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!