Ms. O's Kindergarten Blog

Happy Sunday parents, guardians and my favorite 4 and 5 year olds on the planet!  Hopefully everyone is staying warm and enjoying the snowy weather!  Kids seem to enjoy it more than the adults do ... especially in September! Last week we were busy talking about Terry Fox and the Marathon of Hope.  Thank you to everyone who sent in toonies to support cancer research.  Despite the weather, we had a great time on Friday at our assembly and run.  It was a tad wet, but all of the Kindergarten students were dressed appropriately for the weather.  Thank you!!!!  A big shout out to our Grade 4 classes who organized such a touching assembly. The grade 5/6 team has been busy organizing and planning for our Orange Shirt Day assembly that will take place Monday afternoon from 12:30-1:30.  Students are encouraged to wear orange to show our support for those students who attended residential schools and those who are still impacted by the effects of those experiences today.  We will be discussin

It's amazing how quickly the week goes by!  It was amazing meeting with so many of you last week.  Your child is lucky to have you involved and invested in their learning journey.  Parental involvement and interest does make a difference in your child's success in school.  So THANK YOU! Yesterday we were very excited to make our apple crisp!  Thank you to everyone who remembered to bring an apple and to Pippa for picking us extras so that we could all participate!  Before cutting our apples and making our crisp, we put all of our apples into one group and looked at all of the different ways we could SORT them into sets.  Ask your child if he/she remembers some of the "sorting rules" we used ... Thank you to Jo-Lynn and Kathy for volunteering to core our apples and help with the baking process.  We couldn't have done it without you! After our apples were cored, the students were responsible for cutting their apples into small pieces, adding their pieces to th

What a busy day we had today with lots of "firsts" happening in our classroom.  The morning class had their very first fire drill which they excelled at!  They were quick and quiet and calm leaving the school.  Way to go friends!  Both classes went to the library for the first time and were excited to take out books.  Right now we will have a regular library time however as the year goes on and the students become more familiar with the sign out routines, they will go on their own when they return their book.  Our present library days are Tuesdays for the afternoon class and Wednesday for the morning class.  Students are only allowed to have one book out at a time so please help them remember to bring their books back before their library day.  They get very disappointed when they aren't able to take out a new book.  Thank you! We are excited to welcome a new friend into our morning class.  Katalea has just recently moved with her family into Parkland.  The students hel

Happy Friday everyone!  Here is what we have been working on/talking about over the past few days ... 1.  Ask your child to tell you about the "naughty friends" we learned about yesterday, Thursday!  The naughty friends are the T and the H.  When they are together, they stick out their tongue and make a /th/ sound.  See if your child can show you what our face looks like and what our mouth is doing when we make this sound (tongue in between teeth, air coming out of our mouth etc.) 2.  The afternoon class was very excited to meet their grade 5/6 buddies today!  We are planning on having buddy time every Friday, so every 2nd Friday for each class. 3.  Thank you to those who have sent in their "word" for their child.  Please see Wednesday's blog if you missed the information about the one word project.  Please email me your child's word before Monday. 4.  We enjoyed the warm weather yesterday by having our snack outside as a picnic.  We had some playtim

Hello Parents and Guardians! You wouldn't believe how much your children have progressed in the week they have been in Kindergarten!  A friend of mine, Kathy, volunteers on a weekly basis and could not believe how the children have settled into the routines of our classroom and school.  They are an amazing group of children and I feel so lucky to be their first teacher! This week we have read the story "The Dot" by Peter Reynolds.  "The Dot" is about a young girl,  Vashti, who says she cannot draw. When she tells her teacher, the teacher tells her "make a mark and see where it takes you." Vashti draws a dot on her paper, and her teacher then says "now sign it." The next week she is surprised to see her dot framed on display in the teacher's office. Seeing her dot, she says "I can make a better dot than that." She then starts drawing elaborate, colorful dots and realizes she is indeed an artist.  We discussed, as a class, how

Hello parents and guardians! Important Dates to Remember: Friday, September 5:  Morning Kindergarten attends 8:00-11:45        ***No afternoon class today Monday, September 8:  Picture Day.  Wear your sunniest smile! Friday, September 12:  Afternoon Kindergarten attends 8-11:45    ***. No morning class today Thursday, September18 and Friday, September 19:  Meet the teacher!  No school for Kindergarten       students.  Booking info to come at a later date. It is amazing how much the students have settled into the routines of our Kindergarten classroom this week!  From moving through the hallway like a herd of cats (or should I say kittens) to being able to walk quietly in a single file line, the growth they have shown is amazing to see!  I can't wait to see what this year brings ... An envelope was sent home yesterday containing some forms that had to be read, signed and returned.  Please sent the following forms back as quickly as possible so that I can start addin

Hello Kindergarten parents! What a great day we had!  The students came in excited and prepared for the day with their indoor shoes and, most importantly, their snacks!  Even those with tears at the beginning of class settled in quite well and seemed to enjoy their day.   The first few days are filled with learning new routines and expectations ... I try not to throw too much at the students at once but these are the things we talked about ... - sitting criss-cross on the carpet - lining up single file - moving quietly in the hallway - personal space  - putting our hands up when we have something to say - washing our hands before we eat and after the washroom Both classes went to the gym and played a listening game where we were driving in our own hula hoops.  It is a great game to reinforce listening skills as well as introduce the students to working safely in the gym.  Ask your child if he/she can tell you what actions we did!   We read the story "The School Book