This week's reminders

Monday
-gym
-library books are due
-Lenten mite boxes are due
-Mother's Day Tea RSVP

Tuesday
-show and tell: animal theme

Thursday
-Annual General Meeting: 630pm

Friday
-Food Bank Mass
-Sports Club 

*I will be sending home more information and the permission form for the field trip on May 22nd. Mrs. Lemire and I will be looking for parent chaperones for this field trip. If interested, please return the form as soon as possible.

I am a Gift from God homework

Please check your child's folder for the booklet 'I am a Gift from God.' Help them complete the first page of the booklet which is a drawing of themselves (also coloured). This booklet needs to be returned tomorrow Thursday as they will need it for the second lesson.

Also tomorrow, I will be sending home the change from those who purchased lunch from the concession today.

Holy Week

Highlights from this week:

-Tuesday: Constable Minhas (Sahil's dad) spoke with both K classes about his job as a Langley Police Officer. They students enjoyed seeing the police car, sitting in the front and back seats and even heard the sirens a couple of times. Thank you Constable Minhas for an exciting presentation!

-Celery tasting: many students tried a piece of celery but a few of them said it would taste better with some ranch dressing :)

 

-Holy Thursday: In the morning, we watched the Gr 7's act out the Stations of the Cross in the gym and our students had many questions afterwards about Jesus' journey before he died. In the afternoon, they learned about the Seder Meal, created a craft in Mrs. Lemire's classroom, listened to an Easter story and ate a small piece of bread after discussing the importance of the Last Supper. 

Check your child's folder for the following

*April newsletter (re: cancellation of hot lunches for the rest of the school year)

*Traffic pattern map (before and after school): please make sure grandparents/daycare/guardians have this information as well

*Healthy Eating certificate

*I am a Gift from God parent letter from Mr. Borkowski (this program will begin next week)

Please check the school website under Announcements...your input is needed!

1. CCS Code of Conduct draft

2. Two week spring break survey

Reminders - no school Mon, April 21st

Tuesday - show and tell, letter of the week Zz, bring back your child's water bottle to keep in class

 

Next week - Holy Week

Next week is Holy Week and on Thursday morning, all classes will participate in the Living Stations of Cross performed by the Grade 7 class. Each class will move from station to station (outside, around the parish center) as the Gr 7's narrate Jesus' journey. All parents/grandparents are welcome to join us - we are scheduled to begin at 9:15am. 

In the afternoon, the school will have a Holy Thursday retreat and our students (in groups) will be rotating between the primary classes every 10 minutes. It will be a great afternoon of reflecting on Jesus' sacrifices for us and the true meaning of Easter.

School Uniform for Girls
1. Winter uniform (navy school pants ) can only be worn from Oct 15th to Feb 28th.
2. Summer uniform (navy skort) can only be worn from April 15th to Sept 30th.
At this time, girls should be wearing their school tunics with proper blouses (with collars). Please refer to the Parent Handbook, found on our school website, if you need further clarification.

 

PRECIOUS BLOOD PARISH ANNUAL GOLF CLASSIC: join us on Thurs. June 5, 2014 at Hazelmere Golf & Country Club. This fundraising event supports the NEW CLASSROOM PROJECT at Cloverdale Catholic School. Registration is $125 per person & includes a Steak BBQ & lots of fun. Or join us for dinner for $45. Reserve a spot as a single, two, three or four-some today to take advantage of the Early Bird draw for a putter. (Register by May 1, 2014) Please see Brenda in the Parish Office to register.

VOLUNTEERS & SPONSORS Needed. Please contact Tim Benko 604-230-0626 or Brian Snow 604-290-7537 if you can help.

Next weeks reminders: 

- Tuesday: Show and Tell animal theme
- Letter of the Week Yy
- Friday, April 18th: no school - Good Friday
- Monday, April 21: no school - Easter Monday

Turtle Talk

  

This week I introduced the idea of Turtle Talk - how turtles talk so slowly that they can only say one sound at a time.  We began playing games of oral blending (for phonemic awareness) like isolating the blending skill. For example, I say ' My turtle is so slow and tired, he can only say one sound at at time. Can you guess what he is trying to say /c/ /a/ /t/? Perhaps you can play this short game with your child in the car- only with 3 letter words (made from a consonant-vowel-consonant). Words like bat, cat, dog, fox, box, net, bag, fan, rat, van, hen, pig, bed, top, pot, can, jet, red, ten, tub, sub, mop wig.

Next, I will be asking the students to do the turtle talk and I will guess the words. These two games are done completely orally - an important skill for K students to understand before they begin matching sounds to letters.

 

I've also introduced the vowels (identifying the 5 letters) with an action song 'Vowel Limbo'. I taught the short vowel sounds slowly paired with actions to remember the sounds. For example, I ask the students 'What is the sound of the letter a?' and I make the action like I am grabbing an apple off of an apple tree and they respond /a/ - as in apple.

For letter e, I say that this sound reminds me of when I lose air in my stomach and the sound that comes out is /e/ - like in egg.

For letter i, I tell them to imagine that there is mud on their hands and they are shaking it off in disgust and the sound I make is /i/. 

For letter o, I say this sound is like when I see really cute babies (like Mr. Borkowski's twin daughters).../o/

For letter u, I say that when I was little my Mom caught me having a cookie before dinner and she said /u/-/u/-/u/ (with her finger signaling tsk-tsk-tsk!)

