Mr. Hooper Day!

Today we had a day in Mr. Hooper's honour. Our school is truly fortunate to have such a warm and caring principal to set the atmosphere for the school as a community. This morning the entire school wore moustaches to the assembly as a surprise for Mr. Hooper. It was our not-so-subtle way of saying we love him. Any parents who were there would agree the gym was a sea of moustaches. It was a great sight.
Although our afternoon Kindie crew did not go to the assembly, they saw a lingering moustache on another student and were keen to jump on board. I wish I had pictures of the morning event. Nevertheless, these Div. 15 moustaches threaten a new trend of cute!







Love Mrs. App

Important Newsletter

The Musical
"Seus! do do do da do do do da... Seus!" or "Anything's po-ssible..." or "A person's a person no matter how small..." My head is filled with various songs from Seussical the Musical. Thank you to all the parents who came along and gave your enthusiasm and support. The children genuinely seemed interested in the production. I loved seeing their faces light up during the the first scene. It was also a pleasure to hear them mouthing the words to "I do not like green eggs and ham" during the curtain call. The performance was the official ending to our unit, but we do still have an activity that we didn't finish so it will spill into next week a little bit.

Last Week of School
Next week, we will do mostly seasonal activities, art, and singing. The morning class will have Off-To-A-Singing-Start on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. This means they come to class, but instead of booktime, we go to the gym for carol singing with the entire school. We will have a sign on our door to remind late-comers where we are.

Report Cards
The report cards go home on Friday, the last day of school. No surprises. Remember, our little tykes have different styles and rates of learning. Everyone is doing well and progressing within grade expectations. We will have parent-teacher conferences in January.

Pancakes and a Visit from Santa!
It's true. On Thursday, each class will have a pancakes and a visit from Santa in the Lunch room. Usually, it's in the morning, but I'll fight to make sure the food and Santa stay long enough to include the afternoon class. Please don't skip breakfast or lunch, since we don't know when our classes will have the activity.

Class Christmas Parties.
Michelle and I have been planning activities for our class parties. Parents are welcome to bring goodies, it they wish. I will be approaching two parents who already mentioned baking with a special request. (Now you are all curious...!) The afternoon party is on Thursday and the morning party is on Friday.

REMEMBER, WEDNESDAY IS A FULL DAY! That means that Division 14 has school on Wednesday and not on Friday! (Hmmm.... why isn't it always that way? Oh, well, I don't make the rules.)

That's all for now!
Cheers,
Mrs. App

Green Eggs and Ham Performances!

We did it! What proud parents and teachers we were as we watched our Kindies belting out the very tricky "I don't like Green Eggs and Ham" Song. They were wonderful! Both performances are included in the slideshow on the right. Make sure to click the pictures to make them bigger.

Tomorrow we go to see Seussical the Musical. How perfect!

Love Mrs. App

Class Performance

Dr. Seuss:
Both classes have been enjoying our Dr. Seuss Theme. We are doing math, literacy, and art in Seuss style. Of course, it wouldn't be right if we didn't find a song about Dr. Seuss too. I bought the Broadway CD of Seussical. We've already listened to various songs to prepare us for Seussical the Musical. Plus, we've started practising the "Green Eggs and Ham" song yesterday. Thank you to Marja for the adult Seuss hats. Thank you to Day for cutting and pasting coloured paper to make children Seuss hats. Hang on.... a song and costumes? Time for a class performance! It's not much time, but we will do our best. The morning class will sing our song for the entire school at the morning assembly on Friday, Dec. 7. Yes, it's only a few days away. Please come and watch if you can. The assembly is at 9:00(ish). The song is far too fast for my usual K pick...but it's loads of fun. The afternoon class will go to the office and serenade Mrs. Batstone. I'll try to send home the words, so the kids can practise.

Journals:
The children started writing in journals this week. We waited until this month for journals because I wanted us to have lots of practise together first. Some children can freeze up at writing time and it is overwhelming for many children. Other children can be frustrated if they want to spell everything correctly immediately. I teach the children to try writing independently using the sounds they hear. Their journals become I time line of their writing development. The more sounds they know, the more letters appear in their writing. Soon words that we have learned start to appear and so on. So this week, after two months of writing the morning message with me, it was wonderful to see the children take the writer's role. They illustrated their page and worked on a sentence to go with their picture. Children were "stretching out" words and putting down the letters that they heard in the words they wanted to put on paper. I am proud of everyone!

Love Mrs. App

Tuesday Lunches with the Teacher

I always treasure my time with your children. We all agree that children benefit from extra teacher attention. I'd love the chance to have a lunch with each student this year. This is a wonderful chance to have a special time with each child. (I can explain further in person about how this experience may help their education.)

