On Wednesday we welcomed Elmer, the Safety Elephant, and his special friend, Mrs. Young, to our Kindergarten classrooms.  Elmer comes to us from the North Shore Safety Council.  Although some of the children said they had met Elmer before, we know as parents and teachers there is no such thing as “too much” when it comes to the safety of our children.  Elmer brought along his trusty friend, Ruff, the Dog, as well.  Elmer gives two presentations a year, and today’s was about pedestrian, car and traffic safety.  We will learn about bicycle safety in the spring.

We learned a valuable lesson with Elmer, and that is, it is our choice whether we choose to be safe or not.  We all want to be able to play safely and enjoy ourselves with our family, but we need to make the right choices when doing so.

Elmer talked to us about several different scenarios.  First, when a toy, such as ball, rolls out onto the road, we just leave it.  Elmer reminded us the toy is just a thing.  It might be a special thing, but we should ask an adult for help to get it back.

In addition, what do we do when a toy falls between parked cars?  An adult has to help us.  Children cannot be seen when they step off the sidewalk, and a car may pull forward not knowing a child is in front of it.  So it is important that the children ask an adult to retrieve the toy.

We learned that pedestrians are people who are walking places.  As pedestrians, when we cross the street we know we should look in both directions.  But we also need to look behind us:   over our shoulder and towards the cars coming from another direction.  Did you know we don’t say “Look in both directions” anymore?   Now we say, “We look all ways” or “We look in all directions.”  When there is no sidewalk, the safest place to walk is on the grass or side of the road facing traffic.  As pedestrians, we want to be able to see what is happening with the cars coming towards us.

Here is a fun poem Elmer shared with us about traffic lights.  He brought a big set of traffic lights to show us.

“I am red and I say stop.  See me shining at the top

I am yellow and I say wait.  Please be patient even if you are late.

I am green and I say go.  But be careful and walk.”

Elmer also showed us what the pedestrian controlled lights mean:

The hand lit in red means “stop” and our feet stay on the sidewalk.
The walking figure lit in green means it’s time to walk.  But before you walk, look all ways.

Elmer spoke about safety equipment when riding a skateboard or riding a bicycle.  Cyclists and skateboarders must wear helmets when they are using these pieces of equipment, because it is the law.  For our own protection, we should also wear elbow and knee pads while skateboarding and shoes and socks to protect our feet on a bike or skateboard.

Ruff, the Dog stopped by for a short visit to tell us it’s the law to wear a seatbelt while we are in the car.  We need to listen for the “click” sound of the seatbelt as the latch engages.  If the children do not hear that sound when they put on their seatbelt, they should tell you immediately.  

As a further reminder, Ruff said we can hear that click sound again if we are on our bicycle.  We need to listen to the “click” of our bicycle helmet as we engage the latch and adjust it to fit under our chin.  Please remember that you need to wear a helmet that is the right size.

Thank you again to Elmer the Elephant and Ruff the Dog!  We can never be too safe when it comes to our children.

This Week in Our Room:  November 23-26, 2015

Please check the new Special Helper and Sharing calendar.  Our new theme is Holiday Traditions.  More information can be found on the Parent Board outside the classroom, and we sent out a Remind about it earlier this week.

We finished the letter “I” this week in the Alphabet.  We will complete letters “J” and “K” before the holidays.

We’re getting ready for the Christmas Concert and starting to think about costumes for our grade.  The musical is called “Toys” and our Kindergarten children will be dressing up as Prince and Princess Dolls.

Girls: please wear a princess costume (Disney Princess is fine) and crown.  No wands, please.

Boys:  please wear a long sleeved green top and black pants.  We will supply the gold garland sash and prepare the crowns at school.  If you have a crown, please let us know.

Wednesday, December 2 is our Christmas Cracker Craft project with our Buddy classes.  Our crackers will be donated to various organizations around the city.  We are in need of ribbon to tie off the ends of the crackers.  If you have any bolts of curling ribbon, or Christmas ribbon you are no longer using, we would gladly receive your donations.  Thank you.

