Dear families,
I hope you’re having a great weekend! The words of the week were HE and SHE. The letter sound was Ll like lollipop. This week we started our inquiry on Measurement and an inquiry on.... PENGUINS!
On chart paper, we started with a schema of what the children knew already, which was a lot! Then we wrote what the children said they wanted to learn. We watched two interesting age-appropriate videos on penguins on the Smartboard which helped answer some of the kids' questions! For our quiet thinking time this week, we did Cosmic Kids Yoga to Pedro the Penguin. We also made a penguin puppet, did dot-to-dot alphabet penguins, did a Venn diagram together comparing kids and penguins, and read some penguin books. I have a terrific STEM penguin game that the children can play with, too. Next week we'll continue our inquiry, and when we're finished the kids will take home their penguin folders. A special thank you to Hope who shared penguin books, toys and photos with her classmates, and even brought little chocolate "penguin" eggs for her friends. Abigail shared her movie "Happy Feet" and the kids really enjoyed watching (part of) it on Friday, as a school-wide reward for exceeding last year's Terry Fox donations.
For our numeracy inquiry on measurement, the children learned the three first rules of measuring: 1) Start at the edge; 2) no spaces between measuring tools 3) use the same tools to measure. This rule is especially important when using non-standard tools to measure something, for example popsicle sticks (they all have to be the same size). We watched two little videos on how and why we measure things, and what we can measure (everything!). We practiced our measuring skills with sticks, measuring tape and rulers, by measuring various things in the classroom. If you have a measuring tape at home, let your child play with it and measure things! The children also measure many things on the first floor of our school with their reading buddies, using standard and non-standard measuring tools. They were a great help. The children also completed a measuring task which involved colouring, cutting, and gluing 7 groups of cub-a-links in the correct order, from lowest to highest. This was a relatively simple task for the SKs and challenging for the JKs. We will do this task again next week. I sent some extra rulers home for the kids to keep and use. We will continue learning about measurement next week.
Thank you so much to Emerson's mom who was our Mystery Reader!
Please ensure your child has enough healthy snacks and lunch to last the day. I do have extra goldfish crackers in case of a "snackless emergency :) ). Thank you to Arlo's mom who generously donated a box of goldfish crackers to the classroom! We will use some of those next week when we measure how tall penguins are with goldfish crackers, since penguins eat fish!
The online booking system for first term interviews will soon be available. As has been the case for the last few years, a teacher requests a term 1 interview only when they have a concern or feel the need to further discuss a student's progress, although any parent can request an interview. I will contact you if an interview is necessary at this time. Thank you!
That's the news for this week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Let's hope for some snow for the children to play in!
Friday, January 11, 2019
Friday, December 21, 2018
Week of December 17-21
Dear families,
I think December 25 is tied with birthdays in terms of how excited the children get! This has been a fun week, and the kiddos did a lot of learning while having fun:
Literacy:
The Letter sound of the week was Uu. The sight words of the week were BIG and RUN. After watching "How the Grinch Stole CHrtistmas," we used a Venn diagram to compare the Grinch and Santa; we also uncovered hidden sight words from "magic" Christmas lights, wrote how we would get Santa out of the chimney if he got stuck, finished our Littler Elf booklets with our reading buddies, read and coloured a non-fiction booklet about reindeer, did our "This is me in December" writing and drawing, and the SKs did some beginning letter sound exercises.
Numeracy:
We did a candy cane flavour graph, the SKs wrote which number came next in a sequence, the JKs and SKs did a number dot-to-dot exercise, and all the kids did their December calendars.
Art:
The children cut and glued Santa "stuck in the chimney," made Star of David and reindeer ornaments, and made several crafts during our Holiday Craft Party (thank you to the moms of Anilee, Dante, Ella, Evelyn and Reina!
Science:
We are starting to learn about snowflakes.
Music:
The children performed three songs and one poem at our Kindergarten Holiday Concert and Santa made a surprise visit!
Thank you to our Mystery Reader Yara (Reina's sister)! Thank you as well to Monty's family who will be taking care of Bubbles the Beta Fish over the holidays!
Thank you so much for the thoughtful and generous Christmas gifts! I am so happy to be your child's teacher and wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2019!
Mrs. Tyndall
I think December 25 is tied with birthdays in terms of how excited the children get! This has been a fun week, and the kiddos did a lot of learning while having fun:
Literacy:
The Letter sound of the week was Uu. The sight words of the week were BIG and RUN. After watching "How the Grinch Stole CHrtistmas," we used a Venn diagram to compare the Grinch and Santa; we also uncovered hidden sight words from "magic" Christmas lights, wrote how we would get Santa out of the chimney if he got stuck, finished our Littler Elf booklets with our reading buddies, read and coloured a non-fiction booklet about reindeer, did our "This is me in December" writing and drawing, and the SKs did some beginning letter sound exercises.
