Welcome to our class website! This is our homepage, where information about what's happening in our classroom will be updated regularly (once or twice a week). Please try to check the site at least once a week. This is a great way to connect with your child about what is happening in his or her "school life", and we will also post suggestions for ways that you can support your child's learning at home. Please visit the "resources" page as well as our "photos" section. You can also check "Important Dates" for any upcoming school events. Thank you, and enjoy!
Friday, June 21
Wow! The first day of summer and the last Friday of Kindergarten! Today,we:
- read "The Gingerbread Man" and completed an activity about the beginning, middle, and end of the story
- worked on a "Top Secret" year-end project
- did some printing practice in our printing books
- explored our new Playmobil house with great excitement
- had lots of fun on the gymnastics equipment in the gym
- experimented with capacity and volume at the water table
- read "How do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?" by Jane Yolen
Sneak Peek: Monday is Nolan's Helper Day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. We have music in the morning and will be attending a special perfomance in the afternoon of "The Three Little Pigs Opera" in the music room.
- read "The Gingerbread Man" and completed an activity about the beginning, middle, and end of the story
- worked on a "Top Secret" year-end project
- did some printing practice in our printing books
- explored our new Playmobil house with great excitement
- had lots of fun on the gymnastics equipment in the gym
- experimented with capacity and volume at the water table
- read "How do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?" by Jane Yolen
Sneak Peek: Monday is Nolan's Helper Day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. We have music in the morning and will be attending a special perfomance in the afternoon of "The Three Little Pigs Opera" in the music room.
Tuesday, June 18
Today's kindergarten activities included:
- reading with Ms. Antonios' class this morning
- music with Ms. Murakami
- listening to Goldilocks and the Three Bears and a variation on this story, Tackylocks
- working on covers for our kindergarten scrapbooks
- experimenting with capacity at the water table
- practicing "magic c" letters on the gel pads and the iPad
- reading The Emporor's New Clothes
- playing an addition game with dice and markers
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Hannah's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to wear your hiking shoes and bring a waterbottle for our afternoon hike!
- reading with Ms. Antonios' class this morning
- music with Ms. Murakami
- listening to Goldilocks and the Three Bears and a variation on this story, Tackylocks
- working on covers for our kindergarten scrapbooks
- experimenting with capacity at the water table
- practicing "magic c" letters on the gel pads and the iPad
- reading The Emporor's New Clothes
- playing an addition game with dice and markers
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Hannah's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to wear your hiking shoes and bring a waterbottle for our afternoon hike!
Monday, June 17
Busy days before the holiday! Today, we:
- talked some more about our brains and about mindful thinking, and read How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?; we discussed when the dinosaurs were being mindful about eating and when they were not being mindful
- wrote in our Book of Thoughts
- had an extra, special gym period so that we could try out the gymnastics equipment - this was lots of fun!
- had music with Ms. Moo
- learned our poem of the week ("It's Summer")
- practiced counting by tens and ones
- talked about where to use uppercase and lowercase letters in our writing
- had a play outside in the afternoon sun
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Jack's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please note that there will be a change of teachers later this week: Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching on Thursday in order to go on the field trip to Alice Lake, and Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching on Friday and Monday. Please hand in your field trip forms and $3 if you have not already done so. :)
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child to tell you about what s/he did in gymnastics today. Which station was the most fun? Which activity was the hardest?
Ask your child about the book we read today. What behaviours were the dinosaurs doing that were mindful? What were they doing that was not mindful? What are some ways that you can be mindful in your life?
Point out uppercase and lowercase letters as you read with your child. Where are the uppercase letters used? (At the beginning of a sentence and to start someone's name - that is where we have discussed using uppercase letters).
- talked some more about our brains and about mindful thinking, and read How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?; we discussed when the dinosaurs were being mindful about eating and when they were not being mindful
- wrote in our Book of Thoughts
- had an extra, special gym period so that we could try out the gymnastics equipment - this was lots of fun!
- had music with Ms. Moo
- learned our poem of the week ("It's Summer")
- practiced counting by tens and ones
- talked about where to use uppercase and lowercase letters in our writing
- had a play outside in the afternoon sun
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Jack's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please note that there will be a change of teachers later this week: Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching on Thursday in order to go on the field trip to Alice Lake, and Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching on Friday and Monday. Please hand in your field trip forms and $3 if you have not already done so. :)
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child to tell you about what s/he did in gymnastics today. Which station was the most fun? Which activity was the hardest?
Ask your child about the book we read today. What behaviours were the dinosaurs doing that were mindful? What were they doing that was not mindful? What are some ways that you can be mindful in your life?
Point out uppercase and lowercase letters as you read with your child. Where are the uppercase letters used? (At the beginning of a sentence and to start someone's name - that is where we have discussed using uppercase letters).
Thursday June 13 & Friday June 14
We have had a good couple of days. We:
- illustrated our Poem of the Week, "The Three Little Pigs"
- continued working on a surprise for Father's Day
- read "Franklin is Bossy" and discussed qualities of a good friend
- had our last 2 tennis lessons
- practised our sight words, "I, me, and, to, a, the, is, he, it, that, she, was"
- had an outside snack and play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk
- bid farewell to the last few butterflies
- worked on Literacy Choices
- worked on a butterfly painting activity
-shared our work after Literacy Choices (Nolan and James)
- read "Ruby's School Walk" by Kathryn White
Sneak Peek: Monday is Brooklynn's Helper Day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Make sure you bring in your forms and money for the school-wide hike June 19 and Year-End Celebration at Alice Lake on June 20th!
- illustrated our Poem of the Week, "The Three Little Pigs"
- continued working on a surprise for Father's Day
- read "Franklin is Bossy" and discussed qualities of a good friend
- had our last 2 tennis lessons
- practised our sight words, "I, me, and, to, a, the, is, he, it, that, she, was"
- had an outside snack and play with bubbles and sidewalk chalk
- bid farewell to the last few butterflies
- worked on Literacy Choices
- worked on a butterfly painting activity
-shared our work after Literacy Choices (Nolan and James)
- read "Ruby's School Walk" by Kathryn White
Sneak Peek: Monday is Brooklynn's Helper Day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Make sure you bring in your forms and money for the school-wide hike June 19 and Year-End Celebration at Alice Lake on June 20th!
Wednesday, June 12
Highlights of kindergarten today included:
- working on a surprise for a special man in honour of Father's Day
- reading some "sight words" and reviewing "basement letters" (letters that have something that hangs below the line to print on - g, j, q, p, y)
- writing and drawing a "compliment" for our Learning Partners
- our fourth tennis lesson in gym
- reading a HUGE book called "Fire, Fire," Said Mrs. McGuire
- our last meeting with our Learning Partners - we built forts and then read some favourite books in them
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. We have music and gym (tennis). Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching tomorrow and Friday.
- working on a surprise for a special man in honour of Father's Day
- reading some "sight words" and reviewing "basement letters" (letters that have something that hangs below the line to print on - g, j, q, p, y)
- writing and drawing a "compliment" for our Learning Partners
- our fourth tennis lesson in gym
- reading a HUGE book called "Fire, Fire," Said Mrs. McGuire
- our last meeting with our Learning Partners - we built forts and then read some favourite books in them
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. We have music and gym (tennis). Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching tomorrow and Friday.
Tuesday, June 11
Today was an exciting day because each of the children got to hold a butterfly! We released about half of our butterflies, and have kept the others until tomorrow as we had a couple of students away today. Other activities today included:
- reading with our Grade One buddies in Mrs. Stroh's class
- music with Ms. Moo
- working on something for a "special man" in honour of Father's Day
- reading The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, and comparing/contrasting it to the original story
- playing in our new Garden Centre and with our new "Invitation to Play" (a castle) - this was equally popular with boys and girls, and the students worked well together to build it and set it up
- practicing numbers 9 and 10 in our printing books
- reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff (ask your child about the "bridge game" that your family can play on a hike)
- playing an addition game with number cards
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will have our last meeting with our Learning Partners.
- reading with our Grade One buddies in Mrs. Stroh's class
- music with Ms. Moo
- working on something for a "special man" in honour of Father's Day
- reading The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, and comparing/contrasting it to the original story
- playing in our new Garden Centre and with our new "Invitation to Play" (a castle) - this was equally popular with boys and girls, and the students worked well together to build it and set it up
- practicing numbers 9 and 10 in our printing books
- reading The Three Billy Goats Gruff (ask your child about the "bridge game" that your family can play on a hike)
- playing an addition game with number cards
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will have our last meeting with our Learning Partners.
Monday, June 10
Another lovely June day! Today's kindergarten activities included:
- Literacy Choices while Mrs. Fieldhouse worked 1:1 with children
- playing in the new "Garden Centre" in our large dramatic play area
- doing "Ant Math" and recording number stories in our math journals
- learning our poem of the week (The Three LIttle Pigs)
- reading The Three Little Pigs (original version) and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (John Scieska's version, which tells the story from the perspective of the Big Bad Wolf), and comparing the characters, setting and plot of these two stories
- music with Ms. Murakami
- our last book exchange and story time with Mrs. Wylie
- outside time in the sunshine :)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brody's helper day. A field trip notice came home today - please sign and return it with $3 by June 19th. Please ensure that any classroom books or library books are returned to school this week. Thank you!
Ways to Support Your Child's Learning at Home:
We are working on "number stories" at school. You can practice these at home and check for your child's understanding by using number stories in your daily life (e.g., "5 carrots and 3 peas makes 8 vegetables. Can you print a number story to tell about that? 5+3=8).
This week we are beginning a study of fairy tales and traditional stories. We will be looking at these story elements: setting (where and when the story takes place); characters (who is in the story?); and beginning/middle/end events. You can talk about these elements when reading with your child at home.
Does your child still remember which self-regulation goal s/he is working on? (See last week's post for information about this.)
- Literacy Choices while Mrs. Fieldhouse worked 1:1 with children
- playing in the new "Garden Centre" in our large dramatic play area
- doing "Ant Math" and recording number stories in our math journals
- learning our poem of the week (The Three LIttle Pigs)
- reading The Three Little Pigs (original version) and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (John Scieska's version, which tells the story from the perspective of the Big Bad Wolf), and comparing the characters, setting and plot of these two stories
- music with Ms. Murakami
- our last book exchange and story time with Mrs. Wylie
- outside time in the sunshine :)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brody's helper day. A field trip notice came home today - please sign and return it with $3 by June 19th. Please ensure that any classroom books or library books are returned to school this week. Thank you!
Ways to Support Your Child's Learning at Home:
We are working on "number stories" at school. You can practice these at home and check for your child's understanding by using number stories in your daily life (e.g., "5 carrots and 3 peas makes 8 vegetables. Can you print a number story to tell about that? 5+3=8).
This week we are beginning a study of fairy tales and traditional stories. We will be looking at these story elements: setting (where and when the story takes place); characters (who is in the story?); and beginning/middle/end events. You can talk about these elements when reading with your child at home.
Does your child still remember which self-regulation goal s/he is working on? (See last week's post for information about this.)
Tuesday, June 4
What an exciting day! We began with a visit to Mrs. Stroh's Grade One class, where students got a taste of what Grade One will be like, and got to spend some time with both Mrs. Stroh and Mr. Fieldhouse. Today our first butterflies also emerged from their chrysalides. It has been so interesting for the kids to see the whole metamorphosis process! Today we also did some guided reading about living and non-living things, planned and began working on a mural to show the relationship between plants and insects, and did some "ant math" (additing and subtracting).
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madelyn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. In the afternoon, our kindies will visit Ms. Antonios' Grade One class while some more new kindergarten students have their orientation in our classroom. We will also be having an earthquake drill right after lunch.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madelyn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. In the afternoon, our kindies will visit Ms. Antonios' Grade One class while some more new kindergarten students have their orientation in our classroom. We will also be having an earthquake drill right after lunch.
Monday, June 3
It's so nice to see the sunshine back again! Today in Kindergarten, we:
- began with "Booktime" as usual; it is so nice to have so many parents and siblings joining us each morning for this time :)
- reviewed some important parts of our brain (pre-frontal cortex: helps us to learn, reason, think, plan, and make decisions; amygdala: reacts to fear, danger, threats, either by passing on information to the pre-frontal cortex so we can make a rational decision, or by creating an automatic response of "fight, flight or freeze"; hippocampus: stores learning and memories)
- practiced using our senses and being mindful (an example of mindful behaviour would be to taste a new food and then decide whether or not you like it, rather than deciding before tasting it)
- had Literacy Choices
- each child chose a self-regulation goal to work on
- learned our new poem ("The Honeybee")
- examined the real and pretend insects on our Exploration Table
- worked in partners to measure the teacher (I am 14.5 chalkbrushes or 5.5 sparkle bottles or 11 name sticks or 10.5 footsteps or 28 hands tall!)
- practiced belly breathing to calm our minds
- had music with Ms. Murakami
- exchanged books and listened to a story at the library
- looked at a real ladybug with magnifying glasses and read Ladybug Life Cycle
- had an afternoon snack picnic outside, and then enjoyed playing in the sun
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dylan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be visiting the Grade one classroom in the morning, as next year's new kindergarten students will be visiting our classroom!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
If your child knows all of the letter name sounds, ask him or her about the letters that make the sounds /sh/, /ch/, /th/ and /ing/. Can you spot these sounds in some books you are reading?
Ask your child what area of self-regulation she or he has chosen to focus on. You could act out some skits about this at home. The areas we have talked about are:
- using words to solve problems
- planning ahead and planning with ohters
- taking safe physical risks
- managing powerful emotions
- solving problems together
- getting along with others
- struggling through the hard parts to learn something new
- waiting for a turn
- paying attention even when it's hard
- began with "Booktime" as usual; it is so nice to have so many parents and siblings joining us each morning for this time :)
- reviewed some important parts of our brain (pre-frontal cortex: helps us to learn, reason, think, plan, and make decisions; amygdala: reacts to fear, danger, threats, either by passing on information to the pre-frontal cortex so we can make a rational decision, or by creating an automatic response of "fight, flight or freeze"; hippocampus: stores learning and memories)
- practiced using our senses and being mindful (an example of mindful behaviour would be to taste a new food and then decide whether or not you like it, rather than deciding before tasting it)
- had Literacy Choices
- each child chose a self-regulation goal to work on
- learned our new poem ("The Honeybee")
- examined the real and pretend insects on our Exploration Table
- worked in partners to measure the teacher (I am 14.5 chalkbrushes or 5.5 sparkle bottles or 11 name sticks or 10.5 footsteps or 28 hands tall!)
- practiced belly breathing to calm our minds
- had music with Ms. Murakami
- exchanged books and listened to a story at the library
- looked at a real ladybug with magnifying glasses and read Ladybug Life Cycle
- had an afternoon snack picnic outside, and then enjoyed playing in the sun
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dylan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be visiting the Grade one classroom in the morning, as next year's new kindergarten students will be visiting our classroom!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
If your child knows all of the letter name sounds, ask him or her about the letters that make the sounds /sh/, /ch/, /th/ and /ing/. Can you spot these sounds in some books you are reading?
Ask your child what area of self-regulation she or he has chosen to focus on. You could act out some skits about this at home. The areas we have talked about are:
- using words to solve problems
- planning ahead and planning with ohters
- taking safe physical risks
- managing powerful emotions
- solving problems together
- getting along with others
- struggling through the hard parts to learn something new
- waiting for a turn
- paying attention even when it's hard
Thursday, May 30
What a lot of great superheroes we had in our class today! Today's activities included:
- working on Literacy Choices in the morning (some children went with Mrs. Whitehead to do an activity in her room)
- music with Ms. Moo
- reading Butterfly Kiss, which had a special surprise at the end of the story
- observing our chrysalides, as they have moved from their containers into a butterfly net
- labelling the parts of a butterfly (thanks to Mr. Fieldhouse for help with this)
- playing "Superhero Tag" in gym, and then having free choice with equipment
- doing some 1:1 literacy work with Mrs. Fieldhouse during Exploration Time
- playing an adding game with number fans
- going outside for a play in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow we will not have a helper, as it is Sports Day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Remember to dress in team colours! The colours are as follows:
Blue: Mrs. Wick, Mrs. Wylie
Green: Mrs. Webb, Mr. Grantham
Pink/Purple: Mrs. Stroh, Mrs. Borsoff
Orange: Mrs. Murgatroyd, Mrs. Law
White: Ms. Tarling, Mr. Lorette
Yellow: Mrs. Jorgenson, Mrs. Shea
Red: Mrs. Kelly, Ms. Antonios
Ask your child who his/her Family Group teacher is to determine the correct Sports Day colour. There is a decorated bike parade first thing in the morning tomorrow, so if your child would like to participate, s/he should have a decorated bike or scooter ready to ride. After the bike parade, there will be Family Group relays on the upper field, followed by Primary/Intermediate races. Preschool children will also be invited to participate in one of these races. We will have a short break for snack, and will then proceed to our Station Rotation. Any parents who wish to stay for this part will go with the children to their stations, as Mrs. Murgatroyd will have to remain at her station. Thank you!
Sports Day will end at 12:00. Hot Lunch will be served at 12:45. A movie will be showing in the afternoon. Parents who wish to take their children home after Sports Day are welcome to do so, but please make sure that Mrs. Murgatroyd knows that you are taking your child. Thank you! We look forward to a great day. :)
- working on Literacy Choices in the morning (some children went with Mrs. Whitehead to do an activity in her room)
- music with Ms. Moo
- reading Butterfly Kiss, which had a special surprise at the end of the story
- observing our chrysalides, as they have moved from their containers into a butterfly net
- labelling the parts of a butterfly (thanks to Mr. Fieldhouse for help with this)
- playing "Superhero Tag" in gym, and then having free choice with equipment
- doing some 1:1 literacy work with Mrs. Fieldhouse during Exploration Time
- playing an adding game with number fans
- going outside for a play in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow we will not have a helper, as it is Sports Day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Remember to dress in team colours! The colours are as follows:
Blue: Mrs. Wick, Mrs. Wylie
Green: Mrs. Webb, Mr. Grantham
Pink/Purple: Mrs. Stroh, Mrs. Borsoff
Orange: Mrs. Murgatroyd, Mrs. Law
White: Ms. Tarling, Mr. Lorette
Yellow: Mrs. Jorgenson, Mrs. Shea
Red: Mrs. Kelly, Ms. Antonios
Ask your child who his/her Family Group teacher is to determine the correct Sports Day colour. There is a decorated bike parade first thing in the morning tomorrow, so if your child would like to participate, s/he should have a decorated bike or scooter ready to ride. After the bike parade, there will be Family Group relays on the upper field, followed by Primary/Intermediate races. Preschool children will also be invited to participate in one of these races. We will have a short break for snack, and will then proceed to our Station Rotation. Any parents who wish to stay for this part will go with the children to their stations, as Mrs. Murgatroyd will have to remain at her station. Thank you!
Sports Day will end at 12:00. Hot Lunch will be served at 12:45. A movie will be showing in the afternoon. Parents who wish to take their children home after Sports Day are welcome to do so, but please make sure that Mrs. Murgatroyd knows that you are taking your child. Thank you! We look forward to a great day. :)
Wednesday, May 29
Another busy day! Today, we:
- made coffee filter and clothespeg butterflies to add to our hall display about the life cycle of a butterfly - thank you to Claudia for helping with this
- played with our "Farm Table" and in the "Construction Zone"
- practiced printing the numbers 5 and 6
- did stations in gym (badminton, hockey, scooters, and balls)
- practiced a school-wide "lockdown" in our classroom in case of an emergency. This is really to practice in case of an intruder in or around the school; however, we just talked about practicing for "an emergency", such as if there was a bear or a fierce dog in or around the school, and emphasized that although this is very unlikely to happen, it's good to practice for such an emergency so we are prepared. The children all seemed okay with this; however, you may want to chat with them at home tonight to make sure that this hasn't caused any anxiety. Please let me know if your child seems worried about this. Thank you!
- shared a favourite book with our big-kid Learning Partners, and then talked, wrote and drew about the book
- went to the gym for a band performance by students from Don Ross Secondary School
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is David's helper day. It is also Superhero Day, so dig out your flashy outfits and dress up as someone with the superpowers of your choice! Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please check with me if you are not sure what colour your child should be wearing for Sports Day on Friday.
- made coffee filter and clothespeg butterflies to add to our hall display about the life cycle of a butterfly - thank you to Claudia for helping with this
- played with our "Farm Table" and in the "Construction Zone"
- practiced printing the numbers 5 and 6
- did stations in gym (badminton, hockey, scooters, and balls)
- practiced a school-wide "lockdown" in our classroom in case of an emergency. This is really to practice in case of an intruder in or around the school; however, we just talked about practicing for "an emergency", such as if there was a bear or a fierce dog in or around the school, and emphasized that although this is very unlikely to happen, it's good to practice for such an emergency so we are prepared. The children all seemed okay with this; however, you may want to chat with them at home tonight to make sure that this hasn't caused any anxiety. Please let me know if your child seems worried about this. Thank you!
- shared a favourite book with our big-kid Learning Partners, and then talked, wrote and drew about the book
- went to the gym for a band performance by students from Don Ross Secondary School
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is David's helper day. It is also Superhero Day, so dig out your flashy outfits and dress up as someone with the superpowers of your choice! Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please check with me if you are not sure what colour your child should be wearing for Sports Day on Friday.
Tuesday, May 28
It was fun to see so many kids in their pajamas today! Activities today included:
- reading with Ms. Antonios' Grade Ones
- talking with our class puppers, Kasey and Monkey, about two areas of self-regulation: "Managing Powerful Emotions" and "Using Words to Solve Problems"
- music with Ms. Moo
- working with the "ing" word family
- practicing printing hte numbers 3 and 4
- measuring objects around the classroom with our footprints and straws, and comparing the measurements
- representing the life cycle of a butterfly with pattern blocks
- exploring the overhead projector during our "Quiet as a Mouse" time
- working with students from the Grade 4/5/6 class to creat and present skits demonstrating different areas of self-regulation
- adding chrysalides to our caterpillar display in the hallway
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. We will be working on "My Favourite Book" with our learning partners tomorrow; your child may bring a book from home if s/he would like to. Tomorrow is also "decades day" in our school: dress up like someone from your favourite decade!
- reading with Ms. Antonios' Grade Ones
- talking with our class puppers, Kasey and Monkey, about two areas of self-regulation: "Managing Powerful Emotions" and "Using Words to Solve Problems"
- music with Ms. Moo
- working with the "ing" word family
- practicing printing hte numbers 3 and 4
- measuring objects around the classroom with our footprints and straws, and comparing the measurements
- representing the life cycle of a butterfly with pattern blocks
- exploring the overhead projector during our "Quiet as a Mouse" time
- working with students from the Grade 4/5/6 class to creat and present skits demonstrating different areas of self-regulation
- adding chrysalides to our caterpillar display in the hallway
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. We will be working on "My Favourite Book" with our learning partners tomorrow; your child may bring a book from home if s/he would like to. Tomorrow is also "decades day" in our school: dress up like someone from your favourite decade!
Monday, May 27
What a sleepy-looking bunch of kids came into our classroom this morning! Didn't stay that way for long though... :).
Today in kindergarten, we:
- began our day with Literacy Choices; each child also wrote in their Book of Thoughts during this time today
- had two extra classroom helpers today, as we had some extra staff in the school due to several classses being on a field trip - thank you, Mrs. Purves and Mrs. Currier!
- made some observations about our caterpillars - many of them have attached to the "roof" and have transformed into a chrysalis!
- learned our poem (song) of the week: "The Fuzzy Caterpillar", to the tune of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider"
- had music with Ms. Moo
- reviewed what we learned earlier in the year about our brains, and what jobs the different parts of our brain have
- exchanged our books at the library with Mrs. Wylie, and listened to a story with her
- read Becoming Butterflies, by Anne Rockwell
- explored the forest at the end of the day
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dontaye's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to wear your pajamas as part of Brackendale's Spirit Week!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
We have been learning some big words lately. Does your child know what these words mean? - chrysalis; metamorphosis; proboscis
Studies have shown that time spent in nature is one of the most important predictors of how well a child is able to self-regulate. Studies also show that as "screen-time" increases, a child's ability to self-regulate decreases. This is a good reminder to all of us to spend time with our children outside, exploring and appreciating the natural world.
We have been comparing lengths of objects at school. You can play a sorting game with your child: gather several objects from around the house, and ask your child to sort them into groups of "long" and "short". Can your child order them from shortest to longest? This could be done with socks from the laundry; carrot sticks; Lego pieces, etc.
Today in kindergarten, we:
- began our day with Literacy Choices; each child also wrote in their Book of Thoughts during this time today
- had two extra classroom helpers today, as we had some extra staff in the school due to several classses being on a field trip - thank you, Mrs. Purves and Mrs. Currier!
- made some observations about our caterpillars - many of them have attached to the "roof" and have transformed into a chrysalis!
- learned our poem (song) of the week: "The Fuzzy Caterpillar", to the tune of "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider"
- had music with Ms. Moo
- reviewed what we learned earlier in the year about our brains, and what jobs the different parts of our brain have
- exchanged our books at the library with Mrs. Wylie, and listened to a story with her
- read Becoming Butterflies, by Anne Rockwell
- explored the forest at the end of the day
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dontaye's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to wear your pajamas as part of Brackendale's Spirit Week!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
We have been learning some big words lately. Does your child know what these words mean? - chrysalis; metamorphosis; proboscis
Studies have shown that time spent in nature is one of the most important predictors of how well a child is able to self-regulate. Studies also show that as "screen-time" increases, a child's ability to self-regulate decreases. This is a good reminder to all of us to spend time with our children outside, exploring and appreciating the natural world.
We have been comparing lengths of objects at school. You can play a sorting game with your child: gather several objects from around the house, and ask your child to sort them into groups of "long" and "short". Can your child order them from shortest to longest? This could be done with socks from the laundry; carrot sticks; Lego pieces, etc.
