February News
Happy February! 
We had a busy month of January learning about Winter, Polar bears and the Arctic, but February is going to be even busier!
Themes
February is always a fun month celebrating lots of special days. Valentine's Day, our 100th day of school, Carnaval, Lunar New Year and Pink Shirt Day will all be celebrated this month. Throughout the month, we will be reading stories about being a good friend and will also incorporate some stories of Black history and showing compassion and kindness towards others. As February is also Heart Health month, towards the end of the month, we will also learn about our bodies and healthy eating. Our dramatic play center will be transformed into a hospital.
In French language arts, Kindergarten children are continuing to review letters and sounds, and are being encouraged to put simple sounds together to read simple words (ex. le, la, du, tu, sa, etc.). All children are being encouraged to create interesting French sentences orally, and Grade One children are being encouraged to write more elaborate and interesting sentences during journal time. Breaking down words into individual sounds and using best guess spelling will continue to be an important focus in our weekly writing activities. We are continuing to work our way through Module 4 in the I Can Read in French program. The modules are longer and harder now, so we are not finishing them as quickly as before. In Math, we will begin to learn about shapes, while continuing to work on recognizing numbers to 20, and improving addition fact fluency to 10. In Science we will finish our mini unit on matter as well as doing some experiments with force and motion towards the end of the month.
Carnaval Week: February 9-12- The children have been learning about le Carnaval de Quebec with Mme Porter for the last few weeks. This learning will culminate with following special activities:
Tuesday, February 10th: Jersey Day Children are encouraged to wear their favourite jersey to school. This could be from a professional team, or their own soccer, baseball, hockey, or other sports team. It also could be a dance or karate uniform.
Wednesday, February 11th: Lumberjack/jill Day. Wear plaid shirts and jeans if you have them! We will also have a very special presentation by the Maple Man. The children will learn about Quebecois culture, how maple syrup is made, and will even get a chance to try "la tire", a maple syrup treat! (***This is also our 100th day of school, but because of the Maple Man visit, we will be doing our 100 Day activities the following week.)
Thursday, February 12th: We will be celebrating the last day of Carnaval. At 10:40, (weather permitting) we will have a Bonhomme Carnaval whole school run. Children can wear red and white, and/or they can dress like a friend in honour of Valentine's Day.
Valentine's Day (celebrating on Feb. 12th): Please encourage your child to fill out Valentine's cards for every child in the class. This is a great way for your child to practice their literacy skills while encouraging being friendly with their peers. A list with the names of all the children in our class can be found HERE. We will be handing out our Valentine's cards on the morning of February 12th, as the 13th is a Non-Instructional Day, and Valentine's Day is on a Saturday.
100 Day Celebration: Although technically our 100th day of school falls on February 11th, (This may vary from class to class depending on whether they started counting before or after the gradual entry days!) we will be celebrating our 100th Day on February 18th. We will be doing lots of fun counting activities to celebrate this milestone. I would ask that each child please bring in a collection of 100 things to count and show the class. Please help your child to count 100 small objects (dried beans, rainbow loom elastics, dried noodles, Cheerios, flat glass beads, etc.) To count the objects, your child will be placing them on a 100 square grid, so please don't send items that roll, or that are too large.
Important Dates
Tuesday, Feb 10th: Jersey Day, K/12 Gift Exchange at Stelly's
Wednesday, Feb. 11th: Lumberjack/jill day, Maple Man presentation
Thursday, Feb 12: Handing out Valentine's cards, Bonhomme Run
Friday, Feb. 13th: Non-Instructional Day
Monday, Feb. 16th: Family Day Stat Holiday
Tuesday, Feb. 17th: Lunar New Year begins
Wednesday, Feb. 18th: Celebrating our 100th Day at School
Friday, Feb. 20th: Hot Lunch
Wednesday, Feb. 25th: Pink Shirt Day
Friday, Feb. 27th: Family Read In, Scholastic Book Fair in the Library