Numeracy:
We did a candy cane flavour graph, the SKs wrote which number came next in a sequence, the JKs and SKs did a number dot-to-dot exercise, and all the kids did their December calendars.
Art:
The children cut and glued Santa "stuck in the chimney," made Star of David and reindeer ornaments, and made several crafts during our Holiday Craft Party (thank you to the moms of Anilee, Dante, Ella, Evelyn and Reina!
Science:
We are starting to learn about snowflakes.
Music:
The children performed three songs and one poem at our Kindergarten Holiday Concert and Santa made a surprise visit!
Thank you to our Mystery Reader Yara (Reina's sister)! Thank you as well to Monty's family who will be taking care of Bubbles the Beta Fish over the holidays!
Thank you so much for the thoughtful and generous Christmas gifts! I am so happy to be your child's teacher and wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2019!
Mrs. Tyndall
Saturday, December 15, 2018
Week of December 10-14
Dear families,
I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
The letter sound of the week was Oo (the short "Oo" like "on" and "off." The words of the week were HERE and YOU.
Njumeracy:
The children did a doy-to-dot number Christmas tree, counted and added "pirate gold and silver, did a survery about who likes candy canes and who doesn't (thank you Anilee and Everleigh for conducting the survey!), and tallied Christmas ornaments.
Literacy:
Our little elves read "Happy Holidays with me on the Smartboard, and we circled and looked for sight words and letter sounds. They coloured and read their own copies, too. We read the lyrics to holiday songs, practiced our poem "Shy Santa", and read and coloured a booklet called "Little Elf" with our Reading Buddies.They also completed a letter sound "Oo" worksheet. I have sent home our next word sheet with many words made from the letter sounds we have learned so far: SATIPNCKEHRMDGO.
Music:
The children sang Holiday songs by the piano (I'll send the lyrics home to keep), and practised their songs for the concert on Tuesday morning.
Art:
Your children have made art gifts for you to put under the tree. They are beautiful! They also followed our step-by-step instructions to draw a snowman with chalk.
Dramatic Play:
The children enjoyed pretending to be elves in "Santa's Workshop," pirates with the treasure chest, and I hope they continue they dramatic play at home with the pirate folders (and treasure chest gifts "from Captain Jack Sparrow!" that went home in Friday's mail bag. They worked hard on this unit and had fun!
Thank you so much to this week's parent volunteers! Anilee's mom Amy helped with pizza lunch, and Sophie's dad was the Mystery Reader!
That's the news for this week! I look forward to seeing you at Tuesday's Holiday Concert at 9:00 a.m. in the gym! The children should be dressed in "Christmas colours" please.
Have a great week!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend!
The letter sound of the week was Oo (the short "Oo" like "on" and "off." The words of the week were HERE and YOU.
Njumeracy:
The children did a doy-to-dot number Christmas tree, counted and added "pirate gold and silver, did a survery about who likes candy canes and who doesn't (thank you Anilee and Everleigh for conducting the survey!), and tallied Christmas ornaments.
Literacy:
Our little elves read "Happy Holidays with me on the Smartboard, and we circled and looked for sight words and letter sounds. They coloured and read their own copies, too. We read the lyrics to holiday songs, practiced our poem "Shy Santa", and read and coloured a booklet called "Little Elf" with our Reading Buddies.They also completed a letter sound "Oo" worksheet. I have sent home our next word sheet with many words made from the letter sounds we have learned so far: SATIPNCKEHRMDGO.
Music:
The children sang Holiday songs by the piano (I'll send the lyrics home to keep), and practised their songs for the concert on Tuesday morning.
Art:
Your children have made art gifts for you to put under the tree. They are beautiful! They also followed our step-by-step instructions to draw a snowman with chalk.
Dramatic Play:
The children enjoyed pretending to be elves in "Santa's Workshop," pirates with the treasure chest, and I hope they continue they dramatic play at home with the pirate folders (and treasure chest gifts "from Captain Jack Sparrow!" that went home in Friday's mail bag. They worked hard on this unit and had fun!
Thank you so much to this week's parent volunteers! Anilee's mom Amy helped with pizza lunch, and Sophie's dad was the Mystery Reader!
That's the news for this week! I look forward to seeing you at Tuesday's Holiday Concert at 9:00 a.m. in the gym! The children should be dressed in "Christmas colours" please.
Have a great week!
