Happy Valentine's Day! I sent all the children home today with smears of sticky pink frosting on their pants and cake crumbs in their shirts, as well as a backpack full of valentines attached to chocolate and suckers. You're welcome! Thanks for the wealth of goodies sent - we shared them out at recess, lunch and the end of the day and they were enjoyed by everyone!
I added the little jewelled plastic hearts shown here to the science table this past week in anticipation of Valentine's Day. I gave the usual spiel about how they were to stay on the science table and not be put in pockets. Unfortunately, by the second day we were down to less than half the amount of hearts and they could not be found within our room so they had to be taken off the science table. If you spot any of these floating around, would you please send them back to school so they could again be put out for the children to play with? Thank you. When I looked for a picture of the Valentine cards I remember giving when I was in elementary school I had to use the search term "vintage". Boy am I dating myself! Every card was printed on sturdy thin cardboard and no two were the same. They all had to be cut out by hand and one had to be very selective who received which card lest the message conveyed something unintentional. I remember spending hours cutting, choosing the perfect beneficiary, and laboriously printing names the night before Valentine's Day. No fancy stickers, toys, lollipops or candies involved, just homemade cupcakes to share with the class. For most of Team Awesome this will be the first experience with Valentine's Day and cards and the children have a general idea what its all about. We will be doing some activities like crafts with hearts throughout the week but of course will go all-out on Friday. Goodies to share with the class are most welcome and fruits and veggies always go over well with the children. All snacks must be peanut-free. Please make sure the 'To' and 'From' parts on Valentine cards are filled in before coming to class as we will not have time on Friday to do that. Have your child bring them in a bag and then put the whole bag in the Home Box so they don't get lost/ crunched- we will hand them out later in the day. I will try (for my own sanity) to dissuade the children from eating the candies that are attached to many cards and sometimes cards get mixed up with someone else's when we are looking at them. Here is a class list of names to help with cards: Grayson Dorian Kiera Jacob Colby Sintse Setty Mason Lara Valletta Brynn Bailey Samuel Andon Riley Aiden Logan Kahli Emilia Shaye On Wednesday Mrs. Unsworth totally blew Team Awesome away when she pulled out her guitar for music. As she strummed the first chord the room grew silent immediately and as she began to play and sing their smiles increased. Some of them bobbed their heads, some of them tapped their toes but all of them were enraptured by the sound. As she finished up they all broke into spontaneous applause and excited shouts for requests and "More!" "Again!". After, Mrs. Unsworth had Team Awesome find their own instruments in our classroom and gave a lesson on keeping a beat. Mrs. Unsworth now has a small group of loyal fans who are hoping for repeat performances often. What a full, busy week! And we wrapped it up with a double whammy- a trip to the Little Science Centre in the morning and Fresh Air Friday at the river this afternoon. Our little peeps are going to be exhausted so an extra day at home on Monday (Family Day) to recharge our batteries won't be a bad thing... for any of us. Enjoy the long weekend with your families.
Am I the only one that finds Groundhog Day bizarre? According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will continue for six more weeks. Really?! Not only that but a Canadian study for 13 cities in the past 30 to 40 years found that the weather patterns predicted on Groundhog Day were only 37% accurate over that time period—a value not significant compared to the 33% that could occur by chance. When I asked Team Awesome if a groundhog could really predict the coming (or not) of spring they all agreed that it could not- spring would come when it was ready. But it was fun learning about groundhogs and their 5 minutes in the spotlight every year on February 2. And by the way, in case the snow today wasn't an indication, six more weeks of winter has been predicted. |
Mrs. Bowden &
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