December

         

Dear Parents,

           

We were very happy to see many parents during our interviews on Nov.6th.  It was so nice to touch base with you to discuss your child’s progress in Kindergarten. 

Our focus for this month will be Advent and Christmas.  We will discuss the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate.  “Jesus is the reason for the season!”  Please check the section "Les chansons que nous aimons" for the French songs and vocabulary.  

On Wednesday December 10^th, you are invited to celebrate “Deck the Halls” here at St. George School.  It starts with a light breakfast, followed by the Performance Choir.  We are then inviting the K2 parents to join us during the children's snacktime followed by a Christmas songs and a story.

As mentioned in the St. George’s Newsletter, the grade 6's are hosting a Christmas Shopping Day on Wednesday, December 16th.  You can donate new or gently used items to the office as well as wrapping paper and ribbons before December 12th.  On December 16^th, students are asked to bring money to purchase gifts for their family members.  Items will be selling from $1.00 to $5.00 and will come home wrapped and labeled ready to put under your Christmas tree. 

A list of popcorn words were sent home to use as a reference when reading simple pattern books that repeat.  Here is an excellent site which will encourage your child’s reading abilities.  It’s fun and it’s free! Check out www.starfall.com.  The boys and girls have begun to write in their own journals.  These journals have been introduced as a way to encourage the students to write.  We emphasize the fact that writing comes in many different stages and so they are expected to write at their stage of writing:  pictures with scribed sentences, string of random letters, intial letters, etc.  SKs especially will be encouraged to stretch out the sounds in the word as they write the matching letters.  Like all beginning skills: practise, practise, practise!

In JK, we will continue with counting sets to 5.  Ask your child to ‘show you’ groups of 3, 4, 5 or more items whenever the opportunity arises.  Look for numbers on labels and containers. In SK we’ve been talking about what makes 5 using our five frame tool. Their use encourages counting strategies beyond counting by one or counting on each time they are asked to identify a number or work on an addition or subtraction type math story. These number relationships help build the foundation for the development of more complex mental computations. Students start with the five frames before moving on to ten frames and may explore double ten frames later to develop a better understanding of place value.  SKs, here is a great site to practise this skill:  http://illuminations.nctm.org/activitydetail.aspx?id=74 – five frames interactive website.

The playdough table has been very popular.  Therefore, we would appreciate any donation of playdough to keep this popular centre open.  Should you require the recipe, please let us know.  Store bought playdough is welcome too.  The students are not picky!

Friday, December 19^th is the last day of school before the Christmas break and we are back at school on Monday January 5th, 2015.

We wish you and your family a safe and happy Christmas.  Enjoy your time together.  The very best for 2014!

            

God bless,

Mrs. McGuinty, Mme Dolgos & Mrs. McAteer