November News

Happy Mo-vember! A few quick points... We have just been informed that Picture Re-Take Day is tomorrow- Friday! So sorry for the last minute notice. A special thank you to all of the parent volunteers who were able to come along to Brantwood Farms and the Safety Village. I really appreciate your time and assistance. For those who were unable to join us on the Safety Village trip, I wish I had video-taped the children driving those jeeps around the mini-village. We had some up on curbs, on the wrong side of the road, running red lights and even crashing into medians and each other. It was hysterical.... but the children had a riot! The Curriculum This Month.... In reading and writing we will be focusing on a Remembrance Day theme. This is sometimes a very challenging topic for children to grasp. We do talk about war and how many soldiers gave their lives in the name of freedom. We discuss how there are many countries still at war around the world and explore what the word "peace" means to us here in our own community and at our school. You may have children asking some challenging questions about the reality of war and each family may choose to address these questions differently. Students will also have an opportunity to learn about the structure of letter writing as we will be writing letters to war veterans to thank them for their service to our country. This is always such a wonderful experience for the kids. In Math, we will begin a new unit on measurement. Students will learn the basic principles of measuring length and area using non-standard measuring units (paper clips, snap cubes, pencils etc). A question might be "how many paper clips long is your desk?" or " how many cue cards does it take to cover the surface of your desk?" You can support your child at home by playing silly games like "Let's see how many running shoes it takes to measure the length of our hallway using the same shoe over and over again!" You can also begin to introduce your child to measurements in centimetres or metres at home... let them help with a measuring tape. Or you can look at these websites together: http://www.funbrain.com/cgi-bin/meas.cgi?A1=s&A2=1&A3=0 http://www.kidport.com/Grade1/Math/MeasureGeo/G1-M-MG1-1-1b.htm http://www.beaconlearningcenter.com/WebLessons/MeasuringTools/default.htm In Social Studies we are studying our local community and how humans meets their needs in the community. We have talked about the difference between needs and wants. Something that is sometimes an interesting discussion with little ones! Kids are learning about how there are various community helpers that meet these needs for us. For example, police officers keep us safe, grocers sell us our food while farmers grow it. I am wondering if there are any parents who might like to come in talk about their jobs as community helpers? For example, fire fighters, police officers, nurses, bankers etc. It would just be a brief chat with the children about what you do and then an opportunity for them to ask you questions. Thank you in advance!!!!!! To reinforce your child's learning, you can take them to this site where they get to build their own community! http://www.sfsocialstudies.com/k/u2/index.html In Art, we will be responding to different design challenges making prints and Remembrance Day themed works of art. Thank you again for all of your support with your child's learning. I very much look forward to seeing you at the student led conferences next week!