Dear families,
I was an awesome week last week! The field trip to Springridge Farm was so much fun and the children participated in so many fun and educational activities! First, there was a wagon ride to the strawberry patch. The children learned that the two water reservoirs hold water which is fed to the strawberry patch by pipes. After learning about how strawberries are planted and how they grow, each child picked two strawberries fresh from the field. Then they walked further up the hill and had a terrific view of the Niagara Escarpment. They could see as far as the CN Tower! The children also saw two turkey vultures in the sky. After the view from the Lookout Tower, they walked down the hill and picked fresh clover for the goats. The goats loved them! The children then went to the Bee Education Area and learned all about bees. Theo got to dress up as a Bee Keeper! The children saw a real bee hive and watched the bees in action. Then they saw baby chicks, and fed grain to hens and goats. After looking at the rabbits and King Pigeons, the children took turns going down the slides and explored the hay bale play area. They had apple juice and ran up and down a hay hill, and then it was time to get back on the bus! Our tour guide Farmer Fiona said that our class was the "best of 2016" and I was so proud of the children's excellent behaviour and great questions for Farmer Fiona. Thank you SO MUCH to the wonderful parent volunteer moms of Alexandra, Andrew, Dylan, Luca and William'who came with us on the trip and helped supervise the children!
Last week we finished our Inquiry on Farms by doing a "Farms..." booklet with the words HAVE, CAN and GROW. The children also wrote about their trip to Springridge Farm and drew a picture. They watched a video about sheep from Farmer Tania, made Ruby's farm puzzle (thank you Ruby!), looked at pictures of farms from long ago before there were tractors and big machines (thank you Camilla!), and played Farmer's Market.
LKS had a practice fire drill and the children did an excellent job lining up quickly and quietly by the fence.
Thank you so much to Matthew's mom who was our Mystery Reader on Thursday. Thank you to Avery who found a robin's egg and brought it in to share at the Science Centre.
On Monday the children had great fun participating in the Dance for the Red Cross (Alberta Relief Fund). The children also completed the last calendar of the near (June) and the last "This is me in... (June). I am so impressed with the progress they have made since September.
I sent home the SK Summer Journals. Your child's Grade One Teacher woukd love to have this in September!
Sadly, Bubbles the Beta Fish died of old age on Monday. I will get a new Bubbles in September.
It was so hot last week that I decided to call it Freezie Friday which was welcomed by the kids. Can't wait until this Friday!
I hope you had a wonderful Father's Day weekend and enjoyed the beautiful art and card your child made for you.
On Thursday we will celebrate the last TDSB Character Trait of Perseverance at the Sharing Assembly. I hope to see you then!
Have a wonderful week!
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Week of June 13-17
Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying your weekend!
This week we learned more about farms and farm life in preparation for our field trip on the 15th. The children are so excited! They sang the classic Old MacDonald song (good for memory!) and completed an accompanying booklet. The children had all their questions about horses answered - thank you to Miss. Nisker who videotaped herself taking care of her beautiful horse William. The children asked questions about pigs and sheep, which we will answer next week. They helped write the answers on the Smartboard to what various farm animals HAVE, CAN, ARE, EAT. The children also completed a reading activity booklet in which they had to match the sound animals make to the picture and word. We watched a terrific video on the Smartboard called "The Little Chick Company - It All Starts With an Egg" about eggs and chickens. We watched it two times, pausing the second time to quiz the children about what they learned and understood. The children also made and took home little plaster farm animals that they coloured. I added magnets and voila a cute fridge magnet. Next week we will finish our inquiry off with questions and answers about sheep and pigs. We will also do more summative activities about farm life in general. The children will complete writing activities about Wednesday's field trip and will bring their Farm Inquiry Folders home on Friday!
Thank you so much to Tessa who brought in porcupine quills from her cottage. This lead to a great discussion and a recap of habitats and local wildlife. I'm so pleased when the kids bring in items from the natural world to share and talk about!
The words of the week were ZOO and ZEBRA. Next week they will be KID, KITE and KITTEN.
The school had two fire drills this week and the children did a perfect job lining up quickly and quietly and following me outside to our designated spot. Great job!
