Dear families,
I hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Last week we did a lot of numeracy and literacy activities related to Thanksgiving, and we'll top it off on Tuesday with a graph about which foods the kids ate for Thanksgiving! The children made a table decoration plate called "I am Thankful for..." with six pictures and accompanying pictures. We also read several books about Thanksgiving, including Todd Parr's wonderful book "The Thankful Book" and a lovely chapter books called "Gracie's Thanksgiving." The children made turkey finger puppets, did turkey pattern matching and sequencing, coloured a turkey by reading the colour words, and learned a really fun dance called "All You Turkeys Dance Around!" The kids loved it! It's easy to find on Youtube.
All the children's Mo Willems' work went home in Thursday's mail bag. When folders go home, your children will enjoy sharing and reading all the work they did. It's an excellent opportunity for them to review what they learned at school!
The popcorn (sight) words of the week are FOR and WENT. Our October words and October Homework Bingo were sent home in the mail bag as well. We practice those words every day in class.
We had two Mystery Readers this week! The first was my former student Hannah who is now in Grade One! The second was Alex's dad! Thank you so much for being Mystery Readers!
The Scholastic Book Fair is next week. Group One is going on Thursday, and Group Two is going on Tuesday. To avoid confusion, simply send in money (in a labelled zip-lock baggie) tomorrow, Tuesday. We will keep it in a safe place in the classroom until the kids go to the Book Fair. October's Scholastic Order is due tomorrow, October 10. Thank you for supporting Scholastic!
Each week your child brings home a Snuggle Up and Read book. If the book is "too easy," you could ask your child to spell words from the book. If it is "too hard," you could ask your child to find the beginning sounds of words or find sight words a.k.a. popcorn words.
Next week we will start learning about Signs of Fall in the mornings (science/nature) and ALL ABOUT MONKEYS in the afternoons (nature and fiction/non-fiction). If you can find an oak tree nearby, please bring in 10 acorns (or more!!) to use on 10-frames we are making and playing with. Thank you! We will also be making 3-D Autumn Tree Art and Pumpkin art.
Last week was photo day. Photo retake day and sibling photo day will be on November 1.
That is the news for this week! I hope you are enjoying the lovely weather this weekend. :)
Monday, October 9, 2017
Sunday, October 1, 2017
Week of September 25-29
Dear families,
October 1st already! With last week's hot weather we certainly didn't talk about "Signs of Fall" but now that Thanksgiving is around the corner, it will be easier for the children to see and feel the new season.
It was nice speaking you those of you who attended Curriculum Night. Thank you to Hope's mom who came with us on the Terry Fox Walk. Thank you as well to Yara's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week!
The children did a great job on our practice Lock Down, keeping very quiet in the cubby room "because there is a dog in the school."
The words of the week were CAN, ME, LIKE and MY. The letter sounds we practised this week were S and A. We also practised more patterns this week and will continue working on them next week.
We had our first Sharing Assembly of the year on Friday. The children did a great job reciting the poem "I Like School." Congratulations to Christopher, Ethan and Maya for receiving a certificate for RESPECT.
We completed a class book inspired by Mo Willems' "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" Each child will get a copy to bring home and we'll keep the original in our class library.
We also completed our first "This is Me in... (September)" and first calendar. I keep a copy for assessment purposes and send a copy home. We do these each month.
That's the news from Room 166! Next week we will do a lot of Fall and Thanksgiving activities. I hope you have a wonderful week!
October 1st already! With last week's hot weather we certainly didn't talk about "Signs of Fall" but now that Thanksgiving is around the corner, it will be easier for the children to see and feel the new season.
It was nice speaking you those of you who attended Curriculum Night. Thank you to Hope's mom who came with us on the Terry Fox Walk. Thank you as well to Yara's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week!
The children did a great job on our practice Lock Down, keeping very quiet in the cubby room "because there is a dog in the school."
The words of the week were CAN, ME, LIKE and MY. The letter sounds we practised this week were S and A. We also practised more patterns this week and will continue working on them next week.
We had our first Sharing Assembly of the year on Friday. The children did a great job reciting the poem "I Like School." Congratulations to Christopher, Ethan and Maya for receiving a certificate for RESPECT.
