Busy Wednesday!
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 helped to make her feel so welcome and part of our class.
We have been learning about the letter /s/ this week, practicing printing it correctly and learning its sound. Ask your child if they can tell (and show you) what the /s/ sound looks like. They should be able to tell you a few words that start with the letter s. We have practiced printing it on individual white boards as well as on the lines in our writing journals. My expectation is not that they are writing on the lines as we are focusing on printing the letter correctly. We watched a video of a song called "Where do you start your letters?". Check it out on youtube at PreviewPreview2:18Where do you start your letters?. We also enjoyed watching Geraldine the Giraffe look for things around the house that start with /s/ and good old Sesame Street! The students were excited to have some /s/lime to take home at the end of the day. Next week will will focus on the letter /a/.
Every day during attendance, calendar and daily message activities we focus on math concepts. For example, when we have students away that day we figure out how many students are in class using "subtraction" (the children love this). We are counting the numbers on the calendar, starting at a different starting point every day. We discuss how all of the teen numbers start with a 1. We talk about what number is 1 less and 1 more. We have also begun learning about sorting. We did a large group sorting activity where I sorted objects and then the students and they had to guess my sorting rule. Verbalizing what is the same about a set of objects but what is different from the other sets is quite challenging for this age. We will continue to practice sorting by color, shape, size and other single attributes (such as how many holes are in a button) over the next few weeks. You can help them understand sorting at home by asking them to sort and put away the cutlery, sort their toys etc. They are probably already doing math without knowing it!
We also got a peek at our new POW logo! We love it (although some of us couldn't understand why it wasn't the one that THEY picked).
I am excited to meet with you over the next few days to discuss your child's transition into the Kindergarten classroom. It is a time for you to share more about them and how they are doing at home with this new stage of life. Don't forget to check out the word art at the end of the main hallway. The students are so excited about how they turned out (as am I). I am looking forward to connecting some of their words to our discussion on Terry Fox, discussing his bravery and hopefully helping the students with a greater understanding of what being brave means.
A few dates to remember:
Tomorrow (Thursday the 19th) and Friday, September 20: No school for Kindergarten students
Monday, September 23: Please bring an apple (whole) for some apple activities we will be doing next week
Friday, September 27: AM class attends. Terry Fox Run assembly an run. Please remember to send in a toonie with your child to support Terry's legacy.
Have a great weekend!
Ms. O.
We are excited to welcome a new friend into our morning class. Katalea has just recently moved with her family into Parkland. The students helped to make her feel so welcome and part of our class.
We have been learning about the letter /s/ this week, practicing printing it correctly and learning its sound. Ask your child if they can tell (and show you) what the /s/ sound looks like. They should be able to tell you a few words that start with the letter s. We have practiced printing it on individual white boards as well as on the lines in our writing journals. My expectation is not that they are writing on the lines as we are focusing on printing the letter correctly. We watched a video of a song called "Where do you start your letters?". Check it out on youtube at PreviewPreview2:18Where do you start your letters?. We also enjoyed watching Geraldine the Giraffe look for things around the house that start with /s/ and good old Sesame Street! The students were excited to have some /s/lime to take home at the end of the day. Next week will will focus on the letter /a/.
Every day during attendance, calendar and daily message activities we focus on math concepts. For example, when we have students away that day we figure out how many students are in class using "subtraction" (the children love this). We are counting the numbers on the calendar, starting at a different starting point every day. We discuss how all of the teen numbers start with a 1. We talk about what number is 1 less and 1 more. We have also begun learning about sorting. We did a large group sorting activity where I sorted objects and then the students and they had to guess my sorting rule. Verbalizing what is the same about a set of objects but what is different from the other sets is quite challenging for this age. We will continue to practice sorting by color, shape, size and other single attributes (such as how many holes are in a button) over the next few weeks. You can help them understand sorting at home by asking them to sort and put away the cutlery, sort their toys etc. They are probably already doing math without knowing it!
We also got a peek at our new POW logo! We love it (although some of us couldn't understand why it wasn't the one that THEY picked).
I am excited to meet with you over the next few days to discuss your child's transition into the Kindergarten classroom. It is a time for you to share more about them and how they are doing at home with this new stage of life. Don't forget to check out the word art at the end of the main hallway. The students are so excited about how they turned out (as am I). I am looking forward to connecting some of their words to our discussion on Terry Fox, discussing his bravery and hopefully helping the students with a greater understanding of what being brave means.
A few dates to remember:
Tomorrow (Thursday the 19th) and Friday, September 20: No school for Kindergarten students
Monday, September 23: Please bring an apple (whole) for some apple activities we will be doing next week
Friday, September 27: AM class attends. Terry Fox Run assembly an run. Please remember to send in a toonie with your child to support Terry's legacy.
Have a great weekend!
Ms. O.
