The "CH" Sound and Environmental Print

Keep those cereal, yogurt, cracker and flyer labels coming!! The children are having a lot of fun identifying the signs and symbols they easily recognize in their home, school and community. Im hoping the children can make connections with the names of these "everyday" signs and the letters used to spell them.

A great example happened today.  Melilla shared that Chapter's was a sign she can easily recognize.  I carefully repeated the word, Chapter's while really focusing on the CH part.  Without saying a word, I held up a Cheerios Cereal box label.  The children instantly recognized it and cheered, "Cheerios!!!".  Then, they got it!  They made the connection that both Chapter's and Cheerios began with the CH sound.

The conversation then snowballed into a huge list of all the words that we know that began with the CH sound!  AMAZING!  So telling about how much our Kinders have learnt this year and how their ears are easily recognizing and identifying these sounds!!!

CHECK IT OUT!!!

CHapters
CHeerios
CHurch
CHest
CHeeks
CHarlie
CHalk
CHop
CHeck
CHarm
CHeckmate
CHeckers
CHocolate Bar
CHeese
CHomp
CHarger
CHarizard (a Pokemon??) - Thanks Tim ;)


:) :) :) :)

Fire Safety

The kinders enjoyed a visit from the Fire Department yesterday. We gathered together in the Learning Commons and watched a video with Sparky the Dog. The kinders practised Stop, Drop and Roll and how to exit a building safely by keeping low to the ground. We took a closer look at a Fire Fighters uniform and some of the special tools Fire Fighters use. It was a great and informative visit. 🚒

Environmental Print

Dear Parents,

We are working to create a print rich learning

environment! We ask that you please help us by

allowing your child to bring examples of

environmental print to our classroom.

Environmental print consists of labels, signs, and

logos that are easily recognizable. These items can

be found in your home and do not require any

additional cost to you. Examples would include soup

labels, cereal boxes, packaging materials, bags,

cartons, etc. We will use these items to help us

bridge the gap between functional print and our

beginning stages of reading. Please send in

manageable-sized signs and labels that will fit into

your child’s backpack.

Thank you for assisting us with this exciting project!

Totem Poles

We are in search of PAPER TOWEL rolls for a future activity in Kindergarten!!  THANK YOU :)

Measuring

Students has such a great measuring the stuffies they brought into school last month.  Here is a pic of  some of the fun!!

The Solar System

It started with a book…

‘He’s Got The Whole World in His Hands’ by Kadir Nelson.

A book that resembles the song we all know tells the story through the eyes of a child.  Capturing the beautiful wonders that make our Earth so grand.  

One page in particular that shows a beautiful image of the Earth had students wondering....

Before we knew it, the students were fully engaged in questioning, sharing information and researching to learn new information.

Popcorn Words....

...they pop up everywhere.  We hope that you are enjoying the Snuggle up and Read program that has been going home weekly.  The books that are included in each folder are great books to search for popcorn words (high frequency words).  These are the words that POP UP everywhere.  We practice spelling them in the classroom and search for them during our morning messages and when reading.  Here they are for you to to help support your child's early reading at home :)





LIKE, AM, CAN


We have also been playing with rhyming words.  Rhyming plays a large part in your child's literacy development.  It allows them to not only play with words, but to develop an understanding of beginning and end sounds, as well as spelling patterns.  We've been singing a Raffi favourite of mine... Willaby Wallaby Woo  (sadly, this is not Raffi in the attached video!)

Wednesday is Double Lunch Day!

St. Gabriel Catholic School 400 Keyrock Drive, Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2T 0G6 Tel: (613) 271-6181      E-Mail:  Gabriel@ocsb.ca

April 25, 2017

Dear Families,

Welcome to our Double Lunch Day Initiative. St. Gabriel has joined together as a community to help those less fortunate. We are coming together to help The Ottawa Mission by providing lunches for their back-to-work and back-to-school programs. Our school has committed to bring in a second lunch on Wed. May 3rd. These lunches not only help many valuable members of our society, but they also lessen the load of The Ottawa Mission.

How can you participate?