Thursday May 23 & Friday May 24
Happy Friday! We had a very calm and productive couple of days in Kindergarten. We:
- read The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds by Joanna Cole
- planted corn, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, and nasturtiums to see which will grow the fastest
- worked on "th" words in our Book of Thoughts
- played "Skittle Ball", "Fairy Tag", "Butterfly Tag", and "Four Corners" in the gym
- read There Was a Tree by Rachel Isadora and sang the action song
- illustrated our poem of the week, "Fly, Fly, Fly Butterfly"
- did a shape-measuring activity using a variety of objects and learned about perimeters in math
-made mini-books about the seeds we planted
Sneek Peak: Next week is "Spirit Week"! Plan with a friend or two to come dressed as twins or triplets on Monday, wear your pajamas on Tuesday, come dressed in your favourite costume from the 60's, 70's, or 80's on Wednesday, be a superhero on Thursday, and on Friday, wear your team colours for Sports Day! Monday is Lily's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
- read The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds by Joanna Cole
- planted corn, beans, cucumbers, pumpkins, and nasturtiums to see which will grow the fastest
- worked on "th" words in our Book of Thoughts
- played "Skittle Ball", "Fairy Tag", "Butterfly Tag", and "Four Corners" in the gym
- read There Was a Tree by Rachel Isadora and sang the action song
- illustrated our poem of the week, "Fly, Fly, Fly Butterfly"
- did a shape-measuring activity using a variety of objects and learned about perimeters in math
-made mini-books about the seeds we planted
Sneek Peak: Next week is "Spirit Week"! Plan with a friend or two to come dressed as twins or triplets on Monday, wear your pajamas on Tuesday, come dressed in your favourite costume from the 60's, 70's, or 80's on Wednesday, be a superhero on Thursday, and on Friday, wear your team colours for Sports Day! Monday is Lily's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
Wednesday, May 22
Hurray, the sun came out this morning! Today's activities in kindergarten included:
- reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
- creating our own Very Hungry Caterpillars with paint, sponges, oil pastels, and our handprints (thank you to Claudia for helping with this)
- playing the "/th/ and not /th/ game"
- playing "Squirrels and Trees" in gym, matching upper and lowercase letters, and then playing with the parachute
- talking about what we already know and what we would like to find out about the relationship between plants and insects
- using a variety of objects to measure people in our class
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching on Thursday and Friday.
- reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle
- creating our own Very Hungry Caterpillars with paint, sponges, oil pastels, and our handprints (thank you to Claudia for helping with this)
- playing the "/th/ and not /th/ game"
- playing "Squirrels and Trees" in gym, matching upper and lowercase letters, and then playing with the parachute
- talking about what we already know and what we would like to find out about the relationship between plants and insects
- using a variety of objects to measure people in our class
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching on Thursday and Friday.
Tuesday, May 21
I hope you had a wonderful long weekend! Today in kindergarten, we:
- read with our Grade One buddies from Mrs. Stroh's class
- read "Caterpillar to Butterfly", and observed our caterpillars to see how much they had grown over the weekend
- talked about the sound /th/
- had music with Ms. Moo
- read our poem of the week (Fly, Butterfly)
- did a measuring activity in partners: Two lines, one crooked and one curvy, were taped on the classroom floor. Each child predicted which s/he thought was longest. Then the partners decided on a tool to use to measure the lines - string, straws, a stick or their own feet. This activity took a lot of thinking! Thank you to Sara for helping with this.
- had Literacy Choices
- had an impromptu Buddy Reading time when some Grade 6/7 students came in unexpectedly in the afternoon - this was fun!
- read "WhatDo Insects Do?"
- Danced to "The Hokey Pokey" and "The Chicken Dance"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to order Hot Lunch online!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk about measurement with your child by comparing objects as shorter/longer. Help your child to measure things that are not easy to compare, using non-standard units of measure (for example, using a string to measure two distances, or measuring the distance around something with your child's feet). Talk about whether it is important to use the same unit if you're comparing two things, and where the measuring should begin and end.
Go out in the garden and look closely at some insects. How many legs do they have? Can your child see 3 body parts? Does the insect have a proboscis (long, straw-like tongue)? How does the insect interact with the plants? (eat them, live in them, get nectar from them, etc.)
- read with our Grade One buddies from Mrs. Stroh's class
- read "Caterpillar to Butterfly", and observed our caterpillars to see how much they had grown over the weekend
- talked about the sound /th/
- had music with Ms. Moo
- read our poem of the week (Fly, Butterfly)
- did a measuring activity in partners: Two lines, one crooked and one curvy, were taped on the classroom floor. Each child predicted which s/he thought was longest. Then the partners decided on a tool to use to measure the lines - string, straws, a stick or their own feet. This activity took a lot of thinking! Thank you to Sara for helping with this.
- had Literacy Choices
- had an impromptu Buddy Reading time when some Grade 6/7 students came in unexpectedly in the afternoon - this was fun!
- read "WhatDo Insects Do?"
- Danced to "The Hokey Pokey" and "The Chicken Dance"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to order Hot Lunch online!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk about measurement with your child by comparing objects as shorter/longer. Help your child to measure things that are not easy to compare, using non-standard units of measure (for example, using a string to measure two distances, or measuring the distance around something with your child's feet). Talk about whether it is important to use the same unit if you're comparing two things, and where the measuring should begin and end.
Go out in the garden and look closely at some insects. How many legs do they have? Can your child see 3 body parts? Does the insect have a proboscis (long, straw-like tongue)? How does the insect interact with the plants? (eat them, live in them, get nectar from them, etc.)
Thursday, May 16
Another busy day in Kindergarten! Sorry, not much was written this week as I was away both Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, and today I need to rush off to coach the Mountain Biking Team. Today's big events included:
- our Spring Concert - our class performed "You are My Sunshine", and we enjoyed watching the rest of the school perform as well. A huge "thank you" to Ms. Murakami for all of her time and effort in putting this on for us.
- a lot of fun with insects! We got a class set of caterpillars today, and the children are very excited to see if they will have grown by Tuesday when they return to school. We also managed to catch another two caterpillars outside, and Danni found a beetle on her shoe! We had fun making some little insect habitats for them.
Sneak Peek: It will be Danni's helper day on Tuesday. We have music in the morning, and we will be reading with Mrs. Stroh's Grade Ones at 9:00. Please remember to order Hot Lunch online if you would like your child to have it on our Sports Day. Have a great long weekend with your children. See you on Tuesday!
- our Spring Concert - our class performed "You are My Sunshine", and we enjoyed watching the rest of the school perform as well. A huge "thank you" to Ms. Murakami for all of her time and effort in putting this on for us.
- a lot of fun with insects! We got a class set of caterpillars today, and the children are very excited to see if they will have grown by Tuesday when they return to school. We also managed to catch another two caterpillars outside, and Danni found a beetle on her shoe! We had fun making some little insect habitats for them.
Sneak Peek: It will be Danni's helper day on Tuesday. We have music in the morning, and we will be reading with Mrs. Stroh's Grade Ones at 9:00. Please remember to order Hot Lunch online if you would like your child to have it on our Sports Day. Have a great long weekend with your children. See you on Tuesday!
Monday, May 13
What a wet and dreary day! We stayed inside in the afternoon today to avoid the thunder. Our activities today included:
- reviewing ending punctuation by practicing what different sentences would sound like with different ending punctuation
- literacy choices (a small group went with Mrs. Whitehead, while others worked on literacy activities in the classroom)
- reading "How Plants Grow", and then examining some real flowering plants with magnifying glasses to see the parts that we had learned about
- drawing and labelling flowering plants (we labelled the roots, stem, leaf, petal, stamens, and stigma)
- working on number stories by creating a "parking lot" number story with toy cars, then recording the number story with numbers and symbols on gel pads (Mr. Fieldhouse helped with this activity)
- exchanging our books at the library and listening to "Me First!", read by Mrs. Wylie
- writing in our Book of Thoughts
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madelyn's helper day. Don't forget your bikes and helmets if you would like to participate in the bike rodeo! Students who bring their bikes will be called out at some point in the morning to have their bikes checked by an expert, and to review some riding safety rules. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching tomorrow, but will be away in the afternoon for a Writing Workshop at the School Board Office. A teacher-on-call will teach in the afternoon.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
The Squamish Public Library has levelled books for young children to practice their reading, on many different topics. You can sign out these books and read them with your child, taking turns reading or asking your child to read or find certain words or letters. Let your child choose some for you to read to him or her for pure pleasure too!
We have been working on number stories up to 10 at school. You can make number stories part of your daily life by asking your child to tell you a number story about something he or she is doing. For example, "You have 4 peas and I have 5 peas. Can you think of a number story about our peas?" ("4 peas + 5 peas = 9 peas all together", or "4 peas - 2 peas that I ate = 2 peas left over").
Go outside and look really closely at a plant or flower with your child. Can you see all the tiny parts of the flower inside? What purpose does each part of the flower have for the plant?
- reviewing ending punctuation by practicing what different sentences would sound like with different ending punctuation
- literacy choices (a small group went with Mrs. Whitehead, while others worked on literacy activities in the classroom)
- reading "How Plants Grow", and then examining some real flowering plants with magnifying glasses to see the parts that we had learned about
- drawing and labelling flowering plants (we labelled the roots, stem, leaf, petal, stamens, and stigma)
- working on number stories by creating a "parking lot" number story with toy cars, then recording the number story with numbers and symbols on gel pads (Mr. Fieldhouse helped with this activity)
- exchanging our books at the library and listening to "Me First!", read by Mrs. Wylie
- writing in our Book of Thoughts
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madelyn's helper day. Don't forget your bikes and helmets if you would like to participate in the bike rodeo! Students who bring their bikes will be called out at some point in the morning to have their bikes checked by an expert, and to review some riding safety rules. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching tomorrow, but will be away in the afternoon for a Writing Workshop at the School Board Office. A teacher-on-call will teach in the afternoon.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
The Squamish Public Library has levelled books for young children to practice their reading, on many different topics. You can sign out these books and read them with your child, taking turns reading or asking your child to read or find certain words or letters. Let your child choose some for you to read to him or her for pure pleasure too!
We have been working on number stories up to 10 at school. You can make number stories part of your daily life by asking your child to tell you a number story about something he or she is doing. For example, "You have 4 peas and I have 5 peas. Can you think of a number story about our peas?" ("4 peas + 5 peas = 9 peas all together", or "4 peas - 2 peas that I ate = 2 peas left over").
Go outside and look really closely at a plant or flower with your child. Can you see all the tiny parts of the flower inside? What purpose does each part of the flower have for the plant?
May 9 and 10
Thursday and Friday flew by this week in a frenzy of activity! We:
-continued to display increasing independence and perseverance with Literacy Choices
-read 'Someday a Tree' and discussed how acorns turn into oak trees
-worked on writing "sh" words
-played "Pizza", "Octopus", and "The Bean Game" in Gym
-had music with Mrs. Moo
-worked on some Top-Secret Mother's Day projects
-read 'Louella Mae, She's Run Away!" and practiced rhyming words
-illustrated our Poem of the Week, "Estuary"
-continued guided reading activity about "Eli the Eel"
-participated in the Walk for Water with our Family Groups
-read, "Lobster's Secret"
Wishing everyone a very happy Mother's Day- make sure Mom gets spoiled!!
Sneak Peek: Hannah is Monday's helper. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
-continued to display increasing independence and perseverance with Literacy Choices
-read 'Someday a Tree' and discussed how acorns turn into oak trees
-worked on writing "sh" words
-played "Pizza", "Octopus", and "The Bean Game" in Gym
-had music with Mrs. Moo
-worked on some Top-Secret Mother's Day projects
-read 'Louella Mae, She's Run Away!" and practiced rhyming words
-illustrated our Poem of the Week, "Estuary"
-continued guided reading activity about "Eli the Eel"
-participated in the Walk for Water with our Family Groups
-read, "Lobster's Secret"
Wishing everyone a very happy Mother's Day- make sure Mom gets spoiled!!
Sneak Peek: Hannah is Monday's helper. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
Wednesday, May 8
We are enjoying this sunshine so much! Today, in kindergarten we:
- read "Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?" by Eric Carle
- worked on our cards for Mother's Day (Mr. Fieldhouse helped us with this)
- played some literacy games or did literacy activities (free choice)
- each had a turn in our "Construction Zone"
- read "There's a Bird on My Head!" (a Gerald and Piggie book), and talked about ending punctuation
- played "Chicks, Chicks, Come Home!" in gym, and then had free choice with equipment
- played the "/sh/ and not /sh/" game
- had a fire drill in the afternoon
- read a story about eels in small groups and practiced "bumpy" and "smooth" reading to sound out words
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Maxine's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Remember to bring your coins to raise money for our well-building project in our Family Groups challenge!
- read "Does a Kangaroo Have a Mother Too?" by Eric Carle
- worked on our cards for Mother's Day (Mr. Fieldhouse helped us with this)
- played some literacy games or did literacy activities (free choice)
- each had a turn in our "Construction Zone"
- read "There's a Bird on My Head!" (a Gerald and Piggie book), and talked about ending punctuation
- played "Chicks, Chicks, Come Home!" in gym, and then had free choice with equipment
- played the "/sh/ and not /sh/" game
- had a fire drill in the afternoon
- read a story about eels in small groups and practiced "bumpy" and "smooth" reading to sound out words
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Maxine's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Remember to bring your coins to raise money for our well-building project in our Family Groups challenge!
Tuesday, May 7
Today was a lively day in our classroom! :)
Activities included:
- reading with our Grade One buddies in Mrs. Stroh's class this morning
- learning about the sound /sh/, and making up our own letter chants for this sound
- writing and drawing about what we saw at the Estuary yesterday (thanks to Sara N. for her help with this)
- practicing some printing
- playing in our "Construction Zone"
- doing a guided reading activity with me
- going to a Band Performance by students from Garibaldi Highlands Elementary in the afternoon
- working with "tens frames" in a game with cars and trucks, to think about "partners for 10"
- having our snack outside, and playing in the beautiful sunshine
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brooklynn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym. Don't forget to bring in your loose change for our Family Groups fundraiser!
Activities included:
- reading with our Grade One buddies in Mrs. Stroh's class this morning
- learning about the sound /sh/, and making up our own letter chants for this sound
- writing and drawing about what we saw at the Estuary yesterday (thanks to Sara N. for her help with this)
- practicing some printing
- playing in our "Construction Zone"
- doing a guided reading activity with me
- going to a Band Performance by students from Garibaldi Highlands Elementary in the afternoon
- working with "tens frames" in a game with cars and trucks, to think about "partners for 10"
- having our snack outside, and playing in the beautiful sunshine
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brooklynn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym. Don't forget to bring in your loose change for our Family Groups fundraiser!
Monday, May 6
We were so lucky with the weather for our field trip today! It turned out we didn't need those rainboots at all. :) Prior to going to the Estuary, we:
- had Literacy Choices
- read and discussed "A Salmon for Simon"
- played a game where each child wore a pictures of a parent or baby animal that could be found at the Estuary, and had to "match up" with his or her partner
- read our poem of the week ("What will we see at the Estuary?")
At the Estuary, we broke into four groups and circulated among four stations:
- learning about how humans impact watersheds and how watersheds impact human life
- listening to a traditional Squamish Nation story, while colouring a tile to be used as part of a mosaic
- learning about estuary plants and animals, and where they live/grow
- playing a game similar to "Duck, duck, goose", that demonstrated the relationships between plants and animals in the Estuary
I would like to give a huge "thank you" to Lisa, Nicole, Mayuko and Mr. Dice for accompanying us on this trip. Your help was much appreciated!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. We have music in the morning and a special presentation in the afternoon (a band performance). Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Discuss the field trip with your child. You can ask the following questions:
What is an Estuary (where fresh water meets salt water).
What is a watershed? How do people change what happens to the water when it travels through the watershed? (Concrete, buildings, etc. make the water pour through more quickly, leaving areas more prone to flooding. Also, plants filter water naturally).
What are some animals who live in the Estuary? What are some plants? (eelgrass, bulrushes, salmonberries).
What can you do to help keep estuaries clean and safe for the plants and animals that live there?
- had Literacy Choices
- read and discussed "A Salmon for Simon"
- played a game where each child wore a pictures of a parent or baby animal that could be found at the Estuary, and had to "match up" with his or her partner
- read our poem of the week ("What will we see at the Estuary?")
At the Estuary, we broke into four groups and circulated among four stations:
- learning about how humans impact watersheds and how watersheds impact human life
- listening to a traditional Squamish Nation story, while colouring a tile to be used as part of a mosaic
- learning about estuary plants and animals, and where they live/grow
- playing a game similar to "Duck, duck, goose", that demonstrated the relationships between plants and animals in the Estuary
I would like to give a huge "thank you" to Lisa, Nicole, Mayuko and Mr. Dice for accompanying us on this trip. Your help was much appreciated!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. We have music in the morning and a special presentation in the afternoon (a band performance). Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Discuss the field trip with your child. You can ask the following questions:
What is an Estuary (where fresh water meets salt water).
What is a watershed? How do people change what happens to the water when it travels through the watershed? (Concrete, buildings, etc. make the water pour through more quickly, leaving areas more prone to flooding. Also, plants filter water naturally).
What are some animals who live in the Estuary? What are some plants? (eelgrass, bulrushes, salmonberries).
What can you do to help keep estuaries clean and safe for the plants and animals that live there?
Friday, May 3
What a wonderful Friday. We managed to get a lot done despite the high level of excitement about tonight's Spring Carnival! Today we:
- worked on literary choices
- had exploration time with lots of enthusiasm about the Construction Zone!
- read "Planting a Rainbow" and "This Is the Van That Dad Cleaned"
- drew pictures and wrote words about gardens
- learned new games in gym called "The Bean Game" and "Sprout Tag"
- met in our Family Groups to discuss the Well Project and get our jars ready for the Penny Challenge
- had a delicious "bumble-bee cake pop" treat from Tyco's mom
- sang the action songs "Swimming" and "There Was A Tree"
-Played outside in the beautiful sunshine
Sneak Peek: Spring Carnival TONIGHT! Field Trip on Monday- please send boots and layered clothing regardless of weather. It's supposed to be very sunny, so put sunscreen on your child before they come to school and send hats. Monday is Sydney's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse is teaching. Monday is also the first day of the penny challenge, so bring those coins!!
- worked on literary choices
- had exploration time with lots of enthusiasm about the Construction Zone!
- read "Planting a Rainbow" and "This Is the Van That Dad Cleaned"
- drew pictures and wrote words about gardens
- learned new games in gym called "The Bean Game" and "Sprout Tag"
- met in our Family Groups to discuss the Well Project and get our jars ready for the Penny Challenge
- had a delicious "bumble-bee cake pop" treat from Tyco's mom
- sang the action songs "Swimming" and "There Was A Tree"
-Played outside in the beautiful sunshine
Sneak Peek: Spring Carnival TONIGHT! Field Trip on Monday- please send boots and layered clothing regardless of weather. It's supposed to be very sunny, so put sunscreen on your child before they come to school and send hats. Monday is Sydney's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse is teaching. Monday is also the first day of the penny challenge, so bring those coins!!
May 1 and 2
We have had a busy time over the past couple of days! The children are very excited to see some of their marigold flowers beginning to open, and we are learning lots about plants. There is also a lot of excitement about the Spring Carvinal tomorrow. Come and check out our "Rock Candy" display by the front entrance! Activities over the past two days have included:
- reading "The Life Cycle of a Sunflower" and making our own sunflower life cycle art (thanks to Claudia and Mr. Fieldhouse for helping with this activity)
- playing in the new Dramatic Play set-up (The Construction Zone)
- doing an independent writing activity
- doing some hoop dancing to the beat of a First Nations drum in our classroom
- playing "Sunflower Tag" , singing and dancing to "Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow", and having free choice in gym
- music with Ms. Moo
- illustrating our poem of the week (I'm a Little Seedling)
- practicing printing in our printing books
- playing a game with our letter chants
- writing and illustrating number sentences in our math journals
- reading "The Surprise Garden" and "The Curious Garden"
- doing yoga
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brody's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Don't forget about the Spring Carnival in the evening!
- reading "The Life Cycle of a Sunflower" and making our own sunflower life cycle art (thanks to Claudia and Mr. Fieldhouse for helping with this activity)
- playing in the new Dramatic Play set-up (The Construction Zone)
- doing an independent writing activity
- doing some hoop dancing to the beat of a First Nations drum in our classroom
- playing "Sunflower Tag" , singing and dancing to "Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow", and having free choice in gym
- music with Ms. Moo
- illustrating our poem of the week (I'm a Little Seedling)
- practicing printing in our printing books
- playing a game with our letter chants
- writing and illustrating number sentences in our math journals
- reading "The Surprise Garden" and "The Curious Garden"
- doing yoga
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brody's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Don't forget about the Spring Carnival in the evening!
April 30
Today began with an amazing presentation of First Nations Hoop Dancing in the gym. What a fantastic performance! Ask your child to tell you about the "Men's Fast and Fancy Dance", the women's "Crow Dance" or "Butterfly Dance", and of course the hoops. Other activities today included:
- a short music time with Ms. Moo
- finishing our Candyland people (come and check them out this week - they look great!)
- reading "Let's Turn it Off", a power-smart book donated to our class by Maddy and Dylan
- working on printing
- reviewing short "e" sound
- playing a game with beginning sounds
- reviewing 3-D objects through a sorting game
- literacy choices
- reading and discussing "One Watermelon", a counting story about plants
- watching a time elapse video of a plant growing
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym. Remember to hand in your field trip permission and money if you haven't done so already! Our field trip is on Monday afternoon.
- a short music time with Ms. Moo
- finishing our Candyland people (come and check them out this week - they look great!)
- reading "Let's Turn it Off", a power-smart book donated to our class by Maddy and Dylan
- working on printing
- reviewing short "e" sound
- playing a game with beginning sounds
- reviewing 3-D objects through a sorting game
- literacy choices
- reading and discussing "One Watermelon", a counting story about plants
- watching a time elapse video of a plant growing
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym. Remember to hand in your field trip permission and money if you haven't done so already! Our field trip is on Monday afternoon.
April 29
What a great beginning to the week! We were so fortunate to have Rita, Maddy and Dylan's granny, visit us this morning. Rita showed us a lot of different seeds and plants, and talked with us about how plants grow. Then each child got to plant his or her own sunflower seed and marigold plant. Over the next few weeks, we will be learning all about plants - what they need, what different kinds of plants grow around here, what their parts are and what they do for the plant, etc. We will care for our plants and make observations as they grow, and we will also work in the garden beds outside the kindergarten room.
Other activities today included:
- working on our Candyland decorations for the Spring Carnival on Friday
- learning our poem of the week ("I'm a Little Seedling")
- continuing to talk about the second sound that "e" makes (short e as in "bed")
- music with Ms. Moo
- book exchange and story with Ms. Wylie at the library
- an individual 3-D sorting activity
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Tyco's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have a special presentation at 9:00 in the gym (hoop dancing). If you haven't brought back your permission slip and $2.00 for our field trip, please do so ASAP!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Plant some seeds or seedlings with your child, either in the garden or in a pot. As you do this, talk with your child about what plants need to grow, and how what they need is similar/different to what children need to grow. Look carefully at a plant - what are the different parts called? What do they do for the plant?
If your child does not yet know all of the letter names, sounds, and shapes, please work with your child at home on this. You can play Go Fish or Memory with letter cards; trace letters in sand, dirt, or jello powder; play "I Spy" objects beginning with a given sound; or search for letters in the community or a book. Do it regularly, but make it fun! :)
Other activities today included:
- working on our Candyland decorations for the Spring Carnival on Friday
- learning our poem of the week ("I'm a Little Seedling")
- continuing to talk about the second sound that "e" makes (short e as in "bed")
- music with Ms. Moo
- book exchange and story with Ms. Wylie at the library
- an individual 3-D sorting activity
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Tyco's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have a special presentation at 9:00 in the gym (hoop dancing). If you haven't brought back your permission slip and $2.00 for our field trip, please do so ASAP!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Plant some seeds or seedlings with your child, either in the garden or in a pot. As you do this, talk with your child about what plants need to grow, and how what they need is similar/different to what children need to grow. Look carefully at a plant - what are the different parts called? What do they do for the plant?
If your child does not yet know all of the letter names, sounds, and shapes, please work with your child at home on this. You can play Go Fish or Memory with letter cards; trace letters in sand, dirt, or jello powder; play "I Spy" objects beginning with a given sound; or search for letters in the community or a book. Do it regularly, but make it fun! :)
April 25/26
We had a lovely end to the week. The fresh air and sunshine has allowed everyone to burn off energy outside and focus better inside! We have been busy:
-working on words and reading during literacy choices (one group went with Mrs. Whitehead to work on her Smartboard)
-brainstorming 'e' words and drawing pictures with labels in our Book of Thoughts
-learning a new game called "race car tag" in Gym
-reading "Wildlife ABC" and "ABC Under the Sea" and discussing the wide variety of animals in our Environment
-going to music with Mrs. Moo
-visualising a nature hike and then writing down and drawing what we "saw"
-illustrating our poem, "Mr. Sun"
-learning a new action song called "Swimming" (which helps develop phonemic awareness)
-connecting 3D shapes to their names in our math journals, and playing "What Shape is This?"
Sneak Peek: Monday is Maddy's special helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Have a lovely weekend!
-working on words and reading during literacy choices (one group went with Mrs. Whitehead to work on her Smartboard)
-brainstorming 'e' words and drawing pictures with labels in our Book of Thoughts
-learning a new game called "race car tag" in Gym
-reading "Wildlife ABC" and "ABC Under the Sea" and discussing the wide variety of animals in our Environment
-going to music with Mrs. Moo
-visualising a nature hike and then writing down and drawing what we "saw"
-illustrating our poem, "Mr. Sun"
-learning a new action song called "Swimming" (which helps develop phonemic awareness)
-connecting 3D shapes to their names in our math journals, and playing "What Shape is This?"
Sneak Peek: Monday is Maddy's special helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Have a lovely weekend!
April 24
Another beautiful spring day in kindergarten! Today began with an exciting event - Lily brought her little dog, Olive, for sharing. The kids really enjoyed meeting her. Other activities today included:
- class photos and our school-wide panorama picture
- working on our "candy" art for the Spring Carnival decorations
- learning the second sound for "e" (short e as in "bed")
- reviewing proper formation of some of the lowercase letters we have learned to print
- learning our song of the week (Mr. Sun)
- playing "3-D Guessing Game" with 3-D objects
- playing on the upper playground instead of in the gym, as we missed part of our gym period for the photo - and it was such a nice day!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is David's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Remember to put the Spring Carnival on your calendar for Friday, May 3rd!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Encourage your child to begin "sounding out" one-syllable words (am, mat, dog, pig, etc.). Support your child in saying each sound aloud, blending them smoothly (ccccaaaaatttttt, instead of c-a-t). This helps children to hear the whole word rather than just individual sounds.
Continue to look for 3-D objects in the environment and around home with your child. Discuss the attributes of those objects (round or flat; shapes of their faces - square, circle, triangle, etc.)
- class photos and our school-wide panorama picture
- working on our "candy" art for the Spring Carnival decorations
- learning the second sound for "e" (short e as in "bed")
- reviewing proper formation of some of the lowercase letters we have learned to print
- learning our song of the week (Mr. Sun)
- playing "3-D Guessing Game" with 3-D objects
- playing on the upper playground instead of in the gym, as we missed part of our gym period for the photo - and it was such a nice day!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is David's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Remember to put the Spring Carnival on your calendar for Friday, May 3rd!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Encourage your child to begin "sounding out" one-syllable words (am, mat, dog, pig, etc.). Support your child in saying each sound aloud, blending them smoothly (ccccaaaaatttttt, instead of c-a-t). This helps children to hear the whole word rather than just individual sounds.
