Dear families,
Happy Father's Day to all the dads of Room 166! I hope you are having a nice weekend with your family.
Last week we finished our unit on safety and reviewed safety at home, by the water, at the cottage, on the road, in the park, and when to dial 9-1-1. We also celebrated Luca's, Olivia's and Sophie's birthdays! We read with our Reading Buddies and toured their Ancient Egypt exhibit. The children also continued having a great time "camping" in our camp site centre.
The JKs wrote a little book called "I learned..." and the SKs wrote "I would like to tell my Grade One teacher..." and drew a picture. Cute! The children also completed their last assessment - their June calendar and "This is me in June" written work. The SK children also finished their "The Very Happy Senior Kindergartener" booklet. Look for all this work in this Thursday's white bag.
The children also did a wonderful job singing at the last Sharing Assembly! Congratulations to Elizabeth, Jack, and Olivia for receiving certificates for Perseverance. Wonderful effort!
In your child's white bag this week is the completed unit on Safety, their beautiful art and writing from our Inquiry on Lilacs, a list of 100 sight words to practise over the summer, and a list of Summer Words that the children can read and draw accompanying pictures. There is also the last few sets of popcorn words: LOVE, GET, AS, NEW, WHAT and JUMP. Their homework is to complete the WHAT mini book.
Thank you so much to Stella's family who offered to take care of Bubbles the Beta Fish over the summer!!!
Thank you to Iris' mom who was the Mystery Reader, and to Lauren's mom who helped in the Computer Lab.
Next week we'll do a fun little reading and writing unit on how to make a pizza since Thursday is Pizza lunch on the lawn. Please see the latest Parent Council email for information on Lunch on the Lawn. If you are going to be absent next week please let me know so that I can ensure your child's work and year end gift make it home. Thank you.
I have almost finished making the DVD for the Senior kindergarten Graduation on Wednesday morning! I am really looking forward to celebrating that day with the Senior children and their parents. Don't forget to bring a camera!
I hope you have a terrific week!
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Week of June 15-19
Dear families,
I hope you are having a great weekend in spite of today's rain!
Last week we continued learning about safety, and focused on road safety and Elmer's 7 Safety Rules. We also learned and talked about Camping Safety and Cottage Safety. The children read and coloured books about Camping Safety. I opened up a new centre in the "home centre" area complete with a camping tent, a pretend camp fire, a "canoe," fishing rods and a "lake," flashlights, and sleeping bags! The kids love it! They take turns in the Camping Area, playing in 2s, so that 4 children get to play there each day (2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon).
We also did a "Risk Watch Knowledge Test," in which the children circled pictures that showed the safest of various situations. We read "Stop, Drop and Roll," and the children also learned that "Leaves of 3, let them be" (i.e. poison ivy!) and we looked at photos of real poison ivy to help the children identify it.
We also wrote a book called "I Love my Dad because..." which the dads will receive this Sunday on Father's Day, along with some beautiful art the children made.
All the butterflies hatched from the pupas and the children were very excited to see that. Two of them hatched before our very eyes! We wrote our last page in our Butterfly Science Journal and let the butterflies free in the playground. The children also wrote "If I were a butterfly I would..."
Lots of Thank Yous this week: Avery's mom and Martel's moms helped out in the Computer Lab, Olivia's mom was a Mystery Reader, Will (Matthew H.'s brother) and Kaden from Mrs. Wilson's class pair-share read a book, lots of children brought in 3D objects from home to share with the class, Adam brought in a book about Monarchs, and Sophie brought in a photo of a swallowtail butterfly that landed on a tree at their house.
On Wednesday we will have our last Sharing Assembly. Olivia, Elizabeth and Jack will receive certificates for the important character trait of Perseverance. Way to go!
If anyone would like to take care of Bubbles the Beta Fish during the summer I would appreciate it! He is very easy to take care of. Let me know!
If you know that your child will not be at school of the last day, please let me know so that I can give him/her a year-end gift before hand. Thank you!
Next week we will continue our Inquiry on Safety and the children will bring this folder home on Friday.
I hope you have a terrific week!
I hope you are having a great weekend in spite of today's rain!
Last week we continued learning about safety, and focused on road safety and Elmer's 7 Safety Rules. We also learned and talked about Camping Safety and Cottage Safety. The children read and coloured books about Camping Safety. I opened up a new centre in the "home centre" area complete with a camping tent, a pretend camp fire, a "canoe," fishing rods and a "lake," flashlights, and sleeping bags! The kids love it! They take turns in the Camping Area, playing in 2s, so that 4 children get to play there each day (2 in the morning, 2 in the afternoon).
