Dear parents,
I hope you had a wonderful Spring Break. Easter is coming early this year and we have been busy over the last few weeks reviewing our popcorn words and learning Spring and Easter words. The children enjoyed our popcorn word centres and their sight word vocabulary is really coming along! They especially enjoy their "read, write and erase" booklets and their letter formation is improving as well. Remember -top to bottom, left to right. :)
The children learned a new song for the Sharing Assembly called M-A-R-C-H, we read about how seeds turn to dandelions and made a pie chart to show the changes a seed goes through. The children also started a book they are making with their Reading Buddies called 'Flowers Make a Rainbow."
This Thursday your child will also be bringing home a bunny they made that "talks" and can "say" different words - hop, mop, pop, stop, flop and drop.
Major areas of growth this month and in April will include:
- observing seasonal changes and the signs of Spring
- continuing to learn new sounds in phonics
- confidently attempting to write personal stories in our journals
- reading simple pattern books
- planting and observing daily the growth of a seed
- learning new Spring and Easter songs and finger plays
- sequencing a series of events when discussing the growth of a seed and the birth of a chick
- continuation of number work in relation to counting, simple addition, patterning of numbers and numeral recognition
Easter activities will include making Easter bunny bags, building/weaving a nest for our Easter eggs, writing an "Easter is.." booklet and making a big bunny puppet.
Thank you in advance to our Parent Volunteers who are helping out at Thursday's Easter Craft Day. We will be dipping eggs (thank you for bringing them in!) so please dress your child in appropriate clothing. We need 25 green plastic baskets. They can be found at the green grocer and usually hold fruit.
Please remembrer to bring in a hollow egg for your child to dip at our Easter Party.
1. Pierce 2 holes in an egg, one at each end. A large sewing needle works well.
2. Pierce the yolk inside the egg.
3. Blow out the egg yolk and white into a bowl.
It was wonderful reading the children's journal entries from the March Break. What wonderful work they did and I am so pleased with their efforts. I will be sending home their journals to write in over the Easter long weekend. I am also sending home a homework sheet in which the children are to draw a picture of the word they read. Please remember that if work goes home stamped "Please complete for Mrs. Tyndall" that it is homework to be completed and returned. Please sit with your child and encourage him/her to do ther best work. This is also good practice for next year.
Kind regards,
Mrs. Tyndall
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Week of March 11-15
Dear families,
This past week we finished our Pirate unit and I think it was a great success! The children were sad to see our pirate display table packed away but I told them that when they returned from March Break it would be almost Spring and Easter!
Your child's white bags should have contained all their work from the last week (aside from a writing sample that I have for assessment purposes) as well as their Journal and Phonics Book. Please encourage your child to write each day in their Journals over the March Break and to draw an accompanying picture. Any holiday is a wonderful opportunity for journal writing. I'm looking forward to reading them! Do not worry at all if your JK child can only write a few words - SKs are writing complete sentences by this time of year but the little JKs are still learning sounds and sight words.
The play we saw at the Young People's Theatre - The Cat Came Back - was a great success. The children loved the bus ride of course and the YPT performance was excellent as always. We did two follow up writing activities about the play. I also included the main lyrics from the title song in this week's white bag as well as the web site to watch the Academy Award nominated NFB short that the play was based on.
We are learning our new song for the sharing assembly called M-A-R-C-H. We also met with our Reading Buddies.
Our next Scholastic Order is due April 30.
I hope everyone has a wonderful March Break and when you come back it will almost be Easter and Spring!
Mrs. Tyndall
This past week we finished our Pirate unit and I think it was a great success! The children were sad to see our pirate display table packed away but I told them that when they returned from March Break it would be almost Spring and Easter!
Your child's white bags should have contained all their work from the last week (aside from a writing sample that I have for assessment purposes) as well as their Journal and Phonics Book. Please encourage your child to write each day in their Journals over the March Break and to draw an accompanying picture. Any holiday is a wonderful opportunity for journal writing. I'm looking forward to reading them! Do not worry at all if your JK child can only write a few words - SKs are writing complete sentences by this time of year but the little JKs are still learning sounds and sight words.
