Sunday, May 27, 2012
Sunday, May 27
The past two weeks have been busy in our classroom! We finished our unit on Life Cycles and made a bulletin board based on Eric Carle's wonderful book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We are also tracking the weather each day and will summarize our findings at the end of the month (graphing and patterning). The children created some wonderful art with the help of a visit from an artist - thank you to Parent Council for funding this wonderful experience for the children. The children also completed the sentences "I like/don't like rain because...", completed the Phonics sounds W and NG, and the SKs made a booklet called "I know it's Spring when..."
The children also made booklets called "What Do Plants Need?" and "Who is in the Barn?" They can read these booklets and would love to read them to you! They also made spider booklets and love to read those too!
Both classes welcomed their Reading Buddies, Grade 8 Reading Buddies, and enjoyed going to the Book Fair. The children also practiced role-playing with puppets on what to do if they are bullied.
We also completed our May calendars (reviewing how to correctly write 1-31) and started our new unit on Canadian Coins and their values.
Thank you so much to our recent parent volunteers: white bags and snuggle books were done by Declan's mom and Cameron D's mom, Reading Club was done by Emma and Jonas' mom and Tatum's mom. Our Mystery Readers were Charlie's mom and Jamie who is in Grade 1 now (great job Jamie!).
Please remember to bring in the Pizza Lunch form and money by May 31st. Summer Scholastic Orders are also due on May 31st.
Please remember that the children should be wearing closed-toe shoes.
Have a wonderful week!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
It was an exciting week this week since all our butterflies hatched and the children were able to hold them briefly before they started to fly! We released them into the Kindergarten garden and made butterfly puppets to remember them with.
The children have been working hard on their Mother's Day gifts and also brought home the sunflowers they planted. They are ready to go in a sunny spot in your garden and by August should be taller than the kids! In the fall you can cut the top off, leave it to dry for about 2 weeks, then plant the new sunflowers or leave them as food for birds and squirrels.
The children did a terrific job reciting two poems about apples at this week's Sharing Assembly! They have become such excellent audience members and performers!
Next week we welcome Artist Janeen from Lello Art Works who will help the children create a little work of art on the theme of Kandinsky. Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to help! Thank you also to Parent Council who paid for this special opportunity.
I am busy preparing for this year's SK Graduation which will take place on June 27. It's going to be a special day for everyone!
Our two new poems are "I Look in the Mirror" and "I`m a Little Tulip." We will perform them at the May 21 Sharing Assembly:
I Look in the Mirror
I look in the mirror
and what do I see?
A pair of eyes
looks back at me.
A nose, two ears, two eyebrows, too.
Two lips, and teeth, to say,
"I love you."
I look in the mirror
and what do I see?
I look in the mirror
and I see ME!
_________________________________________
I'm a Little Tulip
I'm a Little Tulip
On my stem,
Here are my green leaves,
See how they bend.
A tulip all alone
Might droop its head,
But I'm happy because
I'm in a flower bed!
Thank you so much to this week's Mystery Readers: Emma and Jonas' grandmother, and Nico! Thank you so much as well to Carly's mom and Taylor's mom who did the white bags and snuggle books. It's a time-consuming job and I really appreciate your help!
Your child received one of the 46 new laminated letter-sound folders I made. Please encourage your child to read it with you and be sure to return it next week so they can get a new one!
This week the children attended "Just Kidding," an excellent and informative session on bullying. They also did a terrific job during our fire drills and lock down drills. Good job!
Let's cross our fingers that the Spring weather is here to stay - now is the time to think about hats and sunscreen for your children. Please remember that they should wear closed-toe shoes outside. Flip-flops don't protect their little toes.
I wish you all a very wonderful Mother's Day and thank you all again for all your help and support throughout the year.
