The Day

We had a fantastic day today.  I heard, "this is the best day ever" many times.  From hot cocoa and grinch kebobs, to primary holiday video with Mr. Chan and ornament making, it was jam packed with lots of fun.  I wish I had gotten more pictures but chaos didn't permit.  Hope everyone has a fantastic holiday!

Firefighter visit

Some members of the district Fire Department visited the K classes today for some lessons in fire safety.  Some topics included:

• Stop Drop and Roll if your clothes are on fire
• Never play with matches or lighters - give to parents or a grown-up if you find them
• Crawl on the ground in a fire to avoid inhaling smoke
• Have a fire safety plan at home that includes a meeting spot
• 911
• If you can't exit your room in a fire, go to the window and call out for help as loud as you can

The firefighters also suited up so the children could see them in full firefighting gear.  They were asked to not be afraid if they ever see a firefighter crawling around a burning house, and to NOT ever hide during a fire.  Instead they should stay low, remain visible, and call out for help as much as possible.

Hope this helps you have some discussions around fire safety with you child tonight :-)

Holiday party

We have lots of delicious snacks coming into class on Friday for our Christmas Party!  Please check out the list before you pack a lunch that day - you may choose to pack light or nothing at all for snacks.  DEFINITELY no need for an end of the day snack (sweety treaty) on that day.

If you are contributing something, please drop it off in the morning so they can graze.  I will set appropriate things out at the right time of day (treat at the end).

Thanks :-)

Christmas gift

They are bringing home a Christmas gift for the family on the last day before the break, Dec. 18th.  If your child will not be here on that day, please let me know ASAP so I can have it completed and sent home earlier.

Thank you :-)

Updates

This is just a little update about a couple of things the children are excited to be working on in class right now.

Fishing for numbers is a game that supports both number recognition as well as our current focus on recognizing familiar arrangements of dots (think dice).  I am encouraging them to group as much as possible as opposed to count by 1s.  They LOVE this game!

 This is a counting activity which  most of them are quite comfortable with by now.  We add a challenge by only using one hand to pick up the required number of bugs (think our childhood game of Jacks)...even more of a challenge to use the non-dominant hand.  This is great practice for fine motor skills as it really challenges the hand muscles.  You can do this at home with dried beans, pennies, and the like any time and is especially recommended for anyone who really needs to be working on fine motor skills (see report cards on Monday).

Holiday Party

We will be having a little holiday party in class on Friday, Dec. 18th.  If you would like to contribute any snacks or drinks, please leave a comment (published) attached to this message or email me if you have difficulty with this.

Some ideas might be:

Fruit/veggie platter

Popcorn

Chips/crackers

Meat and cheese platter

Festive treats

Juice boxes

Please note - they will have a goodie bag so any treats that we can not eat on that day will go home in those.

Thank you!

Call for Volunteers

COVERED FOR THIS DAY NOW - I am looking for 1 more parent volunteer who can join us for our jingle walk on Friday Dec. 11th.  We are planning for a 10:50 departure time and the walk usually takes about 30-40 minutes.  Your job will be to bring up the rear of the line as we deliver flyers door to door on our TBD route.  It is the children's job to deliver the flyers!

COVERED FOR THIS DAY NOW - I also need 2 parent volunteers to accompany us on Monday, Dec. 14th at 1:40 for the jingle walk pick-up.  One of these volunteers will need to bring their vehicle and follow us along our route in their car.  Something with a hatchback is ideal as we will be putting donations in there.  We are looking at a 1:40 departure time on this day and it also takes about half an hour.  The other volunteer on foot will be supervising the back of the line and helping place donations into the vehicle.

Please email me - first come, first served!

lmaclaren@sd44.ca

Christmas Concert

The Christmas concert is coming up in one week!  Our division is being asked to wear their "Christmas Best" that night so no need for any special costumes!

Note that ALL preparations/rehearsals, etc. for this event are done by Mrs. Schwarzbach.  

Please direct any post-show compliments and thanks to her at   gschwarzbach@sd44.ca

So looking forward to it!

Snowglobes

Time to dust off the Christmas decorations!  If any of you have a snowglobe that you could send to school next week, it would be much appreciated!  We are doing an activity with them and having many would greatly enrich the experience.

Please do NOT send anything that you would be devastated to see broken.  We haven't had any problems in previous years, but it could happen.

Thanks!

Late arrivals

Just a reminder that if your child arrives late to school, it is necessary for you to sign him/her in at the office.  Attendance is done immediately at the 8:50 bell.  I close the classroom door at that bell to signal that attendance is or has been taken.

