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We have made it through the final week before Spring Break! We reviewed some tricky words from the previous weeks and practiced writing through using writing prompts and also making our own sentences. We have been wanting to encourage the students with preset examples so they have some inspiration for when they create their own writing pieces. Writing is something we continue to work on to build the students’ skills and independence.

We tried a new multisensory station – listening to words on the Sight Words app on the iPad and trying to spell them out. We are trying to build a stronger bridge between auditory skills and writing, so the students understand that (most of the time), we can utilize what we hear as a way to figure out is what we write down and that there is a connection.

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We have been practicing hockey with Div. 2 and it has been really fun to see the kids practice with each other and develop their accuracy and coordination. They are learning how to use the hockey stick safely and appropriately while passing the puck to a partner.

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We took some time to do some fine art skills for our Spring Art. They twisted small pieces of tissue paper around the end of a pencil and pressed them onto a piece of cardstock with a dab of white glue. They loved it! It was very interesting to see how the kids liked to place their tissue paper to create certain images and shapes.

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We worked on place values this week, using tens sticks and ones cubes. We discussed how 10 ones make up a ten stick, and how to count by tens and ones. It was tricky, but I think we are slowly getting it! The hands-on manipulatives were useful for visualization and understanding the concept better.

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There has been a lot of chatter about good hygiene, and we are making sure the kids are washing their hands thoroughly before and after eating, playing outside, and going to the washroom. We are encouraging them to wash the backs of their hands, the palms, between the fingers, and under their finger nails. I made up some simple songs to the tune of happy birthday that they can sing while washing their hands. It helps remind them to wash for the whole duration of the song (sing it twice!), and also what we should do to have proper hygiene! Try them out! 🙂

Important Information:

• Spring Break! – March 16 to March 27 (and weekends). SCHOOL RESUMES ON MONDAY MARCH 30TH.
• Please take some time each day to work on the homework activities with your child. The daily review will be a great help to assist in retaining their knowledge and skills.
• VSB Health Update also included here, please take some time to read through it (it will also be attached on the email).

Have a great spring break! Stay healthy, happy, and hydrated!

Take care, and take it easy!

Claire 🙂

It has been a busy week with a different theme for each day relating to Dr. Seuss! The kids had a blast with the variety of activities we did relating to the fun books!

We started off the week reading The Foot Book, and then the students measured their own feet using different units of measurement! It was a great way to start Seuss Week and mixed literacy with numeracy for the students. We learned about how we have to use the same size of something to measure, and not mix assorted sizes as we then don’t have the consistent unit and makes it confusing to determine the true length/size of something.

We read the iconic Cat in the Hat on Tuesday and practiced rhyming with word families. This was a helpful way for the students to learn more about rhymes in a fun and memorable way. Understand rhymes will really help their reading skills and also improve their ability to write when they see connections between different words. They used an alphabet strip to “scroll” through to try to make new words and then identify some silly words also.

Wednesday was an early dismissal day so we had a fun graphing goldfish activity after lunch to wrap up the day. We read One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish for this activity. We talked about basic graphing rules such as starting from the bottom of the graph and checking your numbers to make sure you counted correctly and recorded the information in the correct column. I think the best part was when they got to eat them at the end! Especially the “chocolate brownie” ones! 🙂

On Thursday, we got to attend a “Zero Heroes” presentation by Sarah and Ian, where they talked to us about how to take care of Earth. They talked about thinking about our actions, such as where we throw away our garbage and compost, about buying too many things without really appreciating them and quickly discarding them. That adds to the landfill and really hurts Earth. The kids had a great time watching the show and I hope the continue to remember ways to help keep Earth clean and healthy!

We are mostly done with our Seuss-inspired art, which also draws from our family portraits! We painted a background with stripes like the Cat in the Hat. Then chose our favourite character from the books and traced it to cut out and put on the striped background. They turned out fantastic – bright and unique! 🙂

We ended the week with a special breakfast on Friday! We read Green Eggs & Ham, then the students had to predict if they would want to eat it and would they like it! The chose what they would like to try (if at all). We made a graph and also did a writing activity where we described the food and drew a picture of this experience. It was very exciting and I am glad they all tried something! 🙂

Our Star of the Week also did her Show & Tell and it was lovely to see her share something about herself. She found a special gem and put it in a little jar to keep it safe! She was so excited, as we can see in this cute photo, to share with us! 🙂

We ended the day with Fun Friday with some puzzles, Jenga, Lego, and there was even some backgammon happening!

Next week is our final week at school before spring break begins on Monday, March 16th! (earlier if you count the weekend!)