The third and last Double Lunch Day for St. Gabriel school will be on Wednesday, May 3rd and we ask that you send your child to school with an additional lunch. The lunches can have perishable and nonperishable items. We ask that they are healthy lunches and that they be packed in a bag that will travel to The Ottawa Mission (brown bag, Ziploc bag, etc.). Feel free to include a thoughtful, spiritual message and/or a hand drawn picture that will be collected separately and sent in a special container. The lunches will be transported to The Ottawa Mission after the children enter the school. Upon their arrival at The Mission, the lunches will be distributed to the various programs in need. Please see their website for further information http://www.ottawamission.com/

The Mission has asked for a few special requests and additional items in need:

-please do not include mayo on the sandwiches

-toiletry items (toothbrushes, toothpaste, comb, brush, dental floss, deodorant, soap)

-socks

Your support in this initiative is truly appreciated by the patrons of The Ottawa Mission. The staff also sends their thanks. If you have any questions about the Double Lunch Days please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Lisa Brennen/Christine Maidment

(St. Gabriel)

Sending Blankets and Xtra Clothes home

  Sending home blankets and extra clothes.  Time for a wash and for new seasonal clothes, like shorts and t-shirts!  :)

Catholic Education Week Agenda

Please see Education Week 

Catholic Education Week - May 1 to May 4

All week - Volunteer Appreciation in Foyer Please Stop in for a treat! “Do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8)

Date	Event and Time
Monday: Theme: Walking Forward Together with God	Music Monday Anthem - 1pm (613) 717-0400 “sing it together” aboriginal #MMC2C2C Video Book Fair - viewing
Tuesday Theme: Walking Forward Together with Our Families	School Mass at St. Isidore @ 9:30am Book Fair - viewing School Board Mass at Notre Dame Basilica @ 7pm Mrs. Dauncey receives The Director of Education Award!
Wednesday Theme: Walking Forward Together with Others	Staff Reflection / Meditation 8:15am Double Lunch Day first thing in a.m. Book Fair - buying $
Thursday Theme: Walking Forward Together with Creation	Book Fair - buying $ EA - Entrepreneurial Adventure of Grade 6 handmade products showcased for all teachers to sign up and students purchase $
Friday Theme: Walking Forward Together in Hope	Muffin Breakfast and Open House 8-9am **Parents are asked to bring in 6 peanut/nut free Muffins PER FAMILY Coffee and Juice will be served Silent Auction for Destination Imagination Team (for Parent Community) News Show in gym  9:15am Grade 6 EA showcase after News Show Vernissage - along grade one and two hallway Jump Rope for Heart - 2:15pm

Block Challenge

Recreating the Eiffel Tower!! 

Good Bye Mrs Forbes

It's hard to believe 5 weeks has come and gone since Mrs Forbes joined our kinder room. Naturally, she fit right in and was a great member of our team. We will miss her. Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication during your time here at St Gabriel. 

Earth Day

Little Caesar Pizza Kits

From St. Gabriel email.

A more formal announcement will go out shortly, but please join me in congratulating the Destination Imagination team from St. Gabriel's! They placed first at the Ontario Provincial tournament and they will be the only team representing the entire Ottawa Catholic School Board at the Global Finals in Tennessee, USA this upcoming May! We are so proud. This competition promotes creativity and innovation.

We are now supporting some fundraising efforts to help get some of our 'own' to Global Finals. At St. Gabriel's we are so fantastic in helping other schools and families but in this case, we are asking that our community help fundraise for our own DI team to make this journey and proudly represent the school and the school board.

As a start, we are hoping that every family help us by selling Little Caesar Pizza Kits. They are a fantastic product and we promise you will want more in the future. We make 5$ for every kit sold. We will be giving generous prizes for top sellers - 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Please follow the link below to sell the links:

Group ID#: 136257
Fundraiser ID #: 333068
Delivery Date: 5/17/2017

Simply forward the link below to your sellers, friends & family, or post the link on your Facebook and Twitter pages, or other social media sites. Be sure to include your Fundraiser ID#, noted above, in any communication you send out.
http://www.pizzakit.ca/fundraising-products?shop=1&f=333068&s=250905

In addition - please be sure to purchase our new yearbook. They are on sale until May 8th. 
ORDER YOUR 2016-2017 ST. GABRIEL YEARBOOK TODAY! 
Full Coloured Yearbook $20.00!
Order and Payment Due by May 8, 2017
Order online: http://www.YearbookOrderCenter.com 
School Code: 15978

Enjoy a wonderful weekend with your family!

Happy Easter

The students viewed the Stations of The Cross in the Learning Commons. The grade 6 students did a wonderful job sharing Jesus' last days with us. It was a great learning experience. 