The play we saw at the Young People's Theatre - The Cat Came Back - was a great success. The children loved the bus ride of course and the YPT performance was excellent as always. We did two follow up writing activities about the play. I also included the main lyrics from the title song in this week's white bag as well as the web site to watch the Academy Award nominated NFB short that the play was based on.
We are learning our new song for the sharing assembly called M-A-R-C-H. We also met with our Reading Buddies.
Our next Scholastic Order is due April 30.
I hope everyone has a wonderful March Break and when you come back it will almost be Easter and Spring!
Mrs. Tyndall
Monday, February 25, 2013
Week of February 25-March 1
Dear families,
Our Pirate-themed unit continues this week with booklets the children are writing, reading and illustrating called "Pirates are...." and "If I were a Pirate." They seem to be really enjoying this theme! Last week we read lots of books about pirates, the children made "Itsy Bitsy Pirate Books," they learned about the meaning of a skull and cross bones on household articles ("Danger! Do not touch!") by making and reading booklets, the children enjoyed making large pirate crafts with their Reading Buddies, and they will be making simple telescopes and treasure maps this week. We will be completing the unit on Friday by completing numeracy activities (counting pirate's gold). Drop in to see all the pirate-themed items on our centre display table. It looks terrific!
Please remember to send in your child's wallet-sized photo for Reading Buddy Booklet we will be making. Thank you!
The next Scholastic Orders are due on February 28 and March 31.
Next week we are off to The Young People's Theatre to see "The Cat Came Back." Thank you to our parent volunteers!
Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Tyndall
Our Pirate-themed unit continues this week with booklets the children are writing, reading and illustrating called "Pirates are...." and "If I were a Pirate." They seem to be really enjoying this theme! Last week we read lots of books about pirates, the children made "Itsy Bitsy Pirate Books," they learned about the meaning of a skull and cross bones on household articles ("Danger! Do not touch!") by making and reading booklets, the children enjoyed making large pirate crafts with their Reading Buddies, and they will be making simple telescopes and treasure maps this week. We will be completing the unit on Friday by completing numeracy activities (counting pirate's gold). Drop in to see all the pirate-themed items on our centre display table. It looks terrific!
Please remember to send in your child's wallet-sized photo for Reading Buddy Booklet we will be making. Thank you!
The next Scholastic Orders are due on February 28 and March 31.
Next week we are off to The Young People's Theatre to see "The Cat Came Back." Thank you to our parent volunteers!
Have a wonderful week!
Mrs. Tyndall
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Week of February 19-22
Dear families,
I hope you had a wonderful Family Day weekend!
The children and I have found all the new snow fun and exciting. Hopefully it will stay a little while longer since the children love shovelling the snow and making forts and snowmen. It reminds me of the winters I had as a child growing up (not that many years ago of course!). Lots of snow and lots of fun. Please remember to dress the children in snow pants each day and to provide them with indoor shoes.
We have continued to learn about the calendar, the months, the days of the week, the new year of course and the seasons. We continue to count the days in the month by tens and ones and have learned there is a pattern to the numbers from 1 to 100. As well, the children continue to learn about graphing and taking a tally. Learning how to make and read graphs is an important problem-solving skill. We are also continuing to work on more complex patterning. Not only are we looking at the patterns all around us (in clothing, nature, music, etc.) but we have been looking at the calendar a lot to see different patterns with numbers. This helps the children see the pattern of counting by ones, tens, fives, etc. We now starting our unit on measurement.
In language arts, we read a lot of books and did activities about Chinese New Year, Valentines Day and 100th Day, and have been continuing to read a number of books on snow and winter. Young children love the whole idea of snow so I have capitalised on this (especially with the snowstorms we have had!). Some topics we have discussed are: all the compound words you can make with the word snow, how snow forms, winter activities, winter words, and so on. We will be making cute little books about animals that thrive in cold weather with our Reading Buddies and we will also do a 3-D craft activity with the scenes from our story The Snowy Day as a culminating activity. With this project the children will be able to re-tell the story.
