Dear families,
I hope you've had a terrific holiday and a great weekend! Where did all that fun snow go?
In Numeracy, last week we focused on Measurement - what, how, why and where. The children are learning about Standard Measurement (with tools such a rulers, measuring tape, cups, scales) and Non-Standard Measurement (measuring with cube-a-links, popsicle sticks, string, a tracing of their foot, etc.). They measured inside and outside the classroom with standard and non-standard measuring tools. We will continue this unit next week. Thank you Catherine for bringing in measuring tape! The children were quite interested in how engines are measured with "horse power" and horses are measured with 'hands!' They watched Peep and the Big Wide World learn how to measure, too. Please encourage your children to measure things at home with standard and non-standard tools.
On Friday the children enjoyed hot chocolate after learning The Hot Chocolate Song. They are also learning two songs/poems about Measurement.
Thank you Alexandra for collating this month's Scholastic Orders! January's order is due om the 27th. Thank you Alexandra;s dad for being our Mystery Reader this week!
It was our turn with the iPads this week. Fun!
The SK homework for this week is to unscramble the words to make and write sentences, and to fill in the blanks to make words.
On January 17 the children will be going to a special Planetarium Presentation in the Library. That will be exciting! January 27 is our next Sharing Assembly.
In Science, the children are learning about the properties and science of Snow. They are also learning two poems about snow. We read and discussed the plot, setting and characters of Robert Munsch's classic book, "Thomas' Snowsuit" and the children are writing what their favourite part was.
In the Computer Lab, the kids are doing Bookflix from the LKS Virtual Library. Thank you Ms. Santiago!
With our Book Buddies we started a booklet called, "Are You Cold?" This week we will measure things in the LKS hallways with our Grade 4 Book Buddies. I know they will do a great job helping the kids understand how to measure big and small things!
In Friday's mail bags there were the new January word wall words and some of the work your children finished this week.
That's the news from Room 166 - I hope you have a great week!
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Week of December 12-16
Dear families,
I hope you are having a nice weekend!
Last week we did a lot of counting! We counted holiday and winter items, and classroom objects. We talked about how to count: to say the number; arrange the items in a line or in groups of 10; point to the items; take the items away from the group as they are counted. The children also did a worksheet in which they counted the holiday objects and drew a line to the correct number and wrote the number. JKs did 1-1, SKs 1-20.
With their Reading Buddies, the children read, drew and wrote holiday words to make a holiday word wall.
At our Sharing Assembly on Thursday, we will be wearing holiday hats. They are available at the dollar store if you don't have one. We will perform a poem about elves! I hope to see you there! We will also have our Holiday Craft Party on Thursday afternoon!
I have sent home Journals for the JKs. In the journal is a list of sight words. The children are encouraged to draw pictures and write a few words about their picture.
The homework for this week is to complete the LIKE and CAN sight word sheets.
We also made an "Elf's To Do List" and the children wrote their own too. They have finished their elf art and this will go home on Friday, along with their other holiday work. We also did a Candy Cane Investigation! The children ate different flavours of candy cane and wrote about that.
On the Smartboard we learned about Holidays around the world and how to say, "Merry Christmas" in different languages. Next week we will learn about Hannukah, Eid and Kwanzaa.
The children loved watching the rehearsal of The Pirates of Pinantaville, made candy cane reindeer, made a special present for you, and got a letter back from Santa! They also compared and contrasted How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. Thank you to Michai's family for donating the Pete the Cat book to our Classroom! Thank you also to Elea's mom who helped out with Pizza Lunch, to Catherine for sharing a Christmas book, and Alex's dad for being Mystery Reader!
That's our news for the week. If your child will be absent on Friday please send in a note so that we can prepare his/her mail bag in advance.
I hope you have a wonderful week, the last one before the holidays!
I hope you are having a nice weekend!
Last week we did a lot of counting! We counted holiday and winter items, and classroom objects. We talked about how to count: to say the number; arrange the items in a line or in groups of 10; point to the items; take the items away from the group as they are counted. The children also did a worksheet in which they counted the holiday objects and drew a line to the correct number and wrote the number. JKs did 1-1, SKs 1-20.
