best as she completes her Early Childhood Education Studies at Ryerson and continues with her basketball career.

The class wrote their letters to Santa this week with their Reading Buddies.  We will mail our letters in Mrs. Stefanowicz's special mailbox and wait for a reply from Santa.  Thank you very much for all your generous donations for our Stonegate baskets.  Monday morning is your last opportunity to contribute.  Please contact the Grade Parents if you have any questions.  We have helped to make a family's Christmas a bit brighter.

We enjoyed a great presentation from author Kerri Lynn Winters on Friday.  She has written over 26 books and talked about making connections, visualizing and making predications when we are reading.  Keri Lynn read us French Toast, My Walk and Let's Play a Hockey Game ( a rhyming book).  Thank you to Parent Council for funding this wonderful opportunity to meet an author.

Students in Mrs. Heath's, Mrs. Gibson's and Mrs. Taylor's classes will be selling blinking red noses beginning Monday, December 11-15 (or while supplies last).  Proceeds go to the Toronto Foundation for Student Success, which supply TDSB students with food, warm clothes and other necessities.  The red noses will sell for 3.00 each during homeroom.  Students will come to our classroom to sell the noses.  If you are sending money to purchase a red nose, please place your $3.00 in a baggie or envelope labelled with your child's name.  Thanks in advance.  Additional information will be supplied in this week's LKS Bulletin.

There was a mistake on the December calendar.  There is no library on December 12.  Sorry for any confusion!

     A reminder that Friday, December 15 is our December Sharing Assembly.  Sharing Assemblies begin at 9:00 am in the gym.  The children are presenting a holiday song.  Children should wear red, green and or white clothing and wear a festive hat!  Award winners will be notified this weekend.  The character trait this month is Kindness.  See you there!

This Week:

Monday-Library (A), Computers (B)

               Red Noses on Sale-$3.00

               Last day for Stonegate donations

Tuesday-Snuggle Up books exchanged

Wednesday-Library (B), Computers (A)

Thursday-Return your Sound Review books

Friday-Pizza Day

            Sharing Assembly-wear red, green and/or white and a    

            festive hat

            Music

            Snuggle Up books exchanged
            70th Day of School-Zero the Hero visits!

  

     Happy December!  This time of year is always very busy at school and at home, so please continue to check the blog each weekend for up to date information.  With the assistance of our Reading Buddies on Monday, the children completed a Santa countdown activity.  Each day in December, have your child cut off 1 loop of Santa's beard.  When all the loops are gone, it will be Christmas Day.  Have fun counting the days until December 25.  We continued with graphing activities and the children have the opportunity to create their own graphing question, ask their friends and graph the results.  It is great to see all the learning happening around this activity.  Miss Paska also discussed healthy and unhealthy foods on Thursday.  The class enjoyed looking through the grocery store ads and creating their own list of healthy and unhealthy food choices.  We were excited to have Mr. Currie visit Thursday afternoon post some pictures of Room 159 on the Lambton Kingsway Twitter feed.  You can see Mr. Currie's tweets on the Lambton Kingsway website.  Follow the link to the right of the blog.
     Next week we will be participating in The Hour of Code.  The Hour of Code began as a one hour introduction to computer science to show that anyone can learn the basics and to broaden participation in the field of computer science.  It has become a world wide event to celebrate computer science.  Coding activities help to develop problem-solving, logic and creativity.  We will be participating in a variety of activities to teaching simple coding to the students.  Coding is a set of instructions (directions) that computers can understand, it is similar to a recipe.
     A reminder that we are collecting donations for our Stonegate basket.  Details of our family and suggested donations were emailed by our Grade Parents.  Please contact them if you have any questions.  Thank you in advance for your generosity.  We have been discussing how important it is to help others with the children.  Please include them in your shopping if you are able.  Friday, December 8 is the last day for donations.
     December calendars were sent home on Thursday.  Please look inside your child's Poetry book or Sound Review book.  I will be working on the January calendar before the holidays, so please let me know if you will be away in January.  Thanks so much.
     Our December Sharing Assembly is Friday, December 15 at 9:00 am.  We would like the children to wear a festive hat and wear red, green and or white to add to the celebration.  See you there!  Award winners will be notified later in the month.
   
This Week:

Monday-Library (A), Computers (B)
Tuesday-Snuggle Up books exchanged
Wednesday-Library (B), Computers (A)
Thursday-Bring your Stonegate donations
                 Return your Sound Review Books
Friday-Snuggle Up books exchanged
            Last day for Stonegate donations
            Author visit (Keri Lynn Winters) in the 
             library