Thank you as always to our valued volunteers! This last week was a prime example of our great volunteer troop! We had excellent helpers for Scientist Cathy's visit on Tuesday and the morning was a big success. Thank you Catherine, Jennifer D., Tara and Victoria and once again a big thanks to our Parent Council for funding the Scientist program at LKS. Your wonderful grade parents also put together your May calendar this week and got our Springfest basket organized, way to go!
Your child brought home their May calendar on Friday. This month the top portion is a graph for collecting data on May weather. Data management is one of our math strands throughout the grades - the skill level, understanding and expectations increase through the grades but the title does not change. Each day (or school day if you wish) the children are to add 1 square of data to represent that day's weather. At the end of the month they reflect and comment using all the data collected to give "results". Words we use in this context are more than, less than and equal to. We try not to see the graph as a win/loss situation since the results are simply a reflection of what happened and there is no capacity for winning ie. Sunny cannot be defeated by rainy, rainy just happened more often! For the Seniors, making a prediction on what they believe will happen is a good exercise, as well as noting the counts regularly to see if there are enough days for a certain type of weather to catch up, is one clearly ahead at any certain point, how many more than/ less than does each column have, estimate what the end tallies will be etc. All good brainwork!
Looking ahead, the June calendar will have Senior Kindergarten Graduation noted on Wednesday, June 24. We will have a regular school day up until approximately 2pm at which point there will be a ceremony (held in our class) to commemorate the seniors leaving the Kindergarten program and beginning grade 1 in September. Junior Kindergartens do not graduate as the Ontario Kindergarten program is a two year program. They will have their turn next year!
As the weather is beginning to warm up - we thought it would never happen! - keep in mind that we are outside each day for a minimum of 40 minutes as well as about 30 minutes over the lunch hour if
your child stays. A sun hat of some kind is a great idea and lessens the need for sunglasses which get taken off, left places and are easily broken. I mediate the amount of clothing worn outside over the period of the day as it is still typically cooler in the morning than the afternoon but in general the children are warmer than us as they are running around and working hard with the bikes and scooters while we are not! Sunscreen has begun to appear in backpacks but please keep in mind the adults in a school situation are not to be rubbing it on the children. Independence is encouraged in all formats and while we will always assist, the children cannot expect that someone will do it for them. Applying it at home before coming to school is a good teaching moment so you can see and make suggestions to improve the efficiency of their method! We need to be mindful of not over-using or sharing products such as sunscreen in the class as some children react to the scents, colour additives or other chemicals in negative ways. Thank you!
This week:
Monday - LIB/IT AM
Tuesday - Reading Buddies AM, Aussie Rules Football PM (gym clothing/footwear pls)
Wednesday - Aussie Rules Football PM (gym clothing/footwear pls)
Thursday - Music AM, Mystery Reader AM (moved from Weds.), LIB/IT PM
Friday - Mystery Reader AM
**The children will be bringing home the most beautiful Mother's Day creations for you to enjoy; however, they are breakable! Each child will have a wrapped, breakable object in their backpack on Friday. Please help them take it out and keep it in a safe place until Sunday. They have worked with a great deal of thought and precision and can't wait to show you. The cleaning instructions for the paint I purchased DO NOT say dishwasher safe even though theglass has been wiped and cured (baked!) so a gentle rinse INSIDE the jar only, may be your best bet for protecting your gift!
Enjoy and Happy Mother's Day to all!
Have a great week, Ms. I.
