Dear families,
I hope you're enjoying this beautiful fall weather! We had another busy week in Room 166!
The words of the week were THE and DO. The letter sound of the week was Cc (the "hard" Cc like "cat"). We made lots of words together with the letters S A T I P N and C. I sent a list home with the kids to keep in their Bedtime Book Box.
This week was all about apples! We did a chart of the parts of an apple, made a class book called "Who Took the Apples from the Apple Tree," made applesauce together, and we are doing an experiment about apples, too! We put a slice of apples in water, oil, vinegar, salt and air, and the children predicted what would happen to them. We'll track our observations on Monday. The children also made an apple booklet with their Reading Buddies, and the SKs made a little apple booklet, writing apples adjectives.
Wednesday was a terrific day at Andrew's Scenic Acres! Thank you so much to Amy, Donna, Noura and Sarita who were our awesome parent volunteers. The children had a wonderful time exploring the hay mountain, the corn maze, the chicken coop, the haunted forest, going on a wagon ride, picking a pumpkin, and learning about raspberries, blueberries, Native Corn and pumpkins. We brought a big class pumpkin back to school and we'll be learning all about pumpkins next week. The children also had fun decorating our classroom with Halloween decorations. Next week we will start all kinds of numeracy and literacy activities with a Halloween theme. Lots of fun and learning!
October 24th is Wear Purple Day.
If your child has a lower case "a" in his/her name, I sent home an extra letter formation practice sheet. The SKs are encouraged to write their names with a capital letter at the beginning of their name followed by lower case letters.
Ms. Zappi and I are doing the school-wide "We Scare Hunger" initiative again to help collect food for the Daily Bread Food Bank. Families are asked to send in non-perishable and nut-free items such as canned goods and dry goods. Thank you so much for supporting the Daily Bread Food Bank!
Thank you as well to this week's Mystery Reader Jessica!
That's the news for this week - have a wonderful weekend!
Saturday, October 20, 2018
Sunday, October 14, 2018
Week of October 8-12
Dear families,
I hope you are having a nice weekend! The beautiful fall weather is finally here.
Literacy: Our new sight words are FOR and WENT. The letter sound of the week was Nn. It's amazing how many words you can make with the letters Ss Aa Tt Ii Pp and Nn! The JKs have a "name puzzle" with the letters of their name that they can practise putting in the correct order. We have started learning about apples and we read "Who Took the Apples from the Apple Tree?" together and made a class book. The children also learned a song about apples. We'll continue this next week.
Numeracy: The children practised forming and tracing the numbers 0-10 (JKs) and 0-20 (SKs). They also made patterns with cube-a-links and the SKs completed a pattern work sheet. Next week we'll extend our learning with beads. We also tallied how many children have a pumpkin already and graphed all the food the children ate for Thanksgiving dinner.
Science: We finished learning about chromatography - a fancy word for our learning how black is made up of different colours and that it is a shade, not a colour. It was an easy experiment that you can repeat at home with a water-soluable black marker, coffee filter paper and a bit of water. This experiment lead to some interesting discussions! Next week we will do a science experiment with apples and vinegar, salt, air and water. We'll predict, observe, and conclude based on what happens to the apple slices. We'll also come up with the step-by-step instructions on how to make apple sauce together. Please send in an apple with your child to make the apple sauce. We'll make it on Thursday. Thank you!
On Wednesday we are going on our field trip to Andrew's Scenic Acres. Please remember to pack a litterless lunch and snacks for your child and dress them for the weather -- it's supposed to be windy and only about 8C. Thank you so much to the moms of Anilee, Casey, Reina and Shay who will be our parent volunteers for the trip. If you would like to volunteer for class events please remember that you need to have a police check completed.
That's the news for this week! I hope you have a great week.
I hope you are having a nice weekend! The beautiful fall weather is finally here.
Literacy: Our new sight words are FOR and WENT. The letter sound of the week was Nn. It's amazing how many words you can make with the letters Ss Aa Tt Ii Pp and Nn! The JKs have a "name puzzle" with the letters of their name that they can practise putting in the correct order. We have started learning about apples and we read "Who Took the Apples from the Apple Tree?" together and made a class book. The children also learned a song about apples. We'll continue this next week.
Numeracy: The children practised forming and tracing the numbers 0-10 (JKs) and 0-20 (SKs). They also made patterns with cube-a-links and the SKs completed a pattern work sheet. Next week we'll extend our learning with beads. We also tallied how many children have a pumpkin already and graphed all the food the children ate for Thanksgiving dinner.