We also did a "Risk Watch Knowledge Test," in which the children circled pictures that showed the safest of various situations. We read "Stop, Drop and Roll," and the children also learned that "Leaves of 3, let them be" (i.e. poison ivy!) and we looked at photos of real poison ivy to help the children identify it.
We also wrote a book called "I Love my Dad because..." which the dads will receive this Sunday on Father's Day, along with some beautiful art the children made.
All the butterflies hatched from the pupas and the children were very excited to see that. Two of them hatched before our very eyes! We wrote our last page in our Butterfly Science Journal and let the butterflies free in the playground. The children also wrote "If I were a butterfly I would..."
Lots of Thank Yous this week: Avery's mom and Martel's moms helped out in the Computer Lab, Olivia's mom was a Mystery Reader, Will (Matthew H.'s brother) and Kaden from Mrs. Wilson's class pair-share read a book, lots of children brought in 3D objects from home to share with the class, Adam brought in a book about Monarchs, and Sophie brought in a photo of a swallowtail butterfly that landed on a tree at their house.
On Wednesday we will have our last Sharing Assembly. Olivia, Elizabeth and Jack will receive certificates for the important character trait of Perseverance. Way to go!
If anyone would like to take care of Bubbles the Beta Fish during the summer I would appreciate it! He is very easy to take care of. Let me know!
If you know that your child will not be at school of the last day, please let me know so that I can give him/her a year-end gift before hand. Thank you!
Next week we will continue our Inquiry on Safety and the children will bring this folder home on Friday.
I hope you have a terrific week!
Friday, June 5, 2015
Week of June 8-12
Dear families,
This week we completed our inquiry on 2-and 3-D shapes, ending with a classroom "shape hunt" in which the children searched the classroom for 10 different 2-and 3D shapes and tallied how many they found. Not surprisingly, most of the objects in the class are rectangular prisms and cylinders, and we have very few triangular prisms. I've encouraged the children to keep looking for those shapes at home and in their environments so don't be surprised if them exclaim, "That house is a cube!" At the various centres, the children enjoyed making various shapes upon shapes with elastics and a peg board, learning that shapes are inside other shapes i.e. two traingles make a square or a diamond or a rectangle. We also practised our 3D Shapes poem, a copy of which is in your child's white bag. The children's homework for this week is to design their own shape by joining dots on a "peg board" like the one we used in class. Thank you to Chloe who brought in examples of 3-D objects from home!
Our butterfly pupas/chrysalis are now in the big tent awaiting the day they come out of their chrysalis and are butterflies! A plate of sugar water awaits them in case this happens over the weekend. This week the children completed Page 3 of their Science Journal, writing about and drawing a picture of the pupas. The details were terrific! Thank you to Cole for bringing in a caterpillar from his cottage! We're not sure what it will will metamorphose into but we gave it some extra food and have our fingers crossed!
We also did two more pages of our Very Hungry Caterpillar book, retelling Eric Carle's story and colouring in the pictures the same way he did. I'm impressed with the amount of details the children remember about the story. Terrific! We will finish the book when the butterflies emerge, which will probably be this week.
The children did a WONDERFUL job tracing and then colouring in a butterfly. They used which ever colours they wished, but the important thing was to make sure it was symetrical, i.e. each wing was the same. I was so impressed with the details and all the different colours the children used, as well as their excellent symetry. Next week they'll be writing, "If I were a butterfly, I would..." and I will post that and their butterflies on our classroom bulletin board.
We also watched a video clip about the life cycle of the silk worm, and I brought in a few examples of silk. The silken "thread" that one caterpillar spins is about 1000 metres long! What an amazing creature. When I explained that 1000 metres was about the distance from LKS to Central Arena/Memorial Pool, the kids eyes grew quite big!
Our new words on the Word Wall are UP, FROM and WITH. Please complete the mini work books that went home in your child's white bag to reinforce the spelling of these important sight words.
I also sent home the new June/July words for your child to practise at home (we read them each day at school as well).
Thank you so much to Theo's mom who was the Mystery Reader. Thank you as well to Parent Council for the delicious "comida mexicana" at the staff appreciation luncheon!
Next week we are going to talk about summer safety: around water, in the home, at the cottage, on the roads. We'll also write more in our Science Journals, and make a book for Father's Day. The Seniors will be making a special book about themselves in Kindergarten for graduation.
