Dear families,
Brrr! What a snowy and cold week this has been! Perfect for talking about "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats and for learning about snow!!
The sight words of this week were IT and WHY. The letter sound of the week was Jj. Every few weeks I send the SKs home with a big list of many words that can be made using the letter sounds we have learned so far. Please encourage your child to sound these words out at home. Even if s/he already knows how to read them, you can extend their learning by asking them to spell them, which will improve their writing skills.
SNOW!! What is it, how is is made, how can we describe it, how can we draw it, how many flat sides and points does each ice crystal have, why and when does it fall, and why do some parts of the Earth have snow and others don't? These are some of the things we learned about this week. With their reading buddies, the children enjoyed making 3-D snowflakes, which are on display in our classroom.
We also continued our study of "The Snowy Day." The children are doing a good job re-telling this lovely story using picture clues. They also read and coloured a mini "Snowy Day" book, and are making connections between the main character in the story called Peter, and themselves.
In numeracy, the children are practicing their tally skills and measuring skills.
For art, the children are painting baby and adult penguins.
On Monday, we welcomed a Scientist in our classroom who taught the children all about Marvelous Machines! Thank you so much to our parent volunteers! Casey's dad, Shay's mom, Ella's mom, and Elise's mom helped our Scientist with the lessons.
The children are completing their "This is me in January" monthly writing and drawing, as well as their January calendar.
The new list of February words went home on Friday. You will also find a purple note in your child's mailbag about the fast-approaching 100th Day of School, which is on February 11th. Each child should count and bring in 100 items that can fit in a clear, plastic bag. The children will present their 100 items to the class and then put them in our display area. Please ensure that your child's 100 items are brought in by February 8th.
Valentine's Day is also coming so, and this is a good opportunity for your child to practice writing his/her friends' names on Valentines. Please send in your child's Valentines before February 14th so that s/he can have time to sort them in the bags I will provide. Thank you!
A big Thank You as well to Ella's dad who read two terrific books that the children loved - "The Book With No Pictures" and a pop-up book about dinosaurs!
Since Saturday is Groundhog day, the children learned a lot about groundhogs, what Groundhog Day is all about, and had fun doing a maze, some artwork, and learning a groundhog song.
That's the news for this week! Next week we'll finish our Book Look about The Snowy Day, do lots of counting to get ready for the 100th Day of School, and learn about Chinese New Year!
Stay warm and have a wonderful weekend!
Friday, February 1, 2019
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Week of January 21-25
Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful winter weekend. Here is an update about our classroom activities:
The letter sound of the week was Bb and the sight words of the week were HAS and WANT. Thank you so much to Emma's mom who was our Mystery Reader and to Casey's mom who helped with Friday's pizza lunch!
The children continued to practise graphing and tallying, as well as measuring classroom objects using standard and non-standard tools. They also played in our Weights and Measures centre. The SKs enjoyed helping the JKS with these activities. The children measured the height and width of penguin drawings with cubes, and compared how tall they are with various kinds of penguins. Providing your child with measuring tape or a ruler at home will encourage him/her to develop these important skills.
The children put goldfish crackers on penguin pictures, saying the letter (JK) and letter sound (SK) as they did. They also coloured upper and lower case letters in a penguin pictures to practice their letters and sounds. Their penguin folders went home in Friday's mail bag.
With snow finally on the ground, it was time to start a book study of "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. This Caldicott award-winning book is excellent for developing children's re-tell skills and developing text-to-self comprehension. With their reading buddies, the kids made a 3-D pop-up setting of the story to encourage re-telling, and started a text-to-self activity, relating tyhe main character Peter's experiences to their own.
We are also continuing our daily mindful meditation practices and yoga (this week it was Pedro the Penguin). If you Google search "mindful meditation for kids" your child can practice this at home, too. It's the one with the picture of the meditating monkey :)
Mila brought in jello cups for all her classmates (January's show-and-tell item is "my favourite food!) and we watched a little video on how jello/gelatin is made. Te kids were very interested about gummy bears being made from gelatin!
The next Scholastic order is due on February 8. Books and phonics sets make nice Valentine's Day gifts!
Next week will be our Scientist-in-the-Classroom visit on "Marvelous Machines" and we will also start a new inquiry on Arctic animals. Brrr!
That's the news for the week. Unfortunately I have come down with the chest infection that has been going around (and around!) our classroom, but I hope February is a healthier month! Only about 7 weeks until the first day of Spring!
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful winter weekend. Here is an update about our classroom activities:
The letter sound of the week was Bb and the sight words of the week were HAS and WANT. Thank you so much to Emma's mom who was our Mystery Reader and to Casey's mom who helped with Friday's pizza lunch!
The children continued to practise graphing and tallying, as well as measuring classroom objects using standard and non-standard tools. They also played in our Weights and Measures centre. The SKs enjoyed helping the JKS with these activities. The children measured the height and width of penguin drawings with cubes, and compared how tall they are with various kinds of penguins. Providing your child with measuring tape or a ruler at home will encourage him/her to develop these important skills.
The children put goldfish crackers on penguin pictures, saying the letter (JK) and letter sound (SK) as they did. They also coloured upper and lower case letters in a penguin pictures to practice their letters and sounds. Their penguin folders went home in Friday's mail bag.
With snow finally on the ground, it was time to start a book study of "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. This Caldicott award-winning book is excellent for developing children's re-tell skills and developing text-to-self comprehension. With their reading buddies, the kids made a 3-D pop-up setting of the story to encourage re-telling, and started a text-to-self activity, relating tyhe main character Peter's experiences to their own.
We are also continuing our daily mindful meditation practices and yoga (this week it was Pedro the Penguin). If you Google search "mindful meditation for kids" your child can practice this at home, too. It's the one with the picture of the meditating monkey :)
Mila brought in jello cups for all her classmates (January's show-and-tell item is "my favourite food!) and we watched a little video on how jello/gelatin is made. Te kids were very interested about gummy bears being made from gelatin!
The next Scholastic order is due on February 8. Books and phonics sets make nice Valentine's Day gifts!
Next week will be our Scientist-in-the-Classroom visit on "Marvelous Machines" and we will also start a new inquiry on Arctic animals. Brrr!
That's the news for the week. Unfortunately I have come down with the chest infection that has been going around (and around!) our classroom, but I hope February is a healthier month! Only about 7 weeks until the first day of Spring!
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