Science: We finished learning about chromatography - a fancy word for our learning how black is made up of different colours and that it is a shade, not a colour. It was an easy experiment that you can repeat at home with a water-soluable black marker, coffee filter paper and a bit of water. This experiment lead to some interesting discussions! Next week we will do a science experiment with apples and vinegar, salt, air and water. We'll predict, observe, and conclude based on what happens to the apple slices. We'll also come up with the step-by-step instructions on how to make apple sauce together. Please send in an apple with your child to make the apple sauce. We'll make it on Thursday. Thank you!
On Wednesday we are going on our field trip to Andrew's Scenic Acres. Please remember to pack a litterless lunch and snacks for your child and dress them for the weather -- it's supposed to be windy and only about 8C. Thank you so much to the moms of Anilee, Casey, Reina and Shay who will be our parent volunteers for the trip. If you would like to volunteer for class events please remember that you need to have a police check completed.
That's the news for this week! I hope you have a great week.
Thursday, October 4, 2018
Week of October 5-9
Dear families,
Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Your child has made a special gift for you about what they are thankful for. The vintage Kindergarten record is yours to keep.
The"popcorn" words of the week were LIKE and ME. The Jolly Phonics letter sound was Pp. So far, we have made the following words with our letter sounds:
I, it, is, sat, sit, tap, tip, spit, spat, pat, pit, spa, a, sap, a, at and is. I have made a page of these words for your child to practise at home. S/he will receive an updated one every two weeks, with two new letter sounds. A way to practise at home is with magnetic letters. We do this in class, too.
We have started our first science experiment, and the children are learning about predicting (guessing, making a HYPOTHESIS), then OBSERVING, and then CONCLUDING. Our experiment is about what the shade BLACK really is. We will continue the experiment next week.
Thank you so much to Christopher's mom who was our Mystery Reader! Thank you to Ella who brought in a big photo of our class on the Terry Fox Walk!
In Numeracy, the children played with different math manipulatives. They sorted, built structures, played "make-believe," measured, counted, traded, and had fun playing with these math toys.
This week our Grade Four Reading Buddies interviewed the little ones and wrote down their answers.
Please be sure to send in the permission form for our trip to Andrew's Scenic Acres by Tuesday at the latest, and include the payment confirmation number on your form. Thank you. Next week we will start learning all about apples in preparation for our class trip and learning about Fall.
That's the news for this week! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Happy Thanksgiving weekend. Your child has made a special gift for you about what they are thankful for. The vintage Kindergarten record is yours to keep.
The"popcorn" words of the week were LIKE and ME. The Jolly Phonics letter sound was Pp. So far, we have made the following words with our letter sounds:
I, it, is, sat, sit, tap, tip, spit, spat, pat, pit, spa, a, sap, a, at and is. I have made a page of these words for your child to practise at home. S/he will receive an updated one every two weeks, with two new letter sounds. A way to practise at home is with magnetic letters. We do this in class, too.
We have started our first science experiment, and the children are learning about predicting (guessing, making a HYPOTHESIS), then OBSERVING, and then CONCLUDING. Our experiment is about what the shade BLACK really is. We will continue the experiment next week.
Thank you so much to Christopher's mom who was our Mystery Reader! Thank you to Ella who brought in a big photo of our class on the Terry Fox Walk!
In Numeracy, the children played with different math manipulatives. They sorted, built structures, played "make-believe," measured, counted, traded, and had fun playing with these math toys.
This week our Grade Four Reading Buddies interviewed the little ones and wrote down their answers.
Please be sure to send in the permission form for our trip to Andrew's Scenic Acres by Tuesday at the latest, and include the payment confirmation number on your form. Thank you. Next week we will start learning all about apples in preparation for our class trip and learning about Fall.
That's the news for this week! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!
Friday, September 28, 2018
Week of September 24-28
Dear families,
I hope you're enjoying this beautiful Fall weather! This was another busy week in Room 166. A big welcome to our new JK student Edward! Thank you so much to our Grade Parents Leah and Tina who compiled the class email list. You should have received an email from them by now regarding the Terry Fox Walk. If you didn't, please let them know. Thank you!
This week we continued our book study on Peter J. Reynold's lovely book "The Dot." We followed up our study by making our own beautiful art using washable markers and water. We are also making large class dots to demonstrate how we all need to work together. These will be on display on our classroom bulletin board. Next week we will extend this to science, and the children will do an experiment with a black dot.
In numeracy, we practiced making the numbers 1-10 and the children did their first calendars. On the back of the calendar, they drew a picture of themselves in September at school and wrote (or received help writing) what their picture was about. The children also played with several different kids of math manipulatives, such as shapes, small blocks, colourful toys, and dice. With them, they made structures, counted, sorted, made a pattern, put them in order (small, bigger, biggest) or played "make believe" with them.
