Dear families,
We've had a great week in Room 166! In the mornings, the children have been learning all about Measurement with Miss. Patel, and in the afternoons they have been doing literacy activities related to Spring.
The children are learning about the WHAT, HOW, WHY, and WHERE of Measurement. First, they learned about non-standard ways of measuring things, for example measuring the length of a book using popsicle sticks or paper clips. They learned about the Three Golden Rules: 1) The tools must be the same length; 2) they must start at the edge, and 3) there can be no spaces. The children practiced their measuring skills at several centres: they measured classroom objects such as a pencil, a book, and a book using cubes; they found and wrote the names of objects that were shorter and longer than their pencil; they found and glued sticks on their papers that were longer than a line; they made 3 objects out of play-doh that were small, medium and long, and measured them with paper clips; and they traced and measured their feet using sticks. They had to remember to use the golden rules when completing each of these activities. Good job! Miss. Patel followed this up with a lesson on Standard Units of Measurement, such as centimetres, using rulers, measuring tape, cups, and a rain gauge. They also learned about CAPACITY and VOLUME, and completed work sheets in which they had to sort, compare, and estimate objects and decide which had the larger capacity or volume. All the children's work on Measurement will be on display at the "Day in the Life" Night at LKS on April 19.
The afternoon activities included:
- replicating a design of 10 different coloured eggs on a large paper egg carton "grid"
- following step-by-step instructions to draw and paint a chick and a bunny (they are on display in the classroom)
- learning about eggs and writing a Haiku poem about them (on display on the hall bulletin board)
- learning the song "Easter Bunny" and the poem "Five Spring Flowers"
- doing a Venn Diagram comparing real rabbits and the Easter Bunny
- reading and drawing a pattern booklet about Rain with their Reading Buddies
- dipping eggs in a mixture of shaving foam and food colouring dots of primary colours mixed together
- estimating the length of ribbon they would need to go around a basket and then weaving the ribbon through it (good for small motor skills)
- learning the names of the spring flowers that are appearing in our Kindergarten garden by looking at the leaves: crocus, daffodil, hyacinth and tulip.
Thank you so much to the moms of Hudson, Mila, Rielle, Shayan and Yara who made lovely crafts with the children at our Spring Craft Party on Wednesday! They prepared all the crafts and brought yummy treats for the children as well. Yara's mom made butterflies with the children, Shayan's mom made bunnies and chicks, Rielle's mom made Easter Signs, Mila's mom made paper egg wreaths, and Hudson's mom made paper flowers. Thank you so much for your time and energy! The children loved all the activities!
Thank you as well to Alex's dad who was the Mystery Reader and to Hope who brought in a CD to show the children that it made a rainbow. I love when the children extend their learning outside of school.
The homework for this week is to complete the Mouse Paint colouring and colour the Rainbow. Thank you so much to Evelyn for teaching us that song!!
The children did a wonderful job singing "What a Wonderful World" at Wednesday's Sharing Assembly. Anjali received a belated certificate for Fairness, and Casey and Diesel received certificates for Honesty.
The words of the week were AS and JUMP. For example, the Easter Bunny can jump as high as a Rabbit.
Next week there will be a school-wide Mabel's Fables Book Fair. The children will create Wish Lists on Tuesday, and can buy books on Thursday if you wish. Window shopping is okay, too! Next week the children will also continue their learning about Measurement and Signs of Spring, and we will start an inquiry about INSECTS.
That is our news for this week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and we will see you back on Tuesday!
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Sunday, March 25, 2018
Week of March 19-23
Dear families,
Welcome back after the March Break! The kids had lots of stories to tell about their holiday!
Last week we finished our science inquiries on Rainbows and Primary Colours, and our Student Teacher Miss. Patel started teaching a numeracy inquiry on Measurement . The children helped create a "K-W-L" chart: what they Know; what they Want to learn; what they Learned. We watched a "Dr. Binocs" video about how rainbows are formed,and a great video called "How to Mix Colours to Make a Rainbow." We replicated the colour mixing experiments in class using plastecine, food colouring, watercolour pencils, and paint. The children learned that when you mix all the primary colours together, it makes brown, but when you put the seven spectrum colours together, you get WHITE. They played with a prism and the sun to make a rainbow, and made a rainbow with a glass of water, a mirror, a flashlight, and a piece of paper. That experiment showed them that rainbows are actually round, not semi-circles. The children painted rainbows, coloured rainbows and learned about primary colours, the secondary colours, and the tertiary colour indigo. They completed the sentence, "If I caught a rainbow of my very own" and "If a leprechaun gave me some gold" with words and a picture. They also counted, sorted, graphed and added Skittles (since Skittles come from rainbows :)) using ten-frames and graphs. Then they ate them of course! The kids did the Cosmic Kids Yoga "Peace Out Rainbow Waterfall" and "Unicorns" episodes.
