Good Morning Lyonsgate Families,
Parents of Casa students, you may have heard your children speaking about “Ms. Goruk” over the last few weeks. Stef Goruk is a Montessori Guide coming back to work after taking time off to start a young family. Ms. Goruk is covering recess periods for both Casa classes and is also our new on-call supply teacher.
Please see below for updates from your children’s Montessori levels.
[Apologies for the lack of photos this week]
Hello Toddler Families,
This week, we have been expanding our outdoor time whenever we can. We have begun to have our afternoon snack outside. Please remember to send a sun hat and apply sunscreen in the morning before school. We will reapply it in the afternoon prior to afternoon recess.
This week we rescued a worm and watched it push itself back into the ground on the other side of the fence. Springtime is an excellent time to get outside and involve your toddler in some of the practical life activities related to gardening. Raking, bagging old leaves, digging out or pulling weeds, are all wonderful gross motor activities that involve your young child in important work that contributes to their family, and it makes the environment more beautiful. Being included in these tasks offers a huge confidence boost as well. Spring is such a magical yet short season. We could all benefit from more time spent outdoors.
Ms. Gervais.
It’s Earth Day!
This is a day when we focus even more than usual about the ways we take care of our planet. Now that our side of Earth is warming up and days are getting longer, we can see many changes around home and school. We gave the children a homework task of looking for signs of spring, which they responded to with some good observations, including:
“I saw yellow flowers.”
“There are tulips at my house but I don’t know what colour they are yet.”
“There was a huge spider in the playground, we told everyone not to step on it.”
“When will the ladybugs come back?”
“We can take our coats off!”
“I saw a robin on the ground, it was looking for worms, ew!”
There have been reminders from some of the children to others to let the new leaves keep growing rather than pick them, and to let bugs go about their business undisturbed. We will be germinating a variety of seeds to explore the beginning of plant life cycles and transplanting them to watch the next steps. We’ll also be diving into our blue box to recycle leftover paper into new sheets to use in other activities.
We hope you are also noticing the changing season and all the colour it is bringing. Here at school, we are very happy to see then end of snowpants, boots, hats, mittens, etcetera; we can all take our coats off!
Ms. Robinson.
Thursday, April 25 — Upper Elementary Outing
Upper Elementary students are reminded to be prepared with their red Lyonsgate t-shirt, their Presto card, and comfortable footwear for this month’s outing. The students will be taking public transit up the mountain to hike in the Iroquoia Heights Conservation. Students are welcome to bring along a simple nut-free snack and light-weight water bottle, and should be prepared for whatever weather we may encounter!
Thursday, May 2 — Parent Education Event
Our next Parent Education Event will be taking place after school on Thursday, May 2, from 3:30-4:15. Parents are invited to join Marissa and Michelle to learn more about our math curriculum through a series of lessons with the Montessori materials, as well as activities to help your child maintain their math skills over the summer break.
Please note, all Elementary students will be traveling to the HAAA at 3:20 that day ahead of the parent presentation.
Students whose families are attending the Parent Education Event will be included in the aftercare program (with no charge). These students will return to the Elementary campus by 4:30. All other students will be dismissed from the HAAA park between 3:30-3:45 p.m.
Please email elementary@lyonsgate.ca with how many adults are planning to attend, and whether you require Elementary or Casa child care that day, by Tuesday, April 30.
July 29-August 2 — Montessori Summer Fun Camp
Registration is now open for our Montessori Summer Fun Camp! Elementary students and Casa graduates are invited to join Marissa and Michelle for a week of classic camp fun with outdoor games, art projects, science demonstrations, and water play. Our activities will adapt to the interests and imaginations of our campers, and also include outings to the HAAA park playground and splash pad nearby. Full and half-day options are available. Follow the link below for more details and registration!
Montessori Summer Fun Camp — Details and Registration
from the Classroom Historians
Colin and Beck.