Our Popcorn Words are LOOK, AT, and THE and the children continue to make books using these sight words. They are a doing a wonderful job writing little sentences!!
This week the children are very excited because I am doing a new little unit on Pirates! I will be incorporating measurement and language arts activities in this unit and have prepared fun activities for the children to do. I encouraged the children to dress as little pirates this week.
The children did a wonderful job at today's Sharing Assembly, celebrating the TDSB Character trait of "Fairness." A big thank you to the parents who took the time to attend.
Thank you also to the parents who made our Valentines and 100th Day celebrations such a success by helping with our crafts and little language arts and numeracy centres. I couldn't do it without you!
I look forward to seeing any parents who are able to drop in to my Open Houses on Wednesday February 20 from 7:45-8:45 and on Thursday, February 21 from 3:45-4:45.
Please continue to read with your children each day - read to your children, and they will read to you!
Have a wonderful week!
Beverley
I hope you had a wonderful Family Day weekend!
The children and I have found all the new snow fun and exciting. Hopefully it will stay a little while longer since the children love shovelling the snow and making forts and snowmen. It reminds me of the winters I had as a child growing up (not that many years ago of course!). Lots of snow and lots of fun. Please remember to dress the children in snow pants each day and to provide them with indoor shoes.
We have continued to learn about the calendar, the months, the days of the week, the new year of course and the seasons. We continue to count the days in the month by tens and ones and have learned there is a pattern to the numbers from 1 to 100. As well, the children continue to learn about graphing and taking a tally. Learning how to make and read graphs is an important problem-solving skill. We are also continuing to work on more complex patterning. Not only are we looking at the patterns all around us (in clothing, nature, music, etc.) but we have been looking at the calendar a lot to see different patterns with numbers. This helps the children see the pattern of counting by ones, tens, fives, etc. We now starting our unit on measurement.
In language arts, we read a lot of books and did activities about Chinese New Year, Valentines Day and 100th Day, and have been continuing to read a number of books on snow and winter. Young children love the whole idea of snow so I have capitalised on this (especially with the snowstorms we have had!). Some topics we have discussed are: all the compound words you can make with the word snow, how snow forms, winter activities, winter words, and so on. We will be making cute little books about animals that thrive in cold weather with our Reading Buddies and we will also do a 3-D craft activity with the scenes from our story The Snowy Day as a culminating activity. With this project the children will be able to re-tell the story.
Our Popcorn Words are LOOK, AT, and THE and the children continue to make books using these sight words. They are a doing a wonderful job writing little sentences!!
This week the children are very excited because I am doing a new little unit on Pirates! I will be incorporating measurement and language arts activities in this unit and have prepared fun activities for the children to do. I encouraged the children to dress as little pirates this week.
The children did a wonderful job at today's Sharing Assembly, celebrating the TDSB Character trait of "Fairness." A big thank you to the parents who took the time to attend.
Thank you also to the parents who made our Valentines and 100th Day celebrations such a success by helping with our crafts and little language arts and numeracy centres. I couldn't do it without you!
I look forward to seeing any parents who are able to drop in to my Open Houses on Wednesday February 20 from 7:45-8:45 and on Thursday, February 21 from 3:45-4:45.
Please continue to read with your children each day - read to your children, and they will read to you!
Have a wonderful week!
Beverley
Sunday, February 10, 2013
February has brought a lot of activity in many areas. Over the past few weeks we have celebrated Ground Hog Day, the 100th Day of school, and this week we will be celebrating Valentine's Day. It was wonderful to see the unique collections the children brought in for our 100th Day celebration. Thank you so much to the parents who volunteered this week and who will volunteer next week. Your help and time are greatly appreciated!
In Language, we are continuing to move forward with the Jolly Phonics program and with learing our High Frequency "Popcorn" words. So far we have learned IT, IS, SEE, LOOK, AT and THE. I am very impressed with the in-class writing the SK children are doing with little their books and accompanying pictures and I have posted them on my hallway bulletin board. Well done!
