Happy Holidays! I'm sure your children are very excited to be off for the holidays with their families and friends! Now all we need is snow!
This last week of school we did a lot of holiday-related things: we read non-fiction facts together about reindeer on the Smartboard and in booklets; we did our December calendars and "This is me in December" picture and writing; we cut out and decorated Christmas trees from paper; the SKs coloured Christmas lights by sum (i.e. 1+3=4, colour all sums of 4 red); the JKs coloured lights by reading the colour words; we did math problems on the Smartboard (i.e. two trees have 5 lights each - how many are there altogether); we also counted and sorted gold and silver rocks. The SKs played a kind of Reindeer Scrabble, in which the children had to create three letter words to match pictures on reindeer. The children also planted "magic beans" (tic tacs!) in Santa's magic snow and the next day they had turned into candy canes! Wow!
The words of the week were YOU and HERE. Please add them to your child's bedtime book box and practise them at home.
I sent home the Seniors' Phonics workbooks to work on over the holidays if they wish. They can also do the "Reindeer ARE, HAVE, CAN" sheet (we did this on the Smartboard together already) and the Christmas word search.
At the Sharing Assembly on Tuesday the children did a wonderful job singing "Toys and Tinsel" and "Oh Hannukah is Here." They also recited "Shy Santa" which I think is their favourite!
On Thursday, the children really enjoyed making wonderful crafts with our parent volunteers, who were the moms of Martel, Theo, Andrew, Claire, Matthew and Riley. Ellie's mom was our Mystery Reader. Thank you so much!! On the last day of school the children played, painted, sang holiday songs with the entire school in the gym, made more Christmassy stuff, and watched some Christmas classics on the Smartboard. Judging by their energy I think they had a wonderful time!
When we return on January 4 we'll do an Author Study on Mo Willems who wrote the hilarious and fun "Who Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus?" and other pigeon books. We will also (weather permitting!) start learning all about snow and ice in Science, and we'll start learning about several interesting Arctic Animals.
Thank you again for the lovely gifts you gave to me and my family. I love teaching your delightful children and I'm looking forward to hearing all about their holiday adventures in a few short weeks!
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Week of December 14-18
Dear families,
We finished our last folktale this week - The Gingerbread Man - and started our Christmas and Hannukah activities to get into the spirit of the holidays! On Monday we made gingerbread cookies, baked them, and frosted them when they had cooled down. The children also helped me write instructions about "How to Make Gingerbread Cookies" which I will send home. I've also sent a recipe home if you would like to make them yourselves! Our painting centre only had two colours - brown and white - so the kids could paint gingerbread men. We retold the story, compared the traditional story to others we read (The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl), and wrote down adjectives to describe the gingerbread man. The SK homework for this weekend is to write down 6 adjectives themselves and to draw a picture. Since this was the last folktale we read, we also talked about what all the folktales we read had in common (a trick, often 3 characters that are the same, a wolf or a fox, etc.). With our Book Buddies this week we read and coloured a Gingerbread Man story booklet and a Sharing Cookies pattern booklet.
We also did some holiday activities, which we will continue next week. The children did a mitten match, and a dot-to-dot 1-20 reindeer. Our Science Centre has become a cinnamon- and peppermint-scented North Pole, and we also have a Holiday Card writing Centre complete with a mailbox. I love that the children are writing cards to their friends and family! In our building centres, the kids built "gingerbread houses" and in art we all made Elves out of wallpaper. These small motor activities are very important for young children to practise regularly. They also squeezed various colours of glitter glue on a large letters (of their name i.e. P for Peter) and spread the glue around. When it dries they can hang it on their tree at home. The ornaments I cherish most on my Christmas tree are the ones my children made when they were little. The children also had fun in dramatic play, playing with my Christmas puppets. The children learned more about Hanukkah from Miss Nisker and made clay dreidels. We also finished making the special gifts for mom and dad that went home in a white paper bag. I hope it is a keepsake you cherish for years to come.
A special Thank You to Dylan's grandmother who read "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and "The Day the Crayons Quit." Christopher's mom helped out in the Computer Lab, and Tessa's, Alexandra's and Martel's moms helped out with Pizza Lunch on Friday. Thank you so much for your time and energy!