In Friday's mail bags I included a list of Grade One High Frequency (sight) words. This is a good little tool to review over the summer. Speaking of which, the children completed a reading and drawing activity with their Reading Buddies about Summer Words. Their buddies helped them read the words (e.g. sun screen, picnic) and they drew an accompanying picture together. They look great!
Thank you so much for the Staff Appreciation Lunch... The food was amazing and this was a real treat! Thank you so much to Luca's mom who provided delicious pasta from her resto "Eatalian!" Thank you to Avery's mom and dad who were a Mystery Reader dynamic duo!
An important note regarding the field trip: please ensure you child is wearing running shoes, socks, sunscreen, and has a litterless lunch and snack packed. No crocs please. We will eat our morning snack before getting on the bus. Parent Volunteers, please arrive at 10:15 so that I can give you your packages (name tags, kleenex, etc.). The children's lunch bags should be in their backpacks. Thank you!
That's the news for this week! I hope you are having a terrific weekend.
I hope you are enjoying your weekend!
This week we learned more about farms and farm life in preparation for our field trip on the 15th. The children are so excited! They sang the classic Old MacDonald song (good for memory!) and completed an accompanying booklet. The children had all their questions about horses answered - thank you to Miss. Nisker who videotaped herself taking care of her beautiful horse William. The children asked questions about pigs and sheep, which we will answer next week. They helped write the answers on the Smartboard to what various farm animals HAVE, CAN, ARE, EAT. The children also completed a reading activity booklet in which they had to match the sound animals make to the picture and word. We watched a terrific video on the Smartboard called "The Little Chick Company - It All Starts With an Egg" about eggs and chickens. We watched it two times, pausing the second time to quiz the children about what they learned and understood. The children also made and took home little plaster farm animals that they coloured. I added magnets and voila a cute fridge magnet. Next week we will finish our inquiry off with questions and answers about sheep and pigs. We will also do more summative activities about farm life in general. The children will complete writing activities about Wednesday's field trip and will bring their Farm Inquiry Folders home on Friday!
Thank you so much to Tessa who brought in porcupine quills from her cottage. This lead to a great discussion and a recap of habitats and local wildlife. I'm so pleased when the kids bring in items from the natural world to share and talk about!
The words of the week were ZOO and ZEBRA. Next week they will be KID, KITE and KITTEN.
The school had two fire drills this week and the children did a perfect job lining up quickly and quietly and following me outside to our designated spot. Great job!
In Friday's mail bags I included a list of Grade One High Frequency (sight) words. This is a good little tool to review over the summer. Speaking of which, the children completed a reading and drawing activity with their Reading Buddies about Summer Words. Their buddies helped them read the words (e.g. sun screen, picnic) and they drew an accompanying picture together. They look great!
Thank you so much for the Staff Appreciation Lunch... The food was amazing and this was a real treat! Thank you so much to Luca's mom who provided delicious pasta from her resto "Eatalian!" Thank you to Avery's mom and dad who were a Mystery Reader dynamic duo!
An important note regarding the field trip: please ensure you child is wearing running shoes, socks, sunscreen, and has a litterless lunch and snack packed. No crocs please. We will eat our morning snack before getting on the bus. Parent Volunteers, please arrive at 10:15 so that I can give you your packages (name tags, kleenex, etc.). The children's lunch bags should be in their backpacks. Thank you!
That's the news for this week! I hope you are having a terrific weekend.
Friday, June 3, 2016
Week of June 6-10
Dear families,
I hope you enjoyed the gorgeous weather this week! Our Sight Words were FUN and FRIEND, two things that go together! Next week the sight words will be ZOO and ZEBRA.
