Outdoor School

I highly recommend that parents consider attending the Outdoor School Open House next Sunday, May 7th just outside of Squamish!  All children in North Vancouver will have the opportunity to attend the Cheakamus Centre with their class in later years.  This is a great opportunity to start to become familiar with it, and build excitement, but also to learn some really cool stuff!

As a parent, I took my children for many years before they attended..which helped with my own nerves too :-)

Check out the flyer in the link above!

Multicultural Lunch

Hi parents,

This week we are celebrating multiculturalism in Kindergarten.  In support of this theme each year we have a multicultural lunch in class.  This is a chance for children to try new things, learn a little bit more about their classmates, and expand their understanding of culture.

We ask that each family send in a food or drink item on Friday, April 28th that speaks to your cultural heritage.  

Please consider that your item should be prepared as sample sizes for 21 children.  This could be as simple or as elaborate as you wish but it would be MOST helpful if each dish came with a short note about the item, its basic ingredients, and the part of the world from which it hails.

It can be dropped off that morning and we will begin the grazing process at some point in the day.

Please "comment" on this message with your dish so that we might avoid overlap.

Thank you!!!!   

Have a GREAT weekend!

It has been a whirlwind of a week with all sorts of Easter crafts and excitement and the beginning of KM club.  We capped it all off perfectly today with an Easter egg hunt in class.  I am happy to say there were no tears and everyone had a great time.  They are coming home with their share of the bounty (everyone got 5 eggs regardless of how many they found).

Enjoy :-)  

Sutherland YAP

Hi everyone!

Just a quick reminder that we are meeting at Sutherland Secondary School in the morning (Thursday) for the Young Actors Project workshop.  I will be outside of the main doors at 8:35 for easy drop-offs.

If you arrive late and we are already inside, please bring your child to the top floor of the school, Rm C306.

Thank you!

Upcoming Fieldtrips

We have some fieldtrips and events coming up over the next 3 months that require some parent assistance or that you may just wish to join us for!  Here are the details so that you might be able to plan ahead:

• April 24th - Sutherland Secondary School 
• We need one parent helper to walk with us back to Brooksbank from Sutherland.  We will be departing Sutherland around 2:30.
• If you would like to walk with us, please email me ASAP.
• This one is taken care of :-)  

• Friday, May 5th, 9:45-11:30 - Primary Days of Music at the Board Office on Lonsdale @ 21st.
• Times above likely include travel time.  Having said that, we never know our EXACT schedule given that we are working with other classes, schools and coordinators, so if you wish to attend, best to count on arriving at the Board office and leaving at the stated times to be sure that you have a seat and don't miss us.  Apologies in advance if we run behind.
• We will travel both ways on a school bus.
• Credit to their music teacher, Mrs. Schwarzbach.
• A permission form with details will be coming home soon.  
• If you plan to join us for the performance, no need to let me know.

• June 21st - Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre  10:00-12:00
• We will need parents drivers and volunteers
• A permission form with details will come home in June.  That form will also be where you indicate that you would like to volunteer to drive.  

• June 23rd - ViewLynn Park in Lynn Valley  1:00-2:30
• We will need parent drivers
• ALL members of the family are invited to join us for this year-end celebration at the Waterpark.

Updates

Thank you to all the parents who continue to give the gift of independence to their child!  It is so nice to see them coming down the hall or even walking up to the school doors on their own or with a friend in the mornings.  They are all smiles and immediately get to the business of touching base with their friends and organizing their belongings.  It's a great thing :-)

KM Club

Primary classes started KM club yesterday.  We will be participating 3 times per week.  This is an opportunity for students to run/walk/skip around the field enough to get their hearts pumping.  It seeks to promote physical activity but we also incorporate some math skills as we add up our runs, and measurement, as well as goal-setting.  There are milestones to be reached and ribbons earned for those milestones.  As your child makes these achievements, they will be honored with a ribbon and applause at periodic assemblies.  Please ensure that your child has a safe run by providing them with proper running shoes, water bottle, and a hat for sunny days to come.

Our runs are Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.

Easter

Please send your child to school on Wednesday, April 12th with 1-3 hard-boiled eggs.  We will be decorating them and using them in a SURPRISE Easter egg hunt on Thursday afternoon.  To be clear, it is OK that they know we will be decorating the eggs but the hunt will be a surprise.

Also, if you wish to send an Easter treat for the class on Thursday, that's OK.  They will have a goodie bag to get it all home.

Learning Centres

It is ALL about working together in Kindergarten!  These are some pictures of just some of the ways that we collaborate each day.  From designing and building playgrounds, to constructing a bridge that will hold all 3 Billy Goats Gruff, to creating a story-telling environment that is very interactive.  Through these activities they learn to work together, listen to each other, communicate their ideas, and problem solve while working with their hands and minds.  What could be better?!

YAP fieldtrip to Sutherland.

Printing the permission forms as a double-sided document with the fieldtrip details seemed like a GREAT opportunity to save paper at the time...however, I now realize that none of you actually have the details at home!  So here is the document should you need to reference it.

Creating a community

Today the children collaborated in groups to design an ideal community for themselves.  I was pleased to see gardens and schools in most of them as well as lots of fun spaces.  Once complete we did a sharing session - it was amazing to see them speak to their classmates with confidence about their designs and to hear such positive feedback from their peers.

Enjoy!