We also wrote on chart paper about "I know it's Spring when I can... when I see... when I smell... when I feel... when I see..."
The words of the week were WHAT, NEW and SUN. The homework is to do the mini read and write "WHAT" booklet.
We also learned the song "M-A-R-C-H," a poem about Leprechauns, read and coloured a leprechaun booklet, illustrated and read a booklet about St. Patrick's Day with our Reading Buddies,
Thank you to Kate for bringing in two books about rainbows, Mia's and Elea's mom who were pizza lunch volunteers, and Shayan's da who was our Mystery Reader!
The next Scholastic order is due on May 13.
Next week we will be doing several Spring-related numeracy and literacy activities and will continue our inquiry on Measurement. Please send in a hollow egg with your child (extras are welcome just in case!) since we will be doing a colour mixing experiment with the eggs, shaving cream, and food colouring!
That is the news for this week!
Welcome back after the March Break! The kids had lots of stories to tell about their holiday!
Last week we finished our science inquiries on Rainbows and Primary Colours, and our Student Teacher Miss. Patel started teaching a numeracy inquiry on Measurement . The children helped create a "K-W-L" chart: what they Know; what they Want to learn; what they Learned. We watched a "Dr. Binocs" video about how rainbows are formed,and a great video called "How to Mix Colours to Make a Rainbow." We replicated the colour mixing experiments in class using plastecine, food colouring, watercolour pencils, and paint. The children learned that when you mix all the primary colours together, it makes brown, but when you put the seven spectrum colours together, you get WHITE. They played with a prism and the sun to make a rainbow, and made a rainbow with a glass of water, a mirror, a flashlight, and a piece of paper. That experiment showed them that rainbows are actually round, not semi-circles. The children painted rainbows, coloured rainbows and learned about primary colours, the secondary colours, and the tertiary colour indigo. They completed the sentence, "If I caught a rainbow of my very own" and "If a leprechaun gave me some gold" with words and a picture. They also counted, sorted, graphed and added Skittles (since Skittles come from rainbows :)) using ten-frames and graphs. Then they ate them of course! The kids did the Cosmic Kids Yoga "Peace Out Rainbow Waterfall" and "Unicorns" episodes.
We also wrote on chart paper about "I know it's Spring when I can... when I see... when I smell... when I feel... when I see..."
The words of the week were WHAT, NEW and SUN. The homework is to do the mini read and write "WHAT" booklet.
We also learned the song "M-A-R-C-H," a poem about Leprechauns, read and coloured a leprechaun booklet, illustrated and read a booklet about St. Patrick's Day with our Reading Buddies,
Thank you to Kate for bringing in two books about rainbows, Mia's and Elea's mom who were pizza lunch volunteers, and Shayan's da who was our Mystery Reader!
The next Scholastic order is due on May 13.
Next week we will be doing several Spring-related numeracy and literacy activities and will continue our inquiry on Measurement. Please send in a hollow egg with your child (extras are welcome just in case!) since we will be doing a colour mixing experiment with the eggs, shaving cream, and food colouring!
That is the news for this week!
Friday, March 9, 2018
Happy March Break!
Dear families,
I hope you are having a wonderful March Break! Let's hope for some warm Spring weather we we come back!
Lots went home in today's mail bag: the kids' Olympic folder, coupons for March Break adventures in the city, and all their learning this week about MICE!
We read non-fiction books about mice, and several fictional books, including Laura Numeroff's fabulous and fun circle stories "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie," "If you Give a Mouse a Brownie," and "If you Take a Mouse to the Movies." We also listened to them on CD and retold the stories. The children helped create a K-W-L chart: What we KNOW/What we WONDER/What we LEARNED. I made a smaller version and sent it home. They also learned how to draw mice in two different ways, and we practiced together using dry erase boards. The children learned lots of facts about mice - ask them! We watched a cute video about how small a hole a mouse can fit through (the size of a dime!!!). You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGXYZwZEZa0 The kids thought it was so funny! Mrs. Mosun and I did, too!
We did "ABCs of Cheese" work (the children had to fill in the missing letters of the alphabet), "Hurry Home" (the kids had to count mouse foot prints), and finished a mouse booklet with our Reading Buddies.
Thank you so much to Rielle's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week! Thank you as well to Yara's mom who gave two books about mice to our classroom: "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," and "Mice Skating."
