Welcome back students!


I hope you all had a lovely reading week off.  I was at teacher's convention on Thursday and Friday and I learned a lot of new things that I am excited to use in the classroom.

One of the things that I learned was about learning how to center yourself and calm your mind.  This morning we put it into practice right away with a special breathing and visualization exercise. I really noticed a difference in the classroom after that.  We have a very busy classroom with busy students, and I felt this would be a great strategy to teach them to calm their minds in the morning when they come to school, or whenever they find that their mind is wandering and they want to gain control of their focus again.  I am looking forward to doing these types of exercises on a regular basis in the classroom.  Parents, please let me know if you are also noticing any positive changes at home, because I'm hoping that the good stragegies we are practicing will start to spill over into other areas of their lives, not just in the classroom.  It is a lifelong skill to be able to calm your mind and be present.


SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEK!
Tuesday, Feb 24th is hot lunch day.
Wednesday, Feb 25th - Library books are due.
Wednesday, Feb 25th is pink shirt day. (Wear a pink shirt!)
Thursday, Feb 26th is colourful day. (Wear colourful clothing!)



New Spelling Words for this week all have the long "o" sound.

old
cold
gold
hold
fold
told
bold
sold
scold
roll

Can you think of any other words with the long "o" sound? If you can, bring me 5 bonus words for a special bonus sticker this week!  Who knows, perhaps one of your words will be featured in the
bonus section of our Friday test!

Harbour House Donations
We are still collecting donations for the Harbour House.  Please see previous post to read about which types of items we are looking for.  Any donations are greatly appreciated.


Thank you Parents for the Valentine's Day Snacks!
Thank you to the parents who helped out on Valentine's Day by sending delicious snacks our way. I really appreciate it.


Thank you to our 100th day Volunteers!
Our 100th day was a real success!  Thank you so much for the volunteers for coming in and spending time with us. Without you, we would not have been able to put on such a great event.  I really appreciate your time and energy for 100th day. Thank you!


Keep checking back
As always, keep checking the blog for upcoming news and events.

Harbour House donations:


We have had an incredible amount of donated toiletry items for our Random Acts of Kindness Week!  As a class, we counted all the donated items and they totalled over 76 items as of today.  Our goal is to reach a minimum of 100 items, so please continue to send in items until Thursday.  Thank you for your kindness and generosity for helping others in need.

Items must be brand new.  Items of need include, (but are not limited to):

shampoo and conditioner
toothpaste
toothbrushes
soap
razors
body wash
baby wipes
towels (new)
lotion
deodorant

etc.

thank you for helping us to help others.

Miss Lilley

Spelling Words for the week of February 9-13th:

We are focusing on words with the long "o" sound spelled "oa".

boat
coat
goat
toast
float
road
toad
soak
soap
most


How many other "oa" words can you think of?  Write at least 5 more in your agenda and earn a special sticker!

Our test will be on Thursday morning this week due to our 100th day celebration on Friday.
Miss Lilley

February News!

February is a short month but a very busy one here at Mike Mountain Horse School. In February we celebrate our 100^th day of school. This is a very big day for us, as we’ve been focusing on counting to 100 by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s and even 25’s. We have been learning a lot about numbers to 100 and are now moving forward to adding and subtracting. We will also be celebrating Valentine’s Day with a focus on Random Acts of Kindness. We are all striving to be kind, generous and helpful without having to be asked.

Random Acts of Kindness

In order to help our community with our focus on Random Acts of Kindness, we will be collecting toiletry items for Harbour House. Harbour House is a crisis unit in Lethbridge for women and children who may have been involved in abusive relationships. These toiletry items that we collect will go straight to these women and children in need and may include items such as: soaps, lotions, Q-tips, antiperspirant, tooth brush/paste, dental floss etc. To keep with our 100 theme, we are hoping to collect 100 toiletry items by the end of February.

Winter Walk Day!

We will be doing our annual Winter Walk on Wednesday, February 4th and require your child to come dressed and prepared to walk outside on this day. It is a fun and exciting way to be active in the winter.

Spirit Assembly

Our February Spirit Assembly is on Thurs, February 12^th at 8:30. The theme is “Dress in Red.” Please come dressed in your best sweetheart colors in an attempt to win the coveted spirit cup!

100^th day!

We will be celebrating our 100^th day of school on Friday, February 13^th and will require parent volunteers to help run a center in the gym. If you are willing and able to help with our 100^th day please sign the form below and return your child’s teacher by Monday, February 9^th. To supplement our 100^th day of school activities, we like to have kids bring in a mystery bag of 100 items. We will then have a guessing game about what the 100 items might be. These 100 items must be collected at home and must fit into a small brown paper bag. This is a great opportunity for your child to demonstrate how they are quickly able to create a group of 100 items. These items may include: noodles, cotton balls, beads, cards, small toys, lego etc. We will have the kids bring these items to school on Thursday, February 12^th.

Our Grade 2 classes will also be having our Valentine’s day party on Thursday, February 12^th in the afternoon. Please take note of the class list attached to ensure that every child receives a Valentine. Our list of snack volunteers is listed below. Thank you to those parents who have agreed to send snack for our party.

Fruit- Reese
Cookies –Sophie
Veggies and dip –  Brienna
Juice and napkins –Aiden
cheese and crackers-Janaye
Muffins – Gavin

Winter break!

Friday, January 30^th is a PD day- NO SCHOOL. Family day is on Monday, February 16^th and our school will be closed. It will also be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, February 17-18 for winter break and on Thursday and Friday, February 19-20 for teacher’s Convention. We hope you all have a safe and relaxing break.

Here are our spelling words for the week of Feb 2-6th:
We are working on the "igh" ending. This can be a tricky one for grade 2, but with practice, students can memorize this and be successful.  What other words can you think of that end in "ight?"  Can you make a list of 5 more? Good luck!

high
light
fight
might
night
right
bright
sight
tight
eight

Here are our spelling words for this week.  We are working on the long 'i' sound.

nice
nine
fine
line
side
slide
smile
time
write
live

Happy New Year!

Here are our spelling words for this week:

any
many
very
every
happy
pretty
funny
sorry
story
money



Some other upcoming things to remember:

Book orders are due Tuesday, January 13th.
Wear school colours on Wednesday for our assembly at 12:30pm.

Hot lunch forms due January 16th.
Hot lumch is on January 30th.

We are going tobogganing this Thursday, January 15th in the afternoon. All students MUST have a helmet.  Bring a sled or toboggan!