Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying the gorgeous Spring weather today!
We finished our inquiry on Oceans and all the children's wonderful work went home in Friday's mail bag. Their beautiful dioramas are done, too! They worked very hard on learning about ocean life and are eager to share this with you! The "In the Deep Blue Sea" hall bulletin board will stay up for a bit longer and then that writing and art will be sent home, too.
Happy Earth Day! Last week the children started bringing in their Earth Day projects: toys or art made from recyclable objects. They are awesome! Some of the things the kids made were: a caterpillar, a shark, a giraffe, a telescope, binoculars, a jet pack, a jelly fish, a diorama, and a turtle! I can't wait to see what the kids make next week!
For Earth Day the kids also made a door hanger, wrote how to take care of the Earth, learned about what to put in the garbage vs. the blue recycling bin, and painted a still life picture of pussy willows. They also watched a "Peep and the Big Wide World" video about Earth Day.
We are also continuing our learning about 3-D shapes in Numeracy. I showed the children how to turn two circles into a square and sent them each home one so they could, too. Just search "Geometry Magic: Turn Circles into a Square" for a video on hoe to do this. It's easy! We also learned a poem about 3-D shapes and sang a fun rap about them from the Smartboard. The children are learning to identify, name, make, draw and write the names of 2-D and 3-D shapes. In the computer lab with Miss. Santiago the kids worked on the Millie's Math House program about shapes.
We also read the well-known book "Rainbow Fish" which is about being a good friend, and about how we can all learn from each other. The kids enjoyed doing a colour-by-letter picture of the rainbow fish (i.e. R=red, B=blue etc.).
The children are very excited about our upcoming field trip to the Science Centre on May 11! Please ensure that your child's permission forms are returned and that the online payment is complete by APRIL 28. Thank you. If you would like to volunteer, please "tick" the volunteer box on the form. The Grade Parents will determine volunteers based on previous opportunities. Thank you for your enthusiasm and time!
Thank you to Rielle for bringing in her toy fish and sea star, William for sharing his "growing and shrinking" sea star, and to Sebastian who brought in a Robin's egg that had hatched!
Please note the date change of the April Sharing Assembly from April 26 to APRIL 27.
That's the news for this week. Next week we will start a Science Inquiry on "Will it Sink or Float?" and will continue our learning about Spring and the Earth!
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Week of April 10-14
Dear families,
What an exciting week it has been! On Monday, the children enjoyed a terrific performance about fairy tales by the Dufflebag Theatre; on Tuesday it was the Spring Craft Party; on Wednesday it was Pink Day and today was Blue and White Day! Thank you so much to the moms of Mia, Riley, Jackson, Phoebe, Sebastian and William who made wonderful crafts with the kids and brought tasty snacks too!
This week on our Ocean Inquiry we learned about Jelly Fish bio-luminescence, Portuguese Man-o-War, where sand comes from |(Video: The Amazing Life of Sand) and what we can do with it, and the Great Barrier Coral Reef. We watched a scallop swimming, learned to identify the cowrie, conch, cone, scallop, olive, turkey wing, murex and bear claw sea shells, learned how an oyster makes a pearl, and tasted real sea weed! We also watched a live video feed of the Monterrey Aquarium, watching a kelp forest, jellyfish, and sharks. The kids asked terrific questions about ocean life, inspired n=by all of this! In the Computer Lab, Miss. Santiago showed the kids videos about the coral reef. They also used a kid-safe version of Google called KIDSREX.
Thank you so much to: Henry who brought in a real fish fossil; Andrew who brought in a 100 million year old shark tooth; Hudson who brought in his penguin from Chile; Maya who shared her clown fish; Maddie who shared her duck; and Hannah's mom who read Beauty and the Beast! What a great week it was.
We also continued our inquiry into 3D shapes. I enourage the children to look for and identify 3D shapes they see.
The words of the week were WAS and I'M. Thank you so much to Ruby who collated the Scholastic Orders. They are due on May 15.
That's the news for this week. Next week we will complete our ocean inquiry and will continue our learning about 3-D Shapes.
I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!
What an exciting week it has been! On Monday, the children enjoyed a terrific performance about fairy tales by the Dufflebag Theatre; on Tuesday it was the Spring Craft Party; on Wednesday it was Pink Day and today was Blue and White Day! Thank you so much to the moms of Mia, Riley, Jackson, Phoebe, Sebastian and William who made wonderful crafts with the kids and brought tasty snacks too!
