Volunteer Breakfast

   If you have been helping out at the school in any way then you are a volunteer we would like to honour you.The invitations have been sent home, but please consider this post as your second invitation. The teachers are preparing a breakfast buffet for you and would be very happy to see you in the library this coming Tuesday, June the 14th at 8:15 am. I hope to see you there!

Camp Kindergarten is Open!

We have begun our last unit, Camp Kindergarten. The children will have turns playing in a tent, using toy camping tools, playing at the camp nurse's station, playing rainy day board games and reading camp and nature stories. We will do some camp crafts and sing lots of silly songs.

 Our circle time is now held around our (tissue paper and papier mache) campfire. We are singing songs like Fire's Burning and Down by the Bay and others.

We are using our imaginations to pretend to be going on canoe trips and other wilderness adventures. If your camper would like to bring in a sleeping bag or flashlight or bug net, they are very welcome. At the end of the month we will invite you to visit us at our cabin and watch us sing our songs and celebrate the end of our first year at school. Date to follow soon.

Jars Needed!

We are collecting clean, clear jars with lids with smooth sides for a special craft. (Shhh! It's for an upcoming holiday that honours a parent.) If you have any you can send it they would be most appreciated. Please put your child's name on the lid. If you have extra jars you can send in that would be excellent. Thank you!!

Volunteers for the Farm Field Trip

So many kind and keen parents have offered to come and help on our trip. All volunteers are welcome to come on the field trip. HOWEVER, there is only room on the buses for five volunteers per class. So if some people are willing to car pool or drive there themselves, that would be appreciated. Please email me at sarah.whitehead@ocdsb.ca  if you need to be on the bus and I will do my best to accomodate everyone. I will send home a note with your child tomorrow to let you know if you are riding the bus or driving. Thank you, everyone!

Huh?

There is a slight confusion about the cost of the Great Farm Field Trip. I think the first letter that went out said it would be $10 and then the trip permission form has updated this to $11.50. (As things became clearer to the very kind teacher who is organizing this for all the kindergarten classes, the real cost emerged.) If you read the letter more carefully and sent in $10 and would like to top up your offering, that will be appreciated. Also please note that as always, we never want the cost of trips to keep children from participating, and will cover this fee for anyone who needs this.
Thank you to all of you who have sent in your forms promptly. If you haven't signed them yet, time is now getting short. PLEASE send in your forms tomorrow. Thank you!

Aladdin

The morning class will be going to Nepean High School on Tuesday morning to see a dress rehearsal of their Children's Theatre program's play, Aladdin. The afternoon students are welcome to come to the school with their parents and come along with us. Meet us in the classroom at 9:10. Alternatively there are tickets available for a 7 pm show. The magic of May continues!!

Please Get Quacking!

Trip permission forms came home today. Please sign and return them tomorrow with the money for the trip fee while the idea is still fresh in your minds. Thank you !!

Dental Screening

The Public Health Department will be holding a dental screening for our classes on May 16th. You will receive a notice if they find anything of concern. We will talk a little about teeth before hand to prepare them for their check up.

Trip to Valleyview Farm

Time for a field trip!

On May 24^th we will be going to Valleyview Little Animal farm.  The morning class will be leaving at 9::20 and returning at 11:15 and the afternoon class will be leaving the school at 1:20 and returning by 3:15.  The cost of the trip will be $10.00.  We will see a wide variety of animals and birds up close from alpacas to zebus, goats to geese!  We will ride the Valleyview express train and enjoy the creative farm playground.  Also, we will enjoy a puppet show featuring a presentation on new babies at the farm.  The farm requires us to have one parent to every 4 children so we are asking for your help on this day! There will be a snack time, so please put your child’s snack in a large ziplock labeled with their name, and we will carry it for them on the trip.  The field trip permission form will be coming home in the very near future. May is just packed!

Book Bonanza

The Book Bonanza is a very ancient tradition at Broadview PS and a wonderful celebration of literacy and books. Your child will be visiting the book sale on Thursday, May 12th. Each children's book costs 50 cents during the day. The price goes up to $1 after school hours. Children are allowed to spend up to $5 each at the sale. If you would like your child to participate, please send in some money in a baggie for that day. It's wonderful to see the children choosing and buying their very own books.

There is also a contest between the classes to see who brings in the most used books. Here are the guidelines for that:
Bring in your book donations May 5th and 6th and May 9th to 11th. This is the Book Drop part of the Bonanza. They are also looking for clean boxes large enough to hold 15 books. The boxes should not be flattened. Music cds but NOT computer game cds are also requested. DVDs but NOT VHS are also needed, as are Wii games, PSP games, Nintendo DS and Xbox games. Books earn 1 point each, boxes 2 points, cds  and dvds 5 points and games 10 points. The class with the most points can win some great prizes like an ice cream cake or pizza lunch. The points are averaged out by dividing by the number of students, so even a small class can win.
*PLEASE BRING YOUR DONATIONS IN TO THE INTAKE COUNTER NEAR THE LARGE GYM.*   Precounting the number of books is also very helpful.
The book sale begins for the public after school on Thursday, May 12th. It is open again on Friday evening and on Saturday in the morning. Thank you for your donations and participation and happy reading!!!

