Weekly Message: February 20

Gung Hay Fat Chow!  Happy Ramadan and Go, Canada, Go!

 We had a busy and festive week, starting Monday when we celebrated the beginning of the Year of the Horse.  The children examined artifacts and pictures about Chinese New Year (ie. red pouches used to give gifts), and read one of my favourite books, The Dragon Dance.  We compared and contrasted some of the traditions of Chinese New Year with other holidays that students.  We learned that some holidays start on the same date each year, such as Christmas (always on the 25th), while other holidays' starting date depends on the lunar calendar.  To celebrate the waning crescent moon and the start of Ramadan, we made a class mosaic.  

We also showed Olympic spirit, watching a few of the events during snack.  We compared how the athletes moved using lots of interesting verbs (gliding, spinning, twisting, climbing.....) and thought about the different ways you "win": being the fastest (bobsleigh) being the most technical and precise (figure skating and half-pipe) or getting the most goals (hockey). 

We brought a globe into the class and learned about how athletes in the Olympics come from all over the world.  We learned a fun song/poem about how to say "hello" in different languages. 

In UFLI we worked on the letter /o/.  Please practice your decodable passage until it can be read fluently.  Here we noticed the word "fan", can have two meanings.  A fan that moves air and someone who cheers for a team.  (Some kids are still finding the /an/ & /am/ sounds tricky.  The letter a makes a whiny sound when in front of the n and m.)

We also practiced re-telling our Mitten Stories to a peer.  The person listening used a checklist to help them attend and so they could give feedback to the presenter. We will share them with our buddies next week then send them home so families can also here their story-telling. 




Physical Education: 

We spent much of this week discovering and learning about racket sports like badminton. We used two types of rackets to practice our skills by either hitting a beach ball or balancing a birdie on the racket. We learned a proper "handshake" grip on the racket and we tried to only use one hand to swing or bounce the ball or birdie in the air. We also continue to explore movement by being an animal or even an Olympian doing their winter sport. Bobsled was fun as students made rows and leaned from side to side.  

Today we had Family Friday, where the students moved throughout to their multi-aged groups for activities. Ask your child what their group did.  We finished the day with watching the Men's semi-final during centres.  Here we really got to practice being a "fan"!!!!! 

Using playdough to attach "snowboards" to our people.
Sliding our snowboarders down a ramp.

We have the dollhouse back in our class!

We also have the water table.  It has arctic marine animals and pack ice.  The kids have been thinking about which animals swim below the ice and which climb onto the ice.  We realized the big Polar Bears need big pieces of "ice" to stay balanced on top.


Collaborative painting.

Watching Olympics during snack!
Canada wins!  You could hear cheering down the halls!

Have a great weekend, 

Mrs. Wacker and Mrs. Kinnear.


GO CANADIAN MEN'S HOCKEY!!!!!!









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