Week of December 17-21

Dear families,

I think December 25 is tied with birthdays in terms of how excited the children get! This has been a fun week, and the kiddos did a lot of learning while having fun:

Literacy:
The Letter sound of the week was Uu. The sight words of the week were BIG and RUN. After watching "How the Grinch Stole CHrtistmas," we used a Venn diagram to compare the Grinch and Santa; we also uncovered hidden sight words from "magic" Christmas lights, wrote how we would get Santa out of the chimney if he got stuck, finished our Littler Elf booklets with our reading buddies, read and coloured a non-fiction booklet about reindeer, did our "This is me in December" writing and drawing, and the SKs did some beginning letter sound exercises.

Numeracy:
We did a candy cane flavour graph, the SKs wrote which number came next in a sequence, the JKs and SKs did a number dot-to-dot exercise, and all the kids did their December calendars.

Art:
The children cut and glued Santa "stuck in the chimney," made Star of David and reindeer ornaments, and made several crafts during our Holiday Craft Party (thank you to the moms of Anilee, Dante, Ella, Evelyn and Reina!

Science:
We are starting to learn about snowflakes.

Music:
The children performed three songs and one poem at our Kindergarten Holiday Concert and Santa made a surprise visit!

Thank you to our Mystery Reader Yara (Reina's sister)! Thank you as well to Monty's family who will be taking care of Bubbles the Beta Fish over the holidays!

Thank you so much for the thoughtful and generous Christmas gifts! I am so happy to be your child's teacher and wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2019!

Mrs. Tyndall

Week of December 10-14

Dear families,

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

The letter sound of the week was Oo (the short "Oo" like "on" and "off." The words of the week were HERE and YOU.

Njumeracy:
The children did a doy-to-dot number Christmas tree, counted and added "pirate gold and silver, did a survery about who likes candy canes and who doesn't (thank you Anilee and Everleigh for conducting the survey!), and tallied Christmas ornaments.

Literacy:
Our little elves read "Happy Holidays with me on the Smartboard, and we circled and looked for sight words and letter sounds. They coloured and read their own copies, too. We read the lyrics to holiday songs, practiced our poem "Shy Santa", and read and coloured a booklet called "Little Elf" with our Reading Buddies.They also completed a letter sound "Oo" worksheet. I have sent home our next word sheet with many words made from the letter sounds we have learned so far: SATIPNCKEHRMDGO.

Music:
The children sang Holiday songs by the piano (I'll send the lyrics home to keep), and practised their songs for the concert on Tuesday morning.

Art:
Your children have made art gifts for you to put under the tree. They are beautiful! They also followed our step-by-step instructions to draw a snowman with chalk.

Dramatic Play:
The children enjoyed pretending to be elves in "Santa's Workshop," pirates with the treasure chest, and I hope they continue they dramatic play at home with the pirate folders (and treasure chest gifts "from Captain Jack Sparrow!" that went home in Friday's mail bag. They worked hard on this unit and had fun!

Thank you so much to this week's parent volunteers! Anilee's mom Amy helped with pizza lunch, and Sophie's dad was the Mystery Reader!

That's the news for this week! I look forward to seeing you at Tuesday's Holiday Concert at 9:00 a.m. in the gym! The children should be dressed in "Christmas colours" please.

Have a great week!

Week of December3-6

Dear families,

What an exciting time of year this is for the children! The children has been busy practising their songs for the upcoming Holiday Concert on December 18 at 9:00 a.m. (in the gym). We hope to see you there!

Alfie, our class Elf on the Shelf, came to our classroom again this year, and is sitting quietly atop our globe, where the North Pole and Santa's Workshop is. We are also counting down the days until December 25 with our classroom beads, just like the children are doing at home.

Here is what we did this week:

Literacy:

The words of the week were HAVE and SAW. The letter sound of the week was Gg. The children continued their unit on pirates, and made a little booklet writing "Pirates are..." with a drawing. The SKs also wrote and drew "If I were a Pirate..." and all the children are completing a speech bubble to go with their telescopes (thank you for the paper towel tubes!): "With my telescope I can see...." This speech bubble will go on their pirate glyphs. With their reading buddies, they wrote a letter to Santa, which we mailed in the North Pole Mailbox in the office. The SKs are also doing a fill-in-the-blank activity with a Santa poem.

Numeracy:

The children counted pirate "gold and silver" (gold and silver painted stones), making piles of 5 and 10, rolling the dice to match the pirate gold with the number on the dice, and sorting the gold and silver.


Dramatic Play:

The children are loving our pirate treasure chest and costumes! They read pirate books while dressed up at the centre and are having a lot of fun playing make-believe. We also have a "Santa Centre" with ornaments and decorations that the kids are enjoying playing with.

Science:


We "turned pirate pennies into gold" in class! First, we hypothesized which of the following solutions would make a brown penny shiny: water, soapy water, vinegar, salt water, hand sanitizer, or salt and vinegar. Most of the children guessed soapy water. Then we did the experiment and learned that vinegar is a mild acid, and salt is mildly corrosive, so that solution quickly removed the tarnish. Salt water and vinegar alone worked a little bit, but much more slowly that the salt and vinegar solution. I will send home the steps to this experiment so the kids can do this at home if you wish! They could turn loonies into "gold" with the solution, too, if you don't have pennies.

In Music:

The children are learning their holiday concert songs. I've sent home a copy of them so your child can practise at home.

Arts and Crafts:

The children made a telescope with their paper towel tube, and will be writing "With my telescope I can see..." They also made pirate eye patches to wear (Mrs. Mosun measured each of their heads to make sure it would fit - we'll do a lot more on MEASUREMENT after the holidays), and, with their Reading Buddies, the children followed the steps to fold a large piece of paper and make a pirate hat. All of these pirate-themed activities and all the children's work will go home in a folder they are making, once we've learned all there is to learn about pirates!

Thank you so much to Hope's mom who was our Mystery Reeader this week!

If you have any old Christmas cards, kindly cut/rip them so that the personal message stays with you, and send in the blank remaining part with the picture. We'll turn our "Home Centre" into Santa's workshop and the kids can write Christmas Cards to each other.

If anyone would like to "fish sit" Bubbles, our class Beta Fish over the holidays, please send me an email. He is very easy to take care of!
Thank you!

To reward LKS for surpassing the Terry Fox fundraising goal, each class in the school is allowed to watch a movie. I was thinking that our little ones would enjoy "The Polar Express" which is a wonderful book and movie, but I can't find my copy. If anyone has a copy, kindly send it in for us to borrow. Otherwise, we can watch the classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" 1960s animated film and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Here is a list of two things the children wished from Santa, according to the letter they mailed to the North Pole:

JUNIORS:
Seth - big toy train, 2 toy robots (one red, one blue)
Arlo - remote control car, batman track
Emerson - Paw Patrol, book
Reina - "Pamsey" and "Poopsie" Surprise
Edward - two trucks
Emma - whale Playmobile, LOL house
Olivia - Barbie doll, toy train
Sophie - "Chimerang" shine dolls, My Little Pony barn
Estella- on holiday
Simone - on holiday
Elise - real kitchen, toy school
Ella - Ana dress and boots (from "Frozen" movie)
Yilin - toy Santa, GAP shirt


SENIORS:
Christopher - Lego set, stuffy
Evelyn - Elf on the Shelf, LOL doll
Dante - Scheherazade card, Pokémon book
Rajan - Lego book, "Fortnite" game
Ayla - stuffy, princess costume
Monty - lock-picking set, Harry Potter Lego
Abigail - toy camera, mini trampoline
Casey - "something that shoots cars out" (Hot Wheels?)
Mila - stroller, crystals
Shayan - stuffy, candy
Anilee - toy, markers
Hope - nerf gun, candy
Diesel - Lego set, toy robot
Everleigh - American doll, water doggy
Kipling - Transformer, pet chameleon


I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Week of November 26-30

Dear families,

We had another great week in Room 166! The words of the week were GO and TO. The letter sound of the week was Dd. We finished up our David Shannon author study, comparing the "David" books and other David Shannon books withe a Venn diagram, watched a David read-aloud story on the Smartboard, and the SKs wrote and drew a picture about why they liked the book "David Goes to School."

Lo and behold, it turns out that David Shannon illustrated kids' books about pirates, too! This week we read a lot of fun pirate books and practised retelling the stories. We made an "Itsy Bitsy Pirate Book," made a pirate glyph (a numeracy activity), made a big treasure map with our reading buddies, painted tea on the map to make it look old, played with a pirate treasure chest full of coins (pennies!), sea shells, a map, pirate hats, and "jewels," and practised talking like pirates do! We also learned how to draw a pirate using our mini white boards and white board markers. Please bring in a paper towel roll next week so your child can make a "pirate telescope."

The children also did their "This is me in November" drawing and writing, and their November calendar. I have put them on display in the hall bulletin board. I'm seeing so much progress since September!

Next week we will do more pirate numeracy, literacy, science and art activities, and will also start our holiday work all about December and Santa. Alfie the Elf on the Shelf might arrive on Monday! We will also start learning our songs in preparation for the Holiday Concert! December is such an exciting month for children.

Today the children brought home a "Christmas Countdown" which is 25 patterned beads and a bell on a pipe cleaner. Each day, the children should move one bead over, and then when all the beads are moved over, they can ring the bell because that is Christmas Day! Please leave these at home so they don't get lost. You can use these year after year just as you would an advent calendar.

To practice self-regulation, the children listened to Cosmic Kids Yoga's "Zen Den" and did Cosmic Kids Yoga "Spezzi the Pirate Parrot" and "Harry Potter Yoga." Learning to quiet our minds and bodies is an important life skill in our busy world, and the children tell me that really enjoy how yoga makes them feel "calm."

