Happy Holidays from the Div 1 and 2 Team!

Wishing you all a peaceful, healthy and joyful holiday season.

Here are are a few pictures of the wonderful students of Div 1 and 2.  It was an exciting week full of wonder, friendship and, of course...SNOW!!


Snowpeople

Rockin' Reindeer

Santa!

Sparkly angels

As snow began to fall on the Dickens neighbourhood, we had 44 ecstatic students!

Friday was PJs, stuffies and books day.  We had a few festive treats as well!

Jen and Wendy wore their matching flannel PJs.  We think PJ day should be a much more frequent event :)

Once again, Happy Holidays from Jen, Wendy, Karen, Jenny and Rahel.  We love you all and look forward to seeing you again in 2013.

Snowmen and songs

It is beginning to look a lot like holiday time at Dickens! 

We are in full concert practice mode, and you have probably been hearing your child(ren) singing at home over the last few weeks. The children have perfected all 5 holiday songs, and are ready to perform for you on Wednesday. We can't wait to share it with you.

On Monday and Tuesday we created some beautiful art work that will be presented to each of you on Friday.

 In between our practicing, we also created some winter snowmen to decorate the walls of the gym for our Winter Concert.

Initially small groups painted BIG snow people. The children worked very well together. It was a great opportunity for the teachers to see how cooperative your children are with one another. All ideas were honoured, and everyone took turns and shared materials beautifully. 

 Next we worked with our Big Buddies to dress and decorate the snow people. The results are quite fabulous. Look for them on the walls of the gym on Wednesday during the concert.

 On Friday we had a joyful celebration of Christmas traditions with Cocoa and Caroling. We walked around the neighbourhood with our Big Buddies, and sang a selection of holiday songs. Then we returned to the school to enjoy a cup of cocoa lovingly prepared by our fantastic parent volunteers. 

Cocoa brewing!

Tom, Julie, Jason, Anna, Stacie, Maggie, Marguerite, Jenny and Ryoko

Ready to serve 500 cups of cocoa!

The kids and teachers loved the cocoa!!

Upcoming Dates and Reminders:

1. Holiday Concert: please make sure that you have sent in your ticket request form. Your children will need to come to both shows to perform regardless of which show you attend. Toddlers are welcome to sit on a parents lap. Please dress your child in RED!

2. Friday December 21st will be Pajama Day in Division 1 and 2!! Please send your child to school in their favourite jammies. We will be having lots of cosy holiday fun all day.

3. Please bring some non-perishable food for our classroom Food Bank boxes. Let's try and fill them!!

New Student??

We wish you all a weekend filled with love and peace. You all mean the world to us, and we are so grateful to have each of you in our lives.

Critters and Conferences

Our week began with a visit from our friend Mike and his "pets".  The children had a great time because, not only could they see these fascinating creatures up close, but they could touch some of them!  Enjoy the photos.

WARNING: These photos may not be suitable for viewers with weak stomachs or fears of creepy crawlies!

 

The next critter was surprisingly beautiful and very, very soft.  She was very young and not yet full grown.  When the children touched her, she was a little jumpy!

Our next guest was quite intriguing and it was called a tailless whip scorpion.  If you look carefully, you can see the long whip which is actually used for feeling its way around.

Then we were introduced to a Giant Vinagroon.  This arachnid's defense mechanism is to emit a strong odour that smells similar to vinegar.

The Emperor Scorpion was next and Mike told us it's sting is quite mild compared to other scorpions.  He said he was curious one day and decided to annoy this scorpion enough to bite him.  Eeeek!  Mike said the sting was less painful than a bee sting.

This scorpion even glows! Wow!

Finally, Mike brought out the Pink-Toed Tarantula.  She was much larger than the first tarantula and actually had pink toes!  When the children touched her, they said she was as soft as a bunny.

Here are some other activities from this week:

We created a spider mural to show our expertise in this subject area.  With a few supplies and  lots of knowledge, the children created an amazing display!

 

 

 

 

With Student-Led Conferences right around the corner, we talked about the learning we wanted to share with our guests.  The students gathered their books and folders, familiarized themselves with the conference schedule, and then practiced sharing their work with a partner.



 

 

 

 

Finally, our guests arrived and the children were excited and ready to go!

In Karen and Jen's Math group, the children are practicing number sequencing.

 In Wendy and Jenny's Math group, the students are continuing to explore place value and how many tens and ones are in a given number.

On Friday, we had two very special guests in our classroom.  Jillian and Adam are Sophie's parents and Teah's aunt and uncle and they came to talk about Hanukkah with the children. First they told us a story about how and when Hanukkah originated.

 

Then we played Dreidels.  It was a lot of fun!

Thanks everyone for another week of exciting learning!

Reminders for next week:

- Carolling and Cocoa this Friday.  We would love some parent volunteers to help make and serve cocoa.  We would also love it if families could join us for the carolling around the neighbourhood.  Remember to dress for the weather.

- Bring your Winter Concert requests in to Viv at the office.

 

- Carolling at Dickens before school this week from 8:45 to 9:00.

 

 

* Here is Mike's information if anyone would like to contact him.  He is available for birthday parties and other events. 

 





mikescritters@hotmail.com

Meal time for spider

This week we learned about what spiders eat, and how they catch and consume their food.

The venom in a black widow spider liquifies its prey so that it can easily consume it. To demonstrate this for the children, small groups of students were given a sugar cube and a glass with some water, They watched the sugar dissolve as the "venom" went to work.

Following this activity, each child made a black widow out of paper to hang on our classroom web.

We also spent some time sorting the things spiders DO and DON'T eat. Small groups of students worked together to create a web of items that are consumed by spiders, and below added the things that are not consumed. Poor spiders never get to eat ice cream.

In math, Wendy and Jenny's group is working with adding 10 to a number, and showing their thinking with the Base 10 blocks.

In Karen and Jen's math group, we are using a number line to play games that teach us how to count on, create sets, and begin simple addition to 10.

Our UBC Teacher Candidates, Sarah and Olivia, were back this Thursday. It was wonderful to have them working and learning again with your children. They will continue to be with us every Thursday until April when they will begin their 10 week practicum. 

Sarah and Olivia read a marvelous book to the class, Aaaarrgghh, A Spider, by Lydia Monks:

Then had the children create a spider web scene using black paper, pastels and glitter. The results are stunning.

We have introduced a new game of spinning tops during choosing time. The children are creating their own ways of playing with these new toys. While having fun, the children are also strengthening the muscles in their hands which, in turn, help them with the pencil grip and printing.

Each day our classrooms have a "special helper". This child leads Calendar Time, hands out work, is the head of the line when we go out, and does other special jobs. They also get to be "Reader of the Day" at the end of our Booktime. This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to read a book aloud to the class, and the children all look forward to it.

Upcoming Important Dates:

1. Holiday Concert: Wednesday December 19. Please note the two times: 1:15pm and 6:30pm. Each family will get 2 tickets to attend ONE concert time. Further details will be sent home in a notice next week.
2. Cocoa and Caroling: Friday December 14. 10:15 to noon. Please join us as we wander the neighbourhood singing Holiday songs! We will finish with a cup of hot cocoa in the lunchroom.
3. Poinsettia pick up: Thursday December 6, before and after school in the main hall.

We look forward to seeing you this week for our Student Led Conferences. The children are very excited to share their learning with you. It has been a fantastic first term and we cannot wait for your children to show you all they have been doing!