Happy Halloween!  We will be celebrating Halloween on Wednesday, October 31.  It is always a fun day with everyone wearing their costumes and participating in Halloween activities.   Keep your fingers crossed that the weather co-operates for our outdoor parade.
The Grade Parents will be sending out the interview booking information in November.  Online booking will begin on November 5.  All interviews are booked online and are 10 minutes in length.  Please let me know if you have any difficulties or the times are not convenient for you.  I an offering times before school, after school and during three evenings.  A reminder that Friday, November 16 is a PA Day and there will be no school for the children.
Thank you for sending shoes with your child when he/she wears boots to school.  Children must have something on their feet at all times for safety reasons.  If you wish, the children can keep their indoor shoes at school in their cubbies.  As with many activities, I encourage and promote independence putting on shoes and boots.  Please send shoes to school that your child can put on independently.  I will tie shoes laces, but hope that the children can put on their shoes without assistance.
Thank you so much for assisting your child with his/her Fall sharing for October.  November's sharing theme is a family picture.  It can be a photograph or drawing.  This is a wonderful way for the children to share their family with their classmates.

It is difficult to believe that we are starting the last full week of October.  Time is flying by.  We have been discussing Responsibility in anticipation of the Sharing Assembly on Friday.  In Kindergarten, responsibility includes cleaning up toys and your table when you are finished, taking out your mailbags and library books and following classroom rules and routines.  As mentioned in the newsletter sent home on Friday, parent teacher interviews will be held in November.  The on-line booking will open for parents on November 5.  More details will follow from the Grade Parents as the date comes closer.  
The afternoon class enjoyed attending the Terry Fox Assembly on Friday to celebrate our fundraising.  The Mystery Pail dumping was a great success with marshmallows, jello, chicken soup and eggs being dumped on teachers' heads.  It was all for a great cause and thank you for all your assistance raising money for the Terry Fox Walk.
We are continuing to discuss patterning, numbers, sounds and sight words during our daily messages and through our classroom activities.  Thank you very much for reviewing classroom activities at home.
The September Scholastic order has been sent home with the children and the October order has been placed.  I have a Power Ranger Book-Samurai Strike from the September order which did not have a name on the order form.  Please see me if you are missing this book.  Thanks in advance.
Retake Picture Day is Wednesday, October 24.  The photographer is now staying until 1:00 pm in the afternoon.  Please return the forms sent home on Friday, if you wish sibling pictures or a retake for your child.

Welcome to the third week of October!  The children have been busy practising their patterning skills individually and through group activities.  I have introduced the concept of the "core" of the pattern, which is the part that repeats.  You can't have a pattern without a core.  The children also had the opportunity to create and reproduce their patterns on Thursday.  They did a wonderful job of transferring their pattern onto a strip of paper and describing it.
We began the "Jolly Phonics" program on Friday.  Through this program we introduce and review letter sounds which are important for reading and writing.  Each Friday, your child will bring home a sound review sheet to practise the sound learned that week.
This week we will discuss some changes during the Fall season.  I will also introduce the number 5.  The number 4 formation poem is on the right side of the blog.  We will also continue patterning activities.
Thanks so much for your patience with the September Scholastic book order.  This delay is truly a mystery. The orders usually arrive within a week of placing the order.  It was being brought to the attention of the supervisor when I phoned last week.  I will investigate again this week and once again I am very sorry for the delay.  I know that everyone is looking forward to their new books.
On Friday, October 19, there will be a Terry Fox Assembly to celebrate our fundraising.  There will also be Mystery Pails dumped on 4 teachers including myself.  The afternoon class will be attending as part of our day.  Morning children are invited to attend with their caregivers. The assembly will begin at 2:10 pm in the gym.  I will post any time changes on the blog.  Cross your fingers for a non-sticky and non-messy pail!!

Thank you to everyone who ordered books from the Scholastic Book Club in September.  The order has been placed, but appears to have been delayed in shipping.  It does not normally take this long for the books to arrive.  I will investigate our missing order with the company this week.  Thanks again for ordering books.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy this wonderful long weekend with your friends and family.  The children were excited to bring home their poetry books on the weekend to share their Thanksgiving poems.  We discussed being thankful this week and made turkeys to help celebrate Thanksgiving.  
Through our daily charts we are continuing to discuss letters, sounds and learning sight word vocabulary.  We have been focussing on "I", "is" and "the".  Through our charts and reading I will continue to introduce high frequency words to help with reading and writing.  Please continue to reinforce these words at home through the Snuggle Up books. This week Snuggle Up books will go home on Tuesday and Friday due to the short week.  Thank to everyone who has volunteered to help exchange the Snuggle Up books.  Your help is greatly appreciated.

The students in the afternoon class were checked for head lice today and everyone was clear.  A note was sent home outlining how to look for lice in your child's hair and treatment. It is recommended that you continue to check your child's hair for the next 7-10 days.  If you discover lice in your child's hair, they must be checked by the office before returning back to school.  You may want to keep long hair in a ponytail for the next few weeks to discourage lice from travelling.  Thanks in advance.