The school watched a presentation in the gym about Bullying and Positive Thinking, and the words of the week were LOVE and GET.
When we return after the break, the Science Centre will turn into a Fastener Centre, we will be learning about Rainbows (including prisms), we'll do a lot of literacy and numeracy St. Patrick's Day activities, and we will start learning/reviewing standard and non-standard units of measurement. We will also welcome Student Teacher Miss. Patel as she begins her Practicum.
That's the news from Room 166! See you after the break!
I hope you are having a wonderful March Break! Let's hope for some warm Spring weather we we come back!
Lots went home in today's mail bag: the kids' Olympic folder, coupons for March Break adventures in the city, and all their learning this week about MICE!
We read non-fiction books about mice, and several fictional books, including Laura Numeroff's fabulous and fun circle stories "If you Give a Mouse a Cookie," "If you Give a Mouse a Brownie," and "If you Take a Mouse to the Movies." We also listened to them on CD and retold the stories. The children helped create a K-W-L chart: What we KNOW/What we WONDER/What we LEARNED. I made a smaller version and sent it home. They also learned how to draw mice in two different ways, and we practiced together using dry erase boards. The children learned lots of facts about mice - ask them! We watched a cute video about how small a hole a mouse can fit through (the size of a dime!!!). You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGXYZwZEZa0 The kids thought it was so funny! Mrs. Mosun and I did, too!
We did "ABCs of Cheese" work (the children had to fill in the missing letters of the alphabet), "Hurry Home" (the kids had to count mouse foot prints), and finished a mouse booklet with our Reading Buddies.
Thank you so much to Rielle's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week! Thank you as well to Yara's mom who gave two books about mice to our classroom: "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," and "Mice Skating."
The school watched a presentation in the gym about Bullying and Positive Thinking, and the words of the week were LOVE and GET.
When we return after the break, the Science Centre will turn into a Fastener Centre, we will be learning about Rainbows (including prisms), we'll do a lot of literacy and numeracy St. Patrick's Day activities, and we will start learning/reviewing standard and non-standard units of measurement. We will also welcome Student Teacher Miss. Patel as she begins her Practicum.
That's the news from Room 166! See you after the break!
Saturday, March 3, 2018
Week of February 26-March 2
Dear families,
I hope you're having a terrific weekend!
Last week we finished our learning about the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The children made torches and did a little parade around the school (Mr. Currie put a photo of this on the LKS Twitter feed!), which they loved! We did three Venn diagrams together after watching clips of the sports on the Smartboard: luge/skeleton/bobsled; hockey/figure skating; and skiing/snowboarding. The kids did some Olympic-themed numeracy activities; they compared numbers and circled the higher ones; they rolled dice and coloured matching totals; they did "skating equations." in which they added two numbers up and colour a skater according to a legend of different sums (i.e. sum of 4, colour blue); the children played again at the 6 different numeracy and literacy centres they played last week; and they completed a dot-to-dot numbers 1-30 skating picture.
The children also watched several Paralympians on the Smartboard - downhill skiers, snowboarders, cross-country skiers and sledge hockey players. WE talked about the importance of not giving up when something is difficult, and always trying your best. We also talked about respecting others and difference, and what the Olympic athletes can teach us. Also on the Smartboard, the kids read winter sport-themed sight words, letter sounds, and numbers, and we watched "The Science of the Winter Olympic Games," which explained in simple terms the physics behind all the amazing gravity-defying feats the athletes do (such as jumps). As a culminating activity, the children completed the sentence "My favourite Olympic sport is _________ because _________" and drew a matching picture. Our hall bulletin board has a lot of the kids' learning on it and they will take their Olympic folders home next week. Well done!
We also squeezed a little science lesson in our learning. The children came up with four different ideas (HYPOTHESES) about how to make play clay for our Olympic medals using different combinations and amounts of flour, water, corn starch, salt and white glue. They mixed the four different recipes and told us their OBSERVATIONS ("It didn't stick together;" It's fluffy;" "I don't think i could make it into a ball," for example). Later, I mixed up two other recipes and the kids mixed them with their hands and we decided that flour, salt and water works best (our CONCLUSION). Finally, they made balls with the clay, flattened them, put decorative lines across them with a ruler, put a hole in them with a pencil and we're letting them dry for the weekend. Next week we'll paint them gold, silver or bronze (the kids' choice). Hopefully the medals will look like the Pyeong Chang ones!
Our student teacher Miss. Patel visited again on Friday. Her Practicum will be from March 19-April 25.