We have spent a lot of time practicing our Popcorn Words (words that pop up everywhere) and now students are being challenged to regularly use them in their writing. Modelled lesson and whole group instruction using sentence starters like: I see, I can, and I like. We talked about how the popcorn words can help us write about anything that interests us. Thinks like dresses, flowers, animals, pokemons or vehicles. Try using some of these sentence starters at home!!! 😊

In Math we have been looking at measurement. The Kindergarten students worked in groups comparing each others height to a piece of yarn. Their job was to figure out if they were taller than the string, shorter than the string or the same height as the string. It was a lot of fun. The students also discovered that many different things can be used to measure height. Things like bean bags, feet, markers or snap cubes. 

Map Of My Heart

During the month of February the children showed interest in the world and the places we have travelled. This interest also led some students to explore maps.  To deepen their learning of maps and expand in the learning that was taking place, I read a special book called, My Map Book.  Inside you are introduced to a little boy and the maps of all the things that have meaning to him - a map of his bedroom, a map of his tummy, a map of his day and a map of his family.  The students took some time to reflect and think about what was most important to them.  Each student wrote down a list of 3-5 things that were most important to their hearts.  Next, they cut out a shape of their heart and drew lines to show it's pieces. Next, students used their original lists and drew pictures and wrote words within the pieces of their heart.  Last, a light paint was washed over top to complete their maps.  We are so proud of the hard work and perseverance the children showed when completing this multi-stepped task.  

Yaki!

Yaki came to visit all of the Kinders on Wednesday.  It was great fun.  Together we sang familiar songs such as The Wheels on The Bus and Twinkle Twinkle little star.  We used our hands, feet, shoulders and eyebrows to help keep the beat in his songs.  Yaki kept us laughing with some of his own special songs like, My Big Banana Feet and The Ketchup Song.  Some of us had a chance to stand up with Yaki and play his guitar while he sang.  It was a lot of fun!!

Look at what we did over March Break!!

When we returned from March Break, everyone had a special moment or adventure they wanted to share from their March Break.  Time to break out the journals!!!  The perfect writing opportunity!  Take a look at some of the journal entry's captured so far. In Kindergarten we are writers!!!

On March Break I go to swimming lessons. -Madison 

On March Break I went to Montreal. - Kylie

On March Break I went to swimming. - Allison

On March Break I went to the restaurant.

On March Break I went to Disney. - Danielle Kate

On March Break I went on the roller coaster. - Melilla

On March Break I went biking. I played Uno. I watched a video. - Joel

Welcome to Kindergarten Mrs. Forbes!

Mrs. Forbes will be joining us in Kindergarten for the next 5 weeks.  We are excited to have Tammy in our room, learning from each other.  We look forward to all the fun new learning opportunities that will arise with a third teacher in our classroom!

2D Shapes

Dear Families, 

We have begun exploring 2D shapes.  We are learning to recognize shapes like square, triangles, rectangles and circles in our school, home and communities.  We have been learning how one shape is different from other shapes.  For example, a square has 4 equal sides and 4 corners.  A circle has no sides and no corners. 

 In the above pictures we used large shapes taped to the floor to explore each shapes special characteristics.  We took turns walking along the perimeter of each shape, counting each side and identifying corners. This also lead us to compare each shape and how they were similar or different. 

We read the story, Mouse Shapes.  This lead to a group discussion about how shapes are useful to us, especially when drawing.  We have been using illustrations in books to show how shapes can be used to create a picture.  



We have been spying shapes around our classroom, using geoboards to make pictures and designs using various shapes, and built shapes as a whole group using different materials like straws, yarn, pipe cleaners, and popsicle sticks.  This particular group activity was a great way for the students to problem solve.  They individually had to think about the shape in question and it's characteristics.  Then, they had to choose which material was best for building their shape. When I called out, "circle", I was pleasantly surprised to see that not one student attempted to build a circle using a straw or something similar. Students were quick to choose a pipe cleaner or yarn to create their circle!

At home you can play a game of "I Spy" with your child.  Say, "I spy, with my little eye, something in the house that looks like a triangle... or a square....
Or, you can provide different materials for your child to create shapes with.  Shapes are everywhere!! Math is everywhere!!

