The students put their hands together under the direction of Melissa, our co-op student and created this beautiful fir tree.

After reading "The Night Tree" by Eve Bunting, in which a family trims a tree in the forest with edible decorations for the forest animals, we decided to decorate our tree with apple prints.

We hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday! See you in the new year!

Olympic fever at Clinton

We all caught olympic fever when one of the torch bearers came for a visit!

Check out the big picture in the display case by the art room!

Latkes and Apple Sauce

Yesterday the students made latkes with our volunteer chef Dale.

They grated potatoes, mixed the ingredients, flipped the latkes and then ate them.

They were delicious!

Here is a recipe if you would like to try to make them at home.

Ingredients

• 2 cups peeled and shredded potatoes
• 1 tablespoon grated onion
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. Place the potatoes in a cheesecloth and wring, extracting as much moisture as possible.
2. In a medium bowl stir the potatoes, onion, eggs, flour and salt together.
3. In a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until hot. Place large spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot oil, pressing down on them to form 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick patties. Brown on one side, turn and brown on the other. Let drain on paper towels. Serve hot!

High Park field trip

Our afternoon field trip to High Park was a success. Students learned about what animals need to do to get ready for winter and then helped them by gathering food and making a "pizza".

We found food for groundhogs, chickadees, chipmunks and grey squirrels.

Although the day was cold it was wonderful to be out tramping in the woods!

Our next trip is in February and we will learn more about how the chickadee survives in the winter.

Pumpkin seeds to pumpkin plants!

Our pumpkin seeds have grown into beautiful pumpkin plants. We have re-potted them into bigger containers and they are happily soaking up the sun on our window sill. We will continue to observe them to see what happens next!

Poem of the Week

Our poem this week is an old nursery rhyme with a few changes.

To market, to market

To buy a fat pig.

Home again, home again

Jiggity jig.

To market, to market

To buy a hot dog.

Home again, home again

Jiggity jog.

To market, to market

To buy a sweet bun.

Home again, home again

Market is done!

Letter of the week and Tongue Twister

This week we are studying the letter "C". First we will concentrate on the "k" sound and later the "s" sound.

Alphabet Cookies

Today, with the invaluable help of a parent volunteer, we made alphabet cookies! Each child randomly picked a letter, made the letter using cookie dough and then after it was cooked, ate it. Everyone seemed to enjoy eating the alphabet!

We used a very simple (but delicious) sugar cookie recipe that our volunteer Dale helped us make. This was a fun activity that you might like to try at home.

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients.
3. refrigerate for at least an hour.
4. Form letters and place on cookie sheet.
5. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven (Preheat oven to 375 degrees F or 190 degrees C), or until golden. Let stand on cookie sheet two minutes before removing to cool on wire racks.
6. Eat and enjoy!

Letter of the Week and Tongue Twister

This week we are studying the letter "W". Our tongue twister as you can see is also focused on the letter "W".

JK Pumpkin Patch

The junior pumpkin patch is up! Juniors and Seniors worked together to make the pumpkin vines. We hope to add pumpkin flowers as well!

After cutting open our pumpkins in October we decided to save the seeds. We counted all the seeds with the help of our morning "Reading Buddies" and discovered that our medium sized pumpkin had the most seeds (about 690!). We also discovered that the seeds were all different sizes according to the size of the pumpkin.

Today we decided to try and grow pumpkin plants from our seeds so we planted seeds from each pumpkin and will wait to see if anything happens. Each child will get to bring some seeds home and they can try to grow their own pumpkin!

Measuring height

Today Mrs. Barbuto and Melissa our co-op student helped the students measure their height. The result is a beautiful garden of poppies!

Goldie and Chester's Awesome Adventures!

Goldie and Chester are ready to visit your home!

Please look for a letter this week and return it as soon as possible if you would like to take Goldie and Chester home for the weekend.

A schedule will be set up as soon as possible.

Goldie and Chester will also need a place to stay during the winter break and March break.

Eventually they will also need a place to stay for the summer. This is usually split up between two or three families.

"Pumpkin, Pumpkin what do you see?"

Students worked together to create a classroom book called "Pumpkin, Pumpkin What do you see?" (One in the morning and one in the afternoon)

These books are based on Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle's "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See".

Instead of animals as in the original book, our books have a Halloween theme and are full of ghosts, vampires and skeletons! Students had fun deciding what they wanted to put in their book. Everyone had great ideas! After writing the book as a group students worked in pairs to illustrate it.

Everyone will have an opportunity to take the book home to share with their families. It must be returned the following day. Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy!

Monthly Stories

Every month students draw and write about an experience they had.

Almost everyone has finished writing about October and as you can imagine Halloween factored greatly in the students' work!

These monthly stories are completed by your child with as little input as possible from adults. This allows us to see where each child is developmentally and in what direction they need to grow.

It also shows your child's progress throughout the year!

These pictures will be posted in the hall before they are glued into your child's year book.