We’ve been hard at work for the past two weeks on a very special assignment.  For the past few years, our Ridgeview Parent Advisory Council has had as one of its fundraisers, The Card Project.  Our classes participate by creating unique art work which is then turned into cards, journals and sketchbooks.  Each child creates a piece; in a few weeks you will receive a sample card with your child’s artwork and from there, you can make purchases where the proceeds benefit our school.

Christy and I spend a lot of time pondering what we should choose as an art project for our classes.  The Kindergarten students have only attended school for a few weeks when we are called upon to create something that is not only wonderful and something you will want to purchase, but that is also manageable and appropriate skill-wise for their age:  four and five years old.

We were given theme of “Nature” so we looked at websites such as Deep Space Sparkle and Pinterest, and our own collection of art books and vast files from over the years for inspiration.  In the end, we choose an adorable owl, one of Christy’s favourite motifs, created with torn paper, from Pinterest.

We drew a pencil oval on the dark blue background paper and tore the construction paper strips of grey and two tones of brown ahead of time.  We demonstrated how to tear the paper, which still proved to be challenging for many children, as it does require a certain degree of fine motor strength in their fingers.

Starting to create our owl’s body

Although we suggested to the children that they start by creating a circle, all true artists, as our students certainly are, are motivated by their own desires, creativity and experiences.

To create the eyes, we taught the children how to fold

Now our owl has its wings.

the rectangular shaped yellow and black papers in half.  Some children chose to draw a circle and cut both eyes at once; while others decided to free-hand cut out their eyes.

Our owl now has eyes!

We decided, as the due date was rapidly approaching, to cut out the legs ourselves.

And legs!

And the final presentation?

Division 15’s owls

And Division 16’s

What could be sweeter than this?  Only our Kindergarten children!!

For more information, visit the http://www.TheCardProject.ca

This Week in Our Room:  October 12-16, 2015

We both a fire drill and earthquake drill this week.  The children are listening well and following teacher directions calmly as we practise these emergency procedures.

We finished the letter D and will send home the children “Diamond d” and some alphabet work next week.

We graphed our birthdays in our class during Math this week.

Upcoming Next Week:

Sharing and Special Helper.  The children have been taking turns being the Special Helper the past few weeks. The Special Helper gets to be first in line every time we line-up (which is frequent), take the attendance to the office with a friend and lead the class during the Math Their Way Calendar every morning.  It’s a tremendous privilege to be the Special Helper as the role carries many responsibilities throughout the day, and an opportunity for every child to take a leadership role and set a positive example for others.

It’s time now to add “Sharing” to the role of Special Helper.  Every 4-5 weeks we will post a theme for Sharing and a calendar so you and your child know which day is his or her Special Helper Day.  On your child’s Special Helper Day he or she will bring the “sharing” to school and tell the class about it.  You can support your child by helping them to organize their “sharing” by sending a note with a few key words or picture clues to remind them of what to say.  Of course we will be there encouraging your child, as well.

Our first Sharing and Special Helper begins on Monday in Division 16 and the following week in Division 15.  Our theme will be “I Like Me.”  Please assist your child to find three small objects that tells something about him or her.  These objects should fit into a small ziploc bag.

Some possibilities your child might bring include:

• a family photo, labelled with family member names
• a small toy representative of a favourite hobby or activity (eg., Lego, goggles for swimming)
• a small stuffed cat or dog to represent a pet
• a souvenir from a family holiday

For this first round of Sharing and Special Helper, we will be in alphabetical order by first name.  We have promised the children we will switch up the order every time (by last alphabetical name, birthday order) after this so children who are at the end of the alphabet by their first name might have an opportunity to be at the beginning or middle of the list for the next time.

Dates and Reminders:

Library.  With the Thanksgiving holiday and other changes to our schedule, some of our children have missed taking out a new library book because they did not return their previous book.  Please assist your child in planning to pack their library book to return to school a day or two ahead of Library Day.

Division 15’s (Mrs. Campbell and Mrs, Cantlie) Library Day is Monday.

Division 16’s (Mrs. Daudlin) Library Day is Tuesday.

Friday, October 23, is the Provincial Professional Day.  School is not in session.