Continue to look for 3-D objects in the environment and around home with your child. Discuss the attributes of those objects (round or flat; shapes of their faces - square, circle, triangle, etc.)
April 19
What a busy day! We:
-attended an "AdventureSmart" presentation where the children learned all about safety. Please remind them that the whistles they were given are supposed to be attached to their backpacks or jackets and used for emergencies only!
-had literacy choices
-read "I Like Myself" and "The Littlest Owl"
-talked about things we can do to help owls and other animals in the Environment, and made owls for our "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" display
-went for a 3D shape hunt and then drew pictures of cubes, spheres, cylinders, and pyramids in our math journals
-worked in our Kindergarten Book of Thoughts
Sneak Peek: No school on Monday! Tuesday is Paige's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be away on Tuesday and there will be a Teacher-On-Call teaching. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching on Wednesday.
-attended an "AdventureSmart" presentation where the children learned all about safety. Please remind them that the whistles they were given are supposed to be attached to their backpacks or jackets and used for emergencies only!
-had literacy choices
-read "I Like Myself" and "The Littlest Owl"
-talked about things we can do to help owls and other animals in the Environment, and made owls for our "Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute" display
-went for a 3D shape hunt and then drew pictures of cubes, spheres, cylinders, and pyramids in our math journals
-worked in our Kindergarten Book of Thoughts
Sneak Peek: No school on Monday! Tuesday is Paige's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be away on Tuesday and there will be a Teacher-On-Call teaching. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching on Wednesday.
April 18
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dontaye's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Remember that there is no school for students on Monday - just for teachers! On Tuesday a Teacher-On-Call will be teaching. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be back on Wednesday.
April 17
Today's activities in Kindergarten included:
- illustrating our "Recycling" poem
- printing lowercase x
- practicing counting to 20 and printing numbers
- building 3-D objects out of plasticine
- visiting the book fair (some children bought books and some children browsed)
- playing "The Farmer in the Dell" and either soccer or free choice in gym
- building robots out of recycled materials with our Learning Partners: these will be on display in the hallway for a while, and then each child may bring his/her robot home
- reading the book "Earth Day - Hooray!"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Lily's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to visit the book fair with your child after school today and tomorrow if you would like to purchase any books. Also, remember to hand in your child's field trip permission form before May 3rd.
- illustrating our "Recycling" poem
- printing lowercase x
- practicing counting to 20 and printing numbers
- building 3-D objects out of plasticine
- visiting the book fair (some children bought books and some children browsed)
- playing "The Farmer in the Dell" and either soccer or free choice in gym
- building robots out of recycled materials with our Learning Partners: these will be on display in the hallway for a while, and then each child may bring his/her robot home
- reading the book "Earth Day - Hooray!"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Lily's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to visit the book fair with your child after school today and tomorrow if you would like to purchase any books. Also, remember to hand in your child's field trip permission form before May 3rd.
April 16
Another nice day in kindergarten! Today's events included:
- Reading with Ms. Antonios' Grade One students in their classroom this morning. This went very well, and was enjoyable for both the kindies and Grade One students. We will be doing our booktime in one of the two Grade One classrooms each Tuesday for the remainder of the year. If your child arrives after 9:00 on a Tuesday morning, please sign in at the office and then accompany him/her to either Ms. Antonios or Mrs. Stroh's classroom. Thank you!
- music with Ms. Moo
- discussing our new number chart (1-100), and counting by 10's to 100
- talking about where things in our lunch should go (garbage, recycling, compost, home)
- printing uppercase X
- working on a counting and printing math sheet
- playing "The Recycling Game", a new literacy game
- A presentation in the gym called "Birds of Prey", which was long but very interesting. We got to see a live owl, falcon, and bald eagle, and we learned lots about these birds. I got to hold the falcon for quite a while, which the kids thought was pretty neat. :)
- an afternoon play outside to release all of our energy after sitting in the gym for so long
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be going to the Scholastic Book Fair in our school. Your child will have an opportunity to look at the books, and either buy them (if you have sent money with your child), or look at them. If you would like to purchase books with your child, please visit the Book Fair after school tomorrow and on Thursday.
- Reading with Ms. Antonios' Grade One students in their classroom this morning. This went very well, and was enjoyable for both the kindies and Grade One students. We will be doing our booktime in one of the two Grade One classrooms each Tuesday for the remainder of the year. If your child arrives after 9:00 on a Tuesday morning, please sign in at the office and then accompany him/her to either Ms. Antonios or Mrs. Stroh's classroom. Thank you!
- music with Ms. Moo
- discussing our new number chart (1-100), and counting by 10's to 100
- talking about where things in our lunch should go (garbage, recycling, compost, home)
- printing uppercase X
- working on a counting and printing math sheet
- playing "The Recycling Game", a new literacy game
- A presentation in the gym called "Birds of Prey", which was long but very interesting. We got to see a live owl, falcon, and bald eagle, and we learned lots about these birds. I got to hold the falcon for quite a while, which the kids thought was pretty neat. :)
- an afternoon play outside to release all of our energy after sitting in the gym for so long
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be going to the Scholastic Book Fair in our school. Your child will have an opportunity to look at the books, and either buy them (if you have sent money with your child), or look at them. If you would like to purchase books with your child, please visit the Book Fair after school tomorrow and on Thursday.
April 15
What a beautiful day!
Today's activities included:
- Literacy choices this morning. The children are doing really well with these activities. The focus during this time is on literacy skills, but there is also a focus on self-regulation. Each child chooses a literacy-based activity (reading to self, reading with someone, listening to reading, working on writing, or working on words), and is responsible for getting the necessary materials, finding a spot to work in within the classroom, making a plan, focussing on the activity until it is complete, finding help when needed, and putting things away when finished.
- Learning our LAST letter chant! (X says /xxx/. X on the x-ray, /xxx/, /xxx/, /xxx/). The kids were very excited to have finished all of our letter chants, so we had a small singing/dancing celebration. :)
- reading and discussing Recycle Every Day, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
- finishing writing about how we can help our environment
- music with Ms. Moo
- a story and book exchange with Mrs. Wylie
- a math game with 3-D objects called "Guessing Box"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be reading with the Grade Ones in the morning. If you have not yet picked up your child's life-sized "Friendship Figure", please come into the classroom to get it tomorrow.
Ways to Support Learning at Home: Please help your child to make positive choices for our environment, such as we have been discussing in our classroom. For example, please try to send his/her lunch in a reusable lunch bag, with reusable containers instead of plastic wrap or juiceboxes.
Help your child to identify 3-D objects in and around your home (cones, spheres, cylinders, cubes, pyramids). There are lots of them out there!
Please help your child to read the little book sent home today. Share the reading with your child, encouraging him/her to sound out some words, and helping with words that are too difficult. Most importantly, make it an enjoyable time with your child!
Today's activities included:
- Literacy choices this morning. The children are doing really well with these activities. The focus during this time is on literacy skills, but there is also a focus on self-regulation. Each child chooses a literacy-based activity (reading to self, reading with someone, listening to reading, working on writing, or working on words), and is responsible for getting the necessary materials, finding a spot to work in within the classroom, making a plan, focussing on the activity until it is complete, finding help when needed, and putting things away when finished.
- Learning our LAST letter chant! (X says /xxx/. X on the x-ray, /xxx/, /xxx/, /xxx/). The kids were very excited to have finished all of our letter chants, so we had a small singing/dancing celebration. :)
- reading and discussing Recycle Every Day, by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
- finishing writing about how we can help our environment
- music with Ms. Moo
- a story and book exchange with Mrs. Wylie
- a math game with 3-D objects called "Guessing Box"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be reading with the Grade Ones in the morning. If you have not yet picked up your child's life-sized "Friendship Figure", please come into the classroom to get it tomorrow.
Ways to Support Learning at Home: Please help your child to make positive choices for our environment, such as we have been discussing in our classroom. For example, please try to send his/her lunch in a reusable lunch bag, with reusable containers instead of plastic wrap or juiceboxes.
Help your child to identify 3-D objects in and around your home (cones, spheres, cylinders, cubes, pyramids). There are lots of them out there!
Please help your child to read the little book sent home today. Share the reading with your child, encouraging him/her to sound out some words, and helping with words that are too difficult. Most importantly, make it an enjoyable time with your child!
April 11/12
We had a great end to a busy week. We continued our discussions about the Earth and the environment with the story "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. We had an exciting visit from Molly the milking cow and Lucy the 7-day old calf. We also did the following:
-continued working on words in literacy choices
-read "Click, Clack, Moo" and talked about cows in preparation for our dairy farm visitors
-played "Go Fish"
-wrote about Molly and Lucy in our Book of Thoughts
-practiced printing the lowercase letter 'u'
-used the poem "Mud" to develop phonological awareness, clapping once for each word while reading
-worked on sequencing numbers in our math books
-played "airplane captain" in gym and practiced our balance and ability to move in different ways
-had Family Groups
-had a dance party with James' show-and-tell MP3 Player
PHEW! No wonder everyone was tired by the end of the day today! I hope everyone has a restful weekend.
Sneak Peek: Danni is the helper on Monday. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. The book fair is on Wednesday and Thursday next week.
-continued working on words in literacy choices
-read "Click, Clack, Moo" and talked about cows in preparation for our dairy farm visitors
-played "Go Fish"
-wrote about Molly and Lucy in our Book of Thoughts
-practiced printing the lowercase letter 'u'
-used the poem "Mud" to develop phonological awareness, clapping once for each word while reading
-worked on sequencing numbers in our math books
-played "airplane captain" in gym and practiced our balance and ability to move in different ways
-had Family Groups
-had a dance party with James' show-and-tell MP3 Player
PHEW! No wonder everyone was tired by the end of the day today! I hope everyone has a restful weekend.
Sneak Peek: Danni is the helper on Monday. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. The book fair is on Wednesday and Thursday next week.
April 9
Today we focussed a lot on Earth and the environment. We read a book called "The Human Footprint" and brainstormed ways that we can help the environment in our daily lives. We also talked about the four R's (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), and what this looks like from a kid's perspective. Sara N. came in to help us with an art project: coffee filter Earths, which will be on display in our classroom after we've finished the writing to go with them.
Other events today included:
- music
- finishing our math journals about 3-D objects and playing math games/working with 3-D objects
- printing the letter U
- playing in the vet's office
- playing memory with sight words or letters of the alphabet
- reading "Dinosaurs to the Rescue! A Guide to Protecting our Planet"
- playing "Help the Environment Charades"
- getting outside for a play in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Hannah's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to return your Scholastic book orders if you'd like to order any books!
Other events today included:
- music
- finishing our math journals about 3-D objects and playing math games/working with 3-D objects
- printing the letter U
- playing in the vet's office
- playing memory with sight words or letters of the alphabet
- reading "Dinosaurs to the Rescue! A Guide to Protecting our Planet"
- playing "Help the Environment Charades"
- getting outside for a play in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Hannah's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to return your Scholastic book orders if you'd like to order any books!
April 8
Happy kids today after the weekend! Today's activities included:
- Happy birthday celebrations and stories for Brooklynn and Hannah, who are now 6!
- Literacy choices (a small group of children went with Mrs. Whitehead at this time to do some literacy activites on the SmartBoard in her room); we also introduced "Word Work" today, which is the final option during Literacy Choices. Work Work can be any of a variety of games and activities that focus on developing word knowledge and reading/spelling skills.
- learning our new letter chant (U says /uuu/. Upside-down umbrella; /uuu/, /uuu/, /uuu/.)
- learning our poem of the week, "Mud"
- sorting 3-D objects (we sorted them by colour, by the shapes on their faces, and by whether they could roll or slide)
- some children recorded this in their math journals; the others will tomorrow
- music with Ms. Moo
- book exchange and a new "Pete the Cat" story with Mrs. Wylie in the library
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Jack's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have music in the morning.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
This week we are beginning to focus on how to take care of Earth and the environment. Talk with your child about things that your family does to help keep Earth safe and clean.
By now, children should know almost all of their letter names and sounds. Play a game with your child to check his/her letter/sound knowledge, and then focus on helping him/her to learn any that s/he doesn't know. See the report card for suggestions, or come in and talk to me if you'd like more ideas.
Help your child to look for 3-D objects in the world around you. We are learning about spheres, cones, cylinders, cubes, pyramids, and rectangular prisms.
- Happy birthday celebrations and stories for Brooklynn and Hannah, who are now 6!
- Literacy choices (a small group of children went with Mrs. Whitehead at this time to do some literacy activites on the SmartBoard in her room); we also introduced "Word Work" today, which is the final option during Literacy Choices. Work Work can be any of a variety of games and activities that focus on developing word knowledge and reading/spelling skills.
- learning our new letter chant (U says /uuu/. Upside-down umbrella; /uuu/, /uuu/, /uuu/.)
- learning our poem of the week, "Mud"
- sorting 3-D objects (we sorted them by colour, by the shapes on their faces, and by whether they could roll or slide)
- some children recorded this in their math journals; the others will tomorrow
- music with Ms. Moo
- book exchange and a new "Pete the Cat" story with Mrs. Wylie in the library
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Jack's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have music in the morning.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
This week we are beginning to focus on how to take care of Earth and the environment. Talk with your child about things that your family does to help keep Earth safe and clean.
By now, children should know almost all of their letter names and sounds. Play a game with your child to check his/her letter/sound knowledge, and then focus on helping him/her to learn any that s/he doesn't know. See the report card for suggestions, or come in and talk to me if you'd like more ideas.
Help your child to look for 3-D objects in the world around you. We are learning about spheres, cones, cylinders, cubes, pyramids, and rectangular prisms.
April 5
Happy Friday! Today, we:
- used our hands to make the sounds of a rain storm
- listened to some stories that Dylan wrote
- worked on "books" during literacy choices
- Read "The Magic Hockey Skates" and "The Ugly Duckling"
- worked on speed and balance in the gym and then played "Cat and Mouse" and "Freeze Tag"
- made "Counting Pets" books in math
Sneak Peek: Monday is Maxine's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please send boots and rain-jackets as we never know what kind of weather we'll be getting and we like to get outside every day!
- used our hands to make the sounds of a rain storm
- listened to some stories that Dylan wrote
- worked on "books" during literacy choices
- Read "The Magic Hockey Skates" and "The Ugly Duckling"
- worked on speed and balance in the gym and then played "Cat and Mouse" and "Freeze Tag"
- made "Counting Pets" books in math
Sneak Peek: Monday is Maxine's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please send boots and rain-jackets as we never know what kind of weather we'll be getting and we like to get outside every day!
April 4
Another fun day in Kindergarten! Highlights included:
- Mrs. Wagner bringing her son Ronan to visit us! He is adorable and healthy, and the kids were very excited to meet him and to see Mrs. Wagner again.
- music with Ms. Moo
- reading "Peter Cottontail", and thinking about how the tradition of hunting for Easter eggs might have begun
- working with the letter Qq
- doing a variety of relay races in gym
- writing in our Book of Thoughts
- exploring a variety of 3-D objects, and building and playing with them
- playing outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Missoula Children's Theatre auditions are on Monday after school - please send the permission form with your child if s/he is interested in participating.
- Mrs. Wagner bringing her son Ronan to visit us! He is adorable and healthy, and the kids were very excited to meet him and to see Mrs. Wagner again.
- music with Ms. Moo
- reading "Peter Cottontail", and thinking about how the tradition of hunting for Easter eggs might have begun
- working with the letter Qq
- doing a variety of relay races in gym
- writing in our Book of Thoughts
- exploring a variety of 3-D objects, and building and playing with them
- playing outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. Missoula Children's Theatre auditions are on Monday after school - please send the permission form with your child if s/he is interested in participating.
April 3
Hurray, the sunshine is back again! Today, we:
- Had lots of parents reading with us during booktime. Yay!
- illustrated our "Little Bunny" poems
- did some writing to complement the Easter eggs we made yesterday (we wrote in "thought bubbles" to show what the chick inside the egg might be thinking)
- played a variety of math games
- had lots of fun in our large dramatic play area, which is now set up as a vet's office
- played "Sleeping Bunnies" and "Fly, chicks, fly" in gym, and also worked on some ball skills with partners
- learned how to use our "Word Wall" to find words to use during writing
- had Literacy Choice time
- listened to the story "Hopper Hunts for Spring"
- talked about Self-Regulation after reading "Watch Me Throw the Ball"
- played outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brooklynn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching tomorrow. We have music and gym.
Remember that Missoula Children's Theatre tryouts are on Monday after school. This is a fantastic experience for any children interested in being part of a real dramatic production. This year's performance is "The Tortoise and the Hare", and it will take place on the following Saturday. If your child is interested, please encourage him/her to audition!
- Had lots of parents reading with us during booktime. Yay!
- illustrated our "Little Bunny" poems
- did some writing to complement the Easter eggs we made yesterday (we wrote in "thought bubbles" to show what the chick inside the egg might be thinking)
- played a variety of math games
- had lots of fun in our large dramatic play area, which is now set up as a vet's office
- played "Sleeping Bunnies" and "Fly, chicks, fly" in gym, and also worked on some ball skills with partners
- learned how to use our "Word Wall" to find words to use during writing
- had Literacy Choice time
- listened to the story "Hopper Hunts for Spring"
- talked about Self-Regulation after reading "Watch Me Throw the Ball"
- played outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brooklynn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching tomorrow. We have music and gym.
Remember that Missoula Children's Theatre tryouts are on Monday after school. This is a fantastic experience for any children interested in being part of a real dramatic production. This year's performance is "The Tortoise and the Hare", and it will take place on the following Saturday. If your child is interested, please encourage him/her to audition!
April 2
Welcome back, everyone! It was nice to see all the smiling faces coming into the classroom this morning. The kids seemed excited to see each other after their time apart. :)
Today, we:
- talked in small groups about what we did over Spring Break and Easter
- decorated and painted some Easter egg pictures
- talked about the letter Qq, printed it, and learned our new letter chant (Q says /qu/. Quail on a quilt; /qu/, /qu/, /qu/.)
- had music with Ms. Moo
- learned our new poem ("The Little Bunny")
- did some guided reading with Mrs. Fieldhouse in small groups
- played a letter/sound and reading game with blocks
- used Easter eggs for an adding activity
- played outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
In the third term of kindergarten, we will have a major focus on supporting your child's developing reading and writing skills. Once a week, I will be sending little books home for you to read with your child. Please support your child in reading to you - I will include some suggestions about how to do this with the books.
Now that we are back in the school routine, please continue to play the games sent home with the report card.
With Earth day approaching later in April, a lot of our learning will centre around taking care of our environment. You can enhance your child's learning at school by talking with him/her about the things you do at home to help our Earth.
Today, we:
- talked in small groups about what we did over Spring Break and Easter
- decorated and painted some Easter egg pictures
- talked about the letter Qq, printed it, and learned our new letter chant (Q says /qu/. Quail on a quilt; /qu/, /qu/, /qu/.)
- had music with Ms. Moo
- learned our new poem ("The Little Bunny")
- did some guided reading with Mrs. Fieldhouse in small groups
- played a letter/sound and reading game with blocks
- used Easter eggs for an adding activity
- played outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
In the third term of kindergarten, we will have a major focus on supporting your child's developing reading and writing skills. Once a week, I will be sending little books home for you to read with your child. Please support your child in reading to you - I will include some suggestions about how to do this with the books.
Now that we are back in the school routine, please continue to play the games sent home with the report card.
With Earth day approaching later in April, a lot of our learning will centre around taking care of our environment. You can enhance your child's learning at school by talking with him/her about the things you do at home to help our Earth.
March 15
Wow, what a busy, wet week! We had an excellent turn-out to Student-Led Conferences last night. Thank you to all the parents who managed to attend. It is so meaningful for your children to be able to share their hard work with you!
On March 14 and 15, we:
-did presentations about our Community Posters
-played "Cat and Mouse" and had stations in the gym
-worked on the lower case letter "o"
-did some Easter Egg counting in math
-had Music with Mrs. Moo
-illustrated our poem, "Hello, Spring"
-read the Easter stories, "Hopper's Easter Surprise" and "The Smallest Bilby and the Easter Tale"
-designed Easter eggs
Sneak Peek: Tuesday, April 2nd is our first day back at school. Brody will be the helper. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
Have a wonderful holiday and a happy Easter!
On March 14 and 15, we:
-did presentations about our Community Posters
-played "Cat and Mouse" and had stations in the gym
-worked on the lower case letter "o"
-did some Easter Egg counting in math
-had Music with Mrs. Moo
-illustrated our poem, "Hello, Spring"
-read the Easter stories, "Hopper's Easter Surprise" and "The Smallest Bilby and the Easter Tale"
-designed Easter eggs
Sneak Peek: Tuesday, April 2nd is our first day back at school. Brody will be the helper. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
Have a wonderful holiday and a happy Easter!
March 13
Another wet day! The kids stayed inside at long recess, but went out for some fresh air this morning.
Again today, we spent lots of time working on our Community posters. They are now finished, and will be on display by tomorrow. The kids worked really hard to plan, illustrate, and write about places in our community that help children.
Today we also made our own counting book based on the book we read yesterday (Ten Black Dots).
We played "Four Corners" and "Lion Tag" in gym, and also had free choice time with equipment.
In the afternoon we worked with our Learning Partners in grades 4/5/6, continuing with our spider projects.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow we have music and gym. Children will be dismissed at 2:00 tomorrow for our Student-Led Conferences.
Again today, we spent lots of time working on our Community posters. They are now finished, and will be on display by tomorrow. The kids worked really hard to plan, illustrate, and write about places in our community that help children.
Today we also made our own counting book based on the book we read yesterday (Ten Black Dots).
We played "Four Corners" and "Lion Tag" in gym, and also had free choice time with equipment.
In the afternoon we worked with our Learning Partners in grades 4/5/6, continuing with our spider projects.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow we have music and gym. Children will be dismissed at 2:00 tomorrow for our Student-Led Conferences.
March 12
On this rainy day in Kindergarten, we:
- worked on Literacy choices first thing this morning
- had music with Ms. Murakami
- played a game with the goal of identifying each individual sound in a word
- spent a lot of time working on our community posters in our small groups
- read a counting book called Ten Black Dots
- read two Usborne books about community helpers (chef and teacher)
- talked about what we will do with our parents during Student Led Conferences
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Tyco's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym, and we will be continuing our spider projects during our Learning Partner time in the afternoon. Remember to book your Student Led Conference time with Mrs. White if you haven't done so already. Also, Hot Lunch orders must be placed online by Friday, and Booster Juice orders are due on Thursday.
- worked on Literacy choices first thing this morning
- had music with Ms. Murakami
- played a game with the goal of identifying each individual sound in a word
- spent a lot of time working on our community posters in our small groups
- read a counting book called Ten Black Dots
- read two Usborne books about community helpers (chef and teacher)
- talked about what we will do with our parents during Student Led Conferences
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Tyco's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have gym, and we will be continuing our spider projects during our Learning Partner time in the afternoon. Remember to book your Student Led Conference time with Mrs. White if you haven't done so already. Also, Hot Lunch orders must be placed online by Friday, and Booster Juice orders are due on Thursday.
March 11
Another busy day in Kindergarten!
Today two of our community groups (the "Community Garden" group and the "Community Park" group) started making their posters. It was neat to see their enthusiasm for the project, as well as the cooperation and planning that happened as they began working together. The other two groups will begin their posters tomorrow.
We learned our new letter chant (O says /ooo/; octopus in an office, /ooo/, /ooo/, /ooo/).
Kasey the Kindergarten Dog (puppet) introduced the kids to another aspect of self-regulation (paying attention even when it's hard).
The children have been very enthusiastic about writing lately, both during our focussed writing time and during times when they can choose their own activities. This is fantastic!
We had music with Ms. Moo and library with Mrs. Wylie today. All library books are due back before Spring Break, so we didn't check any new ones out today.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madelyn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have music in the morning. A reminder to please sign up for Student-Led Conferences, which take place on Thursday. You can do this either online or through Mrs. White in the office. Thursday is an early (2:00) dismissal day.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Please take the time to cut out the letter or word cards that were sent home with report cards, and to play the suggested games. Playing these games once or twice a week will reinforce the learning that is taking place at school, and will really help your child's reading and writing to develop more quickly and effectively.
Please share the contents of your child's report card with him/her, going over what s/he is doing especially well, and what s/he needs to focus on at school.
Today two of our community groups (the "Community Garden" group and the "Community Park" group) started making their posters. It was neat to see their enthusiasm for the project, as well as the cooperation and planning that happened as they began working together. The other two groups will begin their posters tomorrow.
We learned our new letter chant (O says /ooo/; octopus in an office, /ooo/, /ooo/, /ooo/).
Kasey the Kindergarten Dog (puppet) introduced the kids to another aspect of self-regulation (paying attention even when it's hard).
The children have been very enthusiastic about writing lately, both during our focussed writing time and during times when they can choose their own activities. This is fantastic!
We had music with Ms. Moo and library with Mrs. Wylie today. All library books are due back before Spring Break, so we didn't check any new ones out today.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madelyn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We have music in the morning. A reminder to please sign up for Student-Led Conferences, which take place on Thursday. You can do this either online or through Mrs. White in the office. Thursday is an early (2:00) dismissal day.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Please take the time to cut out the letter or word cards that were sent home with report cards, and to play the suggested games. Playing these games once or twice a week will reinforce the learning that is taking place at school, and will really help your child's reading and writing to develop more quickly and effectively.
Please share the contents of your child's report card with him/her, going over what s/he is doing especially well, and what s/he needs to focus on at school.
March 8
Yay Sunshine! We had a lovely day in the sun today. We worked on illustrations for our weekly poem, "Who Are the People in Your Neighbourhood?", and played "Lion Tag", "Animal Circles" and soccer in the gym. The children have been working hard to keep the classroom clean and tidy, and to look after their belongings. During exploration time, children have been encouraged to solve disagreements and work together to come to solutions. There were many positive examples of this yesterday and today. Well done!
In the afternoon, Family Groups had lots of fun in the gym, library, outside, and in classrooms . We decided to end the day by soaking in a little more sunshine with an outside play.
Sneak Peek: Monday is Dylan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
In the afternoon, Family Groups had lots of fun in the gym, library, outside, and in classrooms . We decided to end the day by soaking in a little more sunshine with an outside play.
Sneak Peek: Monday is Dylan's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
March 6
We had a fantastic field trip this morning! We took the Transit Bus downtown, and saw lots of familiar places in our community on the way. When we got off the bus, we got to go on a behind-the-scenes tour of Save-On Foods. We saw the loading area, the bulk food storage, the produce fridge, the offices, and we even went in the huge deep freeze! We also got to sample food from the deli, produce section, and bakery. After that, we walked down to the Public Library, where Kate read us a story. Then we toured the Community Gardens before heading to the new Stan Clarke Park for a play and a snack. It was a great tour of our community and we were very happy that the weather cooperated!
