Old Man Winter

What a wintery week!! We were missing LOTS of our classmates this past week, what with the deep freeze we had at the beginning of the week, and then with the snowstorm, followed by the freezing rain, we were really low in numbers all week. Those of us who did trudge in managed to have some fun and a wee bit of learning too.

The children enjoyed our attempts in collaborative building as a culminating project for our Science Unit on Materials, Objects, and Everyday Structures. Those that were away will get a chance to dig-in to our Winter building challenges too upon their return, no worries. We'll be jumping back into our Daily and Seasonal Changes Unit too in the next coming weeks. 

Speaking of science, the children were quite excited to see a couple of teeny tiny sprouts popping up in our grow tower. I wonder what the next week will bring? 

With lower numbers, it was a great opportunity to introduce our self-selected art materials area and the expectations involved in being about to select their own materials for explorations and creations. More to come in the coming weeks.

 Thursday had us welcoming the end of a short week (well, for the kiddies, that is) all snuggled in our pyjamas. We even had PJ twins in our class.

In an effort to tidy up some of our overflowing recyclables, the children were invited to use them in the creation of a structure for their stuffies. We had a couple of airplanes, a tent, and more. 

We ended the week with a visit from some fire fighters, who enjoyed reading us a story on Fire Safety to not only highlight Sunday January 27th's twentieth anniversary of Family Literacy Day, but to share some fire safety information with all the grade one students who managed to join us.

The children were so excited and asked many rich, thought provoking questions, such as:

• What do you do if there's a fire downstairs, but not upstairs?
• What if the door is hot to touch but you don't have any windows?
• What if you're sleeping when the alarm goes off?
• What happens if there is smoke on the stairs when you want to go down/up from basement?
• What if there's smoke coming through the cracks of your door?
• Where do you get the water from when you're driving your truck?
• What happens if your fire truck breaks down?
• Why do you wear a uniform?
• What's the yellow stuff on your uniform?

We even got to see the fire truck whiz past with lights and sirens blaring while leaving on their way back to the station. 

We learned several important safety rules but the most important one involves you, moms and dads...discuss where your safe meeting place is outside of the house with your children. If there is ever smoke or fire in your home, get low, get out, and meet at your safe meeting place.

Word Wall Words for next week:

because, children, school, friend, nice

Check out this list of ideas for games and activities to play with your child to help them learn their sight words.

Have a safe weekend everyone. Stay warm!