In the computer lab with Mrs. Mosun, the kids watched Sesame Street and David Shannon Books.

Thank you to Ella's mom, who was our Mystery Reader this week! She taught the children a song and read a wonderful book called "Ada Twist the Scientist."

Congratulations to Dante, Elise and Emerson for receiving a TDSB award for "Empathy." They demonstrate that they care about how other children feel. Good work!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Week of November 19-23

Dear families,

I hope you had a nice weekend! This is what we did in our classroom last week:

Literacy:
The letter sound of the week was Mm. The sight words of the week were THIS and WILL. The children traced Mm, coloured pictured that began with the letter sound Mm, matched Mm pictures to Mm words, and independently wrote Mm. We continued our David Shannon author study with more “David” books, which the kids loved. They wrote how to be a “peace maker” instead of a “peace breaker” like David. With our reading buddies, the kids drew a picture and wrote words about what to do and what not to do, like David. The children also traced a “David” alphabet letter sheet, and then they drew and wrote about how to follow rules in the classroom, play ground, lunch room and bathroom (not like David!). The SKs did work on making predictions based on the David books, about what they thought would happen in The “It’s Christmas, David!” Book. Then we read the book together. Making predictions, talking about the beginning, middle and end of stories, and remembering the characters of a story are all important early literacy skills that we work on each day. The SKs also wrote and drew a picture about what they liked about the book “David Goes to School.” The JKs arevworking on letter formation and letter sound recognition.

In Numeracy, we graphed and tallied how many children went to the Santa Claus Parade, how many watched it on t.v., and how many did not watch it. We also worked with our 10-frames.

In Art, the children made David puppets. We do a lot of cutting and gluing each week. A pair of child-safe scissors at home will really help your child improve this important small-motor skill, and will build up their confidence!

In Science, I showed the children several every day objects and the children predicted which would sink and which would float, and then we tested them! The classroom Science Centre has the three primary colours of yellow, red and blue food colouring mixed with water. The kids really enjoyed using a dropping pipette to put a drop of colour in a tray with little boxes (kind of like an ice cube tray that makes tiny ice cubes!). Theybwere amazed at all of shades of colours they could create wi5 just yellow, red and blue. Being translucent (water and food colouring) helps them really see the different shades and. Artery of colour. Using pipettes is also good to develop small motor skills!

In Self-Regulation, the children are learning mindful meditation. We read a great book called “I Am Peace” and listened to “Mindful Meditation for Kids” on the Smartboard. We also did Cosmic Kids Yoga to “Popcorn the Pirate.”

In the Computer Lab with Mrs. Mosun, the kids worked on Starfall, read books on the computer, and did ABCya.

Thank you very much to Shay’s mom who was our Mystery Reader, and to Reina’s mom and Casey’s mom who helped with pizza lunch.

The kids had fun watching the school-wide “Minute to Win It” challenge in the gym. LKS has great school spirit!

This week we will finish our author study and we will start our fun literacy and numeracy unit on Pirates!! Aaarghhh!

The next Scholastic order is due on December 6th. Books make wonderful holiday gifts! Let me know if your order is a gift and I will be sure to hand it directly to you at dismissal so it’s still a surprise!

Have a wonderful week!

Week of November 19-23

Dear families,

I left my blog notes at school on Friday - my apologies!! We did so much this week and I can’t remember all of it! I will update my blog on Monday at lunch! I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Week of November 12-16

Dear families,

I hope you are enjoying this beautiful snowy weather! I'm sure the children are loving today's snow!

It was another busy week in our classroom. The Jolly Phonics letter sound of the week was Rr and the sight words of the week were PLAY and ON. We made several new words with our letter sounds SATIPNCKHR with magnetic letters. The children also wrote words with the beginning sound Rr on chart paper and enjoying pretending they were a puppy who was saying "RRRRR" to practice that letter sound. They also traced and wrote the letter Rr.

This week we learned about all the signs of Fall and why things change in the fall - birds flying south (why?), leaves lose their colour and fall, insects go underground, squirrels and other small animals like chipmunks collect and store nuts and seeds, it gets colder (why? where is the earth in relation to the sun? We looked at the globe and Casey's head was our sun :) ), and how humans adapt by wearing warmer clothes. Migration, hibernation, adaptation. We will learn more about his in the next week or so. The children made beautiful oil pastel/watercolour art called "Falling Leaves on a Sunny Day" and "Falling Leaves on a Rainy Day." They are on display on our classroom bulletin board. I did a little experiment with oil and water and watched how the oil rose to the top and wouldn't mix with the water, to explain why the watercolour wash the children painted over the oil pastel "leaves" didn't cover the leaf colour up. We pretended we were squirrels and chipmunks gathering nuts and seeds when we went on a walk in Lambton Kingsway Park, looking at the leaf colours, a squirrel's nest, and collecting different leaves and several pine cones. The children also read and coloured a booklet called "Fall is Here."

The children finished their booklet "A Poppy is to Remember" with their Reading Buddies. Their poppy art will go home next week.

On Wednesday it was the 50th day of school! The children are making tools to help them count by ones and tens to 50, using 5 pipe cleaners and 50 beads. Also good for their small motor skills to put the beads on the pipe cleaners. They will keep them in the classroom in their chair pockets and we'll make another one for the 100th day of school in February. The children also played at centres counting and sorting small items in groups of ten. I also played a game with them using paper plates that had dots on them, and the children had to count the dots as quickly as they could. Some were blue (for example 6 blue dots arranged like a dice), and others were blue and red (for example 4 blue dots and 2 red dots, equals 6).

During "Quiet Thinking Time" the children enjoyed Cosmic Kids Yoga and listening to relaxing music while Mrs. Mosun and I work one-on-one with them to develop their reading and writing skills.

In the computer lab the kids are doing Starfall.com, which is an excellent literacy program.

The next scholastic order is due on December 6th.

Next week we are going to start an Author Study of David Shannon's books and we will also start a really fun and engaging unit on Pirates. The kids expressed some interest in them a few weeks ago and I think all the kids will enjoy the literacy and numeracy activities with a fun pirate theme.

It was a pleasure to meet with you during the parent-teacher interviews this week. Thank you so much for coming!

I hope you have a lovely weekend! See you on Monday!

Week of November 5-9

Dear families,

This is what we did in our classroom this rainy November week!

Literacy:

The letter sounds of the week were Ee and Hh. The words of the day were WHERE and SAID. With our Reading Buddies, the children read and drew a booklet about the Signs of Fall. The JKs traced the letter Ee, and the SKs practiced writing the letter Ee in their neatest printing. They also did an "Eye Spy Ee" activity. The children traced and read Remembrance Day words, and we read the wonderful Todd Parr book "Peace." After talking about what peace is, the children drew pictures and wrote a sentence to go with it. The JKs sometimes need "hand-over-hand" help to print or trace our highlighter letters. The SKs are beginning to sound out words or write independently. Good effort everyone! We also learned three songs about Remembrance Day. The children can sing them at home with the lyrics in their mail bags. We are also reading our first chapter book together, called "Lionel in the Fall." All the children did a dot-to-dot alphabet activity as well. For the SKs, I have sent home a new list of words that you can make with the letters/letter sounds we have learned so far .(Ss, Aa, Tt, Ii, Pp, Nn, Cc, Kk, Ee, Hh) There are a lot!


Numeracy:

The number of the week was number eleven. We talked about and showed how to write the word, how to make the tally marks, what "11" looks like on dice and in ten frames and in base ten blocks, as well as on the number line. The JKs counted acorns and wrote the number, and the SKs did a work sheet filling in missing numbers from 1-50.

Art:

We made poppies by cutting out 4 hearts and gluing them together to make a poppy. They are on display in our classroom. The children also painted poppies.

Science and Nature:

We are learning about all the signs that Fall is here.

We started Cosmic Kids Yoga after lunch - we did Ruby Broom and the Frozen Yoga lesson. The kids loved them!

Thank you so much to Shay's mom who taught a lesson on Diwali. Thank you to Everleigh's mom and Anilee's sister Ruby who were our Mystery Readers! Thank you Evelyn, Abigail, Christopher and Dante who represented our class by carrying the wreath we made and walking in the procession at the Remembrance Day ceremony. The children did a wonderful job being quiet and respectful at the ceremony.

It's getting colder outside and the children will need hats, mittens and scarves (tube scarves are safest and easiest for the children to put on). Please ensure that your child has warm mittens as opposed to thin five-finger gloves that they are not able to put on by themselves. The more independent they are, the better they feel about themselves! :)

If you would like to order books from the Scholastic Book Club, the orders are due on Monday. Books make wonderful Holiday gifts! If you would like the book(s) to be a surprise/gift, please write "gift" on your order form or just let me know.

I look forward to meeting with you next week during parent-teacher interviews. Report cards will go home on Monday.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Week of October 29 - November 2

Dear families,

I hope you are having a nice weekend in spite of this rainy November weather! Unfortunately I am home with bronchitis and laryngitis - a lot of the children have been sick the past few weeks, too. I hope everyone will be feeling better very soon!

This is what we did this week in our classroom:

Literacy: The letter sound of the week is Ee as in "egg" and "elephant." The words of the week were BE and A. We traced and found Halloween words, read Halloween poems and sang Halloween songs. The SKs circled the words they knew in the songs and poems. The JKs coloured, cut and glued matching Halloween words to pictures, and traced Halloween words. The SKs read sentences and drew accompanying pictures (for example: "I see three pumpkins.") All the children completed a colouring page in which they had to colour in the parts of a puzzle that had the word "orange" in it.

