Ms. DeGrace's Kindergarten Connection

For Wednesday, February 1, 2012

2012-02-01T19:36:00.000-05:00

Hello All!
Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Uu - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Uu" is for ... personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Words of the day: "here" and "are"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a choral reading.

Shared Reading Stories: "Umbrella Bird's Umbrella" by Heather Feldman and "One Snowy Day" by Tammi Salzano

Poems/Songs: Ice, Colourful Mittens, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle
Science: Students demonstrated their understanding of how humans adapt to their habitat's seasonal changes by sorting clothing into appropriate sections for summer or winter clothing.

Miss Claymore joined our class for the afternoon last block of the day as I was away.

Math Activity: Geometry- Students who did not share yesterday had the opportunity to share their 3D shapes from home with the class today. Again it is so fun to see the diverse choices for objects and how students can describe their shapes according to the attributes learned.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 3D Shape Sharing Day

2012-01-31T19:14:00.017-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today was the Health Unit Dental Screening day and students visited with the dental hygienist.

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Tt - we continued with our turtle crafts. The students are quite excited to bring these home to share.

Jk Turtle Puppets

SK Turtle Puppets

Words of the day: "here" and "are"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "And Here's to You" by David Elliot

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens and Ice

Journals: Students completed their yearbook name and numbers page along with their signature for January.

Math Activity: Geometry- 3D Shape Sharing Day! We split the class into two groups with students getting to share their shapes from home with their classmates. There were a diverse selection of items and the children were so proud to share theirs. Some students still have to share theirs tomorrow so for those who forgot theirs at home today, they too can have an opportunity to share them tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Monday, January 30, 2012

2012-01-30T18:07:00.066-05:00

Good Afternoon!

As the snow is forecasted to disappear tomorrow, we took advantage of the bit more that fell over the weekend and did a temperature experiment that we postponed previously.

Science: Students learned about thermometers, had an opportunity to measure the temperatures of both snow and warm water and record their findings, as well as an opportunity to explore what happens to water when it gets below zero degrees with both experiential application and through a Smart Board activity. See if your child can share our science song "Ice" by singing it for you. It goes to the tune of "Three Blind Mice".

Today's other activities included:

Letter of the day: Tt - As a tie in activity students crafted turtle puppets from socks and paper plates. This craft is a little more time consuming to create and we will continue with it tomorrow when I will be able to share photos of them. Students each gave their turtle a "T" name. Be sure to inquire as to your child's turtle's name.

Words of the day: "here" and "are"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a choral reading and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "When Tilly Turtle Came to Tea" by Carol Pugliano-Martin

Poems/Songs: Ice, Colourful Mittens, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Journals: Students completed their Keepsake Journal January page.

Math Activity: Geometry 3D Shapes- I shared a Hoberman Sphere with the class.

They are quite fascinated by it and will have an opportunity to try it out themselves tomorrow. I also modelled the 3D Shape Sharing for students so they can have an idea of how to share their 3D shapes.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Blue Day!

2012-01-26T19:26:00.020-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Blue Day was such a blast!

We read about the colour blue and identified items in our environment that are blue,

we created blue bands...

and we graphed blue with each student that wore blue today filling in a square on our Colour Days Graph.

Our planned outdoor snow writing activity was a no-go due to not enough snow. We will get to do that activity as well as some outdoor ones from snow day if we get enough snow to do them at a later time.

Today's other activities included:

Letter of the day: Tt - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Tt" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Words of the day: "you" and "me"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a choral reading.

Shared Reading Stories: "Tails" by Scholastic ReadingLine and "Blue: Seeing Blue All Around Us"

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens, Ice, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Math Activity: Geometry- In small groups, students participated in the forth and final rotation of the 2D and 3D geometric shape activity centres. The students are creating and identifying 2D shapes on the geoboards, using 2D tanagram shapes to make pictures, 3D foam shapes to build structures and identifying shapes with a shapes game on the Smartboard. (See centre activities here.)

Just a reminder that the schedule will change come Monday, with it being day 5, due to the PA Day tomorrow. Thus, Library will be on Wednesdays (Day 2) and Fridays (Day 4) until Family Day in February.

All students should be able to identify a 3D shape item by both its' mathematical name, its' real life usage and its' attributes (# of corners/sides/edges/points, 2D shapes or faces that comprise it, whether it rolls or slides or both). Students can start to bring them in on Monday for sharing starting on Tuesday.

Enjoy your long weekend!

For Wednesday, January 25, 2012

2012-01-25T18:58:00.012-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Ss - As a tie in activity students crafted a Star in the sky with other "S" words.

Jks- Stars in the Sky

Sks - Stars in the Sky

Words of the day: "you" and "me"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a choral reading.

Shared Reading Stories: "Scaredy Squirrel" by Melanie Watt, "Sorting Shapes- Where does it Belong?" by Christine Finochi

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens, Ice, and Make a Circle

Journals: While today's journaling was free choice, many students were captivated by our Scaredy Squirrel read-a-loud from earlier where I utilized a Scaredy Squirrel puppet to act out the story thus they wrote about Scaredy Squirrel. It is so fun to see children get excited about book characters. Fortunately, there are many other books in this series which are sure to be a hit in the future.