This week on our Ocean Inquiry we learned about Jelly Fish bio-luminescence, Portuguese Man-o-War, where sand comes from |(Video: The Amazing Life of Sand) and what we can do with it, and the Great Barrier Coral Reef. We watched a scallop swimming, learned to identify the cowrie, conch, cone, scallop, olive, turkey wing, murex and bear claw sea shells, learned how an oyster makes a pearl, and tasted real sea weed! We also watched a live video feed of the Monterrey Aquarium, watching a kelp forest, jellyfish, and sharks. The kids asked terrific questions about ocean life, inspired n=by all of this! In the Computer Lab, Miss. Santiago showed the kids videos about the coral reef. They also used a kid-safe version of Google called KIDSREX.
Thank you so much to: Henry who brought in a real fish fossil; Andrew who brought in a 100 million year old shark tooth; Hudson who brought in his penguin from Chile; Maya who shared her clown fish; Maddie who shared her duck; and Hannah's mom who read Beauty and the Beast! What a great week it was.
We also continued our inquiry into 3D shapes. I enourage the children to look for and identify 3D shapes they see.
The words of the week were WAS and I'M. Thank you so much to Ruby who collated the Scholastic Orders. They are due on May 15.
That's the news for this week. Next week we will complete our ocean inquiry and will continue our learning about 3-D Shapes.
I hope you have a wonderful Easter weekend!
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Week of April 3-7
Dear families,
I hope you're enjoying the gorgeous Spring weather today or are at least watching the Masters indoors!
Last week we continued our Inquiry on Ocean Life, learning about Pufferfish and Jellyfish. They made awesome "Jellyfish in a Bottle" with Miss. Santiago, the SKs made jellyfish from clear plastic for our bulletin board, and the JKs will make floating Man-O-War Jellyfish. With their Reading Buddies they completed Seahorse and Jellyfish adjective/fact sheets. We watched awesome BBC Earth videos about Pufferfish and Jellyfish including an amazing video of a Japanese Pufferfish making a nest with amazing precision. The children drew their own pufferfish and nests and also made a larger one for the bulletin board display. We also tried a toothpick/water experiment in which the 10 toothpicks moved to form a star. The children are starting to decorate their dioramas with ocean objects. Exciting!
Thank you so much to Ethan who brought in a shark's jaw and to Kate who brought in a real starfish! The kids loved touching them and looking closely at them! Thank you also to Sebastian's dad who told me about the "jellyfish cam" and the "live shark cam" at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium! We will look at these tomorrow!
Thank you to Ethan's dad who was our Mystery Reader and to Hannah who shared her awesome Ocean Book with the class. Maya brought in her "Littlest Mermaid" book and Menaal shared her seashells and Mermaid book with her friends.
On Thursday we watched a terrific presentation about Birds of Prey by the Mountsberg Raptor Centre in Halton. The children saw and learned about the American Kestrel, the Red-tailed Hawk and the Great Horned Owl, and then drew a picture and wrote about the presentation.
We also started learning about (JKs) and reviewing (SKs) 3D Shapes in the man-made and natural world, for example the puffer fish becomes a sphere, an aquarium is a rectangular prism, an owl's eye is a cylinder and so on. It was great hearing the children use this knowledge in conversation, such as "My lunch bag is a cube" "My yogurt cup is a cylinder" and "The bubbles in Bubbles' tank are spheres." Please encourage your child to describe objects with this vocabulary.
To celebrate Earth Day which is April 22nd, I sent a note home about making a toy or object our of recycled materials. We reuse and repurpose a lot of objects in Kindergarten! Our Mystery Object (a daffodil bulb) sprouted roots and leaves but didn't bloom. Maybe it needed soil!
Next week we will continue our Ocean Inquiry, learning about Mollusks and Sea Shells, which is a terrific way to talk about living vs. non-living things. We'll also be learning about Sand, which will end our Inquiry (did you notice we went from Largest to Smallest, starting with the Blue Whale?). We'll also celebrate Spring with a Craft Party! Thank you in advance to the parents who have volunteered for this fun day!
That's the news for this week :)
I hope you're enjoying the gorgeous Spring weather today or are at least watching the Masters indoors!
Last week we continued our Inquiry on Ocean Life, learning about Pufferfish and Jellyfish. They made awesome "Jellyfish in a Bottle" with Miss. Santiago, the SKs made jellyfish from clear plastic for our bulletin board, and the JKs will make floating Man-O-War Jellyfish. With their Reading Buddies they completed Seahorse and Jellyfish adjective/fact sheets. We watched awesome BBC Earth videos about Pufferfish and Jellyfish including an amazing video of a Japanese Pufferfish making a nest with amazing precision. The children drew their own pufferfish and nests and also made a larger one for the bulletin board display. We also tried a toothpick/water experiment in which the 10 toothpicks moved to form a star. The children are starting to decorate their dioramas with ocean objects. Exciting!
