Friday, February 14, 2014

Reports, Schlegels trip, Olympics and fun!

Report Cards
Report cards will be coming home on February 24th. Although there will be no formal interviews with this reporting period, I will be touching base with a few of you to communicate prior to the reports coming home. 

Schlegel's Trip: Looking forward to our upcoming visit on February 21st (Friday). Here is their link if you would like to read more about them http://www.schlegelsgym.com/

Olympics
We have been watching the Olympics on our Smartboard when we can. This week we did a fun writing activity that involved creating our own Olympic events. Wow, one student thought there should be an 'Olympic maze event on skates' while another thought 'Olympic pinata whacking' might be a good sport. Very creative!
We even got to see some real Olympic medals up close. Ms Lane, one of the teachers at our school brought in her Grandfather's medals and personal mementos to show us. It was really interesting to hear that the daily diet for athletes back then included eating copious amounts of 'honey sandwiches'. 

Winter 'carnavale': was very successful once again at Florence Meares. All the Tribes enjoyed a good outdoor carnival with lots of good hot chocolate, face painting, games and an appearance from 'Bonhomme'. 

Healthy Eating unit:
We have enjoyed learning how to create healthy snacks and how to determine if a packaged food is in fact healthy for us. We tried some simple recipes that students can make on their own. A favourite one was 'frozen banana popsicles'. We took advantage of the cold Canadian weather, freezing popsicles by hanging them outside our classroom window in a bag. Sometimes it is an advantage to have a second floor classroom. If you would like to try this at home, here is the secret...

               Frozen Banana Popsicles
1) Take a banana and peel it- (no need to cut it up)
2) Place it in tinfoil and wrap it around the banana fairly tightly. 
3) Place it in the freezer overnight (or hang it out the window as we did!)
4)For a real treat, dip it in dark chocolate...yum!
And there you have it...frozen bananas that do not go brown. 
 Note: Should you ever have to soothe a baby who is teething...frozen bananas work every time!
                                        See, I'm just full of random knowledge!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Olympics, Dancemat typing, trip update

Quick update:
Olympic Spirit day: On Friday, February 7th the primary students may wear their Canada shirts or red and white clothing to celebrate the beginning of the Olympics in Sochi. We will try to livestream some of the opening ceremonies. Can't wait!

Dancemat typing: Today we spent some time on our keyboarding skills. Students really enjoyed using 'Dancemat' typing. I posted a link on our 'website' tab but you can also click here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/

Remember, to look on 'library links' in the Florence Meares P.S. library website for more keyboarding activities. Mr. Cann has posted quite a few good ones under 'homework helpers'. 

Schlegel's trip notes went home today. If you were absent due to the weather you will get yours tomorrow. 

Valentine note: I sent a Valentine friend list home today. This will assist you should your child want to write out their Valentines in the next few days.