October Update

Well, September has truly sped by us! Thank you for your support in getting the children to their Strong Beginnings appointments. Also a big thank you for your support of our class in the Walkathon, we have raised approximately $245! I hope some families were able to participate in the Linden Woods Fall Classic!

Special Notes
The trip to the Manitoba Museum I talked about on Meet the Teacher evening has been rescheduled to February, the precise date TBA. We will be carving pumpkins this month, likely on Thursday (Oct. 27) or Friday (Oct. 28). Please don't send in any pumpkins until you see a message in their agendas (19 pumpkins give the room a special aroma for days). We will be welcoming a new student the week of Oct. 17th (related information is not yet known). We are fortunate enough to hopefully schedule in a dental presentation the week before Halloween - right before they collect all their sugar ;)

The Lunch Program has asked that the following information be posted on the blog for those new to the class and as a reminder for everyone else:

• We do not have a microwave in our classroom and therefore the children should not be bringing food requiring heating to school,
• The reason Grade 1 and 2 classes do not have a microwave is that it is too dangerous to have young children cooking/heating their own food.
• The reason food will not be heated in other areas is that student lunch monitors cannot leave the classroom as it affects supervision levels. As well, carrying hot food through the hallways is dangerous.

Your understanding and support is appreciated.


School-wide Initiatives
During October Conferences VW's Be the Change Committee will be accepting donations of new or once-loved baby items for You can't Spoil a Baby. This is a volunteer-operated project that delivers gifts of once-loved/new baby items and clothes to help Manitoba families in need with the first year of Baby's life. Here are some items that we will be collecting:

• Baby clothing (sizes preemie to 18 months), including outerwear (hats, jackets, boots, etc)
• Breastfeeding items (nursing pads, nursing bras, breast pumps, nursing pillows, etc)
• Diapering items (disposable or cloth diapers, wipes, change pads, diaper bags, etc)
• Bath/Hygiene Items (natural unscented baby soaps, diaper creams, baby bath tubs wash clothes, menstrual pads for postpartum period, etc)
• Sleep Items (receiving blankets, baby monitors, co-sleepers, etc)
• Feeding Items (bibs, bottles, cutlery, food processors, baby food, etc)
• baby carriers
• Baby Gear (bouncy chairs, excer-saucers, swings, baby toys and books, etc)
• Presents suitable for "big-sibling" gifts (quality books and toys, activities, art supplies, etc). Most big-sibling gifts are needed for 2 - 12 year olds.

If you would like to donate, please drop off any items at the Be the Change Committee's tables by the front doors of the school between 4:30 and 7:30 on October 11th and 13th. On October 14th the table will be set up from 9:00 - 12:00. Please so not send any donations to school with your child but instead drop them off with the committee when you come for conferences. Should you have any larger items you would like to donate (crib, high chair, stroller, etc) please contact Mme Iverach-Brereton at jbrereton@pembinatrails.ca to arrange drop off.

To protect gift recipient and our volunteers, we respectfully encourage people who have or have recently had, bed bugs to refrain from donating at this time. Any donors who smoke in their home are respectfully asked to disclose this at the time of donation. Thank you for understanding and for you support of this Be the Change Committee initiative.

Language Arts

Some of the children have already begun the home reading program and are bringing home a book and a homework or reflection page with it. These are students with whom I have read and determined an appropriate reading level. The remainder of the children should be ready to bring home books by Tuesday next week. At that time we will begin small group guided reading activities.

This week we will start building student vocabulary and known spelling patterns, beginning with sounds/patterns individually identified in Strong Beginnings. Through our Morning Meeting routine the children are beginning to increase the number of common written words (a.k.a. High Frequency Words) they can spell automatically. They are also developing social skills around identifying feelings (their own and peers), and how to work through less positive feelings/interactions to have a successful and satisfying day.

This month in writing we will be focusing on "ideas" - where we can get them and how we can develop them into a personal narrative. We will continue to create acrostic poems around the Thanksgiving and Halloween themes of the month. The children have also started a Poem Binder containing monthly fun and mentor (exemplar) poems.

Mathematics

We have begun strengthening our counting skills within 100, and will continue working on this in October - particularly counting backwards from any starting point within 100, and counting forwards & backwards from any starting number within 100. the children work daily to build their recall of addition facts to twelve and as they achieve this they will move forward to within twenty. It is with this goal in mind that I sent home the information that will allow your child to practice these skills at home using XtraMath.org. This program is not intended for long practice sessions, but for short, focused practice that builds competency with facts they have not yet achieved automatic recall of. At this time, many of the children are using counters/beads/manipulatives to assist them when working with pencil and paper questions.

We will have the final pattern assessment at the end of this week or beginning of next week. The assessment will determine competency and understanding of the core within a repeating pattern, the skill to create and extend a repeating core of at least 3 elements (eg. #$%#$%#$%, or ##%##%##%, #$$#$$#$$, or #%%##%%##%%#), repeating patterns where 1 or 2 attributes are patterning (i.e. colour pattern within a size pattern), understanding of a general growing and shrinking pattern, as well as a growing and shrinking number pattern. Our next area of study will 2D shapes and a beginning exploration of problem solving. Building competency and efficiency with addition and subtraction strategies is a year long endeavor carried on through all three terms.

Science
Our study of Matter and Material will come to a close this month. Within the next few weeks we will explore floating and sinking, absorbency, and why one would use certain matter/material for different everyday products.

The children will be creating their first excel graph this week, based upon the weather in September.
They will also be creating a Matter & Material Power Point as part of their unit assessment.

Social Studies
This month our study of community takes us into the pioneer times as a means of comparison and contrast with today. The changes that occur and reason behind them are part of the exploration.