PENCIL GRIP INFO

Each stage of holding a pencil or crayon is dependent on how “steady” the shoulder and arm muscles are. As your child develops physically, and takes part in lots of fun gross motor activities the shoulder and arm muscles get stronger and steadier, and this should help your child’s pencil grasp to mature as well. 

Younger children tend to use their shoulders and arms to move the pencil and older children tend to use wrist and fingers more to move the pencil.

A three finger tripod pencil grip is considered the most appropriate pencil grip, for both right and left handed writers, as it allows the fingers and wrist to work together to provide a more free flowing movement.

COSTUME PARADE FRIDAY!!

All Kindergarten students are invited 

to WEAR a HALLOWEEN COSTUME!

Please have your child wear their 

costume to school on Fri, October 30th

 for a Costume Parade.  Please include 

a bag for all the pieces of the costume.  

 If your child does not want to wear his/her costume then 

please encourage them to wear Orange and/or Black to 

mark the occasion.


What is the "Costume Parade"? 

We line up dressed in our costumes and march around the 

main hallways of the school & all the other students 

cheer us on. (Only Kindergarten students are permitted to 

wear a costume, other grades can wear orange or black to 

mark the occasion. Your child can wear orange or black if 

they do not wish to wear their costume. 

POPCORN DAYS
The monthly Popcorn Days start November 17th; this is an optional School Council fundraiser project.   Please return your order form, even if your child does not  want any popcorn. This option should be posted online shortly.


FYI: Most students have ordered it and on Popcorn Day those children who don't receive any often become upset. Please explain this situation to your child so they are prepared.

Still awaiting a (4x6) FAMILY PHOTO 
from each child.
Please send it in as soon as possible! 

"HEALTHY APPLE - BIG CRUNCH DAY"

Tomorrow (Thursday), each student will be given an apple for a nutritious, litter-less morning snack; as part of our Waste-Free lunch week and our first ever BIG CRUNCH event. 

Students will take their first bite in unison creating a big sound that we are calling `The Big Crunch`. 

The apples are being provided by the Holy Redeemer School Council with the assistance of the Hazeldean 
Farm Boy.

~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~     ~

Seeking your help to feed those in need.

The Holy Redeemer "Social Justice Club" is organizing a food drive to support the Kanata Food Cupboard. 

This campaign will run until the end of October. Donations of non-perishable food items would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your continued support,
D. Rodgers
Principal

Les mots d'Hallowe'en!

LES MOTS D'OCTOBRE

L'Automne: 
- la (les) feuille(s) / tomber
- Il fait froid. / Il vente.
- jaune / rouge / orange 
 rose / vert / brun





le squelette - skeleton
le fantôme - ghost
la socière - witch
la citrouille - pumpkin
le feu-follet - jack-o-lantern
le monstre - monster
l'araignée - spider
la chauve-souris - bat
la lune - moon

PLEASE HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Next week (October 19-23) is Waste Reduction Week and with your help Holy Redeemer will be participating in the Ontario Waste-Free Lunch Challenge. 

We are asking all our families to make a conscious choice to send in waste free lunches to school. Please send drinks, lunch and snacks in reusable containers. 

Our Earth Care Club members will then conduct a waste audit to measure how much our waste was reduced during the week. We would very much appreciate any efforts made in this regard.

Thank you in advance for your help.

#wastereductionweek

TWITTER, tweets and photos

Here are the Twitter accounts of the four Kindergarten classes: 






RED GROUP (Rm.102)            -    @redgroupkinders
(Greenwood & Blahout)

BLUE GROUP (Rm.103)          -    @mcaffreyk_ocsb
(McCaffrey & Unger)

GREEN GROUP (Rm. 104)      -    @kindergreen123
(Legg, Walter & Rading)

PURPLE GROUP (Rm. 101)    -    @kinderpurple123
(Walter, Legg & Price)
________________________________________________
For Your Information:
For those with older siblings in either Mrs. Brennan's  or 
Mrs. Trent's Grade 2 classes, Mme. Blahout is also their French teacher and her Grade 2 Twitter account is:

                                 @MmeBlahout

________________________________________________
If you do not want your child in any photos on Twitter, please send the teachers a note reminding us of your wish in this regard.   Thank You.  (*FYI: only parents are permitted to follow us on Twitter)

FAMILY PHOTO tree

Dear Parents and Guardians,


We are building a family "tree" using each child's family photo as the leaves. 

