Hello families,
April is almost over and we have been busy learning about Life Cycles. The children planted their sunflower seeds and have watched them sprout. When they reach their full height in the summer the plants will be taller than they are
The children have also marvelled at how quickly our Painted Lady Caterpillar larvae have been growing. When they arrived they were only about 3 mm long, and now they are over 2 cm long! Once they attach themselves to their lids (branches, in nature) and form a pupa, we will have to wait patiently until they change into butterflies! We have read Eric Carle's wonderful book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and are completing a number of associated literary, numeracy and art-based activities. We are doing a caterpillar alphabet and caterpillar numbers 1-20 and are also creating a Carle-style art piece of our own classroom caterpillar and are reviewing days of the week which go along with Carle's story. We will also tie this in with healthy eating (another theme of Carle's Hungry Caterpillar book) which will lead nicely into our unit on Canadian Coins and their Values when I open our Grocery Store Centre next month.
We have recently completed the letter-sound combinations OA, IE, EE and OR ("when there are two vowels walking the first one does the talking"). In today's white bag, you will find a laminated file folder with several words containing one of 46 letter sounds/letter combination sounds. I have made these and am distributing them weekly to reinforce the letter sounds we learn in Kindergarten and hope you enjoy reading them with your child. S/he will receive a new one each week. They should be returned in the white bag along with their Snuggle Book. Thank you.
To celebrate Earth Week the children participated in Eco-Oplympics which were run by the LKS Eco Warriors. It was a lot of fun! The children also created Earth Wheels which helped explain which things we can recycle. They also made a set of Earth Week Memory Cards to play at home.
I have almost finished re-organizing my room and have created a new Listening Centre (which the children are really enjoying), a larger Writing Centre, a Reading/Phonics Centre, and I have widened the Circle/Teaching Area. I have also re-organized several hundred books in bins according to their title, and I have re-organized the Dramatic Centre, and changed it to a Flower Shop for now. Themed books go in our Reading Library; I have put out Earth-related books as well as a large set of Franklin Books. There's always something new going on!
I am still looking for my Bat Man Phonics set - if you have it please kindly return it. Thank you!
Thank you so much to the Parent Volunteers this week:
Reading Club: Charlie's mom
Mystery Reader: Samantha's mom
White Bags: Carly's dad, Logan's mom
We really appreciate your help! Thank you as well to our Grade Parents who have worked hard organizing the SpringFest Silent Auction baskets. It's a busy time of the year!
Have a great weekend.