With their Reading Buddies, the children read, drew and wrote holiday words to make a holiday word wall.
At our Sharing Assembly on Thursday, we will be wearing holiday hats. They are available at the dollar store if you don't have one. We will perform a poem about elves! I hope to see you there! We will also have our Holiday Craft Party on Thursday afternoon!
I have sent home Journals for the JKs. In the journal is a list of sight words. The children are encouraged to draw pictures and write a few words about their picture.
The homework for this week is to complete the LIKE and CAN sight word sheets.
We also made an "Elf's To Do List" and the children wrote their own too. They have finished their elf art and this will go home on Friday, along with their other holiday work. We also did a Candy Cane Investigation! The children ate different flavours of candy cane and wrote about that.
On the Smartboard we learned about Holidays around the world and how to say, "Merry Christmas" in different languages. Next week we will learn about Hannukah, Eid and Kwanzaa.
The children loved watching the rehearsal of The Pirates of Pinantaville, made candy cane reindeer, made a special present for you, and got a letter back from Santa! They also compared and contrasted How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Pete the Cat Saves Christmas. Thank you to Michai's family for donating the Pete the Cat book to our Classroom! Thank you also to Elea's mom who helped out with Pizza Lunch, to Catherine for sharing a Christmas book, and Alex's dad for being Mystery Reader!
That's our news for the week. If your child will be absent on Friday please send in a note so that we can prepare his/her mail bag in advance.
I hope you have a wonderful week, the last one before the holidays!
Sunday, December 11, 2016
Week of December 5-9
Dear families,
I hope you are having a lovely weekend - snow today! The kids will love it! We've been teaching the children the Snow Clothes Song (tune is My Darling Clementine):
First the snowpants
Then the boots,
Then the scarf, and the hat
Then the coat and the zipper
And the mittens go on last!
To support the school-wide Hour of Code last week, we talked a lot about the order of things, and the "steps" to accomplish a task, for example:
How to get from the classroom to the Library
How to make a plaster glitter star
How to dress for a cold day
We finished our Dr. Seuss author study! The children's folders went home in Friday's mailbag. I know they will enjoy showing you all their work! They finished the sentence, "If Thing 1 and Thing 2 came to school..." (The Cat in the Hat); "To make the Grinch smile..." (How the Grinch Stole Christmas); and "I want to go to..." (Horton Hears a Who). The children also made their own Horton with paint, and know that, in Dr. Seuss' famous words, "A person's a person, no matter how small." Thank you Ella and Ruby for bring in their Fox in Sox books, to Catherine for sharing her Lorax book and to Megan T. who was our surprise Mystery Reader and read from her own Dr. Seuss collection. With our Reading Buddies, the children completed the sentence "If I Ran the Zoo" from the eponymous Dr. Seuss book, and drew an accompanying picture. They also wrote Truffalo word family words from Seuss' "Oh the Places You'll Go."
The words of this week were HAVE and SAW. The homework for this week is to do the Holiday Word Search and practice the December words. The Guided Reading Techniques we have learned about are: Eagle Eye, Stretchy Snake, Lips the Fish and Chunky Monkey. I sent a copy of these home in Friday's mailbag.
Thank you to William's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week!
We started talking about the holidays too this week! The excitement is in the air I think! The children made bead pattern candy canes. The SKs had to use three colours, the JKs two. The children were also surprised when Alfie the Elf of the Shelf landed on the North Pole of our classroom globe, and gave each child a backpack bell! The children have finished making their Elves. Next week we will make "Elf To Do Lists" and will continue our Holiday Centres: word presents, clapping the syllables in holiday words, and listening for holiday word ending sounds. In the computer lab the children have been learning to read SNOW words. More to come over the next few weeks!
That's my news for this week - I hope you have a lovely week!
I hope you are having a lovely weekend - snow today! The kids will love it! We've been teaching the children the Snow Clothes Song (tune is My Darling Clementine):
First the snowpants
Then the boots,
Then the scarf, and the hat
Then the coat and the zipper
And the mittens go on last!