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Week of December3-6
Dear families,
What an exciting time of year this is for the children! The children has been busy practising their songs for the upcoming Holiday Concert on December 18 at 9:00 a.m. (in the gym). We hope to see you there!
Alfie, our class Elf on the Shelf, came to our classroom again this year, and is sitting quietly atop our globe, where the North Pole and Santa's Workshop is. We are also counting down the days until December 25 with our classroom beads, just like the children are doing at home.
Here is what we did this week:
Literacy:
The words of the week were HAVE and SAW. The letter sound of the week was Gg. The children continued their unit on pirates, and made a little booklet writing "Pirates are..." with a drawing. The SKs also wrote and drew "If I were a Pirate..." and all the children are completing a speech bubble to go with their telescopes (thank you for the paper towel tubes!): "With my telescope I can see...." This speech bubble will go on their pirate glyphs. With their reading buddies, they wrote a letter to Santa, which we mailed in the North Pole Mailbox in the office. The SKs are also doing a fill-in-the-blank activity with a Santa poem.
Numeracy:
The children counted pirate "gold and silver" (gold and silver painted stones), making piles of 5 and 10, rolling the dice to match the pirate gold with the number on the dice, and sorting the gold and silver.
Dramatic Play:
The children are loving our pirate treasure chest and costumes! They read pirate books while dressed up at the centre and are having a lot of fun playing make-believe. We also have a "Santa Centre" with ornaments and decorations that the kids are enjoying playing with.
Science:
We "turned pirate pennies into gold" in class! First, we hypothesized which of the following solutions would make a brown penny shiny: water, soapy water, vinegar, salt water, hand sanitizer, or salt and vinegar. Most of the children guessed soapy water. Then we did the experiment and learned that vinegar is a mild acid, and salt is mildly corrosive, so that solution quickly removed the tarnish. Salt water and vinegar alone worked a little bit, but much more slowly that the salt and vinegar solution. I will send home the steps to this experiment so the kids can do this at home if you wish! They could turn loonies into "gold" with the solution, too, if you don't have pennies.
In Music:
The children are learning their holiday concert songs. I've sent home a copy of them so your child can practise at home.
Arts and Crafts:
The children made a telescope with their paper towel tube, and will be writing "With my telescope I can see..." They also made pirate eye patches to wear (Mrs. Mosun measured each of their heads to make sure it would fit - we'll do a lot more on MEASUREMENT after the holidays), and, with their Reading Buddies, the children followed the steps to fold a large piece of paper and make a pirate hat. All of these pirate-themed activities and all the children's work will go home in a folder they are making, once we've learned all there is to learn about pirates!
Thank you so much to Hope's mom who was our Mystery Reeader this week!
If you have any old Christmas cards, kindly cut/rip them so that the personal message stays with you, and send in the blank remaining part with the picture. We'll turn our "Home Centre" into Santa's workshop and the kids can write Christmas Cards to each other.
If anyone would like to "fish sit" Bubbles, our class Beta Fish over the holidays, please send me an email. He is very easy to take care of!
Thank you!
To reward LKS for surpassing the Terry Fox fundraising goal, each class in the school is allowed to watch a movie. I was thinking that our little ones would enjoy "The Polar Express" which is a wonderful book and movie, but I can't find my copy. If anyone has a copy, kindly send it in for us to borrow. Otherwise, we can watch the classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" 1960s animated film and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Here is a list of two things the children wished from Santa, according to the letter they mailed to the North Pole:
JUNIORS:
Seth - big toy train, 2 toy robots (one red, one blue)
Arlo - remote control car, batman track
Emerson - Paw Patrol, book
Reina - "Pamsey" and "Poopsie" Surprise
Edward - two trucks
Emma - whale Playmobile, LOL house
Olivia - Barbie doll, toy train
Sophie - "Chimerang" shine dolls, My Little Pony barn
Estella- on holiday
Simone - on holiday
Elise - real kitchen, toy school
Ella - Ana dress and boots (from "Frozen" movie)
Yilin - toy Santa, GAP shirt
SENIORS:
Christopher - Lego set, stuffy
Evelyn - Elf on the Shelf, LOL doll
Dante - Scheherazade card, Pokémon book
Rajan - Lego book, "Fortnite" game
Ayla - stuffy, princess costume
Monty - lock-picking set, Harry Potter Lego
Abigail - toy camera, mini trampoline
Casey - "something that shoots cars out" (Hot Wheels?)
Mila - stroller, crystals
Shayan - stuffy, candy
Anilee - toy, markers
Hope - nerf gun, candy
Diesel - Lego set, toy robot
Everleigh - American doll, water doggy
Kipling - Transformer, pet chameleon
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
What an exciting time of year this is for the children! The children has been busy practising their songs for the upcoming Holiday Concert on December 18 at 9:00 a.m. (in the gym). We hope to see you there!