Mrs. Tyndall
Friday, April 27, 2012
Friday, April 27
Hello families,
April is almost over and we have been busy learning about Life Cycles. The children planted their sunflower seeds and have watched them sprout. When they reach their full height in the summer the plants will be taller than they are
The children have also marvelled at how quickly our Painted Lady Caterpillar larvae have been growing. When they arrived they were only about 3 mm long, and now they are over 2 cm long! Once they attach themselves to their lids (branches, in nature) and form a pupa, we will have to wait patiently until they change into butterflies! We have read Eric Carle's wonderful book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and are completing a number of associated literary, numeracy and art-based activities. We are doing a caterpillar alphabet and caterpillar numbers 1-20 and are also creating a Carle-style art piece of our own classroom caterpillar and are reviewing days of the week which go along with Carle's story. We will also tie this in with healthy eating (another theme of Carle's Hungry Caterpillar book) which will lead nicely into our unit on Canadian Coins and their Values when I open our Grocery Store Centre next month. We have recently completed the letter-sound combinations OA, IE, EE and OR ("when there are two vowels walking the first one does the talking"). In today's white bag, you will find a laminated file folder with several words containing one of 46 letter sounds/letter combination sounds. I have made these and am distributing them weekly to reinforce the letter sounds we learn in Kindergarten and hope you enjoy reading them with your child. S/he will receive a new one each week. They should be returned in the white bag along with their Snuggle Book. Thank you. To celebrate Earth Week the children participated in Eco-Oplympics which were run by the LKS Eco Warriors. It was a lot of fun! The children also created Earth Wheels which helped explain which things we can recycle. They also made a set of Earth Week Memory Cards to play at home. I have almost finished re-organizing my room and have created a new Listening Centre (which the children are really enjoying), a larger Writing Centre, a Reading/Phonics Centre, and I have widened the Circle/Teaching Area. I have also re-organized several hundred books in bins according to their title, and I have re-organized the Dramatic Centre, and changed it to a Flower Shop for now. Themed books go in our Reading Library; I have put out Earth-related books as well as a large set of Franklin Books. There's always something new going on! I am still looking for my Bat Man Phonics set - if you have it please kindly return it. Thank you! Thank you so much to the Parent Volunteers this week: Reading Club: Charlie's mom Mystery Reader: Samantha's mom White Bags: Carly's dad, Logan's mom We really appreciate your help! Thank you as well to our Grade Parents who have worked hard organizing the SpringFest Silent Auction baskets. It's a busy time of the year! Have a great weekend.
April is almost over and we have been busy learning about Life Cycles. The children planted their sunflower seeds and have watched them sprout. When they reach their full height in the summer the plants will be taller than they are
The children have also marvelled at how quickly our Painted Lady Caterpillar larvae have been growing. When they arrived they were only about 3 mm long, and now they are over 2 cm long! Once they attach themselves to their lids (branches, in nature) and form a pupa, we will have to wait patiently until they change into butterflies! We have read Eric Carle's wonderful book The Very Hungry Caterpillar and are completing a number of associated literary, numeracy and art-based activities. We are doing a caterpillar alphabet and caterpillar numbers 1-20 and are also creating a Carle-style art piece of our own classroom caterpillar and are reviewing days of the week which go along with Carle's story. We will also tie this in with healthy eating (another theme of Carle's Hungry Caterpillar book) which will lead nicely into our unit on Canadian Coins and their Values when I open our Grocery Store Centre next month. We have recently completed the letter-sound combinations OA, IE, EE and OR ("when there are two vowels walking the first one does the talking"). In today's white bag, you will find a laminated file folder with several words containing one of 46 letter sounds/letter combination sounds. I have made these and am distributing them weekly to reinforce the letter sounds we learn in Kindergarten and hope you enjoy reading them with your child. S/he will receive a new one each week. They should be returned in the white bag along with their Snuggle Book. Thank you. To celebrate Earth Week the children participated in Eco-Oplympics which were run by the LKS Eco Warriors. It was a lot of fun! The children also created Earth Wheels which helped explain which things we can recycle. They also made a set of Earth Week Memory Cards to play at home. I have almost finished re-organizing my room and have created a new Listening Centre (which the children are really enjoying), a larger Writing Centre, a Reading/Phonics Centre, and I have widened the Circle/Teaching Area. I have also re-organized several hundred books in bins according to their title, and I have re-organized the Dramatic Centre, and changed it to a Flower Shop for now. Themed books go in our Reading Library; I have put out Earth-related books as well as a large set of Franklin Books. There's always something new going on! I am still looking for my Bat Man Phonics set - if you have it please kindly return it. Thank you! Thank you so much to the Parent Volunteers this week: Reading Club: Charlie's mom Mystery Reader: Samantha's mom White Bags: Carly's dad, Logan's mom We really appreciate your help! Thank you as well to our Grade Parents who have worked hard organizing the SpringFest Silent Auction baskets. It's a busy time of the year! Have a great weekend.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Friday, April 6
Dear families,
With this wonderful Spring weather the children have been learning to read and write Spring words and Easter Words, and the two new poems we are learning are Apple Seed and Way Up High, copies of which I have sent home. We will be opening a pretend flower store in the Dramatic Centre as well which the children are really looking forward to! We also made booklets called Five Little Seeds and will be planting our Sunflower seeds next week. We also read Eric Carle's book Tiny Seed and wrote about what we did in March and so far in April. The children's reading and writing skills have come along so much and I am very proud of them!