Numeracy: We count everything in Kindergarten! This week we counted pumpkins, and did sequencing activities (the growth of a pumpkin, how to carve a pumpkin, e.g.). The SKs completed a "before and after" numeracy activity, writing the number that comes before and after numbers from 1-30. For example, ____ 16 ____. The JKs did a number recognition, drawing and counting activity about ghosts. They traced numbers 1-7, drew the corresponding number of ghosts, and then counted them. With our Reading Buddies, the children turned 2-D orange strips of paper into a 3-D pumpkin. We also did a class prediction about how many seeds were in our little pumpkin. I roasted them at home and the kids tasted them ("It tastes like popcorn!") and then counted them by groups of ten. A great way to assist your child with numeracy skills is to play board games and sorting games.

In Science, we are learning about pumpkins and the signs of fall. We'll learn a lot more about this next week.

In Art, the children made mini pumpkins and ghosts with play-doh. Small motor skills really develop in the kindergarten years, from pencil grip to colouring to using scissors and picking up small objects to sort. We did a lot of colouring this week. the children's skills are improving!

Thank you so much to Everleigh's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week! A huge THANK YOU to the parent volunteers who made crafts with the children at our Halloween Party: the moms of Ella, Evelyn, Reina, Shay and Sophie supplied and made wonderful hands-on Halloween crafts with the children. They had a fantastic time! The Halloween Parade was so much fun, too!

Congratulations to Diesel and Casey who received this month's TDSB Character Trait Award for demonstrating Responsibility. Good job!

Next week we will be doing Remembrance Day activities as well as learning about Signs of Fall.

Thank you so much for your donations to the LKS "Scare Hunger" food drive for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Your generosity and thoughtfulness are truly appreciated.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Week of October 22-26

Dear families,

What a busy week this was and what an exciting time of the year this is as Halloween approaches! This is what your children were doing this week:

The "popcorn" words of the week were ARE and AT. The letter sound was Kk. So far we have done Ss Aa Tt Ii Pp Nn Cc and Kk.

We made a Halloween folder and once our literacy, numeracy and art activities are done they will be sent home with your child in his/her Halloween folder. So far we played match-up memory games with Halloween pictures, read words with "witchy" fingers, made a class book called "What Will You Be?", the children are learning how to read Halloween words and draw Halloween pictures, we made a pumpkin booklet with our Reading Buddies, learned two "I'm a Little Pumpkin" songs, painted and cut our pieces to make a paper pumpkin, practised finding the beginning and ending sounds of Halloween words, put pictures of pumpkin carving steps and pumpkin growth steps in the correct order, counted pumpkins seeds, made a paper ghost, made a Halloween pattern, predicted how many seeds would be in our class pumpkin, and finally observed and wrote about our class pumpkin. Finally, we all predicted whether our little pumpkin would sink or float (most kids thought it would sink) and discovered that pumpkins float! We watched a little Kindergarten-level video about buoyancy and displacement on the Smartboard. Next week we'll open up the pumpkin and count the seeds. We'll also do a lot more fun Halloween learning centres.

We also did the "Observation" part of our Apple Science Experiment - the children observed that the apple slices that were in salt, vinegar, air, and oil didn't get moldy and rotten, but the apple slice in water did. We talked about how people preserve food for eating in the winter using salt, vinegar, air and oil.

This week the children also completed October's calendar and their "This is me in October" writing and picture. good job! I can see so much development already in the Juniors and Seniors!

The next Scholastic order is due on November 15. There will be one more order before Christmas.

Thank you so much to Reina's mom and Elise's sister who were Mystery Readers! Thank you as well to Simonne and Estella's mom and Elise's mom who helped with Pizza Lunch today! Thank you to Ayla who shared her wonderful book about a class trip to a pumpkin patch!

That's the news for this week. I hope you have a terrific weekend!

Week of October 15-19

Dear families,

I hope you're enjoying this beautiful fall weather! We had another busy week in Room 166!

The words of the week were THE and DO. The letter sound of the week was Cc (the "hard" Cc like "cat"). We made lots of words together with the letters S A T I P N and C. I sent a list home with the kids to keep in their Bedtime Book Box.

This week was all about apples! We did a chart of the parts of an apple, made a class book called "Who Took the Apples from the Apple Tree," made applesauce together, and we are doing an experiment about apples, too! We put a slice of apples in water, oil, vinegar, salt and air, and the children predicted what would happen to them. We'll track our observations on Monday. The children also made an apple booklet with their Reading Buddies, and the SKs made a little apple booklet, writing apples adjectives.

Wednesday was a terrific day at Andrew's Scenic Acres! Thank you so much to Amy, Donna, Noura and Sarita who were our awesome parent volunteers. The children had a wonderful time exploring the hay mountain, the corn maze, the chicken coop, the haunted forest, going on a wagon ride, picking a pumpkin, and learning about raspberries, blueberries, Native Corn and pumpkins. We brought a big class pumpkin back to school and we'll be learning all about pumpkins next week. The children also had fun decorating our classroom with Halloween decorations. Next week we will start all kinds of numeracy and literacy activities with a Halloween theme. Lots of fun and learning!

October 24th is Wear Purple Day.

If your child has a lower case "a" in his/her name, I sent home an extra letter formation practice sheet. The SKs are encouraged to write their names with a capital letter at the beginning of their name followed by lower case letters.

Ms. Zappi and I are doing the school-wide "We Scare Hunger" initiative again to help collect food for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Families are asked to send in non-perishable and nut-free items such as canned goods and dry goods. Thank you so much for supporting the Daily Bread Food Bank!

Thank you as well to this week's Mystery Reader Jessica!

That's the news for this week - have a wonderful weekend!

Week of October 8-12

Dear families,

I hope you are having a nice weekend! The beautiful fall weather is finally here.

Literacy: Our new sight words are FOR and WENT. The letter sound of the week was Nn. It's amazing how many words you can make with the letters Ss Aa Tt Ii Pp and Nn! The JKs have a "name puzzle" with the letters of their name that they can practise putting in the correct order. We have started learning about apples and we read "Who Took the Apples from the Apple Tree?" together and made a class book. The children also learned a song about apples. We'll continue this next week.

Numeracy: The children practised forming and tracing the numbers 0-10 (JKs) and 0-20 (SKs). They also made patterns with cube-a-links and the SKs completed a pattern work sheet. Next week we'll extend our learning with beads. We also tallied how many children have a pumpkin already and graphed all the food the children ate for Thanksgiving dinner.

Science: We finished learning about chromatography - a fancy word for our learning how black is made up of different colours and that it is a shade, not a colour. It was an easy experiment that you can repeat at home with a water-soluable black marker, coffee filter paper and a bit of water. This experiment lead to some interesting discussions! Next week we will do a science experiment with apples and vinegar, salt, air and water. We'll predict, observe, and conclude based on what happens to the apple slices. We'll also come up with the step-by-step instructions on how to make apple sauce together. Please send in an apple with your child to make the apple sauce. We'll make it on Thursday. Thank you!

On Wednesday we are going on our field trip to Andrew's Scenic Acres. Please remember to pack a litterless lunch and snacks for your child and dress them for the weather -- it's supposed to be windy and only about 8C. Thank you so much to the moms of Anilee, Casey, Reina and Shay who will be our parent volunteers for the trip. If you would like to volunteer for class events please remember that you need to have a police check completed.

That's the news for this week! I hope you have a great week.

Week of October 5-9

Dear families,

Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Your child has made a special gift for you about what they are thankful for. The vintage Kindergarten record is yours to keep.

The"popcorn" words of the week were LIKE and ME. The Jolly Phonics letter sound was Pp. So far, we have made the following words with our letter sounds:

I, it, is, sat, sit, tap, tip, spit, spat, pat, pit, spa, a, sap, a, at and is. I have made a page of these words for your child to practise at home. S/he will receive an updated one every two weeks, with two new letter sounds. A way to practise at home is with magnetic letters. We do this in class, too.

We have started our first science experiment, and the children are learning about predicting (guessing, making a HYPOTHESIS), then OBSERVING, and then CONCLUDING. Our experiment is about what the shade BLACK really is. We will continue the experiment next week.

Thank you so much to Christopher's mom who was our Mystery Reader! Thank you to Ella who brought in a big photo of our class on the Terry Fox Walk!

In Numeracy, the children played with different math manipulatives. They sorted, built structures, played "make-believe," measured, counted, traded, and had fun playing with these math toys.

This week our Grade Four Reading Buddies interviewed the little ones and wrote down their answers.

Please be sure to send in the permission form for our trip to Andrew's Scenic Acres by Tuesday at the latest, and include the payment confirmation number on your form. Thank you. Next week we will start learning all about apples in preparation for our class trip and learning about Fall.

That's the news for this week! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Week of September 24-28

Dear families,

I hope you're enjoying this beautiful Fall weather! This was another busy week in Room 166. A big welcome to our new JK student Edward! Thank you so much to our Grade Parents Leah and Tina who compiled the class email list. You should have received an email from them by now regarding the Terry Fox Walk. If you didn't, please let them know. Thank you!

This week we continued our book study on Peter J. Reynold's lovely book "The Dot." We followed up our study by making our own beautiful art using washable markers and water. We are also making large class dots to demonstrate how we all need to work together. These will be on display on our classroom bulletin board. Next week we will extend this to science, and the children will do an experiment with a black dot.

In numeracy, we practiced making the numbers 1-10 and the children did their first calendars. On the back of the calendar, they drew a picture of themselves in September at school and wrote (or received help writing) what their picture was about. The children also played with several different kids of math manipulatives, such as shapes, small blocks, colourful toys, and dice. With them, they made structures, counted, sorted, made a pattern, put them in order (small, bigger, biggest) or played "make believe" with them.

