Friday Update

Well! We made it through our first full week of school, way to go! It has been a busy week, as we continue to learn the rules and routines of the classroom. Everyone has worked hard this week, and I’m so pleased that we are starting the year off so well. I have also been working on reading assessments, and then we will get our home reading program going after that.

Dates to Remember:

Wednesday, September 22nd – Toonies for Terry (more details below)

Friday, September 24th – Knight Day

Spelling List:

Words will be introduced on Monday, September 20th and tested on Friday, September 24th. This is our second list of ‘No Excuse’ words – these are words that are common in our everyday writing, and students will be expected to be spelling these correctly throughout the year (this is why, while they may seem easy, we are starting the year off with them).

  1. are
  2. her
  3. one
  4. were
  5. as
  6. his
  7. or
  8. what
  9. at
  10. she
  11. where
  12. be
  13. it
  14. that
  15. when

Reminders and Other Information:

  • We have no microwave in our classroom – please send lunches accordingly
  • if you have not yet sent gym shoes, headphones, kleenex boxes or paint shirts, please do so as soon as possible – these items all remain at school
  • reminder to send your child with water bottles – we don’t have a fountain in class
  • With rain in the forecast, please send your student to school with a raincoat and boots if they like puddles! We will be getting outside as much as possible for recess and lunch (even if it’s raining a little), so please send your children dressed for the weather!
  • Forks and spoons … please do your best to remember to put these in your children’s lunches – many have been forgetting this past week
  • Food with Nuts: while we are not specifically a nut free classroom, students are being strongly encouraged NOT to have nuts in their lunches at school. We have some students with severe allergies in the school, and so if a lunch does have nuts, they will have to remain seated at their desks and wash their hands after (they will not be allowed outside to eat their snacks, which could cut into their playtime)

Comfort Kits: a newsletter, as well as your old comfort kits, have gone home. Please update them and return them to school ASAP. They will be taken out of the classroom and stored away soon, (I will have no access) so please make sure you get this done.

Scholastic Orders: If you are placing a scholastic order,  you can do so online, and this is the class code that you will need: RC155750

Toonies for Terry: Each year, we celebrate the amazing achievements and life of Terry Fox and collect money to raise awareness for cancer research. We will be participating in our Terry Fox Run on September 22nd and we would ask that each student bring in a toonie to help with this cause. Thanks for partnering with us in this! The toonie can be brought in any day this week.

FreshGrade – one of the ways I like to share what we are doing in the classroom each week is with pictures, and the way that I share them is through Freshgrade. I have sent out an email request for Freshgrade, which you can accept and then receive emails when I have posted pictures or anything else for your child in particular. Please check it out, and feel free to comment on the pictures when I post them. This can also be a great way to see what we are doing in class, allowing you to then talk with your child about it! Let me know if you didn’t get the email request or it doesn’t seem to be working. Also let me know if there is another email address that you would like added as well. Thanks!

Welcome!

Phew! We made it through the first week, yay!

I hope that you all had a restful and relaxing summer and are ready and excited to get back into the swing of things. I am looking forward to all that God has in store for us this year, and I hope you are as well. This week has been full of information; learning routines and rules in the classroom, as well as just getting to know each other. I know that I haven’t met all of you, or had many face to face conversations, but please know that you can email me and communicate with me, and we will set up appointments as needed. I look forward to getting to know you all more this year.

Lots of information coming your way … I’m sure I will forget things, so please be sure to check back here for the details. I typically post to my blog every Friday about what is going on in the week ahead, as well as all other important information that you will need. Please make sure you refer to the blog for all the details.

Updated School Start time: Thank you for a wonderful start to the school year. We also want to thank you for taking the time to do your health checks with your children! Just a note to our fabulous parents on our school starting time! Our school doors will be opening at our traditional time of 8:55. Classrooms will be closed until that time as teachers work hard to prepare classroom materials, set up their classroom and participate in before school meetings. We encourage parents to try to arrive at the school between 8:45 and 8:55. However, if students arrive earlier, they can head to the playground where we will have supervision. At 8:55, the school bell will ring and students will be welcomed into the school. On days that are extreme rain days, students will be brought into the gym. Students can enter the gym through the side gym door and head to their grade area. On these rainy days, we would again encourage families to try and bring students as close to the start of school as possible as activities will be limited in the gym.
End of day dismissal: the end of the day dismissal has returned to normal, which in Grade 2 means that students will be free to leave the classroom. Please arrange with your child where you would like them to meet you (if you don’t have a meeting spot, they will go to the playground)
 

Food with Nuts: while we are not specifically a nut free classroom, students are being strongly encouraged NOT to have nuts in their lunches at school. We have some students with severe allergies in the school, and so if a lunch does have nuts, they will have to remain seated at their desks and wash their hands after (they will not be allowed outside to eat their snacks, which could cut into their playtime)

Planners have gone home and this will be a very effective way to communicate back and forth – I check it each morning, Please be sure to sign them and send them to school every day

Gym shoes – please send indoor running shoes, which will remain in lockers all year long. Gym days are Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday

Library is on Wednesday

If you have not yet brought in Kleenex boxes, paint shirt, and headphones please do so as soon as possible

Water bottles – I would encourage each student to have a water bottle … we don’t have a water fountain in the classroom, so it is important that they have a way to have a drink when hot and thirsty

Tell Me About Your Child information sheets went home this week, and I would appreciate if you would fill it out and send it back to class with your child. It is helpful for me to have some information to get the year started off right, and to know what you want me to know about your child.

