Merry Christmas Team Hummingbird!

Dear Team Hummingbird Families

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your generosity and thoughtfulness during the Christmas season.

Georges Vanier Catholic school was able to make a difference in so many ways this Christmas season all because of wonderful and caring families like you.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our birthday party for Baby Jesus.  It was wonderful to celebrate Christmas with you and your child(ren).  We would also like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who brought a gift for Baby Jesus to our celebration.  All items were donated to St. Mary's home.  Merci!

And finally, thank you to all our Team Humminbird families for all the lovely cards, kind words and gifts sent in over the last week before the holiday.  It truly is a pleasure to work, play and laugh with your children everyday!

We wish you all a very Blessed and Peaceful Christmas and look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Merry Christmas!
Mme Brooking, Mrs. S, Mrs. B, and Ms. Quinn

White Elephant Sale

Tomorrow is our school's annual White Elephant Sale. Kindergarten students will have an opportunity to visit the sale and purchase treasures with the help of a Grade 6 personal shopper. 

If you wish for your kindergartener to be able to do a little Christmas shopping please send them with their shopping money in a sandwich sized ziploc style bag with their name and class (i.e., Hummingbirds) clearly printed on the bag. (Quarters, loonies and toonies are appreciated  **Please do not send $10 and $20 bills)

For parents who are new to our White Elephant Sale there are always items at all price points.  They start at 0.25 and sometimes range up to about $5.00.  Most kindergarten age students do very well at the sale with $5.00 in change but even as little as 0.25  or 0.50 lets them come home with a treasure.

It is a good idea to send a reusable shopping bag labelled with your child's name and class to help your shopper carry home his/her treasures.

If you would like your son or daughter to shop for specific family members ( ie: mom, dad, baby sister) please send a "I want to buy for" list in the bag with your child's money in order to help the teacher and grade 6 shopping helpers.   Please make sure the shopping list and ziploc bag with their money is inside their note tote (so that we can see it in the morning). 

Some Updates...

A reminder that next Friday, December 4th we will be having our Christmas Artapolooza! Students will have an opportunity to make 6 different Christmas crafts. We ask that students please bring a medium sized Christmas bag that they can use to carry home all of their crafts at the end of the day.

Our school's annual White Elephant Sale will be taking place on Thursday, December 10. Kindergarten students will have an opportunity to shop for family members with a grade 6 helper. All proceeds from the sale will be used to support families in need in our local community. The school is looking for donations of gently loved items (such as knick knacks, books, toys, etc) that students can browse and shop for. If you have any items to donate, they can be dropped off at the front office. Thanks for your support!

Our Birthday Party for Baby Jesus will be taking place on Monday, December 14 in the afternoon. Family members are invited to come and celebrate with us - the students have begun practicing and rehearsing for the "big day"! In honour of Baby Jesus, we are asking for donations of baby food and baby items (bibs, blankets, clothes, etc) that will be delivered to St. Mary's Home, a social service agency that supports young mothers and fathers, and their children. More details about this event will be sent home at a later date.

Finally, as the Christmas season fast approaches, we are often reminded of the needs of others. Our school community was incredibly generous during our Canned Food Drive, helping us collect nearly 1,000 non-perishable food items that were donated to the Kanata Food Cupboard. This year we also held a Winter Clothing Drive, collecting nearly 400 winter clothing items, including hats, mitts, boots, and snowsuits. These items will be donated to needy families in our school community, as well with our sister school, Assumption. Thank you so much for supporting these important causes!

Our Social Justice club is beginning our annual Christmas collection of items for the Shepherd's of Good Hope. As in previous years, different grades will be collecting different toiletry and personal items that will be given to the men and women who access the Shepherd's during the winter months. Since Kindergarten students will be supporting St. Mary's Home, the collection of items for the Shepherd's will be extended to students in grades 1-6. This year, students in grades 1-3 will be asked to donate new or gently used hats and mitts, as well as socks (adult sizes, please). Students in grades 4-6 will be asked to donate travel-sized toiletry items, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, bars of soap, shampoo, and deodorant. Any items you have to donate to these causes are greatly appreciated.

Matthew 25:35-40 

'I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me a drink; I was a stranger and you received me in your homes, naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me, in prison and you visited me' The righteous will then answer him, 'When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we ever see you a stranger and welcome you in our homes, or naked and clothe you? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important of these followers of mine, you did it for me!'

Two Stars and a Wish

Thank you to all of the families who were able to make it to our Parent Teacher interviews last Thursday evening. It was a pleasure meeting with our new families, and getting reacquainted with our new students' families. We are looking forward to a wonderful year ahead!

*Just a reminder that if you were unable to attend, and would like a phone interview with either myself or Mme Brooking, please let us know, and we will try and arrange a time.

If you could not make it to the interviews, today in your child's note tote you will see a "Two Stars and a Wish" page. This sheet outlines some of the things your child has accomplished in the past few months (2 stars) and something that we hope to work on for the remainder of the year (a wish). The note is for you to keep, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

We also have a pair of blue splash pants that were left at school without a name on them. If your child is missing a pair of splash pants, please let us know and we will make sure they get returned.