The children did a very good job listening at the Terry Fox Assembly and at the school-wide Sharing Assembly. The format of Sharing Assemblies is different this year. Our class' Sharing Assembly will be in June. Lots of time to prepare something for the whole school!

As a follow up to our Terry Fox Walk around the school (thank you to Sophie's mom for walking with us!), the children have started writing about when they were brave like Terry.

Congratulations to Abigail and Reina who received certificates for demonstrating the TDSB Character Trait of Respect. Each child will receive a certificate throughout the year.

On Monday it is Crazy Hair Day!

Our letter of the week was Ii. We made new words with magnetic letters and wrote them on chart paper. With the letters Ss Aa Tt and Ii we could make SAT, AT, IT, AS, A, SIT and I. Our next letter/sound will be Pp.

The sight words of the week were IN and SEE.

The SKs who brought in pictures of their pets drew them and wrote some words about them. If they don't have a pet, they wrote about an imaginary pet! With our Reading Buddies, the children finished a little booklet about a dog and did two mini booklets called "pets" and "dogs."

Thank you so much to our volunteers this week: Reina's dad was the Mystery Reader, and Reina's dad and Ella's mom volunteered to help with Pizza Lunch!

Please subscribe to this blog so that you always receive notifications about the awesome activity in your child's classroom! I hope you have a great weekend!

Week of September 17-21

Dear families,

It was a pleasure speaking with you at Curriculum Night!

The letter sound of the week was Tt. The "popcorn words" of the week were ME and CAN. Seniors, please complete the mini read-and write ME and CAN booklets. Juniors, this is an optional activity.

This week we continued learning all about Pets! We counted, tallied and graphed how many children have pets. If your child has a pet or had a pet, s/he is more than welcome to bring a photo in and tell us about the pet! Together we brainstormed and wrote what dogs, cats and betafish CAN, LIKE, ARE, SAY, LIVE, NEED, EAT and HAVE. We also made a Venn diagram (remember those?) comparing and contrasting dogs and cats. With their Grade 4 Reading Buddies, the children read, drew and coloured a booklet called "My Dog." After reading "Pete the Cat and his Cool Shoes" the children coloured a shoes and wrote where they went in their cool shoes. They are also learning how to draw Pete the Cat. Thank you so much to Reina's family who donated 10 "Pete the Cat" books to our classroom library!

In Numeracy, we have started to talk about and look for patterns in our world. The Juniors are learning ABAB patterns, and the Seniors are learning more complex patterns such as ABCABC or AABAAB or ABCDABCD.

In Science, the children learned about how Paper Wasps build their nest and why they are called "paper" wasps. They touched a real (empty!) paper wasp and watched a video about how these wasps make their nests.

In Art, the children uncovered "magic" letters with water colour paint. They are also starting to complete a "dot" to celebrate International Dot Day. We read the lovely book "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds, which encourages children to be creative and to accept that each person is different and unique.

Each week your child is given 2 Snuggle Up and Read books to read at home and then return to school for another child to read. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE IN OR COLOUR THEM! Thank you for taking care of our classroom materials.

Throughout the year we use child-friendly scissors for art activities. Providing your child with a pair of scissors at home to practise with will enable him or her to develop fine motor skills, which will in turn help him or her with writing and colouring. The more we practise, the more we can do!

Please ensure that your child has a change of clothes at school (they stay in his or cubby all year) as well as running shoes and indoor shoes that ensure s/he can run and play safely outside and in the gym. No flip-flops please. Children shjould be dressed in clothing that they can put on and remove by themselves when they go to the bathroom. Thank you!

We also had a visit from our wonderful student teacher Miss. Patel on Friday morning!

The next Scholastic order (with a lot of Halloween books!) is due October 12. Phonics sets are also a great way to support your child's literacy.

Thank you so much to Elise's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week! Thank you as well to our Grade Parents Tina and Leah who compiled a class contact list.

That's the news for this week from Room 166! Please subscribe to my blog (updated each Friday) so that you automatically get updates.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend - the first weekend of Fall!

Week of September 10-14

Dear families,

We've had a wonderful second week of school. We've already had 9 days of school! This is what we did this week:

The Juniors received their Jolly Phonics Duotang. Each week we focus on one letter sound and the children complete an accompanying page in their duotang. Last week we did "Ss" and this week we did "Aa." Jolly Phonics is an excellent method of teaching children to read. www.jollyphonics.com The Seniors also received a phonics duotang, which is a review of the letter sounds they learned last year and has them write the beginning, middle and end letter sounds of words. These duotangs stay at school all year. If you will be away for an extended vacation I will send it home with your child to work on.

The "popcorn" or "sight" words of the week were IS and AND. Each week your child receives the sight words. Please put them on your fridge or on a door in your child's room to practise at home. We also learned the "Popcorn Word Song," a copy of which is in your child's mailbag.

In today's mail bag your child received two "Snuggle Up and Read" books. Each week your child will receive two books and s/he should return them in Monday's Mailbag in order to receive two new ones.

Our Juniors are learning to recognize, spell and write their names, and the Seniors are learning to write their names using an upper case letter at the beginning, followed by lower case letters. I have sent home dot-to-dot names for each of your children to practise at home.

We continued our "Pete the Cat" author study. The children are in the process of completing three booklets about colours and Pete the Cat. Next week we will start an Inquiry on Pets!! We will also start learning about patterns and writing numbers.

Please remember that your child needs indoor shoes as well as outdoor shoes. Your child should be able to out these shoes on by him/herself, and s/he should be able to run and play in them. Your child also needs a change of clothes at school.

Please remember that all the food your child brings to school MUST be nut-free. Some of our classmates are also allergic to pineapple, sesame and tree nuts. Please read packaging carefully. Thank you!

The Seniors have received their first Journals! Journals are due each Monday. You'll be amazed at the progress your child makes throughout the year. Start by labelling, writing popcorn words, anything that encourages your child to write. Journal entries should include a drawing. Thank you! The children will get a sticker on their journal each time they complete it.

The school had another Fire Drill as well as a Lockdown Drill this week. The children did an excellent job.

Thank you so much to Dante's mom who was the Mystery Reader this week! Our Grade Parents Leah and Tina will be sending you a contact information list next week so that you can arrange playdates etc.

When your child completes homework, please ensure they write with a pencil. Thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to read about what is happening in your child's life at school. I update this blog every Friday throughout the school year. A fun thing to do is do read the blog together so you can talk about your child's days at school!

That's the news from our classroom this week! I hope you enjoy this last weekend of summer and I look forward to seeing you next Thursday at Curriculum Night!

Week of September 4-7

Dear families,

What a wonderful first week of school it has been! The children are doing so well learning their rules and routines! Mrs. Mosun and I are so proud of them already! Great job!

This week we did some reading, some writing (our names), some colouring, and we learned the sight words I and AM. We also learned the letter sound "S." Each week we will learn a new letter sound and two new sight words (also called "popcorn words" since they keep popping up in sentences! For homework each weekend, the children will receive mini read-and-write booklets. I have explained how to do them to the children. Please don't worry if your child finds these a bit challenging at first. Our Seniors did these words last year, so they are reviewing them and learning them better this year. Many of our Juniors are still learning the alphabet and are learning how to hold a pencil. No worries at all. If your child is able to complete the booklet, please return it with his/her mailbag on Monday. I will put a star stamp on it and will send it home again to keep.

We are doing an Author Study on James Dean, who wrote the Pete the Cat books! Kids LOVE Pete the Cat! We read "I Love My School Shoes" and some other Pete the Cat books. The children are also making their own "Pete the Cat" book about colours and colour words. When they are finished this Author Study, all their work will be sent home so they can share it with you!

We talked about the Number One - how to write it, how to spell it, what ordinal position it is in (on a ten-frame, for example), what it looks like on a dice, what it's tally mark looks like, and a poem to remember how to make it ("A stright line down is lots of fun/This is how you make the number one").

We went on a quiet walking tour of the school to show the children where the Library, Computer Lab, Music Room, Lunch Room, Gym and Office are.

Thank you so much to Evelyn's mom who was our first Mystery Reader! Kids love it when their parents volunteer in the classroom. There are several volunteer opportunities each year. Please contact our Grade Parents Tina (Dante's mom) or Leah (Evelyn's mom) if you would like to volunteer. Thank you!!

The first Scholastic Order is due September 14. Thank you for supporting Scholastic!

We had our first Fire Drill on Thursday. Aside from being a bit startled by the noise of the alarm, the children did an excellent job.

This year our Reading Buddies will be Miss. Westover's Grade 4 class! We meet with our Reading Buddies each week throughout the year.

That's the news for this week. Have a wonderful Weekend!

Welcome to our Classroom!

Dear Parents,

I hope you had a wonderful summer! Welcome to Kindergarten at Lambton Kingsway Junior Middle School! I am delighted to have your child in our class! We are going to be learning a lot this year and it is my goal to do everything I can to make sure our classroom is a welcoming place full of learning, fun and friends. Please join me in welcoming back our wonderful Early Childhood Educator Ms. Mosun to our classroom! A big thank you to Dante's mom and Evelyn's mom who have volunteered to be our Grade Parents this year! We have lots of opportunities each year for parents to volunteer in the classroom, including weekly Mystery Readers (every Day 3)! Please contact our Grade Parents for further information regarding volunteering in the classroom. Thank you!