The children did a very good job listening at the Terry Fox Assembly and at the school-wide Sharing Assembly. The format of Sharing Assemblies is different this year. Our class' Sharing Assembly will be in June. Lots of time to prepare something for the whole school!
As a follow up to our Terry Fox Walk around the school (thank you to Sophie's mom for walking with us!), the children have started writing about when they were brave like Terry.
Congratulations to Abigail and Reina who received certificates for demonstrating the TDSB Character Trait of Respect. Each child will receive a certificate throughout the year.
On Monday it is Crazy Hair Day!
Our letter of the week was Ii. We made new words with magnetic letters and wrote them on chart paper. With the letters Ss Aa Tt and Ii we could make SAT, AT, IT, AS, A, SIT and I. Our next letter/sound will be Pp.
The sight words of the week were IN and SEE.
The SKs who brought in pictures of their pets drew them and wrote some words about them. If they don't have a pet, they wrote about an imaginary pet! With our Reading Buddies, the children finished a little booklet about a dog and did two mini booklets called "pets" and "dogs."
Thank you so much to our volunteers this week: Reina's dad was the Mystery Reader, and Reina's dad and Ella's mom volunteered to help with Pizza Lunch!
Please subscribe to this blog so that you always receive notifications about the awesome activity in your child's classroom! I hope you have a great weekend!
I hope you're enjoying this beautiful Fall weather! This was another busy week in Room 166. A big welcome to our new JK student Edward! Thank you so much to our Grade Parents Leah and Tina who compiled the class email list. You should have received an email from them by now regarding the Terry Fox Walk. If you didn't, please let them know. Thank you!
This week we continued our book study on Peter J. Reynold's lovely book "The Dot." We followed up our study by making our own beautiful art using washable markers and water. We are also making large class dots to demonstrate how we all need to work together. These will be on display on our classroom bulletin board. Next week we will extend this to science, and the children will do an experiment with a black dot.
In numeracy, we practiced making the numbers 1-10 and the children did their first calendars. On the back of the calendar, they drew a picture of themselves in September at school and wrote (or received help writing) what their picture was about. The children also played with several different kids of math manipulatives, such as shapes, small blocks, colourful toys, and dice. With them, they made structures, counted, sorted, made a pattern, put them in order (small, bigger, biggest) or played "make believe" with them.
The children did a very good job listening at the Terry Fox Assembly and at the school-wide Sharing Assembly. The format of Sharing Assemblies is different this year. Our class' Sharing Assembly will be in June. Lots of time to prepare something for the whole school!
As a follow up to our Terry Fox Walk around the school (thank you to Sophie's mom for walking with us!), the children have started writing about when they were brave like Terry.
Congratulations to Abigail and Reina who received certificates for demonstrating the TDSB Character Trait of Respect. Each child will receive a certificate throughout the year.
On Monday it is Crazy Hair Day!
Our letter of the week was Ii. We made new words with magnetic letters and wrote them on chart paper. With the letters Ss Aa Tt and Ii we could make SAT, AT, IT, AS, A, SIT and I. Our next letter/sound will be Pp.
The sight words of the week were IN and SEE.
The SKs who brought in pictures of their pets drew them and wrote some words about them. If they don't have a pet, they wrote about an imaginary pet! With our Reading Buddies, the children finished a little booklet about a dog and did two mini booklets called "pets" and "dogs."
Thank you so much to our volunteers this week: Reina's dad was the Mystery Reader, and Reina's dad and Ella's mom volunteered to help with Pizza Lunch!
Please subscribe to this blog so that you always receive notifications about the awesome activity in your child's classroom! I hope you have a great weekend!
Friday, September 21, 2018
Week of September 17-21
Dear families,
It was a pleasure speaking with you at Curriculum Night!
The letter sound of the week was Tt. The "popcorn words" of the week were ME and CAN. Seniors, please complete the mini read-and write ME and CAN booklets. Juniors, this is an optional activity.
This week we continued learning all about Pets! We counted, tallied and graphed how many children have pets. If your child has a pet or had a pet, s/he is more than welcome to bring a photo in and tell us about the pet! Together we brainstormed and wrote what dogs, cats and betafish CAN, LIKE, ARE, SAY, LIVE, NEED, EAT and HAVE. We also made a Venn diagram (remember those?) comparing and contrasting dogs and cats. With their Grade 4 Reading Buddies, the children read, drew and coloured a booklet called "My Dog." After reading "Pete the Cat and his Cool Shoes" the children coloured a shoes and wrote where they went in their cool shoes. They are also learning how to draw Pete the Cat. Thank you so much to Reina's family who donated 10 "Pete the Cat" books to our classroom library!
