OCTOBER

click the calendar above to view the October calendar - scroll through the months until you come to October. To leave the page, press the escape key. If you would like to plan ahead, I have also posted items for November and December.



CLICK [|HERE] TO VIEW THE OCTOBER NEWSLETTER

__ ** NOTICES AND UPDATES: ** __ ** The November Newsletter and Calendar are now available...click on the __NOVEMBER link__ on the top left side of this page. ** ** HALLOWE'EN WEEK FUN IN KC... CLICK [|HERE] TO SEE OUR WEEK IN PICTURES! ** **Click our teacher picture to see all the fantastic costumes! **

Got Milk? On Monday October 28 June Switzer, a Wellington Dairy Educator, came to the school to teach us all about where our milk comes from. We learned what some of the breeds of cows are. The most common are the black and white Holsteins, but Mrs. Metcalf’s favourites are the Jerseys.

She showed us the ‘claw’ that is used to suck the milk from the cows’ udders and we watched a short video about milking cows on a dairy farm. We got to help tidy up the farm, collect the hay in bales and milk the cows through an interactive Smartboard activity. It was a great presentation. ** Parent Council Presents....Susan Dafoe-Abbey - Wednesday October 23 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM in the library at Rickson Ridge. ** The talk is called "Cultivating a Community of Attachment: Relationship Matters." For more information about Susan, please visit her website at [] There are also a series of articles that relate directly to school. They can be found at: [] Below is an example of one of Susan's articles.... "School Start-up"

In September, your child may be entering school or child-care. For some, this will be the beginning of another year. For others, this will be the first time they will experience a significant separation from their adult care-givers. For many of these children the experience will be - in a word - wounding. Woundedness results when an immature child is without a responsible adult to keep her safe. Attachment acts as a shield around the child. It keeps him or her emotionally safe and makes it possible to withstand a variety of stresses: new settings, new peers, new regulations and teachers. Without the shield of attachment the child is vulnerable, feels lost and insignificant. Over the past several decades parents have been encouraged to push their children towards independence. "Attachment" has been seen as the basis for dependence and the argument has been made that dependence will somehow stunt the child's emotional growth. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. As parents, we need to foster, not eliminate dependence. The more the child depends on us, the safer their world feels. Our job should be to do everything possible to help our children to feel safe with responsible adults when we can't be around. When our child enters school we have a perfect opportunity to bridge the gap from attachment at home to attachment in the classroom. We can provide something which will remind the child of us: a picture of the child and parent in a locket or wallet; a note tucked into a lunch box which reminds the child our love; an unexpected treat in the school bag. The specifics don't really matter. What matters is that we do something which reminds the child of his or her connection to us. We can also make a point of passing "the baton of attachment". We can arrange to meet the teacher before school starts and we can demonstrate that we are comfortable and friendly with the teacher through eye contact, smiling and nodding to the teacher while our child watches. If we are safe and connected to the teacher, our child will feel comfortable. We can also be watchful - both at home and at our child's school - for separation based discipline. "Time-outs" were designed for parents not children! When we use a time-out we are saying, "I don't want you around until you behave properly". Children cannot make the link between their behaviour and whether or not they can remain emotionally safe with their parent or with their teacher. They ask, "Why should I trust this adult who without any reason that makes sense to me detaches from me - sends me away - leaves me alone and vulnerable?". Replace other alarm based discipline such as warnings, threat, intimidation, 1-2-3 magic with simple rules, structure and routine will invite good behaviour and reduce feelings of separation. The more time and effort we put into cultivating attachment with our children the greater their ability to cope with times when they must be away from us. Without a strong attachment even small challenges can become overwhelming; with attachment in place the child is able to develop more fully and completely. Copyright, 2010 by Susan Dafoe-Abbey. Permission to use this material, either in English or in translation, for educational purposes is hereby granted.

*Our Mystery Item link has been updated with new exciting pictures...please click the picture to see more!!!! *We have pictures from our trip to Frootogo. Scroll down to the Frootogo picture and click on the link.*


 * October 4: [[image:th_saycheese.gif width="118" align="left"]]**
 * Pictur e Day is coming! Make sure you rest up and get ready to bring your smile on the 4th! Please return the order form with payment if you would like your child to receive individual pictures. **


 * October 7: **
 * School Council meeting tonight. **
 * October 9: **
 * Frootogo forms are due today. **
 * October 11: **
 * PD Day - no school for students. **


 * October 14: **
 * Thanksgiving Monday - Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Kindergarten C families - no school for students. **


 * October 15: **
 * Vision Screening forms due today! **
 * October 16 and 17: **
 * Dental Screening for all students in Kindergarten. This service is provided free of charge to all JK and SK students. **
 * October 17: **
 * QSP Magazine Fundraiser order forms due today.This is an awesome fundraiser that helps our school council provide much needed resources for our school. This past year, the school council provided funds for the Kindergarten program to purchase bikes, outdoor equipment and a storage shed for the outdoor play yard. These items will be arriving as soon as our shed is erected to house our new items. If you are able, please use the package your child received in their Note Tote to sell magazine subscriptions to family and friends. Magazines make great holiday gifts! Thank you for your support of this great initiative! **