The upcoming week we'll write our Elves' "To Do" list and we'll do some Santa patterning and beginning and ending sounds. We'll read lots of holiday books and will sing songs at the piano. On Tuesday it's our last Sharing Assembly of the year (your children can wear festive hats if you have them), and on Thursday morning it's our Holiday Craft Party. On Thursday afternoon I will be with the Seeds of Hope group at the Kingsway Retirement Home. There will be a supply teacher to assist the children.
Please keep your Christmas Cards rather than recycling them, and send the picture halves to class after the holidays. We'll use them next year to write new cards to our friends!
That's the news for this week - there is supposed to be snow, finally, on Thursday!
Mrs. Tyndall :)
We finished our last folktale this week - The Gingerbread Man - and started our Christmas and Hannukah activities to get into the spirit of the holidays! On Monday we made gingerbread cookies, baked them, and frosted them when they had cooled down. The children also helped me write instructions about "How to Make Gingerbread Cookies" which I will send home. I've also sent a recipe home if you would like to make them yourselves! Our painting centre only had two colours - brown and white - so the kids could paint gingerbread men. We retold the story, compared the traditional story to others we read (The Gingerbread Baby, The Gingerbread Girl), and wrote down adjectives to describe the gingerbread man. The SK homework for this weekend is to write down 6 adjectives themselves and to draw a picture. Since this was the last folktale we read, we also talked about what all the folktales we read had in common (a trick, often 3 characters that are the same, a wolf or a fox, etc.). With our Book Buddies this week we read and coloured a Gingerbread Man story booklet and a Sharing Cookies pattern booklet.
We also did some holiday activities, which we will continue next week. The children did a mitten match, and a dot-to-dot 1-20 reindeer. Our Science Centre has become a cinnamon- and peppermint-scented North Pole, and we also have a Holiday Card writing Centre complete with a mailbox. I love that the children are writing cards to their friends and family! In our building centres, the kids built "gingerbread houses" and in art we all made Elves out of wallpaper. These small motor activities are very important for young children to practise regularly. They also squeezed various colours of glitter glue on a large letters (of their name i.e. P for Peter) and spread the glue around. When it dries they can hang it on their tree at home. The ornaments I cherish most on my Christmas tree are the ones my children made when they were little. The children also had fun in dramatic play, playing with my Christmas puppets. The children learned more about Hanukkah from Miss Nisker and made clay dreidels. We also finished making the special gifts for mom and dad that went home in a white paper bag. I hope it is a keepsake you cherish for years to come.
A special Thank You to Dylan's grandmother who read "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and "The Day the Crayons Quit." Christopher's mom helped out in the Computer Lab, and Tessa's, Alexandra's and Martel's moms helped out with Pizza Lunch on Friday. Thank you so much for your time and energy!
The upcoming week we'll write our Elves' "To Do" list and we'll do some Santa patterning and beginning and ending sounds. We'll read lots of holiday books and will sing songs at the piano. On Tuesday it's our last Sharing Assembly of the year (your children can wear festive hats if you have them), and on Thursday morning it's our Holiday Craft Party. On Thursday afternoon I will be with the Seeds of Hope group at the Kingsway Retirement Home. There will be a supply teacher to assist the children.
Please keep your Christmas Cards rather than recycling them, and send the picture halves to class after the holidays. We'll use them next year to write new cards to our friends!
That's the news for this week - there is supposed to be snow, finally, on Thursday!
Mrs. Tyndall :)
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Week of December 7-11
Dear families,
I hope you are having a nice weekend. Still no snow!
I have sent home this month's December words (which are on both sides of the sheet) and the December Homework Bingo. We practise these words every day at Circle Time as well as the two songs and one poem we will be presenting at the December 15 Festive Sharing Assembly. I hope you can come! It will be at 9 a.m. in the Gym, as always.
