Twin Day - The Votes Are In

Our class took a vote on what colour we should wear for twin day. If your child is not going to dress up as twins (or triplets) with a friend, they can join our class and dress up in red, as it was the most popular colour.

Winter Concert

Happy Hanukkah

Wishing all our families a Happy Hanukkah. Hope you have had a great time celebrating with your loved ones.

We've had a great time celebrating Hanukkah in our classroom. Our class has been putting candles on our menorah everyday. Students also have been having lots of fun making and breaking the Hanukkah puzzle, using Hanukkah cookie cutters at the playdough centre and reading lots of Hanukkah books.

Lion's Pride

Just a reminder that our class will be displaying our Lion's Pride objects and write-ups this Monday. If you can please send your child to school with their object (or a picture of their object) and the write-up, we will be displaying them in the front foyer of the school this Monday. You can also email me a picture and I can print it at school. We will be returning the objects/pictures before the holiday break.

We are excited to celebrate what is amazing in each and every one of us!

Toy Mountain

This holiday season, Bayview Glen P.S. is proud to be collecting toys to support Toy Mountain, a program in conjunction with CTV and the Salvation Army, which distributes gifts to children in need.  All you have to do is have your child drop off a new, unwrapped toy at school any time on or before December 12^th 2018 and help build our Toy Mountain right in the school office!

As well, all families are invited on Wednesday, December 12^th 2018 at 6:00 p.m. to the North York IKEA (15 Provost Drive) where our Toy Mountain will be donated, and where CTV Weather Anchor Tom Brown will broadcast the event live during CTV Toronto’s News at 6.  It would be nice to have a contingent of Bayview Glen P.S. students showing support and maybe we could even get on to the news broadcast, so we encourage our community to come out and join the celebration!  The broadcast will be outdoors, so if you’re attending, be sure to bundle up!

Help us build a mountain of good cheer for children in need this holiday season … one toy at a time!

Upcoming Spirit Day

On December 12th we will have our second Spirit Day - Twin Day! Students can dress up as twins (or triplets!) with a friend.

A reminder that the calendar on our classroom blog is linked to our school calendar so you can see both classroom and school events.

Shadow inquiry

Our students have had lots fun learning about and playing with their own and their friends’ shadows. 

We had a chance to trace a friend’s shadow, make shadows in the classroom using the sun, make shadows in the cubbies using flashlights. We also learned why sometimes our shadows ‘go missing!’ 

We finished our inquiry with students painting their profile pictures.

Try a Little Kindness

A book donation from a parent led us to a great discussion of how we can be kind.
We can:
- pick up other people’s snack if they fall on the floor
- we can share
- asking friends to join you at the centre
- drawing a picture with someone
- letting friends join centres
- asking friends to play with you if they are alone

Thank you for the book donation!
Happy Monday!

Sorting

We are having lots of fun sorting in our classroom. We are learning that there are many ways we can sort items, such as colour, size, texture (and even the number of holes in the buttons)!

Pajama Day

Our Student Leadership Team wants to share with everyone that our first Spirit Day of the Year will be held this week. They officially declare Tuesday, November 20th Pajama Day!

Book Fair

The Book Fair is coming!!! 

Our Book Fair will run from Monday November 19 to Thursday November 22 to classes throughout the day. It will be open after school on Thursday November 22 from 3:00pm-5:00pm.

Should you wish to send your child with money, our class will visit the Book Fair together on Monday November 19 and Wednesday November 21 from 11:20 a.m. - 11:40 a.m.

Please note, there will be no library book exchange from Monday November 18 - Thursday November 22 due to the book fair.

Thank you for supporting our school!

Hands of Peace

Food Drive

Thank you to all the families who donated food for annual food drive. Even though our Fall Dance is now behind us, we are still collecting nonperishable (and unopened) items for our ongoing Food Drive. In our classroom, we are graphing the food that is being brought in (before the students take it to the front). We will be collecting items all of November
!