In Numeracy, we have started to talk about and look for patterns in our world. The Juniors are learning ABAB patterns, and the Seniors are learning more complex patterns such as ABCABC or AABAAB or ABCDABCD.
In Science, the children learned about how Paper Wasps build their nest and why they are called "paper" wasps. They touched a real (empty!) paper wasp and watched a video about how these wasps make their nests.
In Art, the children uncovered "magic" letters with water colour paint. They are also starting to complete a "dot" to celebrate International Dot Day. We read the lovely book "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds, which encourages children to be creative and to accept that each person is different and unique.
Each week your child is given 2 Snuggle Up and Read books to read at home and then return to school for another child to read. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE IN OR COLOUR THEM! Thank you for taking care of our classroom materials.
Throughout the year we use child-friendly scissors for art activities. Providing your child with a pair of scissors at home to practise with will enable him or her to develop fine motor skills, which will in turn help him or her with writing and colouring. The more we practise, the more we can do!
Please ensure that your child has a change of clothes at school (they stay in his or cubby all year) as well as running shoes and indoor shoes that ensure s/he can run and play safely outside and in the gym. No flip-flops please. Children shjould be dressed in clothing that they can put on and remove by themselves when they go to the bathroom. Thank you!
We also had a visit from our wonderful student teacher Miss. Patel on Friday morning!
The next Scholastic order (with a lot of Halloween books!) is due October 12. Phonics sets are also a great way to support your child's literacy.
Thank you so much to Elise's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week! Thank you as well to our Grade Parents Tina and Leah who compiled a class contact list.
That's the news for this week from Room 166! Please subscribe to my blog (updated each Friday) so that you automatically get updates.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend - the first weekend of Fall!
It was a pleasure speaking with you at Curriculum Night!
The letter sound of the week was Tt. The "popcorn words" of the week were ME and CAN. Seniors, please complete the mini read-and write ME and CAN booklets. Juniors, this is an optional activity.
This week we continued learning all about Pets! We counted, tallied and graphed how many children have pets. If your child has a pet or had a pet, s/he is more than welcome to bring a photo in and tell us about the pet! Together we brainstormed and wrote what dogs, cats and betafish CAN, LIKE, ARE, SAY, LIVE, NEED, EAT and HAVE. We also made a Venn diagram (remember those?) comparing and contrasting dogs and cats. With their Grade 4 Reading Buddies, the children read, drew and coloured a booklet called "My Dog." After reading "Pete the Cat and his Cool Shoes" the children coloured a shoes and wrote where they went in their cool shoes. They are also learning how to draw Pete the Cat. Thank you so much to Reina's family who donated 10 "Pete the Cat" books to our classroom library!
In Numeracy, we have started to talk about and look for patterns in our world. The Juniors are learning ABAB patterns, and the Seniors are learning more complex patterns such as ABCABC or AABAAB or ABCDABCD.
In Science, the children learned about how Paper Wasps build their nest and why they are called "paper" wasps. They touched a real (empty!) paper wasp and watched a video about how these wasps make their nests.
In Art, the children uncovered "magic" letters with water colour paint. They are also starting to complete a "dot" to celebrate International Dot Day. We read the lovely book "The Dot," by Peter H. Reynolds, which encourages children to be creative and to accept that each person is different and unique.
Each week your child is given 2 Snuggle Up and Read books to read at home and then return to school for another child to read. PLEASE DO NOT WRITE IN OR COLOUR THEM! Thank you for taking care of our classroom materials.
Throughout the year we use child-friendly scissors for art activities. Providing your child with a pair of scissors at home to practise with will enable him or her to develop fine motor skills, which will in turn help him or her with writing and colouring. The more we practise, the more we can do!
Please ensure that your child has a change of clothes at school (they stay in his or cubby all year) as well as running shoes and indoor shoes that ensure s/he can run and play safely outside and in the gym. No flip-flops please. Children shjould be dressed in clothing that they can put on and remove by themselves when they go to the bathroom. Thank you!
We also had a visit from our wonderful student teacher Miss. Patel on Friday morning!
The next Scholastic order (with a lot of Halloween books!) is due October 12. Phonics sets are also a great way to support your child's literacy.
Thank you so much to Elise's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week! Thank you as well to our Grade Parents Tina and Leah who compiled a class contact list.
That's the news for this week from Room 166! Please subscribe to my blog (updated each Friday) so that you automatically get updates.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend - the first weekend of Fall!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)