To support the school-wide Hour of Code last week, we talked a lot about the order of things, and the "steps" to accomplish a task, for example:
How to get from the classroom to the Library
How to make a plaster glitter star
How to dress for a cold day
We finished our Dr. Seuss author study! The children's folders went home in Friday's mailbag. I know they will enjoy showing you all their work! They finished the sentence, "If Thing 1 and Thing 2 came to school..." (The Cat in the Hat); "To make the Grinch smile..." (How the Grinch Stole Christmas); and "I want to go to..." (Horton Hears a Who). The children also made their own Horton with paint, and know that, in Dr. Seuss' famous words, "A person's a person, no matter how small." Thank you Ella and Ruby for bring in their Fox in Sox books, to Catherine for sharing her Lorax book and to Megan T. who was our surprise Mystery Reader and read from her own Dr. Seuss collection. With our Reading Buddies, the children completed the sentence "If I Ran the Zoo" from the eponymous Dr. Seuss book, and drew an accompanying picture. They also wrote Truffalo word family words from Seuss' "Oh the Places You'll Go."
The words of this week were HAVE and SAW. The homework for this week is to do the Holiday Word Search and practice the December words. The Guided Reading Techniques we have learned about are: Eagle Eye, Stretchy Snake, Lips the Fish and Chunky Monkey. I sent a copy of these home in Friday's mailbag.
Thank you to William's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week!
We started talking about the holidays too this week! The excitement is in the air I think! The children made bead pattern candy canes. The SKs had to use three colours, the JKs two. The children were also surprised when Alfie the Elf of the Shelf landed on the North Pole of our classroom globe, and gave each child a backpack bell! The children have finished making their Elves. Next week we will make "Elf To Do Lists" and will continue our Holiday Centres: word presents, clapping the syllables in holiday words, and listening for holiday word ending sounds. In the computer lab the children have been learning to read SNOW words. More to come over the next few weeks!
That's my news for this week - I hope you have a lovely week!
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Week of November 28 - December 2
Dear families,
December already! Alfie, our Elf on the Shelf, made his appearance on Santa's shoulder on December 1 which the children were very excited about! December is such a wonderful month full of hope and good wishes, especially through children's eyes.
Last week we introduced the letter sound "Ee" like "egg" and the children helped create many words with S A T I P N C K E with magnetic letters. At another centre, they used clothes pins to put pom pom decorations on paper Christmas trees (great for fine motor skills!); sorted hundreds of beads into colours; made stick puppets for their "Oh the Places You'll Go" Balloon Art and Writing; and made a "Countdown to December 25" by patterning 25 beads on pipe cleaners. The children should move one bead over each day, and when all the beads are moved over, they ring the bell because Santa is coming!
We are also making an Advent Calendar of Kindness; each day the children share a new idea about how to be kind and we put it on our calendar. We will be learning about other December celebrations this month as well.
We continued our Dr. Seuss author story this week with "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Ble Fish" read by Caelan's grandfather who was visiting all the way from Australia! We also read "Green Eggs and Ham" again and the children listened for rhyming word families. The are learning to use the strategy of using their "Eagle Eye" to loo at the picture to help with meaning. They also learned the "Stretchy Snake" technique, which is to slow the word down by saying each sound, i.e. C-A-T... CAT.
Thank you Hannah and Alexandra for sharing your Dr. Seuss story books with us! After reading "Oh, The Places You'll Go," the children made rainbow balloons and they will wrote where they would like to go. Look for this soon on our hall bulletin board!
The children did a wonderful job singing Baby Beluga with Ms. McGee at the Sharing Assembly! Congratulations to Alexandra, Elea and James for receiving a certificate for Empathy. Well deserved!
The children completed their November Calendars and "This is Me is November," a copy of which will be sent home.
The children enjoyed listening to Cosmic Yoga this week, especially the one called, "Peace Out!" It is important for children to learn mindfulness and relaxation skills at an early age in order to help them as they grow. Look for other awesome Cosmic Yoga videos on YouTube!