We completed a class book inspired by Mo Willems' "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!" Each child will get a copy to bring home and we'll keep the original in our class library.
We also completed our first "This is Me in... (September)" and first calendar. I keep a copy for assessment purposes and send a copy home. We do these each month.
That's the news from Room 166! Next week we will do a lot of Fall and Thanksgiving activities. I hope you have a wonderful week!
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Week of September 18-22
Dear families,
I hope you have had a lovely weekend and enjoyed this amazing autumn weather! I found a white fuzzy caterpillar up north this weekend as well as 12 crayfish claws that a local seagull left behind. Perfect for our little Science Centre and nature inquiries!
Last week was busy in room 166! We continued our Mo Willems Author Study last week; after watching a little video about real pigeons and then Mo Willems' "Pigeon Needs a Bath!" the children helped me create a Venn diagram comparing real pigeons and Mo Willems' fictional pigeon. We also read Willems' book "Should I Share My Ice Cream" and talked about the TDSB Character Trait of Integrity, in other words, doing what you should do even when no one is looking! We made a "favourite ice cream" graph and tally marks, the JKs used bingo dabbers to find and trace the letter P for Pigeon, and the SKs "Read the Room" by finding pigeon sight words and writing 7 of them down. The SKs also competed a sheet by writing 5 more things the pigeon shouldn't drive, and are practising a booklet of pigeon popcorn words! Good work! The kids had a great time doing cookie math (after reading "Pigeon Wants a Cookie!") and ate an Oreo after solving a simple addition or subtraction problem involving cookies in jars! Thanks to Ethan for the extra Oreos!
Psssst! This month's Scholastic flyers have Mo Willems books! October's Scholastic order is due on the 10th.
In Numeracy, we started our inquiry on Patterns. The JKs are learning simple ABAB patterns and the SKs are learning to create and recognize more complex patterns such as ABCABC, AABAAB, ABBABB. The Juniors are creating a Numbers Poems Booklet, which includes all the little poems we say to help the children remember how to write the numbers 1-10. For example, "A straight line down is lots of fun, that's how you make the Number One!" We JKs also counted the corresponding stickers I gave them (who doesn't like stickers!!). One-to-One Correspondence is an important Kindergarten skill. As well, Zero the Zebra came out twice this week! It was September 20, and it was also the 10th day of school this week! We are also learning (JKs) and reviewing (SKs) how to make tally marks.
The SKs have been doing a terrific job with their journals! I am very happy that they are skipping lines and drawing lovely pictures to accompany their writing. Keep up the great work!
Kindly review with your children which is his/her snack and which is lunch. We discussed it in class but some of the little ones still aren't sure. Please also don't send fruit cups as snacks. Most of our class is carpeted and the children can't manage opening them, so spilled sweet juice attracts wasps this time of year as well as ants. Fresh fruit is easiest (and healthiest!).
The painting centre is officially open and already the children are making some beautiful art. I've put out rainbow colours (in the ROYGBV order), plus black and white, and some of the kids were quick to paint rainbows as well as lovely flowers.
Thank you so much to Alexander's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week! He read the classic stories, "Ferdinand the Bull" and "Library Lion."
With their Reading Buddies, the children answered questions about themselves and read books.
We are also learning a poem called "I Like School" and the children are learning how to write the word TO.
On Friday had a little cookie party for the children moving to the smaller class. Boy were they excited when they saw their new classroom!
That's the news for this week! I hope you have a lovely week. This hot weather is supposed to break by Wednesday. Whew!
I hope you have had a lovely weekend and enjoyed this amazing autumn weather! I found a white fuzzy caterpillar up north this weekend as well as 12 crayfish claws that a local seagull left behind. Perfect for our little Science Centre and nature inquiries!