Thank you so much to Ethan who brought in a shark's jaw and to Kate who brought in a real starfish! The kids loved touching them and looking closely at them! Thank you also to Sebastian's dad who told me about the "jellyfish cam" and the "live shark cam" at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium! We will look at these tomorrow!
Thank you to Ethan's dad who was our Mystery Reader and to Hannah who shared her awesome Ocean Book with the class. Maya brought in her "Littlest Mermaid" book and Menaal shared her seashells and Mermaid book with her friends.
On Thursday we watched a terrific presentation about Birds of Prey by the Mountsberg Raptor Centre in Halton. The children saw and learned about the American Kestrel, the Red-tailed Hawk and the Great Horned Owl, and then drew a picture and wrote about the presentation.
We also started learning about (JKs) and reviewing (SKs) 3D Shapes in the man-made and natural world, for example the puffer fish becomes a sphere, an aquarium is a rectangular prism, an owl's eye is a cylinder and so on. It was great hearing the children use this knowledge in conversation, such as "My lunch bag is a cube" "My yogurt cup is a cylinder" and "The bubbles in Bubbles' tank are spheres." Please encourage your child to describe objects with this vocabulary.
To celebrate Earth Day which is April 22nd, I sent a note home about making a toy or object our of recycled materials. We reuse and repurpose a lot of objects in Kindergarten! Our Mystery Object (a daffodil bulb) sprouted roots and leaves but didn't bloom. Maybe it needed soil!
Next week we will continue our Ocean Inquiry, learning about Mollusks and Sea Shells, which is a terrific way to talk about living vs. non-living things. We'll also be learning about Sand, which will end our Inquiry (did you notice we went from Largest to Smallest, starting with the Blue Whale?). We'll also celebrate Spring with a Craft Party! Thank you in advance to the parents who have volunteered for this fun day!
That's the news for this week :)
Sunday, April 2, 2017
Week of March 27-31
Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying the gorgeous weather today! What a change from last week when the kids had to put their snow coats on!
Last week we continued our inquiry about The Ocean. The children learned about starfish and sea horses, made them from paper and wrote about them. We read Eric Carle's book "Mr. Seahorse" and learned about other ocean animals in which the dad takes care of the babies like sea horses do. The children also made clay starfish and positioned them on real shells to dry for their dioramas. They are also making puzzles from their big Ocean colouring page. Because (most) Starfish have five arms, the children played at a "Make Five" Centre, too this week. We watched National Geographic Kids videos about Sea Stars and Sea Horses. With our Reading Buddies we completed a Starfish adjective chart and also started classifying ocean animals into the categories of mollusks, crustaceans, fish, mammals, invertebrates and sea birds. Next week we will learn more about invertebrates (the jellyfish!) and mollusks, which leads nicely into a discussion about living and non-living things (mollusks vs. sea shells). The kids also made as many words as they could with the letters in the word SUBMARINE and STARFISH, and did a word search with ocean words beginning with the letter "S."
Friday was a CRAZY day because it was Crazy Hair Day at LKS, Pizza Day (thank you parent volunteers Elea's mom and Phoebe's mom!) and the Sharing Assembly (congratulations to Ellie, Riley and Sarah who received well-deserved certificates for Honesty!).
A friendly reminder that April's Scholastic orders are due on Monday. The words of the week were WHAT and NEW, like "What's new?"
Thank you so much to Maddie's grandpa who brought in a Conch Shell (wow!), to Ruby who brought tiny seashells, Hudson who shared his Sea Turtle from Chile, and Jackson's Dad who was our Mystery Reader this week!
In Friday's mailbag there was the new April Words and Homework Bingo.
Next week we'll continue our inquiry on the Ocean! Thank you for bringing in clear plastic bottles (with lids!) for our jellyfish activity which we will start this week!
That's the news from Room 166. I hope you have a great week!
I hope you are enjoying the gorgeous weather today! What a change from last week when the kids had to put their snow coats on!