Most of this afternoon was spent with our Learning Partners. Our focus right now is on non-fiction books, specifically learning about spiders. Half of us worked on planning and building live spider traps, while the other half worked on a PowerPoint presentation on spiders in the computer lab. There was lots of excitement, great ideas, and teamwork!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. We have music and gym. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching.
Most of this afternoon was spent with our Learning Partners. Our focus right now is on non-fiction books, specifically learning about spiders. Half of us worked on planning and building live spider traps, while the other half worked on a PowerPoint presentation on spiders in the computer lab. There was lots of excitement, great ideas, and teamwork!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. We have music and gym. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching.
March 4
We love the sunny weather! Spring is in the air...
Today's activities included:
- Literacy Choices first thing this morning, with Mrs. Whitehead (our school's Primary Learner Support Teacher) here to play a game focussing on beginning sounds with a small group of children
- learning our new letter chant (L says /lll/. Lobster in a lighthouse, /lll/, /lll/, /lll/.)
- some one-to-one letter/sound work with Mrs. Fieldhouse
- a birthday celebration and story for Rohan and Nolan, who are now six!
- exploring our new set-up in our large dramatic play area - a Grocery Store
- reading and talking more about jobs in our community
- beginning to plan our projects based on the places that we will visit during our field trip (places that help children in our community)
- continuing to "fill each other's buckets" with kind words and actions (see our display in the hallway outside our classroom)
- music with Ms. Moo
- book exchange at the library
- outside play in the sunny afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dontaye's helper day. We have music in the morning. Please remember to return your field trip permission forms, along with $2.50 for the bus!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Read "patterned books" with your child. These are books that follow a predictable text pattern (e.g., "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?). Once your child has a feel for the pattern, have him or her take over reading, using picture and text cues to figure out unknown words. Another way to read books like this is choral reading, where you and your child read the words together. Your child can put his or her finger underneath each word as s/he reads it.
As you are out and about with your child, talk about the services that are available to people in our community. Which people and places help children? What services do other places offer? Why is it important for a town to have doctors' offices, grocery stores, banks, hardware stores, etc.?
Talk about numbers that come "before" and "after" a given number, or that are "one more than" and "one less than" with your child. For example, if your child is setting the table with four plates, ask him/her how many plates you would need if one more person came, or if one less person was eating.
Today's activities included:
- Literacy Choices first thing this morning, with Mrs. Whitehead (our school's Primary Learner Support Teacher) here to play a game focussing on beginning sounds with a small group of children
- learning our new letter chant (L says /lll/. Lobster in a lighthouse, /lll/, /lll/, /lll/.)
- some one-to-one letter/sound work with Mrs. Fieldhouse
- a birthday celebration and story for Rohan and Nolan, who are now six!
- exploring our new set-up in our large dramatic play area - a Grocery Store
- reading and talking more about jobs in our community
- beginning to plan our projects based on the places that we will visit during our field trip (places that help children in our community)
- continuing to "fill each other's buckets" with kind words and actions (see our display in the hallway outside our classroom)
- music with Ms. Moo
- book exchange at the library
- outside play in the sunny afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dontaye's helper day. We have music in the morning. Please remember to return your field trip permission forms, along with $2.50 for the bus!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Read "patterned books" with your child. These are books that follow a predictable text pattern (e.g., "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?). Once your child has a feel for the pattern, have him or her take over reading, using picture and text cues to figure out unknown words. Another way to read books like this is choral reading, where you and your child read the words together. Your child can put his or her finger underneath each word as s/he reads it.
As you are out and about with your child, talk about the services that are available to people in our community. Which people and places help children? What services do other places offer? Why is it important for a town to have doctors' offices, grocery stores, banks, hardware stores, etc.?
Talk about numbers that come "before" and "after" a given number, or that are "one more than" and "one less than" with your child. For example, if your child is setting the table with four plates, ask him/her how many plates you would need if one more person came, or if one less person was eating.
February 28/March 1
Rain, rain GO AWAY!! We had a couple of soggy/snowy days but we've managed to make the most of being stuck inside and got lots of work done. We:
- Read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and Bear and Bird
- Practiced counting and writing numbers in math (focusing on getting numbers the right way around)
- had a special visitor, "Miss Jenna" come and teach us yoga in gym class
- wrote about "When I am big" in our thoughts books
- celebrated Rohan's birthday with cupcakes (thank you, Rohan!)
- Started writing messages to fill each other's buckets
- practiced the lower case letter 'g' (making sure the tail gets tucked under the body so it doesn't get wet!)
- played "wishing well" and "rhythm master"
Sneak Peek: Monday is Lily's special helper day. It's also Nolan's birthday! Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please remember to send in your permission slips and money for the field trip on Wednesday!
- Read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and Bear and Bird
- Practiced counting and writing numbers in math (focusing on getting numbers the right way around)
- had a special visitor, "Miss Jenna" come and teach us yoga in gym class
- wrote about "When I am big" in our thoughts books
- celebrated Rohan's birthday with cupcakes (thank you, Rohan!)
- Started writing messages to fill each other's buckets
- practiced the lower case letter 'g' (making sure the tail gets tucked under the body so it doesn't get wet!)
- played "wishing well" and "rhythm master"
Sneak Peek: Monday is Lily's special helper day. It's also Nolan's birthday! Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please remember to send in your permission slips and money for the field trip on Wednesday!
February 27
Today was a high-energy day in our classroom! Spring fever?!?
We began the day with our school-wide Pink Day Anti-Bullying Assembly, where we listed to Mr. Lorette and some older students speak, heard some beautiful and touching songs by the school choir, and watched a couple of powerful videos about bullying and standing up to bullies. Afterwards, we had a long discussion about the videos and the ideas that they raised. I was very proud of our class, both for their thoughtful conversation on this topic, and for sitting quietly and respectfully through a long assembly. We were very glad to move to some music when we got back to class!
Another major focus today was the continued discussion about our community. We watched some videos on the iPad about places similar to some in our community, and then we made a class book about places we would like to visit in our community. We also took the first step towards beginning our community projects, which was to form groups based upon mutual interest in a certain place in our community.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. We have music and gym. Permission slips for our upcoming field trip will be handed out.
We began the day with our school-wide Pink Day Anti-Bullying Assembly, where we listed to Mr. Lorette and some older students speak, heard some beautiful and touching songs by the school choir, and watched a couple of powerful videos about bullying and standing up to bullies. Afterwards, we had a long discussion about the videos and the ideas that they raised. I was very proud of our class, both for their thoughtful conversation on this topic, and for sitting quietly and respectfully through a long assembly. We were very glad to move to some music when we got back to class!
Another major focus today was the continued discussion about our community. We watched some videos on the iPad about places similar to some in our community, and then we made a class book about places we would like to visit in our community. We also took the first step towards beginning our community projects, which was to form groups based upon mutual interest in a certain place in our community.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. We have music and gym. Permission slips for our upcoming field trip will be handed out.
February 25 & 26
Sorry - I updated the website yesterday, but it must not have posted correctly.
On Monday we began talking about our community and the people who help us within our community. This will be a focus of study until Spring Break. We plan to pursue topics and questions of interest in small groups, to come up with a final project by each group. We have been reading books and looking at pictures about a variety of community helpers.
Other things that we have been working on include:
- learning our new letter chant (G says /ggg/. Goose in the grass; /ggg/, /ggg/, /ggg/.)
- practicing printing uppercase G
- playing games involving "partners for 10" in math
- reviewing number recognition
- listening for beginning and ending sounds
- working on stretching words to print during "Work on Writing", which is a very popular choice during Literacy Choices at this time - check out the photos page for some samples of the wonderful writing the children have been doing (they are very excited about this)
- reading about and discussing positive and negative behaviours in relationships (We read the book Give Maggie a Chance during our library time yesterday, and we are also working on an ongoing activity based on the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, which involves recording positive things that have been said or done by our class members)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Eila's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to wear pink for Anti-Bullying Day tomorrow. We have our Pink Day assembly in the morning.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Discuss Anti-Bullying Day with your child. Ask your child about the characters in Give Maggie a Chance. What kind of behaviours did Sam and Maggie display? (caring; loyalty; kindness; strength to stand up against someone doing something wrong). You may want to role-play some different scenarios with your child so that s/he can think about how to react in certain situations that could occur at school.
Play "I Spy" using beginning sounds with your child. (ie: "I Spy something that begins with the sound /sss/.) If this is easy for your child, try it with ending sounds.
On Monday we began talking about our community and the people who help us within our community. This will be a focus of study until Spring Break. We plan to pursue topics and questions of interest in small groups, to come up with a final project by each group. We have been reading books and looking at pictures about a variety of community helpers.
Other things that we have been working on include:
- learning our new letter chant (G says /ggg/. Goose in the grass; /ggg/, /ggg/, /ggg/.)
- practicing printing uppercase G
- playing games involving "partners for 10" in math
- reviewing number recognition
- listening for beginning and ending sounds
- working on stretching words to print during "Work on Writing", which is a very popular choice during Literacy Choices at this time - check out the photos page for some samples of the wonderful writing the children have been doing (they are very excited about this)
- reading about and discussing positive and negative behaviours in relationships (We read the book Give Maggie a Chance during our library time yesterday, and we are also working on an ongoing activity based on the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, which involves recording positive things that have been said or done by our class members)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Eila's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Remember to wear pink for Anti-Bullying Day tomorrow. We have our Pink Day assembly in the morning.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Discuss Anti-Bullying Day with your child. Ask your child about the characters in Give Maggie a Chance. What kind of behaviours did Sam and Maggie display? (caring; loyalty; kindness; strength to stand up against someone doing something wrong). You may want to role-play some different scenarios with your child so that s/he can think about how to react in certain situations that could occur at school.
Play "I Spy" using beginning sounds with your child. (ie: "I Spy something that begins with the sound /sss/.) If this is easy for your child, try it with ending sounds.
February 21/22nd
Thursday and Friday have been busy days. We:
- practiced our Literacy Choices; students are really enjoying "Working on Words"
- worked on counting and drawing quantities to match numerals in Math
- played "Bucket Filling Tag" and "Farm Tag" in Gym, and worked on ball handling skills
- played a rhyming game with dice, making rhyming words ending in "at", "ing", "et". "all", "ug", and "an"
- sang "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" and "Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"
- participated in a variety of activities with our Family Groups
- finished painting our life-sized outlines of ourselves
- tried to stay dry in the rain!
Sneak Peek: Monday is Hannah's special helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be beginning our unit about "Communities". Please remember to send boots and rain gear to school if it's raining because we try to get outside every day!
- practiced our Literacy Choices; students are really enjoying "Working on Words"
- worked on counting and drawing quantities to match numerals in Math
- played "Bucket Filling Tag" and "Farm Tag" in Gym, and worked on ball handling skills
- played a rhyming game with dice, making rhyming words ending in "at", "ing", "et". "all", "ug", and "an"
- sang "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" and "Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed"
- participated in a variety of activities with our Family Groups
- finished painting our life-sized outlines of ourselves
- tried to stay dry in the rain!
Sneak Peek: Monday is Hannah's special helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. We will be beginning our unit about "Communities". Please remember to send boots and rain gear to school if it's raining because we try to get outside every day!
Februrary 19
Today was all about 100! We:
- read books about 100 (Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for the 100th Day of Kindergarten; Happy 100th Day, which I read to the students and then they read in small groups with me
- jumped 100 jumping jacks, resting after each group of 10
- took 100 giant steps
- finished drawing ourselves at 100 years old
- recited our "One Hundredth Day of School" poem
- counted our 100th day of school
- toured the fantastic exhibits in our 100's Museum, which included 100 buttons, pennies, paperclips, Lego pieces, chicks, puffballs, marshmallows and more, all in interestingly arranged displays
- counted 100 candies on our 100-day celebration cake, and enjoyed eating it
- and finally, had lots of fun in the sunshine in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brooklynn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse is teaching. We will have gym and Learning Partners, and some visitors from the School Board will be popping into our classroom for a visit in the afternoon.
- read books about 100 (Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for the 100th Day of Kindergarten; Happy 100th Day, which I read to the students and then they read in small groups with me
- jumped 100 jumping jacks, resting after each group of 10
- took 100 giant steps
- finished drawing ourselves at 100 years old
- recited our "One Hundredth Day of School" poem
- counted our 100th day of school
- toured the fantastic exhibits in our 100's Museum, which included 100 buttons, pennies, paperclips, Lego pieces, chicks, puffballs, marshmallows and more, all in interestingly arranged displays
- counted 100 candies on our 100-day celebration cake, and enjoyed eating it
- and finally, had lots of fun in the sunshine in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Brooklynn's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse is teaching. We will have gym and Learning Partners, and some visitors from the School Board will be popping into our classroom for a visit in the afternoon.
February 18
We have a lot of excitement in our classroom today about tomorrow being the 100th day of kindergarten! Highlights from today included:
- using gel pads to practice "tricky letters" (the letters that are difficult for each child)
- working on writing our speech bubbles and painting our friendship figures for our friendship display
- talking about self-regulation (we read Let's Go for a Drive, another "Gerald and Piggie" book, which related very well to our newest focus in self-regulation, which is all about planning ahead)
- learning our new letter chant (F says /fff/. Flower in a field; /fff/, /fff/, /fff/), and printing the uppercase letter F
- music with Ms. Moo
- preparing for our 100th day of kindergarten by counting the 99 days of school we've had so far; reading 100 Days of Fun at School; and thinking/drawing about what we think we might look like when we are 100 years old
- seeing some tiny fuzzy creatures as Daisy's sharing
- exchanging our books at the library, and listening to a story from Mrs. Wylie
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is James' helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please remember your display of 100 things for our Hundreds Museum!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
As you are helping your child to prepare his/her display of 100 things, count with your child. You can count by 1's to 100 and also by 10's (10, 20, 30...).
Ask your child about the book we read today called Let's Go for a Drive. Piggie and Gerald were trying to make a plan. What did they learn? (They learned that it is a good idea to make a plan, but that it is also okay to change a plan sometimes). Talk with your child about times in his/her life when it is good idea to make a plan.
Ask your child what being a "bucket-filler" means, and how s/he can be a bucket-filler at home and at school. (A "bucket-filler" means that you make other people feel good about themselves - you "fill their bucket" - by saying and doing kind things.)
- using gel pads to practice "tricky letters" (the letters that are difficult for each child)
- working on writing our speech bubbles and painting our friendship figures for our friendship display
- talking about self-regulation (we read Let's Go for a Drive, another "Gerald and Piggie" book, which related very well to our newest focus in self-regulation, which is all about planning ahead)
- learning our new letter chant (F says /fff/. Flower in a field; /fff/, /fff/, /fff/), and printing the uppercase letter F
- music with Ms. Moo
- preparing for our 100th day of kindergarten by counting the 99 days of school we've had so far; reading 100 Days of Fun at School; and thinking/drawing about what we think we might look like when we are 100 years old
- seeing some tiny fuzzy creatures as Daisy's sharing
- exchanging our books at the library, and listening to a story from Mrs. Wylie
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is James' helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching. Please remember your display of 100 things for our Hundreds Museum!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
As you are helping your child to prepare his/her display of 100 things, count with your child. You can count by 1's to 100 and also by 10's (10, 20, 30...).
Ask your child about the book we read today called Let's Go for a Drive. Piggie and Gerald were trying to make a plan. What did they learn? (They learned that it is a good idea to make a plan, but that it is also okay to change a plan sometimes). Talk with your child about times in his/her life when it is good idea to make a plan.
Ask your child what being a "bucket-filler" means, and how s/he can be a bucket-filler at home and at school. (A "bucket-filler" means that you make other people feel good about themselves - you "fill their bucket" - by saying and doing kind things.)
February 14/15
What a busy end to the week! I (Mrs. Murgatroyd) am really enjoying getting to know all the students and we had lots of fun learning today and yesterday. Some highlights included:
-practising the lower case letter 'b'
-illustrating our Poem of the Week, "Roses are Red"
-music with Mrs. Moo
-listening to the books The Trouble With Friends and New Neighbours and continuing to discuss the traits of a good friend
-practising the Mexican Hat Dance in the gym and playing with scoops and balls, scooters, and hula hoops
-handing out our Valentines cards and treats (Thank you Danni and Lily for the cupcakes!)
-Discussing being a "bucket filler" and writing about this in our Book of Thoughts
-participating in Family Groups- activities included relays in the gym, watching a Planet Earth Movie, making animals for ocean and river murals, and buddy reading
Sneak Peek: Monday is Daisy's special helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
-practising the lower case letter 'b'
-illustrating our Poem of the Week, "Roses are Red"
-music with Mrs. Moo
-listening to the books The Trouble With Friends and New Neighbours and continuing to discuss the traits of a good friend
-practising the Mexican Hat Dance in the gym and playing with scoops and balls, scooters, and hula hoops
-handing out our Valentines cards and treats (Thank you Danni and Lily for the cupcakes!)
-Discussing being a "bucket filler" and writing about this in our Book of Thoughts
-participating in Family Groups- activities included relays in the gym, watching a Planet Earth Movie, making animals for ocean and river murals, and buddy reading
Sneak Peek: Monday is Daisy's special helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching.
February 13
Today was all about hearts, happiness, love and friendship! Some highlights of today included:
- making Valentine mailboxes with the help of Claudia
- alternating between playing soccer and playing with scoops, balls and scooters in gym (everyone played everything - it was neat to see some of the girls who haven't played soccer before really enjoying themselves!)
- working on Reading With Someone during Literacy Choices
- exchanging books at the library
- listening to the books Can I Play Too? and Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, and discussing the themes of friendship, kindness, and inclusion
- working on painting our friendship figures
- working and playing games with the letter B
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. The children will go to music and gym. Mrs. Murgatroyd will also be teaching on Friday. Have a LOVE-ly day! :)
- making Valentine mailboxes with the help of Claudia
- alternating between playing soccer and playing with scoops, balls and scooters in gym (everyone played everything - it was neat to see some of the girls who haven't played soccer before really enjoying themselves!)
- working on Reading With Someone during Literacy Choices
- exchanging books at the library
- listening to the books Can I Play Too? and Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, and discussing the themes of friendship, kindness, and inclusion
- working on painting our friendship figures
- working and playing games with the letter B
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Valentine's Day! Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching. The children will go to music and gym. Mrs. Murgatroyd will also be teaching on Friday. Have a LOVE-ly day! :)
February 12
Everyone seemed a little tired after the long weekend, but we had a good day in kindergarten. Some highlights of today included:
- illustrating our "Good Friend" poems (students are working on remembering our illustrating criteria and trying to meet that criteria in their drawings)
- music with Ms. Moo (Skinamarinky Dinky Dink)
- learning our new letter chant (B says /bbb/; bee on the beach, /bbb/, /bbb/, /bbb/), and working on printing the uppercase B
- learning our poem of the week "Roses are Red"
- working on the writing for our friendship art project, and beginning to paint our friendship figures
- sorting "teeny tiny treasures" according to their beginning sound
- making domino cards for the number 6
- reading to self or with someone during Literacy Choices
- listening to a Splat the Cat Valentine story, as well as the Handbook for Friends, which involved lots of partner discussion about choices in friendships
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Remember to prepare Valentine cards if you would like to bring them on Thursday.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Look for things that begin with the sound /bbb/ around your house. Is your child able to print lowercase b beginning at the top, going straight to the bottom, then retracing halfway up before going down to the right to complete the curve? This is a tricky letter for children to print properly.
As your child is printing names on Valentines, encourage him/her to use an uppercase letter at the beginning of a name, and then lowercase for the rest.
You can play a sorting game with your child using toys and objects around the house. Gather a variety of objects beginning with 3 or 4 sounds (eg: paperclip, pen, pillow; ring, rock, rabbit, ribbon; bib, bottle, baby, button). Put all the objects in the middle of the table. Put out 3 pieces of paper with the appropriate letters printing on them (Pp; Rr; Bb). Can your child sort the objects onto the appropriate papers?
- illustrating our "Good Friend" poems (students are working on remembering our illustrating criteria and trying to meet that criteria in their drawings)
- music with Ms. Moo (Skinamarinky Dinky Dink)
- learning our new letter chant (B says /bbb/; bee on the beach, /bbb/, /bbb/, /bbb/), and working on printing the uppercase B
- learning our poem of the week "Roses are Red"
- working on the writing for our friendship art project, and beginning to paint our friendship figures
- sorting "teeny tiny treasures" according to their beginning sound
- making domino cards for the number 6
- reading to self or with someone during Literacy Choices
- listening to a Splat the Cat Valentine story, as well as the Handbook for Friends, which involved lots of partner discussion about choices in friendships
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Remember to prepare Valentine cards if you would like to bring them on Thursday.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Look for things that begin with the sound /bbb/ around your house. Is your child able to print lowercase b beginning at the top, going straight to the bottom, then retracing halfway up before going down to the right to complete the curve? This is a tricky letter for children to print properly.
As your child is printing names on Valentines, encourage him/her to use an uppercase letter at the beginning of a name, and then lowercase for the rest.
You can play a sorting game with your child using toys and objects around the house. Gather a variety of objects beginning with 3 or 4 sounds (eg: paperclip, pen, pillow; ring, rock, rabbit, ribbon; bib, bottle, baby, button). Put all the objects in the middle of the table. Put out 3 pieces of paper with the appropriate letters printing on them (Pp; Rr; Bb). Can your child sort the objects onto the appropriate papers?
February 5 and 6
We had a fantastic field trip today! Despite the wet weather, the kids had a great time. They did very well with the walk and enjoyed the bus ride back. We were fortunate to see a couple of eagles eating on the beach, and we made good use of the binoculars to see some others in the trees. We also enjoyed our hot chocolate at Bean Brackendale. Most importantly, we had a great time with our Learning Partners! Thank you so much to the parents who were able to accompany us on this trip.
This week, with Valentine's Day fast approaching, we began to discuss the theme of friendship. We are working towards answering the question "What makes a good friend?". We will be reading books and poems about friendship and kindness and we are working on a friendship art project that will be displayed around the school.
Other things we have been working on in the past couple of days include:
- The letter Yy (Y says /yyy/. Yak with some yarn; /yyy/, /yyy/, /yyy/).
- Our weekly poem ("You are my Good Friend", to the tune of "You are My Sunshine")
- writing about friendship
- comparing, building, and taking apart numbers to 10
- The Mexican Hat Dance and the Hokey Pokey in gym
- Reading to Self and Reading with Someone for 10 minutes at a time
- listening for and identifying beginning and ending sounds
- playing in our new dramatic play area, which is currently set up as a restaurant
- talking about self-regulation: so far we have focussed our discussion on the areas of "turn-taking" and "struggling through hard parts to learn something new"
We also welcomed Claudia and Magdalena, two teachers from Chile, into our classroom this morning. They are here to learn more about how we teach in Canada.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. We have music and gym. Remember that there is no school on Friday or Monday, due a professional day and Family Day.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk with your child about what makes a good friend. What do your child's friends do that make him/her feel good? What might they do that makes him/her feel bad? You can talk about your friends as well. Sometimes it is very eye-opening for children to realize that adults have positive and negative relationships in their lives as well.
Ask your child to show you the Mexican Hat Dance! :)
Is your child able to identify the beginning and ending sounds of words? You can play "I Spy" using beginning and ending sounds. Have fun!
This week, with Valentine's Day fast approaching, we began to discuss the theme of friendship. We are working towards answering the question "What makes a good friend?". We will be reading books and poems about friendship and kindness and we are working on a friendship art project that will be displayed around the school.
Other things we have been working on in the past couple of days include:
- The letter Yy (Y says /yyy/. Yak with some yarn; /yyy/, /yyy/, /yyy/).
- Our weekly poem ("You are my Good Friend", to the tune of "You are My Sunshine")
- writing about friendship
- comparing, building, and taking apart numbers to 10
- The Mexican Hat Dance and the Hokey Pokey in gym
- Reading to Self and Reading with Someone for 10 minutes at a time
- listening for and identifying beginning and ending sounds
- playing in our new dramatic play area, which is currently set up as a restaurant
- talking about self-regulation: so far we have focussed our discussion on the areas of "turn-taking" and "struggling through hard parts to learn something new"
We also welcomed Claudia and Magdalena, two teachers from Chile, into our classroom this morning. They are here to learn more about how we teach in Canada.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. We have music and gym. Remember that there is no school on Friday or Monday, due a professional day and Family Day.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk with your child about what makes a good friend. What do your child's friends do that make him/her feel good? What might they do that makes him/her feel bad? You can talk about your friends as well. Sometimes it is very eye-opening for children to realize that adults have positive and negative relationships in their lives as well.
Ask your child to show you the Mexican Hat Dance! :)
Is your child able to identify the beginning and ending sounds of words? You can play "I Spy" using beginning and ending sounds. Have fun!
January 31
Today was another busy day in kindergarten! Highlights included:
- Lots of parents joining in for booktime as usual. Thank you - your help and support is so appreciated!
- Music with Ms. Moo
- We did a partner math activity about buying apples. I bought 10 apples. I took out 5 red apples. How many green apples were still in my bag? We did this with different configurations which made 10 in all.
- Reading and talking about how to keep our bodies safe. We read Pooh and the Strangers and Never Talk to Strangers. We discussed the ideas in these books, and we also reviewed good touching/bad touching and the hazardous material signs we have learned.
- Reading to self for 10 minutes. Hurray!
- Warming up with the Hokey Pokey in gym, and then practicing our Mexican Hat Dance. We ended gym with some free equipment time.
- Working on the "_in" word family (in, win, pin, chin, etc.).
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dylan's helper day. We have gym. Tomorrow we will talk more about Groundhog Day, will do some shadow activities, and will make predictions about whether or not he will see his shadow.
- Lots of parents joining in for booktime as usual. Thank you - your help and support is so appreciated!
- Music with Ms. Moo
- We did a partner math activity about buying apples. I bought 10 apples. I took out 5 red apples. How many green apples were still in my bag? We did this with different configurations which made 10 in all.
- Reading and talking about how to keep our bodies safe. We read Pooh and the Strangers and Never Talk to Strangers. We discussed the ideas in these books, and we also reviewed good touching/bad touching and the hazardous material signs we have learned.
- Reading to self for 10 minutes. Hurray!
- Warming up with the Hokey Pokey in gym, and then practicing our Mexican Hat Dance. We ended gym with some free equipment time.
- Working on the "_in" word family (in, win, pin, chin, etc.).
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Dylan's helper day. We have gym. Tomorrow we will talk more about Groundhog Day, will do some shadow activities, and will make predictions about whether or not he will see his shadow.
