Wow! I can't believe it is June already. The year has just flown by! We will be having many different events and fun activities this month so please make sure you're checking your mail and checking the calendar (linked to this blog) to keep up to date with what is happening.
Early Literacy - We are working on letter and sound reinforcement. Your child should be able to recognize all the letters of the alphabet (uppercase and lowercase) and tell the sound each letter makes. We are continuing with practicing Daily 5 - Read to Self and Read to Someone.
Early Numeracy - We have finished up all our math units and will be spending the rest of the year reinforcing numeracy skills such as number recognition and comparing quantities.
Citizenship and Identify - We will be talking about different groups we belong to in our community with the focus on our families.
Environment and Community Awareness - We have planted some flowers in our garden and will be continuing to observe and take care of them. We will be making some butterfly food next week and will discuss the similarities and differences of taking care of these two living things.
Personal and Social Responsibility - Almost everyone has completed their Farm and Creepy Crawlies goal sheet. The last part of this unit will be our self reflection on our behaviors and work habits.
Physical Skills - We are working on running, jumping and throwing. We will also be spending sometime at the Centennial playground and splash park and mini golf as part of our field trips.
Creative Expression - The students have worked hard on studying and creating Eric Carle-esque artwork. This month they will have the opportunity to create their own pieces of artwork using any kind of medium they choose about any subject they choose.
Some important dates are:
Mini Golfing - Tuesday June 21 10am-12pm
Field Trips - June 14-June 23 - Depending on the weather we will be walking over to the Centennial Splash park or the new playground at Centennial Park. We are asking that students bring a swimsuit and towel to leave at school so we can go over there at short notice. Please pay close attention to the field trip consent form for more details.
Class party and Pizza Picnic in the park - June 28 - times TBD - We will be celebrating our last day of school with a pizza party at Centennial park! The pizza will be at no extra charge.
If anyone would like to volunteer on our field trips, please feel free to do so. Just let me know and remember you need your criminal record check in order to volunteer. Thanks in advance!
Tuesday June 21 is also our PES Year end Pancake Breakfast
Tuesday June 28 is our last day of school and year-end celebration assembly
PS. Some of you may have noticed that we created and sent home Father's Day cards already. That was a mistake on my end since I confused the dates for Father's Day. So Dads you have your gift early and Happy Father's Day on the 19th!
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Saturday, May 21, 2016
PJ Party
Hey everyone!
Since we missed pajama day at school because of pictures, we have decided to have our own PJ party! The date is Tuesday May 31 so don't forget to wear your PJs to school that day!
Since we missed pajama day at school because of pictures, we have decided to have our own PJ party! The date is Tuesday May 31 so don't forget to wear your PJs to school that day!
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
May
Hey everyone!
This is what the month of May has in store for us!
Early Literacy - We are almost finished learning our all letters! When we are done, the rest of the year will be dedicated to letter and sound recognition reinforcement, and playing with sounds, rhyming and writing to improve early reading and writing skills in preparation for Grade 1. We are also doing an author study on Eric Carle this month. The students will be read many Eric Carle stories and will have to think about, discuss and write about their favorite stories, and characters. Students will also have to practice reading skills such as prediction and retelling stories.
Early Numeracy - We have just started our measurement unit. We will be learning how to measure volume, weight and length. Later this month we will start our unit on 3D shapes.
Citizenship and Identity - Last month we worked very hard on the concepts of group work, cooperation, respect and being helpful. We completed a big group work project where we worked together to clean up our school playground. This also tied into our Environment and Community Awareness curricular outcome of protecting our environment and taking responsibility for our part in keeping the earth clean. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and contributions of each student who participated in this project!
Environment and Community Awareness - With the coming of spring and this great weather we have started our unit theme of Plants, Living Things and Creepy Crawlies. Our centre themes consist of various activities centred around farm animals and creepy crawlies. We will be doing group and table top activities focusing on taking care of plants and identifying living versus nonliving things. The celebration this month is Mother's Day!
