Update from Ms. R

Parent/Teacher interview request forms were sent home this week. Please make your 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices and return the completed form as soon as possible.

Please read the "Grey Squirrel" poem/song with your child. This was sent home on Friday.

The Global TV date for PM students is now on Monday, November 8 from 6:00 to 7:00 PM.

Important Dates:

November 11 - Remembrance Day
November 15 - Report Cards go home (SK students only)
November 16, 17, 18, 19 - Parent/Teacher interviews (all students)
November 19 - P.A. Day - no school on this day
December 20 to January 2 - Winter Holidays

News for November 5

News for November 5

This week the classes talked a lot about squirrels and acorns.

The students learned the poem/song "Grey Squirrel". A copy of the words to this song were sent home on Friday. Please read this poem with your child and point to the words as your child sings them.

The read aloud books focussed on squirrels. We read two adventures of "Earl the Squirrel", read about animal homes and a funny book, "Scaredy Squirrel". As always, the details of these books can be found at our companion blog:
http://planet5books.blogspot.com/

In math, the children continued to talk about repeating patterns. The students made "trains" out of unifix cubes. We sorted them using the words "same" and "different". The class also used plastic animals and geometric pattern blocks to explore making patterns. We are working on understanding what is a pattern and answering the question, "What comes next?"

In science, we talked about the different types of squirrels: ground squirrels, flying squirrels and tree squirrels (these are the type we see in our neighbourhood). The students examined acorns and leaves from oak trees, using magnifying glasses. We talked about how squirrels gather and store acorns (they stuff them in their cheeks, and burying them to store them) and how they use their razor-sharp teeth to eat the acorns. Each student took home and acorn to keep as a treasure.

The children learned the songs for and how to write the capital letters, R and N.

The students had a chance to try finger-painting this week. We talked about using their hands and fingers as tools to spread and make pictures in the paint. These will be part of our new display in the hallway outside our classroom.

Global Update

I received an email today saying that the Global TV segment featuring students from the PM class will be aired on Monday, November 8 sometime between 6:00 and 7:00.

Update from Ms. R

It 's been a busy week! With a field trip to the farm and Halloween activities, there was a lot going on in Room 101.

On Friday, a copy of the "5 Little Pumpkins" poem was sent home. Your child already knows the words. Please sit down and read the poem with your child and point to the words as he/she says them. This is great practise for sight word recognition and one-to-one correspondence of spoken words to written words.

I wish all of our families a safe and happy Halloween!

Important Dates:

November 11 - Remembrance Day
November 15 - Report cards go home (senior kindergarten only)
Week of November 15 - Parent/Teacher interviews for all kindergarten students
November 19 - P.A. Day - no classes on this day

News for October 29

News for October 29

This week, the students focused on talking about our farm trip and learning about Halloween.

Almost one hundred kindergarten students from our school went to the farm. We saw lots of animals, learned about how pumpkins grow, harvested vegetables directly from the field, walked through a corn maze and had a hayride on a trailer pulled by a tractor. It was a busy day! A video of some photos from our trip can be found at the end of this posting.

The students learned the letter/sound/action for the letter B. They also practised making the letter with wood pieces and using the magnet boards.

The senior kindergarten students began using their printing workbooks this week. The students are required to use the proper pencil grip and writing the letters from the top. We learned a song, "Where do you start your letters? At the top!" to help the children remember.

The students experimented with using different materials to create patterns. Plastic teddy bears and unifix cubes were used to make various repeating patterns.

Two new centres this week were the water table (where children experiment with different containers, scooping and pouring water) and sewing cards (where the students exercise the small muscles in their fingers and pracise eye-hand coordination).

The class practised the poem "5 Little Pumpkins" using the pumpkins puppets they made. A copy of the poem was sent home for your child to read with you.

On Friday, there was a Halloween parade in the morning and the afternoon for the students to not only show off their costumes but also see the costumes of the other students in our school. We had a class party where the children frosted and decorated cupcakes.

The read aloud books for this week are listed at our companion blog at:
http://planet5books.blogspot.com/

Global News Update

The planned air date for the Global TV segment for the afternoon class is:

Wednesday, November 3 between 6:00 and 7:00 PM.

The segment will be between 2 and 3 minutes long.

Update from Ms. R

The students are starting to wear their cold weather clothing. Please make it easy to find misplaced items by writing your child's name on all clothing, shoes and boots with a permanent marker. Often children may have the same style of boots, for example, and the only way to see to whom the boots belong is to look inside for the name. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Important Dates:

October 27 - Parent Council Movie Afternoon in the gym from 3:30 to 5:00
October 28 - Trip to Round the Bend Farm - morning and afternoon classes - 8:30 to 1:30
October 29 - Halloween Parade and in-class Halloween celebration
October 29 - Lice Check (notice sent home this week)
November 15 - Report Cards for senior kindergarten students sent home
November 19 - P.A. Day - parent interviews - no school on this day