Kindergarten is a two-year program and our classroom has both Juniors and Seniors. I encourage you to have conversations with your child about what we are doing in school. Parental involvement is very important. Your participation and support will help instill a positive attitude about learning. When we all work together, students are successful! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns during the school year. Please check my blog each weekend for updates and important classroom information.


Kindergarten Schedule (NEW!)

8:40-8:45 Entry
8:45-11:15 Morning Program
11:15-12:28 Lunch
12:28-12:33 Entry
12:33-3:03 Afternoon Program

Your child will need a regular-sized backpack for Kindergarten. This backpack should be large enough to carry snacks, lunch (if your child is not going home for lunch), a library book, small reading books, as well as a clear TDSB plastic "mailbag" (provided by me) that will go home at the end of each week. This bag will include notes from school, classwork, art projects, etc. Please return this bag to school each Monday, and remind your child to hand put it in the bin provided when s/he enters the classroom. Please give your child opportunities to practice opening, putting things in, taking objects out of the backpack and then zipping the backpack closed.

As your child enters school, independence (and attempting to be independent) is very important. Saying a cheerful goodbye at the outside door will ensure your child has a smooth transition to classroom routines and independence.

The beginning of the day, end of the day, and lunch time are busy times, with children coming and going to before and after school programs, taking the bus, daycare, etc. My first priority is ensuring that each of my children is dismissed safely to parents and caregivers, bus attendants. etc. If you wish to speak with me about your child's progress, please send a note and I’ll be happy to make an appointment to speak to you at a time convenient to all.


Please note that the Kindergarten Playground/Yard is CLOSED after school each day as it is reserved for the After School Program. Thank you.


Important Numbers:

School Office: 416-394-7890
Please leave a message with the office if your child will be absent from school. Messages can be left 24 hours/day. Please give your child’s name, teacher name, and reason for absence.

The Kindergarten Program:

In keeping with the Ministry of Education’s Full Day Kindergarten Curriculum, the Kindergarten Program is Inquiry-Based. I will also be doing many educational and interesting theme-based literacy and numeracy activities with the children, adapted to their level and interests, which also helps prepare them for the SK/Grade One Curriculum. The children will bring these themed units home in folders when they are completed, so that you can see all the hard work they have been doing in class!

Each child is unique. Young children grow and develop at their own rate. When provided with opportunities to play and interact with their peers and guided by adults, children have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and solve problems through everyday activities. While there will be large group discussions, much of the interaction between your child and myself and Mrs. Mosun will be in small groups or one on one. As a result, children will be able to receive as much individualized attention that is geared to their interests as well as their development and abilities.

Centres:

The Kindergarten classroom is set up as a number of centres. Independence is key to the program and, as such, the learning materials are housed in storage shelves and containers that allow children to find and reach them on their own. The children are expected to help keep our classroom clean and organized by cleaning up their activity when finished with it and returning it to the proper place.

While centres will change through the year (according to which theme we are working on), some remain, with the materials changing to meet our learning expectations. Some of the centres in our classroom are:

- Sand and/or Water
- Math (Numeracy)
- Writing
- Reading/Books/Mini Library
- Creative (Art)
- Sensory
- Building
- Science/Discovery
- Computers (2)
- Dramatic Play

Students will also be encouraged to rotate through all the different centres. Each child has a designated seat at a table, and a designated spot during Circle Time and Smartboard Work Time. Otherwise, as a rule, children will play in small groups of 2-4 children.

Additional Activities:

Library and Computer Lab – We are fortunate to have Teacher Librarian Ms. McGee, who maintains a wonderful primary resource centre. Each week we will have an opportunity to visit the library for a read aloud or learning activity, as well as a book exchange. The library is also next to our Computer Lab where the children will have an opportunity each week to explore a variety of programs and learn how to use the computers with Mrs. Mosun.

Physical Education – Our gymnasium and outdoor kindergarten playground are large open spaces where children will be able to participate in activities to promote healthy living. Co-operative games and moving safely are the major components of the kindergarten gym program. Please ensure your child has proper footwear for participating in these activities.

Volunteers:

There are many opportunities for parents to volunteer in the classroom, such as Mystery Reader (every Day 3 at 9 a.m.) and Holiday Craft Parties. Any person wishing to volunteer at the school requires a recent, valid police check from the Toronto Police Department. Annual Declarations are required for any current volunteers. Please contact your Grade Parent if you wish to volunteer for classroom activities.


Safety:

Ensuring the safety of the students, staff and visitors at Lambton Kingsway is a priority. Students in Kindergarten enter and leave through their classroom doors to the kindergarten yard. Should you need to enter the school, please use the front doors and sign in at the office each time you visit us.

A note from home is required for changes to regular routines (i.e. a child who normally stays at school for lunch will be going home, or a child who normally takes the bus will be picked up by a caregiver, or a child is going on a play date after school and will be picked up by another caregiver). For the safety and security of your child, we cannot change your child’s routine if a note is not provided. Please do not assume that if a note is left in your child’s backpack your child will remember to give it to his/her teacher. Please hand the note personally to me first thing in the morning and/or call the office with the change to routine. Please do not email me last-minute changes since I only check my email at lunch and after school.

If your child is going to be absent from school for a planned activity (i.e. doctor, dentist, early or extended holiday) please send a note in advance so that it can be forwarded to the office. For unexpected absences, please call the safe arrival system (416-394-7890) and leave a message with your child’s full name, teacher, and reason for absence.

Classroom Rules and Routines:

One of the main goals in Kindergarten is to develop self-regulation. I work with the children to help them maintain control of their actions and behaviours. Our classroom expectations are to:

- Listen to others
- Use a quiet voice
- Keep hands to yourself
- Sit while in a group
- Walk while inside the school


Home Communication:

Communication between home and school is essential. Every Friday after school, I update my blog (www.mrstyndallslksblog.blogspot.com). Please make a habit of checking it regularly for important dates, information about what we are doing in class, and other updates. Each day items such as notes, newsletters, permission forms, etc. may be sent home. Children in our Kindergarten class use a communication bag (a clear plastic TDSB bag with their name on it) to carry items between home and school. Please place notes from home, or any money for pizza, Scholastic Book Orders, field trips, etc. in the bag. Please do not lose this bag as I only have a few extras. Thank you.

To help keep orders safe and contained, please seal any required money inside an envelope or zip-lock baggie, and put your child’s name on it, along with the purpose for the money being sent.


Calendar:

A classroom calendar will be sent home during the last week of each month (or earlier) for the next month. Please post in a special place so that you and your child are prepared for all designated activities. Please make note of special dates such as your child’s Special Leader Day, due dates for pizza and Sholastic book orders, etc.

Reading Skills:

Reading is an essential skill that lasts a lifetime. It is your and my responsibility to ensure that your child develops early reading skills. An at home reading program will be provided, beginning in the first term. A folder with a reading log, as well as early reading “snuggle up” books will be provided. Your Snuggle Book needs to travel to and from school in your child’s TDSB bag. More information will be provided once we begin the program in October.

Spare Clothing:

Children occasionally don’t make it to the washroom on time. They also like to “find” puddles or go down slides that aren’t quite dry. To make such instances easier for everyone, please send a change of underwear, pants and socks to keep at school. Wet clothes will be placed in a plastic bag and sent home. Please be sure to replace used items the next school day.

Library:

We will have a scheduled library period for a visit and book exchange each week. Children are responsible for the books that they sign out. They will be provided with a library bag to bring their book to and from school. Please return you Library books each Monday.

Snacks and Lunches:

Your child should bring two healthy, nut-free snacks each day. Children will have an opportunity to eat in each of the morning and afternoon nutrition breaks. The purpose of these breaks is to provide energy and nourishment for your child. Please choose healthy items that your child enjoys. Due to food allergies, children must not share their food with others. We continue to strive towards being a nut-free school for the safety of the children with nut-based allergies. Children will NOT be allowed to open or consume any items known to contain nuts.

Please do not send cans of pop/juice for your child. Cans are difficult for students to handle and they rarely finish the entire drink. Keeping the can throughout the day is troublesome as cans spill and attract ants. Please use juice boxes or water bottles instead. There is also a water fountain in our classroom, so water bottles are not necessary.

Birthdays:

Birthdays are very special days for your children and we celebrate them in school, too! On the day (or as close as possible) of your child's birthday, s/he will be the Special Person of the Day. If you would like to send in treats for the class (such as small cupcakes) please ensure they are nut-free. Thank you!

Scholastic Book Orders:

This is a voluntary book club for children. Each month a book flyer will be sent home. Please choose the books you would like on the order form, and return the order form and a cheque (payable to Scholastic Books). Orders are placed the day after the due date (found on the order form or on the class calendar), and orders are usually received within a week. Your child will bring home their books in their backpacks, to be opened at home. If you wish to purchase an item as a gift, please send me a note with your order.

Personal Items:

PLEASE LABEL ALL CLOTHING, SHOES, AND OTHER ITEMS BROUGHT TO SCHOOL.
Toys should be left at home.

Please feel free to contact me should you have any questions that have not been covered! Please keep this newsletter for future reference.
I’m looking forward to a wonderful year!

Kind regards,


Mrs. Beverley Tyndall

Beverley.Tyndall@tdsb.on.ca

Week of June 25-29

Dear families,

Today is the last day of school and what a wonderful year it has been! I’ve so much enjoyed coming to school each day and working with Mrs. Mosun and your children. Thank you so much for the lovely teacher gifts! You are so kind!

These last few days we had two Mystery Readers (thank you to Lily’s dad and Anhali’s Dad!), we finished our Memory Books (SKs) and Summer books (JKs), we watched the LKS Talent Show, learned more facts about Canada from the CBC “Canadooday” series, had our SK Graduation, attended the year-end LKS Assembly, had pizza lunch on the lawn, and had a whole play day on the last day! Pretty exciting!!

