Friday, April 29

Dear families,

Our butterfly larvae have arrived! We are learning about how caterpillars change into butterflies. In about one week our baby caterpillars will attach themselves to their lids and will form a crysalid. These will then be transferred to our large butterfly net. In approxmately one week the crysalids will mature and our Painted Lady Butterflies will emerge! The butterflies will stay in our classroom with special butterfly food for about two weeks, then each class will release them into our school garden!

In this week's white bags you will find an order form for our published books that we have created in the classroom! If you have not purchased one already and would like to, please fill out a form and return it, along with a cheque payable to LKS for 13.00, by Friday, May 6. Thank you.

Last week we planted our tomato seeds and learned about germination. The seeds have germinated and are growing well. At the end of May they should be ready for planting in your gardens or in planters.

We are continuing to practice writing sentences with "finger spaces" between each word. The children completed the sentence "In the Spring..." on a cut-out flower. Well done! Their reading a writing is really coming along! We also reviewed letter formation and the children have really improved in this area. Our next unit will be on Money.

Please save any cardboard egg cartons so that we can make caterpillars out of them. Thank you!

Thank you very much to our Parent Volunteers over the last two weeks: Reading Club was Maya's mom and David's mom, our Mystery Readers were Maya's dad, Spencer's brother Eddie, and Adam's mom. The white bags and Snuggle Books were done by Siri's mom, Griffin's mom, Sydney's mom, and Alexandra's mom. Thank you so much!

For the Sharing Assembly we performed our Popcorn Song, which is a song with high frequency words.

Please remember to return your white bags each Monday. Also, the Scholastic orders are due on Monday (May 2nd).

An Artist is coming to the Kindergarten Classrooms! Our day will be May 30. The cost will be 10.00 cash per child, including materials. More information to follow.

From our Principal's Blog:
"Just a quick reminder that if your child will not be here in September, to please inform your class teacher and the office. The information is very important as we continue with our planning. As we head into the last two months of school, we will also be completing student placements. As in previous years, staff work together in teams to place the students in classes for the following September. Gender, academic achievement, social needs, and ministry caps are among the list of things that we consider when placing children. The goal of student placements is to have 'balanced' classes. As most of you know, we do not take 'teacher' requests from parents and we ask that you honour this part of the process. By the end of the year, teachers have a good understanding of their students and place the children accordingly. In most cases, staffing hasn't fully been completed until the end of the year, and as most of you know, changes happen all the way into September. We thank you in advance."

Thank you and have a wonderful weekend.

Mrs. Tyndall

Friday, April 15

Dear Families,

Spring has officially Sprung in Room 166! This week we planted our tomato seeds and put hydrating beads in the soil to keep it moist. The children also brought in their hollowed-out eggs and we will be dipping them next week. We also made daffodils in class and read Eric Carle's "The Tiny Seed".

Our Book Project is coming along. The children are each completing four pieces of work which will be included in the book. Please remember to send in your order (blue form) if you would like a copy.

In this week's white bag are the compound words "bow, pants, cloud, hat coat and boots" that go with the word "rain."

Thank you to our Parent Volunteers this week: Reading Club was Tate's mom and Tatum's mom, the Mystery Readers were David's mom and Cole's mom, and the Bags and Snuggle Books were completed by Jamie's mom and Charlie's mom. Thank you so much!

Aside from Easter and Spring-related activities we are starting our unit on People in the Community.

Next Thursday is Wear Green to School Day to celebrate Earth Week.

Thank you to Lola, Daniel, Siri and Koby who brought in their Earth Day items made from recycled materials. You did a wonderful job! Please remember to bring in your items by next week.

I have ordered a kit of cocoons/larvae so the children can observe them grow and turn into butterflies! They will arrive in late April.

Thank you for your Scholastic Orders! The next order is due May 1st.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Friday, April 8

Hello parents,

As we prepare for Earth Week next week, please help your child make an item out of recyled materials to show to the class. It could be a robot, a house, a car, etc. but it must be made out of recycled materials. Thank you!

This week's memory words are "pink, yellow, purple, fun. eggs, bunny, look, paint, hide, church, and chocolate."

Thank you to the following Parent Volunteers: Reading Club was Siri's mom and Griffin's mom, Mystery Reader (a.m.) was Koby's mom, bags and books were done by Alexandra's mom and Charlie's mom, and Play-Doh was made by David's mom. Thank you also to Koby's mom for providing craft items!

We continued work on our Phonics books and we are almost finished Set Three. Good work!

In this week's p.m. bags you will find Earth Day Memory Cards that your child completed. They can play Memory with them at home. The Morning Class will finish these shortly.

We are making a book! Please complete the blue form in this week's white bag if you are interested in this project.

Next month's Scholastic orders are due May 1st.

Next week we will plant tomato seeds and paint easter eggs along with other Spring/Easter-related activities.

Have a great weekend!

Friday, April 1

Happy April everyone! Thank you to those of you who attended the Sharing Assembly on Monday, and congratulations to the children who received awards for "Honesty."

April will be a busy month as we celebrate the arrival of Spring, Easter and Earth Week. I have prepared a number of literacy- and numeracy-based activities related to these themes.

This week we worked on improving letter and number formation by tracing and by writing letters and numbers on their own. I have seen a real improvement over the year! Well done!

This week's "refridgerator words" are "on" and "and."

Thank to to our Parent Volunteers this week: Tatum's mom and Tate's mom did Reading Club, the Mystery Readers were Siri's mom and Griffin's mom, and TDSB bags and snuggle books were done by Koby's mom and Charlie's mom.

The afternoon class started making Earth Day memory cards with their Reading Buddies and will finish and play with them next week.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Friday, March 25

This week in Room 166 the children worked on their numeracy skills by playing a dice game and by learning to identify numbers of dots in different formats i.e. 6 dots in a row is the same as 2 dots plus 2 dots plus 2 dots, 5 dots plus one dot, 4 dots plus 2 dots, and 3 dots plus 3 dots. They then completed worksheets to reinforce this concept. We also practiced our "popcorn words" and wrote them out on our "popcorn bag", remembering to use finger spaces between the words. We are also learning Spring Vocabulary and the compound words with "rain."

We are now on Set Three of Jolly Phonics and Set Two has been sent home. Great work!

Our Sharing Assembly will be on Monday and we will be performing a very short skit about St. Patrick's Day and singing a song about the rain. All are invited to attend.

Please remember that Scholastic Orders are due April 1st. Thank you.

The children met with their Reading Buddies and completed Easter colouring pages together after reading books together.

Today was a very special day for the kids thanks to our visit from Firefighter Captain Ron Jones. Ron taught the children about safety in and outside the home and the children listened attentively to his lessons. Great job, and thank you Firefighter Ron!

This week's "refridgerator door words" (on the red strip of paper) are "come, look, here". Please practice these words at home.

Finally, thank you to our Parent Volunteers this week: Reading Club was done by David's mom and Hana's mom, our Mystery Reader was Alexandra's mom, and the morning class white bags and snuggle books were prepared by Jamie's mom. Your help is always appreciated.

Have a nice weekend,

Mrs. Tyndall