On Thursday we will start our "10 days left of school ice cream scoop countdown!" Wow, so hard to believe that the end of this year is so quickly approaching. It's been a terrific year!
I hope you are having a nice weekend.
This week we completed our inquiry on 2-and 3-D shapes, ending with a classroom "shape hunt" in which the children searched the classroom for 10 different 2-and 3D shapes and tallied how many they found. Not surprisingly, most of the objects in the class are rectangular prisms and cylinders, and we have very few triangular prisms. I've encouraged the children to keep looking for those shapes at home and in their environments so don't be surprised if them exclaim, "That house is a cube!" At the various centres, the children enjoyed making various shapes upon shapes with elastics and a peg board, learning that shapes are inside other shapes i.e. two traingles make a square or a diamond or a rectangle. We also practised our 3D Shapes poem, a copy of which is in your child's white bag. The children's homework for this week is to design their own shape by joining dots on a "peg board" like the one we used in class. Thank you to Chloe who brought in examples of 3-D objects from home!
Our butterfly pupas/chrysalis are now in the big tent awaiting the day they come out of their chrysalis and are butterflies! A plate of sugar water awaits them in case this happens over the weekend. This week the children completed Page 3 of their Science Journal, writing about and drawing a picture of the pupas. The details were terrific! Thank you to Cole for bringing in a caterpillar from his cottage! We're not sure what it will will metamorphose into but we gave it some extra food and have our fingers crossed!
We also did two more pages of our Very Hungry Caterpillar book, retelling Eric Carle's story and colouring in the pictures the same way he did. I'm impressed with the amount of details the children remember about the story. Terrific! We will finish the book when the butterflies emerge, which will probably be this week.
The children did a WONDERFUL job tracing and then colouring in a butterfly. They used which ever colours they wished, but the important thing was to make sure it was symetrical, i.e. each wing was the same. I was so impressed with the details and all the different colours the children used, as well as their excellent symetry. Next week they'll be writing, "If I were a butterfly, I would..." and I will post that and their butterflies on our classroom bulletin board.
We also watched a video clip about the life cycle of the silk worm, and I brought in a few examples of silk. The silken "thread" that one caterpillar spins is about 1000 metres long! What an amazing creature. When I explained that 1000 metres was about the distance from LKS to Central Arena/Memorial Pool, the kids eyes grew quite big!
Our new words on the Word Wall are UP, FROM and WITH. Please complete the mini work books that went home in your child's white bag to reinforce the spelling of these important sight words.
I also sent home the new June/July words for your child to practise at home (we read them each day at school as well).
Thank you so much to Theo's mom who was the Mystery Reader. Thank you as well to Parent Council for the delicious "comida mexicana" at the staff appreciation luncheon!
Next week we are going to talk about summer safety: around water, in the home, at the cottage, on the roads. We'll also write more in our Science Journals, and make a book for Father's Day. The Seniors will be making a special book about themselves in Kindergarten for graduation.
On Thursday we will start our "10 days left of school ice cream scoop countdown!" Wow, so hard to believe that the end of this year is so quickly approaching. It's been a terrific year!
I hope you are having a nice weekend.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Week of June 1-5
Dear families,
Almost June already!
This week we learned about the difference between butterflies and moths, metamorphosis, and we talked more about how plants make new plants, why they make so many seeds, and how those seeds get on the ground. We had a visit from mini Mystery Readers Anna and Dana from Mrs. Wilson's class, and we listened to author Helaine Becker talk about how she writes books. We sequenced The Very Hungry Caterpillar, wrote another entry in our Science Journals about how the caterpillar larvae have changed, highlighted all the popcorn words we could find on an information sheet about Metamorphosis, listened to Eric Carle read his book, reviewed beginning, middle, and ending sounds of one-syllable words, and finished our "In the Park" booklets. The children also made a Butterfly Life Cycle Wheel.
The last Snuggle books will be sent home on June 12. Please be sure to return the books you still have at home.
The very last Scholastic Order is due on Monday.
Thank you to Tessa's mom who was the Mystery Reader (thank you for bringing in a non-fiction book about insects!!), Claire and Megan's moms who helped with Pizza lunch, Christopher's mom and COle's dad who helped wit the Computer Lab, Theo who brought in a robin's egg shell, Claire who brought in a maple key (which led to a great discussion about how amazing nature is that it designed the seeds so well!), and Adam who brought in a book about butterflies.