This week we continued our learning about farms! The children learned a lot more about cows thanks to a video by a friend of Miss. Nisker's who is a dairy farmer. The children also posed several more questions about horses, which will be answered next week! The kids completed 2 farm word searches with their Reading Buddies, and read fiction and non-fiction books about farms. We did a comparison chart about pigs and sheep, and did guided reading on the Smartboard with the booklet "What Do You Do?" The children also watched some non-fiction videos about Foggy Farmer, and watched a real farmer work with different farm machinery. www.farmerfoggy.com The children also learned where the word "horsepower" comes from! The kids made booklets called "Who is in the Barn?" The JKs read and coloured it, the SKs read and drew the appropriate pictures to demonstrate understanding. The children also made the cover page for their Farm Folders, and completed an "itsy bitsy" farm booklet. They are still working on a farm vocabulary sheet as well as a longer booklet called "I am Going to a Farm." Thank you Dylan for sharing your story about baling hay at a farm! Thank you as well to Dylan's mom who helped in the computer lab, and to Martel's mom who also helped out in the lab.
The kids had a lot of fun of Thursday in 11 farm-themed centres. There were 8 math centres with simple and more complex math problems to solve as a group, for example: "Farmer Joe has two cows and 3 calves. How many are there altogether?" and "There are 3 hens. Each hen lays 2 eggs. How many eggs all together?' The children had farm animal manipulatives to help them. They also did a "Spin a Farm Animal" centre, in which they had to spin farm animals and graph their results. Another centre was the "Bossy r, ar and or centre, which reinforced pronunciation rules for the children. The last centre was called "Animal Round Up" in which the children rolled dice and counted what they rolled, with farm animal pictures to help. All of these centres helped the children with numeracy skills.
Also tied to numeracy skills is the Cow Glyph that the children are making. Each child is making personalised cow art that tells a story. JK cows have white ears and a white tail; SK cows have black ears and a black tail. Girls' cows have udders; boys' cows have horns. If a child is 4, s/he draws 4 spots on the cow glyph. If a child is 5, s/he draws 5, if a child is 6, s/he draws 6. Finally, the glyphs show what kind of milk the child likes depending on the colour of their cow glyph's bell. Blue means they like chocolate milk; orange means they like white milk; green means they like strawberry milk. When the cow glyph is done, the children write their "moo"velous data, for example: "I am 5. I am a girl. I am a JK. I like chocolate milk." We'll finish the glyphs next week!
Thank you to Theo who shared some special animals with the class. Thank you as well to Claire who shared a wonderful non-fiction story about farm life. Thank you as well to Iris' family who donated some phonics sets and flashcards to our literacy centres!
This week was extra special because we welcomed Artist Janine to our classroom! The children learned all about Emily Carr and, after doing a practise page, completed beautiful pastel and water colour artwork. Psst! It will be for Father's Day! The children also made a beautiful card!
In today's mailbags I sent home the new June calendar (how can it be June already?!) as well as June homework bingo. I also sent home a list of all the inquiries your wonderful children did this year! Well done!!
Chloe celebrated her (July) birthday on Friday. We will celebrate all the summer birthdays in June! Next week we celebrate 4 birthdays (Andrew, Camilla, Stella and Samantha), which means lots of cookies and cupcakes! Healthy veggie and fruit snacks would be a good idea next week! :)
We planted our bean plant in the Kindergarten garden and the children made a little sign. It already has some flowers so hopefully with some care and some luck we'll see some beans!
That's the news from Room 166! Next week we will continue our inquiry and learning about farm life. I hope you have a terrific weekend!
I hope you enjoyed the gorgeous weather this week! Our Sight Words were FUN and FRIEND, two things that go together! Next week the sight words will be ZOO and ZEBRA.
This week we continued our learning about farms! The children learned a lot more about cows thanks to a video by a friend of Miss. Nisker's who is a dairy farmer. The children also posed several more questions about horses, which will be answered next week! The kids completed 2 farm word searches with their Reading Buddies, and read fiction and non-fiction books about farms. We did a comparison chart about pigs and sheep, and did guided reading on the Smartboard with the booklet "What Do You Do?" The children also watched some non-fiction videos about Foggy Farmer, and watched a real farmer work with different farm machinery. www.farmerfoggy.com The children also learned where the word "horsepower" comes from! The kids made booklets called "Who is in the Barn?" The JKs read and coloured it, the SKs read and drew the appropriate pictures to demonstrate understanding. The children also made the cover page for their Farm Folders, and completed an "itsy bitsy" farm booklet. They are still working on a farm vocabulary sheet as well as a longer booklet called "I am Going to a Farm." Thank you Dylan for sharing your story about baling hay at a farm! Thank you as well to Dylan's mom who helped in the computer lab, and to Martel's mom who also helped out in the lab.