Personal and Social Responsibility - As well being responsible for the completion of our new goal sheets focusing on farm animals and creepy crawlies, the students will be learning about nutrition and hygiene and the importance of taking care of our bodies. We have also started the "Zones of Regulation" program where students are taught to identify how they're feeling and are given suggestions of tools they may use to keep themselves happy or "get back to the green". Tied into this theme, we will be celebrating mental health week by wearing green on Thursday May 5!
Physical Skills - During gym class we have been working on hand-eye coordination skills. The students have been introduced to the basic skills of soccer, basketball and volleyball. We will continue with these skills for the duration of the month.
Creative Expression - We will be starting to look at roles of artists and how everyday things such as picture books have artists that contribute to the look and feel of the stories. This will tie in with our author study of Eric Carle. We will be using his illustrations as inspiration in our own artistic creations.
Thanks to everyone in their participation in the EDI Screening Assessment! Please check the May calendar of events for special dates and don't forget to check out our classroom photos under the "Classroom Fun in Photos" tab.
This is what the month of May has in store for us!
Early Literacy - We are almost finished learning our all letters! When we are done, the rest of the year will be dedicated to letter and sound recognition reinforcement, and playing with sounds, rhyming and writing to improve early reading and writing skills in preparation for Grade 1. We are also doing an author study on Eric Carle this month. The students will be read many Eric Carle stories and will have to think about, discuss and write about their favorite stories, and characters. Students will also have to practice reading skills such as prediction and retelling stories.
Early Numeracy - We have just started our measurement unit. We will be learning how to measure volume, weight and length. Later this month we will start our unit on 3D shapes.
Citizenship and Identity - Last month we worked very hard on the concepts of group work, cooperation, respect and being helpful. We completed a big group work project where we worked together to clean up our school playground. This also tied into our Environment and Community Awareness curricular outcome of protecting our environment and taking responsibility for our part in keeping the earth clean. I was very impressed with the enthusiasm and contributions of each student who participated in this project!
Environment and Community Awareness - With the coming of spring and this great weather we have started our unit theme of Plants, Living Things and Creepy Crawlies. Our centre themes consist of various activities centred around farm animals and creepy crawlies. We will be doing group and table top activities focusing on taking care of plants and identifying living versus nonliving things. The celebration this month is Mother's Day!
Personal and Social Responsibility - As well being responsible for the completion of our new goal sheets focusing on farm animals and creepy crawlies, the students will be learning about nutrition and hygiene and the importance of taking care of our bodies. We have also started the "Zones of Regulation" program where students are taught to identify how they're feeling and are given suggestions of tools they may use to keep themselves happy or "get back to the green". Tied into this theme, we will be celebrating mental health week by wearing green on Thursday May 5!
Physical Skills - During gym class we have been working on hand-eye coordination skills. The students have been introduced to the basic skills of soccer, basketball and volleyball. We will continue with these skills for the duration of the month.
Creative Expression - We will be starting to look at roles of artists and how everyday things such as picture books have artists that contribute to the look and feel of the stories. This will tie in with our author study of Eric Carle. We will be using his illustrations as inspiration in our own artistic creations.
Thanks to everyone in their participation in the EDI Screening Assessment! Please check the May calendar of events for special dates and don't forget to check out our classroom photos under the "Classroom Fun in Photos" tab.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Interviews by Request
Just a reminder we are having interviews by request this Thursday, April 21. There was a mistake on the notice that went home which had the wrong date. These interviews are for those who have concerns about their child. Please contact me if you wish to come in Thursday (4-7:30) or I will contact you if I have concerns about your child. Thank you!
Saturday, April 2, 2016
April
Hope everyone had a great break! As you may or may not know I am heading to the Dominican tonight! Mrs MacAskill, my momma bear, will be subbing for me all week. I'll be back April 10.
Here's what the month of April has in store for us!
Early Literacy:
Here's what the month of April has in store for us!
Early Literacy:
- Continuing with our letters Pp-Tt
- Working on writing - students are practicing sounding out! We encourage them to listen for the sounds in the words and write the letters that they hear. It is important that your child is recognizing most of their letters (capital and lowercase) and can identify their sounds.
