Week of June 18- June 22
The end is near! I'm sorry that I have not posted the past couple weeks. It is a very busy time of year with report cards, workshops, and planning for our end of the year events.
-I will not post any more pictures as we are selling a DVD this year! It will include pictures and videos from our graduation. It will be $5.
-I am looking forward to seeing you at our graduation next week, and some of you on our trip Friday.
-I would like to thank all of you for such a wonderful year. It has been a true pleasure teaching all of your wonderful children! We had a great year (and a great 2 years with my seniors!!)! It has been an amazing experience to see them grow and change. Thank you for your dedication and support. OLF is truly a school to believe in!
God Bless!
Melanie
Week of June 4- June 8
Thank you to everyone who made it to our Fun Fair last week! It was a great success!
- This week we are continuing with basic addition in math. They are learning how to add 2 groups of objects and then writing a number sentence (ex., 2+2=4).
-In our Dramatic Play centre, we will continue with our Flower Shop. The children enjoy making flower arrangements and cards for Mrs. Armstrong and Mrs. White in the office! They continue to take very good care of our flowers by watering them each day.
-In our Discovery Centre, we are watching herbs grow from seeds. We also started an experiment today. We placed fresh cut flowers in coloured water to see what might happen. We started the conversation by asking: Does water have a colour? Is the white flower the same colour as the water? Why or why not? What might happen if we colour the water? They really enjoyed mixing colours. We are excited to see what will happen! We will chart and record our discoveries!
- We are once again learning how to make a simple retell by arranging pictures. We read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and I will be sending home some pictures for you to practice with at home. They are encouraged to use as much detail as possible.
-Friday is a PD Day.
Week of May 28- June 1
Important Dates:
· Thursday, May 31st, OLF’s annual Fun Fair! There will be games, music, food, and tons of excitement!
· June 8- PA Day.
· June 22- Kindergarten field trip. We will be walking to Rocky Mountain House for a day of fun-filled activities!! Permission forms and further details to come soon! If you have a criminal reference check- we are looking for volunteers to join us!
· June 26- Report cards go home.
· June 27- Kindergarten Graduation! At 11:00, we will celebrate our JK Rising Stars. At 1:15, we will celebrate our SK graduates!! Between both celebrations we will have a picnic lunch. Further details to come!
· June 28- Last day of school.
Environmental Inquires
Our classroom has been full of exciting discoveries! First we had fun with our “Wonderful Worms”. The students asked many insightful questions which guided our learning and growth.
The past couple weeks you might of heard about the amazing butterflies in our classroom! We watched the life cycle of a butterfly as it started as a caterpillar, then to a chrysalis, and finally to a beautiful butterfly. We made diagrams that illustrated the life cycle of a butterfly and continued to learn how to label our pictures. Last week we released our butterflies!
This week our dramatic play area will be transformed into a Gardening Centre. We will be planting herbs and flowers. We will learn about the parts of a plant, and what plants need to grow.
Math
In math, we are concluding our unit on measurement. We will begin learning basic addition and subtraction skills. We will be using five and ten frames along with manipulates to explore these new concepts.
Language
JK students are continuing to work on ‘making words’. We are also working on learning basic sight words. In writing, JKs are encouraged to leave spaces between their words, use the word wall, and to sound out words.
SK students have done a remarkable job in reading. I am impressed with their recall of sight words, and their ability to transfer these skills within the learning centres. We are currently learning about contractions (ex., I am = I’m; do not = don’t; it is = it’s). I am continuing to PM Benchmark SK students to determine their current reading level. Also, last week we completed the OWA which is a tool to help determine their writing level and current abilities. They are all ‘Rock Star Writers’!
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Week of May 14- May 18
-I'm pleased to say that the primary teams had a great time in Toronto last week! It was wonderful to meet the Minister of Education and begin our projects.
-I was very pleased that our supply teacher enjoyed her time in our classroom!
-Last week was very exciting as we have a need addition to our discovery centre-- caterpillars that have now made their chrysalis. We are awaiting the arrival of our butterflies. The children have been learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. This links to our unit on living and non-living things.
-In religion, we have been learning the story of creation. We have used the Bible, pictures, and a video to show how God created the earth in 7 days. Today (Wednesday) we began making posters to depict these 7 days. They are working in groups of 2.
-In math, we are working on capacity with a focus on small, medium and large. The morning question today was "How can you show small, medium, and large?". The children did a great job illustrating this through pictures. Dawson did a great job transferring this knowledge when he was playing in the house centre. He found 3 pots and ordered them according to size. Another student used linking cubes to discover what Tim Hortons cup holds more cubes. We are using real life examples, such as coffee cups, clothing sizes, etc. to model this.
Week of May 7- May 11
- This week we are celebrating "Catholic Education Week"!
- Monday we have a prayer service to begin this special week. One of the topics we will be discussing is "Does God Hear My Prayer?" We will continue to reflect on our relationship with God. These are some questions that will lead our discussions: How can we talk to God? What should we say? Does God always hear our prayers? Why should I pray?
