Upcoming pictures with Santa

 

 

 

Report cards

Just a reminder that report cards went home today.  Please check your child's red folder when they get home so you can read it over before conferences tomorrow.   :)

Upcoming Conferences this week

Just a reminder that conferences are coming up this week! As a result there are no classes on Friday.

Dear Parents/Guardians:

Student-Led Conferences are on: Thursday, Nov. 24th 4:30-7:00 p.m.

Parent-Teacher Conferences are on: Friday, Nov. 25th 9:00-11:30 a.m.

 

On November 23, you will be receiving your child(ren)’s first term report card. Please read over the report card with your child(ren) and celebrate their hard work and accomplishments at school this Fall.

We will continue to do the same as last year due to feedback that some parents want to have a private meeting time with their child(ren)’s teachers. So, we are offering both Student-Led Conferences and Parent-Teacher Conferences.

 For Student-Led Conferences, we will continue to have an Open House format. Therefore, it is not necessary to make an appointment. You are welcome to come to the school when you can during the above mentioned time. This Open House format is intended to give you the flexibility to bring your child(ren) to the school when it is convenient for you and have your child(ren) show you their learning. This is a time to celebrate your child(ren)’s accomplishments and progress in school and to make connections with the Stevenson staff and other families in our school.

 For Parent-Teacher Conferences, please call the school to arrange an appointment during the above mentioned time with your child(ren)’s teachers. This is an opportunity to speak with teachers without your children present regarding any concerns or any private matters that are not appropriate to discuss during the Open House celebration of learning. 

Our Music Teacher, Ms. Rempel will be available on Thursday evening for private appointments with families.

 

If you cannot make it to either of these events, please call the school. Our teachers would be glad to schedule a time to meet or speak over the phone with you. We value having good communication with you and we also love showing you the great things students are doing at school.  Our phone number is: 204-832-1359.

 We look forward to seeing you and celebrating with you.

 

Sincerely,

Stevenson Staff

Winter Concert poster

Concert letter

Dear Parents/Guardians of Kindergarten students:

Our Stevenson Winter Concert is quickly approaching and we are very busy getting ready for our performances.  This year the Kinder - Grade 3 classes will be presenting a sweet musical called “Melton, The Warm-Hearted Snowman” by John Jacobson and Cristi Cary Miller.  There will be 2 public performances.  We will have a matinee on Wednesday, November 30^th from 1:15-2:00.  The Grade K-3 classes are also performing in the evening on Thursday, December 1 from 6:00-6:45.  We are asking that all students be in their classrooms for 5:30 p.m. on the Thursday evening in order to get lined-up to start promptly at 6:00.  The Grade 4/5 musical, Elflandia, will follow the Grade K-3 play on both days.

                                                               

COSTUMES: Kindergarten students are invited to wear their holiday best for their performance.  Students are to wear safe shoes.  No high-heels, please.  

If you have any questions, please contact your homeroom teacher.  Looking forward to seeing you at our shows.  At our concert, we will be collecting canned goods for Winnipeg Harvest.  Thank-you in advance for your support. 

Sincerely,

Ms. Griffiths, Mrs. Grant, and Ms. Rempel

Reminder

Tomorrow are photo retakes so please send your child dressed for photos if they are getting retakes.  Also I only received one notice for retakes so if you would like them, send me a message on remind or by e-mail  ngriffiths@sjsd.net  Thank you.

Tomorrow is also Early Dismissal at 3:10 PM

Remembrance Day

Thank you to the parents who made it out to our Remembrance Day service on Wednesday. It was wonderful to see the children be in charge. Two students from each class were chosen to place a poppy on the wreath and I was filled with pride to see our Room 8 students doing such a respectful job.
 

November so far...

Last week we were lucky enough to have our Literacy Coach, Susan Atcheson, in our school to help support us with our literacy activities. She read books with us, helped us with sounding out letters, and also worked closely with students during our daily writing time.

Also if you've been following on Instagram, dominoes are the new cool thing in Room 8! What started out as two students just playing and building towers with dominoes grew into a challenge that spanned a week and a half! At first the challenge was just to build a line without knocking it over, but that wasn't hard enough so they decided to build a line across the room.  It was great to see them using their words to express how important this project was and giving their classmates polite suggestions about the safest way to move around the domino road.  Then it became a round table challenge and this is what lasted for over a week.

It may look easy but these students would sit there silently concentrating on their task during choice time.  At first they would talk and move around till someone bumped the table but then their strategy started to evolve.  They realized just how hard it was going to be to make it all the way around. They all had to be leaders and be responsible for their own section until they connected. 

