Valentines, 100's day, Reports...oh my!

Valentine's Day
Thank you to everyone who made sure that all the children received Valentines today. I was most impressed with the homemade cards. Some were quite cute and all were very appreciated. 
Here is a picture of the table, so you can see the chaos , fun!

To add to the day, it was 100's day for the Grade One students in my class. Luckily, they were able to go visit their friends in the other Grade One classes and participate in activity centres such as; stamping on a hat 100 times, drawing a picture of what they think they will look like at 100 (yikes to that one), making 100 day glasses, looking at collections of 100 items (all different!), reading books about 100's day and many more. Getting time to work in other Grade One classrooms, allows students in a split grade to visit their peers in the other classes. During this time, I was able to work with the Grade Two children in a small group setting. Both of the grades in my class love their 'Ms Fink alone time' as they call it! It also allows me to get on the floor and work with small groups and have those little conversations while teaching in a quieter setting. Truth be told, I enjoy this time with both grades.

Report Cards
I have been working through report cards but I also have been looking at creating a brochure to help Grade One parents understand the format of this terms report. I will be sending this information brochure a few days before the reports go home to help you think about how you will share information from this report with your child. Hopefully it will relieve any anxiety that you might feel about the letter grades that will accompany this report. If you are a Grade Two parent and would also like a copy, (even though I know these reports aren't new to you) please just let me know via the agenda and I'll be sure to pop one in for you!

A little bit of fun...
I am always amazed at the aplomb that my students display when using or observing technological advances.
When Neil Armstrong first landed on the moon, I was very little. So young in fact that I think it is my first clear memory. You see, my Dad at the time was a history teacher and he woke me up to explain that 'I was observing history'. Unfortunately, I probably didn't get too excited. So recently when I shared some of the pictures of Chris Hadfield's adventures in space, the students reacted much the same way. They did however enjoy the spinning guitar due to lack of gravity in the following video. If you haven't seen it yet, it's kind of fun!
http://www.cbc.ca/live/intergalactic-collaboration-chris-hadfield-ed-robertson-premiere-iss.html

Have a great week and enjoy the long Family Day weekend!