Math Activity: Geometry- As a class the students sorted 3D shapes using a Venn Diagram mat into slides, rolls, or both. Independently, JKs matched up everyday objects such as cans, lego, etc. to its' 3D mathematical shape equivalent. Sks did this too along with an added activity of identifying shapes that roll from a select group of shapes. We once again talked about 3D Shape Sharing Day and choosing everyday shapes from home to bring into share. Please assist your child in choosing an item if they have not already done so.

Looking forward to Blue Day fun tomorrow!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Tuesday, January 24, 2012

2012-01-24T19:48:00.004-05:00

Good Afternoon!

I apologize to our regular blog readers for the missed posts over the last days as I have been recovering. I am back on track and all are posted now. Ms. Stockley was away today and Ms. MacNeil joined our class today in her place.

Today's activities included:

Check out this fun 3D structure some students created from cube shapes during free play time.

How exciting to see the math learning transferred to everyday activities!

Letter of the day: Ss - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Ss" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Words of the day: "you" and "me"- utilized and identified in the morning message.

Shared Reading Stories: "Seal's Silly Sandwich" by Dorothy J. Sklar, "Mine, All, Mine" by Claire Hawcock, and "Little Shapes and Big Shapes" by Christine Finochio

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens, Snowflakes, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Word Play Writing Activity: Classmates Name - We identified, stretched out, clapped out, cut up, put it back in order, counted the number of letters, wrote out and graphed another of name of a classmate.

Math Activity: Geometry- In small groups, students participated in the third rotation of four 2D and 3D geometric shape activity centres. The students are creating and identifying 2D shapes on the geoboards, using 2D tanagram shapes to make pictures, 3D foam shapes to build structures and identifying shapes with a shapes game on the Smartboard. (See centre activities here.)

Ms. Ruhl-Burton was absent from library today so students were unable to do book exchange. Hopefully this will happen when they go to library on Thursday.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Monday, January 23, 2012

2012-01-24T19:23:00.002-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Unfortunately, I like many others in our class, caught a stomach ailment that is going through the class and was not there today. Ms. Darling was the supply teacher.

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: As a tie in activity students crafted rockets with a countdown sequence and written upper and lowercase Rs.

(photo to come)

Words of the day: "you" and "me"- utilized and identified in the morning message.

Shared Reading Stories: "I Read" by Scholastic ReadingLine, "The Little Snowflake" by Steve Metzger and "Find the Shapes" by Christine Finochio

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens, Five Little Snowmen, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Writing/Reading Activity: Students each illustrated a simple sight word related snowman mini story booklet.

Math Activity: Geometry- Students identified 2D shapes in common food items both by colouring them and orally communicating the shapes to Ms. Darling and Ms. Stockley.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Snow Activity Day Fun! - Friday, January 20, 2012

2012-01-24T19:11:00.109-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Well nature was not cooperative in the snow department but we did have enough to so a snow experiment. When a packing snow day presents itself, we will take advantage of it to do some other outdoor snow related activities.

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Rr

Words of the day: "can" and "we"- utilized and identified in the morning message.

Shared Reading Stories: The first half of "Mine, All Mine!" by Claire Hawcock and Chiara Pasqualotto

Poems/Songs: Snowflakes, Ice, Five Little Snowmen and Colourful Mittens

Science:

Snow Experiment:

Is snow clean like drinking water?

Students often think that snow is clean due to its whiteness. For this experiment, we gathered up a bowl of snow and placed it in a coffee filter. We checked it throughout the day. Here is what it looked like part way through the day.

Melting Snow in Coffee Filter Experiment

Here was the end result.

Particles of sand and dirt were the results of our Melted Snow Experiment.

Students learned that each snowflake is formed around a particle of sand/dirt in the air and then falls to the ground.

Salt and Ice Experiment:

The class was divided into to smaller groups with one group participating with Ms. Stockley in a Salt on Ice experiment and one group making Snow Dough with me. The groups where then reversed in the middle block so everyone had an opportunity for a part in each activity.

Students each had a chance to place some salt on an ice block.

Adding salt to the surface of the ice block.

Then they added drops of food colouring.

Adding drops of food coloring.

Over the day, we checked in on the blocks to see how the salt affected the ice.

Over head view of holes formed where salt was placed with the food colouring flowing into the holes.

Side view of the ice block showing the food colouring travelling through the holes created by the salt.

Students learned that salt melts the ice and they could see this by the colour moving through the holes created by the salt. We talked about how salt is used on ice and snow both on walking areas and roads to help melt the snow and make it safer to travel on these areas.

Cooking Snow Dough:

Each student had an opportunity to either measure, pour or stir the ingredients in making Snow Dough for our shapes literacy centre activity.

Snow Dough Recipe

Snow Dough Ingredients

Mixing all ingredients together.

