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!