Week of March 31-April 4

Dear families,

Spring has sprung in our classroom and this week we did a lot of work to that wonderful theme. We did a lot of student-directed inquiry this week and the children's answers to the questions were wonderful: how do seeds get to the ground? How do plants grow? What are seeds? Which parts of plants do we eat? What foods are red, green, etc.? What do plants need? How do plants make seeds? Next week we will plant our bean seeds and cross our fingers that they all germinate (I have lots of extras though!).

With our Grade 3 Reading Buddies we read and wrote a booklet called "I Know It's Spring" and started another booklet called "Here is a..."

The SK homework for this weekend is to complete the page "Foods Come in Many Colours." The JKs completed a healthy food counting page and both JKs and SKs also finished their labelled parts of a plant. If you are in the school, have a look at our new hall bulletin board display!

The SKs also completed an "I like rain because.../I don't like rain because..." sentence. It was cute!

We are reading several Spring/plant/seed books and I think the children are finding this unit interesting!

I brought in some common fruits and vegetables we eat (carrot, potato, cucumber, tomato, grape, celery, broccoli) and some of the children asked if they were real! The children seemed intrigued by the fact that these everyday foods are different parts of plants (root, tuber, fruit, stem, flower). We made an "Itsy Bitsy Fruit Book" (the kids love those Itsy Bitsy books!) and wrote (SKs) and cut-and-paste (JKs) Spring Words. We were busy this week!

This week we will do more Spring-themed activities. The tulip and daffodil stems and leaves are peeking out of the ground in front of the kindergarten classrooms and this time of the year provides many wonderful opportunities to learn about our natural world.

Thank you to Lauren's dad and Kate's dad who were our Mystery Readers this week. Thank you to Cole's mom and Lexa's mom who did the morning class white bags and snuggle books.

We also did a lot of work on the SmartBoard this week - compared height, letter shapes, and answered our questions of the day (eg. Did you wear boots to school today?).

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Week of March 24-28

Dear families,

Happy Spring! We have had another busy week in room 166, doing St. Patrick day-themed activities. In the Science centre we discovered what solution would turn brown pennies into "gold" (vinegar and salt). I think the children really loved this activity. In math we did a rainbow skittles graph and count by sorting and then adding different coloured skittles. We also counted "gold" (pennies). In literacy, we read and wrote St. Patrick's. Day words and made a booklet. This weekend's homework is to do the sheet "If I caught a rainbow of my very own..."

With our reading buddies we started writing a booklet called "I Know it's Spring." We are learning the poems/songs "Leprechaun, leprechaun," "M-A-R-C-H" and "Like a Lion."

On May 2 we are welcoming our Artist in the classroom. If you would like to volunteer for this day please let your grade parent know. 5 volunteers are requested. Thank you!

Thank you to our Mystery Readers Lola (Izzie's sister), Jake's dad, Quentin's mom, and Kai B.'s dad. Thank you to Lexa's mom and Quentin's mom who did the white bags and snuggle books.

This month's scholastic order is due on March 31. Thank you!

This week we will start our new Spring-themed folder.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Week of March 10-14

Have a wonderful March Break!!!

Week of March 3-7

March already! So hard to believe that Spring is around the corner (especially when it is -50 in the prairies...). This week we will finish our unit on Arctic Animals. We are learning about the arctic fox, the arctic hare, the various whales that live in the far north (beluga, right, orca, blue), the arctic and gray wolf, the pika, arctic char, arctic cod and many more. We made read and write books, did arctic animal art, put letters in order (upper and lower case), and the SKs made a drawing and wrote about if they were an arctic animal, what would they be... The children also wrote a booklet called "Snow is..." and we watched a short National Geographic Kids video on Arctic animals. The SKs also did and arctic word crossword puzzle.

After this week we will start several Spring-related units including a unit on Measurement.

We also honoured the TDSB Character Trait of Fairness at this week's Sharing Assembly.

Many thanks to our Mystery Readers and white bags helpers this week.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Mrs. Tyndall

Week of February 24-28

Dear families,

I hope you will join us this Friday for our Sharing Assembly! We will recite a poem about the Olympics and celebrate Fairness.

This week the children read their Olympic booklets, made gold medals, completed a booklet called "Winter is..." and the JKs did upper and lower case match ups.

We also completed our February calendars and wrote and drew a picture about what we did on Family Day.

The homework for this weekend is to complete the Skating Equation picture and play the Roll the Dice game.

Thank you to Olivia's dad and Megan's mom who did the white bags and snuggle books this week. Thank you to Megan's mom and Matthew's mom who were the mystery readers.

This week we are finishing up our unit on the Olympics and starting a unit on Arctic Animals. With temperatures still well below zero it's hard to think about Spring just yet! Many thanks to Victoria's mom whose family friend who has travelled to the Arctic will be visiting the afternoon class and telling the children about his adventures and the animals he encountered.

I hope you have a wonderful week!