January 29
Today we had a lot of kids away sick, but it was still a busy day in our classroom! Some of our activities today included:
- learning our new letter chant (V says /vvv/. Violin in the van; /vvv/, /vvv/, /vvv/), and printing the letter v
- practicing the tricky "magic c" letters in sand (c, a, d)
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- reading our poem of the week (The Furry Little Groundhog)
- doing an activity with unifix cubes during math that involved estimating, counting and thinking about more/less/equal
- creating amazing things with our new "Inventor's Table" during Exploration Time
- Reading to Selves for 9 minutes!!! The kids are almost at their goal of reading for 10 minutes!
- working with me one-to-one to demonstrate knowledge of the letter names and sounds we have worked on so far
- enjoying David's roly-poly doggie during his sharing time
- learning to recognize signs for common hazards (poisonous, flammable, explosive, corrosive)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. We have Learning Partners in the afternoon as well as gym. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching, due to some scheduling issues with another teacher. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching Thursday and Friday.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Have your child help you to look for any hazardous materials in your house (marked with the signs listed above), and move them out of reach of children if they are not already there. Today we talked about the fact that although your child may know not to touch dangerous substances, they could have a friend over who isn't as aware.
We are working on the "magic c" letters, as many of the children in our class are struggling with these. Help your child to practice printing c, a, d, and g, beginning with the "c" shape. Your child can trace these letters in a shallow tray of sand, salt or jello powder to make it more interesting.
If your child does not yet know the letter names and sounds that we have covered so far, please work with him or her at home to help solidify these. If you would like suggestions for games, etc., please come in and see me. The expectation is that children will know most of these letter names and sounds by the next reporting period, in a month.
Your child can practice "Read to Self" at home. Ask him or her to get 5 or 6 books and choose a quiet place to read by him or herself for up to 10 minutes. It's a great way for your child to calm down as well as enjoy reading. Ask your child to show you what "Read to Self" looks like.
- learning our new letter chant (V says /vvv/. Violin in the van; /vvv/, /vvv/, /vvv/), and printing the letter v
- practicing the tricky "magic c" letters in sand (c, a, d)
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- reading our poem of the week (The Furry Little Groundhog)
- doing an activity with unifix cubes during math that involved estimating, counting and thinking about more/less/equal
- creating amazing things with our new "Inventor's Table" during Exploration Time
- Reading to Selves for 9 minutes!!! The kids are almost at their goal of reading for 10 minutes!
- working with me one-to-one to demonstrate knowledge of the letter names and sounds we have worked on so far
- enjoying David's roly-poly doggie during his sharing time
- learning to recognize signs for common hazards (poisonous, flammable, explosive, corrosive)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. We have Learning Partners in the afternoon as well as gym. Mrs. Murgatroyd will be teaching, due to some scheduling issues with another teacher. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching Thursday and Friday.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Have your child help you to look for any hazardous materials in your house (marked with the signs listed above), and move them out of reach of children if they are not already there. Today we talked about the fact that although your child may know not to touch dangerous substances, they could have a friend over who isn't as aware.
We are working on the "magic c" letters, as many of the children in our class are struggling with these. Help your child to practice printing c, a, d, and g, beginning with the "c" shape. Your child can trace these letters in a shallow tray of sand, salt or jello powder to make it more interesting.
If your child does not yet know the letter names and sounds that we have covered so far, please work with him or her at home to help solidify these. If you would like suggestions for games, etc., please come in and see me. The expectation is that children will know most of these letter names and sounds by the next reporting period, in a month.
Your child can practice "Read to Self" at home. Ask him or her to get 5 or 6 books and choose a quiet place to read by him or herself for up to 10 minutes. It's a great way for your child to calm down as well as enjoy reading. Ask your child to show you what "Read to Self" looks like.
January 23
Today our class raised $10 for the Hats for the Hospital fundraiser, and they enjoyed having the opportunity to express their personalities by wearing hats in school! This will continue for the rest of the week, so dig out those hats and bring in your loonies! Today's activities included:
- Drawing, cutting, and gluing body outlines to create people. Students designed their people and then thought of 3 body parts to label. They stretched each word, listening for sounds to print. Thank you to Annika's mom, Claudia, for helping with this.
- Learning about Railway Safety at a presentation in the gym. We learned to ALWAYS "Stop, Look and Listen" when approaching tracks, and to stay off the tracks except for when crossing them.
- Moving to different kinds of music in gym. We found out that we liked to dance and move differently depending on the music!
- Focussing on visualizing while listening to text. We practiced this with an excerpt from Chirp Magazine, and then we visualized while our Learning Partners read a poem called "Hippo Sandwich". Each child then drew a picture of what they had visualized.
- Tracing and then printing lowercase t, and looking for 't" words around the classroom.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. We have music and gym. Remember your hats and loonies!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk with your child about bodies. How are our bodies the same? How are they different? How do bodies change as you grow from an infant to an adult? Does your child know the more "obscure" body parts (jaw, hip, wrist, ankle, calf, thigh, etc.)? Does your child know the proper names for both male and female "private" parts? This is important knowledge for your child, and is part of the kindergarten curriculum.
- Drawing, cutting, and gluing body outlines to create people. Students designed their people and then thought of 3 body parts to label. They stretched each word, listening for sounds to print. Thank you to Annika's mom, Claudia, for helping with this.
- Learning about Railway Safety at a presentation in the gym. We learned to ALWAYS "Stop, Look and Listen" when approaching tracks, and to stay off the tracks except for when crossing them.
- Moving to different kinds of music in gym. We found out that we liked to dance and move differently depending on the music!
- Focussing on visualizing while listening to text. We practiced this with an excerpt from Chirp Magazine, and then we visualized while our Learning Partners read a poem called "Hippo Sandwich". Each child then drew a picture of what they had visualized.
- Tracing and then printing lowercase t, and looking for 't" words around the classroom.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. We have music and gym. Remember your hats and loonies!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk with your child about bodies. How are our bodies the same? How are they different? How do bodies change as you grow from an infant to an adult? Does your child know the more "obscure" body parts (jaw, hip, wrist, ankle, calf, thigh, etc.)? Does your child know the proper names for both male and female "private" parts? This is important knowledge for your child, and is part of the kindergarten curriculum.
January 22
We have an energetic classroom today! Great to see everyone happy. Today, we:
- began our day by releasing some energy, doing "The Muscle Hustle"
- read to ourselves for 5 minutes; these kids are really building their ability to focus for a longer period of time! :)
- had music with Ms. Moo
- made cards for Mrs. Wagner and her baby (who is expected to arrive sometime in the next week or so) during Exploration Time (thank you to Eila's mom, Sara, for helping with this)
- read our poem of the week, "Me"
- worked with the "_an" word family and the letter Tt
- enjoyed Eila's sharing item (a neat transparent tube with coloured liquids)
- played a game that involved counting forwards and backwards
- enjoyed the sunshine outside
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Danni's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching for the rest of the week. Remember to bring a dollar and wear a hat tomorrow to help raise money for our local hospital, if you'd like to.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Look for things that begin with the sound /ttt/ around home. Help your child to practice printing T and t by beginning at the top, doing a straight line down, and then jumping back up to make ONE line across.
Play a counting game in the car. Decide on your "out number" (e.g., 10). Each person takes a turn saying a number, counting up to 10. The person who ends up saying "10" is out. Change the "out number", and play it counting backwards as well.
- began our day by releasing some energy, doing "The Muscle Hustle"
- read to ourselves for 5 minutes; these kids are really building their ability to focus for a longer period of time! :)
- had music with Ms. Moo
- made cards for Mrs. Wagner and her baby (who is expected to arrive sometime in the next week or so) during Exploration Time (thank you to Eila's mom, Sara, for helping with this)
- read our poem of the week, "Me"
- worked with the "_an" word family and the letter Tt
- enjoyed Eila's sharing item (a neat transparent tube with coloured liquids)
- played a game that involved counting forwards and backwards
- enjoyed the sunshine outside
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Danni's helper day. Mrs. Fieldhouse will be teaching for the rest of the week. Remember to bring a dollar and wear a hat tomorrow to help raise money for our local hospital, if you'd like to.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Look for things that begin with the sound /ttt/ around home. Help your child to practice printing T and t by beginning at the top, doing a straight line down, and then jumping back up to make ONE line across.
Play a counting game in the car. Decide on your "out number" (e.g., 10). Each person takes a turn saying a number, counting up to 10. The person who ends up saying "10" is out. Change the "out number", and play it counting backwards as well.
January 18
Great to see everyone today! The students had a lot of energy today, must be the blue skies and sunshine we have been seeing.
Some highlights were:
- Celebrating Jacks birthday by reading Alice and the Birthday Giant and eating delicious cupcakes during afternoon snack
- Colouring and adding the 911 poem to our poem binders
- Watching the Have Fun Teaching P video and printing lower case P in our printing books
- We read to self again for 4 minutes and discussed what we read. Great to see how our stamina in building and we are remembering what we read
- Played tag and then with basket balls in the gym
- Met with our Family groups and discussed how important the Squamish hospital is. Coloured in hats for the Hats for Hospital fundraiser next week.
- Went outside on the slippery playground.
- Enjoyed Exploration time with lots of race car play, lego, drawing, moon sand, hospital, and light table tracing.
Sneak Peek: Mrs Wagner teaching on Monday, Eila’s helper day
Hats for Hospital fundraiser all week Monday the 21st to Friday the 25th . For $1/day students can wear a hat of their choice in school. All money raised is going to the Squamish hospital.
Have a great weekend it is supposed to get quite warm!
Some highlights were:
- Celebrating Jacks birthday by reading Alice and the Birthday Giant and eating delicious cupcakes during afternoon snack
- Colouring and adding the 911 poem to our poem binders
- Watching the Have Fun Teaching P video and printing lower case P in our printing books
- We read to self again for 4 minutes and discussed what we read. Great to see how our stamina in building and we are remembering what we read
- Played tag and then with basket balls in the gym
- Met with our Family groups and discussed how important the Squamish hospital is. Coloured in hats for the Hats for Hospital fundraiser next week.
- Went outside on the slippery playground.
- Enjoyed Exploration time with lots of race car play, lego, drawing, moon sand, hospital, and light table tracing.
Sneak Peek: Mrs Wagner teaching on Monday, Eila’s helper day
Hats for Hospital fundraiser all week Monday the 21st to Friday the 25th . For $1/day students can wear a hat of their choice in school. All money raised is going to the Squamish hospital.
Have a great weekend it is supposed to get quite warm!
January 15
Brrr! Glad to see all of the students wearing warm coats, toques and mitts in this weather.
We read for 4 minutes during "Read to Self" this morning! The children are building their ability to remain focussed for a longer period of time.
We are learning about safety. The first aspect of safety that we are exploring is "emergencies": when to call 911; what services can be accessed by calling 911; what to say when calling 911. Today we acted out a variety of situations and decided whether or not we should call 911. All the students practiced dialing 911 on our classroom phone, and also practiced giving their first and last name, clearly stating the situation, and giving their location. They did very well with this!
Other activities today included:
- thinking of words in the "_at" family (cat, bat, sat, etc.)
- reading the book Mmm.... Cookies! by Robert Munsch, and then doing a math activity with "cookies" and "candies" (thanks to Sara N. for her help with this)
- practicing the "P" chant and printing the letter (P says /ppp/; policeman in the park; /ppp/, /ppp/, /ppp/.)
- listening and dancing to Brooklynn's CD that she brought to share with us
- tracing shapes using our new light table
- playing in the Doctor's Office (the current theme for our large dramatic play area)
- playing on a very slippery playground in the afternoon sunshine
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Maxine's helper day. We have Learning Partners in the afternoon. We also have gym.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Discuss emergency situations and procedures with your child. Make sure that your child is feeling okay about the discussions we are having at school; some children can feel a lot of anxiety when talking about fires, injuries, or other emergency situations.
Does your child know his/her first and last name, phone number and street name? We are working on learning these things at school - please help by practicing them at home as well!
Ask your child to show you what "Read to Self" looks like. Can your child read to him or herself for 5 minutes (see previous posts for more information on this).
Look for things that begin with the sound /ppp/ around your house.
We read for 4 minutes during "Read to Self" this morning! The children are building their ability to remain focussed for a longer period of time.
We are learning about safety. The first aspect of safety that we are exploring is "emergencies": when to call 911; what services can be accessed by calling 911; what to say when calling 911. Today we acted out a variety of situations and decided whether or not we should call 911. All the students practiced dialing 911 on our classroom phone, and also practiced giving their first and last name, clearly stating the situation, and giving their location. They did very well with this!
Other activities today included:
- thinking of words in the "_at" family (cat, bat, sat, etc.)
- reading the book Mmm.... Cookies! by Robert Munsch, and then doing a math activity with "cookies" and "candies" (thanks to Sara N. for her help with this)
- practicing the "P" chant and printing the letter (P says /ppp/; policeman in the park; /ppp/, /ppp/, /ppp/.)
- listening and dancing to Brooklynn's CD that she brought to share with us
- tracing shapes using our new light table
- playing in the Doctor's Office (the current theme for our large dramatic play area)
- playing on a very slippery playground in the afternoon sunshine
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Maxine's helper day. We have Learning Partners in the afternoon. We also have gym.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Discuss emergency situations and procedures with your child. Make sure that your child is feeling okay about the discussions we are having at school; some children can feel a lot of anxiety when talking about fires, injuries, or other emergency situations.
Does your child know his/her first and last name, phone number and street name? We are working on learning these things at school - please help by practicing them at home as well!
Ask your child to show you what "Read to Self" looks like. Can your child read to him or herself for 5 minutes (see previous posts for more information on this).
Look for things that begin with the sound /ppp/ around your house.
January 10/11
On Thursday we welcomed a new student to our class. We were very pleased to have Dontaye join us; he is Paige's cousin, and he fit right in on his first day! Highlights of the last two days include:
- Continuing to work on "Reading to Self". The children are doing very well with this. We talked about what benefits "Read to Self" time has. They said: "It makes my brain grow bigger." "Reading is fun and interesting." "It makes me feel calm and peaceful." "It helps me to get better at learning to read."
- Playing a variety of games using "partners for 5" and played an active counting game called "Four Fish"
- We read Snowmen at Night and played a snowman tag game in gym. We also played "Four Corners" and had free time with a variety of equipment. On both days, the boys organized a soccer game in one end of the gym. They had lots of fun and worked up quite a sweat!
- Students wrote in their "Book of Thoughts". We are working on leaving spaces between words.
- worked with the word family _at
- finished our Space Posters and did some other space activites in Family Groups
Sneak Peek: Monday is Daisy's helper day. Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. We have book exchange and music.
Have a great weekend! :)
- Continuing to work on "Reading to Self". The children are doing very well with this. We talked about what benefits "Read to Self" time has. They said: "It makes my brain grow bigger." "Reading is fun and interesting." "It makes me feel calm and peaceful." "It helps me to get better at learning to read."
- Playing a variety of games using "partners for 5" and played an active counting game called "Four Fish"
- We read Snowmen at Night and played a snowman tag game in gym. We also played "Four Corners" and had free time with a variety of equipment. On both days, the boys organized a soccer game in one end of the gym. They had lots of fun and worked up quite a sweat!
- Students wrote in their "Book of Thoughts". We are working on leaving spaces between words.
- worked with the word family _at
- finished our Space Posters and did some other space activites in Family Groups
Sneak Peek: Monday is Daisy's helper day. Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. We have book exchange and music.
Have a great weekend! :)
January 7 - 9
Welcome back to school, and Happy New Year! It was great to see all the smiling faces coming into the classroom. :)
So far this week we have focussed on:
- Getting back into the school routines and expectations. It's hard to come back to the classroom after two weeks at home when you're only 5!
- Talking about the 3 ways to read to yourself (read the pictures; read the words; retell yourself a known story).
- Building stamina when reading silently to self (we read for 2 minutes yesterday and 3 today - great job!).
- Learning our new letter chant and practicing the letters: "N says /nnn/; Nurse in the night, /nnn/, /nnn/, /nnn/."
- Listening for sounds as we stretch words to write in our Book of Thoughts.
- Learning to print the number 9 (First a circle, then a line; that's the way to make a nine!)
- Working with the number 5 (We played the Fabulous 5 Worm game, in which you roll a dice between 0 and 5 and think of the partner for 5 - e.g., 0 and 5; 1 and 4; 2 and 3).
- Thinking about the New Year and planning some goals for 2013.
- Stations in gym (hockey, badminton, scooters and balls).
Information Items for Parents:
For the next few weeks, Mrs. Wagner will be teaching every Monday and every second Friday. I will be teaching either Tuesday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday.
Mrs. Wagner will be leaving us in 3 weeks to have her baby! She will be missed a lot but it is very exciting! I will let you know as soon as I hear who her replacement will be.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Luisa's helper day. We have music and gym.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
When you are reading with your child, give him/her lots of praise and encouragement. Self-confidence is essential for developing readers. If your child "reads" a book by memory, that is a valid and useful way to read. Parents will often say "But that's not really reading; they are just remembering what I've read to them." Reading by memory and by looking at pictures are valuable steps in learning to read. Children gain information about a text by looking at the pictures. Reading by memory helps to develop word recognition, an understanding of grammar, as well as a sense of how books "sound", which in turns helps children to develop as writers later on. Happy reading!
So far this week we have focussed on:
- Getting back into the school routines and expectations. It's hard to come back to the classroom after two weeks at home when you're only 5!
- Talking about the 3 ways to read to yourself (read the pictures; read the words; retell yourself a known story).
- Building stamina when reading silently to self (we read for 2 minutes yesterday and 3 today - great job!).
- Learning our new letter chant and practicing the letters: "N says /nnn/; Nurse in the night, /nnn/, /nnn/, /nnn/."
- Listening for sounds as we stretch words to write in our Book of Thoughts.
- Learning to print the number 9 (First a circle, then a line; that's the way to make a nine!)
- Working with the number 5 (We played the Fabulous 5 Worm game, in which you roll a dice between 0 and 5 and think of the partner for 5 - e.g., 0 and 5; 1 and 4; 2 and 3).
- Thinking about the New Year and planning some goals for 2013.
- Stations in gym (hockey, badminton, scooters and balls).
Information Items for Parents:
For the next few weeks, Mrs. Wagner will be teaching every Monday and every second Friday. I will be teaching either Tuesday-Thursday or Tuesday-Friday.
Mrs. Wagner will be leaving us in 3 weeks to have her baby! She will be missed a lot but it is very exciting! I will let you know as soon as I hear who her replacement will be.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Luisa's helper day. We have music and gym.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
When you are reading with your child, give him/her lots of praise and encouragement. Self-confidence is essential for developing readers. If your child "reads" a book by memory, that is a valid and useful way to read. Parents will often say "But that's not really reading; they are just remembering what I've read to them." Reading by memory and by looking at pictures are valuable steps in learning to read. Children gain information about a text by looking at the pictures. Reading by memory helps to develop word recognition, an understanding of grammar, as well as a sense of how books "sound", which in turns helps children to develop as writers later on. Happy reading!
December 20 and 21
It was a full and busy week with a lot of Christmas activities all over the school. Everyone should sleep well tonight! Some highlights of the last couple days include:
-Baked sugar cookies Thursday morning, decorated and ate them in the afternoon. Thank you to the Moms who were able to help out!
- Met with our learning partners to break up the chocolate we made and put them in the special containers that were donated to the kindergarten classrooms. This could be eaten right away or put under the tree for someone special
- went to the Christmas store where some of us purchased gifts for our family members
-added the Santa's Workshop poem to our poem binders
- thought about Christmas using our 5 senses. What does Christmas taste, smell, feel, look, and sound like. Some great ideas generated and we documented them by drawing pictures and stretching our words out
- watched Dr Suess The Grinch who stole Christamas
- went to the gym and sang Christmas carols with the whole school
Sneak Peek: School starts up again on January 7th. It will be Tyco's helper day.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. Looks like the snow is here for awhile, which makes for such a nice Christmas experience. I will be teaching on Monday's until January 21st, as long as this baby decides to stay where it is supposed to. I look forward to seeing everyone after the holidays.
Shawna
-Baked sugar cookies Thursday morning, decorated and ate them in the afternoon. Thank you to the Moms who were able to help out!
- Met with our learning partners to break up the chocolate we made and put them in the special containers that were donated to the kindergarten classrooms. This could be eaten right away or put under the tree for someone special
- went to the Christmas store where some of us purchased gifts for our family members
-added the Santa's Workshop poem to our poem binders
- thought about Christmas using our 5 senses. What does Christmas taste, smell, feel, look, and sound like. Some great ideas generated and we documented them by drawing pictures and stretching our words out
- watched Dr Suess The Grinch who stole Christamas
- went to the gym and sang Christmas carols with the whole school
Sneak Peek: School starts up again on January 7th. It will be Tyco's helper day.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. Looks like the snow is here for awhile, which makes for such a nice Christmas experience. I will be teaching on Monday's until January 21st, as long as this baby decides to stay where it is supposed to. I look forward to seeing everyone after the holidays.
Shawna
December 19
The last two days have had a very busy, Christmassy feeling. Highlights include the following:
Yesterday we had a great time sliding and building snowmen on the first real "snow day". We worked on our Christmas cards and wrapped our family gifts. We got to watch the Christmas concert dress rehearsal in the afternoon for the Tuesday night show. What a great performance! I was very proud of all the children in our class. They did a fantastic job in their concert. What great kids you have!
A shipment of furniture and toys that I had ordered came in yesterday. The kids had a fantastic time unwrapping and playing with the new toys that arrived. It was Christmas morning in our classroom!
Today was our Christmas Craft Party. We made beaded snowflakes, photo star ornaments, and iced Christmas trees with candy ornaments. Thank you so much to the parents who were able to help out today, and a special thank you to Nurse Jeri for the clean-up duty! :)
In the afternoon we met with our Learning Partners to make another Christmas gift for our families, and to play outside in the snow. Lots of fun!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. It is Madelyn's helper day. Students may bring some money to shop in the "Kids' Store" tomorrow - gifts cost $1 each. After recess, students will be baking Christmas cookies. If you have any spare Christmas cookie cutters, please send them with your child, labelled with a name. Friday is Booster Juice for those who ordered it.
I will be popping into the classroom on Friday, but if I don't see you before the holidays, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a relaxing holiday with your family. See you in the New Year!
Shannon
Yesterday we had a great time sliding and building snowmen on the first real "snow day". We worked on our Christmas cards and wrapped our family gifts. We got to watch the Christmas concert dress rehearsal in the afternoon for the Tuesday night show. What a great performance! I was very proud of all the children in our class. They did a fantastic job in their concert. What great kids you have!
A shipment of furniture and toys that I had ordered came in yesterday. The kids had a fantastic time unwrapping and playing with the new toys that arrived. It was Christmas morning in our classroom!
Today was our Christmas Craft Party. We made beaded snowflakes, photo star ornaments, and iced Christmas trees with candy ornaments. Thank you so much to the parents who were able to help out today, and a special thank you to Nurse Jeri for the clean-up duty! :)
In the afternoon we met with our Learning Partners to make another Christmas gift for our families, and to play outside in the snow. Lots of fun!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. It is Madelyn's helper day. Students may bring some money to shop in the "Kids' Store" tomorrow - gifts cost $1 each. After recess, students will be baking Christmas cookies. If you have any spare Christmas cookie cutters, please send them with your child, labelled with a name. Friday is Booster Juice for those who ordered it.
I will be popping into the classroom on Friday, but if I don't see you before the holidays, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a relaxing holiday with your family. See you in the New Year!
Shannon
December 17
Happy first day of the last week before Christmas holiday! Maybe that means more to teachers than it does to parents... :)
We have a fun-filled week planned. Some highlights of today included:
- learning our new letter chant (J says /jjj/. Jellybean in a jar; /jjj/, /jjj/, /jjj/.)
- doing "Christmas Tree Number Stories" with paper trees and sparkly bead "ornaments"
- playing with the new Christmas set-up on our "Invitation to Play" table
- music with Ms. Moo
- listening to the stories Footprints in the Snow and The Snowy, Blowy Christmas
- playing outside in the snow
- watching the dress rehearsal for tonight's Christmas Concert (the other cast)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is David's helper day. We will have our concert dress rehearsal in the afternoon, but students do not need to dress up for this. Tomorrow night is our Christmas Concert. Please drop your child off in the classroom at 6:30, wearing "Christmassy" clothes. The concert begins at 7:00.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Is your child ready for the Christmas concert? You could ask him/her to perform a family show tonight in preparation for the concert tomorrow. If your child feels nervous about being on stage, remind him/her that s/he will be with all his/her classmates and that Ms. Moo will be up front singing and doing the actions for your child to follow.
Play a Christmas "I Spy" game around your house by looking for decorations, ornaments, etc. that begin with a given sound.
If you are reading a rhyming story with your child, is s/he able to predict what the rhyming word will be? You can stop reading and let him/her fill in the blank. With familiar stories, have your child point to a word that s/he knows. (e.g., "Can you see the word "Santa" on this page?). Make it fun, and follow your child's interests!
We have a fun-filled week planned. Some highlights of today included:
- learning our new letter chant (J says /jjj/. Jellybean in a jar; /jjj/, /jjj/, /jjj/.)
- doing "Christmas Tree Number Stories" with paper trees and sparkly bead "ornaments"
- playing with the new Christmas set-up on our "Invitation to Play" table
- music with Ms. Moo
- listening to the stories Footprints in the Snow and The Snowy, Blowy Christmas
- playing outside in the snow
- watching the dress rehearsal for tonight's Christmas Concert (the other cast)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is David's helper day. We will have our concert dress rehearsal in the afternoon, but students do not need to dress up for this. Tomorrow night is our Christmas Concert. Please drop your child off in the classroom at 6:30, wearing "Christmassy" clothes. The concert begins at 7:00.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Is your child ready for the Christmas concert? You could ask him/her to perform a family show tonight in preparation for the concert tomorrow. If your child feels nervous about being on stage, remind him/her that s/he will be with all his/her classmates and that Ms. Moo will be up front singing and doing the actions for your child to follow.
Play a Christmas "I Spy" game around your house by looking for decorations, ornaments, etc. that begin with a given sound.
If you are reading a rhyming story with your child, is s/he able to predict what the rhyming word will be? You can stop reading and let him/her fill in the blank. With familiar stories, have your child point to a word that s/he knows. (e.g., "Can you see the word "Santa" on this page?). Make it fun, and follow your child's interests!
Please visit our "Photos and Videos" page to see our class video about our "Animals Surviving Winter" project.
December 13 & 14
Very busy couple of days! Lots of Christmas preparation. Some highlights include:
- Working on and finishing a special Christmas craft that will be brought home Wednesday and put under the tree
- enjoyed reading different books about Santa and looking for similarities and differences
- worked on a Christams page for our Book of Thoughts
- lots of exploring on the Science Table
- spending a little extra time outside in the snow
- working on a counting dot to dot Christmas Tree
- read the book Lily brought for sharing The Elf on The Shelf, a Christmas Tradition
- practicing our Christams song in the gym that is all set up for the Christams concert with Mrs Moo
Sneak Peek: Christams Concert Tuesday Evening 6:30. Christmas party Wednesday morning, Christmas baking Thursday morning (any special cookie cutters and decorating equipment can be brought in on Thursday for the baking).