Dates to Remember:

Thursday, September 16th – Picture day

Friday, September 17th – Knight day

Friday, September 24th – Knight day

Wednesday, September 29th – Orange Shirt day

Thursday, September 30th – Truth and Reconciliation day – no school

Friday, October 1st – Pro-d – no school

Spelling:

Spelling lists will begin this week. The students will write the words in their planners on Tuesday, so please don’t write them in for them.

The list will be introduced on Monday and tested on Friday. Typically, the lists will be 15 words, for this week only it is 10. We are starting the first couple of weeks with what we call ‘No Excuse’ words, meaning that these should always spelt correctly in our daily writing.

  1. I (must be capitalized)
  2. no
  3. this
  4. all
  5. had
  6. not
  7. to
  8. am
  9. have
  10. of

I know this is a lot of information all at once, and I’m sure there are things that I have forgotten. So bare with me as we get everything started and off the ground, settling into a routine will come over the next few weeks!

Thank you and Happy Summer!

Thank you all SO much for the kind words, the gifts and such a great year. It has been a blessing to teach your children this year. I have really enjoyed getting to know your children and to work with them. I hope you all have a wonderful, well deserved summer break!

One Week to Go!

One week … we got this!

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, June 15th – Chapel

Wednesday, June 16th – Fun Day – kids may wear play clothes

Thursday, June 17th – Knight Day

Friday, June 18th – the LAST DAY!!

  • Noon dismissal
  • Knight Day
  • Report Cards go home

Reminders and Other Information:

  • Fun day – students can wear play clothes on this day
  • return all home reading books
  • return all library books
  • don’t forget to complete your health check!

Friday Update

What an exciting week it has been in Grade Two! We have enjoyed our first week of countdown activities, and our virtual field trip on Thursday was a big success. It was so fun to be able to find some new ways to create memories and do something special together.

Dates to Remember:

Tuesday, June 8th – Spring Sing recording (this is now going ahead again, see below for details)

Friday, June 11th – Knight Day

Wednesday, June 16th – Fun Day

Friday, June 18th – Knight Day and the LAST DAY!

Reminders and Other Information:

  • Spring Sing recording – after being cancelled and back on again, several times, we are now going to be doing our spring sing recording this Tuesday, June 8th. Students may wear summer clothes on this day!
  • Fun day – students can wear play clothes on this day (be sure to send this with water bottles, as we will be outside most of the day)
  • return all home reading books
  • return all library books
  • don’t forget to complete your health check!

Another special announcement:

Hello parents. We are putting together some SURPRISE videos for Kathy and Shelley’s retirements/last days at Highroad. If you don’t know them, they are two of our key office ladies we have been so blessed to have. Shelley is retiring and Kathy is moving up to Prince George where her and her husband bought at RV park. They are removed from this group and won’t see this, so don’t tell them. We will also be having a drive by parade which is currently planned for the 15th at the 3pm school pick up if you want to drop off a card or something then.

We are using a program that is super simple for our video! Click the link below if you are interested in joining and it will give you instructions on how to add your video. You could do either a little thank you clip, funny memory or something on your heart. Doesn’t need to be long, short and sweet is preferred! We are hoping to get this done by the end of next week.

Thanks!

You can email kvansanten@highroadacademy.com if you have any questions.

Kathy’s video link

https://share.vidday.com/f-2u4pcb

Shelley’s video link

https://share.vidday.com/f-84y1wk

If you can’t click below just copy and paste it in your web browser

Weekly Update

Hello Everyone! Sorry for posting this later than I usually do, but I had a few last minute things to figure out.

We are quickly approaching the end of the year, only three weeks left! And I always like to end the year with a balloon countdown to the Summer. What this means is, each day at the end of the day, we will pop a balloon and in it will be something special for the next day. We will pop it the day before because sometimes there may be something they need to bring from home (and we will write a note in our planners to remind ourselves).

It was also very disappointing that we are not able to go on our field trip on Thursday, however, I do want to try and make it a special day still. We are going to do a virtual field trip to the Beach on Thursday. I know this isn’t the same as actually going somewhere, but I am hoping that we can build some fun memories in the classroom! And in honour or our virtual field trip, we can wear play clothes to school on Thursday. We will be doing our virtual field trip on June the 3rd.

June Dates:

Thursday, June 3rd – Virtual field trip to the Beach – you may wear play clothes

Friday, June 4th – Knight Day

Friday, June 11th – Knight Day

Wednesday, June 16th – Primary Fun Day

Friday, June 18th – Knight Day and Last Day of School

Reminders and Other Information:

  • return all home reading books
  • return all library books
  • don’t forget to complete your health check!

Weekly Update

Well, it has been an interesting week to say in the least, but we will just keep taking one day at a time. I will be providing more things to be done next week on Monday morning if you are choosing to keep your child at home again next week.

Dates to Remember:

Monday, May 24th – no school

Tuesday, May 25th – Chapel

Friday, May 28th – Knight Day

Spelling:

We are done spelling for the year.

Bible Memory:

1 Timothy 2:5  

 “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus”

Reminders and Other Information:

  • Home Reading – make sure you are reading with your child every night – return – their book baggie when you have completed 5 days of reading – when they are returned I will no longer be sending books home anymore
  • Remember to complete your child’s health check every day
  • Scholastic Code: RC155750 – this is the code you will need if you are ordering online from scholastic. Thanks!

Home Reading

As we are nearing the end of the year, as your child returns their Home Reading book, I will not be sending new ones home anymore. Thanks for working so diligently with your child on their reading this year. Just because I am not sending books home anymore, does not mean they don’t need to be reading at home still!