December! Wow! Where does the time go?!
Personally, I count-down until the Winter Solstice on December 21st...the shortest day of the year in terms of daylight hours. After that, the days start getting longer again! Yippee!
Which countdown are you on?
Winter holidays with your children starting December 21st?
Christmas on December 25th?
Celebrating a New Year on December 31st/ January 1st?
Whatever you're counting down 'til, I hope you enjoy all the excitement that this time of year brings with it!
This week, students have been:
- enjoying Mission Impossible in gymnastics. This was our last week of gymnastics. Thank you to the Active Living Committee for organizing our month of gymnastics!
- learning partner balances.
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| Partner Balances - these work best with someone your size-ish :) |
- transferring their understanding of repeating patterns to art through Pattern Block Patterned Snowflakes.
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| Spot the patterns! |
- producing needle felting masterpieces with Miss Leah from ArtFelt Studios. Thank you to all the volunteers who joined us for this experience! Your gift of time is greatly appreciated!
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| Smitten for Mittens! |
- predicting how a chosen species of small, crawling or flying animal survives winter by connecting to personal observations, past experiences and knowledge of similar animals.
- confirming their predictions through online research. Ask your child which animal they are researching, and what they have discovered.
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| Sorting our predictions... |
- studying the digraph /ch/. Ask your child about Chauncy Chipmunk, his sound and action.
- comparing the two digraphs sounds we've learned about so far.
- assembling their Identity Portrait frames.
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| Our Identity Wall - a work in progress... |
- integrating their self-identified goals for portrait sketching into a good copy.
- learning how to sketch hair.
- analyzing their portrait work to date.
- identifying details to be added or modified in their final self-portraits: "Making It Me"
Some important dates to remember:
- Friday, December 8th, PD Day. No school for students.
- Winter Concert on Thursday, December 14th. Details to follow.
- Thursday, December 21st, Last Day of Classes.
- Friday, December 22nd, Non-Instructional Day. No school for students.
- Monday, January 8th, Non-Instructional Day. No school for students.
- Tuesday, January 9th, Classes Resume.
From December 2nd until January 6th, a special exhibit is showing at the Leighton Art Centre, featuring self-portraits from local junior and senior high school students. If you're looking for something to do one day over the break, this might be of interest following our recent art study:
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas
