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I hope you all had a restful and relaxing Christmas break! We are very excited to be back at Georges Vanier and to be reunited with all of our Puffin friends. Mrs. Gogo, Mme Leveque and I are so proud of how well everyone did with their transition back to school. The Puffins have officially become experts with following simple rules and routines in our classroom! Today, the children got right back into the swing of things and had an opportunity to go on a shape hunt around our school. They learned how to use "Padlet" (an online bulletin board that students can access with the I pads) and document and record their discoveries. The children found several shapes throughout the building including: triangles, squares, circles, rectangles, ovals, cubes, cones, rectangular prisms, cylinders and more! Here is a link to our bulletin board: http://padlet.com/MsKRyan/Puffins During our community time this afternoon, we also learned about some 3D shapes and had a classroom discussion about why some shapes can roll or slide. We also discovered that there are many objects that are shaped like a cube and a cone. As promised, I told the children that I would post a picture of these shapes on our website and Twitter so that they could go on their own shape hunt at home with you tonight. Good luck, have fun and I will see you all on Thursday! Love, Ms. Ryan Tomorrow is our school's annual White Elephant Sale. Kindergarten students will have an opportunity to visit the sale and purchase treasures with the help of a Grade 6 personal shopper. If you wish for your kindergartener to be able to do a little Christmas shopping please send them with their shopping money in a sandwich sized ziploc style bag with their name and class (i.e.,Puffin class) clearly printed on the bag. (Quarters, loonies and toonies are appreciated **Please do not send $10 and $20 bills) For parents who are new to our White Elephant Sale there are always items at all price points. They start at 0.25 and sometimes range up to about $5.00. Most kindergarten age students do very well at the sale with $5.00 in change but even as little as 0.25 or 0.50 lets them come home with a treasure. It is a good idea to send a reusable shopping bag labelled with your child's name and class to help your shopper carry home his/her treasures. If you would like your son or daughter to shop for specific family members ( ie: mom, dad, baby sister) please send a "I want to buy for" list in the bag with your child's money in order to help the teacher and grade 6 shopping helpers. Please make sure the shopping list and ziploc bag with their money is inside their note tote (so that we can see it in the morning). We brought some beautiful poinsettias into our classroom this week to inspire some still drawing and fine motor. Curriculum links: Science: 1.1. ask questions about and describe some natural occurrences, using their own observations and representations (e.g., drawings, writing) Health and Physical Activity: 4.1 begin to demonstrate control of small muscles in activities at a variety of learning centres and when using a variety of materials and equipment Visual Arts: V1.1 demonstrate an awareness of personal interests and a sense of accomplishment in visual arts V2.1 explore a variety of tools, materials, and processes of their own choice to create visual art forms in familiar and new ways V2.2 explore different elements of design in visual arts Olivia shared some interesting polar bear facts with me this afternoon. We have been exploring non-fiction texts and are enjoying looking at all of the different pictures of bears in their natural habitats! Curriculum links: 2.1 Demonstrates an interest in reading 2.3 Demonstrate an awareness of basic book conventions and concepts of print when a text is read aloud or when they are beginning to read print 3.1 Begin to use reading strategies to make sense of unfamiliar texts in print 2.10 Retell information from non-fiction materials that have been read by and with the EL-K team in a variety of contexts 2.7 Use illustrations to support comprehension to texts that are read by and with the EL-K team 3.7 Enjoying literacy Science: Demonstrates an awareness of the natural and built environment through hands-on investigations, observations, questions, and representations of their findings 4.4 Questioning 4.5 Observing We have started a new inquiry this week on bears! The children have been busy researching and collecting materials to add to our new habitat. We have also been busy drawing, colouring, and molding grizzlies, black bears and cubs out of plasticine. Our friends are learning lots of interesting facts about bears and are discovering lots of new words such as, "hibernation," "den" and "mammal" that we are currently exploring in class. Ask your child to share one interesting fact about bears with you tonight! Curriculum links: Visual Arts: Explore a variety of tools, materials, and processes of their own choice to create visual art forms in familiar and new ways. Demonstrate an awareness of the natural and built environment through