Tuesday - Show and Tell Theme for April....stories and/or pictures of animals or pets (past or present)

Wednesday - Hot Lunch

Healthy Eating & Healthy Bodies

From this  to this                     

Well, not exactly. The past two Tuesdays have been our days of trying new fruits and vegetables (carrots, strawberries, pears, cucumbers, oranges) and I believe that the students are learning so much from each other's preferences. It's amazing how one student may say 'I love cucumbers' as the tray is begin passed out and many of them have helped themselves to seconds! We have been discussing where different fruits and vegetables grow (garden, tree, bush, vine) and how important the nutrients that they contain are good their our growing bodies. There was a sheet in each student's homework folder to help record and track different fruits and vegetables they eat at school and at home. 

This week, students will be trying apples, sugar snap peas and broccoli. Also, a parent has volunteered to make kale chips as well - yummy! If you have never tried these yourself, you should (it tastes nothing like raw kale!) For the past 5 years, I've grown kale in my garden and each year my son and daughter (ages 8 & 7) can't wait to harvest it so I can make them kale chips!

PE clothes - just a reminder on gym days (Mon, Wed, Fri) students need to still wear their full uniform even if they are wearing their gym shirt underneath. I've noticed that a few students are not wearing their collared CCS shirts on those days but are simply wearing their gym shirts. If you have any questions about this, please email me at golaybal@ccsunited.ca 

Welcome back!

For our morning prayer service, we are now praying one decade of the Rosary until Easter. I reminded the students to pray for their prayer buddy, our Gr 5/6 buddies and for those who need our prayers. I am also teaching them the refrains to the Lenten songs that they'll hear at our Friday school Masses. If you have time, please search 'The Wonderful Cross' by Michael W. Smith (with lyrics) on YouTube and let your child sing the refrain.

Thanks to Mrs. Johnson for making our prayer pretzels today - we discussed how the pretzel has 3 different parts (similar to a shamrock) and how it reminds us of the Trinity: Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Also, the shape of the pretzel looks like the position of our arms when they go up for a blessing. You may find it in their lunchbox as I told them to teach the pretzel story to those at home.

I introduced the Stations of the Cross to the class and we will be learning one station each day until Holy Week. Today, students learned about how Jesus was treated badly and how he was condemned  to death by King Pilate (Station #1). Tomorrow, we will visit the Church to see the Stations of the Cross and pray Lenten meditation.

Tomorrow is library and show and tell 'Mystery Bag'. Please return report card covers & envelopes.

Wednesday reminders: PE, hot lunch

*I'm still looking for 2 parents to bring in veggies and fruits - pls contact me if you can help

Parenting Workshop:
Building Resilience our Children
With Dr. Deborah MacNamara
7pm on Tuesday, April 1st in the Parish Center

Humans are some of the most adaptive creatures on the planet with the capacity to overcome adversity and find creative solutions to our problems. While it is within everyone’s capacity to be resilient and resourceful, this potential is not always realized for everyone. Raising resourceful and resilient children has never been more important and the role of tears in this process never more misunderstood. Adults play a key role in cultivating the roots of resilience that have lasting effects on their capacity to endure adversity.

*Babysitting will be provided but space is limited.
Please RSVP to the School or PREP office by Friday, March 28th.

Happy Spring Break

 

Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who were able to help out at our skating session last Monday.  The students showed a lot of perseverance in skating - I was impressed by all of the first time skaters and experienced ones!

The Speech Arts festival, on Tuesday, was a great experience for us as we performed our choral poem 'Alligator Pie' in front of the two judges, Mrs. Saharchuk and Mrs. Antonio. Congratulations to everyone for their hard work! 

On Wednesday afternoon, Ms. DaCruz' Grade 1 class led us in our first Lenten assembly in the gym. It was a great reminder of the things we can do during Lent. Here is the link to the Lent cartoon they showed http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5bfxGNMY9c 

Also, Sister Mary Bethany explained how important it is to pray as a school community, especially during Lent, so she matched up each student of our school with another student (perhaps they've never met before!). I put the Lenten prayer buddy card, with a simple prayer inside, in your child's folder this week so please keep it in a spot where your child will remember to pray for their buddy.

On Thursday morning, we had the opportunity to watch the CCS Spelling Bee competition for intermediate students. Our students were fascinated by the big words that the students had to spell (like 'acre' or 'chicken') and many of them expressed interest in joining the Spelling Bee group when they are in Grade 4. 

On Friday afternoon, the students watched a video about St. Patrick and learned that he used a shamrock to teach others about the Trinity. We also completed our shamrock craft that will be hanging in our classroom as a reminder that God is made up of 3 persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Term 2 Report Cards were sent home on Friday - please review it and if you have any questions or would like to discuss your child's progress, please contact me to set up a time. Also, please return the report card covers on Monday the 24th.

Other reminders

*Sight Word Home Program - for an added challenge, ask your child to spell each of those sight words that they know

*Scholastic Orders due April 22nd

*Back to school: March 24th

Science Unit - Healthy Eating & Healthy Bodies

I will be asking for 8 parents to sign up to bring to in vegetables and  fruits as we continue into this unit. I would like to give each student an opportunity to try vegetables and fruits that they may have never tried before or refuse to eat (when at home) - it's amazing how influential peers can be when trying new foods! I will present 1 vegetable and 1 fruit per week for 4 weeks so if you are able, please sign up by sending me an email. You only need to sign up for one of the items - not both. I would like the vegetable & fruit (washed & cut into pieces) to be brought to the classroom on Tuesdays and I will offer it to the students at both snack and lunch time for the rest of the week.

Tues, March 25 - carrots & strawberries 

Tues, April 1- cucumber & oranges

Tues, April 8 - sugar snap peas & apples

Tues, April 15 - celery & bananas

Year End Project
I'm looking for a parent who is able to help me create a slideshow (using Powerpoint, Animoto, etc) of the many pictures that I have taken throughout Kindergarten. Contact me if you are interested...

Enjoy your Spring Break....see you all next week!