-Wednesday is our Open House and Book Fair. I am in Toronto from Wednesday to Friday and therefore, will not be able to attend. Luckily, Mme. White will be in our classroom to welcome all of you!
-I will be sending home Mother's Day gifts on Tuesday or Wednesday. We certainly appreciate everything our mother's do for us. You are truly extraordinary women! Thank you for everything you do!
-Thursday we will have a dance workshop at 10:40.
Week of April 30- May 4
- So you might have heard about our exciting new discovery centre! On Tuesday, I had a student notice some worms on the ground. That conversation led us on a hunt to find worms in our school yard, and those slimy creatures led to our new inquiry-based project! We collected some dirt, rocks, and of course worms and put them in our classroom. We then made a list of all our "wonderings". This is what we wondered: 1) why do worms get stuck on the pavement? 2) in spring, why do they stay in the dirt? 3) why do worms like the dark? 4) why do we use worms to fish? 5) why do worms like dirt? 6)why are worms always hiding? 7) where can we find worms? 7) why do we see worms when it rains? 8) how do worms see if they don't have eyes?
- So we took all these wonderings and read a book called "Wonderful Worms". This book gave us some facts and information about worms. It also provided us with new wonderings. So at this point we are watching them through magnifying glasses, and recording what we now know about worms. I wonder if we can find someone who is an expert on worms and why they are important?
-We will finish up our unit on 3D Shapes next week! I am impressed how quickly they have learned these and their attributes!
-The Pet Store is a huge success! We've been using recycled materials to make pet food, aquariums, and much more!
-Tomorrow (Thursday) we have music!
-Friday is a PA Day. All teachers and school staff are at our annual Christian Community Day in Pembroke.
-Next week is Catholic Education week. We can expect some fun activities!
Week of April 23- April 27
-Well done on the recycled hats last week! We are continuing Earth Day activities this week. We are using recycled materials to create resources for our Pet Store-- our new dramatic play centre.
Week of April 16- April 20
- Congratulations to my wonderful JK students! Many know all or most of their letters and sounds... so now it's time to make words!! We will be blending sounds, sounding out words, learning basic sight words, and learning word families!
-In math, we are continuing with measurement, and also beginning 3D shapes. If you have any empty boxes, yogurt containers, paper towel rolls, etc., please send them in for some fun building activities.
-Today I had examples of 3D shapes on the board and the children had to answer two questions that helped me asses their prior knowledge. 1) what shape am I? 2) How do you know?
- We are learning about the attributes of 3D shapes this week.
-We are also learning about Earth Day. We are exploring the ways we can make our earth glitter! Next week we will help clean our school yard!
Week of April 9- April 13
- As you might have heard, we had a special visitor last Thursday! The Easter Bunny surprised us with an e- mail in the morning and hid Easter eggs throughout our classroom!
- We had 2 raffle winners in our classroom this year! Thank you for once again supporting OLF and our parish communities.
-I hope that everyone had a Happy Easter!
- I'm looking forward to hearing about everyone's weekend tomorrow!
- I will be away Thursday at the Eastern Ontario Catholic Curriculum Cooperative conference in Ottawa.
-I will be posting pictures soon. I wish I could use my iPad to do this...I'm still figuring out this website thing (I know it's been 8 months haha)!
Week of April 2- April 5
-April 3- I will be away tomorrow.
- today we enjoyed making 'textured eggs'. We used a variety items (coloured pasta, yarn, felt, tissue paper, buttons, puffy paint). They did a great job sorting colours to make beautiful eggs!
- We have started talking about measurement this week. We are now focussing on the following terms tall, short, same height, length, height. We are measuring with non- standard units of measurement ( ex. String, blocks, hands, straws).
-April 2- This week we are learning the letter Xx (sound: ksss).
- I have not been able to send home the 5 senses activity because we have not finished our part yet. Last week, we enjoy going on a nature walk with our buddies.
- these past weeks we have been reading about and discussing the Easter story. We have been using Resurrection Eggs to help us tell the story. Mackenzie did an excellent job helping in the discussion today. They enjoyed using our Easter and spring word walls in their writing.
- The children enjoyed making Easter eggs with 'puffy paint'. This was the first time I have made this and it worked out wonderfully. I will post some pictures of the eggs. It is very easy to make : 1cup flour, 1cup salt, and 1 cup water. You mix it together and add food colouring. Then put it into squeeze bottles. It is so much fun!
- This Thursday we will have a prayer service for Holy Week. It will also be the Easter Raffle.
-I also wanted to mention how proud I was of our class last week. The supply teacher had great things to say about our class which is so nice to hear. I am so blessed to have such wonderful students!!
- I would encourage you to practice printing numbers 1-10 at home. Some are having difficulty with this (ex. Writing them backwards).
Week of March 26- March 30
-March 25- This week we are learning the letter Yy.