We are now on Book Four (of Six) of the Jolly Phonics Program and haved just learned the letter/sound group "OA" : boat, oak, moat, croak, soak, oats, soap, goat, etc. The Seniors are doing a great job completing their Phonics Duotang sets and are proud of completing each set! The Juniors are also coming along in their junior levels Phonics Duotangs.
In Numeracy we are reviewing counting by 5s and review simple math each day as we count the days at Calendar Time. Their number recognition is very good! The children also completed their March calendars and the SKs are writing numbers with few or no reversals which is great! The JKs are continuing to learn number recognotion and writing alongside the SKs.
I am starting to plan the SK Graduation on June 27 and will need 4-5 volunteers that day to help. Please let your Grade Parents know if you are available.
I am in the process of rearranging my classroom to make for a larger writing centre and will be opening up a Listening Centre soon as well. I have also moved the Creative/Craft Centre to the "red table." I am also clearing out some of the toys the children do not use to make more space for literacy-based centres.
Next week we will be creating a book called Little Spider based on Eric Carle's book The Very Busy Spider. Our Reading Budddies will help us make the webs!
The Refridgerator Words of this week and last are:
if
in
into
is
it
had
have
he
to
too
two
up
us
very
was
water
Please post the lists I sent home and practice these words at home with your child to reinforce his/her learning at school.
FOr a Spring Craft the children had a fun time dipping their eggs in different colours of food colouring, then painting glue on and rolling them in glitter! We made little baskets for the eggs and made clay eggs as well. The children did a great job weaving ribbon around their baskets. Thank you to all the parents who brought eggs and baskets in! Next week we will be finishing our wall paper bunnies.
The children also had great fun on their outdoor Egg Hunt! Thank you to the terrific Student Council members and Mr. Kuru who helped organize this event!
On April 24 the LKS Eco Warriors will be coordinating an Eco Olympics for the Kindergartners! Stay tuned for more information!
A very special thank you to Cameron B.'s mom who talked to the children about her job with the provincial government taking care of Ontario's water! She did a wonderful job explaining where our water comes from, how it can get polluted, how to conserve it, and how to take care of our water sources. Thank you again! As a follow up activity the children will colour a page about Sources of Water and will learn water vocabulary (lake, river, glacier, etc.). A great little Science Unit!
The children also really enjoyed visiting the Grade Three Medieval Castle projects in Mr. Littlejohn's and Mr. Ross' rooms.
Thank you as well to our Parent Volunteers and thank you as always to our Grade Parents who keep you informed about school-wide events such as SpringFest. This year for SpringFest the Kindergarten classes will be collecting items for a basket to be raffled off.
I hope you have a very happy Easter Weekend!
Mrs. Tyndall
With this wonderful Spring weather the children have been learning to read and write Spring words and Easter Words, and the two new poems we are learning are Apple Seed and Way Up High, copies of which I have sent home. We will be opening a pretend flower store in the Dramatic Centre as well which the children are really looking forward to! We also made booklets called Five Little Seeds and will be planting our Sunflower seeds next week. We also read Eric Carle's book Tiny Seed and wrote about what we did in March and so far in April. The children's reading and writing skills have come along so much and I am very proud of them!
We are now on Book Four (of Six) of the Jolly Phonics Program and haved just learned the letter/sound group "OA" : boat, oak, moat, croak, soak, oats, soap, goat, etc. The Seniors are doing a great job completing their Phonics Duotang sets and are proud of completing each set! The Juniors are also coming along in their junior levels Phonics Duotangs.
In Numeracy we are reviewing counting by 5s and review simple math each day as we count the days at Calendar Time. Their number recognition is very good! The children also completed their March calendars and the SKs are writing numbers with few or no reversals which is great! The JKs are continuing to learn number recognotion and writing alongside the SKs.
I am starting to plan the SK Graduation on June 27 and will need 4-5 volunteers that day to help. Please let your Grade Parents know if you are available.
I am in the process of rearranging my classroom to make for a larger writing centre and will be opening up a Listening Centre soon as well. I have also moved the Creative/Craft Centre to the "red table." I am also clearing out some of the toys the children do not use to make more space for literacy-based centres.