That's the news for this week - see you tomorrow!
December already! Alfie, our Elf on the Shelf, made his appearance on Santa's shoulder on December 1 which the children were very excited about! December is such a wonderful month full of hope and good wishes, especially through children's eyes.
Last week we introduced the letter sound "Ee" like "egg" and the children helped create many words with S A T I P N C K E with magnetic letters. At another centre, they used clothes pins to put pom pom decorations on paper Christmas trees (great for fine motor skills!); sorted hundreds of beads into colours; made stick puppets for their "Oh the Places You'll Go" Balloon Art and Writing; and made a "Countdown to December 25" by patterning 25 beads on pipe cleaners. The children should move one bead over each day, and when all the beads are moved over, they ring the bell because Santa is coming!
We are also making an Advent Calendar of Kindness; each day the children share a new idea about how to be kind and we put it on our calendar. We will be learning about other December celebrations this month as well.
We continued our Dr. Seuss author story this week with "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Ble Fish" read by Caelan's grandfather who was visiting all the way from Australia! We also read "Green Eggs and Ham" again and the children listened for rhyming word families. The are learning to use the strategy of using their "Eagle Eye" to loo at the picture to help with meaning. They also learned the "Stretchy Snake" technique, which is to slow the word down by saying each sound, i.e. C-A-T... CAT.
Thank you Hannah and Alexandra for sharing your Dr. Seuss story books with us! After reading "Oh, The Places You'll Go," the children made rainbow balloons and they will wrote where they would like to go. Look for this soon on our hall bulletin board!
The children did a wonderful job singing Baby Beluga with Ms. McGee at the Sharing Assembly! Congratulations to Alexandra, Elea and James for receiving a certificate for Empathy. Well deserved!
The children completed their November Calendars and "This is Me is November," a copy of which will be sent home.
The children enjoyed listening to Cosmic Yoga this week, especially the one called, "Peace Out!" It is important for children to learn mindfulness and relaxation skills at an early age in order to help them as they grow. Look for other awesome Cosmic Yoga videos on YouTube!
That's the news for this week - see you tomorrow!
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Week of November 21-25
Dear families,
I hope you've had a lovely weekend - it was gorgeous weather today! Hard to believe it will be December 1st on Thursday!!
Last week we continued our Dr. Seuss Author Study. We started with Green Eggs and Ham which is a lot of fun to read. Dr. Seuss' books combine rhyme, rhythm and fun into stories that children have loved for over 60 years. They also have wonderful messages in them that children understand.
As a follow up activity to Green Eggs and Ham, the children named 26 foods from A-Z that they would eat, and 26 places (starting with the same letter sound) they would eat them i.e. Sarah would eat a sandwich on a slide, Gregory would eat gum on a goat, Victoria would eat vegetables on a vase, etc. The children will complete their written work this week.
The children also started their Cat in the Hat name art; first, they counted how many letters in their name; next, they wrote each letter on equal numbers of white and red trips of paper; then they organized them in an ABAB pattern, reversing the starting colour on one side of the hat. This was quite a challenge for some of our little ones! They glued them in order on both side of their hat and chose a skin colour for the face (some children are not at this stage yet). Lastly, they will draw their face, and on the other side they will glue a photo of themselves. Following simple instructions and remember the order of operations is an early math skill, as is patterning and sorting. When the hats are done they'll be proudly hung in the classroom :) .
One of the great things about teaching with Dr. Seuss is the many word families in his books. For example the CAT in the HAT, I would not eat them SAM I AM, HOP on POP, and so on. On the Smartboard, the children came up with several words that had the root -AM. We will do a lot more of this word-family study next week. With our Grade 4 Reading Buddies, the children were interviewed and drew a picture of them reading. This week they will hep our little ones with several word family roots, i.e. -AM, -AT, -IN, -IT, -OG, -OP.
The children also came up with ideas about what would happen if Thing 1 and Thing 2 (from The Cat in the Hat) came to LKS! They will write down their ideas and draw a picture with their Reading Buddies this week.
