A Sweet Hallowe'en

 While your child goes trick or treating they can also help with our latest school outreach project, Hungry Hallowe'en. They can collect food donations for the local food bank. Each class has a box for these donations and the class who fills their box the fullest will receive a prize. Please consider supporting this project.
There is also a modern version of Unicef boxes, a program called Make October Count for Kids: http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/action.retrievestaticpage.do?ea_static_page_id=1466. Their goal is to send five million more kids to school. So now there will be great costumes, piles of candy and a better world. Very sweet.

NFB film

Here is a link to a short NFB animated film on Divali that the children might like: 

http://www.nfb.ca/film/lights_for_gita/

End of Divali

Today is our last day celebrating Divali. Some of the children wanted bindi, so they will be coming home with some lovely red sparkles on their forehead. They look great! We also are sending home their diyas, which are little lamps. You can put a tea light in them and light them together. Happy Divali!!!

Rangoli

Here are some of the rangoli we have made this week for Divali. We either put glue on different areas of the patterns and then sprinkled on painted sand or we coloured them with chalk and then finished with a wash of water applied with a brush. We are pretty proud of how well they turned out!

Introducing Kristi

This is Kristi, who is a newly graduated teacher and a former Broadview student. While she is searching for a permanent job she is kindly volunteering in our class all day on Mondays. You might also run into her when she is working hard at her other job at The Works. We are very glad to have her highly qualified help and appreciate the time she is giving to our class. Welcome, Kristi!

Library Update

Well, I forgot to take the morning class to the library on Wednesday. We will try again next week for sure, and I promise to get my brain tuned into the new routine. 

Haunted Portable Update

The Haunted Portable was still under hurried construction this morning, so the morning kindergartens did not yet visit. They are booked to tour the slightly spooky building this Monday instead. That does give them more time to bring in 50 cents if they wish. Each donation earns a ticket for the carved pumpkin draw. The afternoon class was able to go through and they all enjoyed it, though a few decided to stay outside with a teacher instead. There are some very creative touches and it was great fun to see.

The Haunted Portable

   

 

 

Here is an invitation we received. We will be going to the tame version of this tomorrow, Thursday October 27th. If you would like to make a donation, please send 50 cents with your child tomorrow.

 

 

The students in portable two (Peterson,Soni,Vivian) are putting together a haunted portable and are hoping to invite all  classes to come visit.  There is an optional 50 cent donation being requested to enter the haunted portable with the proceeds going to support World Vision.  If a student is able to make the 50 cent donation, their name would be entered in a draw to raffle off one of the marvelous pumpkins the students are decorating.  They are all VERY "gung ho" about this event and will be placing some advertisng around the school as well making a morning announcement.  We hope to operate a very "tame" version for the primary grades on Thursday afternoon, and a scarier version for the junior/intermediate grades on Monday afternoon. 

 

Checking In

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Hallowe'en plans

Monday, October 31st  is our Hallowe'en party day. The children can wear their costumes to school. Masks and weapons should stay at home. If the costume is very warm, your child will need some other clothes to change into when they get too hot. They can also choose to wear orange and black or just a funny hat! Our party will include making a special craft, a costume parade to the office and back and a spooky song with ghost puppets.
  

I hope you will have a wonderful time trick or treating! We will talk about your adventures on Tuesday. We will also learn about the Mexican Day of the Dead, which is the day after Hallowe'en. The fun continues!

                 

Library Day

Our library day is Monday for the afternoon class and Wednesday for the morning class. Please send the books in then so the children can return them and take out a new book. There is a library basket in the classroom, so the books can come in another day if you wish. Thank you!

PA Day tomorrow!

Please remember that tomorrow (Friday, October 21st)  is a Professional Activity Day and there is no school for the students. The children have worked very hard for the first six weeks of school and they deserve a little rest! See you on Monday.

Diwali is coming!