Bayview is focusing on Health and Nutrition, so I spoke to a local organic foods restaurant about hosting our lunch. I'm delighted to announce that Aphrodite's cafe is generously offering us a specialized kids menu at reasonable prices. Of course, the 3 choices are all yummy and made from organic healthy foods. I will be sending home a sign up form for parents who are interested. (I will also have a free option where we eat our bagged lunches at school so no one misses out on personal time.)

I chose Aphrodite's Cafe because it is local friendly restaurant. It is on 4th just around the corner from our school. We do not need to cross any busy streets to reach the front door. The restaurant has a cozy feel and the inviting smell of a granny's kitchen. The owner Allan Christian, farmer and shareholder of Glen Valley Organic Farm in Fort Langley provides nearly all of the in-season organic produce for the restaurant, often picked in the AM and served the same day. Scot Roger is the chef who do his best to be at the cafe on Tuesdays. He will come to our table to meet me and my student of the week. Scot will also take the students on a little tour of the kitchen area, so students can see how the restaurant works. I think this part will also make our outing more special.

Check your child's Take Home Folder for the Lunch with the Teacher form. Due to the large number of children, this will be an ongoing event that will take months. If everyone goes for the outing option, I will talk to Scot about adding an extra day.


Thank you in advance to Alan and Scot at Aphrodite's Cafe. As always, thank you to all the parents for your smiles, comments, trust, and of course, letting me work with your children.

Here's the link for Aphrodite's Cafe. Our class choices are different, but you'll be interested to read more about the Cafe. If you go as a family, be sure to say that you're in Mrs. App's class!

Love Mrs. App

Seussical Tickets

Oh the things you can think!

Wow! I'm amazed by the number of parents and siblings who are coming to see the Seussical the musical with our classes on Thursday, Dec. 13. Thank you for your speedy responses. I have booked 54 tickets. That covers all our students (except those on holiday!) and the many parents who wanted to come along.

A BIG THANK YOU TO LEO! He's one of our fantastic SSSW's at Bayview. Since we don't have a computer technician, he volunteered his personal time to set up a new printer for our class. Now I can print off newsletters. The next hard copy notice will be the Suessical permission form which will include collecting money for ordered tickets.

Remember Kindergarten will be held in the afternoon on Dec. 13 for both classes. JKC rearranged their staff to take all JKC kids in the morning. Class will start for everyone at 12:30 and we will rush off right away to catch the 1:30 show. Please feel free to confirm with me that you are on the list. I also have the children arranged in cars already.

Oh, if you ask your children about where the Seus hats they painted went, hopefully they'll remember to say the Waterfront Theatre. I'm taking them down to the theatre on Wednesday. If all goes as planned, they will be on the theatre walls when we go to see the show.

As mentioned below, both classes are coming for the pm, so there is not an am class scheduled. JKC staff have rearranged to make extra space for those children. Please talk to me if not coming in the morning is difficult for your family. We can make a special arrangement.

Love Mrs. App

Holiday Hampers

It's the season of giving! At Thanksgiving time, our kindergarteners showed how thoughtful and caring we are by bringing in donations for the foodbank. When the foodbank came to to pick up the school donations, I'm proud to say that the lion's share of the load was from the kindergarten classes.
Now, our school is working together to put together Holiday Hampers for families in need at our sister school, Hastings Community School in East Vancouver. Our kind Kindies are collecting items to create a care package for a family that has a 5 year old girl and a 7 year old boy. General ideas for hamper items are games, books, gifts for children, gifts for parents, non-perishable food, pre-paid transfer fare cards etc. I am sending home a newletter that has more details. We hope to have our boxes wrapped and ready to go by December 10.
Love Mrs. App

Scholastic Book Orders

I was thinking of the early Christmas shoppers when I sent home the December Scholastic book order forms two weeks ago. I thought everyone would want to order early so the books would be here long before the vacation. I was wrong. Either books are not on the shopping list or people were like me and couldn't bear to think about Christmas a couple of weeks ago.
No matter what the reason is....not a soul ordered a book from the December collection! The deadline was supposed to be on Friday, Nov. 30. Let me know if you want me to extend the date. Perhaps people are waiting for the other books to arrive first. I still get giddy when I go to the office to check the mail box. Alas, there are not here yet. Soon I hope.

SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL!

Yahoo! We are going ahead for the planning of the field trip to see Seussical. Thank you to all the parents who will be buying tickets to join us and drive our children. Both classes will come to school at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 13. Our performance starts at 1:30 p.m. I'm squeezing us into a special performance that allows children 2 and over, rather than the usual limit of age 5. JKC kids will arrive to school at their usual time, but we request that the rest of the children only come for the special afternoon event. Please talk to me at school if we need to make a special arrangement for you.