Cooked clump forming as the dough is heated.

Completed and Cooled Snow Dough ready for playing.

Students each completed an A-Z connect-the-dot Snowflake with some choosing to add colour with crayons.

Math Activity: Geometry- Students each crafted a cut and paste 2D geometric shape snowman.

Jks- 2D Shapes Snowmen

Sks- 2D Shapes Snowmen

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Thursday, January 19, 2012

2012-01-19T19:47:00.033-05:00

Good Afternoon!

We had some exciting events in our day today. We switched up our sign in activity to incorporate the use of the SmartBoard which students are greatly fascinated by. The weather provided some additional excitement as our afternoon recess was cut short when a squall blew in blinding the yard.

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Rr - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Rr" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Words of the day: "we" and "can"- utilized and identified in the morning message.

Shared Reading Stories: "Rosie Rabbit's Radish" by Wendy Cheyette Lewison and "Stella Queen of the Snow" by Marie-Louise Gay

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens, Five Little Snowmen, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Art: Following a guided step-by-step lesson, students worked with chalk pastels to each create a snowman scene. These will be proudly shared in a hallway display and come home at a later date.

Sk's Snowman Scenes

Jk's Snowman Scenes

Math Activity: Geometry- In small groups, students participated in the second of 4 2D and 3D geometric shape activity centres. The students are creating and identifying 2D shapes on the geoboards, using 2D tanagram shapes to make pictures, 3D foam shapes to build structures and identifying shapes with a shapes game on the Smartboard.

Tomorrow is Snow Activity Day. We anticipated the chance of not having enough snow for the outdoor activities so if we do not get a big snow fall this evening, we still have lots of fun activities planned.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Wednesday, January 18, 2012

2012-01-18T17:47:00.026-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Qq - As a tie in activity students crafted a queen under a quilt made of quarters.

Jk's Queens under Quilts

Sk's Queens under Quilts

Words of the day: "can" and "we"- utilized and identified in the morning message

Shared Reading Stories: "Quack! Quiet! Quick!" by Scholastic ReadingLine, "It's Winter" by Linda Glaser and "Shapes at the Mall" by Christine Finochio

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Science Journaling: Students journaled about where animals/insects/birds/, etc spend their winter from our shared read aloud. We are continuing to focus on stretching out word sounds and writing what you hear strategy to write our stories.

Math Activity: Geometry- In small groups, students participated in 1 of 4 2D and 3D geometric shape activity centres. The students are creating and identifying 2D shapes on the geoboards, using 2D tanagram shapes to make pictures, 3D foam shapes to build structures and identifying shapes with a shapes game on the Smartboard.

2D Geoboard Shapes

2D Tanagram Shapes

3D Foam Blocks for creating structures

SmartBoard Bucket and Spade Shapes Game

Here are some explorations results:

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Tuesday, January 17, 2012

2012-01-17T15:50:00.063-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today started with a little excitement for some bus riders and a prolong entry due to weather and road conditions. While some students missed out on morning free play time due to this, it was more than made up with free play time during the indoor recesses.

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Qq- "Qu is..." poem focusing on mouth and lip formation to produce the "qu" sound.

Words of the day: "can" and "we"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Can We Get a Pet?" by Maria Fleming, "When Winter Comes" by Nancy Van Laan, and 3D half of "Geometry" by Penny Dowdy

Poems/Songs: Colourful Mittens, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Science/ Personal Development: Tying into our habitat unit and moving into our weather around us and natural occurrences (winter, snow, ice, etc), students partner discussed what would happen if humans wore summer clothes in the winter. They came up with some great reasons why humans wear outer clothing for winter and how we differ from animals. As we have been practicing and continue to reinforce the importance of proper winter clothing and the development of dressing independence, each student completed a cut and paste order of winter clothing activity.

JK's Winter Clothing Order of Dressing at School

SK's Winter Clothing Order of Dressing at School

Math Activity: Geometry- Students partnered up and went on a 3D shape hunt within the classroom, identifying common items by their 3D shape.

Encourage your child to go on a 3D shape hunt at home to choose their 3D shape for Shape Sharing Day. (Please refer to the class home calendar for further info.) While at this point, some students might be able to identify the learned attributes of their chosen shape (2D shapes that might make up their 3D shape, number of sides, corners/points, does it slide or roll or both?), others should be able to do so in the future as we get further on in the unit.

Both morning entry and recesses were indoors due to the rain. In order to get moving and burn off some energy, we did follow the leader style group dances at the start of each block.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Monday, January 16, 2012

2012-01-16T16:45:00.003-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Qq - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Qq" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise. Be sure to have your child share and read their letter book to family members.

Words of the day: "can" and "we"- utilized and identified in the morning message.

Shared Reading Stories: "The Quiet Quail" by Heather Feldman and "William Won't You Wash Your Hands?" by Marilyn Nault

Poems/Songs: A Brand New Year, My Wiggles, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Health: Continuing with our understanding of how proper hand washing can help keep us stay healthy, the students reviewed and acted out the steps that are needed to properly wash their hands. Students then cut, and pasted the six steps in order. The SKs also added in the step numbers to their steps.