- Last week I assessed students on their coin recognition. Many had difficulty recognizing a quarter. This will be our last week focussing on money.
-To wrap up our unit on dental health, I have taken a picture of everyone's smile. This week they will write some clues about themselves and we will use them as a game to match it with their smile.
-This week we will be "Discovering Spring with Our 5 Senses". We will go on a nature walk and record our discoveries on the way. I will be sending home a small task this week asking you to write and draw what you taste in spring. Perhaps some fruit and vegetables you enjoy this time of year. I know that I'm looking forward to eating fiddleheads!
-On Thursday, myself and Ms. Leach will be attending a Restorative Justice workshop all day.
Week of March 19- March 23
-March 22- I hope everyone enjoyed the spaghetti dinner tonight! I was so sorry to miss it!
-Today we learned about making 10 cents. Together we made an anchor chart that shows the different ways we can make 10 cents. We used the following poem to help us with this concept:
One a penny,
Two a penny,
Three a penny,
More,
Four a penny,
Five a penny,
That's a nickle more.
Six a penny,
Seven a penny,
Eight a penny,
More,
Nine a penny,
Ten a penny,
That's a dime for the store!
- Your child might ask for 10 pennies, a nickle, and dime to show you how we saw this poem!
-March 20- Can you believe this weather!? We have enjoyed some extra physical education outside these past 2 days! Today we spoke about the first day of spring and we enjoyed describing the discoveries we are making outside. One student described the tulips that are starting to grow in her yard.
-A reminder to please send your child with a hat to wear outside. Also, you may send them with extra clothes (i.e. shorts, and t-shirt) as the afternoons have been warmer than the mornings.
-This week we are learning the letter Ww.
-SK students will find 4 new sight words on their ring this week. To save paper I've put two on each side.
-In science, we completed our "eggsperiment" where we discussed our predictions and wrote our conclusion. We used pictures and videos to recap what we've learned. Throughout our unit, we used inquiry-based language to explain our thinking. Ex. "I wonder..."; "I predict that..."; "I discovered...".
-In math, we will continue our unit on money (coins). Our current goal is to identify all coins and their value. This week we will learn the song "In My Pocket" by a wonderful Canadian artist Michael Mitchell.
- I am quite excited this week as a proposal that myself and Mrs. Newberry worked on has been accepted by the Ministry of Education. As we stated in our proposal, the purpose is:
"For Teachers and Early Childhood Educators to develop an efficient and effective method that would extend their ability to document student learning in the classroom which would communicate to all the relevant stakeholders (e.g., parents, students, teachers, administration, community) the learning and growth of all students.
While engaged in purposeful play, students will have greater opportunities for self and peer assessment through observation that will extend oral language development with iPad and interactive whiteboard technology.
To foster the language development necessary for literacy, Full-Day Early Learning–Kindergarten programs should be rich in language-oriented and play-based activities and resources that build on prior knowledge, that are relevant to the lives of young children, and that provide opportunities for thinking, problem solving, and experimenting."
- We are very excited about the opportunities it will bring to our school and school community.
- We congratulate Griffin's family on the arrival of their baby boy! Griffin has been smiling from ear to ear and is very excited to meet his baby brother.
-A reminder to please continue to complete the weekly reading log. I enjoy reading your comments.
-Please send in any Scholastic Book Orders. If you need another copy please let me know.
-Thursday is the spaghetti dinner at OLF church. Thank you to all families who are helping prepare and serve and to those who made donations.
Week of March 5- March 9
-March 9- What a wonderful week of discoveries. The children really enjoyed learning about dental health and had fun with our experiment. I will post some pictures soon!
-I hope that everyone has a safe and fun-filled March Break! I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and relaxing! :)
March 5- This week we are learning the letter Zz.
-This week we are learning about dental health. We are discussing what helps keep our teeth healthy, and today we sorted healthy and unhealthy food. Tomorrow we are going to complete a shared writing activity (describing a tooth). Later this week we are going to explore the effects of unhealthy choices on our teeth. We will perform a science experiment with hard boiled eggs placed in soda. We will make predictions and document our discoveries through video, photographs, and writing.
-We have transformed our dramatic play area into a Pizza Parlour! This has been a huge hit! We collected pizza boxes last Friday, and have been delivering pizza ever since! Students enjoy creating pizza, and writing receipts. This is a great opportunity to incorporate money and practise printing our numbers. We also had come creative students make hats! This group loves to make hats out of paper!
- In math, we are going to begin a unit on money. I encourage you to show your child the different coins and discuss the value of each one. We will also continue this after the March Break.
-SK students this week are learning to identify main characters in a story in the listening centre. I encourage you to identify the main characters in the stories you read at home.
-I am continuing to PM Benchmark JK students. It is our goal that JK students are reading at a PM Level 2 when they enter SK. We are learning to blend sounds and recognize basic sight words. Your continued support at home has made a positive impact on your child's progress at school.