The homework for this week is to complete the mini books BY and FROM, and to look for 3D objects at home. We'll start our unit on 3-D object this upcoming week.
Here is an excellent website for literacy that is terrific for early readers: www.uniteforliteracy.com
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
Almost June already!
This week we learned about the difference between butterflies and moths, metamorphosis, and we talked more about how plants make new plants, why they make so many seeds, and how those seeds get on the ground. We had a visit from mini Mystery Readers Anna and Dana from Mrs. Wilson's class, and we listened to author Helaine Becker talk about how she writes books. We sequenced The Very Hungry Caterpillar, wrote another entry in our Science Journals about how the caterpillar larvae have changed, highlighted all the popcorn words we could find on an information sheet about Metamorphosis, listened to Eric Carle read his book, reviewed beginning, middle, and ending sounds of one-syllable words, and finished our "In the Park" booklets. The children also made a Butterfly Life Cycle Wheel.
The last Snuggle books will be sent home on June 12. Please be sure to return the books you still have at home.
The very last Scholastic Order is due on Monday.
Thank you to Tessa's mom who was the Mystery Reader (thank you for bringing in a non-fiction book about insects!!), Claire and Megan's moms who helped with Pizza lunch, Christopher's mom and COle's dad who helped wit the Computer Lab, Theo who brought in a robin's egg shell, Claire who brought in a maple key (which led to a great discussion about how amazing nature is that it designed the seeds so well!), and Adam who brought in a book about butterflies.
The homework for this week is to complete the mini books BY and FROM, and to look for 3D objects at home. We'll start our unit on 3-D object this upcoming week.
Here is an excellent website for literacy that is terrific for early readers: www.uniteforliteracy.com
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Week of May 25-29
Dear families,
This week in Room 166 it was all about caterpillars, butterflies, and art! And just in time, our Painted Lady larvae arrived on Friday!
We read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar which many of you have at home (great chance for your children to retell/re-read the story at home!) and played at various inquiry centres, such as a re-telling centre with the objects the caterpillar ate. We'll continue to discuss this book next week and will play in sequencing centres, days of the week centres (another great part of this book), healthy food centres, and life cycle centres.
We talked about what butterflies look like up close and the children remembered that they have scales on their wings and, unlike dragonflies, don't lose their colour when they die. We also talked about the symetry of their wings, and the children coloured a large butterfly in, making sure to match each side. They also drew in the head, thorax, abdomen, compound eyes, proboscis (mouth), and antennae. We also reviewed the life cycle.
The kids also made one part of a very long caterpillar a la Eric Carle, using various water colours. Their sponge-painted "very hungry" caterpillars are on display in the classroom. We are also reading other fiction and non-fiction books about butterflies.
After I prepared the food for our new larva, each child had a turn to come up and observe the larvae and what will be their new home for a few weeks. They smelled the larvae food ("It smells like oatmeat!") and wanted to take them home immediately! The larvae will stay in our Science Centre until the caterpillars attach themselves to the lid of their container, at which point I will move them to their new home - a butterfly observatory "net." Stay tuned! We'll be taking notes like scientists do, observing the changes that are happening and making predictions. The kids are great scientists!
The children did a great job singing "The Butterfly Song" at the Sharing Assembly. Thank you for coming! They also enjoyed shopping for books at the Book Fair in the Library.
In preparation for our artist visit, the children painted some purple lilacs I brought in using just two colours, lilac and green. They look beautiful. The children also wrote little sentences about lilacs. I am trying to teach the children to look closely at their world - there are so many beautiful things to see! I'll put them on display when I take down the All About Bugs bulletin board.
Artist Janeen visited our classroom and the children made a beautiful painting for Father's Day. Thank you so much to the parent volunteers who helped out: Aaden's mom, Dima's mom, Christopher's mom, Theo's mom, Megan's mom and of course Matthew H.'s mom.
We are also working on a booklet called "In the Park," in which the children wrote and draw about what they see, feel, like, hear, play in the park. We'll finish it this week.
Last but not least, the children did a wonderful job on "This is Me in May" with a picture and writing, and their May calendar on the back. The children told me all the things they did in May, and there was so much to write about! Springfest, Victoria day fireworks, Mother's Day, Insects, family visits, play dates, the Book Fair, the Artist, going to the cottage, and so on. These are also great assessment tools for school and home. Their progress is so wonderful to see and I am so proud of them. You must be too!