Jk Ordered Steps of Hand Washing

Math Activity: Geometry- We reviewed 2D and 3D shapes and their relatedness. For independent practice, JKs identified circles out of a variety of 2D shapes. SKs identified circles, triangles, and squares. They then counted how many of each shape and calculated the total amount of shapes.

Reminder that tomorrow is library day as well as scholastic book orders are due.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Friday, January 13, 2012

2012-01-13T16:02:00.026-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Pp - As a tie in activity, students crafted purple polka dotted pink pigs and later in the day on the way to gym we went on a purple polka dotted pink pig parade.

Jk Purple Polka dotted Pink Pigs

Sk Purple Polka dotted Pink Pigs

Words of the day: "my" and "it"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in choral readings and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Seven Pigs" by Scholastic Reading Line, "The Fleas's Sneeze" by Lynn Downey, and the 2D half of "Geometry - Math Concepts Made Simple" by Penny Dowdy

Poems/Songs: A Brand New Year, My Wiggles, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square, We're a Square, and This is a Triangle

Science/Health: Germs- We met the germ bugs Sore Throat, Stomach Ache, and Ear Ache which are stuffies of the actual germs magnified 1,000,000 times.

Sore Throat, Stomach Ache and Ear Ache

We did a whole class experiment by guessing which parts of the hands germs can get stuck in if we do not wash our hands carefully. After applying cream and glitter to both Ms. Stockley's and my hands, we were able to show how the glitter "germs" stick to certain areas of the hands if we only do a quick rinse. Then how they all disappear if we scrub the backs of our hands, wrists, between out fingers and our nails.

Dina Dinosaur: Dina came for a visit and talked about feelings. She and Ms. Stockley played a musical pass the question bag game. When the music stopped the students with the bag pulled out a classroom situation question and shared how that situation would make them feel. e.g. not getting listening bear.

Math Activity: Geometry- as a class, students worked with partners and then shared the attributes of various 2D shapes for a class chart. We also matched up 2D shapes to their 3D cousins.

Have a great weekend!

For Thursday, January 12, 2012

2012-01-12T18:18:00.002-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Pp - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Pp" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise - All students should be able to read their story to a family member.

Words of the day: "it" and "my"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in choral readings and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "The Pigs' Picnic" by Helen H. Moore, "You" by Stephen Michael King, and the second 3D half of "All About Shapes" by Ruth Thomson

Poems/Songs: A Brand New Year, My Wiggles, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle, It's a Square

Yearbook: Students completed their January page for their yearbooks.

Math Activity: Geometry -3D shapes - the class played "What's in the Bag?" again today, a shape identifying game based on the verbal attribute discription of a mystery shape from the "Mystery Bag".

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Wednesday, January 11, 2012

2012-01-11T17:21:00.002-05:00

Good Afternoon!

We had a hoot of a day! Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: As a tie in activity, with both language and math, students crafted geometric shaped owls.

JK's Geometric Owls

SK's Geometric Owls

Words of the day: "it" and "my"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in choral readings and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "The Brave Little Owl" by Gill Davies, "How Full is Your Bucket?" (for kids) by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer and first 2 D half of "All About Shapes" by Ruth Thomson

Poems/Songs: A Brand New Year, My Wiggles, It's a Rectangle, It's a Circle

Journals: Students journaled about ways they could fill other peoples buckets. We will be talking about their imaginary buckets through out the year as part of a school wide initiative based on this poignant book about kindness and appreciation.

Math Activity: Geometry -3D shapes - the class played "What's in the Bag?", a shape identifying game based on the verbal attribute description of a mystery shape from the "Mystery Bag".

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Tuesday, January 10, 2012

2012-01-10T17:43:00.018-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Oo - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Oo" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Words of the day: "my" and "it"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in both a choral reading and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "olive the Octopus's Day of Juggling" by Liza Charlesworth, Frozen noses by Jan Carr, and "Shapes" by Active Minds

Poems/Songs: A Brand New Year!, My Wiggles, It's a Rectangle

Word play Writing Activity: Classmates Name - We identified, stretched out, clapped out, cut up, counted, wrote out and graphed two of our classmates names.

Math Activity: Geometry- 3D shapes - Today we were detectives with partners. We described various 3D shapes to our partners and they tried to figure out which shape it was. Home tip: Ask your child to point out and/or name some common 3D shapes around your home. eg. rectangular prism (kleenex box ), cylinder (drinking cup), etc.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Monday, January 9, 2012

2012-01-09T21:45:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year and welcome back to school!

I hope you all enjoyed your holidays. As we were keeping the Christmas gifts that the students created under wraps, I waited to share this fun photo:

Today we were right back at it. Activities included:

Letter of the day: Nn - As a tie in activity, students crafted acorn nuts.

Words of the day: "it" and "my"- utilized and identified in two choral readings.

