Dear families,
First, a thank you to our parent volunteers this week: Martel's mom who helped in the Computer Lab and with Pizza Lunch; Jake's mom who was Mystery Reader; Olivia's mom who helped with Pizza Lunch.
This week we did two fun and interesting inquiries -- on Santa, and on Snowflakes. We made web charts, explored at the Snowflake Centre where the children designed snowflakes with various objects and three mirrors, and played at our mini North Pole Centre. We'll continue our inquiry on the properties of snow and build that into a long indoor/outdoor inquiry about Winter when we return from our holidays. On a snowy day the children brought out black pieces of construction paper and caught and observed snowflakes. You can do this at home too!
The Juniors focused on their first two "Popcorn Words" I and AM. The Seniors know these words and review sight words throughout the year. These two words are in your child's yellow Popcorn Folder that went home in Friday's white bag. Each Friday they will receive two more words to put in the folder and practise at home. The Juniors and Seniors also did a fun crayon resist activity with sight words I wrote in white crayon under holiday lights they painted with watercolour. The words "magically" appeared when the children painted the light bulbs. You can do this activity at home with a white crayon - it's easy! The kids can do it too. Watercolour paint works best.
The children divided up into groups and worked very well together on putting together a large and small Santa puzzle. Puzzles are wonderful for cooperation, verbal skills, and developing spacial skills.
The kids also made wrapping paper by painting only on the top half of a large sheet of paper. When they were finished, they folded the bottom half up, pressed on it, and pulled it back to reveal a mirror image of their design. They would love to wrap a gift with this paper at home with you.
For next week's art project, please bring in 5 small twigs. They should be small enough that they can fit in a ziplock baggie. Thank you!
We continued practising our Popcorn Word Song (to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb):
Like in to no am a that
Can me yes
I of the
Said we he is it go see
And it big my went
We "butter" the popcorn words that we are focusing on during the week by highlighting them in yellow. I and AM are buttered. Next week we'll "butter" IS and AND. You can do this at home too with the song sheet I sent home. I will also continue to send home the other songs and poems we do in class so that your child can practise them at home. This reinforces reading skills learned in class.
This month's Sharing Assembly was about Kindness and Caring. Congratulations to all the kids who did a wonderful job singing the song "Peace" and to Lauren, Adam and Matthew C. who demonstrate kindness and caring to others each day in our classroom. I am very proud of you.
The children also read and coloured a counting book about Kwaanzaa, and learned about Hannukah while painting a popsicle star of David ornament (which was also a great little opportunity to teach how two triangles can make the star).
This week we also read nine Christmas words and then drew pictures of them. It really helps the children when I show them step by step how to draw things using basic shapes. It's really impressive how they can do it themselves after a little lesson!
The Seniors also did several sight word games such as Roll and Write (matching numbers with sight words) and Spot the Dog (beginning and ending sounds). We have been talking a lot about beginning and ending sounds as another way and skill to decipher words. We have also been talking about and reading rhyming words on the Smart Board which is another handy skill (making connections: "I know that ending because it rhymes with ___").
Finally, each day we have been reading and re-reading and studying the book "Happy Holidays" on the Smart Board, looking for sight words, using our "eagle eyes" to use pictures to help us read the words, and s-t-r-e-t-c-h-I-n-g words out to help us read them. We also look for patterns in the story (repetition). The kids are doing so well! I gave them their own copies to read and colour and had them read it to me as well.
The December folders will go home with all their wonderful work on Friday.
The children have been enjoying singing carols with me at the piano. I'm a bit rusty but they don't seem to notice! We'll continue singing carols next week. If your child is taking music lessons and has a piece they would like to play for the class, please let me know! The kids would love to hear them.
This Thursday morning is our Holiday Craft Party. A big thank you in advance to the parents who are helping with that and who are bringing in craft materials.
I hope you are having a nice weekend!
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