I would like to say “Thank You“ again to our wonderful Grade Parents Tara and Tiffany, and to all the parents who volunteered in the classroom and on field trips this year. The kids love sharing their school day with you and we really appreciate your time and energy!

I know that the new Seniors will do an amazing job welcoming our new little ones in September!

I hope you have a fun Canada Day weekend, and a WONDERFUL summer!

Mrs. Tyndall

Week of June 18-22

Dear families,

Here is this week's news from Room 166!

The children read and drew accompanying pictures to 24 summer words. I think their drawing has really improved! The children are learned three new end-of-year songs: ABC You Later, Zippadeedoodah, and This Fabulous Year. Great singing! The Juniors read and coloured in a pattern book called "Summer, Summer, What Do You See?" and the Seniors are working on a Memory Book. The children also helped make a tally chart of all the activities they are going to do (or think they are going to do!) this summer! They also spelled out CAMP words.

Canada Day is approaching and the kids watched trwo CBC "Canadooday" video songs about The Maple Leaf and The RCMP. They also coloured a picture of a beaver and Canadian Flag, traced the words, "Happy Canada Day" and made a picture of fireworks with black paint, glue and glitter. They circled all the words of "Oh Canada" that they know and practised singing "O Canada" in French. They learned why July 1st is Canada's birthday and we reviewed our Canadian coins and their values.

The children made Thank You cards for their Reading Buddies, and coloured in a map of Canada together. We had a great year with our Readingt Buddies and look forward to working with them again next year!

The Seniors have also been rehearsing for their Graduation Ceremony which takes place on Wednesday, June 27 at 1:45 p.m. Families of the SKs are invited to attend. The kids are excited about going to Grade One! They've enjoyed playing in the "Big Kid Playground" this week to get ready for September.

Thank you so much to Mila's mom and Anjali's dad who were Mystery Readers this week!

We've been washing the toys and getting them ready for next year. The kids have enjoyed "giving them a bubble bath."

The homework for this week is to do the mini TO and FROM books.

On Friday the children watched the awesome Grades 1-3 perform in a Talent Show. A lot of their siblings and friends were performers! On Friday morning the children sang "ABC You Later" at the last Sharing Assembly of the year. We congratulated Dante and Lily for earning certificates for Perseverance!

That's the news for this week. Next week is the last week of school! Where did the time go? Thursday is the last day of school and the children's mailbags will be going home on Wednesday. If your child will be absent please let us and the office know. Thank you!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Week of June 11-15

Dear families,

I hope you are having a wonderful Father's Day weekend! The children have taken great care in making gifts for their dads for this special day.

This week we continued our learning about frogs and also read several fictional books about frogs. The kids enjoyed learning how to draw "Froggy" and also labelled a picture of a frog. They learned more about metamorphosis and made a Frog Life Cycle wheel. They learned how frogs and toads are different watching a video on the Smartboard, completed a lower case alphabet activity on a picture of a toad, we read some classic "Frog and Toad" tales (thank you, Hudson!), and learned that frogs come in many colours and sizes. Thank you Alex and Hudson for sharing your frog toys! They look so real! We also did a Fact vs. Opinion activity together: the children had to decide if statements were a fact ("frogs are amphibians") or an opinion ("frogs are cute"). We read "Froggy Builds a Treehouse," Froggy's Worst Playdate" and "Froggy's Birthday" and the children did a good job re-telling the stories from beginning to end. We also listened to a CD of "The Frog Prince."

We finished our Cinderella story study this week. The kids read and coloured a Cinderella booklet, played an alphabet game with Cinderella cards ("I have A, who has B?" etc.) and completed three tricky alphabet and number mazes. We also read a Cinderella Sight Word Book and the children completed their own, copying many sight words in lower case letters. Good job!

The children also completed their June calendar and wrote and drew a picture of "This is me in June." They also wrote and drew adorable pictures with their Reading Buddies about what they want to be when they grow up!

Our Mystery Reader this week was Hope's mom. Thank you! The words of the week were EAT and STOP. The homework for this week is to do the mini "WE" booklet. Next week's words will be VERY and X-RAY. Elea, Hudson, Lily, Ethan and Evelyn were very proud of the "Piggy Pies" they made at home and shared photos of them. I love it when the children continue their learning outside the classroom! Mia made Piggy Pie in the sandbox :)

It's a very exciting time of the year as summer approaches (we've started our ice cream scoop countdown!) and we've been doing Cosmic Kids Yoga for about 15 minutes each day to help with self-regulation and also to keep cool in this warm weather.

Hope also found a special surprise in her morning snack and had to share it - her peas in the pod had germinated! We talked about this and compared the peas in another pod she had, and explained what happens in nature when peas are not harvested (they are seeds so they germinate and make new plants when they fall to the ground naturally).

That's the news for this week! Next week we will read and draw pictures to go with summer words, will learn songs and poems for the last Sharing Assembly, and the Seniors will start rehearsing for their graduation on the 27th. They'll also start Memory books and the Juniors will make a summer pattern book.

Enjoy this beautiful weather and Happy Father's Day!

Week of June 4-8

Dear families,

This week we did a Springfest Tally, acted out "The Three Billy Goats Gruff," continued our learning about Fairy Tales (Cinderella this week!) and started learning all about frogs.

We are learning Cinderella sight words, vocabulary, how to make Cinderella sentences, re-telling the story (different versions), and we did a count/trace/write the number word activity. Thank you Maya for bringing in a glass slipper, and thank you Rielle for sharing her Fairy Tales book! We'll do more literacy and numeracy Cinderella activities next week. We will also read The Frog Prince to tie in with our learning about frogs!

In our Frog inquiry, the children watched an excellent video called "Life Cycle of a Frog" two times and we talked about amphibians, metamorphosis, where frogs live on the Earth and the frog's life cycle. The children completed several activities following the video. They coloured in a map of the world and glued frogs wherever they live (everywhere except Antarctica just like owls!; they completed a frog life cycle reading comprehension activity; we learned a song called "Metamorphosis" and they children coloured a matching booklet; and they looked at a photo that Kate brought in of a tadpole with legs! Thank you Kate!

We also had fun reading Froggy books, starting with "Froggy Goes to School." They re-told the story and drew pictures with words to retell parts of the story. Then they made a "peek-a-boo" frog on top! Their work is on display in our classroom.

We also talked about the classic "Frog and Toad" stories (thank you, Hudson, for sharing your book!) and we watched a Frog and Toad episode. We'll read more stories next week and will also compare real frogs and real toads.

The homework for this week is to complete the "WANT" booklet and the "Chewy Addition" page. If necessary, the children can use small manipulatives such as pebbles or Smarties (!) to help them add.

With our Grade 3 Reading Buddies, the children made a beautiful Kandinsky-inspired tree.

Our words of the week were KITE and KITTEN.

We also read "Author's Family Vacation" and did a "Summer Bucket List" activity that is on display in the hall.

Thank you so much for the lovely Teacher Appreciation Lunch - it was wonderful!

Bubbles the classroom Beta Fish needs a home for the summer! He is very easy to take care of! If you would like to take care of Bubbles for the summer, please send me an email. Thank you!

Please return any outstanding Snuggle Up and Read Books. Today is the last day they are being handed out so that we can do inventory.

That's the news from Room 166! The PA Day is a Report Card writing day. Enjoy the long weekend!

Week of May 28-June 1

Dear families,

It's hard to believe there have been 169 days of school and that it's June already!

This week we completed our learning about Safety and continued our learning about Fairy Tales. The children learned when to call 9-1-1, we did "What if..." scenarios, we sorted safe/not safe pictures, we learned about danger symbols on household items, watched a video and wrote about fire safety, and the children received Fire Safety certificates.

We continued our learning about Fairy Tales and read several versions of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." The children re-told the story, using the words "beginning/middle/end" and did a word search with their Reading Buddies. They learned how to draw a troll three different ways, did Cosmic Kids Yoga "Trolls," and helped me write several different adjectives to describe a troll, which they then turned into a poem. That was fun!

Some reminders:

If you are sending sun screen in with your child, please remind them how to put it on (spray it on their hand, then apply it).

The children need hats for outdoor play. Closed-toe outdoor shoes please.

If your child will be picked up by another person, you need to call the school and they will let me know, or tell either Mrs. Mosun or myself in person, or give us a note in person. Notes left in your child's backpack are not a reliable method of communication since your child may not remember to hand it to us. Email is fine but it must be sent to me the day BEFORE. I don't check emails throughout the day. Thank you.

Congratulations to Sarah, Alexander and Rajan who received certificates for "Integrity" at Friday's Sharing Assembly! Elea also received her belated certificate for "Cooperation." Well done!

The words of the week were ZOO and ZEBRA. I have sent home some phonics review work that can be completed at your child's leisure.

Senior Kindergarten parents, please email me a baby photo of your child by next Friday for the SK Graduation slide show. A hard copy is ok, too. I will scan it and return it.

The June words and June Bingo went home in your child's mail bag. The children completed their "This is me in May" and May calendar work, and a copy was sent home. I keep the originals for assessment purposes and will send it home later this month.

We planted our carrot, potato, celery, pineapple and green onion sprouts in potting soil. They're continuing to grow!

Thank you so much to Maya's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week, thank you to Maya for sharing her beautiful Fairy Tale book and her terrific Dr. Seuss books, and thank you to Alex for sharing his copy of The Three Billy Goats Gruff!

A huge Thank You to Evelyn's mom Leah and Dante's mom Tina who will be our Grade Parents next year!