-Friday is another spirit day! Wear green or St. Patrick's Day attire! Finally a day that celebrates my favourite colour!
Week of February 27- March 2
Sat. Feb. 25- Last week was filled with fun and excitement! From pancakes, to a winter fun day, to 100th day activities, and a special visit from Yaki!!
-Winter fun: Thanks to Grade 6 and Grade 7 students and their teachers our winter fun day was a giant success! The children enjoyed the many fun outdoor activities that were led by our Grade 7 students. Our Grade 6 buddies helped Kindergarten students (yes, all 77 of them!) rotate throughout the activities. We loved painting in the snow, the relay race, pin the smile on the snowman, and the list goes on!
-Special surprise guest- Yaki!! For students in SK, they were very excited when Yaki walked into our classroom with his guitar as they had the pleasure of hearing his songs and stories last year! His CD is a favourite in our classroom! Our class enjoyed a special performance that I'm sure you heard about at home. He sang songs about ketchup, dinosaurs, big banana feet and much more (my favourite was about Kindergarten!). We are hoping to see him again within the school year...and perhaps around town at special events! Griffin was especially excited when he was picked to help Yaki play the guitar! Thank you to a very special family who organized this amazing experience for our class! Check out his site: http://yakimusic.com/
-100th Day: Yesterday we enjoyed exploring with 100! We learned about making groups of 10...perhaps you counted the 100 stickers on their hats or 100 beads on their necklaces? We drew a picture of what we think we will look like at 100 years old. I had to laugh when someone said "Mrs. Bennett when I'm 100 years old I will have wrinkles like you!" haha So I guess when you get old you will have wrinkles like me! Or perhaps like Dawson said, he will have glasses to help him read just like his Grandpa.
-With our fun-filled week, I did not have a chance to exchange reading books or add to the alphabet or sight word rings. We will be back on track next week with the letter Jj!
Week of February 20- February 24
Feb. 20- Family Day!
Feb. 21- Pancakes, Pancakes!
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What a fun day! We had music today with Ms. Belanger to start off our day!!
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Then we read the book "Pancakes, Pancakes!" to continue our unit on procedural writing. We discovered that recipes are an example of a procedure which made it a perfect day for making pancakes. We have some great chefs in our classroom! Thank you to parents who sent in delicious syrup and blueberry sauce! Yum!
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Tomorrow we will have have a prayer service for Ash Wednesday.
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Report cards go home tomorrow.
Week of February 13- February 17
Feb. 16
- We are continuing our Valentine Day theme.
- The Post Office is a big hit, and the children have been writing letters like crazy!! Perhaps you have a few at home?! Our class really loves to write and it's so exciting to watch them learn and grow in the learning centres.
- Today the SKs really enjoyed "ice fishing"! Mackenzie and I had fun making rhymes with the word family fish we caught!
- In math, we are working on positional words (under, over, above, below, inside, around, etc.).
- JK students are now working hard on writing using initial sounds. Also, in reading we are continuing to track as we read and sound out words by blending sounds together. Please continue your efforts at home! :)
- Today we discussed the meaning of the word 'love' and where we see it and feel it. We made connections to the book Fr. Proulx read with us a few weeks ago where he spoke to the class about showing and sharing God's love.
- We have an exciting week next week:
- Monday is Family Day- enjoy this time together!
- Tuesday we will be making pancakes!
- Mass on Ash Wednesday.
- Thursday we will have our winter fun day. Please make sure to send warm clothes and extra mittens! We will have a morning of winter fun!
- Next week we will celebrate 100th Day on Friday.
Feb. 13
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This week, our learning centres will be inspired by Valentine's Day! We will set up the dramatic play area as a Post Office so we can write letters and Valentine's Day cards to our friends and family!
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Tomorrow is a spirit day...wear your red and white! Let's try and keep the Spirit Monkey!
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Our letter this week is Vv.
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JK students have been doing well at drawing and writing things that begin with the letter of the week.
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We will continue to work on retelling texts we read in class. This has been challenging for many as they are not including enough detail in their retell. Please refer to last week's post for information on retelling.
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SK students are working hard on adding more detail to their writing.
Week of February 6- February 10
Feb. 8- I am away today.
- I forgot to mention that during our Literacy Week activities our class won the Spirit Monkey!!! The majority of our class wore a costume of our favourite storybook character which made fun an exciting day. Being a Robert Munsch fan, of course I had to choose one of his characters. I was the Paperbag Princess! :)
- This week SK students learned the alternative sounds "oa" (making the sound "Oh"). We brainstormed words such as road, load, toad...etc. It is important to point out these alternative sounds as you read with your child. I will add these sounds to your child's sight word ring.
Feb. 6
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Students enjoyed our Groundhog Day activities last week! At the end of the day, we took our groundhog puppets outside to see if we could see his shadow! Students made predictions earlier in the day based on the information they learned about shadows.
