Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful Fall day. This week the children read and drew accompanying pictures to a "Signs of Fall" booklet with their Grade 2 Reading Buddies. They also made poppies in preparation for next week's Remembrance Day ceremony. We read Todd Parr's wonderful book "Peace is..." several times together and also on the Smartboard, page by page. Then we watched a video of Todd reading his own book and talked about the differences (www.toddparr.com). The children did some very nice written work and pictures this week, finishing the two sentences, "I was brave when..." and "Peace is..." They will be on display in the hall and classroom bulletin boards this week.
In Numeracy, the children are making their own rekenreks (http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/Rekenrek.html). These are tools to teach the 5- and 10-frame as well as several other early math skills such as addition and subtraction. The children will bring them home in Friday's mailbag. In Science, we did an inquiry on whether various objects sink or float, and talked about why this happens. We learned about density and displacement. We watched a Sesame Street video on bouyancy and a similar video on makemeagenius.com. We practised being scientists by Predicting, Observing, and Concluding, while testing whether or not the objects sank or floated. I have included a copy of the sheet we used at the Science Centre for you to use at home - a great bath time activity! We also talked about where the idea of Velcro came from (burrs!).
The children had a great time during the GROW presentation in the gym on Wednesday. Lots of energetic teamwork and fun! Thank you Mrs. Norton for organizing this for the children.
The homework for this week is: Seniors are to write in their journals, and Juniors are to do the Numbers Booklet that I sent home.
Thank you so much to Cole and his mom who were our Mystery Readers this week!
This Friday's mailbag included the new words for November as well as homework bingo for this month.
The sight words a.k.a. Popcorn Words for this week are AM and BE.
The due dates for Scholastic are November 20 and 27th. Thank you Stella for collating and stamping the Scholastic magazines this month!
Please remember that I am always available before or after school to meet with you regarding your child's progress.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Tyndall
Saturday, November 7, 2015
October's Classroom News
OCTOBER 19-24
Hello families,
I hope you are having a nice weekend. The children have been very excited about the upcoming Halloween Parade and Class Craft Party! On Monday they helped me decorate our classroom. We made a "Halloween Countdown" with beads. The children made a pattern of orange and black beads on a "pipe cleaner" with the number of sleeps until Halloween, with a little bell at the end. Each night they move one bead over, and when all the beads are moved over they ring the bell and it's Halloween!
NUMERACY: Numeracy in Kindergarten is much more than counting and sorting. The children are learning about sequencing, the benchmark numbers 5 and 10, patterning, and number formation, for example.
We did a lot of patterning this week: with beads for the Countdown and for our Spooky Pattern Tree, with large Halloween foam shapes (JKs), and with small Halloween shapes (SKs). Patterning is an important early Numeracy skill. Simple patterning can be ABAB, and more advanced patterning would be ABCABC, or ABBABB, AABAAB, ABCC, ABCC, ABCDABCD etc. Most of the Juniors just do the ABAB pattern, and the Seniors are able to create more complex patterns on their own.
We also practiced counting and writing numbers (as we do every day) with a pumpkin theme: the JKs completed a "Counting Pumpkins" booklet in which they traced the numbers 1-7, and drew the corresponding number of pumpkins. They did a great job! This teaches 1-1 correspondence as well as numeral formation. The Seniors did pumpkin math, in which they had to write the numbers that came before and after a given number, i.e. ___ 11 ___, or ____ 9 ____.
I made a fun "I Spy Haunted House" out of paper and various spooky stickers, in which the children had to count and record how many of each sticker they counter. For example, "I spy ____ bats." First the children are doing this on acetate with an erasable marker, then they'll do the work on paper. They love using the clipboards!!
Also in numeracy, we counted the seeds in our little pumpkin, and each child counted and will take home 10. We also put 10 seeds on each of the pumpkins on a big pumpkin mat, learning to count by 10s. With the extra seeds, we take turns placing them on a pumpkin mat with various numbers on it (i.e. put 5 seeds on the pumpkin with the 5 on it; put 8 seeds on the pumpkin with the number 8 on it). Thank you so much to Theo and Cole who had a great time taking the "goop" and seeds out of our class pumpkin! The children also worked together making Halloween and Skeleton floor puzzles.
SCIENCE: In Science, we weighed our pumpkin again after taking the seeds and "goop" out, and after cutting two triangle eyes and a mouth (I did this part). The children also helped use figure out how to weigh our pumpkin with the suitcase scale I brought to class. They had lots of amazing ideas, but we finally figured out that we had to put the pumpkin in a bag first before weighing it. We weighed the pumpkin after taking the seeds and "goop" out and it weighed 0.1 kg less.
