It was a wonderful week of learning and adventure in 5KP and we are looking forward to it continuing as we start our second full week together. Thank you students for your effort in remembering our morning routines, our classroom rules and the way we behave and manage our daily schedules.

As of this week, if students do not complete homework; there will be consequences that involve them losing their recess time and copying out our classroom homework policy. The second time homework is forgotten I will contact the parents in the hope that there will not be a third time. The students know that I do not set a lot of homework and I expect what is set to be done, on time, and with care and effort. I try and make the consequences as boring as possible, the homework as meaningful as possible and our classroom time as valuable as possible.

Check out who your children share their day with below and take the time to comment on the blog if you care to.

Introducing 5KP
http://portal.saschina.org/video/flv_player/Main.swf
News around the School

Please click on these blog posts from Mrs Boyer regarding library volunteers and from our Principals regarding our Open House activities for September 8th for more information.

Class Pet

It was a surprise on Thursday morning when our class pet, a ‘male’ hamster named Shadow, gave birth to not one but six baby hamsters!!! That was certainly an interesting way to start the day and 36 hours later as I write this, the six babies are alive and well, small and pink with their eyes still closed. I wrote the information below before the babies were born… the only thing that has changed now is that we won’t start letting Shadow go home for weekends until the babies have been weaned. If you are interested in a pet hamster, just send me an e mail and in a month or so… voila!

The children are very excited to have a class pet and we will develop a list of responsibilities to go along
with having a pet that enables them to take turns playing with him, providing him with
fresh food and water and cleaning his cage.

Shadow has a travel cage and is allowed to go home with your child over the weekend IF you write
to me giving permission for this to happen, it is purely an option, not a necessity so do not feel any
pressure. (“Yeah, right” I hear you say… so I will re-phrase that; don’t feel any pressure FROM ME!)
My only concern with Shadow coming home with your child is that he be protected from undue stress at home
and especially on the bus ride.

I have discussed this at length with the students and they are forbidden to take him
out of the cage between school and home and encouraged to just keep a low profile on the bus and
set the cage on the floor at their feet or on their lap. The bus experience will be noisy and busy enough
without any extra attention.

I will provide the hamster food for the weekend but feel free to also give small pieces of fresh carrot
etc. The cage can be cleaned out again by the student once they return it to school on the Monday.
Hamsters can be very noisy at night time; very entertaining too. They tend to sleep for most of the day.
I find having them run around in an empty bath
with a few small bits and pieces to play with (empty toilet paper rolls are ideal) is fun to watch and
they cannot escape… Make sure they don’t go down the plug hole!

Over and Out from 5KP!