Have a great weekend, enjoy the surprise sunshine!

Take care and take it easy!

Claire 🙂

How different it feels to have a 5-day week again after two 4-day weeks! We got to our final two RBLM stations (#7 and #8), introduced typing and sight words on the iPad as two new multi-sensory stations, and talked about bullying because of Pink Shirt Day!

RBLM has 8 stations, and we added #7 – Balance Beam, and #8 – Handy Elbows. Station #7 helps to improve the child’s equilibrium, understand how his/her body moves in space and develop motor control. Station #8 also works on understanding spatial awareness, motor control, and work on their balance/equilibrium. It also strengthens their arms and back muscles. The kids focused hard on these two new stations and performed well! We continue to have the student take turns leading the stretches and it is great to see them in this role. It builds their confidence and public speaking voice, and also reinforces their own learning.

We started two new multi-sensory stations this week – typing our spelling words on keyboards and working on our sight word recognition. Having the students become familiar with the keyboard will help their computer skills, fine motor skills, and eventually enable them to login independently for their phonics programs.

We had a great discussion about what bullying is on Wednesday, Pink Shirt Day. We talked about how it feels to be hurt and to hurt someone, and did an activity with crinkling up a drawing of ourselves. When people do hurtful things, we get crinkled up, and they may say sorry, which helps us un-crinkle, but the effect cannot be completely undone. We then wrote something we can do to be positive people who do not encourage bullying. It was great to see the kids reflect about what has happened to the and how they can move forward to promote acceptance and kindness.

Important Dates!

• Goal-Setting Conferences on Wed March 4th and Thurs March 5th. Please remember to be punctual/available for your in-person or phone conference. Please remember those are early dismissal days at 2pm, so make sure there is someone to pick up your child at the bus stop.
• DR. SEUSS WEEK! Next week is Dr. Seuss Week! The kids have brought up two pieces of paper with information. There is a “peach” coloured one with a hat that lists a different theme for each day. It is optional whether your child would like to participate in the dressing up, but we will have themed activities and spelling words in class. The “red” paper is a March calendar, where if your child chooses to participate, it would be so fun! If they read 5 activities in a row like Bingo, they get a sticker. If they read every day, they get to be on the Wall of Fame in the classroom! It is great to encourage their reading, and Dr. Seuss has lots of word families to practice. *Please check the Extra Extra! page for soft copies of these two sheets.

Have a great weekend!

Take care and take it easy!

Claire 🙂

How lucky we are to get all sunny days this week! The kids had a great time during recess and lunch being out in the warmth and sunshine. It may be back to rain this weekend… but that’s how Vancouver stays so green!

We started off the week with a Magic Show! It was amazing to see the talent by these two performers. Ask your child about it and see what their favourite magical act was!

We added another station for our RBLM this week – Hole Punch! It is a “low” activity, meaning it focuses on small refined movements versus something like “Tub Train” or “Scooter Drill”. The stations alternate between high and low to give the students a chance to recharge and be ready for the next station with the appropriate energy. Station 6 – Hole Punch works on hand-eye coordination as well as fine motor skills and strength. It develops their palmar arch muscles, necessary for writing and proper grip. We have also started having student-led stretches in order to develop their independence and leadership skills with the class.

We continue to gradually add various multi-sensory stations, so the students have a chance to learn how to do them well and properly. The students really enjoy them and it is a great way to show them alternate ways of seeing proper letter formation while working on phonics. It is also beneficial for developing their fine motor skills.

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We ended the day with working with Division 2 (another grade 2 class) to create family portraits for Family Day! It was a mixed media piece, where we painted the canvas with acrylic paint, and then built the family members using shapes cut out of painted paper. It was wonderful to see the kids’ creativity and ability to use abstract concepts to create this art piece. They will be displayed along the halls of the school. Please come take a look if you are here for goal-setting conferences!

Please note:

• Please sign up for conferences if you have not done so already. Please indicate if you would like a phone conference or in-person conference. Please click on the button below to sign up. *Tuesday and Wednesday March 4 & 5 will be early dismissal days.
• Wednesday February 26th is Pink Shirt Day! This is a day where we encourage everyone to practice kindness everyday and to not tolerate bullying. If you have a pink shirt, please consider having your child wear it to show support.
• Please continue to support your child and do the homework and read the reader with them daily. Please also sign the page so I know you’ve worked with them on the activities.

Have a great weekend! Take care and take it easy!