- Working on reading - we will be continuing to "read the pictures" and will be starting on comprehension
Early Numeracy :
- #6-10 and counting backwards. Students should be able to recognize all numbers from 1-10 and be able to recognize the 10 frames from 1 to 10 without having to count. They should be able to count starting at any number up to 10 and be able to count backwards from 10-1. We will be reinforcing these skills in the centre time format of Daily 3.
Citizenship and Identify
- I Belong - We will be working on group skills such as cooperation, respect, feelings and identifying the needs of others. I'm looking forward to large group project where all classmates will have to participate in order to accomplish a goal!
Environment and Community Awareness
- Exploring our 5 Senses
- Earth Day is April 22! We will be learning about how to take care of our planet and keep things green!
Personal and Social Responsibility
- Continuing our 5 Senses goal sheet
- We have 2 new students in our class! We will be talking about friendship and what it means to be a good friend, to be welcoming and to be helpful. So far I am so impressed with how our kids have been treating the new student! The second one comes on Tuesday and I'm sure they will be just as welcoming!
Physical Skills
- We will be talking about our health and our body and how we need to take care of ourselves through exercise, eating good foods and practicing good hygiene.
Creative Expression
- We will be continuing practicing different movement and action songs
- Looking at and appreciating art in the environment
Don't forget to check out the Classroom Fun in Photos section to see some cute pictures of our kids!
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
March
Oh my goodness, how fast the days are passing! I apologize for the late post for this month. Thank you to everyone who attended Portfolio Conferences! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It's always a pleasure to see parents involved and interested in what we do at school so thanks again! I also appreciate everyone's feedback. This helps me plan, change and improve what we do for next year. Your input is extremely valuable.
This month we will be working on :
Early Literacy:
We are continuing with learning the letters in the alphabet. This month we'll be focusing on letters Ll to Pp. Make sure you're practicing letter formation, letter recognition and letter sounds with your child at home! We're also continuing the Daily 5 with Word (Letter) Work. We use the Daily 5 format to practice our letters and letter sounds through centres and play based activities.
Early Numeracy
We are focusing on numbers 6-10 and writing our numbers 1-10. We have introduced the Daily 3 format which focuses on "Math Writing" and "Math with Someone". The Daily 3 has a similar format as the Daily 5 except the concepts are math based. The Daily 3 structure is also a centre/play based format for learning.
Citizenship and Identify
We are learning about our community. We have looked at community helpers and are now talking about familiar places in our community. We will continue talking about safety in our community as well.
Environment and Community Awareness
Our theme for the next couple of months is The 5 Senses. Students are completing their goal sheets based on this theme. We will also be talking about special days in March such as St Patrick's Day and Easter. And of course we are all looking forward to Spring!
Personal and Social Responsibility
This month we have done Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood... aka Listen First Then Speak. The students and I have talked about the importance of being a good listener and what characteristics make a good listener. We will also be doing Habit 6: Synergize; how we can successfully work together.
Physical Skills
We will be spending our gym time this month playing with the parachute! We will also have our usual crafts to practice fine motor skill such as writing, cutting and coloring.
Creative Expression
As well with special occasion crafts we have started a dance unit. The students are learning how to keep in time with the music. We are experimenting with following dance routines on the SMARTBoard (JustDance Kids) and having fun making up our own dance moves.
Don't forget to check out the Fun in Photos and Song and Dance sections of my blog for some fun things and cute pictures!
This month we will be working on :
Early Literacy:
We are continuing with learning the letters in the alphabet. This month we'll be focusing on letters Ll to Pp. Make sure you're practicing letter formation, letter recognition and letter sounds with your child at home! We're also continuing the Daily 5 with Word (Letter) Work. We use the Daily 5 format to practice our letters and letter sounds through centres and play based activities.
Early Numeracy
We are focusing on numbers 6-10 and writing our numbers 1-10. We have introduced the Daily 3 format which focuses on "Math Writing" and "Math with Someone". The Daily 3 has a similar format as the Daily 5 except the concepts are math based. The Daily 3 structure is also a centre/play based format for learning.
