Bravo mes amis!!

I am soo proud of everyone that got together to help our class purchase 54 turkeys....that's right 54! The students were pretty excited to be able to help 54 families in need this time of year. We also had the chance today to make some cards for seniors. I emailed you all the link about the couple from home, if you get a chance look at it. It warms your heart to see how people can still get together make things happen.
Tomorrow is our last day of school for 2013! Please note that we have only a half day and the students will be dismissed at noon. If I do not get a chance to see you all. Know that I am wishing you all the most fabulous holiday filled with love,laughter and great memories. I wish you all the best in 2014 and look forward to the many new adventures and memories that the year will bring.

I will leave you with some great advice from Buddy the elf.....
Remember to try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.
Then try saying this to your kids:
First we'll make snow angels for 2 hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle.   Let me know how they respond to that one!
and finally know that the best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loud for all to hear. So be sure to sing nice and loud!

Merry Christmas!!

Mike arriving with the back of his truck filled with 54 turkeys!!

Handing out the turkeys..who would have thought they would be very slippery!

 

A selection of the Christmas cards we made for seniors.

Bring on the Holidays!

Hi everyone,
I hope that you are all having a great week so far and have most if not all of your Christmas shopping done.
This week is our last week before the holidays. The students are excited as well as their teacher. This week in class we will be reading Christmas stories, learning Christmas vocabulary and working on some holiday crafts.
In math students are learning about equal groups and remainders. They are also going to learn about estimating and how it is OK not to know the number exactly when making a guess. They continue to work on addition in their red math duo tang as well.
We will be working on our Christmas cards for Seniors this week which falls into our social studies unity of community. We will also be donating turkeys to the food bank in the next couple of days. We raised a lot of money during the Christmas concert, the number I am not 100% sure of yet because I am still counting and rolling change. Once I know Ill pass it along as well as for the amount of turkeys purchased.
We also received a package from Santa on Monday. I wrote him a letter the week before based on a suggestion of a student in our class. He said that I should so that they students remember to be good in the next couple of weeks, because they were all excited for Christmas. I did as he asked and we were lucky to get one of Santa's head doll making elves named Lulu. They students are extremely pumped to have her in class and are all ears when i am explain important instruction. Too bad they didn't have a year long elf!

We will be having a class party on Thursday. If you would like to send in a nice treat that we can all share that would be lovely. Please note that we have nut allergies as well as an egg allergy. Healthy treats are always welcomed. In the afternoon we will be joining Mme Marie-Christine's class as well as Mme Janice's class in the gym for a movie and some games. I have ordered the students presents from scholastic, however they have not arrived yet :( I am hoping by Friday at least they will be here.

On Friday we only have half a day and students will be dismissed at noon. We will have our Christian action in the morning and the last advent liturgy at 11am. Parents are welcomed to join for both.

If I do not get to see all of before Friday I wish you the very best Christmas filled with love, laughter and great memories. Cheers to a new year and the many new adventures it will bring. May your home be filled with family and friends. Be safe, stay warm and smile often. I am off to PEI to spend time with my dad and to soak up the slower pace of life.
All the best and chat soon.
Mme Laurie Anne

The count down is on!

Hello everyone Happy Monday,
This week we have our Christmas concert, which is Thursday December 12. There will be two times one in the afternoon and one in the evening. Please be sure to practice with your child at home our song, Noel, c'est l'amour. It would be great if you could have your child dress nicely dark bottoms white tops or something festive. We will be having a practice with the whole school tomorrow. For the evening performance students are to come straight to class once you arrive. It would  be great if you could have them all there no later than 6:15.
We will be starting to use the nickles that some of you donated to learn how to count by 5. Please feel free to send more in, we do not have that many as of right now. We have also started story problems in math where students have to figure out different additions for a given number. For example Kate has 16 objects in her school bag, some are books and some are snacks. How many books can she have and how many snacks can she have. Students will have to figure out all the additions of 16. You can practice this at home. Please also continue practicing counting 1-50 or higher some of them are able to count to 100. Also count by 2,5,10. We have also looked at before and after (avant et après) You could ask your child what is the number before 43 or after 43.
In art we continue to work with pastels and will be using the jars for a craft. Please send in your jars if you have not done so yet. We are still missing 7. I would like them for Wednesday.
In English we will learn all about adjectives by reading How the Grinch stole Christmas. The students will have to describe the Grinch. We will talk about how sometimes characters change at the end of the book and we will note how the Grinch changed for the better.
We are learning jingle bells on the xylophones in music....small work in progress. If any of you have easy piano books I could borrow with Christmas songs please let me know.  I would like to do more than one song with them.
That's all for now, Enjoy the week
Laurie Anne

