Firefighters

We had a visit from some North Vancouver firefighters today.  It was a very exciting visit!  These are some of the things we learned about:

• tell an adult if you find a lighter or matches
• stop, drop, and roll if your clothes catch on fire.  Roll until the fire is out!
• crawl to safety UNDER the smoke when in a burning structure
• have a meeting place outside to go to after escaping a fire
• never go back inside a burning building
• do not hide from firefighters when they come to rescue you - they demonstrated what they look like with their gear on

We also got a tour of the fire truck and even went inside!  Ask you child if they remember the magic word that made the ladder come down ;-)  

The firefighters insisted that all children speak to their parents tonight about fire safety at home, and in particular, having a safe meeting spot outside!

Christmas events next week

Next week is packed full of activities!  Here is what you need to know...

On Monday we are picking up the Harvest House Donations from our neighbours.  Please congratulate your children on that day for a job well done. We trudged through some deep snow today, in the freezing cold, withstanding the urge to play - all in the name of helping others this holiday season and we will do it again on Monday.

Wednesday is the Christmas concert.  For the evening performance, no particular costume is required.  Children typically come in their "Christmas best."  

Thursday, the firefighters are scheduled to visit after lunch to speak to the children about fire safety.  It would be great to review with them at the end of the day to see what they remember!  I will try to get info and pics up on the blog to facilitate these conversations.

Friday is a party day for us.  Children are welcome to wear their pyjamas to school on that day.  We will make some crafts, and gingerbread houses (thanks Colleen!), and just generally enjoy spending the day together before the long break.  If you wish to contribute anything to the class to make the day more special, please publish info to this post.  

They will have a goody bag for treats or trinkets if you wish to send something.  Last year a parent brought in hot chocolate for everyone which they LOVED.  

I will provide a pizza lunch so there will be no need to send any lunch that day!  

Lastly, they are bringing home a gift for their family on Friday.  If your child will be away or ends up staying home sick that day, please either pick it up early, or make arrangements for someone in the school to pick it up for you.  I would hate for them to miss out on having it under the tree for Christmas.  

Harvest House

Every year Brooksbank students deliver flyers to our neighbours asking for canned/boxed food donations to the Harvest House.  Our class is scheduled to walk the 14th St. route tomorrow.  There is some concern that weather tomorrow may make this challenging.  Student safety will be the first priority in making a decision about whether or not we go tomorrow.  It is my feeling at this moment that 14th St. is a low-traffic street and thus, more safe than some of the busier routes.  There is a sidewalk on only one side of 14th St. so we may decide to only flyer that side of the street.  In that case, I may ask my volunteer parents to deliver to the other side...barring that, I will do it myself after school.  

Please ensure that your child has proper snow gear tomorrow, including boots with a good grip on the bottom.  

On Monday, we walk the same route and pick up donations.  We may be in a similar situation that day.

  

Christmas Conceret

There will be a notice coming home on Friday of this week regarding the Christmas concert that is being held on Dec. 14th.  There will be a matinee performance from 1-2 that day as well as an evening performance at 7pm.  More info to come.

Gerry's garden

This Thursday, at 3:00, please consider visiting Gerry's garden behind our school (on 14th) with your children for a few minutes.  The Brooksbank choir and band will be performing, Gerry the gardener will be there, and a tree will be adorned with ornaments made by Brooksbank students (including our own).  It will be festive and Gerry will be thrilled to see so many of you appreciating the garden.

Cheers!

Volunteers

We are in need of a couple of a few volunteers for our upcoming Jingle Walk.  Here is what it looks like and what we need:

Friday, Dec. 9th from 10:50 until finished (app. 11:30) - we need 1 parent to walk our route with us.  On this day, we deliver flyers to our neighbours asking for food donations for the Harvest House.

Monday, Dec. 12 from 10:40 until finished (app. 11:30) - we need 2 parents to walk our route with us, helping to collect donations.
We also need 1 parent to bring a vehicle and drive alongside us to carry the donations.  A hatchback suits this job well but we can make anything work.  We will unload the vehicle when we get back to the school.

First come, first served!  Please email me if you would like to join us.

lmaclaren@sd44.ca

Thanks!