If you haven't done so already, please send in a photo of your family in a standard 4" by 6" format as soon as possible.

Thank you to all those who have already sent in a photo.

If you don't have a current one available, then Thanksgiving weekend may be an ideal opportunity.


PS. Thank you to all the families that sent in fruit for our Thanksgiving Feast. Our salad(s) were wonderful and delicious!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We just wanted to wish everyone a very happy and safe THANKSGIVING weekend!



Friday is a PD day and Monday is the holiday.  Enjoy your long weekend! 

Fundraiser & Lock-down Info.

The walk-athon will take place on Wednesday, October 14th. It is an annual fund-raiser for our School Council and parent volunteers run the event... so thank you to all those who volunteer!

Grades 1-6 will be walking at 9:00 and the four Kindergarten classes will begin their own walk at 10:30.
A pledge form went home earlier this week.  _____________________________________________
    
For Your Information:

In the near future, we will be practicing a school lockdown.  This includes locking the classroom door, covering all windows, turning off lights, and sitting quietly on the floor in a safe area of the room until the Principal comes in with our school Police Resource Officer.

We do not offer any kind of detailed explanation about why we practice this. 
If asked, we say something vague like, "In case a dog came into school and we didn't know whether it was a friendly dog or not, we will hide so the dog will just go away."  
We don't want small children becoming afraid, so please don't go into detail about why the school must practice these procedures.

FRENCH VOCABULARY FOCUS

Every few weeks, Mme. Legg, Mme. McCaffrey, and Mme. Blahout will post a monthly French vocabulary list to be covered in class.  Any inquiry-based French words will be introduced on an individual group basis according to the inquiries that are going on in each classroom. Specific inquiry words may be tweeted on individual Twitter accounts.  
Otherwise there will be a general focus each month to build vocabulary and language skills. 

Please encourage your child to "teach you" French - - - as this is an effective strategy to motivate new learners.


Don't worry about their pronunciation or even if the words are correct; the first 'hurdle' is to simply attempt to speak a second language! (This, in itself, is important risk-taking.)  It is also very gratifying for little ones to be the teacher, for a change!  Here are some words / phrases we have already introduced (or are review for SK's) and some we will be focusing on over the next couple of weeks.  

[*FYI: We will wait until the end of October for the fun Halloween words because the energy level increases as everyone gets excited for that big event!]


September and October
- Bonjour   / Aurevoir  / Salut
- Comment ça va?  
- Ça va bien, merci.  / Merci
- Comment t'appelle-tu? 
- Je m'appelle ____.
-  la fille  / le garçon 



-  Les Verbes:
arrêter / regarder / écouter  / marcher  / sauter / courir
- Le Temps:
Il fait soleil. / Il fait beau. / Il fait froid. / Il fait chaud.
- Les Couleurs: 
jaune, rouge, vert, bleu, violet, rose, orange, blanc, brun, noir
- L'Automne: 
la (les) feuille(s)  /  tomber / changer 

PICTURE DAY!

PICTURE DAY is Thursday, OCTOBER 8!

Please wear your best smile! 

Send in fruit for our THANKSGIVING FEAST.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

We will be celebrating Thanksgiving in our classrooms on WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7th.

For this event we are asking each child to contribute a small container of CUT-UP fruit.  Everything must be "bite-size" and ready to eat - please make the pieces an appropriate size for 3, 4 & 5 year old children to eat.

We mix all the fruit contributions in a large bowl, say a prayer of thanks and eat.

Children who have any type of allergies should bring in their own personal fruit salad to ensure their safety.