The kids had a lot of fun of Thursday in 11 farm-themed centres. There were 8 math centres with simple and more complex math problems to solve as a group, for example: "Farmer Joe has two cows and 3 calves. How many are there altogether?" and "There are 3 hens. Each hen lays 2 eggs. How many eggs all together?' The children had farm animal manipulatives to help them. They also did a "Spin a Farm Animal" centre, in which they had to spin farm animals and graph their results. Another centre was the "Bossy r, ar and or centre, which reinforced pronunciation rules for the children. The last centre was called "Animal Round Up" in which the children rolled dice and counted what they rolled, with farm animal pictures to help. All of these centres helped the children with numeracy skills.
Also tied to numeracy skills is the Cow Glyph that the children are making. Each child is making personalised cow art that tells a story. JK cows have white ears and a white tail; SK cows have black ears and a black tail. Girls' cows have udders; boys' cows have horns. If a child is 4, s/he draws 4 spots on the cow glyph. If a child is 5, s/he draws 5, if a child is 6, s/he draws 6. Finally, the glyphs show what kind of milk the child likes depending on the colour of their cow glyph's bell. Blue means they like chocolate milk; orange means they like white milk; green means they like strawberry milk. When the cow glyph is done, the children write their "moo"velous data, for example: "I am 5. I am a girl. I am a JK. I like chocolate milk." We'll finish the glyphs next week!
Thank you to Theo who shared some special animals with the class. Thank you as well to Claire who shared a wonderful non-fiction story about farm life. Thank you as well to Iris' family who donated some phonics sets and flashcards to our literacy centres!
This week was extra special because we welcomed Artist Janine to our classroom! The children learned all about Emily Carr and, after doing a practise page, completed beautiful pastel and water colour artwork. Psst! It will be for Father's Day! The children also made a beautiful card!
In today's mailbags I sent home the new June calendar (how can it be June already?!) as well as June homework bingo. I also sent home a list of all the inquiries your wonderful children did this year! Well done!!
Chloe celebrated her (July) birthday on Friday. We will celebrate all the summer birthdays in June! Next week we celebrate 4 birthdays (Andrew, Camilla, Stella and Samantha), which means lots of cookies and cupcakes! Healthy veggie and fruit snacks would be a good idea next week! :)
We planted our bean plant in the Kindergarten garden and the children made a little sign. It already has some flowers so hopefully with some care and some luck we'll see some beans!
That's the news from Room 166! Next week we will continue our inquiry and learning about farm life. I hope you have a terrific weekend!
Saturday, May 28, 2016
Week of May 30-June 3
Dear families,
This week we completed our inquiry on Canadian Coins and their values, learning about the loonie and the toonie, and doing several summative written and centre-based activities. The children loved playing "store" and "yard sale" with the cash register, coins, play money and gift cards. The children learned about Braille and how the visually impaired can tell different values of coin and paper money. We continued answering all the questions the children had about money (I sent a copy of these home with their folders), such as, "Where is money made?" and "Why isn't it flat?" and "Why is Queen Elizabeth on the money because she is the Queen of England?" All great questions! We re-watched the Making Stuff video and discussed steps to making coins. We also learned a new money song to help remember the values of coins, and learned about how polymer bills are made and why we use them instead of paper bills. The kids did coin rubbings on tracing paper and completed a money book and the sentence "If I had 100 dollars I would..." with their Reading Buddies (WOULD was one of the sight words we learned this week). We learned about the word "symbol" and why particular pictures were on Canadian money. Next week I will move the cash register to the Dramatic Play Centre where the kids can play "Farmer's Market."
At the Sharing Assembly the children did a terrific job singing and dancing to the Gummi Bear song. Congratulations to Camilla, Iris and Tessa who received certificates for "Integrity." That's a special one and I'm very proud of you!
