Post for this week and next!

Hi everyone,
Hope your week has ended well. The count down is on until the Christmas holidays begin. Its starting to feel a little more like Christmas seeing that things are slowing down at school. The candy cane sales was a huge success. Thank you for all of you who helped out the night of the concert. It can be hectic. We sold out fast and even sold out of the back up papers. In the end we had to write candy oh grams on extra paper we found. We finally have organized everything and will hopefully deliever them today at the end of the day. There are a lot of candy canes to pass out. I will be encouraging the students who have a ton to share the wealth and attach them to the Christmas cards we are making for the clients at the drop in centre. I still have to count all the moola, once I have that done I will let you all know the total and how many turkeys we will purchase. I will be sending them to the Drop in next week. We will still collect change up until Monday December 14th.

Today is the last day to try Fruits and veggies. It was a success again this year. I love this project! I love seeing the students reaction to trying new things. I will go over the booklets and then send them home for you to look at. I hope they help you with some healthy snack ideas!
We have written Santa and hope that he will write us back before school ends. We also got our Christmas elf in the mail last week. Her name is Lulu. She comes every year to class to watch over us. She is Santa's number one doll maker elf. The students love her and she has been a great help to keep them focused, especially at this time of year.

In Math, we are now starting to get into addition and subtraction up to 20. They will learn about addition first and then subtraction so do not panic if they have no idea what you are talking about when you mention subtraction! Please though practice and take the time to explain these concepts to your child in English. This will help them when I start to explain them in French.

In Science, the students continue to learn about the 5 senses. We are now learning about our hearing and sight. The students have learned about a boy who is blind but has developed his own way of getting around by clicking (echolocation). He is able to roller blade, bike, play video games and so on. They will also be learning about Helen Keller, who was also blind and deaf.

In Social Studies, we have taken a break from learning about our country and have started to talk about our rights and responsibilities. We have already chatted about our responsibilities at home and at school. This is a great way to chat about expected behavior, how society works and also to point out how lucky we are! They had many questions about the rights of children in other parts of the world.

Next week is our last week before Christmas. It is a busy week and a fast week that always ends before I am ready. Last year for fun we did the 5 days before the holidays countdown. Everyday we had something fun planned. We will do this again this year. Here is the things we will be doing.
Monday- Dress as a present. Students come dressed with bows, paper...
Tuesday- Dress as a Christmas tree. All in green, with decorations or Christmas colors
Wednesday- Dress as a Christmas Elf.
Thursday- PJ day. Students may bring a stuffy. Watching Gr 3 play also this day.
Friday-  Dress in Christmas best for the liturgy. 1/2 day at school, noon dismissal.

On Monday Christian action is at 9h30. Milk orders are also due on Monday. Wednesday there is special lunch and reading club for those who attend. Thursday the grade 3's will put on their play "Unfrozen" There will be a Nativity walk where students go class to class and learn about special Christmas Traditions. We will also have our Christmas celebration in the afternoon, seeing that Friday will be crazy and to fast! If you wish to send in a holiday treat feel free to do so. Keep in mind we have one student who is gluten free, so if possible an option for her would be greatly appreciated.
Friday our last day together for 2015! It is a half day of school, noon dismissal. We have our Advent liturgy at 10h30 for those who would like to join.

Thank you all for a great first half of the year. I look forward to what 2016 has to offer all of us. If I do not get a chance to see you before Friday. I wish you the Merriest of Christmas filled with love and laughter. I hope you make tons of great memories. See you all in the new year! :)

December is upon us!

Well it is December and if you are a kid or me... its probably your favorite time of year. I love everything about Christmas. The music, decorations, the food and heading back home to PEI to spend time with my dad. So the countdown is on in class for Santa and the days until I head home.

This month in class the students will be learning Christmas vocabulary, Christmas traditions of others and how to sing some Christmas favorites in French. We will also review French vocabulary and sounds from the beginning of the year to date and work on using the French sentence structures. With the holiday season we will be making some crafts. Could you all please send in a mason jar. A pickling jar works best. If you could please send those in by Friday December 4th it would be greatly appreciated.

This week in class students will be preparing for the Christmas concert by practicing their song. The concert is this Thursday at St. Michael's Church. The school choir will start to sing at 5:30. The concert is to start at 6:30. I am hoping to be there at 5:15 to set up the tables for selling the candy canes. I am still on the hunt for Allan brand candy canes. They are the ones I sell every year because they are nut, dairy, wheat and gluten free. If any of you have seen them around please let me know ASAP! If you have volunteered to sell candy canes it would be great if you could be there for 5:30-5:45-6:00. The students are going to wear their Sunday best. Boys are asked to wear black pants, white shirt. The girls are asked to wear a nice dress. The concert can be long as we have more classes this year and we are at the beginning of the show. If you wish to take your child home before the concert is over please let me know in advance. The teachers have planned a song and dance for your enjoyment.

For those of you new to the school and are not sure what exactly the candy oh grams are here is a quick explanation. Our class sell the candy canes to collect money to purchase turkeys. The candy o grams are a little note to spread some Christmas cheer that you can send your child, their friends or a staff member. They are a cost of .50cents each, so be sure to bring some change.

Mme Wilma is here on Wednesday to practice the songs and the dance moves that go along with it. The students also have special lunch Wednesday if they have ordered it. Reading club is cancelled Wednesday for those who attend.
On Thursday, the Advent liturgy  will be held in our classrooms starting at 1pm. The Christmas concert is also Thursday. If you have any questions about the concert please let me know.
Friday all Ginger bread house money is due, if you have not already passed it in. This is a class project put on by the grade 2 classes. The money collected will go to support the Breakfast program at our sister school in the N.E. If you wish to sign up and haven't received a form, please let me know and Ill get one to you right away.
Monday all Scholastic order forms are due. I will need to place these orders right away to ensure that you will get them before Christmas. If you have purchased some items as a gift I will set it aside for you and let you know when it has arrived. For Monday could you also please return with your child's reading package the Pink A book "Mes Histoire". We will be exchanging them for the B book with Christmas stories.

That's all for now. Enjoy the week everyone.
Laurie Anne