Drop Everything And Read On Monday the whole school (and many schools in the district) dropped everything and read for 20 minutes.
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After our trip to the Adams River Salmon Run we came back to school and created our own Westmount Salmon Run. The children stuffed and painted their own spawners and made and cut out fingerprint eggs to create redds. We finished up our Salmon theme this week by creating an Information Sheet of everything that they learned.
We had a fantastic day at the Adams River Salmon Run last week and we were lucky to have fabulous weather. What a fantastic way for the children to see what they've been learning about up close and in real life! Thanks to all of the parents and grandparents who were able to come and help out on the trip. Enjoy some of the photos of the day. If you've got some photos that you would like to contribute, email me at my school email (it was on our last newsletter) and I can still add them to the blog. Sally the salmon visited the class a few times this week. She sure grew and changed!
There are lots of skills being practiced during Activity Time. Their fine motor skills - as they build with small manipulatives (such as mobilo & Lego), hold and use a paint brush, a pencil, scissors, markers etc., and manipulate and mold with playdough. Their oral language - as they communicate wants and needs with their peers and with me. Their imagination - as they make up stories & scenarios with cars, and little people and dramatize with puppets. Their social skills - as they practice using manners & polite talk as well as solve problems and conflicts as they arise. Working on salmon theme activities
This week we read the book "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?" by Carol McCloud. The book explains that everyone carries an invisible bucket that contains our feelings. When our buckets are full, we feel great but when our buckets are empty, we feel sad. In the classroom we have been focusing on being "bucket fillers" - someone who says or does nice things for other people. By being bucket fillers, the children not only fill other people's buckets but also their own at the same time. We brainstormed a list of things that we could do to fill each others' buckets. We also learned about "bucket dippers". A bucket dipper says or does things to cause other people to feel bad. A bucket dipper empties their bucket when they say and do mean things. We are learning to be bucket fillers not dippers!! We read some scenarios and decided if they were "bucket fillers" or "bucket dippers". We decided that we want to be a bucket filling class so we took the bucket filling oath. We are working at trying to fill our class bucket - every time someone does something that fills are buckets we put a jewel into our class bucket. Hopefully we can fill it by the end of the year!! At the end of the day we can ask ourselves: "Have I filled someone's bucket today?"
I use a thematic approach to teaching to meet the five goals of the Primary Program. We have been discussing and noticing the changes that are taking place during the season of autumn. Our focus right now is on Salmon as we get ready for our field trip out to Adams River to view the spawning salmon. We have been learning about the life cycle of the salmon. A friend, Sally the Salmon, came to talk to us about what it is like to be a salmon. She started out as an egg... ...and then *pop* out she came. She was an alevin. Notice that as an alevin she has something interesting under her tummy. Ask your child to tell you about why it is there and why it is important. We are looking forward to learning about how Sally will grow and change over the next while and also hear her stories about life as a developing salmon.
We were busy this week getting ready for our Thanksgiving holiday. The children created some turkeys using a variety of art materials, some made cornucopias, and we brainstormed things that we were thankful for. We hope that you liked seeing the Thanksgiving booklet that they brought home. Make sure your child sings you The Turkey Song! Happy Thanksgiving! We participated in the Terry Fox Run this past week. The whole school assembled in the gym to watch a short video on Terry Fox. Then some of the grade 7s led us through a warm up before the big run!
We've been practicing our fire drill. We have done it a couple of times by ourselves but this past week we did one with the whole school. We are getting very good at it! Here are some of the things the children said that we need to remember when we do our fire drill at school:
Look how well we line up!
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AuthorI'm Mrs. MacDonald. Welcome to a window into our kindergarten classroom. My goal of this blog is to give you an opportunity to see some of the things that we are doing at school. Enjoy! Archives
March 2023
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