Week of October 9-13

Dear families,

I hope you are having a lovely weekend. We talked about Fall weather last week and here it is; rain, wind, sun, cold, and frost and snow to come!

We also learned about what animals do in the Fall, did some colour mixing and pastel-resist art ("Falling Leaves on a Sunny or Rainy Day" - on display in our classroom), completed a pumpkin sequencing activity (from seed to jack-o-lantern), started pumpkin art by following simple directions, did a Thanksgiving Dinner Graph, and did turkey and pattern activities with our Reading Buddies.

We had a Fire Drill this week and the children did and EXCELLENT job!

Thank you so much to Shayan's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week!

The Popcorn Words of the week were THE and DO. The children also completed I and AM mini read and write mini books. We'll do these throughout the year. They get a star when they can spell the words!

We need more acorns please :) We will be using them with our 10-frame numeracy activity. Thank you! I asked the children to be like squirrels in the fall and collect as many as they could. We will return them to nature after our activity.

We are also learning about how to express numbers in six different ways; tally marks, blocks, number line, words, the numeral, order (first, second, etc.). I have sent home a copy of this for the numbers 1-9 for your child's reference.

The children reviewed their colour words by completing a colour word "pie" and they read an October Poem. The SKs circled all the popcorn words they knew.

We are reviewing the Jolly Phonics letter sounds S, A, T, I, P and N and completed a sound-sort activity.

We started our Inquiry on Monkeys!! Thank you so much to Alexander who is sharing his monkey books with us and to Hudson who shared his special monkey stuffy. We watched an Ed and Eppa video on monkeys and gorillas, and started a chart with SCHEMA (what we know), NEW LEARNING and MISCONCEPTIONS. We are reading fiction and non-fiction books about monkeys and the poem "Five Little Monkeys." Next week we will learn about what monkeys CAN (do), HAVE and EAT. We will also learn about different kinds of monkeys and how they are similar and different from us. Our little monkeys are enjoying this inquiry!

Starting on Monday and until November 1st, LKS will be collecting non-perishable food for the WE SCARE HUNGER initiative. Please send in non-perishable and nut-free foods to support those less fortunate. For the first time, Kindergarteners will be participating in the Dance-a-thon on October 31st!

That's the news for the week. Enjoy the rest of this Autumn weekend! :)