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This week we will complete our Sound Centre. The snow days pushed some of our activities back...we will make our instruments this week! :)
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With Valentine's Day soon approaching, I will send home a class list and the info for our Valentine's Day party early this week. In our classroom, we ask that if your child makes Valentine's Day cards to please make one for each child in the class.
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We will also be celebrating 100th Day! Each day we add a number to our hundreds chart and count (forwards and backwards). Students are also learning to count by 10s (and soon will be counting by 5).
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On Friday, I spent the day preparing for report cards and reporting on our Smart Goal. Each term, teachers are required to write a Smart Goal based on the needs of the classroom. Our JK goal was to know 11/15 letters/sounds learned up to that point and SK students were to read at a PM Level 3 by February. I'm happy to report that our class exceeded our goals! All SK students are reading and comprehending at a Level 3 or higher! Mrs. Newberry and myself also commented on how amazing the Full-Day Kindergarten has been for our JK students-- their recognition and recall of letters + sounds is outstanding this year! Thank you once again for your dedication and continued support at home.
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JK students who recognize many of the letters/sounds will begin literacy centres that focus on recognizing beginning and ending sounds in words. This will be exciting to see in their writing!
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This week we will be focussing on "retell" in language (retelling the story in their own words). Students will be asked to orally retell a story. To reinforce these skills at home choose a story that your child knows well and enjoys. This can be tricky at first but the more they are exposed to these questions, the easier it becomes. Try to incorporate these types of discussions and questions into your nightly reading routine.
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Setting: Where did the story take place?
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Characters: Who were the people or animals in the story?
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Problem: What is the problem in the story?
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Events: Ask your child to put the events of the story in order. Ex., What happened first? Then what happened? What happened at the end of the story?
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Solution: How is the problem solved at the end?
- Below you will find an example of a graphic organizer we use called a "Go Chart".
Week of January 30- February 3
Jan. 30- I would like to thank all our guests that read to us last week! Your time and efforts are very much appreciated!
- We had tons of fun last week with the literacy activities and Zumba! On Thursday we even guessed the quote on the morning announcements! Thanks to Mackenzie and Griffin who quickly delivered the answer of Cinderella to Mrs. Armstrong! I heard that we are going to reschedule a date for dressing up as your favourite storybook character. Wear your costume tomorrow (Tuesday)!!!
-Last week we also practised lockdown procedures.
- We are learning the letter Ff. Last week, JK students were able to "ice fish" with letters...this week SK students will fish for sight words!
-In math, we have been learning about making tally marks and creating graphs. The children have enjoyed surveying their classmates.
-The Sound Centre is a success! A favourite activity last week was "Guess This Sound!". The children enjoyed trying to guess the sound made by their partner and then recorded the answer using tally marks on the recoding sheet. We will make our own instruments this week...please send in an empty bottle (or 2!).
- In celebration of Groundhog Day, we are inviting all staff and students to wear brown in honour of this special rodent!
Week of January 23-27
Jan. 23- Literacy Week! Tomorrow we will have celebrity readers from our community...we are hoping to hear stories from Father Proulx, S/Sgt. Colin Slight, and a familiar face from the Renfrew Fire Department on Wednesday! On Wednesday, bring your favourite story book from home to share with our reading buddies!
-Thursday we have Zumba!!!
- We are learning the letter Ll this week.
-SK students are writing the Ontario Writing Assessment.
-Thank you to all parents who continue to provide comments in the reading log! I'm PM Benchmarking and testing letters and sounds and have been excited by the progress I have seen.
-We opened our Sound Centre today and made some discoveries. If you have an empty plastic water bottle please send it to school for a fun activity near the end of the week...if you have 2 even better! :)
-We are going to have some ice fishing in our water table this week...I'm hoping Gavan can give us some pointers! He told us about the fish he caught with Grandpa last week!
Week of January 16-20
Jan. 18- Two snow days! I hope that everyone has been safe on the roads the past few days. The past 2 days we've been organizing our classroom and setting up some new centres. We were able to join with other classes for some fun activities!
- We are going to have a new centre with items that make sounds...such as musical instruments, and a variety of objects from our classroom.
- I've started to test letters & sounds. I'm very impressed- wow! Thank you for your continued work at home.
- I have also started testing PM Benchmark levels again. It is our hope that students are at a level 6 by the time they enter Grade 1. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know. Along with reading at a Grade 6 level, students must also have comprehension of what they are reading. This includes making connections and inferences. We want to ask questions that will strengthen their thinking.
- This week Mrs. Newberry and I presented to the CWL about the new Full-Day Kindergarten Program. We are very thankful for their continue support in our school and Kindergarten classrooms. We are blessed to have the LOVE Ladies come and read with our students every week.
Jan. 16- Last week was full of excitement! Mrs. Newberry had a flood in her classroom so we shared our classroom with her class. We were shuffled between Mrs. Black's classroom and our classroom. Everything worked out very well and the children were very well-behaved considering the circumstances. As I've said before, I'm very blessed to have such a wonderful class. Hopefully everything will be back to normal this week.
