Week of January 15-19

Dear families,

I hope you're enjoying the milder weather this weekend!

Last week was a busy one in Room 166! On Monday, Dr. Vivian Wong (Elea's mom) did a wonderful and fun presentation about Germs and How to Stay Healthy that was perfectly geared to the children's level of comprehension. Elea did an awesome job as her mom's "patient" and Dr. Vivian provided all the children with little care packages that were sent home in Friday's mail bags. Thank you so much Dr. Vivian! The kids' inquiry work about Germs went home on Friday too and we "cleaned" up the whole classroom by removing the germ stickers. Mrs. Mosun and I work hard to keep a clean classroom (cleaning the tables with disinfectant, for example) and we want all the kids to have a healthy winter. :)

In Literacy, we are doing a comparison of five winter books, starting with Stella, Queen of the Snow (one of my favourites), The Mitten, The Hat, and then Thomas' Snowsuit. The children are learning about the words "characters, plot, setting, sequence, beginning, middle and end" of the stories. The letter sounds of the week were D and M, and the words were WANT and BY, and IN.

In Numeracy and IT, the children enjoyed playing coding games on the iPads. Our two classroom computers are working well now with headsets. Next week we will be doing an extensive inquiry on 2-D and 3-D Shapes.

In Art/Science, the children drew snowflakes with chalk on black construction paper, using real photographs of snowflakes for inspiration. Mrs. Mosun is also making crystal snowflakes with the children using pipe cleaners and a "magic" mixture of Borax and hot water. The children do not touch the mixture.

Our song of the week was to remind the kids about the order of how to put their winter clothes on. The tune is "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes...":

Snowsuit, boots, coat and hat
Coat and hat, coat and hat.
Snowsuit, boots, coat and hat,
Mittens always last.

The children enjoyed doing Yoga to the theme of "Frozen" and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar."

Another thank you to my former Kindergarten students Tatum and Lola who pair-share read "Deep Snow" to the kids. On every Monday morning during Homeroom, Lola and Carly (another former student) will read with the children one-on-one. Thank you so much!

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

Next week the Home Centre will turn into Starbucks! The kids will love pretending to serve hot chocolate and other yummy beverages, and serving healthy snacks and treats. They'll also love using the play cash register and play Canadian money. We'll do a big unit on Canadian money in the Spring. Thank you Starbucks for donating cups! Thanks Mrs. Mosun for this awesome idea!

Friday was a busy PA day for teachers since we are writing Report Cards (called Communication of Learning in Kindergarten). All children will receive their reports on February 12.

I hope you have a great Sunday!