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! :)