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In the next few weeks, I will be testing the letters and sounds again. Lower case 'b' and 'd' can be tricky for many so I encourage you to work on these at home.
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We will finish up our math unit on 2-D Shapes. Some have difficulty with square and rectangle. Here are some questions to reinforce and extend thinking: "What shape is this? How do you know?" (ex., naming sides, corners, length of sides) "How are the two triangles (squares, rectangles, circles) the same? How are they different?"
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We are learning the letter Uu this week.
Week of January 9-13
Jan. 9- Happy New Year! It is my hope that everyone had a safe and enjoyable Christmas break! I had a great time visiting family and resting! It was great to get back to school today-- we enjoyed sharing all our stories.
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This week we are learning the letter Oo.
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In math, we are beginning our unit on 2-D Shapes. Although many know their shapes, we will focus on using math language to describe them. We continue to work on building oral language. Ex., A triangle has 3 corners and 3 sides. Also, comparing shapes (ex., how a square and rectangle are different and the same). We will be exploring our school by going on a "shape hunt". I encourage you to do the same at home. Ex., "I see a circle in the kitchen-- it's the clock." Or "I Spy" is a great game for shapes. Ex. "I spy with my little eye something that is a square." OR "I spy with my little eye something that has 3 corners and 3 sides."
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We enjoyed exploring in the Kitchen Centre today. We made grocery lists, took orders at the restaurant, and made some delicious meals! Some chatted about their favourite recipes that they make at home... I heard about some yummy banana bread!
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I sent home Book Orders today. Please return by Jan. 20.
Week of December 19-23
Dec. 21- Snow Day!.... Hope you all stayed safe on the roads today!
- CHANGE: Prayer service will be Friday at 1:15.
- We have our party tomorrow!!
- Mrs. Newberry kindly gave us boxes to package our Christmas gifts. :)
- We have music tomorrow!
Dec. 19
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Can you believe it is the last week before Christmas?! What an exciting week! We are celebrating the birth of Jesus as we begin the fourth week of Advent. Today we read a beautiful book "The Story of the Nativity". We spoke about what gift we would bring baby Jesus. Mackenzie said she would "bring clothes for baby Jesus because people back then probably didn't have a lot." Dawson thoughtfully said "I would bring Baby Jesus a crib". Tomorrow we will have a writing activity that goes along with it. You might of seen a sneak preview in the agenda tonight!
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The children are also looking forward to the big night....Santa's arrival of course. And aren't we happy to say that we have a class full of good boys and girls?!
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The children have been hard at work to make Christmas gifts for all of you. A reminder that if you could pick up your gift between Wednesday and Friday that would be great...if not, no worries...please send a small box if you one so it arrives home safely!
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I am not sending home a new letter or sight words this week. I will put in a new book to read over the holidays!
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We are enjoying the book "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree: A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas". If you visit the following website you will find a short video of the book. http://scholastic.ca/titles/aporcupineinapinetree/
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Today the Seniors worked hard on their writing. We spoke about writing sentences with detail. We are moving away from "I like school" "I love Christmas". They are such great writers that I want to encourage more detail..."I love Christmas because I get to have a turkey dinner with my family!" I encourage students to write a few times in their agenda over the holidays.
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A big thank you for coming out and seeing our Christmas concert! We loved our song and hope it showed! Thank you for all your rock star outfits...I was impressed!
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This Thursday we have an Advent service in the gym at 9:30-- All are welcome!
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Thursday will be our class Christmas party! I sent home a letter tonight indicating what parents signed up to bring. Any concerns please let me know. Please no pineapple.
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Friday we have another spirit day!! Wear your red and green!!
Week of December 12-16
Dec. 12
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This week we are learning the letter Gg.
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Our dramatic play area has been turned into Santa's Workshop! We had some busy elves today making Christmas crafts, cards, and decorations.
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We played some rhyming games today.
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We are looking forward to seeing you Thursday! Please let me know if you have any questions about the concert.
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I sent home the words for our Christmas song today.
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Reminder that SKs exchange reading books on Tuesday and JKs on Wednesday.
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Next time you are at OLF check out our new cubbies! They are a great addition to the Kindergarten wing!!
Week of December 5-9
Dec. 9
- It was wonderful seeing all of you Thursday night! I enjoyed sharing your child's successes and stories with you!
- I will mail our letters to Santa on Monday! We are looking forward to hearing from him!
- Today we continued to work hard on our Christmas concert song.
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Christmas Concert-God Rest Ye Gerry Mentlemen!
Date: Thursday, December 15th
Inclement Weather Date: Wednesday, December 21st
Times: Matinee/Dress Rehearsal-1:30 p.m.
Last name A-L and JK/SK parents –6:00-7:00 p.m.
Last name M-Z- 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Location: Our Lady of Fatima Gym
** JK/SK students will only perform at the matinee (1:30) and first night showing (6:00). Parents and families are welcome for both shows! Please have students at school around 5:40. We will meet in the classroom.
