May 21st Newsletter

Happy Long Weekend,
The sunny weather has finally arrived and it is time for gardening, farmer's markets and lots of time enjoying nature with family.

Departure Bay Walk-a-Thon

Over half our class has signed up to support the school library transformation!!!! The PAC has made a huge commitment to the school and have been super busy fundraising for amazing prizes. The generosity of our business community has been touching. Don't forget to check out our class team for updates by visiting their facebook page Families of Departure Bay by following the above link.
We said goodbye to Ms. Mcdonald this week and gifted her with a beautiful card covered with quotes of what the children liked about working with her. She has a school district interview next week so maybe she will return in June as as substitute teacher!!! 
In the meantime, we will continue with our offsite mornings with parent support.

On Monday June 6th we are travelling by school bus to Neck Point for the day and will require 2 volunteers since Peter Gross has already signed up. If you have time in your schedule we would love your company. 

We will enjoy time in the fairy forest making our own fairy homes with some potter's clay, nature loose parts and bio-degradable glitter. The children will bring a little jewel to leave in their fairy home. Then we will enjoy lunch and exploration at the seashore with Mrs. Radigan's class and finish with a nature walk back to the school bus.
Goal Celebration-the children quickly exceeded their goal of working together to reset the room, using kind reminders, after soft starts and centre times and enjoyed their celebration on Wednesday morning making butterfly headbands with Griffin's mom Amy, sugar cookie decorating with Miss Mcdonald's grandmother, Marg and enjoying balloons, bubbles and bowling outside with Miss Mcdonald and myself.  They really are exceptional kinders. Photos have been added to your child's Freshgrade portfolio.

Our next celebration will be Wednesday June 8th. It will be a class birthday party. The children will decorate their birthday letters, enjoy birthday mini-cupcakes prepared by Sweets by Tonia, receive a birthday gift bag and of course decorate the classroom. We will also plan on which activities to enjoy for our celebration. Let me know if you would like to volunteer. Amy has already expressed an interest!!!

While the children have completed their study on Force and Motion there are many fun activities to enjoy I have continued with a few experiments like catapults, as well as adding marble painting to the atelier. Next week we will set up ramps with our wood blocks and some loose parts to explore more force and motion with some new cars I picked up on the weekend.

The children have been continuing with our Clay Investigation and have been exploring as well as learning how to shape using a few techniques. It is a popular table in the atelier so expect to see more compostable pieces coming home with your child. If anyone has access to a kiln please let me know as we would love to make pinch pots as a finale for this investigation. Unfortunately there is no money left in the classroom account to pay for firing but we still have a few pounds of clay to work with :) which is so much fun!!!
Our final few weeks together will be busy and fly by quickly. A few upcoming activities will be harvesting and cooking our potatoes, enjoying our caterpillars (in the mail), cooking Harlan's breakfast bars, the school walk-a-thon, a visit to the waterpark with Mrs. Radigan's class and a visit with the grade one classrooms to explore their environments and meet the teachers, although grade one placements will not be confirmed until September.