Progress Reports & Parent Teacher Conferences/In Class Observations

Progress reports will be sent home on Wednesday, November 21st, 2018. Parent -teacher interviews for Year 2 (SK) Students will be held on Thursday, November 22nd (in the evening) and on the morning of the P.A. Day, Friday, November 23rd.  Please book a time slot when your child can join us for the conference.

This year we will once again be using Edsby to book parent-teacher interviews. The Parent-Teacher interview schedule will open for bookings on November 7th at 10:00 a.m. For help with using Edsby, please visit https://www.edsby.com/help/parents/. 

Invitations have been sent home to book times for In Class Observations for Year 1 (JK) students. 

We look forward to seeing all of our parents and guardians.

Looking forward to seeing you!
Ms. Khazrai

Happy Diwali to all our families celebrating the Festival of Lights! We hope you have had a great time celebrating with your families. While celebrating Diwali with our friends, we had a lot fun creating diyas and colouring rangolies.

Fall Dance

On Friday November 9th we will be having a Fall Dance. Admission is, of course, free, BUT, we do ask that all students bring in at least one non-perishable item to donate to our local food bank.

Self-Portraits: Our new Bulletin Board Display

Our class created self-portraits which provide a special glimpse into their individuality and uniqueness. Malaguzzi and Musatti (1996), Pelo (2007) believe that self-portraiture is deeply connected to children’s identity perceptions…. stories children tell in their portraits. 




A self-portrait is an intimate bold declaration of identity. In her self-portrait, a child offers herself as both subject ad artist. When we look at her self-portrait, we see a child as she sees herself. The story of self-portrait work is a tender story to tell. 



As we began this self-portrait inquiry, the children were invited to draw their self-portraits with a black market while looking at their photographs and their self-reflection in a mirror. We then reflected on what makes us unique and special using speech bubbles, a literacy concept that we recently learned about.

No tricks, just treats this Halloween...

10 Ways to Make Halloween a Learning Opportunity

Halloween and other festive holidays are a great way to teach new vocabulary and to help build your child’s language skills in a fun and engaging way. From acquiring a costume to carving a pumpkin, Halloween can be made into a language-rich opportunity for you and your family.

1. Describing Halloween Costumes: Whether you’re planning to purchase your child’s Halloween costume or create it yourself, there are several opportunities to use adjectives, or describing words, when discussing costumes. These words can be used to describe the appearance of the costume (e.g., “sparkly”, “bright”), the material of the costume (e.g., “stretchy”, “soft”), and the emotions associated with the costume (e.g., “scary”, “funny”). You can help your child to explain their own costume and also to describe other children’s costumes on the night of Halloween. Turning this into a game can also make the experience more fun (e.g., “Who can find a costume that is sparkly?”; “Point to a costume that is scary”, etc.).
2. Carving the Pumpkin: Pumpkin carving is a great way to encourage the use of verbs, or action words. Before carving, some families like to “draw” their desired pumpkin face. While cutting the pumpkin, verbs such as “cut”, “carve”, and “shave” can be used. While removing the pumpkin seeds, verbs such as “pull”, “grab”, and “remove” can be modelled. Once removed, you might “bake” and “eat” the seeds.
3. Dressing for Halloween: While helping your child put on their Halloween costumes, several prepositions, or location words, can be reinforced. Differentiating words such as “in” and “on” by emphasizing that your child is to put their arms and legs “in” their costume and their mask “on” their face can be helpful. Other location words such as “below”, “beside”, “under”, “top” can be used while helping your child get dressed for Halloween.
4. Anticipating the Experience: Before setting out for the evening, you can help your children to use sequencing vocabulary to understand the events of the night. Words such as “first”, “next” and “last” can be used to promote understanding of what they can expect. For example, you can explain, “first we will put on our costume, next we will collect candy, and last we will come home and try a piece of candy”.
5. Describing the Event: When you’ve returned from the evening, you can help your child to describe the event by modelling use of past-tense vocabulary. You can model your favourite parts of the evening and highlight some of the special moments (e.g., “My favourite part was when I picked the blue candy”, “I liked when the skeleton danced”, etc.) Taking pictures during the evening to have a basis for your discussion can also help your child to remember and talk about the details.
6. Sneaking math lessons into Halloween activities and parties might sound more like a trick than a treat this Halloween, but it is actually a perfect time to help make learning math even more fun for your children.
7. Bake Math into the Halloween fun: As you know, cooking with kids is a treat for them, but its also a math teaching opportunity for parents. Invite them into the kitchen to make candy apples or a pumpkin pie, letting them take the lead on measuring the ingredients. To increase the level of difficulty, challenge them to calculate the amount of ingredients needed to double the recipe or introduce the concept of ratios. For example, what is the ratio between the sugar and pumpkin?
8. Speak about Spooky Math Facts: Bats can consume nearly 50 percent of their body weight in food each night. The thread of the orb web spider is extremely elastic and can be stretched 30 – 40 per cent before it breaks! Discuss these and other spooky math facts.
9.  Predict the Popcorn: This simple but effective game is particularly fun at parties. Just fill a jar full of popcorn and have the children guess the number of individual pieces. The person closest to the actual amount wins a prize.
10. Wade into Water Measurement: If you plan on bobbing for apples, mark a line on the container where you want the water to reach. Ask the children to estimate how many litres, cups, etc. of water it will take to reach the line.
11. Tally your Treats: Children enjoy playing with their candy almost as much as they enjoy eating it. To take advantage of this enthusiasm, encourage them to weigh their bounty using a traditional bathroom scale, count individual pieces of candy and guess the amount of calories in the whole bag. They can also divide the candy into categories, such as chocolate, hard, soft…