 * October 18:[[image:frootogo 3.jpg width="283" height="147" align="left"]] **
 * We had a fantastic time! **


 * Click [|here]to see pictures of our trip. **


 * October 22: **
 * The Lions Club will be here for Vision Screening for all JKs and SKs. This service is also provided free of charge to all students. Permission forms will be coming home in the next few days. Please fill it out and return it to the school as soon as possible. Thank you. **

// PD DAY: The afternoon of October 25 is designated a half-day PD DAY. Students will be sent home at 12:00 noon that day. Please remember to make arrangements for that day. Bus students will be taking the bus home like they usually do. //
 * October 25: **
 * Jump Rope for Heart Kick-off Assembly **


 * October 28: **
 * Dairy Presentation from the Dairy Board of Ontario **


 * [[image:boy-halloween-trick-or-treaters.png width="381" height="226" align="left"]]October 31: **
 * Halloween Costume Parade: The primary classes will be having a costume parade in the morning of the 31st. Please send your child to school wearing his/her costume over their clothing. We will have the parade before first nutrition break at 10:25. The students will then take their costumes off after the parade before they eat their snack. Please pack an extra bag for your child to put their costume into after the parade. I wonder who will come to visit on the 31st this year?! **

The girls and boys are busy planning our Pumpkin Party - stay tuned for more information! October 15: Page update: October birthdays - see birthday pictures of Violet, Lily, Kailey and Garrett

 // QUOTES OF THE MONTH: // // "We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today." ~ // // "You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing. What! Is it nothing to be happy? Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long? Never in his life will he be so busy again." ~ // // "A four year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm." ~ //
 * by: Stacia Tauscher **
 * by: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762 **
 * by: Bill Vaughan **

A little bit of our teaching philosophy...

Its OK to make mistakes...as long as you try your best! It doesn't matter where you come from...it matters where you go. Parents are important to school success! PLAY and LEARNING go hand in hand!!

STARS OF THE WEEK Reece McGinnity: Star of the Week: October 21st Brooklyn Urban: Star of the Week: October 28th CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE MORE ABOUT REECE CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE MORE ABOUT BROOKLYN

Reece enjoys reading. Click HERE to watch.

__** Eamon builds the CN Tower **__** - Play based learning at its finest!! ** Last week we had a number of problems in our room with "structure failure" and accidental destruction (they were bumped and knocked over) of many of the structures that the boys and girls built. We had a whole class discussion about why this might be happening. What does it take to build a strong tall building? As a class the boys and girls decided that many of the structures fell down because their 'bottom' or base was not strong enough and they needed strong materials that would not collapse. After a bit of brainstorming, we came to conclusion that you needed to have a lot of blocks on the bottom of the structure in order to hold up the tower, and the bigger the tower the bigger your base needed to be. So I challenged the children to design towers that were more stable. I asked them to see how tall they could build a block tower before it lost its stability. The following day Eamon decided he wanted to build the CN Tower. He said he wanted to build the tower as tall as he is. He started with a very small base and simply placed blocks one on top of the other. This tower fell almost immediately. At this point, Eamon recalled the discussion from the previous day and made a decision to build his tower with a bigger base. However, the tower was very tall, and the base was still relatively small and it fell over. He then decided that he not only needed to have a bigger base, but he also needed to have some supports on each side of his tower to hold it up. Eamon completed his tower - it stood as tall as Eamon, it remained standing for him to show all of the other boys and girls - and we were able to leave it up for most of the day. Through the process of building the CN Tower, Eamon became an Engineer!...he devised a plan, carried it out, calculated, problem solved, enhanced his fine motor skills and his concentration and had lots of fun while doing so. He explored many different ways to build his tower and he found the most effective way to build it independently through play! Way to go Eamon! Below are pictures of Eamon's design and build project.





CLICK THE PICTURE TO SEE ALL THE FUN WE ARE HAVING OUTSIDE AT OUTDOOR PLAY TIME!

__ 'Bee'ing interested in bugs! __
 * After Reece brought in his bug skeleton, we then brainstormed what else we would like to find out about bugs. ‘Why do bees sting?’ and ‘What jobs do boy and girl bees do?’ were two of the questions the children wanted to find out. We watched 2 short videos about honey bees and found out some interesting facts. Colton and Emma then decided to draw pictures and used them to describe what they had seen. Click on their pictures to find out what they had to say. **

__ READING BUDDIES __ Every Day 3 during Period 3 we meet with our Reading Buddies from Mr. Robinson's class. Sometimes we read books, other times we go for nature hikes. But, no matter what we do...we ALWAYS have fun!! Click the photo above to see more pictures of us reading with our buddies.

Mrs. Pipe brought some mystery items to school. We did some scientific investigations to see if we could find out what they were. Click the picture to see what our investigations looked like.

OPULENT OCTOBER...KC KINDIES IN ACTION!  To take a closer look at our kindies in "Video" ACTION...click this picture

__ CLASS PHOTOGRAPHER: ____ REECE __ Click the boy to see the pictures that Reece took in our classroom.

October Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Violet, Lily, Kailey and Garrett! **



I HOPE THAT EVERYONE HAS A VERY SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!