Goodness! Have you had a chance to peruse our online October calendar? It is full full full and things keep being added (so keep checking back please as the paper version may not be up to date- we still have a pumpkin patch field trip to book). I can hardly keep up! All that activity means our peeps will be overstimulated and tired, which can lead to less than ideal attitudes while playing and learning. Please make sure the children have plenty of rest this month and healthy snacks to keep them in tiptop learning shape!

• Don't forget to send library books back for exchange on Thursday. Just take them out of the special library book bag and drop them (with the bag) into the labelled container inside our classroom door.
• Book orders for October are due Friday, Oct. 6.
• Our first Fresh Air Friday is Friday, Oct. 6. Please dress the children for the weather. Remember it is often windy and cooler down on the beach and we sometimes get muddy/ dirty.
• Monday, Oct. 9 is Thanksgiving and BEST will be closed. Enjoy!
• Thursday, Oct. 12 is Rivers Day and all of BEST will be attending presentations down at the river. Further info is forthcoming.
• We read our first two little books together- "Chester Loves School" and "My book of P". The children should know them by heart. Their homework is to read it 3 more times at home for fluency (and to show off their budding reading skills). Please have them read any little paper books that come home (approximately 1 per week) multiple times for practice. Thank you.
• The first set of sight words were introduced last week. They are: I, a, like, the, you, no. Please feel free to practice them at home. We will practice them regularly in class.
• Please send back Family Projects as they are finished.
• The BEST PAC has sent home our first fundraiser- coupon books. They were due at the office this past Monday. If you have not paid for a coupon book and kept it, please either send it back or send $10 to the office.
• Please do not send toys from home to school. They often get lost or broken and then copious amounts of crying ensues. And more crying, followed by yet more crying.
• If your child seems to have misplaced a notice, I pin all extras to our hallway bulletin board- help yourself.
• BEST PAC would like to host a Christmas Craft Fair on Sunday, Nov. 12 and is looking for parents who would like to rent a table. Register at bestpac@ymail.com or call Amanda at 778-220-0113 for more information.
• It is chilly when we go out for recess so please remember to send sweaters/ coats.
• Lost sweaters/ coats can be found in the Lost & Found bin by the parking lot doors.
• Please see the previous post for how you can support our BEST library by donating books through Chapters Indigo from September 16 through to October 8.

Go forth and Be Awesome!

Thank you so much for making the time to stop in for a bit on Wednesday morning for our school Meet & Greet. Team Awesome loved having you in our classroom and showing you around. 

​Thursdays will be our library day and the children were very excited for our first visit last week. They met Mrs. Leflufy, our librarian, and had a look around the library. Mrs. Leflufy read us a book about 10 crunchy carrots and then we listened to the song by Charlotte Diamond and played a game with the felt carrots. She also showed us how to use our Spot Cards to mark our place when we remove a book from the shelf and then we chose a book and signed it out on the computer. We will be bringing a new book home every week as long as we have returned the book we borrowed the previous week. If the book becomes lost or damaged, it will have to be paid for before another book can be signed out. We put our books in the special library book bags to keep them neat and clean for the trip back and forth between school and home. Returned library books can be taken out of their bags and put, with the bag, in the Library bin beside our door. We loved going to the library!

By now I am sure you have heard plenty of garbled stories about the book The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn, which we read last Friday morning. To our surprise there was a note at the end of the book from Chester Raccoon inviting us to find him somewhere in the school. So off we went, following the clues, meeting new people and seeing new places in the school. We were sad not to catch Chester as we were so certain that we would, but he did leave us each a heart for our hand and some apples before returning to the book. Boy, do I wish I could have bottled the energy, excitement and joy generated by this activity (to be imbibed by me at a later date, probably around Xmas). We have since read the book twice more (hoping we would find another note but alas), and we will act it out with paper Chester puppets we will make this week. We have also learned to sign 'I love you' so if your child has been making punk rocker 'devil' finger signs at you they are actually trying to show you how much you are loved. We love Chester Raccoon!