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with

Miss Costales

October 2014

Dates to Remember

Oct. 1- Living Rosary Oct. 3- Walkathon (1pm dismissal) Oct. 6- Photo Day Oct 13- Thanksgiving (No School) Oct. 15- Music Presentation Oct. 16: Province-wide Shake Out Oct. 21: Kinder Vision Screening Oct. 21: Pumpkin Patch Fieldtrip Oct. 27- Book fair begin Oct. 28- Open House (3-5 and 6-8) Oct. 31- Halloween Carnival

Letter of the Week

Oct. 6-10: T

Oct. 13-17: I

Oct. 20-24: P

Oct. 27-31: N

Nov. 3-7: C

October Birthday

October 7- Jasmine!

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What a wonderful start to the school year! The children are quickly settling into our classroom routines and are becoming more independent everyday. Thank you to all parents for your help with building this independence. The children are showing positive attitudes towards learning and are becoming more supportive, kind, and respectful to each other everyday. I hope that you all enjoyed our first class book “The Gingerbread Hunt!” Thank you for all of the wonderful notes you left in our book. October is a busy month ahead with lots of important dates to remember—looking forward to falling nicely into October together. With love, Miss Costales

Student of the Week

Oct. 6: Therese

Oct. 14: Jaxson

Oct. 20: Martin

Oct. 27: Christian P.

October Themes

1. Apples 2. Thanksgiving 3. Pumpkins 4. Halloween

October Curriculum In October, the children are continuing to get to know each other inside and outside of the classroom! Thank you to Lucas, Yuvraj and Justeen who have presented their “All About Me” presentations, they were wonderful! Every week we will continue to have a student of the week until everyone has presented in March. The student of the week spends a week with our class mascot, Fin (from the Canucks), and also presents their “All About Me” presentation. This includes an introduction: “Hello, my name is _________________ and this is my All About Me poster.” Following the introduction, students share 3 things

about themselves, ask 3 friends questions, and end with a closing statement, for example, “I hope you enjoyed my All About Me Presentation.” Remember to practice your child’s presentation and home and encourage them to use loud clear voices.

Social Studies- Student of the week & Show and Tell In September, we practiced important routines such as going to the washroom, going to the office, and practicing fire/earthquake drills. Please reinforce learning at home by discussing your home fire escape plan. Beginning October 6, we will start our Show and Tell presentations. Three students will present everyday (in alphabetical order by last name) so that each student will present every other week. I will post the schedule in the “Weekly newsletter” calendar and it will also be posted on the “Parent Board” outside of our classroom. Every week the students will have a “theme.” Please ensure that their Show and Tell falls in line with the week’s theme. Do not allow them to bring any toy weapons or anything extremely valuable or breakable. Each student will hide their item in a bag and they will give 3 hints to the class about what their item is. For example: “My show and tell is brown, soft, and very cute.” The class will be given 3 chances to guess what the item is (teddy bear). Then the student will take the item out of the bag and present the item to the class. The item will be passed around and the presenter will tell the class why they brought this item in. For example, if the theme is something very important to you, the student can say, “My teddy bear is important to me because my mom and dad bought it for me at Disneyland.” Please practice their show and tell presentations with them at home!

Language Arts- Letter of the Week & Home Reading In September, we began our “letter of the week” and our Home Reading Program. We focused on the letters “Ss” and “Aa.” In October, we will continue to learn a letter of the week to deepen student’s phonological awareness (letter sounds, rhyming, syllables, and sentences). The letters we will review are “Tt” “Ii” “Pp” and “Nn.” We will also continue to practice our printing everyday.

Math- Math Makes Sense & IXL In September, we began Math Makes Sense. We began working with numbers 1-5. In October, we will continue with the unit Exploring Numbers. This unit focuses on exploration of number concepts. Children develop these number concepts through exploration with concrete materials and through everyday experiences. Relating numbers to their own lives provides an opportunity for children to begin to realize the importance of numbers. This month we will continue to review their numbers and learning the basics of numeracy. In October we will be working with the numbers 6-10. This month we will also begin using IXL. IXL is an online comprehensive math review site with an unlimited number of practice questions covering hundreds of skills—all of which are aligned to the provincial curriculum. In October, we will be practicing the following sections:

1. Numbers and counting up to 3 (A.1 to A.3) 2. Numbers and counting up to 5 (B.1 to B.5) 3. Numbers and counting up to 10 (C.1 to C.10)

Website: http://ca.ixl.com App: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/ixl-math-practice/id693689912?mt=8

Religion- Live the Joy of the Gospel & God Loves us The theme for the year is “Live the Joy of the Gospel.” Kindergarten students will continue to learn about the importance of bringing joy to others all year long. We will continue to discuss how we are called to be Jesus’ hands, his feet and even his voice in the classroom.

In October, we will begin the program God Loves Us. Students will explore God’s love as they are introduced to God’s goodness shown through words, actions, feelings, people, places, and things. Science- Weather & Change of Seasons The beginning of fall is coming close and it is the perfect time to talk about weather and the change of seasons.

Pumpkin Patch & Halloween Our first fieldtrip is scheduled for Tuesday, October 21st. All parents are welcome to join; however we do have limited space on the school bus. Please let me know as soon as possible if you would like to join us. All parents will pay separately at the Pumpkin Patch. Come join us on Halloween! On Halloween day the school becomes a carnival! The children will purchase tickets to play the carnival games and the ticket sales go to charity! You, the parents, will take the children around the school to play the games! There will be a game in every classroom! I will be running the games station in the Kindergarten classroom so I will not be going around to the other games with you and the children. They can come to school in their costumes! To avoid hardship, toy weapons and makeup that will smudge are not allowed. See you at the carnival!

Homework- Total 15 minutes

1. Printing their Names- the children have been working hard on writing their names. Please ensure they are using an uppercase letter followed by lowercase letters.

2. Reading- Continue to read through our blue “home reading book” and review past poems & songs, and other books at home for 10 minutes every evening.

3. Math- Please have your child reviewing math concepts for 5 minutes a day at home by logging onto the IXL website. Their progress will be automatically monitored and can be reviewed by you at home, and by me at school.

What else can I do to help my child? Please foster independence at home by encouraging them to clean up after themselves when they eat and encourage appropriate behaviour during mass. Thank you for taking the time and effort to ensure the success of your child!

Reminders Please remember:

1. In October, we will not be doing transition reading. This is to make time for our show and tell presentations. Thank you to all parents who were able to join us in September.

2. Continue to label all items belonging to your child (including sweater and shoes) 3. Thank you for continuing to send Healthy lunches by including vegetables or fruits in

their meals. A reminder that while we share everything in kindergarten, due to allergies, food is not allowed to be shared in class.

4. Please do not include peanuts, peanut butter, or any kind of nut as we have children in our class with severe nut allergies and we are a nut free zone school.

5. When sending money to school, please place it in an envelope with their name, grade, and event written clearly on the front.

6. September Scholastic has been ordered, but due to the school Book Fair, there will not be an October Scholastic book order sent home.

Items needed for October

$10 Craft Fee Box of Kleenex Empty disposable plastic water bottle (for our “MindUp” Brain) Field Trip Permission slip & money Any items missing from September “needed list”

With love, Miss Costales