People’s Pumpkin Choice Award for the Best Pumpkin

Our class did a fabulous job on our painted pumpkin.  Our class had a chance to vote on their favourite colours and the most popular four were used. 

Please vote for us! If you are signed up for the school blog you will have received the link from Dr. Richmon.

Happy Halloweeen!

From Dr. Richmon:

Our staff and students have been showing some amazing seasonal creativity with our Pumpkin Decorating Contest. But we now turn the job over to you! Review the photos of the pumpkins below (you can click for enlargements) and help by casting your vote for the People’s Pumpkin Choice Award for the Best Pumpkin. Voting will be open for the next two days and closes the morning of Friday, November 2 2018. The pumpkin with the most votes wins a special prize!

All pumpkins are on display in the school foyer (and if the weather permits, we’ll put them in our school’s front-side garden) if you’d like to take a closer look … before nature takes its course and they have to be composted!

Happy Halloween

As a reminder, tomorrow, Wednesday October 31, students (and staff!) are invited to dress up for Halloween. Students should come to school dressed in costume as there will not be time allotted to change into them. Depending on the costume, you may also want to send a change of clothes in case the costume becomes uncomfortable throughout the day. Costumes may not include any weapons (real or fake) and must be culturally appropriate. 
Regular learning will take place throughout the morning. We will celebrate Halloween in our class for a short time after lunch. Our kindergarten students will be going on a school parade in the afternoon. As per our school policy, we will not be sharing any food related treats on this day. 

Have a happy, safe, and spooky Halloween!

Bus safety

The kindergarteners has a chance to learn about bus safety today. We learned that we should always use the handle to go up and down the steps, we should always stay seated on a moving school bus, we can’t eat or drink on the bus. We also had a chance to practice what we should do in case of an emergency and exit the bus use the exit door at the back of the bus.

Library

We have library tomorrow. If your child wants to take out a new book, please remember to send them to school with their library book and library bag.

Scholastic Book Order

Just a reminder that Scholastic book orders are due tomorrow.

Order forms for October's Scholastic Book Club went home earlier this month. You can order online through Scholastic Book Clubs (see form for details) or by sending a cheque and the order form to school with your child. Please make sure you are looking at the column with the Ontario prices, as they include the proper taxes.

If interested, please order by Friday October 19, 2018

Guided Reading

We are excited to announce that our Guided Reading Program has started. Please return the guided reading folder, book and homework book every Monday (or Tuesday, if we are not at school on Monday). Remember to review the work your child has done over the week. It is also recommended that your child review the work they have previously completed.