Shared Reading Stories: "Happy New Year, Pooh!" by Kathleen W. Zoefeld

Poems/Songs: A Brand New Year!, My Wiggles, It's a Rectangle

Journals: Students journaled about the fun things that they did during the Christmas break.

Math Activity: Geometry- To kick off our 3D shapes unit and to refresh our memories about 2D shapes, the students each went on a shape hunt. Jks had to find, draw and identify a minimum of three shapes from around the room. Sks did a minimum of five with many choosing to do more and write the shape names also.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Friday, December 23, 2011

2011-12-23T21:22:00.067-05:00

Christmas celebrations were the course of the day.

Students arrived with much excitement wearing their PJs for schoolwide PJ day bearing treats, gifts and good cheer. It was to be a fun filled day of festivities.

Word of the day: "and"- utilized and identified in the morning message

Shared Reading Stories: "Santa's New Suit"

After circle time, students enjoyed free play with the last groups finishing off the wrapping of their special Christmas gifts to go home and under the tree for family. Ms. Stockley and I are sure that each family will enjoy their child's special gift for years to come. So as not to give away the surprise, I will post a photo of the pieces in the new year.

Math Activity: Data Management- The middle block saw the students creating a movie voting column graph to determine which movie that we would watch.

The movie with the most votes was Frosty the Snowman. The students enjoyed watching the movie while munching on popcorn and drinking juice.

The last block was when we shared sweet treats that were brought in today as well as those left from our concert. Those students that wanted to had a chance to try egg nog. For many this was their first time trying it. Students then had an opportunity to free play within the classroom.

Thank you for your kindness and generosity in showering us teachers with Christmas cheer. Your thoughtfulness is greatly appreciated. It is my practice to mail thank you cards out to students as who doesn't love the thrill of receiving mail?!

The excitment continues to build with just 2 more sleeps to go! Oh so exciting!

Have a safe and happy holiday!

See you in the New Year!

For Thursday, December 22, 2011

2011-12-22T19:15:00.001-05:00

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..."

Today was filled with performances in both the first and second block of the day. We started off the whole school assembly by performing our medley of songs with Ms. Wood's class. Then we watched other primary and junior classes perform musical numbers and dramatic presentations. In the second block, primary classes participated in carolling lead by Mr. Deschenne's grade 8 class.

After the carolling, the class had library where Mrs. Ruhl-Burton shared a magical colour story. The students helped put the colour in the storybook and then return it to its' original black and white format. The student were completely thrilled by the magic trick.

Given all the sitting required for performances, we spent the last block in free play with small groups creating their decoration gift tag and wrapping their special Christmas gifts.

Just three more sleeps to go!

For Wednesday, December 21, 2011

2011-12-21T19:53:00.001-05:00

Good Afternoon!

We again continued with Christmas gift preparation for the morning activities along with literacy centres.

Today's activities also included:

Word of the day: "and"- utilized and identified in the morning message

Shared Reading Stories: "Bear's Christmas Star" by Mireille D'Allance and "Chestnuts Roasting by an Open Fire" by Mel Torme and Robert Wells

Poems/Songs: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, I'm a Little Snowman, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Math Activity: Data Management - Students identified and column colour graphed the required number of snow birds on snowmen.

For the middle block of the day, the class sang Christmas carols with the other primary classes lead by the grade 8s in the gym.

Tomorrow is school wide santa hat day! If your child will be wearing one, please have their names written on the inside for easy identification. We will be performing during the whole school assembly in the first block.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Tuesday, December 20, 2011

2011-12-20T20:22:00.001-05:00

Good Afternoon!

We are up to our elbows in paint and Christmas gift projects but shhh it's a secret so we can't show you. All will be revealed on the magical day.

Today's other activities included:

Word of the day: "and"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Santa's Surprise" by Keith Faulkner and Jonathan Lambert and "The Twelve Days of Christmas" by retold by Jan Brett.

Poems/Songs: We Wish You a Merry Christmas and Guess Who?

Math Activity: Data Management - We are graphing the weather for each school day for the month of December.

For the middle block of the day, the class sang Christmas carols with the other primary classes lead by the grade 7s in the gym.

The festivities and preparations will continue over the next days ahead as we anticipate the arrival of Christmas. Just 5 more sleeps!

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Monday, December 19, 2011

2011-12-19T17:58:00.004-05:00

It was Gingerbread House Day!

Another fabulously successful day due to the help of our parent volunteers. Thank you, Thank you , Thank you! Ms. Stockley and I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you to the families that donated graham crackers and gummy bears.

After creating their master pieces, students wrote about them in their journals. In the last block of the day, the students enjoyed their creations with some fruit punch. The remnents were bagged and sent home in lunch kits.

Other activities today included:

Word of the day: "and"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in shared reading stories.

Shared Reading Stories: "The Gingerbread Man" by and "Making a Gingerbread House" (EdHelper)

Poems/Songs: We Wish You a Merry Christmas, What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, I'm a Little Snowman, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Journals: Students journaled about how they made their gingerbread houses.