Thank you to Avery's mom and Theo's mom who volunteered for Computer Lab this week, and to Andrew's mom who was our Mystery Reader! She read to the kids outside and brought cool fossils too!
The children also completed mini read-and-write booklets of DID, SOME, THEY and WOULD, and completed their May calendar and "This is me in May." I have sent a photocopy home, and keep the originals for assessment. I will send them home next month. If I have sent home an extra calendar for your child to do, please return it (completed) next week. Thank you.
The Book Fair was a great success and the children loved shopping and window shopping for books in the Library!
On Thursday it was Kosti's last day as his family is moving to Finland. We had a party at the end of the day and Kosti's mom kindly brought snacks and juice boxes. The children presented him with a giant card they made, with what they wanted to say to him, such as "I will miss you" and "You are a nice friend." We will miss you Kosti and wish you and your family all the best on your new adventure!
On Friday when it was so hot I opened up Groovy Girls, Littlest Pet Shop and Doll House Centres (I brought them from my home since my kids have long outgrown them!) and they were such a hit! Cooperative play is an important skill and I loved seeing the children share and play together so nicely. The children also had fun playing on the iPads. We will have them in our class all next week. Yay!
Our Special Person of the day pulled names from a hat to decide who would volunteer to assist with supervision of the children on the Springridge Farm field trip - thank you in advance to the moms of Alexandra, Luca, Andrew, William and Dylan. I have prepared packages for you for the trip. It will be so much fun!
Next week we will start our Inquiry on Farms and Farm Animals. We will start with our Schema (what we know already) and then Questions and then New Learning, as well as Misconceptions. Miss. Nisker will start us off with her in-depth knowledge about horses! We'll follow that up with cows, pigs and sheep, as well as other farm animals and farm life. I'm excited about this unit and have a lot of fun educational things planned for the kids.
That's my news for this week. I hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend! See you Monday!
This week we completed our inquiry on Canadian Coins and their values, learning about the loonie and the toonie, and doing several summative written and centre-based activities. The children loved playing "store" and "yard sale" with the cash register, coins, play money and gift cards. The children learned about Braille and how the visually impaired can tell different values of coin and paper money. We continued answering all the questions the children had about money (I sent a copy of these home with their folders), such as, "Where is money made?" and "Why isn't it flat?" and "Why is Queen Elizabeth on the money because she is the Queen of England?" All great questions! We re-watched the Making Stuff video and discussed steps to making coins. We also learned a new money song to help remember the values of coins, and learned about how polymer bills are made and why we use them instead of paper bills. The kids did coin rubbings on tracing paper and completed a money book and the sentence "If I had 100 dollars I would..." with their Reading Buddies (WOULD was one of the sight words we learned this week). We learned about the word "symbol" and why particular pictures were on Canadian money. Next week I will move the cash register to the Dramatic Play Centre where the kids can play "Farmer's Market."
At the Sharing Assembly the children did a terrific job singing and dancing to the Gummi Bear song. Congratulations to Camilla, Iris and Tessa who received certificates for "Integrity." That's a special one and I'm very proud of you!
Thank you to Avery's mom and Theo's mom who volunteered for Computer Lab this week, and to Andrew's mom who was our Mystery Reader! She read to the kids outside and brought cool fossils too!
The children also completed mini read-and-write booklets of DID, SOME, THEY and WOULD, and completed their May calendar and "This is me in May." I have sent a photocopy home, and keep the originals for assessment. I will send them home next month. If I have sent home an extra calendar for your child to do, please return it (completed) next week. Thank you.
The Book Fair was a great success and the children loved shopping and window shopping for books in the Library!
On Thursday it was Kosti's last day as his family is moving to Finland. We had a party at the end of the day and Kosti's mom kindly brought snacks and juice boxes. The children presented him with a giant card they made, with what they wanted to say to him, such as "I will miss you" and "You are a nice friend." We will miss you Kosti and wish you and your family all the best on your new adventure!