The homework for this week is to complete the "____ my name is ________ and I like ___________" with a thing your child likes that starts with the first letter of his/her name. We do this each day with the Special Person of the Day, too. The SK homework for the week is to complete the drawing on empathy (when they feel like other people do), and to complete other side of the work sheet on Feelings: "ictoria feels _____ when..."
The children also enjoyed doing Cosmic Yoga as a fun calming activity. Self-regulation is an important skill in the early years and Cosmic Yoga is an awesome way to teach kids about the benefits of Yoga.
Thank you so much to Ruby who collated December's Scholastic orders! They are due on December 1st to ensure they arrive before the holidays. Of you would like your order to be a gift, please just write GIFT on your order form and I will be sure to hand your order to you personally so it is a surprise for your child. Books make wonderful gifts!
Thank you so much to Andrew's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week, and to Hannah's mom and Hudson's mom who helped with Friday's pizza lunch.
November's Sharing Assembly will be on Wednesday, November 30th. The children will be singing "Baby Beluga." We hope to see you then!
That's the news from Room 166! I hope you have a terrific upcoming week!
I hope you've had a lovely weekend - it was gorgeous weather today! Hard to believe it will be December 1st on Thursday!!
Last week we continued our Dr. Seuss Author Study. We started with Green Eggs and Ham which is a lot of fun to read. Dr. Seuss' books combine rhyme, rhythm and fun into stories that children have loved for over 60 years. They also have wonderful messages in them that children understand.
As a follow up activity to Green Eggs and Ham, the children named 26 foods from A-Z that they would eat, and 26 places (starting with the same letter sound) they would eat them i.e. Sarah would eat a sandwich on a slide, Gregory would eat gum on a goat, Victoria would eat vegetables on a vase, etc. The children will complete their written work this week.
The children also started their Cat in the Hat name art; first, they counted how many letters in their name; next, they wrote each letter on equal numbers of white and red trips of paper; then they organized them in an ABAB pattern, reversing the starting colour on one side of the hat. This was quite a challenge for some of our little ones! They glued them in order on both side of their hat and chose a skin colour for the face (some children are not at this stage yet). Lastly, they will draw their face, and on the other side they will glue a photo of themselves. Following simple instructions and remember the order of operations is an early math skill, as is patterning and sorting. When the hats are done they'll be proudly hung in the classroom :) .
One of the great things about teaching with Dr. Seuss is the many word families in his books. For example the CAT in the HAT, I would not eat them SAM I AM, HOP on POP, and so on. On the Smartboard, the children came up with several words that had the root -AM. We will do a lot more of this word-family study next week. With our Grade 4 Reading Buddies, the children were interviewed and drew a picture of them reading. This week they will hep our little ones with several word family roots, i.e. -AM, -AT, -IN, -IT, -OG, -OP.
The children also came up with ideas about what would happen if Thing 1 and Thing 2 (from The Cat in the Hat) came to LKS! They will write down their ideas and draw a picture with their Reading Buddies this week.
The homework for this week is to complete the "____ my name is ________ and I like ___________" with a thing your child likes that starts with the first letter of his/her name. We do this each day with the Special Person of the Day, too. The SK homework for the week is to complete the drawing on empathy (when they feel like other people do), and to complete other side of the work sheet on Feelings: "ictoria feels _____ when..."
The children also enjoyed doing Cosmic Yoga as a fun calming activity. Self-regulation is an important skill in the early years and Cosmic Yoga is an awesome way to teach kids about the benefits of Yoga.
Thank you so much to Ruby who collated December's Scholastic orders! They are due on December 1st to ensure they arrive before the holidays. Of you would like your order to be a gift, please just write GIFT on your order form and I will be sure to hand your order to you personally so it is a surprise for your child. Books make wonderful gifts!
Thank you so much to Andrew's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week, and to Hannah's mom and Hudson's mom who helped with Friday's pizza lunch.
November's Sharing Assembly will be on Wednesday, November 30th. The children will be singing "Baby Beluga." We hope to see you then!
That's the news from Room 166! I hope you have a terrific upcoming week!
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