Dear families,
Brrr! What a snowy and cold week this has been! Perfect for talking about "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats and for learning about snow!!
The sight words of this week were IT and WHY. The letter sound of the week was Jj. Every few weeks I send the SKs home with a big list of many words that can be made using the letter sounds we have learned so far. Please encourage your child to sound these words out at home. Even if s/he already knows how to read them, you can extend their learning by asking them to spell them, which will improve their writing skills.
SNOW!! What is it, how is is made, how can we describe it, how can we draw it, how many flat sides and points does each ice crystal have, why and when does it fall, and why do some parts of the Earth have snow and others don't? These are some of the things we learned about this week. With their reading buddies, the children enjoyed making 3-D snowflakes, which are on display in our classroom.
We also continued our study of "The Snowy Day." The children are doing a good job re-telling this lovely story using picture clues. They also read and coloured a mini "Snowy Day" book, and are making connections between the main character in the story called Peter, and themselves.
In numeracy, the children are practicing their tally skills and measuring skills.
For art, the children are painting baby and adult penguins.
On Monday, we welcomed a Scientist in our classroom who taught the children all about Marvelous Machines! Thank you so much to our parent volunteers! Casey's dad, Shay's mom, Ella's mom, and Elise's mom helped our Scientist with the lessons.
The children are completing their "This is me in January" monthly writing and drawing, as well as their January calendar.
The new list of February words went home on Friday. You will also find a purple note in your child's mailbag about the fast-approaching 100th Day of School, which is on February 11th. Each child should count and bring in 100 items that can fit in a clear, plastic bag. The children will present their 100 items to the class and then put them in our display area. Please ensure that your child's 100 items are brought in by February 8th.
Valentine's Day is also coming so, and this is a good opportunity for your child to practice writing his/her friends' names on Valentines. Please send in your child's Valentines before February 14th so that s/he can have time to sort them in the bags I will provide. Thank you!
A big Thank You as well to Ella's dad who read two terrific books that the children loved - "The Book With No Pictures" and a pop-up book about dinosaurs!
Since Saturday is Groundhog day, the children learned a lot about groundhogs, what Groundhog Day is all about, and had fun doing a maze, some artwork, and learning a groundhog song.
That's the news for this week! Next week we'll finish our Book Look about The Snowy Day, do lots of counting to get ready for the 100th Day of School, and learn about Chinese New Year!
Stay warm and have a wonderful weekend!
Friday, February 1, 2019
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Week of January 21-25
Dear families,
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful winter weekend. Here is an update about our classroom activities:
The letter sound of the week was Bb and the sight words of the week were HAS and WANT. Thank you so much to Emma's mom who was our Mystery Reader and to Casey's mom who helped with Friday's pizza lunch!
The children continued to practise graphing and tallying, as well as measuring classroom objects using standard and non-standard tools. They also played in our Weights and Measures centre. The SKs enjoyed helping the JKS with these activities. The children measured the height and width of penguin drawings with cubes, and compared how tall they are with various kinds of penguins. Providing your child with measuring tape or a ruler at home will encourage him/her to develop these important skills.
The children put goldfish crackers on penguin pictures, saying the letter (JK) and letter sound (SK) as they did. They also coloured upper and lower case letters in a penguin pictures to practice their letters and sounds. Their penguin folders went home in Friday's mail bag.
With snow finally on the ground, it was time to start a book study of "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. This Caldicott award-winning book is excellent for developing children's re-tell skills and developing text-to-self comprehension. With their reading buddies, the kids made a 3-D pop-up setting of the story to encourage re-telling, and started a text-to-self activity, relating tyhe main character Peter's experiences to their own.
We are also continuing our daily mindful meditation practices and yoga (this week it was Pedro the Penguin). If you Google search "mindful meditation for kids" your child can practice this at home, too. It's the one with the picture of the meditating monkey :)
Mila brought in jello cups for all her classmates (January's show-and-tell item is "my favourite food!) and we watched a little video on how jello/gelatin is made. Te kids were very interested about gummy bears being made from gelatin!
The next Scholastic order is due on February 8. Books and phonics sets make nice Valentine's Day gifts!
Next week will be our Scientist-in-the-Classroom visit on "Marvelous Machines" and we will also start a new inquiry on Arctic animals. Brrr!
That's the news for the week. Unfortunately I have come down with the chest infection that has been going around (and around!) our classroom, but I hope February is a healthier month! Only about 7 weeks until the first day of Spring!
I hope you are enjoying this beautiful winter weekend. Here is an update about our classroom activities:
The letter sound of the week was Bb and the sight words of the week were HAS and WANT. Thank you so much to Emma's mom who was our Mystery Reader and to Casey's mom who helped with Friday's pizza lunch!
The children continued to practise graphing and tallying, as well as measuring classroom objects using standard and non-standard tools. They also played in our Weights and Measures centre. The SKs enjoyed helping the JKS with these activities. The children measured the height and width of penguin drawings with cubes, and compared how tall they are with various kinds of penguins. Providing your child with measuring tape or a ruler at home will encourage him/her to develop these important skills.
The children put goldfish crackers on penguin pictures, saying the letter (JK) and letter sound (SK) as they did. They also coloured upper and lower case letters in a penguin pictures to practice their letters and sounds. Their penguin folders went home in Friday's mail bag.