I'm already busy taking oodles of Dr. Seus books out of the Library. I'll be getting a list of the characters, stories, and songs in the show. That way we can be well prepared to get the most out of the show. What a wonderful opportunity for an early literacy classroom like us!

Stay tuned for more information. I will send home ticket information and consent forms soon via the Take Home Folders.

Love Mrs. App

Safety Update

Note to readers: This entry is meant for parents so please skip it when sharing the blog with you children.

There has been a growing parent concern about the safety of children on the ground floor. There is many doors (too many I think!) on our level. In October, we made some changes in to ensure safety during bathroom trips. During class time, the girls go in pairs or with an adult. We can see the boys entrance from our room, so that is reassuring. Also, the staff have voted to have the school locked down during class times -when it's not recess or lunch time etc. This would mean less doors (maybe only one) would be open to the public during class time. I'm not sure of the exact date that the locking will begin. There will be a school newsletter. In the meantime, the principal is your best resource for the time line. The school also is very big to our little ones, so our kindies are never sent on errands to the office or other areas. They may run into the room during recess to get something they forgot, but the halls are busy with other children at that time.

Thank you to all the parents who have come to me with concerns. I agree that we need to do all that we can to keep our precious children safe and without having them be anxious about safety.

Cheers,

Caroline App

Watch the slideshows for Farm and Halloween photos!

I finally have some more pictures of our field trips and Halloween on our blog! Look along the right side of the page to see the slideshow options. I'll be using this option to share photos with student families and friends. (It's financially more possible too.) You can always order a picture you treasure. Enjoy talking to your child about the photos and memories they have. I also plan on learning how to use the projector in the classroom. Then we can view the slide shows etc. as a group.
Enjoy!
Love Mrs. App

Where is Michelle?

Ah, here's a lovely picture of many Div. 15 students. Wait a minute! Where's Michelle and who is that woman in the front! That's a friendly SSSW named Barb. She was with us those 3 long sad days that Michelle was away.


Thank you to the parent that emailed me this photo.


Love Mrs. App

Autumn Art Activity

In class we've been using our names for recognizing letters and learning their sounds. This week we finished an art project that integrated sponge painting fall colours with our names. We tried to make it look like our names on fallen leaves.

The children had a great time during the activity. They were focused and engaged in learning. I loved the buzz of activity as they read out each other's names. Not all the names are on the walls yet. I've run out of wall space and will extend into the hallway next week!

You can also see the previous name art in this final picture. (You can click the photo for a closer look.) I believe our classroom is looking bright and full of our learning. What a change from August. Ugh! Remember those pictures?

Love Mrs. App

Do you have a copy of the Program Overview?

I realize many parents may not have picked up a Program Overview back on Pizza Night. Surely, some copies have gone missing too. I've decided to post the Kindergarten Program Overview here so it's easily available for everyone. You'll find it below and also as a link on the right for future reference.

See you soon, Mrs. App.

Program Overview for Kindergarten – Mrs. App

Dear Parents and Guardians,

During the first few days, I’ve enjoyed getting to know your children and look forward to our year together. I will assist each child to reach his or her individual potential in an atmosphere of respect and trust. I aim to make the classroom a welcoming, warm, and supportive environment in which each child feels secure and valued. This year we are extremely fortunate to have Michelle Grant working in our class as a full-time Student and School Support Worker (SSW). When you meet Michelle you’ll immediately notice her warm smile and genuinely caring nature with the children. All of our children will benefit from having her in our room. Oh, did I mention she’s a paramedic? We are the luckiest class in the school!

During the first term, the students will be adjusting to school and classroom routines. We will also learn the school wide rules: Be Safe, Be Fair, Be Kind. Meanwhile, I’m fully aware that part of childhood involves “testing boundaries,” and I’ll support each child kindly as they find their way.

I teach the curriculum in visual, auditory, oral, and kinesthetic ways so that I can reach all learning styles in the classroom. Moreover, I believe everyone benefits from multi-modal teaching. Our classroom themes and focus in the subjects will change gradually throughout the year. I’ll keep parents posted on our Class Blog (mrsappkindergarten.blogspot.com), monthly newsletters starting in October, and friendly chats. While waiting to hear the fine details, here’s the basic outline of our classroom.

Curriculum Goals and Teaching/Learning Strategies

The Kindergarten program fosters the development of the whole child and promotes learning through active involvement and play. Learning is a social process, therefore language and literacy development is a main goal. The classroom layout, materials, and accommodate our variety of learning styles and needs. There are opportunities for children to have individual, small group, and large group learning experiences.

