Each week, we love being able to (virtually) open the doors to one of our classrooms, give you a glimpse into what they are working on and highlight the incredible educators that call it home! For this week’s Teacher Tuesday, we are giving you a glimpse in the wonderful world of the Pine Class. This Primary 2 classroom is located at our Midtown Elementary Campus. The Pine Class’s rockstar team is the amazing Ms. Alexandrea Caldeira and the delightful Ms. Rachel Emon.
Ms. Alexandrea Caldeira is the head teacher for this class. This is her first year at The Clover School and she is thriving in her new environment. In her own words, Ms. Caldeira said “I love being at Clover. The community and culture is amazing. Everyone always has a smile on their face and great energy!”. Ms. Caldeira has a diploma in Child and Youth Care from George Brown College, a degree in Child and Youth Care Care from Ryerson University and an Early Childhood Montessori Diploma from the Toronto Montessori Institute. She began her career working with children with special needs and youth in the foster care system and worked at another reputable Montessori school before making her move to The Clover School.
Ms. Caldeira lives in Woodbridge, Ontario with her family – her parents and younger brother. She is very close to her family and doesn’t plan on leaving the nest anytime soon as she loves her mom’s cooking far too much to move out just yet. She hopes to one day grow her Caldeira crew by adding a French bulldog or English bulldog to their family as they are her favourite breeds of dogs. When she is not at school with her precious Pine students, she loves curling up on the couch and catching up on her favourite televisions shows – she is a Grey’s Anatomy enthusiast. On the weekends, she enjoys spending time with loved ones and going on walks. Travel is another passion of Ms. Caldeira’s. She has visited Costa Rica, Jamaica, Spain, and Greece and is eager for when it is safe for her to go on her next adventure. Next on her bucket list would be to visit Bali and ride the iconic swing at the Tegalalang Rice Terraces, to hike Machu Picchu in Peru, or to visit Japan and sample all their delicious cuisine and visit the bamboo forest in the heart of Kyoto. Her wanderlust makes it easy to understand why when she was asked what superpower she would most like to have that she chose flying! This would allow her to zip off and explore the world at any time!
Ms. Caldeira’s favourite food is chicken wings. She appreciates any type of saucy wing but her true love is buffalo ranch sauce. A fun fact about Ms. Caldeira is that she is a passionate “Belieber” – which is a term for Justin Bieber fans. Once when she was 16 years old, she lined up for 10 hours at Vaughn Mills mall to meet him and get his autograph. She has been to many of his concerts and can’t wait until she can go to another one and sing her heart out (just as she did at all the other ones that she attended).
Ms. Caldeira’s partner in all things Pine Class is the delightful Ms. Rachel Emon. This is her second year in the role of Pine Class Assistant. Ms. Emon has been with The Clover School for four years now and she adores all the students, families and staff that make up our incredible Clover community. Ms. Emon obtained her Child and Youth Worker diploma from Sheridan College.
Ms. Emon lives with her partner of five years and her beloved fur baby – a one year old cockapoo named Joey. Ms. Emon is very close to her sister who lives in the Okanogan Valley in British Columbia. Ms. Emon travels to visit with her sister as often as she can, even spending most of her summers there! The west coast has a very special place in her heart and she cherishes the time she is able to spend there with her family. When Ms. Emon isn’t doting on her Pine Class students, she enjoys going on hikes, going to dog parks with Joey, making crafts, and shopping!
Ms. Emon loves winter sports and activities such as snowboarding, skiing, skating and hockey (she must have been thrilled by the winter wonderland of snow we had outside this morning!). If she could have any superpower, she would love to be able to teleport! This would make it even easier to visit her sister on the west coast or to jet off to somewhere warm on a beach, which is her dream vacation spot when we are able to safely travel again. Ms. Emon is a vegetarian and her favourite food is a hearty salad bowl. A fun fact you may not know about Ms. Emon is that she actually grew up in a small town outside of Ottawa and moved to the big city of Toronto when she was eighteen years old!
There is always something new and exciting happening in the Pine classroom. The students are busy as bees and come to school each day ready and eager to work hard and learn lots. Each morning, part of their routine is to stand for the playing of our national anthem. From there, the Pine students will dive into their day’s activities. They love to practice their cursive writing, work on math questions, read books and write in their journals. The Pine students also enjoy creating extensions using the sensorial materials.
Every Monday, the students look forward to their weekly show and share day. The students will often bring in a photo of an activity they did over the weekend with their families or a craft they have created. Show and share is a great way for the children to work on their public speaking skills and build their self-confidence. Each week, typically on Fridays, the class does a science experiment. Thus far they have done a volcano in a pumpkin, magic milk, walking rainbow and burning a candle in a jar of water. The children love their weekly experiments and will come up with a hypothesis before they begin and share their observations when it is done.
The Pine Class has so many exciting activities planned for the month of December. The students are looking forward to making a special seasonal craft to bring home at the end of term to their families, in lieu of an annual Winter Market. As we enter the holiday season, the children are excited about the festivities that are to come over the next few weeks. The students will be learning about and discussing different holidays that are celebrated in the month of December such as Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. They have loved decorating their classroom with seasonal decor and the room is filled with holiday cheer!
We hope that you have enjoyed learning more about the amazing Pine Class. Check back next week as we take you into our Lower Elementary classrooms – Red Cedar and White Cedar!
