Weekly News June 21st
Welcome to the penultimate weekly news update! It's difficult to imagine that we are only a week away from the end of the school year! I was looking over some photos from last fall and your children have grown soooo much!!! If you don't believe me just look back at some of the archived weekly news from the fall! (though their faces are blurred so you might not be able to see it clearly!)
As has become the norm the last few weeks, we started Monday morning with some printing practice. This week I included the finger-tracing cards on the carpet so that students could have some textural practice making the letters with the correct start / stop spots. Afterwards we worked on recognition of the letters to put them back into the pile so they would be ready for the end of the day. Our outside time was under the trees at the back and then on the lower playground. It's fun to have the playground all to ourselves as it's pretty crowded at lunch recess. After snack Melvin and Tucker came for his final visit and brought us a book about feeling loved. It has been a good learning journey with Melvin and Tucker. The students have a lot more language around their feelings now as well as some new strategies to use for problem solving.
Tuesday was Fun Field Day! There were all kinds of awesome stations - capture the flag, freezies, make a dot for the school collage, hula hoops, bean bag toss, parachute, water relay, and more! It was a ton of fun and the grade sevens did a fabulous job of organizing and running the stations! We had a blast - and then we had a hotdog and some chips before recess. Thanks to the PAC for providing (and cooking) the lunch! Just before centres the children's librarian came to talk to us about the summer reading programs at the VIRL. We learned that there are lots of fun activities coming to both the Chemainus and Duncan libraries and that there will be some awesome prizes and medals awarded! Everyone took home a bookmark as a reminder.
Wednesday morning our long walk was to the black sandy beach. We started by having snack and then doing some writing before play. Despite our discussion of possible issues many students chose to remove their shoes and wound up with slivers in their feet (which proved challenging on the walk back!) We took a quick pit-stop on the exercise area at the main beach while some people used the bathroom and then we headed toward the pier. There were many crabs and remnants of crabs found. We even saw a very large seal sunning itself on one of the lower docks. On the way back we were short of time (many sliver-removing pauses on the way) so we only had 5 minutes at the park. The swings are a super-popular activity there and we vowed to come back at least once more before the end of the year.
We had some big events on Thursday - the graduates from Chemainus Secondary School came for a walk through and we lined the halls and clapped for them. We talked a bit about the fact that in 12 years that will be us! It was pretty cool for the teachers to see students we know! In the afternoon Miss Mel and Ms Mousseau came for a quick meeting about our woodworking projects. One of the dads in Miss Mel's class works at Home Depot and very generously gave us some leftover projects to work on! Everyone had the choice of making a race car, a clock, a whiteboard, or a helicopter. We got a good start on it during centres. A notice was sent home on Thursday regarding next Thursday's early dismissal and our last day's schedule. I understand that not everyone can attend our passage party and I will be making the slideshow available by a link that I will share later via the class messenger app. As always I request that if you capture any frames from it you be respectful of not posting photos online of children other than your own.
Friday we did a quick calendar before Ms. Wood came in to do fine arts in our room. The big kids are doing Byte Camp this week so things had to be moved around a bit. After Fine Arts we had some playtime outside before snack and then we got down to work on our woodworking projects. It was such a lovely day that we had our big centres outside in the afternoon.
Next week is going to be a bit of a blur... we will all have to keep on our toes to fit everything in!
NEXT WEEK - June 17th - 21st
Monday - Swimming! We will take our lunch up to the park for a picnic and a play before our swim
time. All students will need swim suit, towel, and a life jacket - please label them!
Tuesday -
Wednesday - Walk day - we will probably go to the woods - we have to vacate the room for the new
Kindergarten students to have "Storytime with Mrs. Mitchell"
- Swimming! We will take our lunch up to the park for a picnic and a play before our swim
time. As for Monday, all students will need swim suit, towel, and a life jacket
Thursday - Passage party - a pink notice was sent home regarding the timeline. We will be watching
our class slideshow and having our party before we join the rest of the school for the
final assembly at 10am. Lunch recess will be at 11am and early dismissal will be at
12:13pm.