A reminder that Scholastic orders for November are due by Friday (Nov. 20). If you would like to order, but did not receive a flyer, please let us know. For payments made online, please make sure you select "Carina Quinn" as the teacher.

Thanks!

We are wondering...

Thank you to all of the families who have donated canned goods and winter clothing for our canned food drive! All of the food will be donated to the Kanata Food Cupboard to help support families in need in our community. The winter clothing will also be donated to families in need. We thank you for your support!

Thank you to the families who have sent in pictures from Halloween! Our Team Hummingbird Halloween book is starting to come along, and the students are really enjoying looking at the pictures of their classmates and having a conversation about the different costumes.

As we prepare for Remembrance Day next week, we have been adding pictures to our Thank You Wall of family members who have served (or continue to serve) in the military. Thank you for sharing these pictures with our class. We have also been writing postcards to deliver to soldiers who are currently serving. We will invite a special guest to our classroom on Remembrance Day to receive the postcards and send them to soldiers serving in different parts of the world. 

Brainstorming some ideas to write on our postcards

Writing our messages

Wondering about bats

Our students have begun wondering about bats. We had started talking about hibernation, and about how some animals spend the winter months sleeping. This led one student to ask the question "Do bats hibernate?". Ms. Quinn used the website http://wonderopolis.org/ to search the question, and we learned about why bats hang upside down. We also got some books from the library about bats and other animals, and one of our students even brought in her own book about bats to share with the class. We have started to organize some of our knowledge (blue) and wonderings (red): 

Even I learned some new things about bats! Stay tuned to see what we learn next. If your child has anything about bats (or anything they would like to learn more about), feel free to share it with us!

Reminders:

• Our Remembrance Day ceremony will be held on Wednesday, November 11 at 10:45 am. Any students involved in Brownies, Scouts, Beavers or Cadets are invited to wear their uniforms. We are also encouraging students to wear red and white. Parents are welcome to attend. 
• Parent-Teacher interviews will be held on Thursday, November 12, from 3:50-8:30 pm. Please book your appointment online using our booking system - details can be found on geo.ocsb.ca. A reminder that Team Hummingbird interviews will be held with Ms. Quinn and Mrs. S - if you would like an interview with Mme Brooking, please indicate on the form (under notes), and alternate arrangements will be made at a later date (i.e., phone interview). 

Halloween Photos

We hope that you had a wonderful, fun-filled Halloween night!

We would like to make a class book of everyone in their Halloween costume! If possible, please send in a picture of your child in their Halloween costume. This will give the students an opportunity to share about their trick or treating experience, and write about what they were for Halloween. Thanks in advance!

There will be a Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11 - more details will follow soon.

Do you have a family member or friend who was in the Forces? Please send in a photo of them for our classroom "Thank You" wall. **Please do not send in precious photos that you need returned - photocopies or colour print outs are a good idea! Please remember to label any photos you send in.

What have we been up to?

I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend! In Team Hummingbird we have been talking about different colours, and colour mixing. We also did an experiment using crayons and a hair dryer to see what would happen when the crayons got too hot. The students made predictions about what they thought would happen before we started:

"It's going to make a splatter all over the board!" (Elise)

"The crayons are going to get hot." (Ethan)

"They're going to change colours." (Zoey)

"The crayons are going to melt." (Liam)

After we completed the experiment, we talked about what we observed:

"The longer we used the dryer, the more colours came down." (Christopher)

"The crayons were getting shorter." (Eva)

"The dryer was hot and made all the colours change." (Andrew)

"The colours were mixing." (Abby)

Some other class updates:

Yesterday, Team Hummingbird visited our school library for the first time! They did a great job, and were very excited to pick out their own book and receive their library bag. The library bag acts as your child's library card - there is a bar code on the bag that we use when signing the books out of the library. It is very important that this bag be returned to school each week, as without this bag your child may not take out another book. We will be going to the library every Friday, so we ask that all books and bags be returned by Thursday. Please note that if the book or bag is lost or misplaced, you may be charged a fee to have it replaced. 

With the cooler weather fast approaching, we ask that you please check your child's extra clothes and make sure they have some clothing here at school that is appropriate for the cooler temperatures. If you would like us to send home their extra clothes, please leave a note in your child's note tote. 

Information will be sent home very soon regarding accessing the Raz Kids online reading program as well as Dreambox Math. We introduced Dreambox on the iPads last week, and the students were very excited about it! If you have any problems accessing either program, please let us know!

Scholastic book orders for October were sent home last week, and are due back on Friday, October 23. If you did not receive a flyer, please let us know, as we have a few extra copies. A reminder that payment this year can be made online - please select Carina Quinn as your child's teacher (Mme Brooking will handle the Scholastic orders for the Chickadee class). 

Enjoy the weekend!
Ms. Quinn