With snow finally on the ground, it was time to start a book study of "The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats. This Caldicott award-winning book is excellent for developing children's re-tell skills and developing text-to-self comprehension. With their reading buddies, the kids made a 3-D pop-up setting of the story to encourage re-telling, and started a text-to-self activity, relating tyhe main character Peter's experiences to their own.
We are also continuing our daily mindful meditation practices and yoga (this week it was Pedro the Penguin). If you Google search "mindful meditation for kids" your child can practice this at home, too. It's the one with the picture of the meditating monkey :)
Mila brought in jello cups for all her classmates (January's show-and-tell item is "my favourite food!) and we watched a little video on how jello/gelatin is made. Te kids were very interested about gummy bears being made from gelatin!
The next Scholastic order is due on February 8. Books and phonics sets make nice Valentine's Day gifts!
Next week will be our Scientist-in-the-Classroom visit on "Marvelous Machines" and we will also start a new inquiry on Arctic animals. Brrr!
That's the news for the week. Unfortunately I have come down with the chest infection that has been going around (and around!) our classroom, but I hope February is a healthier month! Only about 7 weeks until the first day of Spring!
Thursday, January 17, 2019
Week of January 14-18
Dear families,
It looks like we are finally going to get some snow this weekend! The children will be so happy!
This week the sight words were COME and LOOK. "Come look at the penguins!" The Jolly Phonics letter sound of the week was Ff.
The children have a new seating plan at their tables and are working well. Periodically Mrs. Mosun and I will re-arrange the seating plan to optimize learning and so the children can make new friends. We are also thinking about which children will work together well in Grade One.
In our inquiry on Penguins, we learned more fun facts about the Emperor Penguin. With their Grade 4 reading buddies, the children read and coloured a life cycle wheel and booklet about this amazing penguin. They also watched a short video about the Macaroni penguin. To explain how penguins and other antarctic animals don't get cold in freezing water, I sealed lard (fat = blubber) in a bag, and made it into a sleeve. Then the children took turns putting their hand in the bag of "blubber" and then in a tub full of ice. They observed that they didn't feel cold at all! We talked about how penguins, like all life, adapts to the environment around us. Kids wear coats, hats, mitts, boots and snow pants to keep them warm and dry! We also saw an amazing slow motion video of penguins launching themselves out of the water back onto land. We will finish up with our penguin inquiry next week and then the kids will bring all their learning home to show you!
To tie into our numeracy unit of Measurement, the children used Goldfish crackers to measure a paper penguin (a non-standard unit of measurement). They measured their penguin with the crackers facing upwards, and then sideways, but not both at the same time, because the children know that measuring tools need to be the same size. They also measured each other with their footprints, remembering to start at the edge and not leave spaces. The children also played with our scales, comparing different objects and numbers of objects. As a STEM learning activity, they are playing a penguin puzzle game and "Rush Hour." Playing games at home are an excellent way of strengthening numeracy skills.
The January Scholastic order is due Monday. Thank you for supporting Scholastic!
Thank you so much to Reina's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week!
I hope you have a fun weekend. Friday is a Report Card Writing Day for teachers. See you on Monday!
It looks like we are finally going to get some snow this weekend! The children will be so happy!
This week the sight words were COME and LOOK. "Come look at the penguins!" The Jolly Phonics letter sound of the week was Ff.
The children have a new seating plan at their tables and are working well. Periodically Mrs. Mosun and I will re-arrange the seating plan to optimize learning and so the children can make new friends. We are also thinking about which children will work together well in Grade One.
In our inquiry on Penguins, we learned more fun facts about the Emperor Penguin. With their Grade 4 reading buddies, the children read and coloured a life cycle wheel and booklet about this amazing penguin. They also watched a short video about the Macaroni penguin. To explain how penguins and other antarctic animals don't get cold in freezing water, I sealed lard (fat = blubber) in a bag, and made it into a sleeve. Then the children took turns putting their hand in the bag of "blubber" and then in a tub full of ice. They observed that they didn't feel cold at all! We talked about how penguins, like all life, adapts to the environment around us. Kids wear coats, hats, mitts, boots and snow pants to keep them warm and dry! We also saw an amazing slow motion video of penguins launching themselves out of the water back onto land. We will finish up with our penguin inquiry next week and then the kids will bring all their learning home to show you!
To tie into our numeracy unit of Measurement, the children used Goldfish crackers to measure a paper penguin (a non-standard unit of measurement). They measured their penguin with the crackers facing upwards, and then sideways, but not both at the same time, because the children know that measuring tools need to be the same size. They also measured each other with their footprints, remembering to start at the edge and not leave spaces. The children also played with our scales, comparing different objects and numbers of objects. As a STEM learning activity, they are playing a penguin puzzle game and "Rush Hour." Playing games at home are an excellent way of strengthening numeracy skills.
The January Scholastic order is due Monday. Thank you for supporting Scholastic!
Thank you so much to Reina's mom who was our Mystery Reader this week!
I hope you have a fun weekend. Friday is a Report Card Writing Day for teachers. See you on Monday!
Friday, January 11, 2019
Week of January 7-11
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!
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, 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
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