This week was all about the Folktale Cinderella. We read different versions, the children play-acted the story, and they did number and alphabet mazes (correct order of letters and numbers) to help get Cinderella to her glass slipper. The Seniors worked on read and write dry erase boards to copy Cinderella sight words, and almost all the children have completed their awesome shoe box castles! I think I heard myself say "leave space for the mortar between the stones" 28 times :). I hope they have a lot of fun at home recreating scenes from folktales and making up their own stories with them! A great follow up activity to do at home would be for your child to measure his/her castle using a tape measure. The children also took turns using the boxes to build a class castle and I loved their descriptive words about how they built it and the features it had. Wonderful cooperative play! Miss Nisker read a non-fiction book about castles which the children found very interesting - it helped them with ideas for their big class castle! The children also read and coloured a little pattern book called "Who Can You See?" about Cinderella.
The Seniors practised clapping syllables of Cinderella words (i.e. godmother = 3 claps, slipper =2 claps) to assist them with their writing. The homework for the SKs is to complete the sight word booklet that they practised in class on the dry-erase boards. The Juniors and Seniors practised their 10-frames with beads and played a ten-frame game with dice.
Thank you to Theo's mom who helped out in the Computer Lab, and to our Mystery Readers Megan (who is now in Grade One!) and Iris' dad, who brought in a fairy tale book. Thank you to Martel's mom who made play dough. This week we will read several versions of The Gingerbread Man, and the play- dough will be handy! We will focus on this folktale in the morning and will do our Holiday/Christmas activities in the afternoons, starting with Elf Capades! The kids were very excited that Alfie the Elf had arrived in our classroom! The children will make an elf from wallpaper pieces and will write a list of what the elves have to do before Christmas. Miss Nisker will be teaching the children about Hanukkah. Thank you Miss. Nisker! We'll also make real gingerbread cookies in class and bake them in the school's oven. I can't wait!
I have completed the literacy and numeracy assessments for the Seniors. Juniors have their formal assessments next term. Please feel free to contact me at any time to arrange for a meeting about your child's progress.
That's my news for this week - see you tomorrow!
Mrs. Tyndall
I hope you are having a nice weekend. Still no snow!
I have sent home this month's December words (which are on both sides of the sheet) and the December Homework Bingo. We practise these words every day at Circle Time as well as the two songs and one poem we will be presenting at the December 15 Festive Sharing Assembly. I hope you can come! It will be at 9 a.m. in the Gym, as always.
This week was all about the Folktale Cinderella. We read different versions, the children play-acted the story, and they did number and alphabet mazes (correct order of letters and numbers) to help get Cinderella to her glass slipper. The Seniors worked on read and write dry erase boards to copy Cinderella sight words, and almost all the children have completed their awesome shoe box castles! I think I heard myself say "leave space for the mortar between the stones" 28 times :). I hope they have a lot of fun at home recreating scenes from folktales and making up their own stories with them! A great follow up activity to do at home would be for your child to measure his/her castle using a tape measure. The children also took turns using the boxes to build a class castle and I loved their descriptive words about how they built it and the features it had. Wonderful cooperative play! Miss Nisker read a non-fiction book about castles which the children found very interesting - it helped them with ideas for their big class castle! The children also read and coloured a little pattern book called "Who Can You See?" about Cinderella.
The Seniors practised clapping syllables of Cinderella words (i.e. godmother = 3 claps, slipper =2 claps) to assist them with their writing. The homework for the SKs is to complete the sight word booklet that they practised in class on the dry-erase boards. The Juniors and Seniors practised their 10-frames with beads and played a ten-frame game with dice.
Thank you to Theo's mom who helped out in the Computer Lab, and to our Mystery Readers Megan (who is now in Grade One!) and Iris' dad, who brought in a fairy tale book. Thank you to Martel's mom who made play dough. This week we will read several versions of The Gingerbread Man, and the play- dough will be handy! We will focus on this folktale in the morning and will do our Holiday/Christmas activities in the afternoons, starting with Elf Capades! The kids were very excited that Alfie the Elf had arrived in our classroom! The children will make an elf from wallpaper pieces and will write a list of what the elves have to do before Christmas. Miss Nisker will be teaching the children about Hanukkah. Thank you Miss. Nisker! We'll also make real gingerbread cookies in class and bake them in the school's oven. I can't wait!
I have completed the literacy and numeracy assessments for the Seniors. Juniors have their formal assessments next term. Please feel free to contact me at any time to arrange for a meeting about your child's progress.
