Hello parents. Here are a few reminders about upcoming social justice initiatives and events/happenings:

1. The "We Scare Hunger" social justice initiative is in full swing at St. Gabriel. As outlined on the school website we are collecting non-perishable items for the Kanata food bank. Each grade level is responsible for a specific type of food and the kindergarten children are asked to bring in dried pasta and packaged cookies. We thank you for your efforts and support.

2. We have been talking about and walking through the lockdown drill. We have emphasized that the reason we do practice this procedure is for safety (no elaboration except to compare and contrast it with a fire drill).

3. We will be sending home the little slips of paper outlining the "Hopes and Dreams" you have for your child this year. We will attach the slip of paper to your child's photo on our "Hopes and Dreams" wall. Some families who attended the open house several weeks ago have already completed this project, therefore we will be sending the little papers home only to the twelve families who have not already completed them.

4. We have been singing Fall songs about leaves and encourage the children to bring in leaves they find on their nature walks or their walk home. We are doing leaf rubbings and other art projects like making leaf animals or scenes out of the leaves at our art table.

5. In September, our special story was the "Caps for Sale" story. We practiced our colours and acted out the story as a play. We created caps and a painted backdrop of a tree for the play. We practiced our colour words in French. .For the last two weeks we have been exploring the story of the giant turnip in French. The children have been participating in the telling of the story during our puppet show. We have been counting the characters in French too. Soon we will explore our next special story about a group of animals who cooperate to reach a goal (The story of the lovely big apple).
We will be making apple crisp while working with this story and ask that the children bring in two extra apples for the activity. Thank you ahead of time!.

6. The kindergarten students and their educators intend to take advantage of the rich learning opportunities that the outdoor environment provides us. With many walking paths and the Beaver Pond nearby, we hope to go a umber of walks this year. A permission form will be sent home in your child's mailbag. We ask that you please sign the permission form below. On these supervised walks (1:5 ratio), we will be looking for volunteers to accompany us along the way. Notice of our walks will be sent home ahead of time. We will often walk rain or shine so please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the weather.

Thank you kindly,
Ms. Couch and Mme. Kelly