Last week was busy in room 166! We continued our Mo Willems Author Study last week; after watching a little video about real pigeons and then Mo Willems' "Pigeon Needs a Bath!" the children helped me create a Venn diagram comparing real pigeons and Mo Willems' fictional pigeon. We also read Willems' book "Should I Share My Ice Cream" and talked about the TDSB Character Trait of Integrity, in other words, doing what you should do even when no one is looking! We made a "favourite ice cream" graph and tally marks, the JKs used bingo dabbers to find and trace the letter P for Pigeon, and the SKs "Read the Room" by finding pigeon sight words and writing 7 of them down. The SKs also competed a sheet by writing 5 more things the pigeon shouldn't drive, and are practising a booklet of pigeon popcorn words! Good work! The kids had a great time doing cookie math (after reading "Pigeon Wants a Cookie!") and ate an Oreo after solving a simple addition or subtraction problem involving cookies in jars! Thanks to Ethan for the extra Oreos!
Psssst! This month's Scholastic flyers have Mo Willems books! October's Scholastic order is due on the 10th.
In Numeracy, we started our inquiry on Patterns. The JKs are learning simple ABAB patterns and the SKs are learning to create and recognize more complex patterns such as ABCABC, AABAAB, ABBABB. The Juniors are creating a Numbers Poems Booklet, which includes all the little poems we say to help the children remember how to write the numbers 1-10. For example, "A straight line down is lots of fun, that's how you make the Number One!" We JKs also counted the corresponding stickers I gave them (who doesn't like stickers!!). One-to-One Correspondence is an important Kindergarten skill. As well, Zero the Zebra came out twice this week! It was September 20, and it was also the 10th day of school this week! We are also learning (JKs) and reviewing (SKs) how to make tally marks.
The SKs have been doing a terrific job with their journals! I am very happy that they are skipping lines and drawing lovely pictures to accompany their writing. Keep up the great work!
Kindly review with your children which is his/her snack and which is lunch. We discussed it in class but some of the little ones still aren't sure. Please also don't send fruit cups as snacks. Most of our class is carpeted and the children can't manage opening them, so spilled sweet juice attracts wasps this time of year as well as ants. Fresh fruit is easiest (and healthiest!).
The painting centre is officially open and already the children are making some beautiful art. I've put out rainbow colours (in the ROYGBV order), plus black and white, and some of the kids were quick to paint rainbows as well as lovely flowers.
Thank you so much to Alexander's dad who was our Mystery Reader this week! He read the classic stories, "Ferdinand the Bull" and "Library Lion."
With their Reading Buddies, the children answered questions about themselves and read books.
We are also learning a poem called "I Like School" and the children are learning how to write the word TO.
On Friday had a little cookie party for the children moving to the smaller class. Boy were they excited when they saw their new classroom!
That's the news for this week! I hope you have a lovely week. This hot weather is supposed to break by Wednesday. Whew!
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Week of September 11-15
Dear families,
Last week was busy in Room 166! The children are really enjoying our Author Study on Mo Willems! They made pigeon art; the SKs wrote about other things pigeons shouldn't drive and drew a picture; the JKs are colouring and reading a booklet about Pigeon's friends Elephant and Piggie; the children played a number matching card game with Elephant and Piggie, and we had lots of fun reading Mo Willems' terrific books that are fun to read and also teach little ones lessons about how to be a friend and solve problems. Thank you so much to Hudson who shared his Pigeon stuffy with his classmates! We'll continue with this author study and all their wonderful work will go home when we're done.
The children also played at various numeracy centres last week. Numeracy at this age is much more than counting and recognizing and printing numbers; it is being able to sequence; knowing which is more, most, less, least; ordination; solving problems and making good decisions; performing simple calculations; using technology such as computer applications to help solve problems; simple coding; managing time and money; handling everyday situations that involve numbers. This year the children will learn about Number Sense and Numeration, Measurement, Geometry and Spatial Sense, Patterning, and Data Management and Probability. Math is fun! Here is a great guide from the Provincial Government called "Doing Mathematics with Your Child:" parentGuideNumEn.pdf Next week we will start learning about (JKs) and reviewing and expanding (SKs) Patterns. Patterns are everywhere!
Last week was the first assembly of the year for LKS - the Terry Fox assembly. The children did a marvellous job sitting and listening attentively! We watched two videos on the Smartboard about manners and accepting others who are different from ourselves. We're all unique and the same at the same time!
The children also did a very good job during our first Fire Drill! Good listening and lining up!
We met with our Reading Buddies for the first time last week! Ms. Sunde's students helped ours complete the sentence "I was brave when..." and drew themselves running with Terry Fox.