That's my news for this week - see you tomorrow!
Mrs. Tyndall
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Week of November 30 - December 4
Dear families,
I hope you enjoyed the sun this lovely November Saturday!
Thank you to our Computer Lab volunteers - Ellie's mom and Ruby's mom. Thank you also to Riley's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week, and to Dylan's and Claire's moms who helped out with pizza lunch. Thank you also to Matthew's mom who made play dough for the class!
This upcoming week is the Scholastic Book Fair in the Library. The children in Group 1 will be going on Thursday, and the children in Group 2 will be going on Tuesday. If you wish your child to buy books, please send their money in a plastic baggy marked with their name. Thank you!
In this weekend's TDSB bag your child's work on the book study of "Where the Wild Things Are" was sent home, along with their weekly snuggle book. Please return the snuggle book each Monday so that other children can read it.
This week we read several versions of The Three Little Pigs, starting with a very old version written in 1960. I think the children enjoyed reading all the other versions from the library that are in our classroom. We talked a lot about how they are the same and different and which they like better and why. We also did a Venn comparing the Troll and the Wolf. We also made cute piggy art from construction paper. On the tummy is a letter to the big bad wolf. I've typed up the children's ideas of what to write to the big bad wolf - they are so cute!
We also did a graphing activity; the children had to take turns with a spinner, which would land on a picture of either straw, sticks or bricks. Each time it landed on one of those three, they had to colour in one rectangle of the graph. Which ever they landed on the most and reached 10, they had to decorate a little house with that material. The follow up activity is to write if that was the best material for the house, or not. The Seniors helped the Juniors with this activity.
The children enjoyed building structures in class this week and were proud to show them to their classmates. They built houses in groups and then explained how they did it in front of the class. Great job! They also decorated three paper houses with real straw, sticks, and "bricks" (sponge painted), and retold the story using puppets. I recorded the children's descriptions of the structures they built and will send copies home when the Folktale unit is done.
On the Smartboard, we did guided reading of "How to Make Piggie Pie" and a simple version of "The Three Little Pigs," both of which will go in the children's Folktale Folder when we have finished this unit of inquiry. The homework for the SKs is to draw pictures and write how to make piggy pie. We did this together on the Smartboard first. The JK homework is to just read and colour this booklet.
Continuing with our science inquiry on the weather, we talked about the wind, like the wolf, blowing things down! Also, that snow is flakes of ice. The children brought some ice inside to our science table.
With our Grade 2 Reading Buddies, the children read and coloured a version of The Three Little Pigs that has a happier ending (the wolf runs away) than the traditional tale.
We had a visit from Hector from the Brentwood Library this week. The children listened to stories, sang songs, and learned about all the fun things to do at a public library.
On December 15, it will be "Wear a Festive Sweater Day' at LKS to raise money for the Seeds of Hope. It is also the day of an Author Visit in the Library, and is our Sharing Assembly in the morning. We will be singing holiday songs for you. It would be great if the children could wear a festive hat on this day for the assembly.
That's our news for this week! Next week will be all about castles and several versions of the classic tale Cinderella. Our Dramatic Play area is now decorated by the children as a castle and looks amazing!
Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls for our castles (as many as you can please). We also need 28 small baby food jars with lids. Thank you!
I hope you have a lovely weekend!
I hope you enjoyed the sun this lovely November Saturday!
Thank you to our Computer Lab volunteers - Ellie's mom and Ruby's mom. Thank you also to Riley's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week, and to Dylan's and Claire's moms who helped out with pizza lunch. Thank you also to Matthew's mom who made play dough for the class!
This upcoming week is the Scholastic Book Fair in the Library. The children in Group 1 will be going on Thursday, and the children in Group 2 will be going on Tuesday. If you wish your child to buy books, please send their money in a plastic baggy marked with their name. Thank you!
In this weekend's TDSB bag your child's work on the book study of "Where the Wild Things Are" was sent home, along with their weekly snuggle book. Please return the snuggle book each Monday so that other children can read it.
