February 1st Newsletter

Dear Families,
It has been a busy time since our return to school after winter break and the children have adjusted well to Mrs. Rollheiser teaching Monday and Friday.
In math the children have been practicing building, reading and extending simple patterns, skip counting by 2's and 5's as well as playing math games which practice adding on, matching numerals to dot numbers and playful competition. 
On Tuesdays the children continued with counting collections. using an increased quantity of objects. They have been using tools to organize materials for skip counting such as cups and plates. The OSCL's for January focused on math and have all been completed and sent home. Photos of student work will be uploaded on SPACES, the district electronic portfolio after Tuesday's inservice.
Our Grade Two buddy class resumed in January and has included stem activities with force and motion, buddy reading or story play on Wednesday afternoons.
In January our little buddies from Departure Bay Eco preschool began their monthly visits. They will come twice monthly for circle time, snack and play for the remainder of the year.
This month we are reading and talking about family and friendship. I will send home a list of student names to help with valentine cards. Then on Wednesday we will make valentine bags for the upcoming exchange on February 14th.
In writing we have added word boxes to our journals and loose paper to provide children with opportunities to write a simple sentence or word to accompany their story picture.
We will resume our cooking program this month and the children are very interested in smoothies. We will be making smoothies for February on Thursday afternoons. If you are interested in making smoothies with us it will be between 12:30 and 1:00 pm except for Thurs Feb 16th. The children are cooking in small groups and sharing with the class. Our first recipe will be banana strawberry and vanilla yogurt smoothie February 9th.
Our next pot luck lunch will be Thursday February 16th at 12:20 in the classroom. Hope to see you there!!!
Warm Regards,
Mrs. McCaw & Mrs. Rollheiser