On Friday when it was so hot I opened up Groovy Girls, Littlest Pet Shop and Doll House Centres (I brought them from my home since my kids have long outgrown them!) and they were such a hit! Cooperative play is an important skill and I loved seeing the children share and play together so nicely. The children also had fun playing on the iPads. We will have them in our class all next week. Yay!
Our Special Person of the day pulled names from a hat to decide who would volunteer to assist with supervision of the children on the Springridge Farm field trip - thank you in advance to the moms of Alexandra, Luca, Andrew, William and Dylan. I have prepared packages for you for the trip. It will be so much fun!
Next week we will start our Inquiry on Farms and Farm Animals. We will start with our Schema (what we know already) and then Questions and then New Learning, as well as Misconceptions. Miss. Nisker will start us off with her in-depth knowledge about horses! We'll follow that up with cows, pigs and sheep, as well as other farm animals and farm life. I'm excited about this unit and have a lot of fun educational things planned for the kids.
That's my news for this week. I hope you are enjoying the beautiful weather this weekend! See you Monday!
Friday, May 20, 2016
Week of May 24-27
Dear families,
The mail bags went home early, on Thursday, because it is the Victoria Day long weekend and traditionally several children are absent on the Friday before. Inside the bags was your child's amazing Dinosaur work! This was a fun inquiry and I think all the children enjoyed it and learned a lot. We finished off the unit this week by doing three bubble maps: of T-Rex, Triceratops, and Pterodactyl. The kids also made a Pterodactyl puppet using water colours ("since the Pterodactyl ate fish and lived close to the water"). I sent home a copy of all the words they made from the word DINOSAUR, and we watched a little Dino Dan video about dinosaurs. Thank you Avery for bringing in a nest - we put it in our dinosaur centre and put a big "dinosaur" egg in it.
We started our new inquiry on Canadian Coins and their values. So far we have learned about the penny, the nickel, the dime and the quarter. We are learning about the penny even though it is no longer in circulation because it helps the children understand the concepts of, for example, "10 CENTS, 5 CENTS, etc.. The children are excited about this unit! I start off teaching each coin with a magic box that makes the coins disappear! The children are coming up with all kinds of theories as to where the coins are! We are identifying and colouring the coins, learning two money songs (a favourite is the Honey Bunny Money song on Youtube), and learned about saving money instead of spending money from a Berenstain Bears story. We are learning about the symbols on the coins and why they were chosen (maple leaf; beaver - fur trade; dime; Bluenose; quarter- elk, etc.)I showed the kids a photo of the Bluenose II that I took on a trip to Halifax, and our Money Centre has coins and symbols displayed in it for the children to explore, as well as Special Coins such as Olympic coins. We also watched a video from the excellent series "Making Stuff" on how coins are minted. We also started a chart with Schema (what we know about money) and Questions (things about money they want to learn). We will answer those questions nexty week. Next week we'll also learn about the loonie and the twoonie, and we will do several summative exercises and activities to reinforce their learning. I encourage you to let your children play with, count and explore coins at home.
The children also had fun during outdoor play playing with bubbles and water, and came up with some interesting ways to keep the water inside the bin while using pipes and funnels and measuring cups.
Thank you so much to Catherine's mom who was our awesome Mystery Reader this week. Thank you as well to Stella's and Matthew's moms who helped in the Computer Lab. When there are no volunteers for the computer lab or pizza lunch or other volunteer slots, it is often our amazing Grade Parents Theresa and Mary who fill in the gaps and volunteer their time. I can't thank them enough for all their time and energy! Thank you Mary and Theresa.
Our Popcorn words this week were DID and SOME.
If you would like your child to purchase books at the Book Fair next week, please send in money in a baggie with your child's name clearly marked. Thank you. Group Two Library goes on the 25th, Group ONE Library goes on the 27th. Computer Lab times remain the same. Window shopping is fine too and reinforces the concept of saving money :)
Please return your child's permission forms for Springridge Farms by the 25th along with a cheque for 23.00 payable to LKS (which is a combined cost of the Artist visit on May 31 and the Field Trip). Several parents have already indicated they would like to volunteer. Please kindly note that priority will be given to those parents who have not volunteered on the Scientist-in-the-Classroom Day. Names will be drawn from a hat and those parents will be notified. Thank you so much for offering your time and energy!