This week we read several versions of The Three Little Pigs, starting with a very old version written in 1960. I think the children enjoyed reading all the other versions from the library that are in our classroom. We talked a lot about how they are the same and different and which they like better and why. We also did a Venn comparing the Troll and the Wolf. We also made cute piggy art from construction paper. On the tummy is a letter to the big bad wolf. I've typed up the children's ideas of what to write to the big bad wolf - they are so cute!
We also did a graphing activity; the children had to take turns with a spinner, which would land on a picture of either straw, sticks or bricks. Each time it landed on one of those three, they had to colour in one rectangle of the graph. Which ever they landed on the most and reached 10, they had to decorate a little house with that material. The follow up activity is to write if that was the best material for the house, or not. The Seniors helped the Juniors with this activity.
The children enjoyed building structures in class this week and were proud to show them to their classmates. They built houses in groups and then explained how they did it in front of the class. Great job! They also decorated three paper houses with real straw, sticks, and "bricks" (sponge painted), and retold the story using puppets. I recorded the children's descriptions of the structures they built and will send copies home when the Folktale unit is done.
On the Smartboard, we did guided reading of "How to Make Piggie Pie" and a simple version of "The Three Little Pigs," both of which will go in the children's Folktale Folder when we have finished this unit of inquiry. The homework for the SKs is to draw pictures and write how to make piggy pie. We did this together on the Smartboard first. The JK homework is to just read and colour this booklet.
Continuing with our science inquiry on the weather, we talked about the wind, like the wolf, blowing things down! Also, that snow is flakes of ice. The children brought some ice inside to our science table.
With our Grade 2 Reading Buddies, the children read and coloured a version of The Three Little Pigs that has a happier ending (the wolf runs away) than the traditional tale.
We had a visit from Hector from the Brentwood Library this week. The children listened to stories, sang songs, and learned about all the fun things to do at a public library.
On December 15, it will be "Wear a Festive Sweater Day' at LKS to raise money for the Seeds of Hope. It is also the day of an Author Visit in the Library, and is our Sharing Assembly in the morning. We will be singing holiday songs for you. It would be great if the children could wear a festive hat on this day for the assembly.
That's our news for this week! Next week will be all about castles and several versions of the classic tale Cinderella. Our Dramatic Play area is now decorated by the children as a castle and looks amazing!
Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls for our castles (as many as you can please). We also need 28 small baby food jars with lids. Thank you!
I hope you have a lovely weekend!
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Week of November 23-27
Hello families,
This week was all about The Three Billy Goats Gruff and bridges. We read several versions of this classic folktale including "The Three Bully Goats" (which transitioned well into a discussion about bullying and bully awareness week) and "The Three Billy Goats Fluff" (which is a cute version in which the troll can't sleep due to the "trip trapping" of the goats' hooves and they have to come up with a solution to not bother the tired troll). We sequenced the story and its different versions and retold it. We also watched a video on the Smartboard called "What Makes Bridges so Strong?" Then four of the tables had the task of building a bridge out of tubes, various sizes of wooden sticks, and tape. Two tables had only small marshmallows and toothpicks. It was great that some of the children remembered that the triangle shape is often used in bridges. Many of the children also recalled going over bridges and their conversations and cooperative play and problem-solving was great to hear. After they built the bridge they drew it and wrote what the bridge HAS, CAN (do) and IS. We followed up with this activity by sponge-painting the setting of the story (dried/eaten grass, water, bridge, green grass), and by cutting gout and making puppets. The children's wonderful teamwork and thinking is on display on our hall bulletin board.
The children also made Troll and Ogre puppets and they will go home next week. They look awesome! Thank you Cole for bringing in Jan Brett's book "The Trouble with Trolls." We also graphed and tallied our answers to the question, "Would you throw the troll over the bridge or would you make friends with the troll?" I was impressed that more than twice as many children said they would make friends with the troll. :)
Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls for our castles ( as many as you can please). We also need 28 small baby food jars with lids. Thank you!
As an introduction to our next folktale, The Three Little Pigs, we went on a walking excursion around the shale pit, looking at the houses and fences - deciding which was strong, stronger, strongest. A large wall made of large and heavy rocks at the back of the pit was a clear winner. It was also a very windy day and this will lead nicely into our discussion of wind and the role it plays in the story. I sent home a wind vane kit if your child wishes to make one at home -- you just need a play-doh container and lid and a pencil.