The children also helped me make a Venn diagram of the characteristics of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, and what they had in common. This will be the SK homework next week.
LITERACY: In Literacy this week, we did a lot of Guided Reading with various Halloween books. The children read several books along with me and we pointed out the sight words and stretched out words we are learning. They also helped me spell Halloween words on chart paper, wrote and drew a picture about what they will be for Halloween, and we made a class booklet that is in our little class library. We also figured out the beginning and ending sounds to Halloween pictures and I put these in a booklet in our class library, i.e. B T for bat, P N for pumpkin. This is a very important skill to develop as the children learn to write.
The popcorn words for this week are THE and DO.
ART: The children made pastel and crayon resist art: they used pastel to draw a tree, fall leaves, a moon and a pumpkin, and then they painted a black watercolour wash on top and "BOO!" a crayon ghost appeared (drawn by me with white crayon in advance. *:) happy I think they liked it! They look great! We also made a Model Magic spider (with eight legs - the children had to count them), and a bat that hangs upside down. The children also sang Halloween songs with me on the piano. We'll do more of these next week! We also started making masking tape "baby mummies" to go along with the cute book we are going to focus on this upcoming week called "Where's My Mummy?" by Laura Crimi.
The SK Homework for this weekend is to complete the "spider" diagram with pumpkin adjectives.
I have also added a link to the top of my Blog called "Kindergarten Curriculum Document" for more information.
Next week we'll also do guided reading with a booklet called Frankie Friend, about being a good friend. The children will take home a copy to read at home.
A big Thank You to Kosti's mom who taught us Finnish words, and how to say "Hello" and "Good-bye" in Finnish! Thank you as well to Christopher's mom who helped out in the Computer Lab, and to the parents to help set up Pizza Lunch on Friday!
If you will be sending in treats for your child's classmates this week, this is a great opportunity for your child to label them: "From ______" or " To ________." Please ensure that treats are labelled nut and sesame-free. Thank you!
The children did a wonderful job singing "Leaves, Leaves" at the Sharing Assembly. Congratulations to Phoebe and Dylan who received a certificate for Responsibility.
An important safety reminder that if your child will be absent, or if there are any other changes to his/her regular routine, please call the school office to let them know.
That's the news from room 166! I am really looking forward to Friday's Halloween Party and Parade! It's a highlight of the year and so much fun for the kids!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Tyndall
OCTOBER 20-25
Hello everyone. Please note that I am always available any time before or after school to meet with you regarding your child’s progress, assessments, etc. Just send me an email if you would like to discuss your child’s progress.
WEEK OF 20-25:
We started our Inquiry on Apples as well as a Science Experiment, predicting and observing what happens to apple slices when these environments: air, lemon juice, salt, and vinegar. We chart the changes each day for 7 days. We also made an Apple Glyph (numeracy skills) and talked about and wrote the sequence to make apple sauce. Then we made our apples into apple sauce and wrote about how we liked it! We also wrote and read a mini booklet called “Who Took the Apples.” We watched a short video on the Smartboard about the journey of a seed to apple sauce.
The children practised pattern and design-making with various shapes and sizes of stones on large chart paper in the hall. Their problem-solving and patterning skills were terrific!
We are learning about Respect and will celebrate this at the Sharing Assembly. We read Kevin Henkes’ wonderful book “Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse” and talked about what Respect means in our classroom and at home. Christopher and Natasha will be receiving Respect certificates.
We also started an Author Study of Laura Numeroff, who wrote the wonderful circular stories “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “If You Give a Moose a Muffin,” “If You Give a Pig a Party” and several more. After listening to the stories the children re-told the events in the story, which is an important literacy skill.
Thank you to: Catherine’s mom who was Mystery Reader; Theo’s mom who helped in the Computer Lab.
The Sight Words of the week are CAN and ME. Seniors should be writing in their Journals each weekend and handing them in each Monday.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 2:
The children did a wonderful job at their first Sharing Assembly of the year, reciting the poem “Me.”
We continued observing our apple slices in the Science Centre - our observations and comments will be sent home in next Friday’s mail bags. The children are terrific at observing and their natural curiosity allows for so much learning!
As we prepare for our school’s Terry Fox Walk on October 2nd, the children completed a picture and words called “Running With Terry” and we talked and wrote about what Terry DID, WAS, and HAD.
