Terry Fox Walk - Who are you walking for?

Kinders will be coming home with a sticker and tattoo to wear for St Gabriel's annual Terry Fox Walk. 

Pedal Play - Kanata North

Interested in your family learning more about bike safety? Check out he link below!!! Pedal Play Kanata North takes place this Saturday October 1.                               https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/participants-pedal-play-kanata-north-2016-tickets-27262431667

Scholastic

Scholastic Book Orders will be making their way home in your child's backpack.  This is a monthly program where families can order books for their personal use while helping to build their child's classroom library at the same time.  If you are interested in ordering books, please complete the order form located on the flyer.  Payment can be made by cheque (to Scholastic Canada) or online (please follow the instructions sent home).  No cash will be accepted.  If books are intended to be a gift, please attach a note to the order so arrangements can be made for a convenient pick up.  Otherwise, books will be sent home in your child's backpack.  

Happy Reading!!

Orders are due September 30th!

Terry Fox Walk

St. Gabriel will be walking on September 30th to help raise money for cancer research in honour of Canadian hero, Terry Fox.  While the rest of the school population will be walking to the Beaver Pond, the Kindergarten students will stay on school property walking the perimeter of the school yard. A donation of $1-$2 is greatly appreciated in support of this special cause. Thank you for your support.

Fire Drill Practice

Today we practiced our very first fire drill.  The students did an amazing stopping activity, lining up and exiting the school. It was a job well done.  Here is a link to the social story we watch as part of our preparation. 

International Dot Day!!

Today we celebrated "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds.  The kinders made their marks...each one special and unique.  All artists.

House Keeping :)

Hello!  Pizza and Milk order forms have been sent home.  If you are interested in ordering pizza or milk for your child please complete the forms and send them to school with a cheque.  Thank you!

If you are looking for more information about St. Gabriel School, you are welcome to visit our school website.  Here you will find calendars for upcoming events, tweets, parent council information and other great stuff.  http://gab.ocsb.ca/

Lastly, it is very important that all items be labeled with your child's name.  As hard as teachers try to assist students in keeping their belongings organized, items do get misplaced. It is very common for kinders to not recognize their belongings.  Without a name, it makes it quite tricky for items to find their rightful owner. 

Enjoy a lovely weekend. Three cheers to a great first week of Kindergarten!

Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year!!

Bienvenue à la maternelle! Welcome to Kindergarten

We’re very excited for a great year of full-day learning and inquiry! September will be busy with routines and getting into the swing of things so, in keeping with that, here are some housekeeping items for the start of the year:

Our Team:

Ms. Val Schock - RECE

Mrs. Kelly Bean - English/Homeroom Teacher

Mme (Melisa) McCann - French Teacher

We will be using this blog to communicate important information to you throughout the school year.  We will be posting information about events at school, special dates, and various reminders to ensure you are included in whatever is happening throughout the school year. We encourage you to please subscribe by email to the blog so you won't have to remember to visit in order to keep up-to-date, each posting of news will simply arrive to your email.

We also have a Twitter account where more specific learning inquiries, events, photos, news or creations will be posted. Please follow us @kinders153. If you do not want your child's face to appear in our Twitter posts, please send a note clarifying this. [FYI: Our "followers" are the class' parents.] 

Family Tree:

Our classroom will have a family tree that students can look at to remind them of home. If possible, please send a family photo with your child (remember to write their name on the back). These will be returned to you by the end of the school year. A note in regards to this will be sent home shortly.

Reminders- A few Housekeeping Items:

- If your child has not brought in a small blanket for rest time, it would be appreciated that you could provide one. However, we do ask that no stuffed animals be sent (as a general rule, we would ask that you please not send any toys to school with your child). These blankets will be sent home to be washed at the end of every month.

- A gentle reminder that your child will need separate indoor running shoes that he/she can do up on their own. It is also recommended that you label all of your child’s belongings as many children have similar ones.

- Your child has been given a mailbag (ziplock) with their name on it. We will use this bag to send home any notes/communications. We would also encourage you to send any notes (i.e. if you need to take your child out early for an appointment) in the Communication Book so we can easily see it as we do not go through the children’s backpacks.  

Oops:

Everyone has accidents and we want to make sure your child is as comfortable as possible should this happen. We would ask that you please send a ziplock bag with your child’s name on it containing some extra clothes in case an accident occurs. If an accident does occur we will send home the dirty clothes in this ziplock so you can send back some more extra clothes the next day.

Snacks:

We have a 4 block day at St. Gabriel School. That means your child has 2 snack times and a 20 minute lunch period. In both the morning and afternoon, we will offer an 'Open Snack' table where students can come and sit to enjoy a snack when they feel hungry. As the morning/afternoon comes to an end, there will be reminders for those who have not eaten to do so. Mid-day there will be a 20 minute lunch period where students will all sit together and enjoy lunch. Our school is nut free. Please do not send any nuts or nut products (i.e. peanut butter, certain granola bars) in your child’s lunch or snacks. St. Gabriel School encourages healthy eating. Homemade muffins, cheese & crackers, yogurt, hummus, deli meats, fruits and veggies are all great options to fuel your little one through out the busy school day.

Taking Care of the Environment at St. Gabriel: 

We are an Eco Gold School. One of our initiatives is to be more paper free. Therefore, we will post any type of newsletters online through this format on our blog. In regards to children eating their lunches or snacks, we ask for you to consider litterless lunch options (tupperware and reusable containers). We also practice “boomerang” lunches to reduce waste consumption. A boomerang lunch is a lunch that has every piece of it return to its source. In other words, everything in the lunch goes back home at the end of the day. No matter if it is leftover food, containers, recyclables or garbage, it all goes back. Yes, even the garbage. Anything compostable goes into our classroom compost bin.

Birthdays in Room 153

To celebrate a birthday in our class, we invite students to purchase or bring in a gently used (age appropriate) book to donate to our classroom library.  Your child is welcome to sign the inside cover of the book and wrap the book up to open later with their friends. 

We look forward to being partners with you in your child's education.  

Mrs. Bean, Ms. Val and Mme McCann