Word Play Writing Activity: One student's name is used. It is written, its' sounds are stretched out, syllables are clamped, the name is cut up and the student distributes the letters of their name to fellow students. These students then remake the name with guidance from the rest of the class. Then we count it and graph it.
Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Friday, December 16, 2011

2011-12-16T23:03:00.002-05:00

Good Afternoon!

It was such a fun one indeed. Weren't the children the cutest sight ever singing? They worked so hard at practicing as Ms. Stockley and I practiced with them everyday for the last two weeks.

The children had a great time making their head pieces for the concert over the week. Here are they are all together.

I hope you all enjoyed the performance. A special thanks to Mr. Russell for being our MC. I hope you had a chance to look around the gym at the artworks. The candy canes, Christmas balls and trees on the back and west wall were painted by members of our class for free play activities. I know the students really enjoyed the treats that families brought into share. Thank you for making it such a successful and festive event.

Besides prepping for the concert, it was Green Day! We read about and identified items that are green as well as adding to our colour graph.

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Nn - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Nn" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Words of the day: "am"- and "see"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "The Nicest Newt" by Heather Feldman, "Green", "A Porcupine in a Pine Tree - A Canadian 12 Days of Christmas" by Helaine becker

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, I'm a Little Snowman, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Math Activity: Number Sense and Numeration- The class explained their pet choices graph to me and we completed the labels and total on it. Everyone who wore green for Green Day, filled out a green column square on our colour graph.

We had 24 class members in green today! Wow!

Have a great weekend!

For Thursday, December 15, 2011

2011-12-15T19:39:00.032-05:00

Good Afternoon!

I was happy to be back at school today. We are busy preparing for the Christmas Concert tomorrow. The students finished off decorating their own personalized head pieces and will get to show them off at the concert. Besides practicing our performance several times today, here is the other activities that we enjoyed:

Letter of the day: Mm - As a tie in activity students crafted colourful Mm mittens.

Word of the day: "am and see"- utilized and identified in the morning message.

Shared Reading Stories: "Where is the muffin?" (Scholastic) and "Olive the Other Reindeer" by J. Otto Seifold and Vivian Walsh

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, I'm a Little Snowman, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Check out our fun new hall displays.

Just a reminder that if you have outstanding Library books, they are to be returned by tomorrow. Book exchange will once again continue in January after the holidays.

In an effort to aid parents and be environmentally friendly, I purchased teaspoons as we were continually being asked by students for spoons when they are not sent with lunch items that require their use for eating. Spoons including disposable spoons are not provided by the school. The dilemma is that all the spoons have gone home with students. Please check your cutlery draw for teaspoons that might have mistakenly come home with your child after needing to borrow one.

It is great to see the school-wide Food and Toy Drive donation pile in the front foyer continue to grow. Thanks to the families who have graciously donated food and toy items.

Looking forward to meeting more parents tomorrow.

Enjoy your evening!

For Tuesday, December 13, 2011 & Wednesday, December 14, 2011

2011-12-15T19:36:00.015-05:00

Good Afternoon!

For those regular readers who might have noticed, blog posted were delayed to my absence over the last two days.

Activities over the last two days included:

Letter of the day: Mm - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Mm" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Words of the day: "am" and "see"- utilized and identified in the morning messages.

Shared Reading Stories: "Monkey's Miserable Monday" by Valerie Garfield, "The Bear Santa Claus Forgot" by Diana Kimpton, "Mooseltoe" by Margie Palatini and "Abracadabra!" by Brenda Stein Dzaldov and Cheryl Urback (Nelson Mathematics)

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, I'm a Little Snowman, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Journals: Students completed their Keepsake Journal December page. They are now posted in the classroom on our gallery wall.

Math Activity: Data Management- The students graphed a winter scene with the number of like animals and created a pet choices graph.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Monday, December 12, 2011

2011-12-13T13:35:00.000-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Words of the day: "am" and "see"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in both a choral reading and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Olivia Helps with Christmas" by Ian Falconer, "Santa Duck" by David Milgrim, and "Frogs and Turtles" by Brenda Stein Dzaldov and Cheryl Urback

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, I'm a Little Snowman, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Math Activity: Data Management- After a math related read-a-loud about graphing, students continued their sorting and graphing centres rotations. Students continue to work towards demonstrating and verbally explaining their sorting by like attributes. In graphing, students are working towards demonstrating and verbally explaining their graphing methodology by identifying the attributes graphed and utilizing the terms: graph, rows and columns.

Sorting with Bears

Graphing with Shapes

Sorting with Unilink Cubes

Graphing with Dinosaurs

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Friday, December 9, 2011

2011-12-09T19:22:00.000-05:00

Good Afternoon!
Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Ll - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Ll" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.

Word of the day: "I" and "like"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "The Lamb Who Loved to Play" by Carol Pugliano Martin and "L is for Loving" by Ken Wilson Max

Poems/Songs:   What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, I a Little Snowman, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Music:   The class practiced for our upcoming Christmas Concert.

