and willy, pete and whoever the gaspesie groundhog is all saw their shadows so it looks like a unanimous prolongation of winter. not that that has much effect for us up here in middle of nowhere land! one of my SK students asked me "and then it will be été Miss?" nope, spring first i replied, and that is when i was asked, ummm.... around easter time "OK, and that is soon Miss? " ummmm (again) well, about 8 more weeks during which we can play and ski and slide in the snow and make forts... ect. ect. anything to keep a positive spin on this 'winter'. almost seems like a non-season. for the most part it's been mild (warmer than toronto on many occasions!) and very temperate. just to remind us though, that it IS winter, we've had the occasional dump of snow and last week's fun of freezing rain that closed schools for 2 days and made the daily commute treacherous. i say daily commute because, on both occasions, i was already off and speeding to work long before the decisions were made and calls started, oh, and also one day they simply forgot to call me. nice. oops!
it's not so bad though for all the folks who HATE winter but i'm not one of them, i love the snow and freshness of these months but going from +4 to -24 in 24 hours is getting a little annoying. tough to stay healthy and not all sick from the yo-yo temps. i'm guessing heating systems in most regulated buildings must be getting their workouts this year. i know dressing for the indoor climate of my classroom is a guessing game most days. huh.
here in kindergarten, we're having fun learning about winter, groundhogs, v-day and of course the upcoming olympics. i'm racking my brain for some classroom olympics we can have over the course of days that will merit 'medals' and a graphing/tracking system for us to implement. 'sharing for the gold' anyone? how 'bout a silver for helping others? obviously, it's still a mental work in progress. i've got til the weekend to figure it out i think then i'll need to make/create my props to get the ideas going in their heads for the training period (yes, training. all participants in vancouver have been training, so why not us?!!?)
here's a few pics of who my days are spent with, a happy group shot, and then everyone 'taking 2' while i get my thoughts in order lol. or when they need a few moments to settle.