Friday - SUMMER BREAK!!! - have a safe and happy summer!
As has become the norm the last few weeks, we started Monday morning with some printing practice. This week I included the finger-tracing cards on the carpet so that students could have some textural practice making the letters with the correct start / stop spots. Afterwards we worked on recognition of the letters to put them back into the pile so they would be ready for the end of the day. Our outside time was under the trees at the back and then on the lower playground. It's fun to have the playground all to ourselves as it's pretty crowded at lunch recess. After snack Melvin and Tucker came for his final visit and brought us a book about feeling loved. It has been a good learning journey with Melvin and Tucker. The students have a lot more language around their feelings now as well as some new strategies to use for problem solving.
Tuesday was Fun Field Day! There were all kinds of awesome stations - capture the flag, freezies, make a dot for the school collage, hula hoops, bean bag toss, parachute, water relay, and more! It was a ton of fun and the grade sevens did a fabulous job of organizing and running the stations! We had a blast - and then we had a hotdog and some chips before recess. Thanks to the PAC for providing (and cooking) the lunch! Just before centres the children's librarian came to talk to us about the summer reading programs at the VIRL. We learned that there are lots of fun activities coming to both the Chemainus and Duncan libraries and that there will be some awesome prizes and medals awarded! Everyone took home a bookmark as a reminder.
Wednesday morning our long walk was to the black sandy beach. We started by having snack and then doing some writing before play. Despite our discussion of possible issues many students chose to remove their shoes and wound up with slivers in their feet (which proved challenging on the walk back!) We took a quick pit-stop on the exercise area at the main beach while some people used the bathroom and then we headed toward the pier. There were many crabs and remnants of crabs found. We even saw a very large seal sunning itself on one of the lower docks. On the way back we were short of time (many sliver-removing pauses on the way) so we only had 5 minutes at the park. The swings are a super-popular activity there and we vowed to come back at least once more before the end of the year.
We had some big events on Thursday - the graduates from Chemainus Secondary School came for a walk through and we lined the halls and clapped for them. We talked a bit about the fact that in 12 years that will be us! It was pretty cool for the teachers to see students we know! In the afternoon Miss Mel and Ms Mousseau came for a quick meeting about our woodworking projects. One of the dads in Miss Mel's class works at Home Depot and very generously gave us some leftover projects to work on! Everyone had the choice of making a race car, a clock, a whiteboard, or a helicopter. We got a good start on it during centres. A notice was sent home on Thursday regarding next Thursday's early dismissal and our last day's schedule. I understand that not everyone can attend our passage party and I will be making the slideshow available by a link that I will share later via the class messenger app. As always I request that if you capture any frames from it you be respectful of not posting photos online of children other than your own.
Friday we did a quick calendar before Ms. Wood came in to do fine arts in our room. The big kids are doing Byte Camp this week so things had to be moved around a bit. After Fine Arts we had some playtime outside before snack and then we got down to work on our woodworking projects. It was such a lovely day that we had our big centres outside in the afternoon.
Next week is going to be a bit of a blur... we will all have to keep on our toes to fit everything in!
NEXT WEEK - June 17th - 21st
Monday - Swimming! We will take our lunch up to the park for a picnic and a play before our swim
time. All students will need swim suit, towel, and a life jacket - please label them!
Tuesday -
Wednesday - Walk day - we will probably go to the woods - we have to vacate the room for the new
Kindergarten students to have "Storytime with Mrs. Mitchell"
- Swimming! We will take our lunch up to the park for a picnic and a play before our swim
time. As for Monday, all students will need swim suit, towel, and a life jacket
Thursday - Passage party - a pink notice was sent home regarding the timeline. We will be watching
our class slideshow and having our party before we join the rest of the school for the
final assembly at 10am. Lunch recess will be at 11am and early dismissal will be at
12:13pm.
Friday - SUMMER BREAK!!! - have a safe and happy summer!