Season tree

The morning and afternoon classes worked together to make a terrific tree! The afternoon class made the trunk and the morning class made the branches. Some of the grade 5 and 6 students from room 308 helped put up our name cards.

This project is a collaboration with Mr. V's class in room 211. We hope to fill the hall between our classes with seasonal projects throughout the year. Watch as our trees go from fall to winter to spring and then summer (it seems so far away!).

This season watch for our Junior's pumpkin patch!

"Five Little Bats"

Our bat mobiles and "Bat Books" were inspired by a poem called "Five Little Bats". Take a look inside one of our books!

Senior bat projects

Senior students worked hard to complete their bat mobiles. In the process of making these, students learned about symmetry. This project also gave them more opportunity to practise their scissor skills (which helps develop small muscle control!). If you haven't had a chance to see them stop by for a visit.

They look fantastic "flying" in our hall!

Remembrance Day

Although this was a short week it has certainly been busy! With the help, support and leadership of Maria (our supply Educational Assistant) the students created beautiful tissue paper poppies which the morning class wore to our Remembrance day ceremony on November 11th. We were lucky enough to hear a soldier from world war ll (and the grandfather of two Clinton students) speak about war and peace. During the ceremony we sang a song with our reading buddies called "Peace". It was sung in a round and it sounded beautiful! The tune is the same as "Hey Ho nobody home..." and the words are as follows:

Peace, peace,

Is our dream.

Respect, respect,

For all in kind.

Then we will be happy, very happy

Peace, peace...

November

Halloween was a great success! We all had alot of fun.

The rain stopped long enough for us to go on our community Halloween parade in the afternoon.

Thank you to everyone for bringing in wonderful treats for us to share.

This week we have been focusing on the letter "F". Students learned the song "Five green and speckled Frogs" and read and illustrated the tongue twister "Four fat frogs found food in the forest".

Our poem this week has been about apples:

How many apples do you see?

Can you count them?

One, two, three.

How many green ones?

How many red?

Now eat an apple and go to bed!

Students developed actions to go with this poem!

We started a new activity this week called "guess the word". Students work together at carpet time to complete a sentence thinking about what words might make sense. One letter at a time is revealed and they must revise their guesses until the whole word is revealed.

Next week is Remembrance Day and students will be making poppies and going to a school wide assembly in the gym. Students will be thinking about how to make our world a better place to live.

Please make sure your child brings their backpack to school everyday and check it regularly for news letters and other information. Thanks for your continued support!

Welcome to Room 213!

It has been a busy September and October.

Some things we did in September include the “Star of the Day” books. Each child had the opportunity to be the star and to tell the class about themselves. The whole class contributed to a book that the star was able to take home and share with their family.

We also participated in the Terry Fox Run in which each child ran or walked around the track ten times. Thank you to all those who donated money!

In September your children studied the life cycle of a butterfly and had the opportunity to watch caterpillars grow, become chrysalises, and change into butterflies. Both the morning and afternoon children helped release our butterflies and wished them well on their migration to Mexico.

We learned to sing “The Fuzzy Little Caterpillar”:

The Fuzzy little caterpillar lay upon a leaf,

Soon she made a chrysalis and then fell fast asleep,

While she was sleeping she dreamed that she could fly,

Later when she woke up she was a butterfly!

The seniors made a caterpillar book based on the following poem:

I started as a tiny egg,

Upon a leaf of green.

And now I stay upon the leaf,

So I will not be seen.

Soon I’ll build a chrysalis,

Upon a limb up high.

I’ll stay awhile and then come out,

And be a butterfly!

With the help of Mrs. Barbuto and our student teacher Michelle, the students created beautiful caterpillars, chrysalises and butterflies that are displayed outside our classroom.

October brought Thansgiving and the students wrote about something they were thankful for.

Last week we started our poem of the week activity. We read a poem, look for patterns or rhyming words, discuss meaning or feelings and then at the end of the week glue it into our language book and draw a picture of it.

Our poem last week was called:

“Mashed Potatoes”

by Eve Meriam.

Mashed potatoes, Mashed potatoes,

Piled up high.

Mashed potatoes, Mashed potatoes,

Up to the sky.

Mashed potato clouds,

Mashed potato Moon.

Scoop it all up with a giant spoon!

This week it is called “Pumpkin Pie”

We will soon start our alphabet books. The letter “B” is the first letter we will be studying.

This week we were lucky enough to have a volunteer named Dale come in and help us bake pumpkin tarts. The recipe will follow! They were delicious. Next week she is going to help us make “alphabet cookies” using sugar cookie dough.

Sadly this Friday October 23rd will be our student teacher Michelle’s last day with us. We are truly going to miss her. She has added so much to our class!

Next Friday Oct. 30th we are going to have our annual Clinton Halloween parade! It takes place in the afternoon at around 1:00 pm. If your child is in the morning class please feel free to join us if you can. Your child can come to school in their costumes (no masks or weapons please). We will have a little Halloween party as well (AM and PM). More information on this will follow.