Hello Families!
Conferences:
Parent-Teacher conferences are next week (Nov. 21/Nov. 22). Please book your conference time so we can discuss how your child is doing in Kindergarten. We will also be reviewing the results from the EYE assessment we discussed in September. Your child's visual journal will be outside in the hall to look at before or after our interview time. We hope you enjoy the Poppy artwork that is posted on our bulletin boards and in our classroom.
Kananaskis in the Classroom:
We had the pleasure of watching a very funny and informative presentation by Alberta Parks focusing on Wildfires. We learned about the 3 things we need to start a fire, different types of fires and that sometimes, a wildfire can be beneficial to our forests.
Elder Shirley:
We are so lucky to be learning so much about the Blackfoot people from Elder Shirley. We have been dancing with dancing sticks and hula hoops. We have also learned about the buffalo jump.
Ask your child to explain why the buffalo jump was used.
Math:
We continue to work on open-ended problems and this week students drew their own individual response. We will continue to work on these types of problems throughout the year. We have also started to work on subitizing (recognize at a glance) different numbers in our classroom. We are working with dice, dominoes, popsicle sticks, and dots.
Play a board game with your child and see if they can tell you the number on the dice without counting the dots.
Literacy:
This week we have been working on rhyming, counting syllables and finding words that begin with the letter 'r'.
Ask your child how many syllables are in their name. Try counting syllables in words you use at home. We also began making our Alphabet Tiles for our classroom wall. Thank you to the families who sent in materials for us to use.
Here are some literacy tips that were shared with me by our Speech-Language Pathologist:
Tips for Families: Reading at Home
Did you know that library cards are now free for everyone in Calgary? (Check out
for more information about hours and locations.) Here are some general tips to keep in mind when reading at home.
- Read every day if possible! It is very important to read out loud to your children before they begin school and while they are in kindergarten and the early grades. Let them help you read by having them find letters or words on a page, by completing sentences or repetitive phrases in familiar books, and by talking about what is happening in the story (e.g., Who is it about? What are they doing? Where are they? What happened at the beginning, middle, and end of the story? Etc)
- Talk, talk, talk! Talk all day long to your children. This will help to develop their oral (spoken) language skills, and stronger oral language skills support better reading skills down the road.
- Make reading fun. If possible, let your children have their own library card and have a say in which books they take out from the library. Help them find books at their level about topics they enjoy.
- Teach children that reading is important. Suggest reading as a free-time activity. Make sure your children have time in their day to read. Set an example by reading newspapers, magazines, and books at home.
- Set up a reading area in your home. Keep books that your child enjoys in places where they can easily reach them. Keep favourite books in this collection so children can re-read them, and also add new books to keep the collection fresh by going to the library or borrowing books from friends.
- Give your children writing materials. Children want to learn how to write and practice writing. Help them practice by having paper, pencils, crayons, markers or pens in your home.
- Read or write with your children in their native language. Even if they attend school in another language, give your child opportunities to hear stories in their first language and see words written in that language.
- Ask your child to describe events in their lives. Talking about experiences makes children think about them. Giving detailed descriptions and telling complete stories (with a beginning, middle, and end) helps children learn about how stories are written and what the stories they read mean.
- Keep track of your children’s progress in school. Visit your children's classrooms to learn how they are doing, what they are learning about, and how you can support them to become better students. Ask their teachers about the school's reading program and if there are areas where your children may need help.
