Do you know where houseflies go to hibernate during the winter? This was not a question to which I had given much thought. Until Wednesday. Gideon had put his sharing on my desk, all tied up in a white plastic garbage bag. At various times throughout the morning I caught the faint sound of buzzing but could see nothing that indicated where it was coming from. Until sharing time. As Gideon brought the bag to the front of the room we could see black spots bumping up against the plastic and the buzzing sound increased. I carefully opened up the top to have 3 or 4 flies swoop out over our heads to bump against the windows. The children became a bit agitated at this unexpected surprise as Team Awesome thought it was wasps or bees. The bag was taken outside and shaken upside down to dislodge the remaining visitors so we could carry on. As Gideon told us about the paper wasp nest he had brought, and as it was handled, flies began to burst from the nest, buzzing furiously and causing an uproar from Team Awesome. Some children were shrieking, some were running to catch the flies, some were cowering together, some had their shirts over their heads and were on the verge of tears and one child was yelling, "I love nature!". It was very exciting. Soon 40- 50 flies were humming against the window and making the children fearful to get supplies for our next activity from the shelf underneath. The female (mom?) in me wanted them disposed of as quickly as possible but the science teacher in me was thinking of ways to use them as a teaching tool. The fearfulness of Team Awesome made it necessary to dispose of the flies. And so we ended our Animals in Winter unit on a high note.
- Gideon brought a paper wasp nest and Abigail likes her special purple necklace.
- All library books are due back to the school on Monday, Dec. 14 for inventory. We will not have books out over the holidays.
- The concert dress rehearsal takes place Tuesday, Dec. 15 at 1:00. The whole school will be in the gym to see the performance and nothing special is required of you.
- The BEST Winter Concert takes place Wednesday, Dec. 16 at 1:00 and 6:00. Please do not drop your child at our classroom before 5:45.
- Friday, Dec. 18 will be PJ Day and the primary classrooms will participate in Xmas activities in mixed grade groupings for part of the day. Please make sure your child is dressed warmly enough, or has snowpants, so they can go outside for recess/ lunch play.
- Winter holidays take place from Saturday, Dec. 19 to Monday, Jan. 4.
- If you have not already, please keep your child's report card and sign the envelope and return it to me for the next reporting period.
- If you have not seen the post re: concert costumes from Mrs. Phillips posted last week, please look at it or peruse the notice on the board outside our classroom.
- I know you are tired of reading this, but if you find some of our missing scissors, would you please send them back to school. We are also missing 4 or 5 coloured plastic spoons and are down to only 2 in our classroom.