hands on investigations, observations, questions, and representations of their findings. Science: State problems and poses questions before and during investigations. Select and use materials to carry out their own explorations. Language: Retell information from non-fiction materials that have been read by and with the EL-K team in a variety of contexts. Use prior knowledge to make connections to help them understand a diverse range of materials read by and with the EL-K team. Matches spoken words with written words. The children have also been learning how to scan QR codes, explore and "read" non-fiction books, and listen to some educational videos on I pads about grizzlies, black bears and polar bears. Ask your child to share one interesting fact about bears with you tonight! The snow inspired us to create some winter wonderland trees this week! We painted and collected the sticks ourselves. Our new display looks great! Curriculum links: .Demonstrates an awareness of themselves as artists through engaging in activities in visual arts .Uses a variety of art materials for tactile experiences and exploration .Use problem-solving skills and their imagination to create visual art forms Lots of authentic writing happening in room 141! The children have been exploring new sight words around our classroom and have been busy writing and matching words that they have recently learned or discovered. Our journal club has also been a huge hit, as the children continue to do some story writing and drawing with our new and popular "smelly" markers. I wonder what stories will be shared with us this week? Curriculum links: 4.1 Demonstrate an interest in writing 4.2 Demonstrate an awareness that writing can convey ideas or messages 4.3 Write simple messages using a combination of pictures, symbols, knowledge of the correspondence between letters and sounds (phonics), and familiar words 4.2 Begin to use classroom resources to support their writing 4.5 Experiment with a variety of simple writing forms for different purposes and in a variety of contexts 4.6 Communicate ideas about personal experiences and/or familiar stories 3.14 Beginning to write letters of the alphabet and some high-frequency words We have been busy making a classroom number line! Brendan, Mallory, Declan and Liam worked hard at sorting all of our numbers and placing them in the correct order. Our goal is to extend our number line to 100! Curriculum links: 4.12 Counting .Shows curiosity and interest in counting and numbers .Explores the concept of counting in daily activities We have started learning all about Canadian money! With the grand opening of our "Boston Pizza" restaurant, money has sparked a huge interest in the children's play. We have a cash register, a take out menu, and of course our own personalized menus inside the restaurant where the children can list prices for each "appetizer" or "entree." I encourage you and your child to practice naming each of the coins at home. Under our "kinder songs" I have also uploaded some new money songs that we have been listening to in our classroom. Curriculum links: NSI.10 "Explore different Canadian coins, using coin manipulatives" . Explore Canadian coins (e.g., role plays, purchasing items in a store at dramatic play centre) .Recognizes that coins are money and is aware that coins have different names This week, we introduced our students to Chrome Books and Raz Kids so that they can enjoy listening to some of their favourite stories. The children are learning about fiction and non fiction books. After they have had an opportunity to listen to a few stories, they have been practicing how to do a retell by sharing, drawing or writing about some of their favourite parts in their journals. I encourage you and your child to use Raz Kids at home! Please let us know if you have any technical difficulties with logins or passwords. Curriculum links: 2.1 Demonstrates an interest in reading 2.3 Demonstrate an awareness of basic book conventions and concepts of print when a text is read aloud or when they are beginning to read print 2.10 Retell information form non-fiction materials that have been read by and with the EL-K team in a variety of contexts 3.7 Enjoying literacy 3.8 Using and understanding the power of literacy 3.9 Retelling stories 3.10 Phonological awareness 3.11 Letter recognition 3.13 Matches spoken words with written words Thanks to our public health nurse, the children had an opportunity to use the Glitter Bug to help them learn about proper hand washing. One of the strategies they used was singing the "Happy Birthday" song twice as they washed their hands with soap and warm water. They learned that it takes awhile to get rid of all those "yucky germs." Curriculum link: practice and discuss appropriate personal hygiene that promotes personal, family, and community health. We have been practicing our one-to-one correspondence and Declan was able to count up to 100 cubes! Good job! We are also enjoying measuring objects all around our classroom. This week the students were using meter sticks. |
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