Thank you so much to Mia who brought in real LAVA from Mount Etna in Italy! This turned into a great mini inquiry about volcanoes! Mia donated the lava to our classroom Science Centre. Thank you Mia! We love Science!
Every day in the afternoon we have "Quiet Thinking Time." This is about 30 minutes of quiet relaxation mindful time so the children can rest their minds and bodies and re-energize for the rest of the day. They listen to soft nature sounds, "spa-type" music, soft piano playing, zen-type music. It's a long day for the children, especially the JKs. This is also a time when I work 1-on-one with children in a quiet environment, do assessments, when children who need extra time can quietly finish their work, and is a very positive way of teaching the important skill of self-regulation.
On Friday it was INTERNATIONAL DOT DAY! This is inspired by Peter H. Reynolds' best-selling book called "The Dot," which is about a child whose teacher inspires him to be an artist. We read the book, and then the children all made their own dots by colouring in a circle, cutting it out, and then drawing on it some more with "magic" pencil crayons (water colour pencil crayons) and then brushing those marks with water. They look beautiful and are on display in the classroom bulletin board.
Cutting with child-safe scissors is a skill the children work on each week. Please provide your child with child-safe scissors at home so they can practise this important small motor skill and spatial skill.
The Sight Words (a.k.a. Popcorn Words) of the week are IS and AND. Most of the SKs know how to recognize and spell these already. They can extend this skill by spelling it and writing it. I have prepared the SK Journals and I am looking forward to reading them each week! Don't forget to complete the list at the front of the journal for your child with ideas for them to write about. Encourage your child to use the list of "100 most frequently used words" at the back of their journals. Thank you for supporting your child as a writer and illustrator!
Summer has finally arrived in Toronto :) and the children need layers of clothing so they don't get over heated. Please avoid dressing your children in flip flops because they can easily trip and fall wearing them. Close-toed shoes are safest for outdoor play. Thank you.
I would like to say a huge THANK YOU once again to Kate's mom Tara and Hudson's mom Tiffany who have generously offered to be our Grade Parents this year! If you would like to be a volunteer in our classroom this year please let them know. Thank you!!
That's the news for this week! I hope you are having a terrific weekend and are enjoying the beautiful weather.
Mrs. Tyndall
Last week was busy in Room 166! The children are really enjoying our Author Study on Mo Willems! They made pigeon art; the SKs wrote about other things pigeons shouldn't drive and drew a picture; the JKs are colouring and reading a booklet about Pigeon's friends Elephant and Piggie; the children played a number matching card game with Elephant and Piggie, and we had lots of fun reading Mo Willems' terrific books that are fun to read and also teach little ones lessons about how to be a friend and solve problems. Thank you so much to Hudson who shared his Pigeon stuffy with his classmates! We'll continue with this author study and all their wonderful work will go home when we're done.
The children also played at various numeracy centres last week. Numeracy at this age is much more than counting and recognizing and printing numbers; it is being able to sequence; knowing which is more, most, less, least; ordination; solving problems and making good decisions; performing simple calculations; using technology such as computer applications to help solve problems; simple coding; managing time and money; handling everyday situations that involve numbers. This year the children will learn about Number Sense and Numeration, Measurement, Geometry and Spatial Sense, Patterning, and Data Management and Probability. Math is fun! Here is a great guide from the Provincial Government called "Doing Mathematics with Your Child:" parentGuideNumEn.pdf Next week we will start learning about (JKs) and reviewing and expanding (SKs) Patterns. Patterns are everywhere!
Last week was the first assembly of the year for LKS - the Terry Fox assembly. The children did a marvellous job sitting and listening attentively! We watched two videos on the Smartboard about manners and accepting others who are different from ourselves. We're all unique and the same at the same time!
The children also did a very good job during our first Fire Drill! Good listening and lining up!
We met with our Reading Buddies for the first time last week! Ms. Sunde's students helped ours complete the sentence "I was brave when..." and drew themselves running with Terry Fox.
Thank you so much to Mia who brought in real LAVA from Mount Etna in Italy! This turned into a great mini inquiry about volcanoes! Mia donated the lava to our classroom Science Centre. Thank you Mia! We love Science!