- Working on and finishing a special Christmas craft that will be brought home Wednesday and put under the tree
- enjoyed reading different books about Santa and looking for similarities and differences
- worked on a Christams page for our Book of Thoughts
- lots of exploring on the Science Table
- spending a little extra time outside in the snow
- working on a counting dot to dot Christmas Tree
- read the book Lily brought for sharing The Elf on The Shelf, a Christmas Tradition
- practicing our Christams song in the gym that is all set up for the Christams concert with Mrs Moo
Sneak Peek: Christams Concert Tuesday Evening 6:30. Christmas party Wednesday morning, Christmas baking Thursday morning (any special cookie cutters and decorating equipment can be brought in on Thursday for the baking).
December 12
Today was a Christmas-crafty kind of day! Today, we:
- finished painting and decorating our salt dough cut-outs (each child made two; one for the school wreath and one to take home)
- finished putting together our "Peaceful Trees" art project, which will be displayed in the main hall by the foyer
- started making our reindeer headbands for our Christmas Concert song
- played "Reindeer, Reindeer, Hitch up to the Sleigh" in gym, and then used equipment of choice
- talked about more/less and too many/not enough (we did some dramatization with this, and also did a comparison activity using block towers)
- were entranced by Annika's sharing, which was a Christmas pyramid with real candles, a spinning fan, and wooden characters
- played outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Lily's helper day. Remember that Tuesday is our Christmas concert and children are to be at school at 6:30, performance beginning at 7:00.
- finished painting and decorating our salt dough cut-outs (each child made two; one for the school wreath and one to take home)
- finished putting together our "Peaceful Trees" art project, which will be displayed in the main hall by the foyer
- started making our reindeer headbands for our Christmas Concert song
- played "Reindeer, Reindeer, Hitch up to the Sleigh" in gym, and then used equipment of choice
- talked about more/less and too many/not enough (we did some dramatization with this, and also did a comparison activity using block towers)
- were entranced by Annika's sharing, which was a Christmas pyramid with real candles, a spinning fan, and wooden characters
- played outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Lily's helper day. Remember that Tuesday is our Christmas concert and children are to be at school at 6:30, performance beginning at 7:00.
December 10
Hurray for snow! We were very excited when we looked out the window and saw those flakes coming down! We had a lot of children away today.
In the morning we rotated through stations, working on our Number 8 booklet, playing alphabet Bingo, and playing a new math game called "What's in My Cup?". We also learned our new letter chant (I says /iii/. Insect in the ink; /iii/, /iii/, /iii/).
After recess we learned our Poem of the Week (The Snowman) and practiced printing the letter I. We also played in the Post Office and with two new exploration centres (a sand table with treasures and lizards in it, as well as our new "Invitation to Play" table which is an invitation to explore art and science with scales, magnifying glasses, large tweezers, test tubes, beads, sparkles, pinecones, sticks, jingle bells, and more. This was a big hit today!).
The children also went to Music with Ms. Moo, returned their library books and listened to a story with Ms. Wylie, made some snowflakes out of a variety of materials, and worked on a rhyming book for our class. It was a great day!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. Remember to return your Booster Juice forms if you plan to order it.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
/iii/ as in "igloo"can be a tricky sound to learn. Check to see that your child is pronouncing this sound properly, and go on an /iii/ hunt in your house or in a picture book. How many words can you find that contain the /iii/ sound?
Ask your child which words s/he chose to write about in our rhyming book. Can your child think of more rhyming words?
Today we talked about more/less/equal. Dinner can be a great time to explore this concept further. You can compare amounts of food and drink using these terms.
In the morning we rotated through stations, working on our Number 8 booklet, playing alphabet Bingo, and playing a new math game called "What's in My Cup?". We also learned our new letter chant (I says /iii/. Insect in the ink; /iii/, /iii/, /iii/).
After recess we learned our Poem of the Week (The Snowman) and practiced printing the letter I. We also played in the Post Office and with two new exploration centres (a sand table with treasures and lizards in it, as well as our new "Invitation to Play" table which is an invitation to explore art and science with scales, magnifying glasses, large tweezers, test tubes, beads, sparkles, pinecones, sticks, jingle bells, and more. This was a big hit today!).
The children also went to Music with Ms. Moo, returned their library books and listened to a story with Ms. Wylie, made some snowflakes out of a variety of materials, and worked on a rhyming book for our class. It was a great day!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. Remember to return your Booster Juice forms if you plan to order it.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
/iii/ as in "igloo"can be a tricky sound to learn. Check to see that your child is pronouncing this sound properly, and go on an /iii/ hunt in your house or in a picture book. How many words can you find that contain the /iii/ sound?
Ask your child which words s/he chose to write about in our rhyming book. Can your child think of more rhyming words?
Today we talked about more/less/equal. Dinner can be a great time to explore this concept further. You can compare amounts of food and drink using these terms.
December 6
Today we:
- Continued to look at the letter D by watching a short video and building plasticine letter shapes
- Had Music with Mrs Moo and practiced for the Christmas Concert
-Drew a picture that matched our Snowman poem and added it to our poem binders
- Went to the Gym and played Four Corners in the dark and Duck Duck Goose
- Danni was the helper and brought a special Christams Santa for sharing
- Started building our box houses which we will finish tomorrow. Some very creative houses being built.
- Talked about Babies and what they need when they are born. We discussed how Mrs Wagner will have to stay home when her baby comes so she can take care of her baby. A new teacher will come but this will not be until the end of January. Mrs Wagner will come and visit the classroom with her baby.
Sneak Peak: Pancake breakfast tomorrow morning. Booster Juice tomorrow at lunch.
- Continued to look at the letter D by watching a short video and building plasticine letter shapes
- Had Music with Mrs Moo and practiced for the Christmas Concert
-Drew a picture that matched our Snowman poem and added it to our poem binders
- Went to the Gym and played Four Corners in the dark and Duck Duck Goose
- Danni was the helper and brought a special Christams Santa for sharing
- Started building our box houses which we will finish tomorrow. Some very creative houses being built.
- Talked about Babies and what they need when they are born. We discussed how Mrs Wagner will have to stay home when her baby comes so she can take care of her baby. A new teacher will come but this will not be until the end of January. Mrs Wagner will come and visit the classroom with her baby.
Sneak Peak: Pancake breakfast tomorrow morning. Booster Juice tomorrow at lunch.
December 5
Yesterday and today were jam-packed with activities!
I was away yesterday morning, but we had a "special event" in the afternoon. As we have been learning about different kinds of homes (both for people and for animals), we had a discussion about the important features of homes (roof, walls, entrance, etc.). Following that we worked in our small groups to build our own "homes" with sheets, cardboard bricks, chairs, tables, cones - anything that we could find to use in the classroom. Students furnished their homes with our little carpets, books, etc. This activity sparked lots of imagination, problem-solving and collaboration.
Today we spent our time between recess and lunch with some students from Don Ross Secondary, who came to our school to give us a Reader's Theatre presentation of some children's stories. We also played a drama game with the older students after their presentation.
In the afternoon we had Learning Partners, in which the kids worked together to make stick puppets based on familiar nursery rhymes, and then told stories using their puppets. We also had our last painting session with Mr. Sherlock - the cards the children made will come home tomorrow.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Danni's helper day. It is hot lunch for those who ordered it. Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. Remember that Friday is the Pancake Breakfast, so come to school early with a hungry tummy!
I was away yesterday morning, but we had a "special event" in the afternoon. As we have been learning about different kinds of homes (both for people and for animals), we had a discussion about the important features of homes (roof, walls, entrance, etc.). Following that we worked in our small groups to build our own "homes" with sheets, cardboard bricks, chairs, tables, cones - anything that we could find to use in the classroom. Students furnished their homes with our little carpets, books, etc. This activity sparked lots of imagination, problem-solving and collaboration.
Today we spent our time between recess and lunch with some students from Don Ross Secondary, who came to our school to give us a Reader's Theatre presentation of some children's stories. We also played a drama game with the older students after their presentation.
In the afternoon we had Learning Partners, in which the kids worked together to make stick puppets based on familiar nursery rhymes, and then told stories using their puppets. We also had our last painting session with Mr. Sherlock - the cards the children made will come home tomorrow.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Danni's helper day. It is hot lunch for those who ordered it. Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. Remember that Friday is the Pancake Breakfast, so come to school early with a hungry tummy!
December 3
December is here! In celebration of the new month, we spent a few minutes decorating the classroom this morning. The kids were excited to be part of planning where things should go! In addition, today we:
- worked on our house and family crafts
- looked at tiny treasures that begin with "D" and learned our new letter chant (D says /ddd/; dog on a doghouse, /ddd/, /ddd/, /ddd/)
- practiced printing uppercase D on the whiteboard and in our printing books
- learned our poem of the week, which is about a snowman and a hungry little bunny
- played a syllables game
- played "Rhyming Bingo"
- went to Music with Ms. Moo
- enjoyed Hannah's sharing (a photo of her at a festival with a painted face)
- discussed 3 ways to read to ourselves (read the pictures; read the words; retell a known story)
- exchanged our books at the library
- played with our new "Invitation to Play", which is a "polar scene"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Eila's helper day. We have music with Ms. Moo. Remember that Thursday is Hot Lunch for those who ordered. I have Usborne books and school photos for some people who were away today.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Go on a "D" hunt around your home, looking for things that begin with the sound /ddd/. Ask your child to tell you the story for printing D (it's a duckling story), and have your child show you how to print D (begin at the top, big line down, frog jump back up to make a curve around starting at the top).
Count things forwards and backwards with your child (e.g., when putting away laundry - count the number of socks, and then count them backwards as they go in the drawer).
Can your child "chop" the names of the people in your family into syllables? What about the first and middle name together?
When you read with your child tonight, discuss the 3 ways to read. These are all equally valid ways of reading! They are all "real"!
- worked on our house and family crafts
- looked at tiny treasures that begin with "D" and learned our new letter chant (D says /ddd/; dog on a doghouse, /ddd/, /ddd/, /ddd/)
- practiced printing uppercase D on the whiteboard and in our printing books
- learned our poem of the week, which is about a snowman and a hungry little bunny
- played a syllables game
- played "Rhyming Bingo"
- went to Music with Ms. Moo
- enjoyed Hannah's sharing (a photo of her at a festival with a painted face)
- discussed 3 ways to read to ourselves (read the pictures; read the words; retell a known story)
- exchanged our books at the library
- played with our new "Invitation to Play", which is a "polar scene"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Eila's helper day. We have music with Ms. Moo. Remember that Thursday is Hot Lunch for those who ordered. I have Usborne books and school photos for some people who were away today.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Go on a "D" hunt around your home, looking for things that begin with the sound /ddd/. Ask your child to tell you the story for printing D (it's a duckling story), and have your child show you how to print D (begin at the top, big line down, frog jump back up to make a curve around starting at the top).
Count things forwards and backwards with your child (e.g., when putting away laundry - count the number of socks, and then count them backwards as they go in the drawer).
Can your child "chop" the names of the people in your family into syllables? What about the first and middle name together?
When you read with your child tonight, discuss the 3 ways to read. These are all equally valid ways of reading! They are all "real"!
November 29
What a wet and dreary day! In kindergarten we are all looking forward to some SNOW!!! Much more fun to play in than rain. Today, we:
- made the letters we've learned so far out of plasticine, and thought of words that begin with those sounds
- had music with Ms. Moo (always exciting!)
- worked on syllables ("chopping" them and clapping them)
- sang our song of the week ("This is the Way We Build a House"), and illustrated it to put in our Poetry Binders
- printed lowercase c in our printing books
- did some AMAZING collaborative, independent and very creative art work during Exploration Time today
- some children worked on their family/home crafts, using their family photos
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Jack's Helper Day. It is Writing Day, beginning at 1:30 in the afternoon. Mrs. Wagner will be teaching tomorrow. Please remember to send your family photos if you haven't already sent them - you can just print them out on plain paper if you have a home printer and you don't have family photos readily at hand. Remember that you can also draw members of your family if you'd prefer to do that. Thank you!
- made the letters we've learned so far out of plasticine, and thought of words that begin with those sounds
- had music with Ms. Moo (always exciting!)
- worked on syllables ("chopping" them and clapping them)
- sang our song of the week ("This is the Way We Build a House"), and illustrated it to put in our Poetry Binders
- printed lowercase c in our printing books
- did some AMAZING collaborative, independent and very creative art work during Exploration Time today
- some children worked on their family/home crafts, using their family photos
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Jack's Helper Day. It is Writing Day, beginning at 1:30 in the afternoon. Mrs. Wagner will be teaching tomorrow. Please remember to send your family photos if you haven't already sent them - you can just print them out on plain paper if you have a home printer and you don't have family photos readily at hand. Remember that you can also draw members of your family if you'd prefer to do that. Thank you!
November 28
Today was a short day but a busy one.
We began our day with booktime as usual, and then did stations. Each child worked on their Book of Thoughts, played numeracy Go Fish with Annika's mom, worked in their number booklet, and played with our "Taking Care of Baby" centre. A big "thank you" to Claudia for helping out this morning!
After recess we had a visit from Bella, Brooklynn's dog, who came to visit us for Brooklynn's helper day sharing. Exciting!
We played our "/ccc/ and Not /ccc/" game, had lots of fun with the parachute in Gym, and met with our Learning Partners in the afternoon to practice visualizing texts with nursery rhymes.
Sneak Peek: Don't forget about your parent/teacher interview today or tomorrow if you have booked one! Please send a photo (or photos) of the people in your family by the end of the week. We will be cutting out each person's face for a project about homes and families. Also, please send your child's green Writing Day form in time for our Writing Day on Friday afternoon. Please come to write with your child if you are available on that day! It's a great chance for you to help your child write letters to friends or relatives as well as Santa. Writing paper will be provided at school, but you may wish to bring your own cards from home as well. Stamps will also be on sale in the foyer that afternoon.
We began our day with booktime as usual, and then did stations. Each child worked on their Book of Thoughts, played numeracy Go Fish with Annika's mom, worked in their number booklet, and played with our "Taking Care of Baby" centre. A big "thank you" to Claudia for helping out this morning!
After recess we had a visit from Bella, Brooklynn's dog, who came to visit us for Brooklynn's helper day sharing. Exciting!
We played our "/ccc/ and Not /ccc/" game, had lots of fun with the parachute in Gym, and met with our Learning Partners in the afternoon to practice visualizing texts with nursery rhymes.
Sneak Peek: Don't forget about your parent/teacher interview today or tomorrow if you have booked one! Please send a photo (or photos) of the people in your family by the end of the week. We will be cutting out each person's face for a project about homes and families. Also, please send your child's green Writing Day form in time for our Writing Day on Friday afternoon. Please come to write with your child if you are available on that day! It's a great chance for you to help your child write letters to friends or relatives as well as Santa. Writing paper will be provided at school, but you may wish to bring your own cards from home as well. Stamps will also be on sale in the foyer that afternoon.
November 26
What a gorgeous day! Today:
We began our day with a visit from Brooklynn's baby brother Dillon, who is 3 months old. This was very exciting and we got to ask lots of questions about what babies need and how to care for them. A big thank you to Janean for bringing him in! Following our visit with a real baby, the children got to explore our new "Invitation to Play": a "Taking Care of Baby" centre. The students were very enthusiastic about this activity. They gave the babies bubble baths in the baby tub, dried and dressed them, fed them and rocked them to sleep. Boys and girls alike really enjoyed this, and there was lots of conversation about how to do things for babies. Students also built structures with another new exploration option: cardboard bricks.
We played numeracy Go Fish with cards that represented numbers 1-10 in different ways. We also learned our new letter chant (C says /kkk/; cow on a cab, /kkk/, /kkk/, /kkk/) and practiced printing uppercase C.
The children went to music with Ms. Moo, we did yoga, exchanged our books in the library, had our afternoon snack outside in the sunshine, and read the class book we made, which is based on A House is a House for Me.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Please remember to send family photos with your child by Wednesday at the latest for our homes and families art activity. Wednesday and Thursday are Early Dismissal days (school ends at 2:00), so that parent-teacher interviews can take place. If you are unable to meet during our scheduled appointment times, please let me know and we can set something up for another day. And finally, it is Writing Day on Friday afternoon. Please remember to send in your child's green address forms prior to this date.
How to Support Learning at Home:
Can your child remember what we talked about when Dillon was here this morning? What does he eat right now? How does he tell his family what he needs? What can he do?
Use the cards sent home today to play Go Fish with your child. You can cut them up, and then each player tries to get a "match" between two numbers.
Please discuss your child's report card with him or her. Talk about what they are doing well and what they are working on (and see if they agree with these things). Thank you!
We began our day with a visit from Brooklynn's baby brother Dillon, who is 3 months old. This was very exciting and we got to ask lots of questions about what babies need and how to care for them. A big thank you to Janean for bringing him in! Following our visit with a real baby, the children got to explore our new "Invitation to Play": a "Taking Care of Baby" centre. The students were very enthusiastic about this activity. They gave the babies bubble baths in the baby tub, dried and dressed them, fed them and rocked them to sleep. Boys and girls alike really enjoyed this, and there was lots of conversation about how to do things for babies. Students also built structures with another new exploration option: cardboard bricks.
We played numeracy Go Fish with cards that represented numbers 1-10 in different ways. We also learned our new letter chant (C says /kkk/; cow on a cab, /kkk/, /kkk/, /kkk/) and practiced printing uppercase C.
The children went to music with Ms. Moo, we did yoga, exchanged our books in the library, had our afternoon snack outside in the sunshine, and read the class book we made, which is based on A House is a House for Me.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. Please remember to send family photos with your child by Wednesday at the latest for our homes and families art activity. Wednesday and Thursday are Early Dismissal days (school ends at 2:00), so that parent-teacher interviews can take place. If you are unable to meet during our scheduled appointment times, please let me know and we can set something up for another day. And finally, it is Writing Day on Friday afternoon. Please remember to send in your child's green address forms prior to this date.
How to Support Learning at Home:
Can your child remember what we talked about when Dillon was here this morning? What does he eat right now? How does he tell his family what he needs? What can he do?
Use the cards sent home today to play Go Fish with your child. You can cut them up, and then each player tries to get a "match" between two numbers.
Please discuss your child's report card with him or her. Talk about what they are doing well and what they are working on (and see if they agree with these things). Thank you!
November 22 & 23
Some highlight of the last two days:
- Had gym both days and played a new game called 4 corners. Quietly go to a corner in the gym while someone blindfolded counts down from 10. If they point to your corner you are out and come help count down until only a couple kids are left. We also played freeze tag.
- Practiced printing lower case z in our printing books and watched a Z video.
- Talked about animal families and their homes. We read Who lives here a book that had us guess what animal lives where.
- Made a memory matching game of animal homes. Everyone enjoyed making and playing this. We took them home to teach you how to play.
- Had Family groups this afternoon where we started making our banners. Every group has a space themed name they created together.
- Added another poem to our poem binders. This weeks poem was called What is a family.
- Tried to guess Brody's sharing. A special necklace and statue from hawaii.
- Enjoyed mostly painting, block building, the house, play doh, and crafts during exploration time.
- Had gym both days and played a new game called 4 corners. Quietly go to a corner in the gym while someone blindfolded counts down from 10. If they point to your corner you are out and come help count down until only a couple kids are left. We also played freeze tag.
- Practiced printing lower case z in our printing books and watched a Z video.
- Talked about animal families and their homes. We read Who lives here a book that had us guess what animal lives where.
- Made a memory matching game of animal homes. Everyone enjoyed making and playing this. We took them home to teach you how to play.
- Had Family groups this afternoon where we started making our banners. Every group has a space themed name they created together.
- Added another poem to our poem binders. This weeks poem was called What is a family.
- Tried to guess Brody's sharing. A special necklace and statue from hawaii.
- Enjoyed mostly painting, block building, the house, play doh, and crafts during exploration time.
November 20
Good morning! I am doing our website early today as I have a meeting after school.
This morning we talked about how many people can be in a family. We decided that there have to be at least 2 people to make a family. We graphed the number of people in our families.
When the children return from music, we plan to play a game with syllables.
After recess, Sara (Eila's mom) will be here to help us. We are going to read A House is a House for Me and then do a related art activity with oil pastels. During this time, I will be working with the children on their "Book of Thoughts".
After long recess and lunch we plan to do yoga. We will find out what Tyco has to share for his "helper day", and will begin to plan for a craft about our homes. If it is not too wet out, we plan to go into the forest after our afternoon snack to play and to look for places that would make good animal homes.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. We will have our first session of watercolour painting with our artisit in residence in the afternoon. Please see yesterday's post for ways to support your child's learning at home. Thank you! :)
This morning we talked about how many people can be in a family. We decided that there have to be at least 2 people to make a family. We graphed the number of people in our families.
When the children return from music, we plan to play a game with syllables.
After recess, Sara (Eila's mom) will be here to help us. We are going to read A House is a House for Me and then do a related art activity with oil pastels. During this time, I will be working with the children on their "Book of Thoughts".
After long recess and lunch we plan to do yoga. We will find out what Tyco has to share for his "helper day", and will begin to plan for a craft about our homes. If it is not too wet out, we plan to go into the forest after our afternoon snack to play and to look for places that would make good animal homes.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Rohan's helper day. We will have our first session of watercolour painting with our artisit in residence in the afternoon. Please see yesterday's post for ways to support your child's learning at home. Thank you! :)
November 19
What a wet and dreary day! Some of our kids still got out to play today - they had the choice of staying in the classroom at recess or playing in the undercover area. Today, we:
Began talking about families and homes (our new learning focus). We read The Family Book by Todd Parr, as well as Wonderful Houses Around the World, which has fascinating pictures of different homes. We also put in chronological order pictures of people at different stages of their lives, and learned our poem of the week ("What is a family?").
Played "Spilling 5" and graphed the result each time we spilled the markers to see what the most frequent combination was (1 and 4; 2 and 3 or 0 and 5).
Learned our new letter chant (Z says /zzz/; zebra in the zoo, /zzz/, /zzz/, /zzz/). We pronounce it "zed". We also practiced making uppercase Z in the air and on each other's backs.
Went to music with Ms. Moo, and exchanged our books at the library with Ms. Wylie.
Played "Alphabet Bingo" with the letters we've learned so far.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk with your child about what makes a family. What are the important things about families? Can people still be family if they live far away from each other? How are families and friends different? Do people have to come from the same place or have the same colour hair/eyes/skin to be family?
Go on a "Z hunt" around your house. Can you find things that contain the sound /zzz/?
Ask your child to explain our "Spilling 5" game. You could cut out 5 loonie-shaped markers (one side one colour and the other a different colour) to play this game at home.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Tyco's helper day. On Wednesday we will have our first session of watercolour painting with Mike, our school's artist in residence. A few reminders: Please return your child's poetry binder before the end of the week. Purdy's orders are due this Thursday. There will be a Story Night this Thursday from 6:00-7:30. Families are welcome to come, and pajamas are encouraged! Second-hand books will be on sale there.
Began talking about families and homes (our new learning focus). We read The Family Book by Todd Parr, as well as Wonderful Houses Around the World, which has fascinating pictures of different homes. We also put in chronological order pictures of people at different stages of their lives, and learned our poem of the week ("What is a family?").
Played "Spilling 5" and graphed the result each time we spilled the markers to see what the most frequent combination was (1 and 4; 2 and 3 or 0 and 5).
Learned our new letter chant (Z says /zzz/; zebra in the zoo, /zzz/, /zzz/, /zzz/). We pronounce it "zed". We also practiced making uppercase Z in the air and on each other's backs.
Went to music with Ms. Moo, and exchanged our books at the library with Ms. Wylie.
Played "Alphabet Bingo" with the letters we've learned so far.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Talk with your child about what makes a family. What are the important things about families? Can people still be family if they live far away from each other? How are families and friends different? Do people have to come from the same place or have the same colour hair/eyes/skin to be family?
Go on a "Z hunt" around your house. Can you find things that contain the sound /zzz/?
Ask your child to explain our "Spilling 5" game. You could cut out 5 loonie-shaped markers (one side one colour and the other a different colour) to play this game at home.
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Tyco's helper day. On Wednesday we will have our first session of watercolour painting with Mike, our school's artist in residence. A few reminders: Please return your child's poetry binder before the end of the week. Purdy's orders are due this Thursday. There will be a Story Night this Thursday from 6:00-7:30. Families are welcome to come, and pajamas are encouraged! Second-hand books will be on sale there.
Nov. 14 & 15
Hi Families,
I hope you enjoy the Poetry Binder that your child brought home today. Your child can share the poems and illustrations with you over the weekend - please return the books to school early next week, as we will have a new poem to add to it!
Highlights of today and yesterday included:
- celebrating Danni's birthday (we had cupcakes in the afternoon - yum! Thanks, Monica!)
- writing about signs of fall in our Book of Thoughts
- playing with dinosaurs and things from nature on our "Invitation to Play" table
- playing The Fabulous 5 Worm and Spilling 5, and recording things that we learned through these games in our math journals
- doing our 5 page in our Number Books
- playing with the parachute in gym on Wed., and doing stations (hockey, scooters, balls and scoops, bowling) on Thursday
- seeing David's interesting dinosaur puzzle during his sharing time
- activities with the letter W (going on a W search in the classroom with our magic wands; printing it; playing the "/www/ and not /www/" game)
- sorting "teeny tiny treasures" according to their beginning sound
- getting outside for some sunshine play time
- playing in our large dramatic play area, which is now set up as a house
- getting together to read with our big-kid Learning Partners
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. It is Madelyn's helper day. Family groups will take place in the afternoon.
I hope you enjoy the Poetry Binder that your child brought home today. Your child can share the poems and illustrations with you over the weekend - please return the books to school early next week, as we will have a new poem to add to it!
Highlights of today and yesterday included:
- celebrating Danni's birthday (we had cupcakes in the afternoon - yum! Thanks, Monica!)
- writing about signs of fall in our Book of Thoughts
- playing with dinosaurs and things from nature on our "Invitation to Play" table
- playing The Fabulous 5 Worm and Spilling 5, and recording things that we learned through these games in our math journals
- doing our 5 page in our Number Books
- playing with the parachute in gym on Wed., and doing stations (hockey, scooters, balls and scoops, bowling) on Thursday
- seeing David's interesting dinosaur puzzle during his sharing time
- activities with the letter W (going on a W search in the classroom with our magic wands; printing it; playing the "/www/ and not /www/" game)
- sorting "teeny tiny treasures" according to their beginning sound
- getting outside for some sunshine play time
- playing in our large dramatic play area, which is now set up as a house
- getting together to read with our big-kid Learning Partners
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow Mrs. Wagner will be teaching. It is Madelyn's helper day. Family groups will take place in the afternoon.