Science Art: We finished our birds with students adding the feather wings. The birds were sent home today in their nests made during Scientist in the Schools.

Math Activity: Data Management- Student rotated through two of four math centres. Using either link cubes and dinosaurs or geometric tanagram shapes and bears, students both sorted and graphed by the attributes of their choice. The class will get an opportunity to complete the next two rotations next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

Cookie Baking Day!

2011-12-08T16:46:00.004-05:00

Wow, what a fun day today!

Thanks so very much to the families that sent in items from our wish list to help in providing baking supplies for our special baking day.

A big thank you to Deanna and Cheryl for volunteering to help the students bake today. We could not have done it without their help so their assistance was greatly appreciated.

Food Science: Following our Sugar Cookie recipe, the whole class made up two batches of cookie dough with every student having some part in the process of measuring and/or mixing. Be sure to ask your child what they had a chance to do. Later in smaller groups, each child chose the cutter shape for their cookies, cut them out and decorated them.

While two groups were preparing their cookies the other half of the class played Christmas Bingo with Ms. Stockley. Each child had their own Bingo card and counters to mark their items.

Math Activity: After the cookies were baked. We graphed the shape choices for a tie in to our data management graphing unit. Here were the results:

We enjoyed our baking efforts, by eating our cookies and juice, at the end of the day. We also spread some Christmas Spirit and showed our appreciation by delivering and sharing some cookies with the custodians, our lunch helpers, Mrs. McDevitt and Mr. Russell.

Other activities today included:

Word of the day: "I"- and "like" utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in both a choral reading and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Biscuit's Christmas" by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and "Frosty the Snowman" retold by Carol North

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who? Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Wednesday, December 7, 2010

2011-12-07T19:06:00.015-05:00

Good Afternoon!
Today's activities included:

Words of the day: "I" and "like"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being featured and identified in a shared reading story. Also the basis for a journal writing activity.

Shared Reading Stories: "My Dragon and I"

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who? Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, and Ring-a-ling-a-ling

Journals: Students journaled about the people and things that they like. They are focusing on using the alphabet and sight words posted in the room and stretching out the sounds of the words they are attempting to write and writing the sounds that they hear.

Math Activity: Data Management- We created a class graph for pets that we have at home. We all shared which pets we have and how many of each kind. We learned that three members have no pets and there is a whopping 28 cats as pets within the class members' homes.
Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Tuesday, December 6, 2011

2011-12-06T21:00:00.032-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Kk - As a tie in activity students crafted a kangaroo and her joey stick characters.

JK Kangaroos

SK Kangaroos

Words of the day: "I" and "like"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Kevin", "William Won't You Wash Your Hands?" and "In the Winter"

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who? Christmas Bells, Santa Had a Christmas Tree, and The Sneeze

Science/Health: Continuing with our understanding of how germs are spread, the students listened to a read aloud in regards to a boy named William who did not know how to wash his hands. They then talked about which order cleaning steps occur.

Math Activity: Data Management- The students sorted themselves into hair colour groups. Then we created a human bar graph identifying the math words we used as we went along like: sorting, labelling, graphing, rows and columns. Once the line members were counted, our class graph was drawn.

Our Class Hair Colour Graph

Enjoy the rest of your day!

For Monday, December 5, 2011

2011-12-05T19:38:00.003-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Kk - (JK) Letter Book writing and reading practise, (SK) "Kk" is for personal picture story writing and reading practise.
Words of the day: "I" and "like"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Kangaroo Kazoo" by Wendy Cheyette Lewison and "Achoo" by Mij Kelly and Mary McQuillan

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who? Christmas Bells, Mittens

Word Play Writing Activity: One student's name is used. It is written, its' sounds are stretched out, syllables are clamped, the name is cut up and the student distributes the letters of their name to fellow students. These students then remake the name with guidance from the rest of the class. Then we count it and graph it.
Dina Dinosaur: Ms. Stockley and Dina read "In the Winter" which talks about winter clothing and the order that outside gear should be placed on each student. After reading their books together as a class, the students coloured their individual books and then read them to a partner. These books will come home once students have had another opportunity to read them.

Math Activity: Data Management- The students sorted themselves into boy and girl groups. Then created straight lines beside each other. Once the line members were counted, our class graph was drawn.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Brown Day!

2011-12-02T16:41:00.001-05:00

Good Afternoon!

It was Brown Day today and we had fun doing some Brown themed activities:

- We made foot and hand outline reindeers

- We identified and coloured brown items

- We coloured and placed brown bears in their decending size order

- Each student wearing brown today filled up a square in our Colour Days Graph

Words of the day: "a" and "the"- utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in both choral readings and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" by Bill Martin Jr. and Counting Canadian Glitter Book

Poems/Songs: What a Pretty Sight!, Guess Who?, The Sneeze, Ten Little Squirrels, and Bear in a Cave

Journals/Science: Students journaled about what bears need to live. We referred to our mural and our Bear in a Cave finger poem.