Every day in the afternoon we have "Quiet Thinking Time." This is about 30 minutes of quiet relaxation mindful time so the children can rest their minds and bodies and re-energize for the rest of the day. They listen to soft nature sounds, "spa-type" music, soft piano playing, zen-type music. It's a long day for the children, especially the JKs. This is also a time when I work 1-on-one with children in a quiet environment, do assessments, when children who need extra time can quietly finish their work, and is a very positive way of teaching the important skill of self-regulation.
On Friday it was INTERNATIONAL DOT DAY! This is inspired by Peter H. Reynolds' best-selling book called "The Dot," which is about a child whose teacher inspires him to be an artist. We read the book, and then the children all made their own dots by colouring in a circle, cutting it out, and then drawing on it some more with "magic" pencil crayons (water colour pencil crayons) and then brushing those marks with water. They look beautiful and are on display in the classroom bulletin board.
Cutting with child-safe scissors is a skill the children work on each week. Please provide your child with child-safe scissors at home so they can practise this important small motor skill and spatial skill.
The Sight Words (a.k.a. Popcorn Words) of the week are IS and AND. Most of the SKs know how to recognize and spell these already. They can extend this skill by spelling it and writing it. I have prepared the SK Journals and I am looking forward to reading them each week! Don't forget to complete the list at the front of the journal for your child with ideas for them to write about. Encourage your child to use the list of "100 most frequently used words" at the back of their journals. Thank you for supporting your child as a writer and illustrator!
Summer has finally arrived in Toronto :) and the children need layers of clothing so they don't get over heated. Please avoid dressing your children in flip flops because they can easily trip and fall wearing them. Close-toed shoes are safest for outdoor play. Thank you.
I would like to say a huge THANK YOU once again to Kate's mom Tara and Hudson's mom Tiffany who have generously offered to be our Grade Parents this year! If you would like to be a volunteer in our classroom this year please let them know. Thank you!!
That's the news for this week! I hope you are having a terrific weekend and are enjoying the beautiful weather.
Mrs. Tyndall
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Week of September 5-9
Dear families,
The first week of school is over already! The children have done an amazing job learning classroom rules and routines and there have been very few tears! Here is just some of the learning the children (especially the little JKs!) did last week. They learned how to:
- get to school - some learned to board and exit a school bus
- manoeuver between the big people and the little people to find a classroom
- line up
- find their cubby and hook in the cubby room
- find their name on a table
- find space in a room full of other little beings - for some this may have been the largest group of children (32!) they have ever been with!
- the names of adults they have never seen before
- where the washroom is
- raise their hand and put their finger on their lips when they want a turn on the carpet
- sit "criss cross apple sauce"
- move carefully and quietly from one centre to another
- share toys and materials (this is ongoing!)
- follow each other in a line to go upstairs to the Library and Computer Lab
- open and close back packs
- read "snack 1" and "snack 2"
- new games
- a new poem
- new songs
- make new friends!
Just think of all those little things we need to learn to be more independent! My SKs are being awesome role models to the JKs. Well done!!
Our first read-aloud was "How Full is your Bucket" for kids. The children helped me put ideas on the "bucket filling" or "bucket dipping" side of chart paper. We have a red classroom bucket that we'll fill with pom poms when the children do positive things.
In Friday's mail bag there was a lot of important paper work to be completed. This is time sensitive so please return it by MONDAY. Thank you.
The first of our monthly words was sent home too ("August/September Words"). Please put it on the fridge or in your child's room so s/he can practice them at home. It would be wonderful if you could practise letter and sound recognition with your child at home. We are learning to recognize high-frequency words in the modeled writing each day. As well, it is important for your child to learn to print his/her name this year with a capital letter, followed by lower case letters. This is not going to happen overnight with my little JKs. It may take most of the year for some! Try making their name with play-dough, sugar on glue, or dot-to-dot on paper.
The children are also learning about working together cooperatively in Centres. We have played in the following centres: wooden letter games, patterns, magnetic letters and numbers, counting cards, Treo, Lego, dominoes, building toys, and dramatic play.
The first Scholastic order is due on September 22. Thank you for supporting Scholastic!
