Thursday WEAR a SWEATER!

Thursday, February 5^th, 2015 is

 National Sweater Day!

Holy Redeemer is taking part in the energy conservation initiative of lowering our heat by 2 degrees.  

We ask that you compensate by wearing your favourite, warm, comfy sweater and toque for the day!

Check out the website at www.wwf.ca/events/sweater_day/

READ to your child EVERY DAY!

READ ABOUT FAMILY LITERACY DAY  (<< Click this link)



Research reveals that familiar words are much easier to read than words never heard before. This means: "read, read, read, talk, talk, talk, or sing, sing, sing" to your children so that they "get familiar" with lots of words!

(Click either the title or the arrow to view this video)

Robert Munsch's Storytelling Tips

MISSING CLOTHING ITEMS ??

Please check your homes for items that belong to the school.

We are seeking mittens, hats, pants, socks, and underwear.

We had a full bag of these in September and now the bag is empty. 

There were 7 pairs of mittens, which are intended as a back-up when a mitten is lost or overly wet. These are all gone! Please return any pairs of mittens that may have wandered into your house.  Thanks.

Also we would gladly take a few donations - if you have some older pairs of mittens, socks, pants, and underwear that you are planning to get rid of, please send them to school marked "Emergency Clothing" supply.   Thank you in advance for any donations.

JANUARY NOTES

As the school year progresses, there will be growing expectations of students to demonstrate their knowledge of letter sounds, and increasingly basic sight words and short phrases. Students are required to produce more written work, including the use of appropriately “sized” letters (lower case versus upper case).  Please reinforce an awareness of this in the world outside school as much as you can, such as on street signs, games, websites, recipes, etc.

      * Please continue to practise ‘popcorn’ (sight) words whenever possible.

Home suggestions to support classroom learning:

• Use pictures on the cover and/or the book’s title to predict what the story will be about. Check back during the story to see if they want to change their predictions as they are given more information through print and pictures (…be a story ‘detective’). * Search for “popcorn” words in any text whenever.
• Review the number of syllables in words (also described as ‘chunks of sound’ - e.g. rain/bow = 2).
• Practice printing lower case letters at all times (- except when a capital letter is called for). Encourage more printing practice by labeling their drawings or items around the house (e.g. “bed” / “door” / “lamp”).
• Practice counting to 50 & beyond. They also love to count moves like jumping-jacks, bunny hops, etc.
• Use small items (e.g. marbles, lego) to practice adding & subtracting; start with 5 and work up to 10.
• Count in French how many steps it takes to get from your front door to the bedroom/ kitchen/ sofa/ etc.
• Have your child identify (or teach you) colours, the weather, or other common words in French.
• Enjoy a ‘treasure hunt’ for shapes or patterns (e.g. dinner plate =circle; table = square; floor tiles = pattern).   

French vocabulary for 'Janvier' includes:

winter/ hiver               snow/ neige              ice / glace         cold/ froid                 slide/ glisser            skate/ patiner         snowman/ bonhomme de neige                  ski / skier         
coat/ manteau           hat/ chapeau          mittens/ mitaines    boots/ bottes               snow pants/ pantalon  de neige         sled / traineau             snowflake/ flocon de neige

The SKs are now expected to complete simple phrases, such as:

Je veux _____. / Je peux _____.  / J'aime ______.  
           (glisser  /  patiner  /  skier  /   jouer)  




Report cards will be sent home in early February. JK's will not have any formal mark, only anecdotal comments. SK's will have developmentally appropriate marks where a 
'DE' on the developmental key indicates that your child is "Developing as Expected",
that means they are meeting the Kindergarten program expectations as outlined by the Ministry of Education.  Children who are demonstrating skills (in class) that are significantly above ministry standards would merit a ‘WD’, which signifies “Well Developed” or beyond expectations.  A 'BD' indicates that a child is “Beginning to Develop” the skill and requires further reinforcement.  A 'NT' signifies "Needs more Time and experience", as the skill or expectation has not yet begun to develop or is not demonstrated at school.

KINDERGARTEN MATH EXPECTATIONS

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Dear Parents / Guardians, Report cards are around the corner, they will be arriving February 12th. As we update our assessments of your child's knowledge in Math, it has come to our attention that many children do not RECOGNIZE NUMERALS to 20 and beyond.  Many of them are also not able to COUNT as high as they should at this point in the program.  We practice these skills every day and we would really like all students to be able to count to 100 by June, so we are asking for your assistance. PLEASE PRACTICE identifying and printing numerals at home and point out numbers in the environment whenever you have the opportunity to do so. Teach your child their phone number, address, and birth date. Also try to do some counting up to and beyond 50 whenever you can. Use small toys or common household items, such as spoons, lego etc. Based on your child's current ability, work your way up from 10, then 20, then 30, etc. progressing on a weekly basis for each group of 10. Meaningful repetition is better than drill; so count items they are interested in. Ask questions like: "I wonder how many legos are in that container? Let's find out!" Remember the rule: "Attention span is the same number of minutes as age in years." Therefore, a 5 year old child is only capable of focusing for a MAXIMUM of 5 minutes! Make it fun and they will be motivated to learn. Good luck!

DENTAL SCREENING

Dear Parents/Guardians:

Lucy Charbonneau, a registered dental hygienist with Ottawa Public Health, will provide a dental screening using a tongue depressor on January 21, 2015*, for JKs, SKs, & Grade 2, and other children as necessary. 

If your child’s grade is not selected, but you wish for the dental hygienist to see him/her, please advise the school. Only children identified as having dental needs will bring home a form. Follow-up school visits by the dental hygienist for individual children may be done. 

THIS DOES NOT REPLACE REGULAR DENTAL VISITS WITH YOUR FAMILY DENTIST.  

This dental screening is offered in accordance with the Ontario Public Health Standards from Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. Personal Health Information is collected in compliance with the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Personal Health Information Protection Act and will be used for the purpose of dental assessment, treatment and oral hygiene instruction, and for statistical purposes.  Questions concerning the collection and use of this information should be directed to the Supervisor of Dental Health Promotion, Ottawa Public Health, 400-1580 Merivale Rd., Ottawa, ON, tel.: 613-580-6744 ext 26376.