Next week we will be creating a book called Little Spider based on Eric Carle's book The Very Busy Spider. Our Reading Budddies will help us make the webs!
The Refridgerator Words of this week and last are:
if
in
into
is
it
had
have
he
to
too
two
up
us
very
was
water
Please post the lists I sent home and practice these words at home with your child to reinforce his/her learning at school.
FOr a Spring Craft the children had a fun time dipping their eggs in different colours of food colouring, then painting glue on and rolling them in glitter! We made little baskets for the eggs and made clay eggs as well. The children did a great job weaving ribbon around their baskets. Thank you to all the parents who brought eggs and baskets in! Next week we will be finishing our wall paper bunnies.
The children also had great fun on their outdoor Egg Hunt! Thank you to the terrific Student Council members and Mr. Kuru who helped organize this event!
On April 24 the LKS Eco Warriors will be coordinating an Eco Olympics for the Kindergartners! Stay tuned for more information!
A very special thank you to Cameron B.'s mom who talked to the children about her job with the provincial government taking care of Ontario's water! She did a wonderful job explaining where our water comes from, how it can get polluted, how to conserve it, and how to take care of our water sources. Thank you again! As a follow up activity the children will colour a page about Sources of Water and will learn water vocabulary (lake, river, glacier, etc.). A great little Science Unit!
The children also really enjoyed visiting the Grade Three Medieval Castle projects in Mr. Littlejohn's and Mr. Ross' rooms.
Thank you as well to our Parent Volunteers and thank you as always to our Grade Parents who keep you informed about school-wide events such as SpringFest. This year for SpringFest the Kindergarten classes will be collecting items for a basket to be raffled off.
I hope you have a very happy Easter Weekend!
Mrs. Tyndall
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Saturday, March 24
Hello families,
We continued our unit on Community Helpers with a class visit from Bob, our Crossing Guard. I am also arranging a visit from Ron Jones, a Toronto Firefighter. He visited my classroom last year and did a wonderful job teaching the children about safety.
We are learning to count by 5s and to understand the concepts of the numbers 1-10, i.e. that 5=1+4, 2+3, 5+0; 10=9+1, 8+2, 7+3, etc. We also finished our St. Patrick's Day booklets with our Reading Buddies and presented a St. Patrick's day skit during our Sharing Assembly. The children did a wonderful job!
Thank you so much to this week's Parent Volunteers: Reading Club was done by Carly's mom and Taylor's mom; Mystery Readers were Anna's mom and Sam's mom; TDSB bags were done by Charlie's mom and Logan's mom; Snuggle Books were done by Mrs. Tyndall and Logan's mom.
I have ordered Painted Lady Butterfly Larvae from Boreal and they should arrive the week of April 16! The children will learn about the life cycle of the butterfly and when the larvae change to pupae and then butterflies, we will release them outside! We will also be learning about the life cycle of plants and have made booklets with five different kinds of seeds (corn, allspice, coriander, cardamom and caraway). We will be planting mini watermelon seeds as well and the plants will be ready to plant in your gardens in May.
Have a great weekend!
We continued our unit on Community Helpers with a class visit from Bob, our Crossing Guard. I am also arranging a visit from Ron Jones, a Toronto Firefighter. He visited my classroom last year and did a wonderful job teaching the children about safety.
We are learning to count by 5s and to understand the concepts of the numbers 1-10, i.e. that 5=1+4, 2+3, 5+0; 10=9+1, 8+2, 7+3, etc. We also finished our St. Patrick's Day booklets with our Reading Buddies and presented a St. Patrick's day skit during our Sharing Assembly. The children did a wonderful job!
Thank you so much to this week's Parent Volunteers: Reading Club was done by Carly's mom and Taylor's mom; Mystery Readers were Anna's mom and Sam's mom; TDSB bags were done by Charlie's mom and Logan's mom; Snuggle Books were done by Mrs. Tyndall and Logan's mom.
I have ordered Painted Lady Butterfly Larvae from Boreal and they should arrive the week of April 16! The children will learn about the life cycle of the butterfly and when the larvae change to pupae and then butterflies, we will release them outside! We will also be learning about the life cycle of plants and have made booklets with five different kinds of seeds (corn, allspice, coriander, cardamom and caraway). We will be planting mini watermelon seeds as well and the plants will be ready to plant in your gardens in May.
Have a great weekend!
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