Our vegetable soup making has had to be cancelled.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused- we will try to find another date to schedule this event.

Thankyou.

Dear Parents,Thank-you to those of you checking our class blog regularly (lattaslibrettos.weebly.com) .  I am trying to post information on this each week.  I do understand some families do not have access to a computer so I will continue to send home newsletters once in a while as well.  (This is the newsletter I will be sending home on Monday)

Last Week:

• On Thursday we had a wonderful time at gymnastics.  The children were divided into small groups and we were taken through a series of stations (of course the trampoline was the most popular!)  Thank-you parents for remembering to send your child’s booster seat.  Special thank-you’s go out to our parent drivers: Ms. Pearson, Ms. Bolton, Ms. Shuttleworth and Ms. Smith- without you it would have been difficult to go!  Our next gymnastics day is Mar. 8th.
• Wednesday afternoon we were able to meet our new student teachers (Ms. Allen and Ms. Wolstenholme).  They will be arriving Apr.4 and staying for two full weeks, teaching mini units in Social Studies, Math and Science.  I have asked them to integrate Socials and Science and teach us about the West Coast Rainforests.  We will be learning about the Water Cycle and the West Coast of British Columbia.  I plan to also teach the kids at this time about Emily Carr and have the students make Rainsticks!
• Please start saving your paper towel rolls for this exciting project. Each students needs between 2-4 rolls
  

This Week:

• This Friday we will be celebrating the conclusion of our food groups study.  Ms. Smith has kindly volunteered to come in and help us make Vegetable Soup.I am asking each child to bring a small portion of whole vegetables to put into our soup on Friday .  I will be supplying a chicken soup base and some barley.  The children will cutting the vegetables to prepare them for the soup in the morning and we will be enjoying it at lunch.  Children will still need a lunch on Friday as this will just be a little extra treat.  Thanks in advance for your help with this!
• Tuesday is our Read Around the Planet experience!!  I have asked the children to wear mittens and a scarf for this video conference.  We are connecting up with another grade two class from Euclid, Ohio.
• Thursday will be skating again!  We leave at 12:45 pm to walk over to the Brock Arena.  I would love to have some parents join us during this afternoon.  Help is always greatly appreciated to tie skates and/or drive our skates/bags to the rink. Thank-you.
  

Our classroom learning is progressing well!  

• Students have been busy writing stories in their journals and been so creative with their ideas.  I am trying to get them to write with more detail and information.
• We have been reading and studying fairy tales. Last week we read the Elves and the Shoemaker and made little Elves to go along with this story.
• Science has been quite exciting with different science projects to do with solid, liquids and gases.  The kids loved making “Oobleck” (goo) last week- it was messy but so much fun!
• In Social Studies, we are finishing up mapping and have begun learning about the symbols of Canada- last week we made origami maple leafs and the student learned all about why this symbol was chosen to be put on our Canada flag.
• In Math, we have been progressing well with our subtraction and money with borrowing and will soon start multiplication
  

Well I think that is all for now. Please do not hesitate to contact me at the school if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Mrs. J. Latta

Thank-you for your lovely Valentine's cards and treats last week.  I think the children all had a wonderful day of kindness and friendship in our class.

Extra Clothes Needed:  Students are coming in wet after lunch from the snow.  They will often want to change into dry clothes and take off their wet socks.  Please send dry clothes with your child so he/she can have something warm and dry to put on.  I do feel sorry for them to be in bare feet because their sock feet are wet and yucky.

This week in our class:

We are getting ready for Read Around the Planet (Feb 28) next week.  I have asked the children to bring a colourful winter scarf and a mittens for our piece.  We will also present Kooky Kookaburra from our choir repertoire for this video conference.

Wednesday:  Our new student teachers will be coming to visit.  After spring break we will be having 2 new student teachers come and spend two full weeks in our class.  One candidate is a drama specialist!!!!   They will be teaching a few science and math lessons.  This week they will be coming just to meet our students and see what our class is like.

Thursday: Is our gymnastics morning.  Thank-you to our many drivers that have volunteered.  We will be leaving @ 8:45 am.  All students are required to have a booster seat for this field trip.  I will not be allowing students to travel in anyone's vehicle without it.  Please also ensure your child comes dressed in comfortable gym clothes.  Blue jeans are not allowed.

Thursday afternoon Ms. Boyer will be coming into our class to do a special First Nations project with our class on the Medicine Wheel.

Friday:  Remember Friday is our district wide Inservice Day.  There will not be school for our students on this day.

Vegetable Soup:
Next Friday (Mar.2) I would like to have students make Vegetable soup in our class.  This is a concluding activity to our "Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds" unit in HACE.  Students will be asked to bring in a small contribution of vegetable that we can put into our soup.  I am wondering if there might be a parent available for the morning to help with this activity.  Students will be chopping their own vegetables.  Please let me know if you'd like to come in and join us on this morning.

Well, we are now officially halfway through February.  It was wonderful to see the sunshine this weekend and it made me wonder if winter is already over? Where has the school year gone.  Is spring already here?

This week I will be sending home a little communication report with your child to let you know how he/she is progressing in class.

A detailed letter/permission slip regarding High Country Music Festival (Mar.7) is coming home on Monday.  The cost is covered however students will need to wear certain colours for this event.  Thanks in advance for your help with this!

Tuesday is Valentine's Day.  Students are asked to wear red, pink or hearts on this special day.  A class list was sent home during the first week of February.  We do have 20 children in our class and I would ask if you are sending Valentine's Day cards, to please send one for each child.  We will be having a special time during the afternoon to look at our cards and have a few treats.  If you would like to send food on this day, I would ask that you keep in mind our student with a nut allergy as well the wheat allergy.  Thanks so much!

Thursday we will be going to Young People Concert in the morning.  We will be seeing a group called "Goh Ballet."   Due to this, our library day will be rescheduled to Friday this week.

I am still waiting for a few more gymnastics permission slips to come in.  It looks like we do now have enough drivers.  Thank-you so much!  I will send home a list of drivers as soon as it is finalized.  Remember we will be going next week (Feb. 23 and Mar.8.)  Students must have their booster seats to be able to go with a driver.  This is each parent's responsibility, not the drivers.

Thank-you for checking our blog! I hope you are finding this a useful tool to keep families informed :)

This week we are continuing our studies as stated last week. In Math we have started subtraction with borrowing as part of our money unit (counting cents and making change).  Some students are finding this difficult.  Any extra practice you can do at home will be of great benefit to your child.  It improves confidence at school when we work on it!  Thanks in advance for this.

This week, we will be making a little valentine's craft for our valentine's cards next week. I'm certain students will love this! 

I am continuing to collect permission slips for gymnastics and so far am needing more drivers for about 10 more students.  I will post a list of drivers as soon as I have permission slips returned.  If you are able to drive and did not check off the box on the permission slip, please let me know as soon as possible. I've posted the dates and times for our upcoming events below.

Upcoming Dates:
Feb. 16- YPC concert @Sagebrush- 10:30 am
Feb. 23- Gymnastics w/ Ellingsen's class- 8:45-10:15 am
Feb. 28- Read Around the Planet- Videoconferencing-11 am
Mar. 1- Skating w/ Erichuk's class- 1-2:30 pm
Mar. 7- High Country Music Festival- Primary Choir-9-12 pm
Mar.8- Gymnastics- 8:45- 10:15 am
Mar. 15- Skating-1:00-2:30 pm