A natural continuation of our Inquiry on Apples is our Inquiry on Healthy Habits and Foods, especially at harvest time. The children also helped write about what apples and healthy foods ARE, HAVE and MAKE. The Seniors’ homework is to label the parts of the apple and complete this written ARE, HAVE and MAKE work at home. Thank you for sending in grocery flyers for our Healthy Habits Inquiry. We listed and described together Healthy and Not Healthy foods and cut and glued them. Please provide your children with small scissors and glue at home so that they can practise these important fine motor skills. The children also were proud to show me their healthy snacks.😊
In our Author Study we read “If You Take a Mouse to School” and “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” and retold the stories.
The children also enjoyed taking turns at the Smartboard signing in and finding letter sounds on www.ABCya.com.
In Art, the children painted beautiful pictures of some sunflowers I brought in and they are on display on our classroom bulletin board. The sight words this week are LIKE and MY.
The children had Photo Day as well. I have sent home the October Words to practise at home as well as October Homework Bingo.
Thank you to Martel’s dad who was Mystery Reader and Andrew’s mom who helped in the Computer Lab!
WEEK OF OCTOBER 5 - 9:
Thank you first of all to Theo’s mom who was Mystery Reader, to Megan in Grade 1 who was also a reader for the children, and Phoebe’s mom who helped out in the Computer Lab! Thank you also to Matthew who helped out with our unit on Healthy Habits and Germs by bringing in a science book.
We sang Turkey songs and poems this week and “If You’re Healthy and You Know It.” Copies will be sent home in Friday’s mail bags.
We watched a video on the Smartboard by PBS’ Sid the Science Kid about The Journey of a Germ. We passed around a slice of bread and will be observing the difference between the “clean hands” slice and the “dirty hands” slice. Germs are invisible but they are ick and make us sick! On the Smartboard and at our tables, we read booklets called “Germs are ICK and make me SICK.” I hid 21 germs throughout the classroom and the children did a Germ Hunt to find them, learning that they can be everywhere! We also did a “Shake Hands” song activity and I put glitter glue on my hands. The children noticed that whenever they shook my hand and then gave each other a high five, the glitter (i.e. germs) would pass from one child to another!
We also continued our Patterning Work (numeracy) by making patterns with stamps, stickers, stones, beads, bingo dabbers, and coloured blocks.
Every morning Grade 8 Volunteers in the L.I.V.E program will read with the children one-on-one. This week we also met our Book Buddies from Ms. Sunde’s Grade 2 class. We will meet and read each week to improve our literacy skills and make new friends.
In our Healthy Habits unit we also talked about how all our healthy food comes from nature and farmers, and we talked about different parts of plants that we eat.
IN and SEE are our sight words this week.
This week we also celebrated the Blue Jays by wearing blue and white or Blue Jays clothing! Go Jays!!!
We are almost finished our Healthy Habits/Germs Inquiry and are starting our Signs of Fall Unit. The children are encouraged to bring in signs from nature that Fall is here. They are working on booklets called “Leaves” and “Fall is Here.”
As always, please take time to talk with your child about the wonderful work that comes home in his/her mailbag.
Finally, the children worked hard on their Thanksgiving “I am Thankful For” plates, and wrote and drew four things they are thankful for.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family. I am very thankful for the opportunity I have each day to teach your wonderful children.
Hello families,
I hope you are having a nice weekend. The children have been very excited about the upcoming Halloween Parade and Class Craft Party! On Monday they helped me decorate our classroom. We made a "Halloween Countdown" with beads. The children made a pattern of orange and black beads on a "pipe cleaner" with the number of sleeps until Halloween, with a little bell at the end. Each night they move one bead over, and when all the beads are moved over they ring the bell and it's Halloween!
NUMERACY: Numeracy in Kindergarten is much more than counting and sorting. The children are learning about sequencing, the benchmark numbers 5 and 10, patterning, and number formation, for example.
We did a lot of patterning this week: with beads for the Countdown and for our Spooky Pattern Tree, with large Halloween foam shapes (JKs), and with small Halloween shapes (SKs). Patterning is an important early Numeracy skill. Simple patterning can be ABAB, and more advanced patterning would be ABCABC, or ABBABB, AABAAB, ABCC, ABCC, ABCDABCD etc. Most of the Juniors just do the ABAB pattern, and the Seniors are able to create more complex patterns on their own.
We also practiced counting and writing numbers (as we do every day) with a pumpkin theme: the JKs completed a "Counting Pumpkins" booklet in which they traced the numbers 1-7, and drew the corresponding number of pumpkins. They did a great job! This teaches 1-1 correspondence as well as numeral formation. The Seniors did pumpkin math, in which they had to write the numbers that came before and after a given number, i.e. ___ 11 ___, or ____ 9 ____.