Thank you also to Megan who brought in a dragonfly nymph, Izzie, who shared a beautiful glass butterfly she has, Iris and Theo who brought in more lilacs, Cole who brought in an allium to paint, and Megan's mom who was Mystery Reader. Thank you to Olivia who brought in a whole clover plant from leaves to roots, and to Dima who shared his "Fly Guy" book. It's so great when the kids bring in things that show that they're really learning and extending their learning and interest outside the classroom.
The word wall words this week are NOT and HELP. Please do the NOT mini book for homework and return. THIS and WE were last weekend's homework.
SK parents only: Please be sure to send in a baby photo of your child so I can put it on our SK Graduation DVD. I would like the photos by June 5th at the latest. Thank you!
Next week we'll do more Inquiry, Literacy and Numeracy work on butterflies. Also, author Helaine Becker will be doing a presentation for the kids iin the Library in the morning. www.helainebecker.com
I hope you are having a terrific weekend!
This week in Room 166 it was all about caterpillars, butterflies, and art! And just in time, our Painted Lady larvae arrived on Friday!
We read Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar which many of you have at home (great chance for your children to retell/re-read the story at home!) and played at various inquiry centres, such as a re-telling centre with the objects the caterpillar ate. We'll continue to discuss this book next week and will play in sequencing centres, days of the week centres (another great part of this book), healthy food centres, and life cycle centres.
We talked about what butterflies look like up close and the children remembered that they have scales on their wings and, unlike dragonflies, don't lose their colour when they die. We also talked about the symetry of their wings, and the children coloured a large butterfly in, making sure to match each side. They also drew in the head, thorax, abdomen, compound eyes, proboscis (mouth), and antennae. We also reviewed the life cycle.
The kids also made one part of a very long caterpillar a la Eric Carle, using various water colours. Their sponge-painted "very hungry" caterpillars are on display in the classroom. We are also reading other fiction and non-fiction books about butterflies.
After I prepared the food for our new larva, each child had a turn to come up and observe the larvae and what will be their new home for a few weeks. They smelled the larvae food ("It smells like oatmeat!") and wanted to take them home immediately! The larvae will stay in our Science Centre until the caterpillars attach themselves to the lid of their container, at which point I will move them to their new home - a butterfly observatory "net." Stay tuned! We'll be taking notes like scientists do, observing the changes that are happening and making predictions. The kids are great scientists!
The children did a great job singing "The Butterfly Song" at the Sharing Assembly. Thank you for coming! They also enjoyed shopping for books at the Book Fair in the Library.
In preparation for our artist visit, the children painted some purple lilacs I brought in using just two colours, lilac and green. They look beautiful. The children also wrote little sentences about lilacs. I am trying to teach the children to look closely at their world - there are so many beautiful things to see! I'll put them on display when I take down the All About Bugs bulletin board.
Artist Janeen visited our classroom and the children made a beautiful painting for Father's Day. Thank you so much to the parent volunteers who helped out: Aaden's mom, Dima's mom, Christopher's mom, Theo's mom, Megan's mom and of course Matthew H.'s mom.
We are also working on a booklet called "In the Park," in which the children wrote and draw about what they see, feel, like, hear, play in the park. We'll finish it this week.
Last but not least, the children did a wonderful job on "This is Me in May" with a picture and writing, and their May calendar on the back. The children told me all the things they did in May, and there was so much to write about! Springfest, Victoria day fireworks, Mother's Day, Insects, family visits, play dates, the Book Fair, the Artist, going to the cottage, and so on. These are also great assessment tools for school and home. Their progress is so wonderful to see and I am so proud of them. You must be too!
Thank you also to Megan who brought in a dragonfly nymph, Izzie, who shared a beautiful glass butterfly she has, Iris and Theo who brought in more lilacs, Cole who brought in an allium to paint, and Megan's mom who was Mystery Reader. Thank you to Olivia who brought in a whole clover plant from leaves to roots, and to Dima who shared his "Fly Guy" book. It's so great when the kids bring in things that show that they're really learning and extending their learning and interest outside the classroom.
The word wall words this week are NOT and HELP. Please do the NOT mini book for homework and return. THIS and WE were last weekend's homework.
SK parents only: Please be sure to send in a baby photo of your child so I can put it on our SK Graduation DVD. I would like the photos by June 5th at the latest. Thank you!
Next week we'll do more Inquiry, Literacy and Numeracy work on butterflies. Also, author Helaine Becker will be doing a presentation for the kids iin the Library in the morning. www.helainebecker.com
I hope you are having a terrific weekend!
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