Here are the children's fabulous self-portraits for the month of April.  Enjoy :)

Wow!  We collected so much food for the Campus Food Bank!  Thank you so much for your generous donations, for allowing us to use your wagons and carts on our delivery day, and for the parents who were able to stay and help with the food delivery.  As the children pushed their carts/pulled their wagons across campus I felt overwhelmed with pride!  The food bank was very excited when we arrived with our large food delivery.

Here is a link to the Campus Food Bank website: http://campusfoodbank.com 

I hope you enjoy the photos! 

Morning Class Reflections

"What was your favourite part of delivering food today?  How did it make your feel?"

Abd-ElRahman - I liked helping them.
Amelie - I liked pushing the cart.
Finn - I liked pulling the carts.
Jasper - I liked walking to the food bank.
Leia - I liked pushing the carts.  It was so bumpy.
Luka - I liked giving the food.
Megan - I liked pulling the wagon with Amelie.  It made me happy.
Nathan - I liked giving the food for them.
Tobias - I liked pushing the carts. 

Afternoon Class Reflections

"What was your favourite part of delivering food to the food bank?  How did it make your feel?"

Anna - I liked it when I was pushing the cart.
Avery - I liked pushing the cart.
Cooper - I felt good.
Dorine - Pushing the wagon felt good.
Elisha - hen I was helping Dorine pull the wagon it was good.
Jesse - I liked carrying the adventure backpack.
Kinan - I liked laughing with Aroh and Talha.
Lowyn - I felt happy by pushing the stroller.
Samantha - I liked that day.
Seth - I liked pushing the food with bumping peanut butter with Mommy. 

Here are our self-portraits for the month of February.  This is one of my favourite activities to complete with the children!  They have shown great improvements in their fine motor skills.  Also included in these photos is a great picture of Jenn and Jenny drawn by Luka :)

What fun we have had with Stone Soup!  At our Stone Soup literacy counter the children can look at different versions of this tale and also retell it as they mix up their own stone soup with manipulatives.

We have read the following versions of stone soup:

• Stone Soup, by Jon Muth
• Stone Soup, by Marcia Brown
• Fandango Stew, by David Davis
• Bone Button Borscht, by Aubrey Davis

Thank you to everyone for sharing your veggies so that we could enjoy our own stone soup at school!  Sitting around a circle, the children shared what they had brought to contribute to our soup.  We then sang the stone soup song (sung to the tune of Frere Jacques) as we took turns putting our veggies in the soup pot:
We have ______________
We have ______________
In our stone soup
In our stone soup
Thank you for sharing
Thank you for sharing
Yum, yum, yum!
Yum, yum, yum!

In the soup pot was also one large stone (boiled on my stove prior to entering our soup... and I use the same stone every year so it's really clean by now!), a bay leaf, salt and pepper, and vegetable broth.  The morning soup ended up very spicy as there was too much pepper in our soup.  You will see this reflected on the children's faces in the photos below!  The afternoon soup had less pepper in it, making it much more enjoyable!

We had a great Valentine's Day!  

Thank you for ensuring your child had valentine cards to deliver to her/his peers.  It is a very exciting day for the children, and I always worry that someone will have forgotten their cards at home.  I was really impressed that the children were able to recognize some of their peers' names as Jenn and I helped them deliver their cards.

We also had some special Valentine's centres for the children this day.  On the SMART Board the children drew 'Valentine's Pictures", at the art centre they created valentine cards and decorated foam hearts, they played a toss game with gummy hearts, completed heart puzzles, and created patterns with two different kinds of heart erasers.  We then had snack (a big thank you to the families who brought in snacks to share) and opened our valentines.

The afternoon class had a pirate dress-up this week.  We completed pirate activities like creating an authentic looking treasure map, making 'Wanted' posters, and playing 'Pin the Eye Patch on the Pirate".  Having everyone dressed up like pirates led to a fun afternoon of imaginative play!  

A special thank you to Finn and Kaliko for sharing their extra pirate gear with their classmates.

We also played the pirate games/activities on this website: http://www.cbc.ca/kids/games/pirates/index.html

Here are the children's self-portraits for the month of January.  We are so impressed with the growth we can already see in their drawings!  

A teacher sits with the children who are completing their drawings, cueing them to add details and hold their pencils correctly, but they do the drawings themselves.  We are very proud of their hard work! 

"Princess Leia Land"
By Leia

One day Princess Leia was playing in the water.
A storm comes and it rains.
Luke Skywalker comes and plays with her - they play leapfrog, they play with blocks too. 

"E-A-N-D-O"
By Tobias

In the forest a cougar was roaring at a lion.
They fight.

"Unititled"
By Kaliko

A little boy and a little girl were making a snowman.
And a big storm comed.
And then they went inside and then they went to bed and then it was close to summer.

"The Bear and the Squirrel Met Friends"
By Augustus

Once upon a time there was a bear, and that bear was sad because he lost his old friend.
But one day the bear set off and he found a friend that was up in a tree.
And that friend's name was Mr. Oldy Squirrel.
Mr. Oldy Squirrel was so scared at first, so the bear told him he was a good bear.
The end.

"Every Pirate Gone"
By Luka

The invisible pirates jump on the ship. 
Two pirates and invisible pirates fight them off their ship.
The two pirates fall in the sea.
They don't know how to swim.

"The Two Girls are the Best Friends"
By Aroh

Once upon a time two girls built an igloo.
They went inside and then a boy named Aroh came along, he wanted to go in the igloo too.
The girls let him in and they stayed friends for the rest of their lives.
The end.

"There's a Snowman"
By Kinan

A boy makes a snowman.
Then the boy is sleeping and the snowman breaks.

Activity Description:
Everyday we will be acting out stories told by two of our class members.  During centre time the two students (who are chosen by pulling names out of a jar) work with Jenny to create their stories.  They then identify the characters in their stories and choose which of their peers will be playing the roles.  A tracking sheet is used to ensure all students have equal turns in both the storytelling and the acting portion of this daily activity.

A photocopy of your child's story will be sent home the day she/he tells it, so that your family can read it also.  Perhaps you will want to act out the stories at home too!    

"Race"
By Finn C.

There was a guy who had a motorcycle with flames and a monster on it and he crashed.
Then another guy went super fast and it was snowing and he slipped off his bike and jumped onto a pole.
Then three more motorcycles cam and they zoomed and they won the race.

"Triceratops"
By Jasper

A mommy and a daddy Triceratops are cooking plants for their babies.  
And the babies are cooking plants for the mommy and daddy.
A T-Rex eats them all.
And then a Velociraptor eats the T-Rex.
Then a giant dinosaur eats the Velociraptor.
The end.

"Pender Island"
By Cooper

Did you know on Pender Island the fridge was really stinky and there was a big blob of mould in it. 
My mom had to use bleach and she told us to stay away.
Sillus had to stay away too.

"Snowman"
By Lowyn

Once upon a time there was two boys named Cooper and Finn.
They built a snowman with Lowyn.