Our very first Mystery Reader was Nathalie, a former student of mine. Nathalie read a funny Mo Willems book. We will be starting a Mo Willems author study next week! If you don't know his books, he wrote "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and many other funny stories that kids love. If you would like to be a Mystery Reader, please contact our Grade Parent Tiffany.
This year we are doing Reading Buddies with Ms. Sunde's Grade 3/4 class. We will meet for the first time next week!
The words of the week are I and AM. We add two new words to our word wall each week. The children completed their first "This is Me" work. We do these each month (with the SKs writing about their picture). It's so amazing to see the childrens' progress from month to month! They also practised tracing lower and upper case letters. Next week we will start the Snuggle Up book program and will send home journals for the SKs.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. My family and I went up north for the day and today we saw the world premiere of "Jane" at the TIFF, a documentary about Jane Goodall. To our surprise and delight, Dr. Goodall was in the audience and spoke about her life after the film. It inspired me to do an inquiry on monkeys (fiction and non-fiction) with my little "monkies!" :)
I'm looking forward to seeing all the kids' happy little faces tomorrow!
The first week of school is over already! The children have done an amazing job learning classroom rules and routines and there have been very few tears! Here is just some of the learning the children (especially the little JKs!) did last week. They learned how to:
- get to school - some learned to board and exit a school bus
- manoeuver between the big people and the little people to find a classroom
- line up
- find their cubby and hook in the cubby room
- find their name on a table
- find space in a room full of other little beings - for some this may have been the largest group of children (32!) they have ever been with!
- the names of adults they have never seen before
- where the washroom is
- raise their hand and put their finger on their lips when they want a turn on the carpet
- sit "criss cross apple sauce"
- move carefully and quietly from one centre to another
- share toys and materials (this is ongoing!)
- follow each other in a line to go upstairs to the Library and Computer Lab
- open and close back packs
- read "snack 1" and "snack 2"
- new games
- a new poem
- new songs
- make new friends!
Just think of all those little things we need to learn to be more independent! My SKs are being awesome role models to the JKs. Well done!!
Our first read-aloud was "How Full is your Bucket" for kids. The children helped me put ideas on the "bucket filling" or "bucket dipping" side of chart paper. We have a red classroom bucket that we'll fill with pom poms when the children do positive things.
In Friday's mail bag there was a lot of important paper work to be completed. This is time sensitive so please return it by MONDAY. Thank you.
The first of our monthly words was sent home too ("August/September Words"). Please put it on the fridge or in your child's room so s/he can practice them at home. It would be wonderful if you could practise letter and sound recognition with your child at home. We are learning to recognize high-frequency words in the modeled writing each day. As well, it is important for your child to learn to print his/her name this year with a capital letter, followed by lower case letters. This is not going to happen overnight with my little JKs. It may take most of the year for some! Try making their name with play-dough, sugar on glue, or dot-to-dot on paper.
The children are also learning about working together cooperatively in Centres. We have played in the following centres: wooden letter games, patterns, magnetic letters and numbers, counting cards, Treo, Lego, dominoes, building toys, and dramatic play.
The first Scholastic order is due on September 22. Thank you for supporting Scholastic!
Our very first Mystery Reader was Nathalie, a former student of mine. Nathalie read a funny Mo Willems book. We will be starting a Mo Willems author study next week! If you don't know his books, he wrote "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" and many other funny stories that kids love. If you would like to be a Mystery Reader, please contact our Grade Parent Tiffany.
This year we are doing Reading Buddies with Ms. Sunde's Grade 3/4 class. We will meet for the first time next week!
The words of the week are I and AM. We add two new words to our word wall each week. The children completed their first "This is Me" work. We do these each month (with the SKs writing about their picture). It's so amazing to see the childrens' progress from month to month! They also practised tracing lower and upper case letters. Next week we will start the Snuggle Up book program and will send home journals for the SKs.
I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. My family and I went up north for the day and today we saw the world premiere of "Jane" at the TIFF, a documentary about Jane Goodall. To our surprise and delight, Dr. Goodall was in the audience and spoke about her life after the film. It inspired me to do an inquiry on monkeys (fiction and non-fiction) with my little "monkies!" :)
I'm looking forward to seeing all the kids' happy little faces tomorrow!
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