The home work for this weekend for the SKs is to fill in the blanks with Troll adjectives to make a poem, and draw an accompanying picture (we did the adjectives in class on chart paper). They can also do the word search. The JKs should cut out and sequence the story pictures.
We also started talking about castles since they are in a lot of folk and fairy tales. The children made them from paper bags and we looked at and talked about the features of some famous castles (Windsor, Neuschwanstein) as well as our own Casa Loma. Thank you Theo for bringing in the home made castle from your house. We will start making ours too once more show boxes are sent in.
Thank you to Cole's dad who helped out in the Computer Lab, to William's mom who was our Mystery Reader on his special day, and to Martel's mom who also helped out in the Computer Lab.
Some of the children must be growing quickly because they are finishing their morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack by lunchtime and don't have anything left over for afternoon snack time! Please be sure to send In enough healthy snacks for the whole day. I always have extra but they are just goldfish because I can't store perishable food for long in my fridge.
The last day to hand in any holiday Scholastic orders is tomorrow. Thank you!
That's the classroom news for this week - I hope you have a terrific week and look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!
This week was all about The Three Billy Goats Gruff and bridges. We read several versions of this classic folktale including "The Three Bully Goats" (which transitioned well into a discussion about bullying and bully awareness week) and "The Three Billy Goats Fluff" (which is a cute version in which the troll can't sleep due to the "trip trapping" of the goats' hooves and they have to come up with a solution to not bother the tired troll). We sequenced the story and its different versions and retold it. We also watched a video on the Smartboard called "What Makes Bridges so Strong?" Then four of the tables had the task of building a bridge out of tubes, various sizes of wooden sticks, and tape. Two tables had only small marshmallows and toothpicks. It was great that some of the children remembered that the triangle shape is often used in bridges. Many of the children also recalled going over bridges and their conversations and cooperative play and problem-solving was great to hear. After they built the bridge they drew it and wrote what the bridge HAS, CAN (do) and IS. We followed up with this activity by sponge-painting the setting of the story (dried/eaten grass, water, bridge, green grass), and by cutting gout and making puppets. The children's wonderful teamwork and thinking is on display on our hall bulletin board.
The children also made Troll and Ogre puppets and they will go home next week. They look awesome! Thank you Cole for bringing in Jan Brett's book "The Trouble with Trolls." We also graphed and tallied our answers to the question, "Would you throw the troll over the bridge or would you make friends with the troll?" I was impressed that more than twice as many children said they would make friends with the troll. :)
Please send in shoeboxes and toilet paper rolls for our castles ( as many as you can please). We also need 28 small baby food jars with lids. Thank you!
As an introduction to our next folktale, The Three Little Pigs, we went on a walking excursion around the shale pit, looking at the houses and fences - deciding which was strong, stronger, strongest. A large wall made of large and heavy rocks at the back of the pit was a clear winner. It was also a very windy day and this will lead nicely into our discussion of wind and the role it plays in the story. I sent home a wind vane kit if your child wishes to make one at home -- you just need a play-doh container and lid and a pencil.
The home work for this weekend for the SKs is to fill in the blanks with Troll adjectives to make a poem, and draw an accompanying picture (we did the adjectives in class on chart paper). They can also do the word search. The JKs should cut out and sequence the story pictures.
We also started talking about castles since they are in a lot of folk and fairy tales. The children made them from paper bags and we looked at and talked about the features of some famous castles (Windsor, Neuschwanstein) as well as our own Casa Loma. Thank you Theo for bringing in the home made castle from your house. We will start making ours too once more show boxes are sent in.
Thank you to Cole's dad who helped out in the Computer Lab, to William's mom who was our Mystery Reader on his special day, and to Martel's mom who also helped out in the Computer Lab.
Some of the children must be growing quickly because they are finishing their morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack by lunchtime and don't have anything left over for afternoon snack time! Please be sure to send In enough healthy snacks for the whole day. I always have extra but they are just goldfish because I can't store perishable food for long in my fridge.
The last day to hand in any holiday Scholastic orders is tomorrow. Thank you!
That's the classroom news for this week - I hope you have a terrific week and look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow!
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