I made a fun "I Spy Haunted House" out of paper and various spooky stickers, in which the children had to count and record how many of each sticker they counter. For example, "I spy ____ bats." First the children are doing this on acetate with an erasable marker, then they'll do the work on paper. They love using the clipboards!!
Also in numeracy, we counted the seeds in our little pumpkin, and each child counted and will take home 10. We also put 10 seeds on each of the pumpkins on a big pumpkin mat, learning to count by 10s. With the extra seeds, we take turns placing them on a pumpkin mat with various numbers on it (i.e. put 5 seeds on the pumpkin with the 5 on it; put 8 seeds on the pumpkin with the number 8 on it). Thank you so much to Theo and Cole who had a great time taking the "goop" and seeds out of our class pumpkin! The children also worked together making Halloween and Skeleton floor puzzles.
SCIENCE: In Science, we weighed our pumpkin again after taking the seeds and "goop" out, and after cutting two triangle eyes and a mouth (I did this part). The children also helped use figure out how to weigh our pumpkin with the suitcase scale I brought to class. They had lots of amazing ideas, but we finally figured out that we had to put the pumpkin in a bag first before weighing it. We weighed the pumpkin after taking the seeds and "goop" out and it weighed 0.1 kg less.
The children also helped me make a Venn diagram of the characteristics of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns, and what they had in common. This will be the SK homework next week.
LITERACY: In Literacy this week, we did a lot of Guided Reading with various Halloween books. The children read several books along with me and we pointed out the sight words and stretched out words we are learning. They also helped me spell Halloween words on chart paper, wrote and drew a picture about what they will be for Halloween, and we made a class booklet that is in our little class library. We also figured out the beginning and ending sounds to Halloween pictures and I put these in a booklet in our class library, i.e. B T for bat, P N for pumpkin. This is a very important skill to develop as the children learn to write.
The popcorn words for this week are THE and DO.
ART: The children made pastel and crayon resist art: they used pastel to draw a tree, fall leaves, a moon and a pumpkin, and then they painted a black watercolour wash on top and "BOO!" a crayon ghost appeared (drawn by me with white crayon in advance. *:) happy I think they liked it! They look great! We also made a Model Magic spider (with eight legs - the children had to count them), and a bat that hangs upside down. The children also sang Halloween songs with me on the piano. We'll do more of these next week! We also started making masking tape "baby mummies" to go along with the cute book we are going to focus on this upcoming week called "Where's My Mummy?" by Laura Crimi.
The SK Homework for this weekend is to complete the "spider" diagram with pumpkin adjectives.
I have also added a link to the top of my Blog called "Kindergarten Curriculum Document" for more information.
Next week we'll also do guided reading with a booklet called Frankie Friend, about being a good friend. The children will take home a copy to read at home.
A big Thank You to Kosti's mom who taught us Finnish words, and how to say "Hello" and "Good-bye" in Finnish! Thank you as well to Christopher's mom who helped out in the Computer Lab, and to the parents to help set up Pizza Lunch on Friday!
If you will be sending in treats for your child's classmates this week, this is a great opportunity for your child to label them: "From ______" or " To ________." Please ensure that treats are labelled nut and sesame-free. Thank you!
The children did a wonderful job singing "Leaves, Leaves" at the Sharing Assembly. Congratulations to Phoebe and Dylan who received a certificate for Responsibility.
An important safety reminder that if your child will be absent, or if there are any other changes to his/her regular routine, please call the school office to let them know.
That's the news from room 166! I am really looking forward to Friday's Halloween Party and Parade! It's a highlight of the year and so much fun for the kids!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Tyndall
OCTOBER 20-25
Hello everyone. Please note that I am always available any time before or after school to meet with you regarding your child’s progress, assessments, etc. Just send me an email if you would like to discuss your child’s progress.
WEEK OF 20-25:
We started our Inquiry on Apples as well as a Science Experiment, predicting and observing what happens to apple slices when these environments: air, lemon juice, salt, and vinegar. We chart the changes each day for 7 days. We also made an Apple Glyph (numeracy skills) and talked about and wrote the sequence to make apple sauce. Then we made our apples into apple sauce and wrote about how we liked it! We also wrote and read a mini booklet called “Who Took the Apples.” We watched a short video on the Smartboard about the journey of a seed to apple sauce.
The children practised pattern and design-making with various shapes and sizes of stones on large chart paper in the hall. Their problem-solving and patterning skills were terrific!