Snow, snow,snow and more snow!

Hello all,
I think winter has finally hit ! That being said please make sure to dress your child for the weather conditions. If you would like to send extra mitts and socks in a plastic zip lock bag with your child's name on it I can keep them here in class for when they need them. They could also just keep them in their back packs.
December is upon us and with that a new theme. Can you guess what we are going to learn about? That's right everything to do with Christmas. We are going to write letters to Santa, make Christmas cards for Seniors (more about that later), sing lots of Christmas songs and chat about Christmas traditions.
In math we have started to look at addition and subtraction from 1-20. We are mainly focusing on the addition part at the moment but I encourage you all to practice subtraction because that is the one that tends to take a little longer to catch on.
I would like to ask you all to send in a glass mason jar  or jam jars in the next couple of days. I would like to do a craft with them, so if you could do so before next week that would be great!
We will be working on Christmas cards over the next couple of week and some small crafts to deliver to seniors who might not otherwise get something this time a year. I like to think of it as adopting some new grandparents. I have done this in the past and the students enjoy doing it. One year I even had a student and her mother and sister come join me at a local manor in my home town. The seniors loved seeing her and she brightened their day by showing off her dance moves. We got to personally hand deliver the cards. I will check to see if I can do the same thing here and if any of you would like to join me just let me know.

I have another Christmas project that I tend to do each year with the students. At home we have the CBC Turkey Drive, which collects turkeys to donate to those in need during the holiday seasons. Each year with my grade one class we collect pennies and sell candy canes at the Christmas concerts. As a class we count and roll the pennies, which is great for math class. (counting one to one, making groups of 10, counting by 10.)With all the money collected ,we meaning me and my father, head out and buy a bunch of turkeys. My dad usually picked them up, brought them to school where I had the salvation army pick them up. I made sure that the students personally hand deliever the turkeys. this way they get to see what their hard work has accomplished and they get the sense of giving back. i usually start near the end of November to collect pennies. unfortunately we no longer have pennies so i was thinking maybe collecting nickles. Would you all be willing to support our class to take on this project? If so it would be great if we could start as soon as possible. I will chat with the students about it on Thursday or Friday once I hear back from all of you. I would also need some volunteers to help sell the candy canes at both of the showings of the Christmas concert. I hope to hear your thoughts on this project.
Our Christmas concert is next week.....EEEKKK we need some serious practice. I sent home the song yesterday for you to go over at home. I will include the link as well to help them practice the song and the rhythm. They day and night of I ask you to dress your child in white.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0J1yO7Kd14&oq=noel%20ces&gs_l=youtube..0.5j0l2j0i10l7.1169775.1172582.0.1174027.8.8.0.0.0.0.115.564.7j1.8.0.eytns%2Cpt%3D-30%2Cn%3D2%2Cui%3Dlr.1.0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.hsJrJs40ol4

Here is one with just the music and the words. Kareokee style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWEmnFYMVQU

I did finally get the xylophones. We practiced a little today but I am not all that sure they will make an appearance at the Christmas concert...we shall see.

I hope the reading is going well at home. Let me know if you would like any more books sent home. it was great to see you all at parent teachers. Anytime you need anything let me know.
Thats all for now....be safe and remember to hug those you love!
Laurie Anne

Reminders:
Advant Liturgie Dec 6 at 2pm- All welcomed
Special lunch- lemon grass Dec 6
Library Friday