Thanks! 

Books

Hi everyone!

Table groups are rotating through a reading centre this week.  Between now and Thursday, your child will bring home a booklet that they can read to you!  They are super excited about it!  At this point, I am ONLY asking them to repeat the story for me.  I am not yet asking them to track words with their fingers.  If you have already practiced this will your child, feel free to continue with this book; however, I am going to hold off on this step for a bit longer.

In Kindergarten, our focus is on the mechanics of reading or "the idea" of reading.  Specifically right now,  recalling/repeating the story, turning pages, and using picture clues.

Enjoy!

Tell me Quick - recognizing familiar arrangements at a glance

We have started to look at the math concept of recognizing familiar arrangements of dots...think Dice.    Many of them know these arrangements, especially if they place dice games at home.  That became clear pretty quickly as we explored the topic today!

So, we added the challenge of looking at unfamiliar arrangements of dots.  These would include numbers to six (so far) that might be arranged in, for example, a group of four and one off to the side to make five.  The really interesting part is when you ask them how they got the answer.  Some of them move the dots in their mind's eye to make the arrangement more familiar.  Some count by 2's, some see groups of 3's or 4's and add up from there and some "just know."  Fascinating!

Below are a couple of pictures of a simple game introduced today.  They play with a partner, roll their die and color in the corresponding number of dots on their card.  First one to fill their card knows that they rolled more high numbers than their partner (AKA, wins;-).  Incorporates fine motor, counting, and the concept of recognizing familiar arrangements.

New this week

The past couple of weeks we learned about compound words.  These words occur when two stand-alone words combine to make a new word.  For example, Snow and Man make Snowman; Butter and Fly make Butterfly.  I find this to be the easiest language element for them to learn, especially the act of combining the two words together to make a new word  The trickier part is asking them to leave one part out.  For example, say "cowboy" without the "cow."  What's left?

Also new the past couple of weeks is learning about "part-part whole" in math.  They find various ways of showing a number using two parts - for example, show 5 using two hands (hold up 2 fingers on one hand and 3 on the other or 4 on one hand and 1 on the other).  We do this for numbers up to 10.  This is a precursor to addition.

We also started Guided Art today!  In guided art we use pencils only and complete a step-by-step drawing together.  At the end of the drawing they have creative time to add to the drawing as they wish.  Soon, we will also add a written element where they are asked to write a title for their drawing.  For example, if we draw a person, they would be asked to write the word, "person."  They are encouraged to use what we call, "invented spelling" which goes uncorrected; however, I do give them the correct spelling once they have made their attempt.  I ask them NOT to erase their version  so that they understand that there is value in the sounds that they found, however many that may be.

Other current or upcoming topics include Fall and Family in Science and Social Studies respectively.

I hope this gives you some things to talk about with your child :-)

Cheers!

Scholastic/Christmas

The last scholastic magazines before Winter Break came home this week.  I will order on Friday the 20th to ensure that we receive the order before the break.  If you would like your order to be kept secret so you can use it as a Christmas gift, please let me know.

Thanks!

Remembrance Day

Mrs. Schwarzbach organized another touching Remembrance Day Ceremony today.  I think that much of it is lost on the Kindergarten children but hopefully they can tell you a little something about it.  Due to the involvement of the whole school, I am unable to post pictures here.

In class we focussed our discussions around the idea of "peace" and the five senses.  After a story, we shared our ideas about what peace feels like, smells like, tastes like, etc. and then completed journal entries about what makes each of us feel at peace.  Their ideas were wonderful and ranging from the smell of pizza on family movie night to the sound of a purring kitten :-) 

I hope you are all lucky enough to be able to enjoy a family day this Wednesday.  See you on Thursday! 

Signs of Fall

We took a walk outside to look for signs of Fall...a topic we will learn about this week and next.  If you find any great things in your yard or neighborhood walks, please feel free to send it to school (acorns, leaves, etc.).

Halloween Party

Friday was a GREAT day!  Thank you to everyone who contributed items for our party :-)  They grazed all day and left with tons of sugar and smiles.  Here are some pics from slime to our little cemetery.

Pumpkins and costumes

Costumes are out in the house centre this week.  Some cute pics below :-)

Also, we are finished with our pumpkin unit now - today we measured them using unifix cubes for height and string for girth.  We then ordered and compared our results.  These pics should help you have discussions with your child about measuring their pumpkins.