- Wondering what to wear for the concert? We are asking students to wear red and green...and anything you have that would go along with our "rock" song. Ex., sunglasses...be creative! When in doubt have them wear their Sunday best! :)
- Here's the song if you want to work on it at home...I'm sure you've heard some of it the past few days!
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The Santa Claus Rock
Wave to the people, stomp with your feet
Hands on your hips, now twist with the beat
And rock!
The Santa Claus Rock!
Oh, yeah, Uh-huh
The Santa Claus Rock!
Wave to the people, stomp with your feet
Hands on your hips, now twist with the beat
And rock!
The Santa Claus Rock!
Oh, yeah, Uh-huh
The Santa Claus Rock
Hey hey! ------- Hey hey!Ho ho! ----------- Ho ho!
Hey hey! ---------- Hey hey
Ho ho ho! ------- Ho ho ho!
Yeah, rock! The Santa Claus Rock!
Oh yeah, Uh-huh ,The Santa Claus Rock!
Oh yeah, Uh-huh, The Santa Claus Rock!
Oh yeah, Uh-huh, The Santa Claus Rock!
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Dec. 7
- Today we started our letters to Santa. We will continue them tomorrow.
- I'm looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow night!
- We continue to use strategies to help us read unfamiliar words. We've worked on using picture clues and sounding our words (please encourage your child to sound out the words out loud). Today we learned about reading past the unfamiliar word and then rereading the sentence. It is the hope that the context of the sentence will help predict the unknown word. We also look for "mini words" inside bigger words...ex. "and" in the word "sand" or "it" in the word "fit".
- We have a prayer service tomorrow morning.
Dec. 6- UPDATE: Santa is very busy and can't make it :(
Dec. 5
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I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! I heard many stories about the parade this weekend.
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This week we are learning the letter Dd. Some students enjoyed writing letters and words in shaving cream!
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SK students have been working very hard on their writing! We are working hard on making letters their proper size and placing them correctly on the printing lines.
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One of the SK literacy centres this week is to find words hidden throughout the room...we are working on the vowels. These sounds can sometimes be tricky!
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Math centres were a success today! Especially 2 students who played the "More or Less" game with the Ten-Frames.
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This week we are going to write letters to Santa!
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The children enjoyed the new Christmas books in our class library...and even the reindeer antlers that they can wear while reading!
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Reminder that Thursday is our Parent-Teacher interviews. You may bring your children with you but it is not required. I'm hoping that Santa will pay us a visit! Please let me know if you will not be able to make your interview by making a note in the agenda or calling the school.
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We have also been discussing the meaning of Advent and Advent wreath and "lighting" our candles (tissue paper does the trick!). I encourage you to also have these conversations at home. Some children had good connections to make from church these past weekends.
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We had music today. There has been a change for our Christmas song... you will not want to miss it! Please note that Kindergartens will perform the first showing of the play only and children will have to be picked up from the classroom once it is done.
Week of November 28- Dec. 2
Nov. 30
- Today we had reading buddies! We enjoyed singing "Alice the Camel" with our buddies!
- Tomorrow we have a busy day with a prayer service and Zumba!
- The children are really enjoying the vet centre! Griffin really played the role today when he asked his patients to wait in the waiting room as he prepared for them. He had a pen behind his ear and stethoscope around his neck and clipboard in hand!
- I sent home an interview form tonight. Please choose your preferred time and return ASAP.
- A reminder to please send your child with winter coats, hats, mitts, etc. so they are not cold at recess.
Nov. 28
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We're back on track this week! Thank you for your understanding last week.
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Last week we enjoyed having music with Ms. Belanger. We are beginning to practise our Christmas concert song- Jingle Bells!
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This week we are learning the letter Mm.
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We are enjoying our new dramatic play centre- the vet! The children have enjoyed taking care of the pets. This week we are adding some sight word cards for the centre and a "Pet Treatment Form".
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Last week I assessed children on their number recognition. I will continue to monitor proper formation when printing and encourage you to practise at home too. I hope you enjoyed the number game and number poems I sent home. This week we will work on 1-to-1 correspondence.
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Begin to make use of one-to-one
correspondence in counting objects
and matching groups of objects
(e.g., one napkin for each of the
people at the table)
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I have PM Benchmarked most SKs. I've been impressed with the reading levels in our class. Our goal is to be at a PM level 3 by February.
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Prayer Service in the gym at 9:30 on Thursday.
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Kindergarten Interviews will take place Dec. 8. I will be sending home your interview time this week.
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Today we had a special guest visit our classroom! He brought us a beautiful farm to borrow for the week with a variety of animals, feeding troughs, feed, and tractors! We sang some songs and read some books...what an exciting morning! We are looking forward to his return tomorrow!
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We have Zumba on Thursday!
Week of November 14-18
Nov. 17
- Today we had music and met with our reading buddies!