The children had front row seats to a terrific school-wide Huddle Up Assembly with the Argos and the Grey Cup! They also completed their February calendar and "This is me in February." The words of the week were SAY and WITH. The homework fore this weekend is to complete the mini read-and-write WITH booklet. The new March words and March Homework Bingo wa sent home on Friday.
Thank you so much to Evelyn's mom who was our Mystery Reader!
Spring is beginning to make an appearance at school! Crocuses, tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths are poking their leaves out of the soil, and some insects are coming out of the ground. Hibernating and burrowing animals are waking up, and with that in mind, we will do a little inquiry on MICE next week! Lots of wonderful books with mice as main characters, and lots of learning and fun next week, the last week before March Break.
That's the news from Room 166! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
I hope you're having a terrific weekend!
Last week we finished our learning about the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. The children made torches and did a little parade around the school (Mr. Currie put a photo of this on the LKS Twitter feed!), which they loved! We did three Venn diagrams together after watching clips of the sports on the Smartboard: luge/skeleton/bobsled; hockey/figure skating; and skiing/snowboarding. The kids did some Olympic-themed numeracy activities; they compared numbers and circled the higher ones; they rolled dice and coloured matching totals; they did "skating equations." in which they added two numbers up and colour a skater according to a legend of different sums (i.e. sum of 4, colour blue); the children played again at the 6 different numeracy and literacy centres they played last week; and they completed a dot-to-dot numbers 1-30 skating picture.
The children also watched several Paralympians on the Smartboard - downhill skiers, snowboarders, cross-country skiers and sledge hockey players. WE talked about the importance of not giving up when something is difficult, and always trying your best. We also talked about respecting others and difference, and what the Olympic athletes can teach us. Also on the Smartboard, the kids read winter sport-themed sight words, letter sounds, and numbers, and we watched "The Science of the Winter Olympic Games," which explained in simple terms the physics behind all the amazing gravity-defying feats the athletes do (such as jumps). As a culminating activity, the children completed the sentence "My favourite Olympic sport is _________ because _________" and drew a matching picture. Our hall bulletin board has a lot of the kids' learning on it and they will take their Olympic folders home next week. Well done!
We also squeezed a little science lesson in our learning. The children came up with four different ideas (HYPOTHESES) about how to make play clay for our Olympic medals using different combinations and amounts of flour, water, corn starch, salt and white glue. They mixed the four different recipes and told us their OBSERVATIONS ("It didn't stick together;" It's fluffy;" "I don't think i could make it into a ball," for example). Later, I mixed up two other recipes and the kids mixed them with their hands and we decided that flour, salt and water works best (our CONCLUSION). Finally, they made balls with the clay, flattened them, put decorative lines across them with a ruler, put a hole in them with a pencil and we're letting them dry for the weekend. Next week we'll paint them gold, silver or bronze (the kids' choice). Hopefully the medals will look like the Pyeong Chang ones!
Our student teacher Miss. Patel visited again on Friday. Her Practicum will be from March 19-April 25.
The children had front row seats to a terrific school-wide Huddle Up Assembly with the Argos and the Grey Cup! They also completed their February calendar and "This is me in February." The words of the week were SAY and WITH. The homework fore this weekend is to complete the mini read-and-write WITH booklet. The new March words and March Homework Bingo wa sent home on Friday.
Thank you so much to Evelyn's mom who was our Mystery Reader!
Spring is beginning to make an appearance at school! Crocuses, tulips, daffodils, and hyacinths are poking their leaves out of the soil, and some insects are coming out of the ground. Hibernating and burrowing animals are waking up, and with that in mind, we will do a little inquiry on MICE next week! Lots of wonderful books with mice as main characters, and lots of learning and fun next week, the last week before March Break.
That's the news from Room 166! Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Friday, February 23, 2018
Week of February 19-23
Dear families,
It's been another busy week in Room 166! We've been cheering Canada on in the Olympics and learning about various winter Olympic sports! They have played in various centres and have watched footage of the Opening Ceremonies and moguls, ice dancing (Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir!), downhill racing, and snowboarding.
The children wrote their names beside the country they were cheering for, and we have been keeping track each day of the medal count for those countries.
In Numeracy, the children:
- counted and graphed winter Olympic sports
- added up Olympic sports
- Rolled and counted dice to match the sport
- followed instructions/sequencing to draw the Olympic rings correctly
- added and coloured a snowboarder (i.e. 4+2=6, colour sums of 6 green)
- added and coloured an ice skater (same idea) according to the equation/sum
In Literacy the children:
- read and coloured an Olympic booklet with their Reading Buddies
- helped me complete a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting Skiing and Snowboarding
- did an "Olympic Medal Match," matching the word to the sport
- reviewed colour words with Winter Olympic pictures
- did an activity called "Bobsled Raceway," reinforcing phonemes and sound blends
- matched upper and lower case letters in an "Olympic race"
In Art, the children are painting Olympic Rings on a big puzzle (thank you to Alex's family who donated those puzzle papers!!!) They learned that each ring represents one continent: North America, South America, Africa, Australia and Eurasia.
