Wednesday, May 1 is blue and white day  to celebrate the Toronto Maple Leafs making the playoffs.  Children are encouraged to wear blue and white clothing or Leafs apparel.  Show your Leaf spirit and wear your blue and white!  Go Leafs Go!

 It was wonderful to see the sun this week.  Keep your fingers crossed that Spring is finally here!  We had a busy week in Room 159.  I introduced the children to 3 dimensional shapes including the sphere, the cone, the cylinder, the pyramid the cube and the prism.  We have been matching shapes, exploring the "faces" of the shapes and looking for examples of 3 dimensional shapes in our environment.  Watch for our new poem about 3D shapes in your child's poetry book next week.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Sharing Assembly on Thursday.  The May Sharing Assembly will be Tuesday, May 28.

We cleaned up the school yard on Monday, April 22 to celebrate Earth Day.  The children had fun wearing their plastic gloves and exploring for garbage.  The class also completed a writing activity on Monday regarding what his/her hand can do to help the Earth.  The children are being very independent writers.

The children learned about Vincent van Gogh with the artist, Janeen Brownrigg on Thursday.  She explained how van Gogh painted with dashes and swirls and used lots of paint in his paintings to create motion and texture.  It was a wonderful day of art provided by Parent Council.  Thanks so much!  Please be patient as the paintings will be sent home at a later date.  For additional information regarding art classes visit www.lelloartschool&gallery.com

As we begin a new cycle on the leader chart, the children will be discussing their birthdates.  Thank you so much for all your assistance helping your child learn his/her phone number and address.  I sent home the May calendar on Friday.  Please let me know if you did not receive the May calendar.  I am looking forward to hearing about your child's favourite animal.

Springfest is quickly approaching on Saturday, May 4.  I will continue to collect donations for the afternoon Silent Auction box until Wednesday.  Thank you to everyone who has contributed.  Please see the right side of the blog for the contents of the box.

This is a busy time for fundraising and collections at school.  A reminder that all collections are voluntary and annonymous.  

Information regarding Tombola Leaf Campaign for Springfest:

The Tombola Leaf Campaign is one of LKS's most popular events.  Last year, this campaign raised $8,000 in donations to the school!  Students are encouraged to bring in cash or cheque donations that will be pooled each day for each classroom.  Each class will receive a Tombola "Leaf" for every $5.00 raised. The leaves are proudly displayed on classroom doors.  The classes with the most Tombola Leaves will WIN prizes.  (The Tombola Committee will assess each class's success on a pro rata basis so that classes with fewer students are not disadvantaged from being eligible to win.)  

This Campaign continues next week: Apr 29-May 3.  Buy 1, 5 or 10 leaves! Simply send your cash or cheque (payable to "LKS & Parent Council") in an envelope marked "Tombola Leaves" with your child to their classroom.  Thank you for your support!!!

We had a wonderful day with the Scientist on Monday.  Everyone participated in 4 different centres including fishing with magnets, investigating magnetic toys, predicting which objects were magnetic and exploring magnets with the Scientist.  Thank you to Parent Council for funding this great experience.  Also thanks to the parent volunteers who helped to lead the activities.  Your help is greatly appreciated.
Both classes had fire drills this week and did a wonderful job.
Thank you to everyone who donated coins to the Seeds of Hope Penny Drive.  Your generosity will help fund clean water for many less fortunate.  Both classes were silent for 15 minutes on Thursday.  I was so proud of their efforts.  Way to Go, Room 159!
We have been discussing Earth Day and ways to help the Earth.  The students will be tidying up the school yard on Monday, April 22.  We were delayed on Friday due to bad weather but will try again on Monday.
We are still collecting items for our Afternoon Class Springfest Basket.  Please check the list on the side of the blog to eliminate duplicates.  Our theme is Outdoor Fun.  We are continuing to pass along the book for the Morning Class.  Thanks so much to everyone for your donations to Springfest.
A reminder of our April Sharing Assembly on Thursday, April 25.  We will be presenting a poem about the Earth.
Also on Thursday, we will have a visit from Janeen Brownrigg a local artist.  She will be helping the children create a painting based on Van Gogh.

I have a Scholastic item without an owner.  If you are missing Sight Word Picnic Bingo, please let me know and I will send it home.  Thanks in advance.

The children are looking forward to the visit from the Scientist on Monday.  She has organized 4 centres to help the children discover the properties of magnets.  Thank you to our volunteers who will help with this wonderful presentation.  Thanks also to Parent Council who funds this great experience.
Both classes completed a "shape hunt" with their Reading Buddies this week.  They explored our classroom looking for examples of 2 dimensional shapes.  It was wonderful to see all the students working together and to watch the learning.  Thank you to Mrs. Dias and Ms. Zappi who bring their classes down each week to work with us.  On Thursday, the children created their own pictures using only squares, rectangles, triangles and circles.  Their creations will be on the bulletin board this week.  Please have a look the next time you are inside the school.
The Seeds of Hope club are holding a Penny Drive this week.  Children are encouraged to bring in pennies (and other change) to help provide clean drinking water for those in need.  On Thursday, April 18, students are encouraged to wear black to support the Seeds of Hope members who are being silent for 24 hours.  We will also have a short period of silence in Kindergarten to show our support.  Thanks for bringing in your change for this activity.
Earth Day is April 22, 2013.  We will begin discussing how to take care of the Earth this week.  On Friday, we will participate in a garbage pick up in the school yard.
The afternoon class had a fire drill this week and the morning class had a lock down drill on Friday.  Both classes did a wonderful job of following routines and completed successful drills.
Enjoy the spring weather this week.

Wednesday, April 10 has been designated as PINK DAY by the TDSB to support anti-bullying.  Pink Day was started in Nova Scotia in 2007 when two Grade 12 students organized their friends to wear pink in support of a younger student who was bulled for wearing a pink shirt on the first day of school. Show your support for against bullying and for tolerance on April 10.  LET'S GO PINK, LKS!
We have started our investigation of 2 dimensional shapes in math.  The children will be looking for examples of shapes in the classroom with their reading buddies this week.  They will also be creating pictures with 2 dimensional shapes.
Thank you so much for practising sight words with your child each week.  Learning high frequency words makes reading and writing so much easier.  Please take the words out of the pocket at the front of the book and keep them at home to practise.  Due to the four day week there was no sound review book this week.
We are looking forward to our two visitors during the month of April.  The scientist is visiting on Monday, April 15 to help the children explore magnets.  She will be running 4 centres with the help of parent volunteers.  On April 25, an artist will be spending the day with us and assisting the children with an art project.  A big thank you to Parent Council for funding these two great projects.  
SPRINGFEST IS SATURDAY, MAY 4!  
SILENT AUCTION: 
Morning Class-The Class Book will be sent home daily with a child with an order form.  Please return the book the next day so I may send it home with the next child.  Please contact Wendy Mitchell if you have any questions.
Afternoon Class-We are collecting donations for the "OUTDOOR FUN" Basket.  Please check the blog for donations already received.  The more fun items we receive the higher the value of the box at the auction!  Please contact the grade parents for additional information.
Springfest always needs volunteers.  Please contact your grade parents if you have an hour to help out!!