- Students in SK are beginning to be Benchmarked for reading levels. By the end of Kindergarten, it is our hope that students be at a PM Benchmark Level 6 so they are ready for Grade 1. This including actual reading ability and comprehension of the text. Mackenzie was a great example of this today! She made impressive text-to-text and text-to-self connections! It's so exciting to see the growth of all your children in just a few months!
- JKs have been working hard to print the letter Ee. Thank you to all parents who practice their printing at home. This makes such a huge difference at school! If you would like any tips or tricks please let me know!
- The children continue to enjoy our social skills program. We are learning how to identify how people feel by looking at their face and body language. We have 3 puppets that help make this program so successful. I'm sure some of you have heard of Puppy, Be-Calm Bunny, and Slow Down Snail.
- A reminder to continue to read and record your take-home books.
Nov. 14- I'm so happy to see all my students! I had great feedback from my supply teacher- I'm very proud of my class! You have great kids- I'm a very lucky teacher!
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This week we are learning the letter Ee.
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We will review the alternate sound "er" and will focus on "th" sound.
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In math we will continue to work on numbers.
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Friday is a PD day- no school for students.
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Here is a website I found with a variety of links. Some great links for online reading/stories. Enjoy!
http://beginningreadinghelp.blogspot.com/p/favorite-online-stories.html
Week of November 7-11
Nov. 8
- We had music today.
- We wrote about how we can be a peacemaker. Tomorrow we will be doing a small craft that will go along with it.
- SKs will be learning the alternate sound "er". Ex., monster, November, number. We've worked on the ch and th sounds most recently.
- Today we read "A Poppy Is to Remember". We discussed the symbol of the poppy.
- JKs learned the number 2 today. It can be a tricky number to print and I encourage you to practice it at home.
- Here are the little sayings for 1 and 2 that we use to learn how to print the numbers:
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Number 1 is like a stick,
A straight line down, that's very quick!
For number 2, go right around,
Then make a line across the ground.
Nov. 7
- Book Orders due this Friday. Cheques only please- contact me if this is a concern.
- This week I encourage you to discuss the meaning of peace in your homes and the symbol of the poppy. We've been learning how to be "peacemakers" at school. This week we will read The Peace Book and A Poppy Is to Remember. Last week we brainstormed some ways that we can be peacemakers at school. The class came up with ideas such as "I can be a peacemaker by sharing" and "I can be a peacemaker by using kind words".
- Update: Parent-Teacher interviews for Kindergarten will take place December 8th. I will be sending home more information shortly.
- November 15th-Family Zumba begins-5:30-6:30 each Tuesday. Cost $5 per family.
Week of October 31- November 4
Nov. 3
- Today was an exciting day in the building centre! Many of the children got together to build the town of Renfrew...and it all started with Dawson putting a pencil behind his ear. That's all it took and we made construction hats, they gathered their clipboards to make plans, and set to work on the construction of the church and fruit store.
- You might of also heard about the introduction of "Puppy". It is part of a program to help children develop their social and communication skills. Puppy is learning about coming to school and the children are teaching him the rules. He was a bit rowdy at the carpet today but was able to learn some of the rules with their help. Many were excited about his arrival. :)
- I forgot to mention yesterday that we met with our Grade 6 buddies.
- We read a book about bullying. This began our discussion on how we can be peacemakers.
- We had a discussion about tattling. We are working hard on our communication skills (Ex. speaking to the person who took the block you were playing with vs tattling to get them in trouble when maybe they didn't realize you were playing with it). They are always encouraged to see me if someone has hurt them or is hurting someone else (physical/emotional)-- we spoke about the difference but for some it is difficult to understand. However, everyone is making progress and I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful group of children!
- Next week we are learning the letters Cc and Kk. We will begin Number Sense in math: JK 0-10, and SK will focus on 10-20. I'm very impressed with counting thus far...we are up to 40 on our hundreds chart.
Nov. 2
- Yesterday we had mass with Father Mac for All Saints Day. Father said how proud he was of all the Kindergarten classes-- they were attentive and well behaved. This mass is a great start to our themes in November. We will be learning about how we can be peacemakers-- link to peace, Remembrance Day.
- We enjoyed our new math centres today! We made patterns with pasta, numbers, bingo dabbers, and shapes!
- SKs were part of guided reading groups. One group read 'I Feed the Animals'.
- We enjoyed setting up the 'school' centre today! We already have a calendar, and some school supplies organized. We put all our containers from the store into the building centre-- today we tried to make the town of Renfrew!
- Liam and friends make some excellent patterns with linking cubes during quiet time.
- I sent home Scholastic Book orders. Please let me know if any books are gifts (I can keep them aside and call you when they come in).
- Tomorrow we are making a poppy with tissue paper. Our class and Mrs. Newberry's will be in charge of the bulletin board near the school entrance this month.
- A reminder to please be cautious when sending snacks from tick-or-treating...many contain nuts.