We will be celebrating other festivals of light in November and December, but Diwali is coming soon. We will talk about it in class and you can learn more by attending the Hintonburg Diwali Celebration:

We invite you to come and celebrate the Fifth Annual Hintonburg Diwali Party

The  "Festival of Lights" Tuesday October 25, 2011

from 6:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.

at

Connaught Public School ( gym) New Location!

1149 Gladstone ( at Rosemount)

sponsored by

Indian Express    (1104 Somerset St. W.)

Celebrate Diwali, the Festival of Lights, with Indian Express,  the Hintonburg Economic Development Committee and the local community.
Diwali symbolizes the victory of good over evil and is a time of celebration and hope for humankind, a time of good luck and prosperity. Diwali is a major Indian Festival.
Come and celebrate this festival with us. "Bollywood for Fun" dancers will perform from 6:00 to 6:30pm. Sample some traditional foods provided by Indian Express - ladoo (sweets) and pakoras. Indian Express is the largest Indian sweet shop in Ottawa making everything on the premises.
We’ll light some diyas, sparklers and lights, we’ll bring light to the community and  we’ll dance to Indian music.
Presented by Indian Express Food & Sweets (1104 Somerset St. W.), The Hintonburg Economic Development Committee and Wellington West BIA.
For information contact:
Rakesh Walia, Indian Express (613-863-0676)
Cheryl Parrott (613-728-7582) Hintonburg Economic Development Committee or hedc@sympatico.ca
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Tentative agenda:
6:00 - 6:30 pm Entertainment including "Bollywood for Fun" dancers, refreshments
6:30 - 6:45 pm Pooja (Hindu religious ceremony)
6:45 - 7:00 pm A few words from dignitaries
7:00 pm Lighting of sparklers, music

Dr. Seuss Days

We have been talking about rhyming words this week and highlighting Dr. Seuss books. The children were proud to share that they have some of those books at home too. So we are learning about the term "classic books" as well. If you have any chance to play a little rhyming game with your child this week that would be a great way to reinforce the concept too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Placemat/ Centrepiece is coming home with your child today. The children worked very hard on the colouring and we think they turned out very well. We talked about things for which we are thankful and about all the wonderful food and colours we can enjoy at this time of year. We hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving present. Happy Thanksgiving!

Volunteering in the class

We are starting to have volunteer parents in the classroom this month. Trista Hollweck and her husband Pierre Barber have kindly agreed to be our morning volunteer coordinators and Julie Wills will be our generous helper to coordinate the afternoon volunteers.  You can email Trista at thollweck@wqsb.qc.ca.  or  Julie at julieandgordon@sympatico.ca  and let her know what day will work for you. Please let me know 24 hours ahead if you cannot make it in on your volunteer day, if possible, so I can plan properly. Thank you to our coordinators and thank you for giving some of your time to the class.

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns.

  

Our focus the first month was on building up a sense of belonging in our class, how to choose and make friends and on how to go to school. We began with the theme of Friends.  Our focus now is on Patterns. This will help to structure their thinking and give them a framework for many of the other concepts we will cover this year. We are learning that anything that happens over and over is a pattern. We are looking at visual patterns such as stripes and spots and talked about rhyming words and repeated words in books and how they are a pattern. We are singing a song with a repeated pattern and will also do many musical rhythms. We are also learning that the days have a pattern and the seasons have a pattern. We will be creating lots of patterns in our crafts. If you have a chance to point out or find patterns with your child during the day, that will reinforce the concepts for them. It could be visual patterns, or rhymes in their books or other repeated things. Also, with all the themes this year your child is very welcome to bring in books from home on the topic to share with the class. (Please make sure his or her name is on the books, of course.) At the end of the unit, in early November, we will have a Pattern Party where they can wear as many different patterned clothes as possible. It is a great unit and we are having fun with it.

Picture Day Tomorrow

Picture Day is Wednesday, October 5th. If you have a particular pose or background you would like, please send in the form from LifeTouch tomorrow. Otherwise the photographer will choose something nice for you.