This week we went outside and were 'nature hunters'. The children used their scavenger hunt sheets to help them find certain things outside around our school yard. Ask your child about some of the things s/he had to find. It was a beautiful day and wonderful to be outside in nature.
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We love our story "Five Little Pumpkins". We have re-told the story with our finger pumpkin mitt and with our flannel board. We've read it as a big book. But the best was when we dramatized it using our stick puppets. We've been talking a lot about 'being brave' - just like Kerry Koala from our Fun Friends program. The children got to practice this by standing up in front of their classmates and saying their lines. A fantastic job by everyone!! It's always a bucket filler to hear your friends clap for you when you finish!
The students have enjoyed making observations and taking note of things that they notice about our leaves, pumpkins and gourds at our Discovery Centre. They have been using our "Things I notice" sheets to document their observations. Float or Sink - What do you think?We wondered that, too. So...we put it to the test. First we all got to hold our heavy pumpkin and then we made a guess whether we thought our heavy pumpkin would sink or float. Then we put it into water to see if our guesses were right or not. Ask your child to tell you what happened!
Our school took part in Drop Everything And Read (D.E.A.R.) day. We enjoyed our books during Quiet Book Time. We enjoyed a story from a guest reader - Ms. Mabee came and read us a story!
We created two lists - Things We Know About Fall and Things We Wonder About Fall. We went on a Sensory Walk to See, Hear, Feel, and Smell things about Fall. We were able to answer some of our questions about leaf colours. When we came back to class we took a good look at our leaves - what they looked like and their different characteristics. We then sorted our leaves by colour. We discovered that there were some colours that leaves don't turn in the Fall. Our sponge-painted fall trees: The children chose a favourite leaf and used their observational skills to draw the details that they saw. After they drew it, they painted it using watercolour paints, cut it out and then we added it to our class tree. Our tree turned out great!
We did some estimating this week. The children had to make a guess about how many unifix cubes were in each of the jars. How many do you think there are?
Meet Kerry Koala: We've been using the Fun Friends program to help us talk about feelings and emotions. This week Kerry Koala came to our class but she was very nervous. We talked about being 'brave' and how that means sometimes we have to do things even if they are a bit scary. The children helped Kerry be brave by telling her some of the things that she needed to do to talk in front of the whole class. They told her to use a big voice, to stand tall, and to look them in the eye. It's important for children to be able to identify and express their emotions in appropriate ways. Kerry Koala used different pictures to talk to the children about their feelings. Then we made Kerry Koala stick puppets - happy, sad, scared, and mad. We used the stick puppets to show how we would feel during different scenarios: you fall down and scape your knee - how do you feel?; your first day of kindergarten - how do you feel?; Mom and Dad take you for ice cream - how do you feel? etc. We will be seeing Kerry Koala a number of times throughout the year to teach us about feelings, how to face fears, relax, solve problems, and set goals.
Math Problem of the WeekWe have school-wide Math Problems of the Week that the children have an opportunity to complete. The answers are submitted to the office by the end of the week. This week we completed the math problem by acting it out first and then sketching it out on individual white boards. The problem this week was an addition problem about seals on an iceberg. The children did a great job! We acted it out on our 'blanket iceberg' first. Then we sketched it out on our individual whiteboards and wrote a number sentence to go with the story. Tap the Magic TreeWe used the book 'Tap the Magic Tree' to engage in discussion and activities about science and math. It was also a fun book to read! Literature can be a great way to extend in to other academic areas. This book allowed us to discuss the different seasons and what happens to the apple tree. It also allowed us to do some math stories using our own paper trees and plastic "apples".
We have been enjoying our weekly time with our Big Buddies! It's a great way for students to make connections with other children in the school. It's an excellent opportunity for the older students to take on a leadership role and it's nice for the younger buddy to develop relationships with older students in the school. |
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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