We are learning about Respect and will celebrate this at the Sharing Assembly. We read Kevin Henkes’ wonderful book “Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse” and talked about what Respect means in our classroom and at home. Christopher and Natasha will be receiving Respect certificates.
We also started an Author Study of Laura Numeroff, who wrote the wonderful circular stories “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “If You Give a Moose a Muffin,” “If You Give a Pig a Party” and several more. After listening to the stories the children re-told the events in the story, which is an important literacy skill.
Thank you to: Catherine’s mom who was Mystery Reader; Theo’s mom who helped in the Computer Lab.
The Sight Words of the week are CAN and ME. Seniors should be writing in their Journals each weekend and handing them in each Monday.
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 28 - OCTOBER 2:
The children did a wonderful job at their first Sharing Assembly of the year, reciting the poem “Me.”
We continued observing our apple slices in the Science Centre - our observations and comments will be sent home in next Friday’s mail bags. The children are terrific at observing and their natural curiosity allows for so much learning!
As we prepare for our school’s Terry Fox Walk on October 2nd, the children completed a picture and words called “Running With Terry” and we talked and wrote about what Terry DID, WAS, and HAD.
A natural continuation of our Inquiry on Apples is our Inquiry on Healthy Habits and Foods, especially at harvest time. The children also helped write about what apples and healthy foods ARE, HAVE and MAKE. The Seniors’ homework is to label the parts of the apple and complete this written ARE, HAVE and MAKE work at home. Thank you for sending in grocery flyers for our Healthy Habits Inquiry. We listed and described together Healthy and Not Healthy foods and cut and glued them. Please provide your children with small scissors and glue at home so that they can practise these important fine motor skills. The children also were proud to show me their healthy snacks.😊
In our Author Study we read “If You Take a Mouse to School” and “If You Give a Pig a Pancake” and retold the stories.
The children also enjoyed taking turns at the Smartboard signing in and finding letter sounds on www.ABCya.com.
In Art, the children painted beautiful pictures of some sunflowers I brought in and they are on display on our classroom bulletin board. The sight words this week are LIKE and MY.
The children had Photo Day as well. I have sent home the October Words to practise at home as well as October Homework Bingo.
Thank you to Martel’s dad who was Mystery Reader and Andrew’s mom who helped in the Computer Lab!
WEEK OF OCTOBER 5 - 9:
Thank you first of all to Theo’s mom who was Mystery Reader, to Megan in Grade 1 who was also a reader for the children, and Phoebe’s mom who helped out in the Computer Lab! Thank you also to Matthew who helped out with our unit on Healthy Habits and Germs by bringing in a science book.
We sang Turkey songs and poems this week and “If You’re Healthy and You Know It.” Copies will be sent home in Friday’s mail bags.
We watched a video on the Smartboard by PBS’ Sid the Science Kid about The Journey of a Germ. We passed around a slice of bread and will be observing the difference between the “clean hands” slice and the “dirty hands” slice. Germs are invisible but they are ick and make us sick! On the Smartboard and at our tables, we read booklets called “Germs are ICK and make me SICK.” I hid 21 germs throughout the classroom and the children did a Germ Hunt to find them, learning that they can be everywhere! We also did a “Shake Hands” song activity and I put glitter glue on my hands. The children noticed that whenever they shook my hand and then gave each other a high five, the glitter (i.e. germs) would pass from one child to another!
We also continued our Patterning Work (numeracy) by making patterns with stamps, stickers, stones, beads, bingo dabbers, and coloured blocks.
Every morning Grade 8 Volunteers in the L.I.V.E program will read with the children one-on-one. This week we also met our Book Buddies from Ms. Sunde’s Grade 2 class. We will meet and read each week to improve our literacy skills and make new friends.
In our Healthy Habits unit we also talked about how all our healthy food comes from nature and farmers, and we talked about different parts of plants that we eat.
IN and SEE are our sight words this week.
This week we also celebrated the Blue Jays by wearing blue and white or Blue Jays clothing! Go Jays!!!
We are almost finished our Healthy Habits/Germs Inquiry and are starting our Signs of Fall Unit. The children are encouraged to bring in signs from nature that Fall is here. They are working on booklets called “Leaves” and “Fall is Here.”
As always, please take time to talk with your child about the wonderful work that comes home in his/her mailbag.
Finally, the children worked hard on their Thanksgiving “I am Thankful For” plates, and wrote and drew four things they are thankful for.
I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family. I am very thankful for the opportunity I have each day to teach your wonderful children.
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