As the Senior Kindergarten Graduation Day approaches, I will start compiling all the lovely photos of the kids' learning to make the year-end DVD. SK PARENTS ONLY, please send in a photo of your child as a baby so I can add it to the DVD. Please send in a hard copy; do not email it to me. Thank you. I will scan it and return it to you. Please send this in by JUNE 14 at the very latest. Thank you.
I hope you have a wonderful long weekend!
The mail bags went home early, on Thursday, because it is the Victoria Day long weekend and traditionally several children are absent on the Friday before. Inside the bags was your child's amazing Dinosaur work! This was a fun inquiry and I think all the children enjoyed it and learned a lot. We finished off the unit this week by doing three bubble maps: of T-Rex, Triceratops, and Pterodactyl. The kids also made a Pterodactyl puppet using water colours ("since the Pterodactyl ate fish and lived close to the water"). I sent home a copy of all the words they made from the word DINOSAUR, and we watched a little Dino Dan video about dinosaurs. Thank you Avery for bringing in a nest - we put it in our dinosaur centre and put a big "dinosaur" egg in it.
We started our new inquiry on Canadian Coins and their values. So far we have learned about the penny, the nickel, the dime and the quarter. We are learning about the penny even though it is no longer in circulation because it helps the children understand the concepts of, for example, "10 CENTS, 5 CENTS, etc.. The children are excited about this unit! I start off teaching each coin with a magic box that makes the coins disappear! The children are coming up with all kinds of theories as to where the coins are! We are identifying and colouring the coins, learning two money songs (a favourite is the Honey Bunny Money song on Youtube), and learned about saving money instead of spending money from a Berenstain Bears story. We are learning about the symbols on the coins and why they were chosen (maple leaf; beaver - fur trade; dime; Bluenose; quarter- elk, etc.)I showed the kids a photo of the Bluenose II that I took on a trip to Halifax, and our Money Centre has coins and symbols displayed in it for the children to explore, as well as Special Coins such as Olympic coins. We also watched a video from the excellent series "Making Stuff" on how coins are minted. We also started a chart with Schema (what we know about money) and Questions (things about money they want to learn). We will answer those questions nexty week. Next week we'll also learn about the loonie and the twoonie, and we will do several summative exercises and activities to reinforce their learning. I encourage you to let your children play with, count and explore coins at home.
The children also had fun during outdoor play playing with bubbles and water, and came up with some interesting ways to keep the water inside the bin while using pipes and funnels and measuring cups.
Thank you so much to Catherine's mom who was our awesome Mystery Reader this week. Thank you as well to Stella's and Matthew's moms who helped in the Computer Lab. When there are no volunteers for the computer lab or pizza lunch or other volunteer slots, it is often our amazing Grade Parents Theresa and Mary who fill in the gaps and volunteer their time. I can't thank them enough for all their time and energy! Thank you Mary and Theresa.
Our Popcorn words this week were DID and SOME.
If you would like your child to purchase books at the Book Fair next week, please send in money in a baggie with your child's name clearly marked. Thank you. Group Two Library goes on the 25th, Group ONE Library goes on the 27th. Computer Lab times remain the same. Window shopping is fine too and reinforces the concept of saving money :)
Please return your child's permission forms for Springridge Farms by the 25th along with a cheque for 23.00 payable to LKS (which is a combined cost of the Artist visit on May 31 and the Field Trip). Several parents have already indicated they would like to volunteer. Please kindly note that priority will be given to those parents who have not volunteered on the Scientist-in-the-Classroom Day. Names will be drawn from a hat and those parents will be notified. Thank you so much for offering your time and energy!
As the Senior Kindergarten Graduation Day approaches, I will start compiling all the lovely photos of the kids' learning to make the year-end DVD. SK PARENTS ONLY, please send in a photo of your child as a baby so I can add it to the DVD. Please send in a hard copy; do not email it to me. Thank you. I will scan it and return it to you. Please send this in by JUNE 14 at the very latest. Thank you.
I hope you have a wonderful long weekend!
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