Math Activity: Number Sense and Numeration- Christmas countdown with our Snowman Candy Cane and focus on the number 5 - We recited the number writing poem, practised writing and creating five as well as each student created thier own five dot card for their counting rings.

Hope all our friends that were home sick are feeling better.

Have a great weekend!

For Thursday, December 1, 2011

2011-12-01T19:34:00.011-05:00

Good Afternoon!

Today's activities included:

Letter of the day: Jj - As a tie in activity students crafted jam toast Jjs using finger paint and jello.

Words of the day: "a" and "the" - utilized and identified in the morning message along with being identified in both a choral reading and a shared reading story.

Shared Reading Stories: "Jaguar's Jungleberry Jamboree" by Helen H. Moore and "Bunny's First Snowflake" by Monica Wellington

Poems/Songs: The Sneeze, What a Pretty Sight!, Bear in a Cave, 10 Little Squirrels

Writing Activity: Students completed their monthly yearbook page and name signatures

Math Activity: Number Sense and Numeration- Christmas countdown with our Snowman Candy Cane and focus on the number 4 - We recited the number writing poem, practised writing and creating four as well as each student created thier own four dot card for their counting rings.

Remember to wear some brown tomorrow for the first of many colours to come.

Enjoy the rest of your day!

We have been having fun!

2011-12-01T19:03:00.003-05:00

Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Stockley, the students, and the parents that I have met to date for such a warm welcome. I am very pleased to be teaching here at Adjala Central and look forward to meeting more parents over the next month.

We have been very busy over the last week and a half. Here are some of the activities we have been doing.

We had Scientists in the School visit last week. Thanks again to the parents that volunteered that day. The students had a great time visiting four centres and learning about animal homes and habitats. Continuing with the learning for this science unit, we have started to make birds for our nests made that day. We still need to add everyone's beaks and wings but they are looking fabulous thus far.

After reading more about bears as well as learning a "Bear in a Cave" finger poem, we created a class mural about bears' habitat and preparing for hibernation. Everyone made a bear for the mural and each child worked as part of a group making trees, bushes & berries, rocks & cave, fish, leaves, or the river. Be sure to ask your child which group they were in? The mural will be placed in the hall to be shared with the school.

Each student collected a leaf from the yard and we each placed it in our class bear cave to make it cozy in preparation for the bears' hibernation. Everyone created a bear and placed it in our cave to hibernate as we sang the hibernation song.

In math we have been working on number sense and numeration focusing on the numbers 1-5. We are creating counting cards for a counting ring as well as learning and practising writing the numerals and learning the number rhymes to help us remember number formations.

In literacy, we focused on the letter Hh last week. This week it is the letters Ii and Jj. For the letter Ii, we continued with the letter books. Be sure to have your child read their letter books to you on a regular basis. The corresponding letter craft for this letter was an igloo. See if your child can spot theirs? We will be hanging these up as a display.

In Health we are focusing on germs and ways to stay health like covering our mouths with our elbows and washing our hands well. We read "Flea's Sneeze" and we have been practicing sneezing and coughing into our elbows with the poem "The Sneeze". Please encourage your child to practice the cough/sneeze into to their elbow technique when the need arises.

I look forward to giving you an insight into our kindergarten world throughout the year.

Have a great evening!

Introducing Our Class Blog!

2011-11-29T23:03:00.001-05:00

Welcome! To start December off, I would like to welcome you to our new class blog. My goal is to post each school day. This way, if you check the blog, it will be a great starting point for discussions with your child about their school experiences.

Often parents are faced with a conversation that goes something like this...

Parent: "How was your day at school?"
Child: "Fine."
Parent: "What did you do to day?"
Child: "Nothing much."

Research shows that there is a link between a young child's exposure and use of oral language and their ability to use language in reading and writing skills. Thus it is my hope that this blog will provide parents with lots of discussion starting points for conversations. Some examples of discussion points after reading the daily blog entry could then go something like this ...

"So I read that your class heard the story of "The Cat in The Hat" today, what was your favourite part?"
"I understand that you wrote a story in your journal today about your favourite wintertime activity. Tell me about your story."
"You went on a shape hunt in the classroom today. Tell me about the shapes that you found."

Hopefully with the added daily activity knowledge provided by this blog, it will enable longer and richer dialogues between parents and children about their day. Not to mention, that it informs parents about the curriculum being covered in the class.

Blog Features

Besides the daily posting, there will be some additional features which I hope will prove useful. If you check out the side bar at the top you will see our welcome message. Next, I have placed some useful links. Further down the column, I will list food we have tried and will be adding to it as the year progresses. I will be sure to introduce new features in post entries as they are added. If you have any suggestions as to things that you would like to see, that might help you and other parents, please feel free to write me a note in your child's communication book or give me a call at the school. You will notice that I do not have any email or comment links on this blog as I feel it is important to maintain current home and school communication practices.

I am very excited about this new venture. I hope you enjoy the blog too!