What a fun and busy week we have had! It has been amazing having Ms. R join us. We are very lucky to have her enthusiasm and expertise in our room.
Literacy
We continue to work in our Weekend Journals focusing on drawing: where I am (setting), what I am doing (action) and who I am with (characters). This work will help us when we begin to focus on story writing. With our drawings, we are learning to label our work with the initial letter and will move to add the final letter sound. (ex: dog - label with d and soon dg). We are challenging our friends to write a sentence explaining what they are doing in their pictures using invented spelling.
We have also started our research project on Alberta Animals, which ties in nicely to our Radiant Art residency where we will be talking about Alberta animal footprints. Each child picked an animal to learn about (goose, deer, bear, hawk, wolf or squirrel) and we have started learning about where they live (habitat) and what they eat. We learned new vocabulary! Ask your child what a habitat is. Ask your child about the differences between carnivore, omnivore and herbivore. We will be continuing our animal research next week. The final product will be ready for you to see at Student-led conferences (March 19/20, 2020).
Math
Ask your child about the domino sorting game we played this week. What was the most challenging part? We also played a game using black dots. We looked at an image of dots for a few seconds and then had to describe how many dots we saw and how we saw them. An example of an image will be posted below.
Volunteer Opportunities
We have many super fun and exciting events happening in the next couple of months. If you have police clearance, please check your email as the sign-ups for the first ones were sent out recently. If you do not have clearance but would like to join us, please pop into the school to see Lori in the office to get this setup. We love having parent/grandparent involvement, along with helping us teachers, it benefits our child and you get a glimpse into our day and your child in a different setting.
Safety
We successfully completed a practice lockdown this week. Our AM Kinder friends should be very proud of themselves for staying calm, sitting still and not talking until we were given the ok that the lockdown was over. Great job Kinders! PM Kinders had a practice lockdown before Winter break. Ask your child why we need to practice doing lockdowns. Ask your child what happens if they are not in the classroom when a lockdown is called.
Maker Space
Hello Parents,
I am writing to you to ask for your help and support. I
would love to create a maker centre
in your child’s kindergarten classroom. A maker centre or maker space is an
area where your child can be creative. They will learn to plan, design and
create through trial and error using a variety of recycled materials. Sometimes
their “creation” will connect to a topic we may be exploring and other times it
will be their own imaginative project. In my experience, this centre has become
a favourite of many young inspiring designers. Makers centre forces students to
ask many questions such as; what materials can I use to make X? What size and
shape does it need to be? This didn’t work, so how can I make it better? It is
also a great way to strengthen their fine motor skills. It has always amazed me
at what creative geniuses our students are.
Some tips/questions for when they bring their “creations”
home.
·
Tell me about it? (often it is not always obvious
what it is)
·
Why did you decide to make X?
·
What materials did you use?
·
Why did you choose these materials?
To make this happen I need many
donated items. See below for a list of possible items to get us
started. Keep in mind most things should be small in size and be able to be
glued or taped. No glass please.
Toothpicks corks
Cereal boxes
milk caps
Toilet/paper towels empty rolls Q-tips
Pipe cleaners
tinfoil
Stickers popsicle
sticks
Empty Kleenex boxes
cupcake
liners
Yogurt containers
Any fabric materials
Cotton balls
Any tape (all
types) and glue would be greatly
appreciated!!!! You can imagine how much we will go through.
Please send items in a separate bag marked “maker centre”
and ask your child to give it to Ms. R. I will organize all the materials and
when ready we will open up the centre!
I know most students will be excited to create and use their
imaginations at maker centre. Thank you in advance for all the donated
recycled items.
Gratefully,
Ms. R.
Our Adventures this week
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| How do you see these dots? How do you count them? |
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| What can you make with only red, yellow and blue? |
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| Domino Sort |
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| Magnetic Art |
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| Magnetic Art |
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| Animal Research |