Claire 🙂

What a short but busy week it has been! The kids are adjusting and getting the hang of the routine in the classroom and it is great to see them working well together in this new environment. We introduced two new RBLM stations, worked on our computer programs, started our Handwriting Practice, tried some new Multi-Sensory Stations, saw a Lion Dance, did a science experiment, had Fun Thursday, and had some Valentine’s treats! Whew! 🙂

We added Station 4 and 5 to the RBLM Stations, and it is the “Tub Train” and “Swim and Dry”! The Tub Train develops our understanding of our muscles and joints and the “heavy work” they do to support our body. The Swim and Dry is full body tactile stimulation that increases our upper arm and shoulder strength while coordinating with our legs and knees. We always start with the Superman and the Popcorn though to warm up and wake up our bodies!

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The kids are great at transitioning from one activity to the next and are ready to go soon after coming in from the bus, after recess and lunch. That has helped them have more time to spend on handwriting, math, and stations such as writing in sand, or using scrabble tiles to spell our vocabulary words.

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On Wednesday, we got to see a Lion Dance in the gym! It was exciting and we all tried to see if we could get a piece of the lettuce as it is considered lucky to get some! 🙂

We ended the week with a little science experiment using candy hearts! We had three cups of different liquids and put some hearts in each to see what would happen. We had a cup of water, a cup of soda, and a cup of vinegar. The kids made predictions (a new word we learned!) and helped put in the candy hearts. Then they recorded what happened. We checked in with the hearts at the end of the day to observe any changes. There was also some taste-testing of the candy hearts! 🙂

We capped off the day with some relaxing puzzle time and a Valentine’s Day story!

UPCOMING DATES:

• No school Monday February 17th – Family Day
• Star of the Week starts next week! Please check our the schedule on the Extra Extra! page. When it is your child’s turn to be Star of the Week, she/he can bring in something for Show & Tell on Friday.

Please sign up for a goal-setting conference coming up on Wednesday March 4th and Thursday March 5th afternoon. Click on the button below to head over to the sign-up page. They are 15 minutes each, and can be an in-person or phone conference. *Please note, those are also EARLY DISMISSAL days; the day ends at 2:00pm and the buses will be dropping them off earlier than usual. Please make sure you arrange for someone to pick up your child.

Take care and take it easy!

Claire 🙂

Our first week of TEIR is complete and under our belts! It was great getting to know the kids and seeing them become friends with each other.

We did a lot of get to know each other activities, as well as working together to decorate the classroom. We reviewed our letters, numbers, reading, and also made amazing “destinations” for our board game! Each student chose one character they would like to be, and they are ready to go! In these photos, we are making a graph to learn more about our new friends!

We have also started our RBLM – Ready Bodies, Learning Minds – Stations on certain mornings as a way to get our bodies warmed up and readying for learning. We have started three stations this week and will gradually build up to eight stations. We start with warm-ups called the Superman and Popcorn, which develops our core stability and strengthens our postural muscles.

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The first station is Scooter Drills, which helps our bodies learn to be invigorated while being controlled and calm.

The second station is called Roll & Crawl. This station helps build our hand and shoulder strength and movement through understanding how weight-bearing activities feel on our bodies.

The third station we tried this week is called the Rabbit Hop. This stations works on developing our balance, control of our eye-foot coordination, and understanding the heavy work of jumping.

We attended Assembly on Thursday so we could see the whole school together, and so the other students could meet us as well. On the days when it wasn’t too rainy, the whole school went for the after lunch run around Gaston Park. That is another great opportunity for the TEIR students to interact with and be part of the Collingwood community. 🙂

The students worked on completing the destinations on the game board and it is ready to go on Monday!

We also practiced our Homework Folders at school so we have a better understanding of how to do them at home starting next week. We will keep to the same activities next week so the students can build some familiarity. Please make sure to do them daily with your child. 🙂

We ended the week with Fun Friday – getting to play with our new friends in our new classroom. We loved the puzzles, wooden blocks, Lego, and card games!

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Upcoming Important Dates!

• Pizza Thursday starts next week (Feb 13th) if you signed your child up for it!

• No school on Friday February 14th – Professional Development Day (and Valentine’s Day!)

Friendship Celebration on Valentine’s Day

Please kindly note, if your child wishes to bring in cards/treats for the class, they must bring one in for EVERY student. We are celebrating friendship and respect. While we may be better friends with some classmates than others, we are a community and we do share the space and many experiences together. We are cultivating respect for all, understanding our similarities and differences, and accepting each other. Please kindly note we are a NUT-FREE classroom for any treats you may wish to share.

Have a great weekend! Stay warm!

Take it easy & take care!
Claire 🙂

Our time together has come to an end for the TEIR program! It has been a wonderful and rewarding time with every single one of you! Thank you for all your hard work, smiles, and hugs! We will miss you!

