Well, that was quite the river of rain we had on Friday!

These rainy days are hard when the children have to get themselves ready to go outside to play, usually twice a day.  We are helping as much as we can but there are a few things you can practise at home to help increase your child’s independence.

-practising the snaps of the raincoats – very tricky because the snaps are stiff

-practising how to zip up your coat

-pulling sleeves out when you take off your coat and rain pants– this makes it easier to get ready for the next playtime recess and allows the outdoor gear to dry properly

-shoes for classroom use and rainboots for outside – the children can wear a hybrid “shoe/boot” for indoor use provided they change into rainboots for outdoor play.  

The children notice the number of woodchips accumulating on our classroom carpet when other students do not change their shoes – and no one likes sitting or playing on a dirty carpet.

The children met their Grade 7 Buddies again on Friday, and we reviewed some autumn vocabulary and had more time to chat and colour together.  We will hopefully complete our Scavenger Hunt together on a sunny day.

We are continuing the letter “d” for another week with the Thanksgiving Holiday and the upcoming Professional Development Day so close together.

We’re working on patterns in Math using a variety of math manipulatives, through “snap/clap” body actions and during the morning Calendar.  We’re learning about the following patterns:  AB, AAB and ABC.  You can support your child by looking for patterns in their environment (fence railings, crosswalk lines, lamp standards) through creating and extending patterns with small objects (beads, coins, dry pasta) and how patterns occur in our everyday lives (eg., the seasons (ABCD), meals in a day).

We completed our October self-portraits this week, and will begin decorating our classrooms with the Hallowe’en art we’re creating in the next few days. We also finished our Warm Coloured Pumpkins as we have been learning about the warm colours in our Autumn art.

Upcoming Events and Reminders

Friday, October 22:  Provincial Professional Development Day (school is not in session for students)

We’ll be starting the next rotation for Special Helper by adding “Sharing” to your child’s Special Day.  “Sharing” is similar to “Show and Tell” except we usually have a theme where your children will bring something specific to school on their Special Helper day.  We are still finishing our first rotation so this week’s Special Helpers do not need to bring their Sharing to school yet.  We will post the new calendar rotation in Remind so you can see what day is your child’s Sharing and Special Helper Day.  

Beginning in the last week of October, the theme for our first Sharing will be “Alphabet.”  Your child needs to bring 3 objects that begin with the first letter of their first name.  This is a fun way to focus on the initial (first) sounds of words, as part of developing the children’s phonological awareness.

These three objects should fit into a ziploc bag (nothing too big).  You can support your child further by helping them to print the names of each of the objects on a piece of paper and send that in along in the ziploc bag as well.

Please note:  If your child forget their Sharing on their Special Helper Day, we usually ask them to wait till the next rotation.

If you have not yet paid your school fees, please do so.  You’ll need to access School Cash online which was linked within the September school ebulletins.

If you have not yet signed off on the 2021-2022 Policy and Procedures Form, go to our Ridgeview website, then to “Parents” and then “Forms.” It’s located there.  This should be done ASAP.