Folk Dancing!

The Artist In Residence program at Broadview is bringing us folk dancing from May 9th to 13th. We will have lessons from a dance teacher Monday to Thursday and then there will be a concert to present our dances on Friday, May 13th. Please keep an eye on this blog for all the details and come and see your child dancing!

***We now have the times for the performances. The morning class will perform at 11:10 and the afternoon class at 1:15. The performances will be in the small gym. Parents are invited to come and enjoy the children's performance. ***

Remember to order your carriages!

This Friday is the Royal Ball. The crowns and masks are here, but if your child would like to wear a costume, they are very welcome to dress up as princes, princesses, dragons, knights or anything else they would like. Let the waltzes begin!

Cecilia String Quartet

The strings are coming! The Cecilia String Quartet is coming with two violins, a viola and a bass . They will play and teach the children about classical music on May 5th at 9:45 in the school gym. I will be taking the morning class to hear them, and any afternoon children are very welcome to come with their parents and enjoy the concert too. We will be talking a little about the instruments of the orchestra and listening to lots of great music in class to prepare. It should be a lovely event!

Spring Celebrations

This week we will set aside Fairytales and talk about the celebrations of Easter and Passover. We will be reading stories and painting eggs and tasting matzoh and making spring crafts. Hopefully the weather will warm up and make things extra spring-like for us. If not, please send a sweater with your child as the classroom can be a bit chilly. As ever, please feel free to send in books or objects from your home about spring celebrations for the children to share. Thank you!

Earth Week

The kindergartens can participate in Earth Week at school in two ways. First, they can bring in a loonie (or more) to donate to the World Wildlife Fund to help save endangered animals. For every dollar they donate they receive a ticket to a draw for prizes.

Secondly they can join in our litterless lunch tomorrow by bringing in their snack in re-usable containers and taking home their garbage to be recycled or composted. Thank you for your support of these activities!

The Magic of Change

Dear Parents;

   We are making a special book about changes. There are many things in the world that change and we would like to learn about some of them. We would also like to celebrate the magic of change. Your child is bringing home a page to fill in with his or her idea about something that changes. There are two frames. He or she can draw something in each frame or put in pictures from magazines or other sources. Some examples of things they might choose are an egg in the first frame and a bird in the second, a seed in the first and a plant in the second, or some baking ingredients in the first and a cookie in the second. Then there is a sentence to fill in at the bottom of the page: A ____________________ becomes a ______________!

   Please take some time this week to talk with your child and notice different changes around them. Then help him or her to choose their favourite change for their page. We will put all the pages together into a book with flaps that lift up to reveal the changes. We will also be talking about change in class. Do these things change because of Nature or because people make the change happen? Please return the page to class by next Wednesday, April 20^th. Thank you for your help with this project!

A Royal Ball

The children are most cordially invited to a Royal Masked Ball at the palace, to be held Friday, April 29th. Dress in costumes, princess gowns or formal wear. Masks and crowns will available at the ball. There will be dance classes held in preparation to this glittering event so that the children may brush up on their waltzes.  

Scholastic Book Orders

Scholastic book order forms are coming home and have the due date on them. You can order online or send in your order and cheque to the school and I will pass them on to our volunteers. Thank you to Krista in the morning and Kirsten in the afternoon class for helping to organize this!! We ask that you send your order in within a week of receiving the book order forms. Thanks and happy reading.   : )

Our Norouz Celebration

Many, many thanks to Mali Doroodian for a wonderful Norouz celebration on our first day back to school after March Break. She brought in all the seven elements for the table, seen here, including our glorious lentil sprouts. Who would have thought that some dry tiny lentils would become such a lush green patch? It was magical to see the transformation. Other elements on the table are vinegar, an apple, garlic, eggs, sumac with a coin in it, lotus fruit, candles, a flower and a beautifully illustrated book. The children did a colouring page which shows them the numbers from one to seven and the meaning of each of these symbols.
Mali told us a Norouz story about a princess with a curse upon her which meant the spring could never come. We could all relate to that story as we looked out the window! She also brought in everything to make cards, Persian music to listen to and cookies and potato patties to try. It was a lovely experience and we are so grateful to her for all her preparations. Thank you, Mali!

Here is a link to show the steps from lentils to sprouts in case you would like to try to grow your own: http://mypersiankitchen.com/lentil-sabzeh/

An Afternoon Face

I would like to (belatedly!) introduce Heather Kirk, who is a teacher in our afternoon class for a block once every three weeks. She comes in to Broadview school and works with classes on character education. She teaches lessons on things like how to get along with friends and tolerance for differences. We are always glad to have her teaching in our classroom.