Nov. 13
Today was another busy day in kindergarten! Highlights included:
- learning two new math games which focus on building and taking apart "5" (The Fabulous 5 Worm and Spilling 5)
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- looking at our "tiny treasures" that begin with /www/, and learning the new letter chant (W says /www/; worm in a wagon, /www/, /www/, /www/)
- learning our poem of the week ("Down, Down")
- practicing printing W with the wet-dry-try technique, and then printing in our printing books
- playing with see-through shapes on our overhead projector
- reading a rhyming story (Henny Penny) - we focussed on identifying the rhymes and making predictions about what would happen in the story
- Lily's sharing of her very interesting turtle whistle
- a play on the upper playground outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. Mrs. Wagner will be here in the afternoon, as I have another school commitment at that time. We will see our Learning Partners in the afternoon.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child to explain how to play one of the math games they learned today.
Does your child remember our new letter chant? Can s/he think of other words that begin with the /www/ sound? You can go on a /www/ hunt around your house...
Ask your child to describe Lily's sharing item today. Can your child give you an example of a powerful question that could be asked during sharing?
When your child prints his or her name, does s/he begin with an uppercase letter and then use lowercase? If this is tricky for your child, make practicing fun by using different methods (drawing in jello powder; making it out of playdough; using sparkle glue, etc.).
- learning two new math games which focus on building and taking apart "5" (The Fabulous 5 Worm and Spilling 5)
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- looking at our "tiny treasures" that begin with /www/, and learning the new letter chant (W says /www/; worm in a wagon, /www/, /www/, /www/)
- learning our poem of the week ("Down, Down")
- practicing printing W with the wet-dry-try technique, and then printing in our printing books
- playing with see-through shapes on our overhead projector
- reading a rhyming story (Henny Penny) - we focussed on identifying the rhymes and making predictions about what would happen in the story
- Lily's sharing of her very interesting turtle whistle
- a play on the upper playground outside in the afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Paige's helper day. Mrs. Wagner will be here in the afternoon, as I have another school commitment at that time. We will see our Learning Partners in the afternoon.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child to explain how to play one of the math games they learned today.
Does your child remember our new letter chant? Can s/he think of other words that begin with the /www/ sound? You can go on a /www/ hunt around your house...
Ask your child to describe Lily's sharing item today. Can your child give you an example of a powerful question that could be asked during sharing?
When your child prints his or her name, does s/he begin with an uppercase letter and then use lowercase? If this is tricky for your child, make practicing fun by using different methods (drawing in jello powder; making it out of playdough; using sparkle glue, etc.).
Nov. 9
Great job today kindies presenting the Poppy poem to the whole school during the Remembrance Day assembly!!!
Some highlights from the last two days
- Working hard to practice the Poppy poem
- Adding the Poppy poem to our poem binders
- Thinking about peace and what it means, made peace doves that are hanging up in the classroom.
- Finding the letter S in the classroom and coming up with many different S words.
- Trying to figure out what was a very well disguised sharing by Annika (a special soccer ball).
- Watching another S video clip
- Making poppies for the wreath we hung at the assembly, lots of great cutting practise.
- Working on throwing and catching bean bags in partners in the gym and playing line tag.
- Booster juice for those who ordered it with an outside recess to burn off all the sugar.
No school on Monday for Remembrance Day
Lily is the helper on Tueasday
The class camera has unfortunately broken, it had a good life in many different classrooms. If anyone has an old digital camera that they to not use and would like to donate to the class the kindies would love another one. It helps us document our learning. It's worth checking just in case.
Some highlights from the last two days
- Working hard to practice the Poppy poem
- Adding the Poppy poem to our poem binders
- Thinking about peace and what it means, made peace doves that are hanging up in the classroom.
- Finding the letter S in the classroom and coming up with many different S words.
- Trying to figure out what was a very well disguised sharing by Annika (a special soccer ball).
- Watching another S video clip
- Making poppies for the wreath we hung at the assembly, lots of great cutting practise.
- Working on throwing and catching bean bags in partners in the gym and playing line tag.
- Booster juice for those who ordered it with an outside recess to burn off all the sugar.
No school on Monday for Remembrance Day
Lily is the helper on Tueasday
The class camera has unfortunately broken, it had a good life in many different classrooms. If anyone has an old digital camera that they to not use and would like to donate to the class the kindies would love another one. It helps us document our learning. It's worth checking just in case.
Nov. 7
Today and yesterday's highlights included the following:
- reading the rhyming book Sheep on a Ship and playing with real props from the story
- practicing our poem Poppy which we will present at the assembly on Friday at 10:50, and making either poppies or children to wear at the assembly, depending on which part of the poem each child will be reciting
- sorting blocks and recording it in our math journals
- playing a game with dot cards and number fans
-
- reading the rhyming book Sheep on a Ship and playing with real props from the story
- practicing our poem Poppy which we will present at the assembly on Friday at 10:50, and making either poppies or children to wear at the assembly, depending on which part of the poem each child will be reciting
- sorting blocks and recording it in our math journals
- playing a game with dot cards and number fans
-
Check out the "photos" page for some new pictures.
Nov. 5
Hi everyone. I hope you had a great "long" weekend (at least it was for your kids). Highlights of today included:
- learning our poem of the week, which we will be presenting at our Remembrance Day Assembly this Friday, Nov. 9th
- finishing our animal pictures and facts to go with our big poster in the hallway - please come and check it out with your child in the morning or after school!
- learning our new letter chant (S says /sss/. Spider in the soup; /sss/, /sss/, /sss/.)
- looking at books at the Usborne book fair (Wish lists came home today - if you wish your child to purchase any of these books, please send exact payment via credit card, cash or cheque made out to Heather Prohaska by TOMORROW. GST is included in these prices. You can view the online catalogue at www.usborneonline.ca/followthereader. Books should be delivered within about 3 weeks. This is, of course, entirely optional.)
- playing a math game with dot cards and number fans
- making uppercase S out of our wooden curves, then practicing printing it (this is a tricky one for lots of kids!)
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- Danni's helper sharing (a beautiful statue)
- exchanging books at the library and listening to a book about peace, read by Ms. Wylie
- playing with "me" during Exploration Time (I taped each child's picture onto a wooden block so that they have little "dolls" of themselves - this is a huge hit!)
- some outside play in the warm afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is James' helper day. We will be visiting the Book Fair again to make our orders. We have music with Ms. Moo in the morning.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Please continue to sing rhyming songs and read rhyming books with your child. Rhyming is such an important pre-reading concept for children to understand.
Look for things that begin with the sound /sss/ around your house, or while you are driving. Practice printing the letter S in different ways (e.g., in a tray filled with sand, salt, or jello powder, or with playdough).
Encourage your child to write at home (on birthday cards, a letter to a relative, or items on a grocery list). If your child is ready, ask him or her to "stretch" the word s/he is trying to write, listening for each sound. For example, "apple" might look like "aPL" - this is called "invented spelling", and is encouraged at this level, as it gets the child to really listen for the individual sounds in a word and think about which letter makes each sound. If your child is not quite ready for this, just ask your child to listen for the beginning sound, and then have your child trace over the rest of the letters after you have printed them lightly.
- learning our poem of the week, which we will be presenting at our Remembrance Day Assembly this Friday, Nov. 9th
- finishing our animal pictures and facts to go with our big poster in the hallway - please come and check it out with your child in the morning or after school!
- learning our new letter chant (S says /sss/. Spider in the soup; /sss/, /sss/, /sss/.)
- looking at books at the Usborne book fair (Wish lists came home today - if you wish your child to purchase any of these books, please send exact payment via credit card, cash or cheque made out to Heather Prohaska by TOMORROW. GST is included in these prices. You can view the online catalogue at www.usborneonline.ca/followthereader. Books should be delivered within about 3 weeks. This is, of course, entirely optional.)
- playing a math game with dot cards and number fans
- making uppercase S out of our wooden curves, then practicing printing it (this is a tricky one for lots of kids!)
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- Danni's helper sharing (a beautiful statue)
- exchanging books at the library and listening to a book about peace, read by Ms. Wylie
- playing with "me" during Exploration Time (I taped each child's picture onto a wooden block so that they have little "dolls" of themselves - this is a huge hit!)
- some outside play in the warm afternoon
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is James' helper day. We will be visiting the Book Fair again to make our orders. We have music with Ms. Moo in the morning.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Please continue to sing rhyming songs and read rhyming books with your child. Rhyming is such an important pre-reading concept for children to understand.
Look for things that begin with the sound /sss/ around your house, or while you are driving. Practice printing the letter S in different ways (e.g., in a tray filled with sand, salt, or jello powder, or with playdough).
Encourage your child to write at home (on birthday cards, a letter to a relative, or items on a grocery list). If your child is ready, ask him or her to "stretch" the word s/he is trying to write, listening for each sound. For example, "apple" might look like "aPL" - this is called "invented spelling", and is encouraged at this level, as it gets the child to really listen for the individual sounds in a word and think about which letter makes each sound. If your child is not quite ready for this, just ask your child to listen for the beginning sound, and then have your child trace over the rest of the letters after you have printed them lightly.
Nov. 1
Today was a busy day! I have to say that I'm glad that most children only have a late night and a tummy full of candy once a year... we had a few tears today and a lot of very hyped-up kids! It sounds like they all had lots of fun trick-or-treating last night, which is great. Highlights from yesterday and today included celebrating Hallowe'en with our Learning Partners yesterday afternoon (the children got to listen to a Hallowe'en story, play with their big partners, and watch a short Hallowe'en claymation video - "Shaun the Sheep"), and learning about fire safety today from Firefighter Sean.
Please check our "Important Dates" page on this website and record the dates in your calendar - there are lots of things going on in our school this month!
Sneak Peek: Monday is Danni's helper day. We will be visiting the Usborne Book Fair at our school, and children will be making a "wish list" of books which they will bring home to share with you. It is our library book exchange day.
Ways to Support Learning: Go over the fire safety booklet sent home today with your child. Remember to check all your smoke alarms to see if their batteries need replacing. Review the procedure for exiting your house in case of a fire, and practice "Stop, Drop and Roll" with your child.
Please check our "Important Dates" page on this website and record the dates in your calendar - there are lots of things going on in our school this month!
Sneak Peek: Monday is Danni's helper day. We will be visiting the Usborne Book Fair at our school, and children will be making a "wish list" of books which they will bring home to share with you. It is our library book exchange day.
Ways to Support Learning: Go over the fire safety booklet sent home today with your child. Remember to check all your smoke alarms to see if their batteries need replacing. Review the procedure for exiting your house in case of a fire, and practice "Stop, Drop and Roll" with your child.
October 30
I apologize if your child is hyper this afternoon! Thank you to all the parents who contributed the yummy snacks for our Hallowe'en party, and to the moms who came into our classroom to help out. We could not have done it without you! Highlights of today included:
- celebrating Maxine's birthday
- listening to Hannah play her xylophone for her helper day sharing
- playing a whole-class picture rhyming game
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- making "fact pictures" about local animals surviving winter
- playing with the new animals (bears, raccoons, skunks, ducks, eagles, badgers, bunnies) on our "Invitation to Play" table
- reading "Where's My Mummy?" and "Boo!"
- singing our pumpkin songs with the lights turned out and our jack o'lantern on
And of course, our Hallowe'en Party! The "Swamp Muck" was a huge hit (cornstarch and water with green food colouring, with plastic bugs hidden in it). The kids also made tissue paper ghosts, sparkly spider webs, and pumpkin lanterns to take home. We enjoyed the delicious snacks and we all had a great time!
Sneak Peek: Remember that students are invited to wear their costumes tomorrow! We have a Hallowe'en safety assembly in the morning. We will spend the afternoon with our Learning Partners doing Hallowe'en activities. Photo orders are due by this Thursday, Nov. 1st. Madison is the helper tomorrow. Happy Hallowe'en!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Count things up to 10 around the house, forwards and backwards. Is your child able to count on from a given point? e.g., 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
How many things can you find that begin with the sound /rrr/?
Play rhyming games such as "I Spy", or say a made-up word that rhymes with something that you want your child to find or do (e.g., It's time for... gupper! (supper) Can you put out the wacemats? (placemats). Your child can make up rhymes for you to figure out too. Have fun with it!
- celebrating Maxine's birthday
- listening to Hannah play her xylophone for her helper day sharing
- playing a whole-class picture rhyming game
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- making "fact pictures" about local animals surviving winter
- playing with the new animals (bears, raccoons, skunks, ducks, eagles, badgers, bunnies) on our "Invitation to Play" table
- reading "Where's My Mummy?" and "Boo!"
- singing our pumpkin songs with the lights turned out and our jack o'lantern on
And of course, our Hallowe'en Party! The "Swamp Muck" was a huge hit (cornstarch and water with green food colouring, with plastic bugs hidden in it). The kids also made tissue paper ghosts, sparkly spider webs, and pumpkin lanterns to take home. We enjoyed the delicious snacks and we all had a great time!
Sneak Peek: Remember that students are invited to wear their costumes tomorrow! We have a Hallowe'en safety assembly in the morning. We will spend the afternoon with our Learning Partners doing Hallowe'en activities. Photo orders are due by this Thursday, Nov. 1st. Madison is the helper tomorrow. Happy Hallowe'en!
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Count things up to 10 around the house, forwards and backwards. Is your child able to count on from a given point? e.g., 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
How many things can you find that begin with the sound /rrr/?
Play rhyming games such as "I Spy", or say a made-up word that rhymes with something that you want your child to find or do (e.g., It's time for... gupper! (supper) Can you put out the wacemats? (placemats). Your child can make up rhymes for you to figure out too. Have fun with it!
October 26
Some highlights from today and yesterday:
- Carved pumpins on Thursday afternoon. Thank you to the parents and granny that were able to come in and help. Our classroom is looking very festive and ready for our halloween party on Tuesday.
- Today we baked the pumpkin seeds and ate them up. Many were hesitant to try but almost all asked for a second and third helping Yum Yum!
- We watched the letter M Have Fun Teaching Video on Ytube. These are great to watch again at home! Just Ytube search Have Fun teaching and the letter.
- Went to the gym and played Duck Duck Goose and the Halloween game.
- We continued working on patterns by making them with different materials found in the classroom.
-Brooklynn shared a special kitty stuffy
- This afternoon the whole school met in the gym and met their Family Group. All students are divided up into different groups for events all year. Today we got to know each other by playing name games. The theme for the year is going to be Space!
- A letter about the halloween party was sent home today along with a Cards by Kids order form and student photos! The deadline for ordering photo's is next Thursday November 1st!!
Sneak peek: Jack is the helper on Monday
- Carved pumpins on Thursday afternoon. Thank you to the parents and granny that were able to come in and help. Our classroom is looking very festive and ready for our halloween party on Tuesday.
- Today we baked the pumpkin seeds and ate them up. Many were hesitant to try but almost all asked for a second and third helping Yum Yum!
- We watched the letter M Have Fun Teaching Video on Ytube. These are great to watch again at home! Just Ytube search Have Fun teaching and the letter.
- Went to the gym and played Duck Duck Goose and the Halloween game.
- We continued working on patterns by making them with different materials found in the classroom.
-Brooklynn shared a special kitty stuffy
- This afternoon the whole school met in the gym and met their Family Group. All students are divided up into different groups for events all year. Today we got to know each other by playing name games. The theme for the year is going to be Space!
- A letter about the halloween party was sent home today along with a Cards by Kids order form and student photos! The deadline for ordering photo's is next Thursday November 1st!!
Sneak peek: Jack is the helper on Monday
October 24
Today included the following highlights:
- We learned our #4 rhyme (Down and across and down once more, that's the way you make a four.)
- We had stations this morning, where the children rotated in small groups through a series of activities including printing 4 and drawing 4 things; playing in our Costume Shop; finishing shape patterns and creating their own patterns; and working with the letter "m".
- In gym, we played Hallowe'en Tag and then used the "soft" volleyballs to work on some ball skills, as the older kids in our school are busy playing volleyball lately. We practiced rolling, tossing, catching and bounce-passing the balls.
- We played Number Lotto.
- We enjoyed seeing Daisy's picture from preschool for her sharing time.
- We met with our big-kid Learning Partners today. The bigs read the littles Todd Parr's "I'm Not Scared" book, and then they all drew something that makes them scared and something that does not make them scared. They all seem very happy with their partners!
- We enjoyed playing outside in the afternoon with Mrs. Stroh's Grade Ones.
- We read a non-fiction book about skunks, and talked about animals that are nocturnal.
- We put our painted animals up on our big poster in the hall about how local animals survive winter. The children are very proud of this project!
- We read and did some actions to "We're Going on a Bear Hunt".
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow Mrs. Wagner will be teaching, and it is Maxine's helper day. Remember that it's Pumpkin Carving Day at 1:15 in the afternoon. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to help with this! If you have any safe pumpkin carving tools that your child would like to bring, he or she is welcome to do so.
- We learned our #4 rhyme (Down and across and down once more, that's the way you make a four.)
- We had stations this morning, where the children rotated in small groups through a series of activities including printing 4 and drawing 4 things; playing in our Costume Shop; finishing shape patterns and creating their own patterns; and working with the letter "m".
- In gym, we played Hallowe'en Tag and then used the "soft" volleyballs to work on some ball skills, as the older kids in our school are busy playing volleyball lately. We practiced rolling, tossing, catching and bounce-passing the balls.
- We played Number Lotto.
- We enjoyed seeing Daisy's picture from preschool for her sharing time.
- We met with our big-kid Learning Partners today. The bigs read the littles Todd Parr's "I'm Not Scared" book, and then they all drew something that makes them scared and something that does not make them scared. They all seem very happy with their partners!
- We enjoyed playing outside in the afternoon with Mrs. Stroh's Grade Ones.
- We read a non-fiction book about skunks, and talked about animals that are nocturnal.
- We put our painted animals up on our big poster in the hall about how local animals survive winter. The children are very proud of this project!
- We read and did some actions to "We're Going on a Bear Hunt".
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow Mrs. Wagner will be teaching, and it is Maxine's helper day. Remember that it's Pumpkin Carving Day at 1:15 in the afternoon. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to help with this! If you have any safe pumpkin carving tools that your child would like to bring, he or she is welcome to do so.
October 23
This morning we watched some brief videos from Animal Planet and National Geographic about migration, hibernation and "staying out" to survive the winter. We saw geese, ducks, bears, deer, mice, birds, lynx, cougars and more. We talked about flight patterns and we learned that when bears hibernate their heart rate slows to 8 beats per minute and they don't eat or poop for up to 7 months! We also talked about how animals that remain outside during winter adapt to their environment (by changing their fur colour to camouflage; by growing thicker fur; by hunting; by tunneling under the snow, etc.). This sparked lots of discussion and generated a lot of excitement about creating animals for our "Surviving Winter" poster!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. Mrs. Whitehead (our Primary Learner Support Teacher) will be in our classroom to help out in the morning. We have Learning Partners in the afternoon - hurray!
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Daisy's helper day. Mrs. Whitehead (our Primary Learner Support Teacher) will be in our classroom to help out in the morning. We have Learning Partners in the afternoon - hurray!
October 22
Brrr! Feels like winter's in the air...
Today's activities included:
- getting our hearing, vision and dental health screened (please see notices sent home today to find out if your child needs further assessment)
- finishing our stamp patterns
- looking at "tiny treasures" that start with the /mmm/ sound, and learning the new chant for the letter "M": "M says /mmm/; monkey on a mountain; /mmm/, /mmm/, /mmm/."
- adding to our huge "Squamish in the winter" poster; we have added lots of physical features that we see in the environment around Squamish, and we will be making animals to add to the scene later this week
- playing at this week's "Invitation to Play" table, which has an assortment of leaves, sticks, pumpkins, animals and Hallowe'en creatures
- singing and dancing to the "Frog Jump" song to learn how to print certain letters
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- exchanging our books at the library and listening to a story read by Ms. Wylie
- adding features to the Hallowe'en creatures that we started painting last week
- listening to and discussing the books "A Day at the Pumpkin Patch" and "Rhyming Dust Bunnies"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. We are going to learn more about how animals in Squamish survive the winter by watching some short videos online. Our class "Pattern Book" went home with Hannah today. Who will be next?
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child what part of our "Squamish" posted s/he made. What other environmental features do we see around Squamish?
Read rhyming stories and sing rhyming songs with your child. Is your child able to identify rhyme? Can s/he generate words that rhyme with a given word? You can play "I Spy something that rhymes with...".
Does your child remember how a pumpkin grows (from a flower on a vine), and what the funny word is for the pumpkin's stem (a peduncle)?
Today's activities included:
- getting our hearing, vision and dental health screened (please see notices sent home today to find out if your child needs further assessment)
- finishing our stamp patterns
- looking at "tiny treasures" that start with the /mmm/ sound, and learning the new chant for the letter "M": "M says /mmm/; monkey on a mountain; /mmm/, /mmm/, /mmm/."
- adding to our huge "Squamish in the winter" poster; we have added lots of physical features that we see in the environment around Squamish, and we will be making animals to add to the scene later this week
- playing at this week's "Invitation to Play" table, which has an assortment of leaves, sticks, pumpkins, animals and Hallowe'en creatures
- singing and dancing to the "Frog Jump" song to learn how to print certain letters
- going to music with Ms. Moo
- exchanging our books at the library and listening to a story read by Ms. Wylie
- adding features to the Hallowe'en creatures that we started painting last week
- listening to and discussing the books "A Day at the Pumpkin Patch" and "Rhyming Dust Bunnies"
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Sydney's helper day. We are going to learn more about how animals in Squamish survive the winter by watching some short videos online. Our class "Pattern Book" went home with Hannah today. Who will be next?
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child what part of our "Squamish" posted s/he made. What other environmental features do we see around Squamish?
Read rhyming stories and sing rhyming songs with your child. Is your child able to identify rhyme? Can s/he generate words that rhyme with a given word? You can play "I Spy something that rhymes with...".
Does your child remember how a pumpkin grows (from a flower on a vine), and what the funny word is for the pumpkin's stem (a peduncle)?
October 18
Another busy day! It was an inside day today because of the rain. Just a reminder that the bell goes at 8:50 in the morning. If its one of those mornings and you are arriving after the bell please come in the front door and inform Mrs. White that you have arrived. Enjoy the 3 day weekend!!
Today we:
- had music with Mrs. Moo
- watched a letter K videoclip, here is a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_LNrXd7Jx8
- worked on our poem sheet and added it to our binders, everyone working very hard to do their best work by including 5 colours, not scribbling, and drawing pictures that match the poem
- went to the gym and had stations (beanbags, hoola hoops, bouncy balls, skipping ropes)
- Luisa was the helper and shared a turtle necklace with a family picture
- learned how to play Snakes and Ladders, this was a big hit
- had exploration centers, the costume shop, play doh, the dollhouse, and snakes and ladders were the popular choices today
- cut and designed our own shape puppets
Sneak Peak:
Brody is the helper on Monday. Vancouver Coastal Health staff will be in the classroom on Monday to prescreen students for vision, hearing and dental issues.
Ways to support Learning: Snakes and Ladders
If you have not yet introduced this game...it's time! There are other variations out there such Chutes and Slides but the idea is the same. There are many opportunities to focus on in this game; number identification, sequence of numbers, counting starting from anywhere, taking turns, how to navigate the board, how to deal with a ladder and a snake, identifying the dots on a die, how to advance on the board, how to win graciously and how to loose graciously , helping each other, encouraging each other with kind words, patience to finish the game. We have a game in the classroom but playing at home can be fun, the dollar store usually has them for a couple dollars.
Today we:
- had music with Mrs. Moo
- watched a letter K videoclip, here is a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_LNrXd7Jx8
- worked on our poem sheet and added it to our binders, everyone working very hard to do their best work by including 5 colours, not scribbling, and drawing pictures that match the poem
- went to the gym and had stations (beanbags, hoola hoops, bouncy balls, skipping ropes)
- Luisa was the helper and shared a turtle necklace with a family picture
- learned how to play Snakes and Ladders, this was a big hit
- had exploration centers, the costume shop, play doh, the dollhouse, and snakes and ladders were the popular choices today
- cut and designed our own shape puppets
Sneak Peak:
Brody is the helper on Monday. Vancouver Coastal Health staff will be in the classroom on Monday to prescreen students for vision, hearing and dental issues.
Ways to support Learning: Snakes and Ladders
If you have not yet introduced this game...it's time! There are other variations out there such Chutes and Slides but the idea is the same. There are many opportunities to focus on in this game; number identification, sequence of numbers, counting starting from anywhere, taking turns, how to navigate the board, how to deal with a ladder and a snake, identifying the dots on a die, how to advance on the board, how to win graciously and how to loose graciously , helping each other, encouraging each other with kind words, patience to finish the game. We have a game in the classroom but playing at home can be fun, the dollar store usually has them for a couple dollars.
October 17
What a busy day! We have been learning about the physical environment around Squamish, as part of our big question "How do animals in Squamish survive the winter?". Today we began working on our whole-class poster that will represent our learning on this topic. The class was divided into small groups, and each group is responsible for depicting a part of our local physical environment. Today's groups made snow-covered mountains and a waterfall and stream. We will add more features to the poster next week, and will add in some animals surviving the winter!
Other highlights of today included:
- playing with our new dolls and dollhouse furniture (which is actually as big a hit with the boys as it is with the girls) - lots of interesting language and problem-solving with this activity
- working with beans in a bin, and containers
- playing "Number Match" in gym, as well as "Duck, Duck, Goose"
- doing a pattern activity with stamps
- learning about cicadas through Rohan's fascinating "sharing", during which time we focussed on being a respectful audience and on asking powerful questions
- working with our big-kid Learning Partners on a story called "The Crayon Box that Talked"
- painting Hallowe'en creatures with some help from Claudia, Annika's mom - thank you, Claudia!
- a quick play outside at the end of the day
Sneak Peek:
Tomorrow is Luisa's helper day. Mrs. Wagner will be here. Remember that on Friday, the teachers will be at school but the kids will not! :)
Other highlights of today included:
- playing with our new dolls and dollhouse furniture (which is actually as big a hit with the boys as it is with the girls) - lots of interesting language and problem-solving with this activity
- working with beans in a bin, and containers
- playing "Number Match" in gym, as well as "Duck, Duck, Goose"
- doing a pattern activity with stamps
- learning about cicadas through Rohan's fascinating "sharing", during which time we focussed on being a respectful audience and on asking powerful questions
- working with our big-kid Learning Partners on a story called "The Crayon Box that Talked"
- painting Hallowe'en creatures with some help from Claudia, Annika's mom - thank you, Claudia!
- a quick play outside at the end of the day
Sneak Peek:
Tomorrow is Luisa's helper day. Mrs. Wagner will be here. Remember that on Friday, the teachers will be at school but the kids will not! :)
October 16
Check out this great article (a little tongue-in-cheek, but with a very valuable message) about the best children's toys, at http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/the-5-best-toys-of-all-time/all/1. I also posted this link on our "Resources" page.