In Phys. Ed., the gym was available this week and the children played various jumping games with "Olympic rings" (aka hoola hoops), did a bean bag toss, hopped on two legs, crawled through a tunnel and added up bean bags. Please ensure your child wears running shoes at school so s/he can participate in gym activities.
Thank you for bringing in paper towel rolls to make Olympic "torches."
Next week we will continue with our Olympic Inquiry and will start learning about the Paralympics.
The Sight Words of the week are UP and FROM.
We are having fun keeping Zero the Zebra up, since between school day 100 and 111, every day has been Zero Day!
At the Sharing Assembly, the children did a great job singing "Skinnamarinky," a song about love and family, to celebrate Valentine's Day and Family Day. Mila and Anjali were celebrated for demonstrating FAIRNESS. Anjali was away so she will receive her certificate at next month's Sharing Assembly.
The Mystery Reader this week was Kate's mom! Thank you as well to Maya's mom and Anilee's mom who volunteered for pizza lunch!
The March Scholastic order is due on March 2. Please send your order in by then to ensure receiving your books before the March Break. Thank you!
Monday is "wear blue to school" day at LKS!
I have sent home a letter regarding the Development of Children's Writing. It is really amazing to watch children progress from drawing shapes, to pictures, to letter shapes, to actual letters, to groups of letters, to sight words, to beginning sounds, to using finger spaces, to actual sentences. Each step is very important in your child's development. Please celebrate your child's ability to write phonetically; to sound out words like we do in class.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
It's been another busy week in Room 166! We've been cheering Canada on in the Olympics and learning about various winter Olympic sports! They have played in various centres and have watched footage of the Opening Ceremonies and moguls, ice dancing (Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir!), downhill racing, and snowboarding.
The children wrote their names beside the country they were cheering for, and we have been keeping track each day of the medal count for those countries.
In Numeracy, the children:
- counted and graphed winter Olympic sports
- added up Olympic sports
- Rolled and counted dice to match the sport
- followed instructions/sequencing to draw the Olympic rings correctly
- added and coloured a snowboarder (i.e. 4+2=6, colour sums of 6 green)
- added and coloured an ice skater (same idea) according to the equation/sum
In Literacy the children:
- read and coloured an Olympic booklet with their Reading Buddies
- helped me complete a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting Skiing and Snowboarding
- did an "Olympic Medal Match," matching the word to the sport
- reviewed colour words with Winter Olympic pictures
- did an activity called "Bobsled Raceway," reinforcing phonemes and sound blends
- matched upper and lower case letters in an "Olympic race"
In Art, the children are painting Olympic Rings on a big puzzle (thank you to Alex's family who donated those puzzle papers!!!) They learned that each ring represents one continent: North America, South America, Africa, Australia and Eurasia.
In Phys. Ed., the gym was available this week and the children played various jumping games with "Olympic rings" (aka hoola hoops), did a bean bag toss, hopped on two legs, crawled through a tunnel and added up bean bags. Please ensure your child wears running shoes at school so s/he can participate in gym activities.
Thank you for bringing in paper towel rolls to make Olympic "torches."
Next week we will continue with our Olympic Inquiry and will start learning about the Paralympics.
The Sight Words of the week are UP and FROM.
We are having fun keeping Zero the Zebra up, since between school day 100 and 111, every day has been Zero Day!
At the Sharing Assembly, the children did a great job singing "Skinnamarinky," a song about love and family, to celebrate Valentine's Day and Family Day. Mila and Anjali were celebrated for demonstrating FAIRNESS. Anjali was away so she will receive her certificate at next month's Sharing Assembly.
The Mystery Reader this week was Kate's mom! Thank you as well to Maya's mom and Anilee's mom who volunteered for pizza lunch!
The March Scholastic order is due on March 2. Please send your order in by then to ensure receiving your books before the March Break. Thank you!
Monday is "wear blue to school" day at LKS!
I have sent home a letter regarding the Development of Children's Writing. It is really amazing to watch children progress from drawing shapes, to pictures, to letter shapes, to actual letters, to groups of letters, to sight words, to beginning sounds, to using finger spaces, to actual sentences. Each step is very important in your child's development. Please celebrate your child's ability to write phonetically; to sound out words like we do in class.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
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