Halloween

After hearing for months about the details of so many costumes, October 31^th finally arrived. There were super heroes, a Jawa, fairies and princesses, life-like animals and some pretty scary costumes too. We had a visit from a freckle faced cow girl and a friendly witch with a long green finger nail who tried to taste the yummy children in Area 3!

It was fun to participate in the drama of it all and to visit different classrooms to see what others were wearing. While some students preferred not to dress up, I think it’s safe to say that fun was had by all as we lit the freshly carved Jack-O-Lantern, listened to spooky music and read some Halloween stories.

Thank you to all for the delicious nut-free treats. We enjoyed cupcakes, granola and chocolate bars, dried fruit candy and we even cut up brains made out of Jell-O and ate them up! The regular snack program, usually so appealing was almost forgotten amongst all the tasty treats.

Pumpkin Walk

On Friday October 25^th many of the Kindergarten classes went on a pumpkin walk. With many parent volunteers to help keep us safe, we set off down Ossington Avenue and along College Street with our wagons in tow. It was fun to be out in our community and to see all of the people and local business. Some of the shops were already decorated for Halloween and we even saw a green pumpkin as well as one that was white in colour!

Once we arrived at the little market, we had to choose from a wide selection of pumpkins that ranged in size and shape. Mrs. Quintana and some parents held up various pumpkins and the decision was made based on those that got the biggest cheers. Each class ended up with a great big pumpkin and a couple of little ones to bring back to school. In our classrooms we did all kinds of activities around our pumpkins including designing faces with different expressions for our jack-o-lanterns as well as carving and cleaning out the pumpkins and trying to separate the seeds from all of the slimy, stringy stuff that was inside.

We could never have made our way along such busy streets had it not been for the volunteer parents and the Vice Principal and Principal who accompanied us on our trip. Thank you so much for making this community outing possible and for helping to keep us safe.

Kindergarteners have been a busy bunch!

On Wednesday October 16^th our Kindergarten gardeners headed out with bulbs and trowels in hand to experience a traditional fall planting activity. Some very kind parents volunteered to prepare the gardens by cultivating the soil the day previous so that everything was ready for planting.

Classes learned The Seed Song and discussed how plants grow, looking at the bulbs and various roots that had been unearthed.

The Seed Song

If you got the sun and if you got the rain,
You can plant a little seed in the old back lane.
You rake and you hoe and you keep the weeds down.
And you might find, you might find,
A root growing out of the seed in the ground.

If you got the sun and if you got the rain,
You can plant a little seed in the old back lane.
You rake and you hoe and you keep the weeds down.
And you might find, you might find,
A stem growing out from the root from the seed in the ground.

If you got the sun and if you got the rain,
You can plant a little seed in the old back lane.
You rake and you hoe and you keep the weeds down.
And you might find, you might find,
A flower growing out of the stem growing out from the
root from the seed in the ground.

If you got the sun and if you got the rain,
You can plant a little seed in the old back lane.
You rake and you hoe and you keep the weeds down.
And you might find, you might find,
A seed growing out of the flower growing out of the
stem growing out from the root from the seed in the ground.

Mother Nature provided the watering with a light sprinkling of rain just as the final classes were patting down the top soil however this did not deter the eager gardeners since almost everyone remembered to wear their gardening gear and rain boots. Judging from the smiles and happy comments, we all had fun participating in our “Eco-school” project.

A special thank you to the Parkdale Horticultural Society for their donation of the flower bulbs and to Jerako Biaje for co-ordinating the volunteers as well as for purchasing the soil and picking up the bulbs along with her husband. Finally, a huge thank you to all of the parents who generously gave up their time and did the dirty work of preparing the gardens or helping our little gardeners with the actual planting of the bulbs, we could not have done this without your help. Hopefully the bulbs were planted deep enough for the squirrels not to find them and everyone will be able to enjoy the flowers in the spring!