Next week we will do another fairy tale and will start an author study on the "FROGGY" books. If you have any Froggy books at home that you'd like to share for next week that would be wonderful! We'll also learn about real frogs!

That's the news for this week. Enjoy your weekend and this beautiful warm weather! It looks like great weather for Springfest tomorrow!

Week of May 21-25

Dear families,

I hope you had a terrific weekend. The weather was beautiful!

Last week we continued our learning about Fairy Tales and Safety. The children wrote a letter to the Big Bad Wolf and made a big pig puppet. They enjoyed doing that so much that they asked to make a Big Bad Wolf puppet, too! We watched James Marshall's version of The Three Little Pigs on the Smartboard, and talked about the similarities and differences between the classic and modern versions. We also did Three Little Pig Math activities, playing a guessing game about which little pig number is behind the door (for example, "The number is an upside down 9"). The children also played a numeracy activity in groups of two (1 SK, 1 JK): they got a cup of ten pennies, and dumped them on the table, and then tallied, graphed and did ten-frames about which were "heads" and which were "tails." They did a "Little Piggie Pie" booklet as well. Piggie Pie is something you can make at home with a bagel, cream cheese, a strawberry, 2 chocolate chips, a banana slice, and a licorice string. I'll send the instructions home.

For our learning about safety, the kids watched 2 videos about when to call 9-1-1 and about street, park, and home safety. They are making a Safety Booklet with their Reading Buddies. We also talked about Elmer the Elephant's Seven Safety Rules and the kids are reading and colouring a booklet about them. This week we'll discuss fire safety.

Thank you so much to Lucas' mom who was our Mystery Reader, and to Rielle's and Sarah's moms who helped with Friday's Pizza Lunch!

The children also enjoyed a cultural presentation in the gym called "Turtle Island."

Please remember that your child needs a hat at school for outdoor play. No flip flops please.

The words of the week were FUN and FRIEND, and the homework was to complete the THEY booklet.

I hope you have a great week!

Week of May 21-25

I will update my blog on Monday.

Week of 14-18

Dear families,

I hope you are having a wonderful Victoria Day weekend!

This week we finished our learning about Canadian coins and their values. The children's "Money" folder is in today's mailbag. They learned a song in order to help them identify and learn the value of each coin, learned what each coin looks like, and learned about each of the symbols on the coins and why they are important in Canada. The children learned a little bit about other ways to pay, such as bank cards and gift cards. They completed booklets about money and some of the children brought in coins to show their friends.

We also finished our learning about where food comes from and how plants grow, and we are still watching our carrot, green onion, celery, potato and pineapple scraps sprout new roots in water. We'll plant them in soil next week. We learned about what our bodies need to stay healthy and which foods have them: proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals. We also learned that grain-eating animals such as horses and cows have different teeth than we do, and the children watched a video about an old grain mill that still uses a water wheel and gears to grind wheat into flour, just like the Old Mill used to do.

The homework is to complete the mini read-and-write THERE and THAT books.

On Friday we started two new inquiries - on Fairy Tales (starting with the Three Little Pigs), and Safety. We read the Three Little Pigs story, sequenced it (re-told it), and did a dot-to-dot exercise. I also taught the kids how to draw a pig with the white boards. Our first lesson in safety was obeying stop lights. We will learn a lot more about how to stay safe in the coming weeks and will put all our work in a folder to bring home.

Thank you so much to our Mystery Reader this week who was Mrs. Mosun;s daughter Daria.

Have a terrific weekend!

Week of May 7-11

Dear families,

First and foremost, I would like to wish all the moms a Happy Mother's Day this Sunday! The children have made three very special gifts for you and have been practising two songs to sing to you. I hope you have a wonderful day! This Sunday I'll be with my three children and husband at the Blue Jays Game. Go Jays!

This week in the mornings, the children continued to learn about Healthy Habits and where our food comes from. In the afternoons they are learning about Canadian money.

In Science and Literacy, the children learned where the food we eat grows (under the ground, above the ground, on a tree, in a flower (seeds), on a vine. We learned which parts of plants we eat - all of them! We eat stems such as celery, flowers such as cauliflower and broccoli, lots of fruits, leaves such as lettuce, tubers like potatoes, fungus (mushrooms), root such as carrots, seeds, legumes such as peanuts, and bulbs such as onions and garlic. The children's homework this weekend is to match the plant word with the picture.

We also talked about "every day" foods such as fruits and vegetables ("real food from plants") versus "sometimes" foods such as candy and ice cream. The children completed an "I'm So Healthy" booklet and a "Healthy Habits" food wheel. They helped me spell food of different colours - red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, purple, brown and beige, and white. They also touched and examined seven different grains - millet, wheat, corn, cornmeal, barley, oats, and rice, and learned how they are made into grain-based foods such as bread, pasta, cereal, crackers, etc. We also learned about dairy products (yogurt, cheese, milk, ice cream, butter). The children helped solve healthy food spelling riddles, learned how to draw various healthy fruits and vegetables, and learned that fruit always has seeds inside (so cucumbers and tomatoes are fruits!).

We are also making new plants grow from plant scraps: we are rooting potatoes, a pineapple, a green onion, basil, and celery. The children also planted the sprouts that grew from the seeds they planted in class, and we now have a little "Kinder Garden" outside in the yard. The children are proud to show us their healthy snacks, and they are really enjoying playing in our Pizza Pizza Centre, too, adding healthy toppings to their "pizzas" and counting money!

This week in Numeracy the children learned about the nickel, the dime, the quarter and the loonie, and about why the symbols of the beaver, the Blue Nose, the Caribou/Elk and the loon are on them! They are learning a song to help them remember the values of the coins, and watched a few short documentaries about how coins and "paper" (polymer)money is made. They passed around real money and learned how the shapes, sizes and features help visually impaired people. We will learn about the toonie on Monday, and will do summative work about money values next week.

In Art, they children learned more about Wassily Kandinsky, who was one of the fist abstract expressionist painters. He loved colours and shapes, and believed that art should make you feel emotion just as music does. He made music with paint! The children have made three drawings/paintings inspired by Kandinsky. They are beautiful! The Mother's Day Art is inspired by Kandinsky's "Squares with Concentric Circles" which he painted in 1913. www.wassilykandinsky.net

Thank you so much to Hudson's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week! He read two interesting National Geographic books about Volcanoes and Penguins. Thank you, Ethan, for bringing in your awesome airplane to show how it looked like a bird. We did a Venn Diagram comparing birds and planes. I love it when the children reflect on their classroom learning and bring it home and then back to school!

That's the news for this week! Have a wonderful weekend!

The children did an excellent job at this week's surprise Fire Drill! Good listening!

The words of the week were DID and SOME.

Week of April 30-May 4

Dear families,

On Friday the children took home all their amazing work and learning about birds! Well done! They watched two short documentaries about Blue Jays and learned why they are blue and their characteristics and personalities. They learned about their habitat, diet and young, and completed a flip book. Thank you Alex for sharing your knowledge about sports teams that are named after birds! The kids thought it was funny that Blue Jays steal eggs and nests, just like the Toronto Blue Jays steal bases! The children also learned about the diet, habitat and features of red cardinals and we practised drawing them on dry erase boards. The children also counted and wrote numbers with Angry Birds. We completed our fact books about owls and the seniors did a summative book all about owls. Good job! The juniors coloured an owl and then "camouflaged" it for night time hunting by painting it light black. We also read more fiction and non-fiction books about owls (The Curious Little Owl who says "Why-why" instead of "Who-who" and All About Owls. You can help your child learn how to recognize bird calls on the Audobon app, and there is also an app called "Song Sleuth" that uses your phone's microphone to identify birds by their song.

Our Cosmic Kids yoga adventures were The Dodo Bird, The Owl and the Guard Dog, Rainbow Waterfall, Peace Out Zen Den, and Star Wars for May 4.

The words of the week were THAT and THERE. Please complete the THAT and THERE mini read-and-write booklets for homework. Next week's words will be DID and SOME.

Next week we will start our numeracy inquiry on Canadian Money. We'll open a Pizza Pizza Restaurant in the Dramatic Play Centre and will learn about Healthy Habits and where our fruit and vegetables come from. Our flowers are growing well and we'll plant them in the Kindergarten next week. We will learn how to grow new food from scraps of old food (potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, herbs, for example)and why we compost our food scraps. We'll also learn about why some food (such as chips, pop and candy) are "sometimes" food and not "every day" food.

Thank you so much to Ethan's mom who was the Mystery Reader this week! Thank you Ethan for letting us borrow your books for a few more days!

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy this lovely Spring weather!

Week of April 23-27

Dear families, I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather!

This week we finished our inquiry on the Earth and learned about how to take care of it. With Ms. Patel, the children learned about the three Rs- recycle, reuse, and reduce! We do a lot of reusing in Kindergarten and also repurpose a lot of home and classroom items (HINT! Mother's and Father's Day Gifts!) We learned about the difference between garbage and recycling. The children also learned about different kinds of pollution and watched a Berenstain Bears video called "Don't Pollute." Together as a class the children decorate a big Earth with tissue paper and wrote their names, pledging to take care or the Earth. The children also painted paper plate Earths. They completed the sentence "To take care of the Earth I can..."

Several seeds have germinated in our "How do Plants Grow" centre. Dante found a maple tree sprout and we planted it in our indoor garden too. I wonder which will grow faster, the sunflowers or the maple tree? The children watched a video of a sprouting seed.

