Dear families,
This week and next we will be focusing on Earth Week activities. We are learning about caring for the Earth, recycling, and signs of Spring. Now that the warmer (and often rainy) weather is here, I would like to ask you to remember to dress your child appropriately. As you know, the weather can become cold within a few minutes at this time of year if clouds cover the sun, so it is best that your child has a coat or sweater with them every day.
In Language, we have covered a lot of ground with the Jolly Phonics Program. Over the last few weeks we have focused on the letters/letter sounds O,U L and F. We are also beginning to work on double vowels such as AI and AY. Please encourage your child to work on his or her Phonics duotangs at home as well.
We are also going to be learning about and reviewing two- and three-dimensional shapes. Is our Earth a circle or a sphere?
In late April/early May we will start our unit on Canadian Coins and their Values.
The JKs and SKs continue to work on their journals regularly. It is lovely to see the incredible effort and time they put into their journal work. The SKs are creating their own little booklets called "I Know It's Spring" as well. Don't forget to look at our hallway bulletin board for the children's wonderful work.
We have almost completed our little book called "Flowers Grow" with our Reading Buddies. I think the children really enjoy this special time and the Grade 2s and 3s have a wonderful opportunity to be leaders and role models to the little ones.
Soon we are going to be planting seeds and learning how they grow. This year we will be planting bean seeds, a change from the pumpkin and cherry tomatoes from previous years. When they go home before the May long weekend, please plant them beside a fence so they have support to grow as they climb.
As you have noticed I have changed the set of Snuggle Books to more non-fiction levelled readers. Please continue to read these with your child. One of the rules of thumb in teaching literacy is that the child reads at a level where they can concentrate on comrehension and fluency and experience success.
Please take the time to practice our April poem, "I Love the Earth." We will be presenting it at our next Sharing Assembly. The children who will be receiving certificates for "Co-operation" at our next assembly are Ava, Alex, Yoel and Jack. Well done!
Thank you for your Scholastic Orders. The April/Spring order is due April 30, and the May/Summer order is due May 31.
On April 10, LKS will be wearing pink to support "Anti-Bullying Awareness Day."
It is hard to believe that we are really on the home stretch of the year. I would like to say how very proud I am of ALL the children in my morning and afternoon classes. They have all made great strides this year and has been wonderful to see them learn and grow. Thank you as always for your continued help and support. You are wonderful parents to work with and the children are very fortunate.
Kind regards,
Mrs. Tyndall
Monday, April 8, 2013
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
April 2, 2013.
April already! Spring is officially here although you wouldn't know it with the snow!
Our Easter craft parties were a great success - thank you so much to the Parent Volunteers who helped the children with their crafts. The children had fun at each station they weaving an Easter basket, feathering the nest, dipping an egg, making an Easter Bunny puppet, and making an Easter bunny bag.
This children worked on Easter words, the SKs wrote a "Here is a..." booklet, the JKs wrote a "The Bunny can..." booklet, we did our March calendars and "This is me in March." and continued practising our sight words with popcorn word activities. Please take a moment to look at the children's wonderful work on our hallway bulletin board.
In Friday's mail bags three children in the afternoon class did not receive copies of the homework sheet, a package from Brentwood Library, and 2 booklets on how to help your child succeed in numeracy and literacy. Please let me know if your child did not receive these items. Twenty were set aside but after the mail bags were done there were three remaining. Thank you.
In this Friday's mail bag your will receive information about Sight Words and a list of several sight words. If your child is in SK you will also receive important information regarding your child's reading progress from books with a lot of repetition to books with a beginning, middle and end. I am so pleased with the children's progress and am very proud of them! Please continue to support your child's literacy at home by reading the Snuggle Books and encouraging your child to read the books they make in class to you. Read to your bunny, and your bunny will read to you...
The following Snuggle Books have not been returned: Morning Class: # 44 "In My Bed" Afternoon Class: #9 "Buzzing Flies" #13 "The Gingerbread Man."
Even though it seems far away now, I have set the date for the Senior Kindergarten Graduation at June 27. If you have volunteered or would like to volunteer to bring snacks for this special day please let your Grade Parent know. Thank you!
Pajama day is this Friday, April 5. Fun! The children are welcome to bring their "bedtime buddy" as well.
I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend with family.
Kind regards,
Beverley
Our Easter craft parties were a great success - thank you so much to the Parent Volunteers who helped the children with their crafts. The children had fun at each station they weaving an Easter basket, feathering the nest, dipping an egg, making an Easter Bunny puppet, and making an Easter bunny bag.
This children worked on Easter words, the SKs wrote a "Here is a..." booklet, the JKs wrote a "The Bunny can..." booklet, we did our March calendars and "This is me in March." and continued practising our sight words with popcorn word activities. Please take a moment to look at the children's wonderful work on our hallway bulletin board.
In Friday's mail bags three children in the afternoon class did not receive copies of the homework sheet, a package from Brentwood Library, and 2 booklets on how to help your child succeed in numeracy and literacy. Please let me know if your child did not receive these items. Twenty were set aside but after the mail bags were done there were three remaining. Thank you.
In this Friday's mail bag your will receive information about Sight Words and a list of several sight words. If your child is in SK you will also receive important information regarding your child's reading progress from books with a lot of repetition to books with a beginning, middle and end. I am so pleased with the children's progress and am very proud of them! Please continue to support your child's literacy at home by reading the Snuggle Books and encouraging your child to read the books they make in class to you. Read to your bunny, and your bunny will read to you...
The following Snuggle Books have not been returned: Morning Class: # 44 "In My Bed" Afternoon Class: #9 "Buzzing Flies" #13 "The Gingerbread Man."
Even though it seems far away now, I have set the date for the Senior Kindergarten Graduation at June 27. If you have volunteered or would like to volunteer to bring snacks for this special day please let your Grade Parent know. Thank you!
Pajama day is this Friday, April 5. Fun! The children are welcome to bring their "bedtime buddy" as well.
I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend with family.
Kind regards,
Beverley
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
March 25, 2013.
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
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
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
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