Invitations to Join Our Google Classroom

Hello Everyone,

It was a pleasure to speak to everyone today, and we were happy to learn that everyone was healthy and safe!

As we mentioned in our phone calls, every family will be receiving an email inviting them to join our Google Classroom.  The emails have all been sent today (March 31st), and hopefully you have received it.  If your family did not get an email, please let us know, and we will send one out to you as soon as possible.

We look forward to 'seeing' everyone soon in our new virtual classroom!

Stay well,

Mrs. Mateo  &  Ms. Guerriero

Upcoming Phone Calls

Hello Everyone,

We hope this post finds you and your families all well!  

As you may have read in an email from Nellie McClung P.S. dated Monday, March 30th, we will be contacting all of our students' families this week.  We will be calling your family either Tuesday, March 31st or Wednesday, April 1st.

We look forward to chatting with you soon!

A Big Hello to Everyone!

Hello Everyone,

We hope that this post finds you and your family all well!  It's not easy practising social distancing, and we hope that we can all get back to our normal lives sooner rather than later.  

We believe that all families recently received the following email from the Board:

Dear families, 

I hope this correspondence finds you and your family healthy and safe.  As you know, on March 12, 2020, the Ontario Minister of Education issued an order to close all publicly funded schools from March 14, with an expectation that they reopen on April 6, to interrupt the spread of COVID-19. Today, the Ontario Minister of Education has written a letter to all families and asked that school boards share it broadly. You may find a copy of this letter on the Board’s website. 

At YRDSB, many of us have been working during the school closure to provide resources for students and their families and our staff members. On Friday, we shared resources for online learning and tips for speaking with children about COVID-19. We encourage you to continue to visit the Board’s website or Twitter feed @YRDSB for up-to-date information on education-related news, and www.york.ca/coronavirus or www.ontario.ca/coronavirus for public health updates. For those of you returning to Canada from abroad, please remember the importance of self-isolation for 14 days after your return. 

As the Minister has requested, our leadership team is working to provide technology for families who may not have access so that they may benefit from the online resources provided by us and the Ministry.  As our plans develop, we will communicate this information to families. 

Once again, I would like to reassure you that we are making decisions with your children’s health and safety as a top priority. Please continue to follow us on Twitter @YRDSB and check your email to receive updates from us during this rapidly changing global situation.

Sincerely,

Louise Sirisko

Director of Education 

If you click 'resources for online learning' in the above letter, you will see a list of sites that you may want to use with your child during the school closure.  In addition, the Ministry of Education has also provided a list of resources that you may access at:  https://www.ontario.ca/page/learn-at-home

For some of the sites that are listed on the Board's online resources, a password may be needed. For example, the information for the Bookflix site is:  Username: dsbyork , and the Password: dsby7692.

If you find other sites that you need a password in order to use them, please let us know, and we will do our best to get the information for you. If you have any questions/concerns, please leave us a message in the comments, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

One more thing:

Here is one of the songs we were learning before the break. We thought your child(ren) may enjoy singing it to you:

March

March  is  here,  and  the  days  are  getting  longer.

March  is  here,  and  the  sun  is  getting  stronger.

Some  days  are  cold,  and  it  may  snow,

But  spring  is  coming  soon,  I  know.

Written by B. Beattie

Naw Ruz Greetings

To all our students and their families who are celebrating Naw Ruz, we send you wishes for a happy new year!  We hope you and your families have a wonderful celebration!

Our Germ Experiment

As you can imagine, in a Kindergarten classroom we are always reminding the children to wash their hands throughout the day.  We have been practising how to thoroughly wash our hands while we sing the alphabet song in our head for many months now. (We sing the song to ensure that we are washing long enough, i.e., about 20 seconds.) 

In addition, we have explained that when we wash our hands, we are getting rid of germs that might make us sick if the germs get inside our bodies.  The germs on our hands are invisible to our eyes, but we did an experiment to grow the germs so we could see them.

Here are the results of our experiment:

                       Last Thursday, half the class touched this slice of bread with 'dirty hands'  (they did not wash their hands).  We saw dark, mould spots on both sides of the bread  after one week.

The other half of the class washed their hands with soap and water before they touched this slice of bread.  After one week, we saw one small mould spot on only one side of the slice of bread.

Hopefully, this experiment helped the children understand why it is important to wash your hands thoroughly so you can get rid of the germs.  

(A big thank you to one of our student's mother, Ms. M., for sending us a link to a version of this experiment.)

Library Visits for Next Week

We missed our class library time the other day, because we were at Jungle Sport in the gym.  We will have 2 library visits this coming week:  Monday (Day 3) and Wednesday (Day 5).  Students are welcome to exchange and borrow books on both days.


Have a great weekend, and remember to set your clocks ahead one hour this weekend.