Lent

The Lenten Season is upon us. The Kindergarten students participated in a beautiful liturgy on Ash Wednesday. The students learnt that Lent is the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter. We spoke about how Lent is a time we prepare for Easter by praying and by thinking, speaking and acting as Jesus would. Lent is a good time for all of us to work at being the best we can be. We all make mistakes. Sometimes we are unkind, sometimes we have trouble sharing, sometimes we don’t listen well to our parents or teachers. Lent is a time to focus on praying more often, and doing good deeds to be more like Jesus. During Lent the children will be creating a Kindness Quilt to display how they show kindness. Currently, the students have been making cards for a young boy in one of our schools who is staying at CHEO. Mateo's only wish is to have cards made for him. The students have been busy sending him prayers and wishing him well. Here is a video we watched to help explain The Easter Story.

Making cards

The Kindness Quilt

We will be reading The Kindness Quilt. It's a wonderful story about a teacher and an assignment she gave her students. Each child was asked to draw and write about how they can be kind. In the end, the students end up creating a beautiful quilt displaying all of their kindness.

We will be making one of our own! To get the conversation going, we were hoping that moms and dads could talk about kindness at the dinner table by asking the question, "I am kind when?" or "Kindness is?"

I am kind when I read to my little brother.

I am kind when I set the table.

I am kind when I put my food wrappers in the garbage.

Kindness is giving a hug to a friend.

Kindness is keeping our classroom clean.

We really look forward to our class quilt and (my hope) is for all the kindergarten classes add to make a whole kindergarten team quilt!!!

Art Portfolios

If your child brought home their Art Portfolio, please return it to school. We have more great things to put inside.  Thank you!

Report Cards Going Home Tonight

Dear Parents,
      Please find in your child's mailbag tonight your child's Communication of Learning. This is a new form of report card that has been recently issued by the Ministry of Education.  It has been tweeted out a link to explain the new format of the report card, and Mrs. Montgomery has provided you with a letter that accompanies your child's report card. Here is the link that has been tweeted if you prefer to read online : http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/kindergarten_report.html.

We like to re-use our report card envelopes for next term's report card in June. So please return the envelope signed as soon as possible, as well as the cut off on page three of the report card.

If there are any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact one of us,

Mme. McCann, Mrs. Bean, Ms.Val

Soles4Souls - THANK YOU!!

Look at all the shoes the Kinders have gathered from the rest of their St. Gabriel Community!!!  Thank you for your generosity.  Haven't had a chance to donate yet??  No problem.  We will continue to collect for the month of February!

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is Love Day. A reminder that students are invited to wear red, white and pink and even bring red, white or pink snacks to enjoy themselves. 

Kindergarten Communication Of Learning

Kindergarten COL's will be going home on Wednesday February 15th.  This new way of reporting may be very different than what you have seen come home in the past.  Here is a link that may be helpful in understanding the new Communication of Learning and it's philosophies.

Communication of Learning

Double Lunch Day Tomorrow- Please Bring an Extra Lunch

St. Gabriel Catholic School

400 Keyrock Drive, Kanata, Ontario, Canada K2T 0G6

Tel: (613) 271-6181     

E-Mail:  gabriel@ocsb.ca

February 6, 2017

Dear Families,

Welcome to our Double Lunch Day Initiative. The St. Gabriel community would like to help those less fortunate in our community. We are joining together to help The Ottawa Mission by providing lunches for their back-to-work and back-to-school programs. In order to help support those less fortunate, please send in to school a second lunch. These lunches not only help many valuable members of our society, but they also lessen the load of The Ottawa Mission.

How can you participate?

The second Double Lunch Day for St. Gabriel school is this Wednesday, February 8! On this day, we ask that you send your child to school with an additional lunch. The lunches can have perishable and non-perishable items. We ask that they are healthy lunches and that they be packed in a bag that will travel to The Ottawa Mission (brown bag, Ziploc bag, etc.). Feel free to include a thoughtful, spiritual message and/or a hand drawn picture that will be collected separately and sent in their own special container. The lunches will be transported to The Ottawa Mission after the children enter the school. Upon their arrival at The Mission, the lunches will be distributed to the various programs in need. Please see their website for further information http://www.ottawamission.com/

The Mission has asked for a few special requests and additional items in need:

-please do not include mayo on the sandwiches

-winter clothing suitable for adult males (gloves, hats, etc)

-socks

Your support in this initiative is truly appreciated by the patrons of The Ottawa Mission. The staff also sends their thanks. If you have any questions about the Double Lunch Days please feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Lisa Brennen/Christine Maidment

Our Mission Statement (The Ottawa Mission)

The Ottawa Mission reflects Jesus' love in serving the homeless, the hungry
and the lost by providing food, clothing shelter and skills, and offers faith
and hope for building a wholesome life.