Picture Day

Our School Photos will be taken TOMORROW -- Wednesday October 10^th 2018 by Pegasus School Services. Every student will have the opportunity to be photographed and each student will receive a complimentary class photo. Students’ proofs and order forms will be sent back to the school to be shared with you in the weeks following.

Bring your smiles! :)

We have had lots of fun working with numbers in kindergarten. Students have been learning how form numbers using hands-on materials, such as snap cubes and elastic bands. They also have had an opportunity to use one-to-one correspondence, for example, when they are adding buttons to Pete's shirt or bubbles for the fish.

Self-regulated snack

We have started self-regulated snack. Students have a chance to decide when they want to eat their snack in the mornings. Students are asked to sign in after eating, so we can make sure everyone has eaten snack in the morning.

Snack is open all day, and students can choose to go to snack when they're hungry throughout the day.

Library

We are excited to announce that we have received our library bags and our class had a chance to go to the library today.

In our kindergarten class, we will be going to the library on Day 2 and Day 4 (time permitting). Students are able to take out a new library book, when they have brought back their book and bag. If your child would like to keep their library book for a longer period, just remember to not send the book and bag to school.

Gym

We had a chance to rotate through our centres in gym. Our centres included hoola hoops, bouncing balls, throwing and catching bean bags with their rackets, and trying to hit the bowling pins with  a bean bag.

Terry Fox - Thursday, September 27 2018

On September 1st 1980, Terry Fox was forced to abandon his run across Canada in Thunder Bay Ontario, when the cancer that had taken his leg returned, spreading to his lungs.  Refusing to be defeated, his charged Canadians with continuing his quest.  “Even if I don’t finish, we need others to continue.  It’s got to keep going.”

While it seemed that Terry Fox’s dream of raising $1 for every Canadian was in jeopardy, the nation responded.  The CTV network organized a telethon in support of Terry’s cause and helped raise over ten million dollars.  By February of 1981 the Terry Fox Marathon of Hope fund eclipsed twenty four million dollars, the (then) national population.  Less than five months later, Terry would lose his battle to cancer.  He was 22 years old.

Though thirty-eight years have passed since the original Marathon of Hope, Terry Fox is honoured and recognized across Canada and internationally for his heroic quest to eradicate cancer and his trailblazing attitudes toward disability.  With over half a billion dollars raised in Terry’s name to date, schools across Canada honour him by participating in an annual school event.  This year, the National School Run will be held on Thursday, September 27 2018. Please remember to send your child with a water bottle on Thursday.

Over Bayview Glen Public School's twenty-one years of participating in the annual event, the school has raised a staggering $51,930.33, and we’re hoping to continue this year.  Please help our fundraising efforts by sending a Toonie (or Toonies or any donation!) with your child by September 27th.  Donations can be dropped off in our collection box in the office at any time.  As each student brings in ‘Toonies for Terry’, we will continue to contribute in an important way to the ongoing effort to eradicate cancer in our lifetime.  Online donations in the name of the school can also be made directly to the Terry Fox Foundation here.  We thank you for your support.

Curriculum Night

We look forward to our 2018-2019 Curriculum Night Meet and Greet on Thursday September 20th 2018 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  We’d like to thank our School Council for their support in organizing this event.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Happy International Dot Day

International Dot Day took place this year on September 15th, and our class had a lot of fun showing their creativity in different ways. With the help of Vashti, from the book The Dot, by Peter H. Reynolds', our students learned that that they can 'Make their mark and see where it takes them.' 

Welcome

Welcome to Kindergarten

It has been a wonderful two weeks in our kindergarten class! We have already begun learning and growing together. 

A few points of interest ...

1. Please remember to check your child's communication bag daily. All notes or students work can be taken out. 

2. All students are asked to have two pairs of shoes -- one to travel to and from school and for recess (outdoor shoes), and one for inside the classroom and the gym (indoor shoes). Gym shoes should be running shoes.

3. Please ensure you have returned all of the notes/forms that were sent home with your child during the first week of school.

Have a wonderful week!

Kindergarten Team