Alfie, our class Elf on the Shelf, came to our classroom again this year, and is sitting quietly atop our globe, where the North Pole and Santa's Workshop is. We are also counting down the days until December 25 with our classroom beads, just like the children are doing at home.
Here is what we did this week:
Literacy:
The words of the week were HAVE and SAW. The letter sound of the week was Gg. The children continued their unit on pirates, and made a little booklet writing "Pirates are..." with a drawing. The SKs also wrote and drew "If I were a Pirate..." and all the children are completing a speech bubble to go with their telescopes (thank you for the paper towel tubes!): "With my telescope I can see...." This speech bubble will go on their pirate glyphs. With their reading buddies, they wrote a letter to Santa, which we mailed in the North Pole Mailbox in the office. The SKs are also doing a fill-in-the-blank activity with a Santa poem.
Numeracy:
The children counted pirate "gold and silver" (gold and silver painted stones), making piles of 5 and 10, rolling the dice to match the pirate gold with the number on the dice, and sorting the gold and silver.
Dramatic Play:
The children are loving our pirate treasure chest and costumes! They read pirate books while dressed up at the centre and are having a lot of fun playing make-believe. We also have a "Santa Centre" with ornaments and decorations that the kids are enjoying playing with.
Science:
We "turned pirate pennies into gold" in class! First, we hypothesized which of the following solutions would make a brown penny shiny: water, soapy water, vinegar, salt water, hand sanitizer, or salt and vinegar. Most of the children guessed soapy water. Then we did the experiment and learned that vinegar is a mild acid, and salt is mildly corrosive, so that solution quickly removed the tarnish. Salt water and vinegar alone worked a little bit, but much more slowly that the salt and vinegar solution. I will send home the steps to this experiment so the kids can do this at home if you wish! They could turn loonies into "gold" with the solution, too, if you don't have pennies.
In Music:
The children are learning their holiday concert songs. I've sent home a copy of them so your child can practise at home.
Arts and Crafts:
The children made a telescope with their paper towel tube, and will be writing "With my telescope I can see..." They also made pirate eye patches to wear (Mrs. Mosun measured each of their heads to make sure it would fit - we'll do a lot more on MEASUREMENT after the holidays), and, with their Reading Buddies, the children followed the steps to fold a large piece of paper and make a pirate hat. All of these pirate-themed activities and all the children's work will go home in a folder they are making, once we've learned all there is to learn about pirates!
Thank you so much to Hope's mom who was our Mystery Reeader this week!
If you have any old Christmas cards, kindly cut/rip them so that the personal message stays with you, and send in the blank remaining part with the picture. We'll turn our "Home Centre" into Santa's workshop and the kids can write Christmas Cards to each other.
If anyone would like to "fish sit" Bubbles, our class Beta Fish over the holidays, please send me an email. He is very easy to take care of!
Thank you!
To reward LKS for surpassing the Terry Fox fundraising goal, each class in the school is allowed to watch a movie. I was thinking that our little ones would enjoy "The Polar Express" which is a wonderful book and movie, but I can't find my copy. If anyone has a copy, kindly send it in for us to borrow. Otherwise, we can watch the classic "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" 1960s animated film and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Here is a list of two things the children wished from Santa, according to the letter they mailed to the North Pole:
JUNIORS:
Seth - big toy train, 2 toy robots (one red, one blue)
Arlo - remote control car, batman track
Emerson - Paw Patrol, book
Reina - "Pamsey" and "Poopsie" Surprise
Edward - two trucks
Emma - whale Playmobile, LOL house
Olivia - Barbie doll, toy train
Sophie - "Chimerang" shine dolls, My Little Pony barn
Estella- on holiday
Simone - on holiday
Elise - real kitchen, toy school
Ella - Ana dress and boots (from "Frozen" movie)
Yilin - toy Santa, GAP shirt
SENIORS:
Christopher - Lego set, stuffy
Evelyn - Elf on the Shelf, LOL doll
Dante - Scheherazade card, Pokémon book
Rajan - Lego book, "Fortnite" game
Ayla - stuffy, princess costume
Monty - lock-picking set, Harry Potter Lego
Abigail - toy camera, mini trampoline
Casey - "something that shoots cars out" (Hot Wheels?)