Snow globes

We will be doing a Science/Language Arts activity next week using snow globes.  If you have one or more snow globes that you can send to class for a week, it would be much appreciated!  We are very careful with them BUT please do not send anything irreplaceable just in case :-)  

Thank you.

Scholastic

Scholastic came home today (Thursday).  I will be sending the order out on Wednesday, so please return forms by then.  This will be the LAST order before Christmas.  If you are ordering Christmas gifts, please let me know by email or a note on your forms so that I can give the books to you directly.

Cheers!

Family Pictures

In anticipation of themes around Christmas time, it would be wonderful if everyone could send a family picture to school ASAP.  Ideally, this would be a print, however, I know that many of you may only have digital copies and that is also fine.  You can email those to me at lmaclaren@sd44.ca  

Pictures will be returned home in a couple of weeks time.  Please understand that, although we will take care to ensure that pictures are not damaged, STUFF happens in Kindergarten.  Please do not send your only copy or anything that can not be replaced.  

Thank you

Christmas gift/Absence

We will begin working on our TOP SECRET Christmas gift beginning the week of Nov. 28...gifts to come home on Dec. 16th.  If your child will be absent for an extended period of time in that window, please let me know ASAP so that I can plan accordingly to ensure that they get one completed and home for Christmas.  

Thank you!  

Reading

Some of you will have had little booklets come home this week (all of you by tomorrow) that your child can read to you!  We have not yet begun tracking with fingers or pointers, so all that you should expect is that your child can recite the story to you.  In doing so, they are using the reading strategies of recall, retelling, and using picture cues to infer meaning.  This is about building confidence before we move onto other skills.

They are also bringing home other tools to help them retell the story of The Mitten by Jan Brett.

Happy reading :-)

Scholastic/Christmas

Scholastic order forms came home yesterday.  I will be sending the order out on Tuesday.  If you would like to use your order as Christmas gifts, please email me or put a note on the order form and I will deliver the books to you directly once they arrive.

FYI, there will be one more chance to order before Christmas.

Book Exchange

Library book exchange is taking place on Thursdays.  You may keep the books until the following Thursday.  There will be a limit of 2 books that can be checked out at one time so that means if they do not return their book(s) by Thursday, they will not be able to check any more out that day.

Squamish Nation Elder Dance #2

This is a video of the Dance of the Deer.

Squamish Nation Elder

Today we were so lucky to be able to welcome Dallas to our classroom.  Dallas is an Elder from the Squamish Nation, Coast Salish peoples, and a local resident living in the Capitano reservation.  What an amazing cultural experience to hear ancestral stories, dance traditional dances, and hear about local legends.

These are some of the things we learned:

• People of the Squamish Nation are called, "people of the water" because they lived on the beach.
• Totem poles represent history through story-telling.  The story begins at the bottom and ends at the top.
• The Squamish Nation logo is the Thunderbird - a mythical creature.  You can identify a thunderbird in totems and other art as the bird with feathers sticking up at the back of its neck.
• First Nations people did not identify each other by surnames historically.  They used clans instead.   A bear carving outside a home, told others that someone of the bear clan lived there.
• Siwash Rock at Stanley Park is part of a legend that reminds parents to live a healthy lifestyle for the sake of their children.

The video below is the "Welcoming Song."  Each group of dancers has been assigned a clan animal and asked to dance as that animal would.

Enjoy :-)

Monster Mash video

Monster

Halloween Celebration

What a GREAT day!  It was so nice to see so many parents make it to the parade - I will upload a video of the Monster Mash dance for those who couldn't come :-)

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Applied Design

Today we started to look at the concept of Applied Design through the story, The Three Little Pigs.  The challenge was for the children, as a team, to first Plan, then Build, and finally, Test a house designed to safely hold 3 pigs and withstand huffing and puffing.  They all came up with some neat designs, and they all passed the wind test; however, we realized that in all cases, the wolf could easily walk through the building so it wasn't safe at all.  Part of the process is to try, fail, learn from mistakes, and try again so we will be revisiting this activity and others like it all year as we build upon these important skills.

Creations

These are just some of the creations we saw this week - they are ALL OVER the blog idea and love to ask me to post for them.  Enjoy.