Winter Carnival Week

It's Winter Carnival week at Georges Vanier! For details about this week's events, please click here: Winter Carnival 2017.

Monday - Family Day (no school)

Tuesday - Moustache Day and Favourite Jersey Day

Wednesday - Pyjama Day

Thursday - Crazy Hair and Hat Day

Friday - Winter Carnival Day**

**Winter Carnival Day will ONLY be for students in grades 1-6; Kindergarten students will have their own activity day at a later date. We also ask that Kindergarten students NOT bring a board game on that day - we have many games and activities here at the school that the students are welcome to enjoy, and we would hate for pieces from favourite games to go missing. We are planning a special activity for this day - more details to follow.

We will also be celebrating Kindness Week at Georges Vanier. The Social Justice Club has been busy making special kindness pencils and rainbow loom bracelets, and will be visiting classes on Wednesday through Friday. Students are welcome to purchase a pencil and/or bracelet for a $1 donation. All money raised will go towards Free the Children global initiatives we support. In the past, we have raised money for clean water projects in Ecuador, building schools in Kenya, and supporting health care programs in Haiti. Thank you for your continued support!

Kindergarten Communication of Learning

Today your child came home with their first term Communication of Learning. This document is meant to give you a glimpse into your child's first term in our kindergarten classroom. If your child was in junior kindergarten last year, you might notice that this report looks quite different. Some information about the report can be found on the fourth page of the report itself, as well as in the letter from Mrs. MacPhee, our school principal. We also encourage you to also check out the information provided by the Ministry of Education, which can be found here. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at the school.

Some important information regarding the reports:

• Please sign and return the third page of the report as soon as possible. The envelope should also be signed and returned to the school, as we will use it to send home your child's second report in June. 
• There is information about parent-teacher interviews in the envelope with your child's report. Teachers have indicated on the sheet if an interview is requested at this time. You are welcome to request an interview if you wish; interviews will be held after school on Thursday, February 23. 

Valentine's Day

We will be celebrating Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, February 14. If students would like to bring in Valentine cards, we ask that they bring in enough cards for everyone in the class and that cards only be signed “From (your child’s name)” or “Your friend, (name)” and not addressed to individual students. This makes it easier for the delivery of the valentines.

As some students in our class have allergies and food sensitivities, we also ask that you do not send in candy or treats with your child’s valentines. Though certainly not expected, if you wish to send in a little something extra with your valentines, we suggest stickers, erasers, pencils, etc.

There are 26 students in Team Hummingbird and 3 educators (Ms. Quinn, Mme Brooking and Mrs. S).

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

PD Day - January 30

A reminder that tomorrow, Monday January 30 is a PD Day in all OCSB schools. If your child attends the Extended Day Program, please ensure that you have registered them for the PD Day.

**Scholastic order forms were sent home last week. If you wish to order any books, please return the form no later than February 3. Payment can be made online or by cheque (made payable to Scholastic Canada). All of the money raised through Scholastic orders is used to purchase more books and other materials for our class! Thank you for your continued support.

Have a wonderful weekend - see you on Tuesday!

What math do you see?

In kindergarten, we discover math is all around us during our play. This often leads to lots of talk about the math we see, and sometimes we even have whole group discussions about discoveries we have made. 

Today during learning centres, students were exploring different shapes they could make using elastic bands and geoboards. One JK student came up to me and showed me a picture she had made on the geoboard: 

"Ms. Quinn - look at all the squares!"

Instead of counting them together, I asked her if I could show this to the class and see what they thought. During our community time, we share things we have created during the day, and celebrate the successes of the students. This was a great invitation to have students explore numbers, shapes, and patterns in one simple activity. As a group, we first made some guesses about how many shapes we see (or think we see) in the geoboard. We then discussed how we could check our thinking. 

Students were invited to share any guesses they had - no answer was "wrong" because we didn't know what the "right" answer was yet! 

How many squares do you see? Ask your child how we found the answer today! 

Family Photo

We would like to have a special place in our classroom to display a collection of family photos. This would give the students a chance to see and share their family photos with their classmates. We would like to have a photo of every students family to display. If you have a family pet, you may consider sending in a photo of them as well. Since our hope is to display these photos all year, please do not send in a photo that you need to have returned, as we cannot guarantee it will be returned in perfect condition after being on display!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2017 to all of our Team Hummingbird friends and their families! Hoping the break has allowed you to relax and enjoy the time spent together. We are excited to see you tomorrow, and are looking forward to hearing all about your Christmas vacation!

Some reminders as we head back to school this week:

• Blankets were sent home on the last day of school before the break. Please return tomorrow so that your child can use them during quiet time. 
• Please make sure your child comes to school with all of the winter clothing they will need to play outside - including water-proof mittens, boots, snow pants, hats and a neck warmer. We do go outside everyday (weather permitting), and with the colder weather, we want to make sure the students are dressed warmly. 
• Please label your child's clothing - we'd hate for mittens and hats to end up in the lost and found pile!
• Don't forget to follow us on Twitter for reminders and daily glimpses into our play: @MsCQuinn @MmeBrooking