Mila - stroller, crystals
Shayan - stuffy, candy
Anilee - toy, markers
Hope - nerf gun, candy
Diesel - Lego set, toy robot
Everleigh - American doll, water doggy
Kipling - Transformer, pet chameleon
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Friday, November 30, 2018
Week of November 26-30
Dear families,
We had another great week in Room 166! The words of the week were GO and TO. The letter sound of the week was Dd. We finished up our David Shannon author study, comparing the "David" books and other David Shannon books withe a Venn diagram, watched a David read-aloud story on the Smartboard, and the SKs wrote and drew a picture about why they liked the book "David Goes to School."
Lo and behold, it turns out that David Shannon illustrated kids' books about pirates, too! This week we read a lot of fun pirate books and practised retelling the stories. We made an "Itsy Bitsy Pirate Book," made a pirate glyph (a numeracy activity), made a big treasure map with our reading buddies, painted tea on the map to make it look old, played with a pirate treasure chest full of coins (pennies!), sea shells, a map, pirate hats, and "jewels," and practised talking like pirates do! We also learned how to draw a pirate using our mini white boards and white board markers. Please bring in a paper towel roll next week so your child can make a "pirate telescope."
The children also did their "This is me in November" drawing and writing, and their November calendar. I have put them on display in the hall bulletin board. I'm seeing so much progress since September!
Next week we will do more pirate numeracy, literacy, science and art activities, and will also start our holiday work all about December and Santa. Alfie the Elf on the Shelf might arrive on Monday! We will also start learning our songs in preparation for the Holiday Concert! December is such an exciting month for children.
Today the children brought home a "Christmas Countdown" which is 25 patterned beads and a bell on a pipe cleaner. Each day, the children should move one bead over, and then when all the beads are moved over, they can ring the bell because that is Christmas Day! Please leave these at home so they don't get lost. You can use these year after year just as you would an advent calendar.
To practice self-regulation, the children listened to Cosmic Kids Yoga's "Zen Den" and did Cosmic Kids Yoga "Spezzi the Pirate Parrot" and "Harry Potter Yoga." Learning to quiet our minds and bodies is an important life skill in our busy world, and the children tell me that really enjoy how yoga makes them feel "calm."
In the computer lab with Mrs. Mosun, the kids watched Sesame Street and David Shannon Books.
Thank you to Ella's mom, who was our Mystery Reader this week! She taught the children a song and read a wonderful book called "Ada Twist the Scientist."
Congratulations to Dante, Elise and Emerson for receiving a TDSB award for "Empathy." They demonstrate that they care about how other children feel. Good work!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We had another great week in Room 166! The words of the week were GO and TO. The letter sound of the week was Dd. We finished up our David Shannon author study, comparing the "David" books and other David Shannon books withe a Venn diagram, watched a David read-aloud story on the Smartboard, and the SKs wrote and drew a picture about why they liked the book "David Goes to School."
Lo and behold, it turns out that David Shannon illustrated kids' books about pirates, too! This week we read a lot of fun pirate books and practised retelling the stories. We made an "Itsy Bitsy Pirate Book," made a pirate glyph (a numeracy activity), made a big treasure map with our reading buddies, painted tea on the map to make it look old, played with a pirate treasure chest full of coins (pennies!), sea shells, a map, pirate hats, and "jewels," and practised talking like pirates do! We also learned how to draw a pirate using our mini white boards and white board markers. Please bring in a paper towel roll next week so your child can make a "pirate telescope."
The children also did their "This is me in November" drawing and writing, and their November calendar. I have put them on display in the hall bulletin board. I'm seeing so much progress since September!
Next week we will do more pirate numeracy, literacy, science and art activities, and will also start our holiday work all about December and Santa. Alfie the Elf on the Shelf might arrive on Monday! We will also start learning our songs in preparation for the Holiday Concert! December is such an exciting month for children.
Today the children brought home a "Christmas Countdown" which is 25 patterned beads and a bell on a pipe cleaner. Each day, the children should move one bead over, and then when all the beads are moved over, they can ring the bell because that is Christmas Day! Please leave these at home so they don't get lost. You can use these year after year just as you would an advent calendar.
To practice self-regulation, the children listened to Cosmic Kids Yoga's "Zen Den" and did Cosmic Kids Yoga "Spezzi the Pirate Parrot" and "Harry Potter Yoga." Learning to quiet our minds and bodies is an important life skill in our busy world, and the children tell me that really enjoy how yoga makes them feel "calm."
In the computer lab with Mrs. Mosun, the kids watched Sesame Street and David Shannon Books.
Thank you to Ella's mom, who was our Mystery Reader this week! She taught the children a song and read a wonderful book called "Ada Twist the Scientist."
Congratulations to Dante, Elise and Emerson for receiving a TDSB award for "Empathy." They demonstrate that they care about how other children feel. Good work!
I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
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