Timetable

The morning class: 8:45 a.m. – 11:35 a.m.

9:00 a.m. – 11:35 a.m. on Wednesdays only

The afternoon class: 12:30 p.m. – 3:10 p.m.

No class on Wednesdays

Division 14 starts in the mornings.

Division 15 starts in the afternoons.

Classes will switch times in February.

Please note that these times are different than the main school because they have a different lunch break than us. If you see times on school newsletters that don’t seem to make sense, you are probably right. Unfortunately, the times on the Bayview newsletters often forget to mention us. Ask me anytime and we can clear things up.

Shape of the Day

Arrival: When children arrive they will be greeted by Michelle and me, put their name on the attendance school house chart, change into their INDOOR SHOES, put their Take Home Folder in the yellow bin, and settle into their desks for special reading time.

Book Time: The first ten to fifteen minutes of each class is reading time. Parents, guardians, and caregivers are invited to read with their child or other children. This reading time is an important part of the program as the children learn to appreciate literature and develop positive attitudes towards reading and books. It is my expectation that everyone in the classroom will be engaged in reading at this time.

Class Meeting: Children meet at the carpet for calendar time and news. During this time children are involved in many literacy and numeric activities. Shared reading, counting, writing, songs, poetry, graphing, and the calendar are part of this routine. After the first week, we introduce the ABC helper who leads the class in the phonics exercise. The ABC helper has a chance to develop leadership and public speaking skills. I also find the children are a wonderful audience for their peers.

Integrated Subject Areas

Language Arts and Reading: There are numerous opportunities for daily Language and Literacy activities in the Kindergarten Program. These activities vary and tie in with the current theme we are studying. Some activities include: reading stories, charts, poems, songs, making books, printing, writing in Journals, responding to literature through writing and art, and using prediction and comprehension activities.

The Home Reading starts at the end of October. This program involves parents reading with their child for 15 minutes a day and keeping a record of what you have read. I will send home more information about this program in October.

Mathematics: The curriculum is divided into theme areas: number concepts and operations, patterns, measurement, geometry, and probability. Children will have daily opportunities to use manipulatives and games to explore mathematic concepts and operations. I also use direct teaching and give exercises for children to explore their findings and complete activity sheets.

Science: Children will have opportunities to observe, hypothsize, experiment, and record their understanding of basic concepts related to colours, physical self, plants, animals, air, water, weather, and seasons.

Physical Education: Ms. Veda will be teaching the P.E. portion of the program. The large gymnasium can be an overwhelming experience for children. Michelle will be with the children to help them adjust and give extra help where needed.

Fine Arts: Drawing, painting, printmaking, construction, and collage will be incorporated into theme activities or as a separate project. Music is included in the class daily and during weekly music periods. The children will be exposed to body rhythm, action songs, and percussion instruments. Drama experiences may be related to one area of study or it may arise from the children’s imagination and experiences. As the director of the school play, I can give you advance notice that this year’s play will be on Thursday March 13, 2008. There is a morning and evening performance. Both classes will perform at each show. Stay tuned for more information!

Social Studies: Your child will be involved in Social Studies on an ongoing basis. The topics include roles, rights and responsibilities in school and community, family, friendship, me, environment, and problem solving.

Recess: Both classes will have a daily recess break. The morning class will have recess with the main school. Please be aware that supervision aides will be watching the children in addition to our fabulous Michelle. The afternoon class has recess that may overlap with the Kinder Care program. I will be supervising the afternoon class outside.

Story Time: After recess, the children gather on the carpet for a story. This is a chance to settle after running about and to help gather focus for the next part of the day. Of course, it is also another chance to share a literacy experience and connect to our themes.

Centres: Children can choose from a variety of rotating activities that encourage growth in all areas of development. Skills are practiced at Centre Time and opportunities for creativity and self-expression are numerous. During this time, I will be able to connect with students individually, observe, assess, evaluate, and conference with students if needed.

Student Assessment/ Evaluation and Reporting to Parents

Ongoing assessment includes observations, checklists, and a collection of student work. Evaluation is based on the children’s individual progress over time as well as curriculum goals and widely held expectations for their age group. There are three reporting periods per year. Parents may also set up an appointment with me to discuss questions, concerns, or comments regarding their child’s progress.

Home Communication

Each student has a TAKE HOME FOLDER that goes home every day. Please make sure this folder is returned every day. I will send notices and student work in this folder. Parents can send signed forms or personal notes etc. back in this folder. The folder is checked daily at school. Please check it at home daily too.

