Friday, April 15

Dear Families,

Spring has officially Sprung in Room 166! This week we planted our tomato seeds and put hydrating beads in the soil to keep it moist. The children also brought in their hollowed-out eggs and we will be dipping them next week. We also made daffodils in class and read Eric Carle's "The Tiny Seed".

Our Book Project is coming along. The children are each completing four pieces of work which will be included in the book. Please remember to send in your order (blue form) if you would like a copy.

In this week's white bag are the compound words "bow, pants, cloud, hat coat and boots" that go with the word "rain."

Thank you to our Parent Volunteers this week: Reading Club was Tate's mom and Tatum's mom, the Mystery Readers were David's mom and Cole's mom, and the Bags and Snuggle Books were completed by Jamie's mom and Charlie's mom. Thank you so much!

Aside from Easter and Spring-related activities we are starting our unit on People in the Community.

Next Thursday is Wear Green to School Day to celebrate Earth Week.

Thank you to Lola, Daniel, Siri and Koby who brought in their Earth Day items made from recycled materials. You did a wonderful job! Please remember to bring in your items by next week.

I have ordered a kit of cocoons/larvae so the children can observe them grow and turn into butterflies! They will arrive in late April.

Thank you for your Scholastic Orders! The next order is due May 1st.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Friday, April 8

Hello parents,

As we prepare for Earth Week next week, please help your child make an item out of recyled materials to show to the class. It could be a robot, a house, a car, etc. but it must be made out of recycled materials. Thank you!

This week's memory words are "pink, yellow, purple, fun. eggs, bunny, look, paint, hide, church, and chocolate."

Thank you to the following Parent Volunteers: Reading Club was Siri's mom and Griffin's mom, Mystery Reader (a.m.) was Koby's mom, bags and books were done by Alexandra's mom and Charlie's mom, and Play-Doh was made by David's mom. Thank you also to Koby's mom for providing craft items!

We continued work on our Phonics books and we are almost finished Set Three. Good work!

In this week's p.m. bags you will find Earth Day Memory Cards that your child completed. They can play Memory with them at home. The Morning Class will finish these shortly.

We are making a book! Please complete the blue form in this week's white bag if you are interested in this project.

Next month's Scholastic orders are due May 1st.

Next week we will plant tomato seeds and paint easter eggs along with other Spring/Easter-related activities.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, April 1

Happy April everyone! Thank you to those of you who attended the Sharing Assembly on Monday, and congratulations to the children who received awards for "Honesty."

April will be a busy month as we celebrate the arrival of Spring, Easter and Earth Week. I have prepared a number of literacy- and numeracy-based activities related to these themes.

This week we worked on improving letter and number formation by tracing and by writing letters and numbers on their own. I have seen a real improvement over the year! Well done!

This week's "refridgerator words" are "on" and "and."

Thank to to our Parent Volunteers this week: Tatum's mom and Tate's mom did Reading Club, the Mystery Readers were Siri's mom and Griffin's mom, and TDSB bags and snuggle books were done by Koby's mom and Charlie's mom.

The afternoon class started making Earth Day memory cards with their Reading Buddies and will finish and play with them next week.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Friday, March 25

This week in Room 166 the children worked on their numeracy skills by playing a dice game and by learning to identify numbers of dots in different formats i.e. 6 dots in a row is the same as 2 dots plus 2 dots plus 2 dots, 5 dots plus one dot, 4 dots plus 2 dots, and 3 dots plus 3 dots. They then completed worksheets to reinforce this concept. We also practiced our "popcorn words" and wrote them out on our "popcorn bag", remembering to use finger spaces between the words. We are also learning Spring Vocabulary and the compound words with "rain."

We are now on Set Three of Jolly Phonics and Set Two has been sent home. Great work!

Our Sharing Assembly will be on Monday and we will be performing a very short skit about St. Patrick's Day and singing a song about the rain. All are invited to attend.

Please remember that Scholastic Orders are due April 1st. Thank you.

The children met with their Reading Buddies and completed Easter colouring pages together after reading books together.

Today was a very special day for the kids thanks to our visit from Firefighter Captain Ron Jones. Ron taught the children about safety in and outside the home and the children listened attentively to his lessons. Great job, and thank you Firefighter Ron!

This week's "refridgerator door words" (on the red strip of paper) are "come, look, here". Please practice these words at home.

Finally, thank you to our Parent Volunteers this week: Reading Club was done by David's mom and Hana's mom, our Mystery Reader was Alexandra's mom, and the morning class white bags and snuggle books were prepared by Jamie's mom. Your help is always appreciated.

Have a nice weekend,

Mrs. Tyndall

Saturday, March 12

Hello families,

Another busy week in Room 166 has flown by. We have started practicing our Popcorn (high frequency) words and I have sent home some ideas of how to practice them at home as well. The red strip of paper with this week's 3 words could be "refridgerator" words i.e. they go on the fridge for a week and when your child opens the door they could read the words (sort of like "open sesame" to open the door!).

We have been preparing for our next sharing assembly which is March 28. The TDSB Character Trait for this month is Honesty. At this assembly we will be singing a song about the rain and reading a poem about St. Patrick's Day. The children had fun colouring our big rainbow and making the coins for our pot of gold. Cole and Spencer have volunteered to be our leprechauns. Thank you!

We completed booklets about St.Patrick's Day Symbols with our Reading Buddies and the children had fun drawing and colouring the booklets as well as reading the books they took from our Library. The children also made shamrocks.

We reviewed and practiced writing our numbers 1-20 this week as well. If your SK child's Phonics duotang was sent home, please return it when set two is completed. We are now on Set Three.

Thank you very much to this week's Parent Volunteers: Maya's mom and Tatum's mom did Reading Club, our Mystery Readers were Jamie's mom and Myles' mom, and Charlie's mom did the white bags. I didn't send home Snuggle Books over the break.

Please note that there was an error in the Parent Rep letter: on March 25 both morning and afternoon classes will have a visit from Firefighter Ron Jones, not just the a.m. class as posted. After the March Break we will be doing a unit on Safety to prepare for his visit.

The children are starting to learn how to read and write their last names which is a new step! I am impressed with how well the children are reading now and how well they are sounding out and blending words. We completed the letter-sound "U" which corresponds to the motion of opening an umbrella.

I wish everyone a fun and safe March Break!

Mrs. Tyndall