So many times they would almost reach their goal but someone would bump or shake and down they would go!  But these kids would just keep going and start all over again.  It took almost two weeks, but they got there! This was an amazing example of how play can teach teamwork, sharing, self-control, and how to just keep on going even when things seem impossible!

This weather though...

We have been soooo lucky with all of the beautiful weather that we have been getting so Room 8 has been taking full advantage of it by going outside for our choice time instead of staying indoors!

Halloween Pictures!

We really had some fun with our Halloween art.  We read a book called "Black Cat, White Cat" by Silvia Borando. The students then chose what colour cat they wanted to make and drew all of the body parts before painting over top.  Then the students stamped their painted cat onto a contrasting colour paper to create the stamped artwork. They sure came out amazing!

Our Halloween day! Such awesome costumes!!

Our busy October

We have been so busy in Room 8! There have been lots of firsts in October.

We've started dance classes with Mrs. Kaczmarz every Day 5. So far the kids have been learning some warm up moves and a few great dancing games and activities. They are really loving having that extra movement time in our day.

At centres we worked on learning letters through puzzles and creative making stations.  We also learned to play tic-tac-toe and talked about diagonal lines.  The class really loves playing tic-tac-toe now! Play a game at home with your child if you'd like to practice with them more! It's a great strategy game and teaches problem solving and turn taking.

     

This week our Discover Bins are focused on Halloween activities. So we have...
Fall still life drawing This is great for building fine motor muscles as well as being able to look at an object and copy it onto paper. Some students choose to match the colours and some choose to get creative with it!  After Discovery Bins, the kids have the opportunity to share their creation with the rest of the class in our sharing circle.









Roll and count Spider game  In this activity, students can play on their own or with a partner.  As they roll dice and count the number of dots, they add that many spiders to their web.  The partner with the most spiders wins. The class has taken this activity and evolved it into rolling dice and using the spiders to create that number shape. This teaches turn taking, subitizing, and number identification




















We also have letter sound matches and puzzles which are great fine motor work as well.

The leaves are falling...

In Room 8, we have been talking a lot about Fall and all the changes that are happening outside.
Of course one of the most noticeable is the changing leaves! So naturally is seemed like it was time to create some Fall artwork.

After collecting leaves outside as a classroom, the kids got to do leaf rubs using crayons and real leaves!
The results are beautiful!


To follow up with a bit of writing, I challenged the class to write a Fall poem.
First we brainstormed all the words and phrases we could think of to do with Fall.  Then one students had a great idea to put them into themes by using little symbols.
Then each student chose what part fit next into our poem.
I am so proud of these guys for their creativity and independence.  Besides standing up there with the marker, these kids did all the work!
We're going to type it up and put it out on our bulletin board with all our artwork!

Our brainstorm and theme organizing

Finished version!

Terry Fox Run

Thank you so much for all of your donations to the Terry Fox Foundation last week. The kids had an amazing time and really gave all their energy to running for Terry.

So far in Kindergarten....

We have really settled into our new classroom and new routines over the past month. The students have been learning to work together and problem solving techniques. We have also been working on our daily learning activities like letter and number identification, counting, the calendar, writing and reading.

We have also been joining our grade 2/3 friends in Miss Long's classroom to collaborate on some fun outdoor activities and even indoor ones like Reading Buddies.

Here are some fun snapshots of last week

We went outside with Room 11 to do some letter writing practice using whatever we could find around the playground. The kids were very creative with finding different ways to write with their surroundings. We saw everything from sand and rocks, to tires and grass. It was definitely a fun way to practice our letter shapes!


At our morning Discovery Bins, the students have a chance to use their imaginations with whatever supplies have been provided. Every week, new bins are set out on the tables with a variety of different objects or activities in them.  There is always a main goal in mind such as counting, making patterns, writing, or problem solving. But the students are welcome to get creative with them as well in order to further explore different concepts.

At this centre, the goal was to create a structure with a given number of building materials. It turned into an amazing conversation about balance and how to problem solve to improve their structure. Matteo and David are talking about how to make it taller without it falling over and Amber was seeing how many pieces she could balance on top of such a shaky base.


We've also had a few Library classes with Ms. Janzen. We get to listen to a story and then pick our own books to take home for the week!


Some more students presented their All about me bags. Amazing listeners in this room!



We've been writing in our journals and practicing counting on our magnet boards.

Our Room 11 Reading Buddies came to hang out with us last week! For one period, Kinder students have the chance to either read to or be read to by a Grade 2 or Grade 3 student. This is also a great opportunity to explore the books in both classrooms.