New photos just posted on our "photos" page...
October 15
Autumn is definitely here! Please remember to send good puddle-jumping clothing and footwear with your child...
Tyco was the helper today, and the kids enjoyed listening to him play his "parade drum". During sharing time, we are working on having respectful audience behaviour, as well as on asking powerful questions.
We learned our new letter chant today: "K says /kkk/. Kid in a kayak; /kkk/, /kkk/, /kkk/. We printed uppercase K in our printing books.
We also learned our poem of the week, which is another one about black bears. We are continuing to gather information to answer our Big Question "How do animals around Squamish survive in the winter?". Today we talked about the local environment in which these animals live, read two non-fiction books, and looked at some pictures and a couple of brief videos online. We also sorted pictures into two categories: pictures from around Squamish, and pictures of places far away.
We also exchanged our books at the library, did some math activities with dot patterns, and read a book called "Germs are Not for Sharing".
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madison's helper day. We will be doing some more sorting activities, with fictional and non-fictional animals. Deanna will be here in the afternoon to do another First Nations cultural activity with us.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child to describe some features of our local physical environment (forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, etc.). How do these features support local animals? How is where we live different from other areas in the world (desert, Arctic, etc.).
Can your child find a pattern at home? Can s/he identify the core of the pattern?
Can your child print the letters Aa, Ee, Hh and Kk?
Talk with your child about how and why to prevent germs from spreading. Practice washing hands properly.
Ask your child who s/he has been playing with at school lately. If there are problems with someone at school, does your child know how to solve these problems?
Tyco was the helper today, and the kids enjoyed listening to him play his "parade drum". During sharing time, we are working on having respectful audience behaviour, as well as on asking powerful questions.
We learned our new letter chant today: "K says /kkk/. Kid in a kayak; /kkk/, /kkk/, /kkk/. We printed uppercase K in our printing books.
We also learned our poem of the week, which is another one about black bears. We are continuing to gather information to answer our Big Question "How do animals around Squamish survive in the winter?". Today we talked about the local environment in which these animals live, read two non-fiction books, and looked at some pictures and a couple of brief videos online. We also sorted pictures into two categories: pictures from around Squamish, and pictures of places far away.
We also exchanged our books at the library, did some math activities with dot patterns, and read a book called "Germs are Not for Sharing".
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Madison's helper day. We will be doing some more sorting activities, with fictional and non-fictional animals. Deanna will be here in the afternoon to do another First Nations cultural activity with us.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child to describe some features of our local physical environment (forests, mountains, rivers, lakes, etc.). How do these features support local animals? How is where we live different from other areas in the world (desert, Arctic, etc.).
Can your child find a pattern at home? Can s/he identify the core of the pattern?
Can your child print the letters Aa, Ee, Hh and Kk?
Talk with your child about how and why to prevent germs from spreading. Practice washing hands properly.
Ask your child who s/he has been playing with at school lately. If there are problems with someone at school, does your child know how to solve these problems?
October 12
It looks as though the weather is finally starting to change. Puddle splashing here we come! Just a reminder to make sure everyone is coming to school with the appropriate clothing for being outside, rain boots and rain jackets when it’s raining.
Today we:
- watched a short videoclip of real owls, yesterday of real coyotes, and thought about what they do in the winter
-learned about 3 parts of the brain (prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus). The prefrontal cortex is the “wise leader” and does the deep thinking, amygdala is the “security guard” and reacts fast keeping us safe, the hippocampus is the “saver of memories” and remembers information.
- completed number 2 in our Number Picture Books
- Dylan was the helper today and brought binoculars
-went to the gym and played freeze tag and red light green light.
- added The Black Bear poem to our poem binders
-started an experiment to see what will happen to a dirty apple piece(one we all touched) and a clean apple piece. We will see next week what happens.
- made leave print pictures which are up in the class, come see!
Yesterday we:
-completed number 2 in our Number Picture Books
- Madelyn brought in a microscope and we all got a chance to use it.
-made the letter H using playdoh, wooden sticks, and sand
- had music with Mrs Moo
-went to the gym and played games
- finished decorating our boxes
Sneak Peak
Monday is Photo Day! Kindergarteners usually go first thing in the morning.
Tyco will be the helper on Monday
Today we:
- watched a short videoclip of real owls, yesterday of real coyotes, and thought about what they do in the winter
-learned about 3 parts of the brain (prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus). The prefrontal cortex is the “wise leader” and does the deep thinking, amygdala is the “security guard” and reacts fast keeping us safe, the hippocampus is the “saver of memories” and remembers information.
- completed number 2 in our Number Picture Books
- Dylan was the helper today and brought binoculars
-went to the gym and played freeze tag and red light green light.
- added The Black Bear poem to our poem binders
-started an experiment to see what will happen to a dirty apple piece(one we all touched) and a clean apple piece. We will see next week what happens.
- made leave print pictures which are up in the class, come see!
Yesterday we:
-completed number 2 in our Number Picture Books
- Madelyn brought in a microscope and we all got a chance to use it.
-made the letter H using playdoh, wooden sticks, and sand
- had music with Mrs Moo
-went to the gym and played games
- finished decorating our boxes
Sneak Peak
Monday is Photo Day! Kindergarteners usually go first thing in the morning.
Tyco will be the helper on Monday
October 9
Happy Thanksgiving! It sounds like you had some well-fed kids over the weekend! We had a very small class today, with 8 children away sick. Highlights of today included:
- a small birthday celebration for David, who turned 5 yesterday :)
- reading a rhyming story, and playing a rhyming game with our big, fuzzy dice
- looking for patterns, and then extending a pattern made with unifix cubes and recording it in our math journals
- learning our new letter chant: H says /hhh/. Horse on a house, /hhh/, /hhh/, /hhh/.
- making uppercase letter H with wooden sticks, and then printing it
- learning our poem of the week: "The Black Bear"
- reading and talking about how local animals survive in the winter (We will be doing a whole-class project on local animals over the next month. The kids came up with the following "big question", which we will try to answer through our studies: "How do animals in Squamish survive the winter?")
- listening to David play his guitar for his Helper Day sharing time
- a "picnic" and play at the playground in the afternoon sun
Sneak Peek: Deanna will be back tomorrow for another First Nations Cultural Progam with us. We will have our first session of "Learning Partners" with Mrs. Wick's class. Each child will be paired with an older partner. This will carry on throughout the school year. These sessions will be focussed on developing a relationship with an older student who will help the younger student to develop powerful reading habits.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child if s/he can find patterns around the house. Each child will take a turn bringing home our "Kindergarten Pattern Book" to record a pattern found at home.
Does your child know the letter chants for a, e, and h?
Read a rhyming story with your child. Stop while reading and have your child predict what the rhyme will be (e.g., There were two black cats who liked to chase.... rats.)
Talk with your child about how different animals survive the through the winter.
- a small birthday celebration for David, who turned 5 yesterday :)
- reading a rhyming story, and playing a rhyming game with our big, fuzzy dice
- looking for patterns, and then extending a pattern made with unifix cubes and recording it in our math journals
- learning our new letter chant: H says /hhh/. Horse on a house, /hhh/, /hhh/, /hhh/.
- making uppercase letter H with wooden sticks, and then printing it
- learning our poem of the week: "The Black Bear"
- reading and talking about how local animals survive in the winter (We will be doing a whole-class project on local animals over the next month. The kids came up with the following "big question", which we will try to answer through our studies: "How do animals in Squamish survive the winter?")
- listening to David play his guitar for his Helper Day sharing time
- a "picnic" and play at the playground in the afternoon sun
Sneak Peek: Deanna will be back tomorrow for another First Nations Cultural Progam with us. We will have our first session of "Learning Partners" with Mrs. Wick's class. Each child will be paired with an older partner. This will carry on throughout the school year. These sessions will be focussed on developing a relationship with an older student who will help the younger student to develop powerful reading habits.
Ways to Support Learning at Home:
Ask your child if s/he can find patterns around the house. Each child will take a turn bringing home our "Kindergarten Pattern Book" to record a pattern found at home.
Does your child know the letter chants for a, e, and h?
Read a rhyming story with your child. Stop while reading and have your child predict what the rhyme will be (e.g., There were two black cats who liked to chase.... rats.)
Talk with your child about how different animals survive the through the winter.
October 5
It has been wonderful getting to know the class during the last two weeks! I am very excited to be team teaching kindergarten with Mrs. Fieldhouse. Please come and introduce yourselves to me if I have not already met you and if you need to contact me my email is [email protected]. I will as Mrs Fieldhouse does try to update the website when I am teaching (every second Thursday and Friday). I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend! Ms. Wagner
Today in Kindergarten, we:
- had Paige as the helper
- learned how to use our new class camera, the camera can be used to record our learning and special creations.
- made I'm Thankful for pictures for our scrapbooks
- went to the Gym and played Duck Duck Goose and had stations
- learned about our brain, how big it is, its different parts, and how the calm mind can think better (come see our brain poster that is up in the classroom)
- had exploration centers
- learned a movement game using big dice (roll the dice, figure out the number, and choose a movement that has to be done that many times)
- read Friends True Stories of Incredible Animal Friendships
- coloured and added our Let's Be Thankful poem to our poem binders
- ate snack outside
- played at the park for recess and many practiced going further on the monkey bars
- Read a fiction book about leaves in fall
Sneak peek: Tuesday will be David's helper day
Today in Kindergarten, we:
- had Paige as the helper
- learned how to use our new class camera, the camera can be used to record our learning and special creations.
- made I'm Thankful for pictures for our scrapbooks
- went to the Gym and played Duck Duck Goose and had stations
- learned about our brain, how big it is, its different parts, and how the calm mind can think better (come see our brain poster that is up in the classroom)
- had exploration centers
- learned a movement game using big dice (roll the dice, figure out the number, and choose a movement that has to be done that many times)
- read Friends True Stories of Incredible Animal Friendships
- coloured and added our Let's Be Thankful poem to our poem binders
- ate snack outside
- played at the park for recess and many practiced going further on the monkey bars
- Read a fiction book about leaves in fall
Sneak peek: Tuesday will be David's helper day
October 2
Thank you to all the parents who have been coming in to read in the morning! It's a great way to start the day. I have posted a volunteer sign-up sheet on our classroom door for those who are able and would like to help out in our classroom at other times. You may sign up to help with a "special event", or if you would like to help out at another time, please talk to myself or Shawna (Mrs. Wagner), and we will work out a good time together.
Today in kindergarten, we:
- enjoyed meeting Annika's gerbil, Runner, who we watched throughout the day
- had music in the morning (ask your child to sing the "Turkey Dinner" song)
- worked cooperatively to make some big floor puzzles
- practiced making lowercase "e" with wooden sticks and in sparkle sand
- finished making our names using string, beads, and glue - students will trace these with their fingers to learn how to form each letter in their name
- talked about patterns and made some "people patterns" (children lined up and others guessed the pattern - light hair/dark hair; boy/girl; red shirt/gray shirt, etc.)
- did some "body patterns" (e.g., clap, clap, pat)
- read "Thanks for Thanksgiving"
- worked on some Thanksgiving art
- did not end up having our Cultural Program today after all, as Deanna had to meet with another class at that time; we will see her Thursday morning instead
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. We will be making applesauce in the morning. We have gym.
Today in kindergarten, we:
- enjoyed meeting Annika's gerbil, Runner, who we watched throughout the day
- had music in the morning (ask your child to sing the "Turkey Dinner" song)
- worked cooperatively to make some big floor puzzles
- practiced making lowercase "e" with wooden sticks and in sparkle sand
- finished making our names using string, beads, and glue - students will trace these with their fingers to learn how to form each letter in their name
- talked about patterns and made some "people patterns" (children lined up and others guessed the pattern - light hair/dark hair; boy/girl; red shirt/gray shirt, etc.)
- did some "body patterns" (e.g., clap, clap, pat)
- read "Thanks for Thanksgiving"
- worked on some Thanksgiving art
- did not end up having our Cultural Program today after all, as Deanna had to meet with another class at that time; we will see her Thursday morning instead
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Nolan's helper day. We will be making applesauce in the morning. We have gym.
October 1
October already! Some highlights of today included:
- exploring the new "Invitation to Play" table, which is set up with dinosaurs, rocks, "streams" made of beaded strings, etc.
- playing with playdough
- using jingle bells to identify words in a spoken sentence (we rang the bells once for each word we heard)
- making letters out of Bendaroos (wax strings), and tracing them with our fingers
- singing and dancing to "Where Do You Start Your Letters?" - it sounds cheesy, but it's pretty catchy and the kids love it!
- learning our poem of the week: "Let's Be Thankful"
- music with Ms. Moo
- exchanging our books in the library and listening to a story read by Ms. Wylie
- making our names in the "school way" (beginning with an uppercase, and then lowercase for the rest), using glue, string and beads
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. We have our second session with Deanna, our First Nations Cultural Worker. This week we will be talking about being thankful, in preparation for Thanksgiving.
Ways to Support Learning at Home: Ask your child to clap for each word she or he hears in a sentence. Can your child identify the individual words?
Ask your child if s/he can find a pattern at home or in the surrounding environment. How does the pattern go? (e.g., pink-white-green on a pair of socks). Pour some sand, flour, rice, or jello powder into a shallow pan and ask your child to print his/her name "the school way". You can refer to the letter formation handout sent home at the beginning of the year to help your child with letter formation. Ask your child to sing you a bit of the "Where do you start your letters?" song as a reminder for where uppercase letters begin.
- exploring the new "Invitation to Play" table, which is set up with dinosaurs, rocks, "streams" made of beaded strings, etc.
- playing with playdough
- using jingle bells to identify words in a spoken sentence (we rang the bells once for each word we heard)
- making letters out of Bendaroos (wax strings), and tracing them with our fingers
- singing and dancing to "Where Do You Start Your Letters?" - it sounds cheesy, but it's pretty catchy and the kids love it!
- learning our poem of the week: "Let's Be Thankful"
- music with Ms. Moo
- exchanging our books in the library and listening to a story read by Ms. Wylie
- making our names in the "school way" (beginning with an uppercase, and then lowercase for the rest), using glue, string and beads
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Annika's helper day. We have our second session with Deanna, our First Nations Cultural Worker. This week we will be talking about being thankful, in preparation for Thanksgiving.
Ways to Support Learning at Home: Ask your child to clap for each word she or he hears in a sentence. Can your child identify the individual words?
Ask your child if s/he can find a pattern at home or in the surrounding environment. How does the pattern go? (e.g., pink-white-green on a pair of socks). Pour some sand, flour, rice, or jello powder into a shallow pan and ask your child to print his/her name "the school way". You can refer to the letter formation handout sent home at the beginning of the year to help your child with letter formation. Ask your child to sing you a bit of the "Where do you start your letters?" song as a reminder for where uppercase letters begin.
September 26
Love this sunny weather! The kids are really enjoying getting out to play. We had the playground to ourselves for our afternoon recess today, which was nice for them.
Today was our apple-testing day, which was lots of fun! The kids each had a chance to use an old-fashioned apple-peeler/corer, and then we tasted three different kinds of apples and graphed which apples we liked the best.
Today we also continued our discussion of how people are different and how we are all the same. Kasey the Kindergarten Dog (our class puppet) made his first appearance, and he was a very big hit! He talked with the kids about how doggies are the same and how they are different from one another. We read two books ("It's Okay to be Different" and "We All Play"), which explore ways in which people are different and the same. We talked about what really matters about people (how they are on the inside; their personalities; how they treat others), and what things don't really matter (their height, their eye, skin or hair colour, whether they walk or use a wheelchair; whether they wear glasses, etc.). The kids were very engaged and it was a good discussion.
The appearance of Kasey sparked a lot of interest in puppets, so I got out all our puppets and we had a whole-class puppet show in the afternoon. Lots of fun!
Sneak Peek: A couple of reminders: online hot lunch orders and Scholastic book orders are due on Friday. The Terry Fox Run is tomorrow (see below). If you haven't yet brought in your school supply money ($30), please try to remember it soon. Tomorrow is Danni's helper day, and it is Mrs. Wagner's first full day in our classroom. I hope your kids have a great Thurs/Fri, and I'm looking forward to seeing them on Monday!
Today was our apple-testing day, which was lots of fun! The kids each had a chance to use an old-fashioned apple-peeler/corer, and then we tasted three different kinds of apples and graphed which apples we liked the best.
Today we also continued our discussion of how people are different and how we are all the same. Kasey the Kindergarten Dog (our class puppet) made his first appearance, and he was a very big hit! He talked with the kids about how doggies are the same and how they are different from one another. We read two books ("It's Okay to be Different" and "We All Play"), which explore ways in which people are different and the same. We talked about what really matters about people (how they are on the inside; their personalities; how they treat others), and what things don't really matter (their height, their eye, skin or hair colour, whether they walk or use a wheelchair; whether they wear glasses, etc.). The kids were very engaged and it was a good discussion.
The appearance of Kasey sparked a lot of interest in puppets, so I got out all our puppets and we had a whole-class puppet show in the afternoon. Lots of fun!
Sneak Peek: A couple of reminders: online hot lunch orders and Scholastic book orders are due on Friday. The Terry Fox Run is tomorrow (see below). If you haven't yet brought in your school supply money ($30), please try to remember it soon. Tomorrow is Danni's helper day, and it is Mrs. Wagner's first full day in our classroom. I hope your kids have a great Thurs/Fri, and I'm looking forward to seeing them on Monday!
September 25
Today was a busy day! We worked on our letter E (tracing it in the air, building it with wooden sticks, and working in sparkle sand). We had music with Ms. Moo in the morning. We talked about Terry Fox and looked at some pictures of him, in preparation for our Terry Fox Run on Thursday. In the afternoon we had our first First Nations Cultural Program with Deanna Lewis. Deanna is a very respected member of the Squamish Nation. Today she talked with us about some local animals and then taught us how to use deerhide drums. Each child got to use their own drum and drumstick while we sang some Squamish songs. We then learned the Bear Dance and the Wolf Dance - ask your child to show you! We had lots of fun and learned a lot. We will have Deanna visit our classroom on four more occasions this fall.
Sneak Peek: Helper Days - Wed: Eila; Thurs: Danni; Fri: James; Mon: Nolan
Remember that it is the Terry Fox Run on Thursday at 1:15. Parents are welcome to join us on the run - meet in the back field for our warm-up. If you would like to make a donation for cancer research, you may send money with your child any morning this week.
Sneak Peek: Helper Days - Wed: Eila; Thurs: Danni; Fri: James; Mon: Nolan
Remember that it is the Terry Fox Run on Thursday at 1:15. Parents are welcome to join us on the run - meet in the back field for our warm-up. If you would like to make a donation for cancer research, you may send money with your child any morning this week.
September 24
I am delighted to let you know that my new teaching partner will be Mrs. Shawna Wagner. Shawna has previous kindergarten experience, and is very excited to be a part of our classroom. She will be teaching every Friday and every second Thursday, beginning this week. We plan to work closely together to provide your children with a consistent routine, and we will communicate regularly to ensure that your child's needs are being met. You can contact Shawna at [email protected]. If you are emailing about an issue that you wish both of us to be aware of, please address the email to us both. Thank you!
Today we:
- learned our new letter chant: "Ee says /eee/; eel on wheels - /eee/, /eee/, /eee/")
- practiced making the uppercase letter E with wooden sticks
- played with our name puzzles, and tried to identify some letters in our names
- talked about how to be kind, helpful and safe in our classroom (these are the expectations that the kids came up with for our class this year)
- read a "fact book" about apples
- had music with Ms. Moo
- met Mrs. Wagner, who taught in the afternoon (although she won't usually teach on Mondays)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Hannah's helper day. We will have music in the morning, and we will be doing a taste test with some different kinds of apples.
Ways to Support Learning at Home: If your child does not already know the names of the letters in his/her name, work with your child on learning these. Encourage your child to practice printing his/her name in interesting ways (e.g., in flour or jello powder; with playdough; in sand or dirt; using glitter glue, etc.). Ask your child to say the two letter chants we have learned so far (Aa and Ee). Ask your child how their time at recess is, and please let me know about any concerns, as I am unable to closely monitor this time for your child at school. We want your child to feel good about their whole school experience! :)
Today we:
- learned our new letter chant: "Ee says /eee/; eel on wheels - /eee/, /eee/, /eee/")
- practiced making the uppercase letter E with wooden sticks
- played with our name puzzles, and tried to identify some letters in our names
- talked about how to be kind, helpful and safe in our classroom (these are the expectations that the kids came up with for our class this year)
- read a "fact book" about apples
- had music with Ms. Moo
- met Mrs. Wagner, who taught in the afternoon (although she won't usually teach on Mondays)
Sneak Peek: Tomorrow is Hannah's helper day. We will have music in the morning, and we will be doing a taste test with some different kinds of apples.
Ways to Support Learning at Home: If your child does not already know the names of the letters in his/her name, work with your child on learning these. Encourage your child to practice printing his/her name in interesting ways (e.g., in flour or jello powder; with playdough; in sand or dirt; using glitter glue, etc.). Ask your child to say the two letter chants we have learned so far (Aa and Ee). Ask your child how their time at recess is, and please let me know about any concerns, as I am unable to closely monitor this time for your child at school. We want your child to feel good about their whole school experience! :)
September 20
Hot lunch orders are now being made online... go to www.munchalunch.com/schools/brackendale to set up your family account. First orders must be placed by Sept. 28th, for Oct. 4th and Nov. 1. Yum!
September 19
Just wanted to let you know that I have posted pictures on the "Photos" page. Thank you to those families who were able to come to Meet the Teacher Night - it was nice to see you there and to meet some new members of your child's family! Also, FYI, we had our first "Fruit and Veggie Program" delivery today. It was blueberries, which is always a popular one. Some of your children ate a lot of berries today! This program provides in-season fruits or veggies for the children once every 3 or 4 weeks.
September 17
Well, the kids are settling in and are getting used to the routines, expectations, each other and me! Rest assured that it is normal for your child to be very tired after the school day, and that this will improve as the year progresses. We have a lovely class of 21 children - 8 boys and 13 girls. We have spent the first week doing lots of self-directed play, inside and out, and are now beginning to focus our learning a bit more (although learning will continue to occur through play and exploration, and children will have the opportunity for self-directed play every day). We have many play areas in our classroom. Some of these areas (popular activities such as Lego, straws and connectors, magnet dolls, painting, etc.) will remain out all year. Some of the activities based around specific skills or concepts (patterning, counting, rhyming, etc.) will be left out for a few months, but will be changed as the children's learning progresses throughout the year. We are fortunate to have a large dramatic play area adjoining our classroom. The theme of this room will be changed each month, which keeps it exciting for the children (the first is a "library" set-up). Each week there will also be an "Invitation to Play", which is a play area that I will set up that has new or interesting materials in it for the children to explore. This will often go along with a seasonal or learning-based theme. Other centres such as sand play, water table, etc. will be open at times and closed at other times, depending on what else is going on in the classroom.
This week we plan to:
- focus on the letter Aa and the sound /aaa/ as in alligator (we will focus on the letters according to the frequency that children use them in language instead of in alphabetical order, as this provides children with the knowledge that they need to begin reading and writing). This week our letter chant is: A says /aaa/. Ant on an apple; /aaa/, /aaa/, /aaa/.
- learn all about apples through poems, stories, songs, touching, tasting, measuring, etc.
- sort things according to various attributes (colour, size, shape, etc.)
- learn, discuss and practice how to be safe and responsible members of our class and our school
- learn each other's names, and "play with" our own names
- play in our "library centre" that is set up in the room adjoining our classroom, and also visit the real school library for the first time
- practice listening skills and being a respectful audience member
- play with words as units of sound
- practice playing safely in the gym
Sneak Peek:
- Upcoming helpers are: T- Daisy, W - Brooklynn, Th - Maxine, M - Jack
- We have our "Routine Rally" tomorrow: we will rotate through a variety of stations around the school that are led by older students, to learn about how to safely and responsibly use various areas in our school.
- Meet the Teacher is on Wed. at 6:30. If you are able to, please drop into the classroom. This is an opportunity for your child to show you around the kindie room and for you to connect with me. Siblings are welcome at this time.
- There is no school on Friday due to our first Professional Development Day.
Ways to Support Your Child's Learning at Home:
Encourage your child to tell you about his or her day at school. Ask what the high and low points of the day were - this can tell you a lot! Ask who they played with at recess, if they remember the poem of the week (this week it's "Farmer Brown"), if they went to gym or music, what their new letter chant is, etc.).
Help your child to practice printing his or her name (please refer to the printing sheet sent home earlier for proper letter formation). We are using an uppercase letter at the beginning, and lowercase for the rest.
Ask your child to sort something at home - maybe even the laundry, into darks and lights! :)
Make a game of seeing how many things you can find around your house that begin with /aaa/. You could even make a list for your child to share with us...
Thank you, and have fun!
This week we plan to:
- focus on the letter Aa and the sound /aaa/ as in alligator (we will focus on the letters according to the frequency that children use them in language instead of in alphabetical order, as this provides children with the knowledge that they need to begin reading and writing). This week our letter chant is: A says /aaa/. Ant on an apple; /aaa/, /aaa/, /aaa/.
- learn all about apples through poems, stories, songs, touching, tasting, measuring, etc.
- sort things according to various attributes (colour, size, shape, etc.)
- learn, discuss and practice how to be safe and responsible members of our class and our school
- learn each other's names, and "play with" our own names
- play in our "library centre" that is set up in the room adjoining our classroom, and also visit the real school library for the first time
- practice listening skills and being a respectful audience member
- play with words as units of sound
- practice playing safely in the gym
Sneak Peek:
- Upcoming helpers are: T- Daisy, W - Brooklynn, Th - Maxine, M - Jack
- We have our "Routine Rally" tomorrow: we will rotate through a variety of stations around the school that are led by older students, to learn about how to safely and responsibly use various areas in our school.
- Meet the Teacher is on Wed. at 6:30. If you are able to, please drop into the classroom. This is an opportunity for your child to show you around the kindie room and for you to connect with me. Siblings are welcome at this time.
- There is no school on Friday due to our first Professional Development Day.
Ways to Support Your Child's Learning at Home:
Encourage your child to tell you about his or her day at school. Ask what the high and low points of the day were - this can tell you a lot! Ask who they played with at recess, if they remember the poem of the week (this week it's "Farmer Brown"), if they went to gym or music, what their new letter chant is, etc.).
Help your child to practice printing his or her name (please refer to the printing sheet sent home earlier for proper letter formation). We are using an uppercase letter at the beginning, and lowercase for the rest.
Ask your child to sort something at home - maybe even the laundry, into darks and lights! :)
Make a game of seeing how many things you can find around your house that begin with /aaa/. You could even make a list for your child to share with us...
Thank you, and have fun!