We had a fun and relaxing day of surprises! We started the day with puzzles and Pokemon battles, then moved onto playing Jeopardy about food, followed with a surprise reveal of memory books for each of the kids, and ended the day with surprise snacks of popcorn and cupcakes!!

Thank you again and we wish you all the best!

Love,

Claire 🙂

Hard to believe it has already been 81 days of TEIR! We have just 4 more days together next week! The kids continue to work hard and have a great rapport with each other.

What an eventful week it has been! We tried a new RBLM Station, we had lots of snow, we had a SNOW DAY, we tried a new puzzle, used lego for a multi-sensory station, participated in the BC Mobile Museum that came to our school…wow!

This RBLM Station is called Swim & Dry. We have to do the army crawl across the long mat and then stand up and “wipe” our arms and legs. This gives our body full tactile stimulation, and increases our upper arm, shoulder, and leg strength. It was really fun! (At least Ms. Fong thinks so!)

The snow was exciting throughout the whole week and the kids thoroughly enjoyed having the chance to play in the snow. They were bundled up and came back with big smiles and rosy cheeks. Then Wednesday was a SNOW DAY and everyone got to stay home! Can anyone recognize where the picture on the right is? That is the gate around Gaston Park on Thursday morning, with no recognizable path in sight!

We continue to practice our spelling words and some eye coordination & math skills by building words with Lego and making an under the sea puzzle!

We ended the week with a fun “trip” (to the library room next to us!) to the BC Mobile Museum! We had the chance to learn all about the history of BC and the significant impact, influence, and presence of the First Nations people. There were plenty of great books for us to browse. We even got to touch some special artifacts like animal fur, stone hammers, weaved baskets, and replica arrowheads! It was a great way to end the week, with it followed by Fun Friday!

Upcoming Dates!

Monday January 20th – no school for the students, Pro-D Day for the teachers!

Wednesday & Thursday January 22nd & 23rd – Phone Conference! PLEASE SIGN UP if you have not done so already. Thank you! (Click on the button below to get to the website.)

Friday January 24th – Last day at TEIR! Report Cards go home.

Take care and take it easy!

Claire 🙂

Happy New Year and welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing holiday season. It is great to see the kids again! 🙂 They even got a postcard from Klaus! (It is a very heart-warming movie!)

The final countdown is on – including today, we have just ten days left together! Time really flies! We jumped right back into the swing of things and learned another round of spelling words. Amidst the spelling, we are reviewing the words we have learned before and seeing how our progress has been over the past few months.

I will be sending out an email regarding final conferences coming up in two weeks. They will be TELEPHONE conferences, as it is the end of the term before the kids head back to their home schools. If you prefer an in-person conference, please still sign up on SignUp Genius, but send me an email to let me know. Phone Conferences will be on Wednesday January 22nd and Thursday January 23rd from 3:40 – 5:15pm. Each conference is about 15-20 minutes. You can click on the link below to go to the website.

To top off a nice first week back, we got snow!! They were so excited and definitely got to play outside (with some safety rules in place – no throwing snow!). It was great snow too, easy to pack and make little mounds and snowpeople! Some of us chose to go play outside in the flurries of snow during recess; I went out to play with them too, I couldn’t resist! 😀

Upcoming Dates:

Monday January 20th: Pro-Day Day, no school

Wednesday & Thursday January 22nd & 23rd: Telephone Conferences

Friday January 24th: Last Day of TEIR!

Have a great weekend and stay warm! There is supposed to be more snow in the coming days and week…!

Take care and take it easy!

Claire 🙂

We have reached the 73rd day of school together! It has been very eventful these past few months with tons of learning and growing! They have been trying their best and have become a tight-knit group. Here is their selfie with Potato Bunny!

We wrapped up this week with a review of words we have learned over the past several weeks. The hardest ones were chosen and I think the students did well practicing them and trying their best to remember these sometimes tricky words!

We tried an app on the iPad where it reinforces proper strokes for letter formation and the students loved it! It really helped them see how letters are properly formed and then get the chance to practice it themselves.

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I have sent home a Holiday Homework packet – please kindly take the time to do the daily activities (none on Saturday & Sunday!) with your child. It really helps them retain the information better if they have daily revision. I have attached the Holiday Homework Packet as a PDF in the “Extra! Extra! Get it Here!” tab in case you need another copy.

Wishing you all a wonderful and safe holiday season and a brilliant new year! We will see you on Monday January 6th, 2020! 🙂

Take care & take it easy!

Claire 🙂