The children continued their inquiry on Birds. They wrote three facts about birds and made a bird face booklet with real feathers. With their Reading Buddies, the children worked on an Owl fact booklet. We also reviewed the numerals 3-9 with Angry Birds work sheets, remembering not to reverse the numerals (for example making a P instead of a 9). The children helped me write what birds CAN (do), HAVE and ARE on chart paper. We also graphed and tallied how many children have seen an owl. We learned about how birds fly and turn, and how airplanes lift off the ground. We watched videos of eagles, ducks and geese flying, and learned about how ducks will bond with people if they see them when they hatch.

Even though it's almost May, please remember that the children play outside for at least one hour a day (usually more) and that they need appropriate clothing. No flip flops please. We also go to the gym when it's available and the kids need running shoes in order to be able to safely participate in activities.

The words of the week were LITTLE and OUT. The homework for this week is to complete the LOOK mini read and write book. I have sent home the new May words and May Bingo. Thank you so much to our volunteers this week! Hudson's, Kate's and Elea's mom helped with Pizza Lunch, and Rielle's dad was the Mystery Reader.

At the Sharing Assembly, the children recited the poem "What the Robin Told" and Kate, Mia and Elea were acknowledged for Co-operation. We will present Elea's certificate at the next Sharing Assembly.

We have also been very busy creating art gifts for Mother's Day and Father's Day. :) Next week we will finish our inquiry on birds and will learn about which parts of plants we eat and Healthy Habits.

That's the news for this week! I hope you have a terrific weekend!

Week of April 16-20

Dear families,

Spring weather has finally arrived! Hopefully snow pants and hats can be packed away!

This week we continued our inquiries on How Plants Grow and Birds. The children looked at different kinds of seeds and matched seeds to the plants they grow into (sunflower, corn, apple, orange, for example). They watched Sesame Street Franklin and Peep And The Big Wide World videos about how plants grow. They also compared Living and Non-Living things, and explored the differences between, for example, and apple growing on a tree versus an apple that has fallen off a tree. They learned that living things GROW, MOVE, and RESPOND, and watched time-lapse videos of sunflowers follow the sun and tulips open during the day and close at night to demonstrate this. The children learned that plants start from seeds, become sprouts, then seedlings, and then plants which in then produce seeds. They also learned about different kinds of SOILS: clay, sand, and loam, and why plants grow well in loam. The children planted various kinds of seeds in mini greenhouses (plastic strawberry boxes) and we will track their growth. They also made mini greenhouses out of plastic bags and "planted" beans in them, with a damp paper towel for moisture and air in the bag as well. They are also learning about how seeds are planted on their own (by the wind, by animals, by streams and rivers etc.). Maybe you'd like to plant some seeds at home! When the soil warms up you can transplant the seedlings into a pot or into your garden (mid-May). Thank you Kate for showing us the sunflower she is growing at home! We will finish this inquiry next week.

In our inquiry on Birds, the children: did a "Make 5" numeracy activity by making combinations of owls to make 5 (1+_4, 2+3, etc.); learned what owls HAVE, CAN (do), and ARE; guessed what various birds eat and where they live based on their feet and beaks or bills; "put their ducks in a row" by ordering words to make a sentence; they did Cosmic Kids Pigeon and Flamingo Yoga; learned how to draw an Angry Bird and an Owl; wrote and drew a picture about what they can do when feel angry like an angry bird; and completed "Bird Facts" pocket books, in which they had to read sentences about birds and put them either in the "Not a Bird Fact" or "Bird Fact" pocket. Well done! We'll continue our learning about birds next week. We'll learn about why birds sing, how birds fly, and about Blue Jays (go Jays!)!

Thank you so much to our volunteers this week! Hudson's mom was the Mystery Reader, and Hudson's dad, Anilee's mom, and Evelyn's mom helped our Scientist-in-the-Classroom Janet teach the children about what Paleontologists, Meteorologists, Astronomers, Chemists and Marine Biologists do. They dug for dinosaur bones and made fossils, measured the weather in different ways, saw constellations in a tent, learned about chemical reactions and if things are water soluble, and learned about the ocean. What a great morning! So much fun and so much learning! Thank you as well to the children who shared their owl stuffies and bird books with the classroom - I love it when the children extend their learning at home and share it with their friends! Next week we will be starting an Inquiry on Earth Day and will learn about how to take care of the Earth.

Thank you for coming to our "Day in the Life" LKS Open House on Thursday evening. The children we so proud showing their classroom and learning to you!

That's the news from Room 166! Have a great weekend!

Week of April 9-13

Dear families,

I hope you are having a nice weekend!

This week we continued our inquiries on the WEATHER and BIRDS. We've had warm sunny days, rain, snow, freezing rain, and very windy days this month! We've also started to see Robins come out and are hearing more and more birds returning from their southern migration.

Ms. Patel has been doing an amazing job teaching the children about weather! By doing hands on experiments, the children learned why it rains, what vapour is, how clouds form, what wind can do, how it rains, how there are different kinds of clouds depending on the weather, what the temperature on a thermometer means, and how freezing rain and snow form. She put warm water in a glass ("the sun warms the water"), plastic wrap on the glass (the atmosphere), and watch as the water evaporates and forms droplets on the plastic wrap. To show how clouds "burst" and then it starts raining, Ms. Patel filled a glass of water half-way, put shaving cream on top (the cloud), then with a pipette put droplets of blue water into the "cloud" until it "burst" and it started to "rain" (the blue droplets fell down from the cloud). The children also learned about how freezing rain occurs by dropping droplets of water on an icy plate and watching how quickly the water formed into ice. They also demonstrated their understanding of three different kinds of clouds with cotton balls (on display in the hall). Well done!

In the afternoons, the children are learning all about birds! They are learning about different kinds of nests, how many eggs birds lay and why (for example, a bald eagle only lays 2 eggs in its huge next because the eaglets are almost full size before they can fly and hunt on their own and take up a lot of space in the nest, whereas Ostriches are land birds, eat mostly insects and don't fly, so so they lay about 10 eggs in their nest since the baby ostriches just need to walk out of the nest to find food and aren't as dependent on their parents). We demonstrated this with the kids pretending to be baby eagles and baby ostriches.

We also observed a bald eagle nest and a bald eagle parent struggling to carry a huge salmon to the eaglets waiting in the nest. The parent let the babies eat first. There is a live camera each year on a bald eagle nest (bald eagles, unlike most birds, don't rebuild their nest each year): search "Live eagle cam" - there is one in Florida. The children drew what they observed in the bald eagle nest. I am also teaching the children how to draw birds starting with the letter "B." Ask them to show you how!

The children participated in sentence making centres "putting their ducks in a row" by arranging words in order to make a sentence, then drawing an accompanying picture, for example DOG I BIG A HAVE becomes "I have a big dog." We are also learning a poem for the Sharing Assembly called "What the Robin Told."

The JKS traced the upper and lower case letters of the alphabet and the numbers 1-65 on "eggs" and the SKs did this independently. Good job! They also learned about how small a hummingbird egg is compared to an Ostrich egg!

By learning about and comparing different birds' feet and beaks or bills, the children are learning how to identify if a bird lives on water or land, and what it eats.

We also read the well-known story "The Little Red Hen." about the hard-working hen who does all the work to plant wheat, weed the field, water the plants, harvest it, thresh it, grind it to flour, and make it into bread, but her friends don't want to help until it comes time to eating the bread! The children acted out the story (reader's theatre) and are exploring a hand-on centre with wheat, flour, bread, and seeds (which they are "threshing"). Mrs. Mosun brought in her bread maker and taught the children the step-by-step recipe and then everyone got a piece of DELICIOUS home made bread when it was done!

This week's Cosmic Kids Yoga was "Flamingo Yoga" and "Pose Universe."

Just a reminder that the next Scholastic Order is due on May 18. The words of the week were WHO and DOWN. In support of the Humboldt hockey players (we didn't discuss what happened, we just talked about friendship and supporting others who need help), the children coloured and cut out paper hockey sticks and we wrote words with the letter or letter sound Hh. For PINK DAY we also talked about respect and how to be a friend. The homework for this week is to complete the read and write booklet "AM."

Thank you so much to Sarah's mo who was our Mystery Reader this week!

That's the news for this week! I hope you have a terrific weekend.

Week of April 2-6

Dear families,

I hope you are having a nice weekend! Last week was very busy in room 166 as the children learned about temperature, area, and weight, and then consolidated their learning about measurement at various hands-on centres. The children estimated, weighed classroom objects, balanced scales, compared the temperature of ice water and room temperature water, measured the length of classroom objects using standard and non-standard tools, and measure the area of shapes using smaller objects. Great job! All their hard work went home in Friday's mail bag.

We are having lots of different kinds of weather this month, from warm days to 70 km/hour winds to snow! We will start a new inquiry on the weather next week!

We have started a new nature unit on Birds! We started the inquiry with a K-W-L (Know, Wonder, Learned) chart, then learned about the life cycle of birds, compared different kinds of feathers on birds, looked at a robin's nest and egg shells, learned about why different birds have different beaks, and saw nests of hummingbirds, eagles, blue jays (Go Jays!), robins, storks ad=nd sociable weavers on the SmartBoard. Thank you so much to Maya for sharing her beautiful book about birds with us! April is Earth month and learning about our natural world always interesting!

The words of the week were WAS and I'M. I have sent home WAS booklets for homework. The children received their new April words and April Homework Bingo. They also completed their "This is me in March" writing and drawing, and calendar.

Thank you so much to Ethan's dad who was this week's Mystery Reader!

The children enjoyed going to the Mables's Fables this week! Thank you for supporting your child's literacy and Mable's Fables!

Exciting news! On Monday we will welcome a new JK student named Lily to our classroom! Welcome, Lily!

That's the news for this week! See you on Monday!

Week of March 25-29

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!