The children, family members, and friends can find updates about our classroom at anytime on our classroom blog. The internet address is mrsappkindergarten.blogspot.com

In addition, the monthly newsletter will start going home in October.

Parent Volunteers

Half way through October, a volunteer sign up calendar will be posted by the classroom front door. I ask that only one person sign up per session. I will keep a binder with notes and instructions for classroom helpers. Helper jobs are often cutting and pasting for upcoming projects. It also involves helping the students at seatwork or centres as needed. It’s a great chance to be involved in the learning process. Anyone who volunteers is greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance!

Field Trips

We will go on several little field trips this year. I will contact you in advance if volunteer drivers and/or supervision are needed.

I’m truly excited about this year of Kindergarten. We have many adventures ahead of us. I thank you for cooperation, support, and trusting me with your children.

Sincerely,

Caroline

(Mrs. App)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone is enjoying the three day weekend with their families. Our classes talked about the Harvest and being thankful for what we have. Indeed, one family has grown this weekend and is especially thankful. We are very excited for E who is now a BIG BROTHER! Best wishes to his family and all the Kindergarten families this weekend.

This week we did some corn art activities. Both classes made corn with construction paper. These are hanging in the classroom. On Friday, Division 14 used water colours and popcorn to make another corn art project with their buddy class. This project will be on display on the hall bulletin board. Our buddy class is Mr. Bartlett's grade 6 and 7 class. My little kindies love the attention and guidance they receive when the buddies are in our class. Ask your child if s/he can the name of her/his buddy.

Division 15 had gym class and had limited time for their additional art project. They made a turkey that involved colouring, cutting, and pasting the feathers. Division 15 took their turkeys home.

Picture day is coming up! Individual student photos will be on October 15. Please click Calendar (on the right) for other upcoming events.

Love Mrs. App

More Sport Fit Activities!

Here's some more pictures from our week of Sport Fit! Each class had 30 minutes of field sports and another 30 minutes of gym trials. The air was filled with excitement, confusion, and laughter! I'm already looking forward the the end of the year when we get to go through the courses again. The children's results were entered into computers so they can track their individuals process over the year and future year.

Love Mrs. App

Sport Fit!

The Kindies had sport trials in the gym and in the field this week. Stay tuned for more information and more pictures.

Love Mrs. App

First week of October

Yikes! It's already October!

I want more time with all my sweet kindies to do all the projects I had planned. Oh well, I'll have to put some crafts aside and move on with the next month. We are not finished talking about our families yet. We are working on family portraits. Once they are finished, they will be displayed in the coat area. We will continue working on recognizing all the names in the class. Of course, we do phonics, reading, and counting together every morning at the carpet. We have started our printing books. At the moment our math (mostly number concepts) is integrated throughout the day.

Our field trip to UBC Farm dates are now confirmed. Division 15 is on Friday October 26. Division 14 is on Monday October 29. I'll update the blog and send out a newsletter for permission once the UBC contact sends me exact times for arrival. I will leave the use of car seats up to parents discretion. If you child is going with a volunteer driver, you may bring a car seat to school on the day of the field trip and we will use it for the trip.

Check the calendar for all the events this month! The link for Kindergarten Calendar is on the right side of the main blog page. There's Halloween Howl, Immunization, Hearing Clinics, and more. This week we are doing 75 minutes of SPORT FIT. Division 14 will be doing a variety of sports trials on Wednesday. Division 15 will have their turn on Thursday.

Feel free to email me at the contact link under my profile. I may not check my email right away, but I will get back to you. Of course, I'm at school every day too, so that's always an option. I aim to get a list of parent emails once the office has them compiled from the brown forms.

See you soon.

Love Mrs. App

P.S. Anyone else finding it annoyingly dark at the classroom entrance and the coat area? I talked to Hugh, our principal, and our friendly engineer, Cesar, today and they will see what can be done to help out.

The End of September

Our class is starting to settle nicely into our routines. Our focus this month has been getting to know each other and feel comfortable and safe in our cozy classroom together. We are working on recognizing our own names and reading peer names too. We have enjoyed new songs, stories, and reading poems together. Thanks to our pocket chart centre, many students are enjoying playing teacher and reading the poems to me! The two students are playing teacher and reading in this photo.

I am presently organizing a field trip for both classes to the UBC Farm. The students will get to learn about growing vegetables and also get to pick a pumpkin for taking home. Division 14 will go on Oct. 29 and Division 15 will go on Oct. 26. I'll be contacting parents as volunteers. Thank you to parents who have already sent in driver forms. Stay tuned for more information.






Here's more some pictures of our darling students this week.

See you soon,
Love Mrs. App