Citizenship and Identify
We are learning about our community. We have looked at community helpers and are now talking about familiar places in our community. We will continue talking about safety in our community as well.
Environment and Community Awareness
Our theme for the next couple of months is The 5 Senses. Students are completing their goal sheets based on this theme. We will also be talking about special days in March such as St Patrick's Day and Easter. And of course we are all looking forward to Spring!
Personal and Social Responsibility
This month we have done Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood... aka Listen First Then Speak. The students and I have talked about the importance of being a good listener and what characteristics make a good listener. We will also be doing Habit 6: Synergize; how we can successfully work together.
Physical Skills
We will be spending our gym time this month playing with the parachute! We will also have our usual crafts to practice fine motor skill such as writing, cutting and coloring.
Creative Expression
As well with special occasion crafts we have started a dance unit. The students are learning how to keep in time with the music. We are experimenting with following dance routines on the SMARTBoard (JustDance Kids) and having fun making up our own dance moves.
Don't forget to check out the Fun in Photos and Song and Dance sections of my blog for some fun things and cute pictures!
Friday, January 29, 2016
February
We're back into the swing of things and looking forward to a busy month! Following are some of the things we will be working on this month.
- We will be continuing to learn our letters and sounds with the Animated Alphabet. We have done Aa to Hh so far and will hopefully get to Ll by the end of the month.
- We're continuing to work on writing. I've been very impressed with the writing skills our kids are developing already! We encourage the kids to listen for the sound in the words and write down those letter sounds they hear. This is a good way to prep them for eventually sounding out words which will be a big part of Grade 1.
- Talking about our favorite stories. We talk about our favorite parts and favorite characters. This goes hand in hand with the Daily 5 model. We have introduced Read to Self, Read to Someone and Listen to Reading. Our class has so far been very successful with the Daily 5. The students understand that in Kindergarten we "read the pictures" and they are getting very good at inferring what is happening in the stories by looking at the pictures.
- Focusing on numbers 6-10 - number recognition and relating numbers to respective quantities. We will be completing our math activities in a play based format through math games and hands on activities. This will take place in small groups during center time. Lately, our Grade 2 buddies have been helping us by playing math games with us!
- Community members and how to stay safe in our communities.
- Music with a focus on beat, rhythm and instruments.
- Continuing with the 7 Habits of Happy Kids. We have just completed Habit 4: Think Win Win.
- We will be continuing with our Winter and Ocean themes. Our celebration this month is Valentine's Day!
Please note: We have implemented some "quick skill checks" for students who are struggling with some of the concepts we're doing at school. These concepts include shapes, colors, numbers 1-5, writing their name and recognizing the letters in their name. In the mornings we will be doing a quick activity for students to complete. These will go home with a note asking parents to help us reinforce these skills at home. If you get any of these notes, I thank you in advance for working with me at home! Your teamwork is appreciated!
We have two important events this month!
1. Bowling and Valentine's Day
We will be going bowling on February 9 in the morning. Thank you to those who have volunteered and thank you to those who have already brought back your permission slips!
We will be having our Valentine's Day celebration on February 11 in the afternoon. I will be asking students to volunteer to bring some snacks for our party. If you would like to bring something, let me know. There are 22 students in our class and the help is always appreciated! I will also be sending a class list home for Valentines. If you child does not want to bring Valentine's that is completely fine, but if they are bringing please make sure they are bringing for everyone!
2. Student Involved Portfolio Conferences
We will be having portfolio conferences during the evening on February 25. Please note this is not a formal parent/teacher interview. This will be an opportunity for you to come with your child and have them show you what they have been learning at school. You will have half an hour to explore the different centers and complete activities with your child. You will then be able to look through your child's portfolio and take it home with you. The sign up sheet will be posted outside our classroom. Further information will be sent home soon. Because the Kindergarten classes are not having formal interviews like the rest of the school, if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child please don't hesitate to contact me and I will do the same for you!
Please note we do not have school February 15-19.
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