Last week we continued our inquiry about The Ocean. The children learned about starfish and sea horses, made them from paper and wrote about them. We read Eric Carle's book "Mr. Seahorse" and learned about other ocean animals in which the dad takes care of the babies like sea horses do. The children also made clay starfish and positioned them on real shells to dry for their dioramas. They are also making puzzles from their big Ocean colouring page. Because (most) Starfish have five arms, the children played at a "Make Five" Centre, too this week. We watched National Geographic Kids videos about Sea Stars and Sea Horses. With our Reading Buddies we completed a Starfish adjective chart and also started classifying ocean animals into the categories of mollusks, crustaceans, fish, mammals, invertebrates and sea birds. Next week we will learn more about invertebrates (the jellyfish!) and mollusks, which leads nicely into a discussion about living and non-living things (mollusks vs. sea shells). The kids also made as many words as they could with the letters in the word SUBMARINE and STARFISH, and did a word search with ocean words beginning with the letter "S."
Friday was a CRAZY day because it was Crazy Hair Day at LKS, Pizza Day (thank you parent volunteers Elea's mom and Phoebe's mom!) and the Sharing Assembly (congratulations to Ellie, Riley and Sarah who received well-deserved certificates for Honesty!).
A friendly reminder that April's Scholastic orders are due on Monday. The words of the week were WHAT and NEW, like "What's new?"
Thank you so much to Maddie's grandpa who brought in a Conch Shell (wow!), to Ruby who brought tiny seashells, Hudson who shared his Sea Turtle from Chile, and Jackson's Dad who was our Mystery Reader this week!
In Friday's mailbag there was the new April Words and Homework Bingo.
Next week we'll continue our inquiry on the Ocean! Thank you for bringing in clear plastic bottles (with lids!) for our jellyfish activity which we will start this week!
That's the news from Room 166. I hope you have a great week!
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Week of March 20-24
Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying this windy Sunday! A big WELCOME to our new SK student Nathan and his family!
I'll start with all the "Thank Yous" this week: Thank you to Ella, William, and Alex for bringing in and sharing books about the Ocean; Alex, for bringing in ROM coloring sheets from the whale exhibit; Ruby for sharing her ocean puzzle; Sarah, Andrew and Menaal for bringing in sand from their holiday which their classmates will use in their dioramas; Ellie for bringing in shells and sand from her Florida trip; Rielle and Andrew for bringing in shells; Maddie's mom who was our Mystery Reader; and Ruby for collating this month's Scholastic Order! This Scholastic order is due on April 3.
This week we learned two new poems - about Crabs and Lobsters - and circled the "popcorn" (sight) words. They also helped me complete two schema/new learning/misconceptions charts about the octopus and crab. With their Reading Buddies, the children wrote what octopi HAVE, CAN (do) and EAT, and also wrote facts and adjectives about them. We watched National Geographic Kids videos about crabs and octopi.
The children have been asking some awesome questions during this inquiry which led to a great discussion about under-water volcanoes and ocean oil rigs! I have a chunk of lava in the science centre along with shells and sand. In the Computer Lab the children followed up these discussions with more learning about volcanoes and ocean life.
On Friday they started their Glyphs, which reinforce basic numeracy concepts. The children are making a picture/puppet of themselves based on the following criteria: boy/girl; age; whether they prefer the ocean or a pool; and they favourite beach toy. Look for them on display soon in our classroom!
That's the news this week from Room 166. I hope you have a terrific week!
I hope you are enjoying this windy Sunday! A big WELCOME to our new SK student Nathan and his family!
I'll start with all the "Thank Yous" this week: Thank you to Ella, William, and Alex for bringing in and sharing books about the Ocean; Alex, for bringing in ROM coloring sheets from the whale exhibit; Ruby for sharing her ocean puzzle; Sarah, Andrew and Menaal for bringing in sand from their holiday which their classmates will use in their dioramas; Ellie for bringing in shells and sand from her Florida trip; Rielle and Andrew for bringing in shells; Maddie's mom who was our Mystery Reader; and Ruby for collating this month's Scholastic Order! This Scholastic order is due on April 3.
This week we learned two new poems - about Crabs and Lobsters - and circled the "popcorn" (sight) words. They also helped me complete two schema/new learning/misconceptions charts about the octopus and crab. With their Reading Buddies, the children wrote what octopi HAVE, CAN (do) and EAT, and also wrote facts and adjectives about them. We watched National Geographic Kids videos about crabs and octopi.
The children have been asking some awesome questions during this inquiry which led to a great discussion about under-water volcanoes and ocean oil rigs! I have a chunk of lava in the science centre along with shells and sand. In the Computer Lab the children followed up these discussions with more learning about volcanoes and ocean life.
On Friday they started their Glyphs, which reinforce basic numeracy concepts. The children are making a picture/puppet of themselves based on the following criteria: boy/girl; age; whether they prefer the ocean or a pool; and they favourite beach toy. Look for them on display soon in our classroom!
That's the news this week from Room 166. I hope you have a terrific week!
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