On Wednesday, February 14th, we will be hosting a dance in support of our local SPCA. Intermediate students will dance from 1:35-2:00pm and primary students will dance from 2:05-2:30pm. Students are invited to bring donations for the SPCA (items can include paper towel, toilet paper, cash, dog/cat food, towels). This is optional and all students will attend the dance. Glowsticks for this event can be purchased for $1.00. Order forms have been sent home.
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 chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles to share with the class. For most of Team Awesome this will be their first experience with Valentine's Day and cards and the children will only have a vague 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 the 14th. Please make sure the 'From' part on Valentine cards are filled in before coming to class as we will not have time on Valentine's Day to do that. Please leave off the name beside 'To' as it makes the cards easier to hand out. We have 36 children in our class this year. Have your child bring their valentines in their zipper bag and then put the zipper bag in its usual box in the morning so they don't get lost/ crunched- we will hand them out before or after lunch. Unfortunately there are still rules around what is allowed to be given out in our learning spaces. Sharing of food of any kind including, but not limited to, individual exchange or communal sharing of chocolates, cupcakes, candy, treats that come with Valentine’s day cards, treats that are prepackaged and/ or are individually wrapped is not allowed. If you have any questions, please contact us. BEST Library Fundraiser with Purdy's Chocolates!
Order deadline: Feb. 28 Order Online: https://bit.ly/BEST2024Easter Orders can be picked up from BEST on March 11, 2 - 3:15. Hello Kindergarten families,
This week in Music class we explored some of the fun Music-Science based activities on Chrome Music Lab. The students were asking how to find the website so I promised them I would send the link home. They will likely very much enjoy the Kadinsky activity and the SongMaker, but there is lots for them to explore. The link is: https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/ Enjoy! Mrs. Phillips Bert Edwards Fine Arts teacher We know that many people believe that primary students often do nothing but play all day. Especially in Kindergarten. And while it is true that we have some time set aside every day to have unstructured play time- where the children decide which activities they will engage in and how that will look- sometimes we have to actively fight to keep that time unstructured as the demands and expectations of what we should be doing instead increases. On top of that, the time allotted to courses like art, music, and physical education is being whittled away to make more room for reading, math, and traditionally 'heavier' courses, so kids in general are spending less time moving, less time being creative, and more time preparing for tests. Play has been gradually taken away from children and replaced with structured activities, academic work, and digital experiences to the point where they hardly ever “play” at all. As this trend has continued, there has been a rise in childhood anxiety, childhood suicide, and a growing number of kids who simply don’t know how to play. Three California educators—Eric Saibel, Scott Bedley, and Tim Bedley— along with a group of other educators, launched Global School Play Day, a full day in February set aside to just let students play. All day long. No screens, no structure, no adult interference. Now in its ninth year, Global School Play Day has spread across the world. Although one day out of the year isn’t nearly enough, they are hoping that the day will inspire schools to build more time for unstructured play into every school day. And so some of the BEST classes will be participating for some part, if not all, of the play day on Wednesday, Feb. 7. Our students need play and all the rich learning that comes from play in their lives, even if for just one day.
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Mrs. Bowden &
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