The homework booklets that are being sent home with the children are an excellent way to consolidate and extend what the children have learned at school. It is also a great way opportunity for the children to practice the printing of their letters and words. Although I teach printing of letters when we learn new sounds and words, the children need to practice more so that they are familiar with the correct letter formation.
Because of the time element in our program it is necessary to enlist your help at home. Past experience has shown that children whose parents work with them each day have the most success with the program. We practice sounds at school every day as a group but one-on-one work at home is absolutely necessary.
In Math we are continuing to learn about patterning and sequencing and are also starting to learn about measurement. The children are beginning to demonstrate more complex patterning skills using 2-3 attributes. We incorporated patterning and sequencing in our 100th Day activities, with the children using different coloured dabbers and counting different coloured Smarties.
I have noticed that many of the children are beginning to become more independent in dressing themselves. Many of the JK children still need a lot of help with zippers but it is quite a delight to seee that they are slowly making this progression. Please continue to encourage your children to dress themselves independently. Please also take a peak in our Lost and Found bag in the cubby room. It is getting pretty full! Sometimes the children don't recognize their own clothing, especially mittens and gloves.
We are also continuing our book study of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This special book, published in 1962, was the first children's book to portray a child of colour and was the recipient of the prestigious Caldicott Medal. I chose to study The Snowy Day this month, February, to honour Black History Month.
The children are starting to bring in Valentines for their friends. I have found in the past that it is easier for my little JKs to just sign the cards. It is too much printing for them to write everyone's name and it is too difficult for them to have to try and find everyone's Valentine mailbag with the right name on it. You can imagine what that can be like! My Sks can do what they are most comfortable with. Each child will have a Valentine bag to collect all their cards in. Writing and/or reading their friends' names is a great little literacy exercise too!
Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs. Tyndall
In Language, we are continuing to move forward with the Jolly Phonics program and with learing our High Frequency "Popcorn" words. So far we have learned IT, IS, SEE, LOOK, AT and THE. I am very impressed with the in-class writing the SK children are doing with little their books and accompanying pictures and I have posted them on my hallway bulletin board. Well done!
The homework booklets that are being sent home with the children are an excellent way to consolidate and extend what the children have learned at school. It is also a great way opportunity for the children to practice the printing of their letters and words. Although I teach printing of letters when we learn new sounds and words, the children need to practice more so that they are familiar with the correct letter formation.
Because of the time element in our program it is necessary to enlist your help at home. Past experience has shown that children whose parents work with them each day have the most success with the program. We practice sounds at school every day as a group but one-on-one work at home is absolutely necessary.
In Math we are continuing to learn about patterning and sequencing and are also starting to learn about measurement. The children are beginning to demonstrate more complex patterning skills using 2-3 attributes. We incorporated patterning and sequencing in our 100th Day activities, with the children using different coloured dabbers and counting different coloured Smarties.
I have noticed that many of the children are beginning to become more independent in dressing themselves. Many of the JK children still need a lot of help with zippers but it is quite a delight to seee that they are slowly making this progression. Please continue to encourage your children to dress themselves independently. Please also take a peak in our Lost and Found bag in the cubby room. It is getting pretty full! Sometimes the children don't recognize their own clothing, especially mittens and gloves.
We are also continuing our book study of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. This special book, published in 1962, was the first children's book to portray a child of colour and was the recipient of the prestigious Caldicott Medal. I chose to study The Snowy Day this month, February, to honour Black History Month.
The children are starting to bring in Valentines for their friends. I have found in the past that it is easier for my little JKs to just sign the cards. It is too much printing for them to write everyone's name and it is too difficult for them to have to try and find everyone's Valentine mailbag with the right name on it. You can imagine what that can be like! My Sks can do what they are most comfortable with. Each child will have a Valentine bag to collect all their cards in. Writing and/or reading their friends' names is a great little literacy exercise too!
Thank you for your continued support.
Mrs. Tyndall
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