Elf on the Shelf

 

Stella (morning elf) and Rainbow Bella (afternoon elf) wrote to the children on the message to let them know soon she must leave for the North Pole and will not return until next year. The children seem to understand and are fine with her leaving. It is exciting because the first thing they look for is the elf when they enter the room. I wish I could think of something to hook them in January.

 

I am very excited to see that now I have 5 followers. I want to thank all the parents for their kind comments about the blog. I am so pleased everyone is enjoying it and finding it helpful. I love connecting each of you with your child's learning on a weekly basis.

 

 

Just to warn you there may be a few tears in January when the children return back to school after their two week holiday. Two weeks away from the daily routines of school is a long time for some of them and they may have difficulty adjusting for the first few days back. This will be especially true for some of the JK children. 

Dramatic Play Centre    Hair Salon

 

In January the dramatic play centre will be a hair salon. The children will create a price list of the things. I plan on having little containers of water and little brushes to pretend as a manicure centre. The classroom has a cash register and a calculator. Some of the following items would be appreciated if you are able to donate.

rollers, empty shampoo and empty conditioner bottles, a telephone, old blow dryer, old curling iron, small towels, caps, hair magazines, and any other items you may think about.

 

The Hair Salon may be open for a month or two weeks. It depends upon the popularity of the centre. I am hoping some of the boys will want to be in the centre also. I told the boys that men are hair stylist, and men sometimes go to a barber and some go to a hairdresser. I told the boys they could go in and have a shave, using tongue depressors. If the centre is not popular with the boys then they can choose the next centre.

Benefits of Dramatic Play Centre

 

It is more than just play!

Role Playing – This is where children mimic behaviors and verbal expressions of someone or something they are pretending to be. At first they will imitate one or two actions, but as time progresses they will be able to expand their roles by creating several actions relevant to the role they are playing.

Use of Materials/Props – By incorporating objects into pretend play, children can extend or elaborate on their play. In the beginning they will mainly rely on realistic materials. However, if no scissors or combs are available in the centre the children will use their fingers and hands to represent these materials.

Pretending/Make-Believe – All dramatic play is make-believe. Children pretend to be the mother, fireman, driver, hairdresser, barber etc. by imitating actions they have witnessed others doing. As the use of dramatic play increases, they begin to use words to enhance and describe their re-enactments. Some children may even engage in fantasy, where the situations they are acting out aren’t pulled from real-life experiences.

Attention Span/Length of Time – As the children grow, develop, and experience more, they will be able to incorporate additional actions and words, which will lengthen the time they engage in such activities.

Social Skills/Interaction – Dramatic play promotes the development of social skills through interaction with others, peers or adults. As children climb the social skill ladder of development through play, they will move from pretending at the same time without any actual interaction, to pretending that involves several children playing different roles and relating to each other from the perspective of their assigned roles.

Communication – Dramatic play promotes the use of speaking and listening skills. When children take part in this type of play, they practice words they have heard others say, and realize that they must listen to what other “players” say in order to be able to respond in an appropriate fashion. It also teaches them to choose their words wisely so that others will understand exactly what it is they are trying to communicate.

 

 



Math

 

The children will continue with measurement in the area of math. After measuring with candy canes and marshmallows last week many of the children said, "I never knew that math could be so much fun.

 

We will also continue working on ten frames, by examining "how many are on the ten frame", and also "how many empty spaces are on the ten frame". The children at this young age require lots of practise with subtizing rather than counting one by one. If there are able to subtize they will be able to develop other mathematical strategies in later years to assist them with addition.

Language

 

For the last week of school before the holidays, the children will listen to a variety of Christmas stories that will hold their interest. They will be encouraged to think about "what the problem is in the story" and the "solution". The teacher read aloud offers the children with opportunities to orally share their thinking about the story and to think about the clues in the story that assisted their thinking. We will begin with "Franklin's Christmas Gift" and of course a favourite of mine will be one of the "David" books by David Shannon.

 

The "By Heart Words for this week are two words "mom" and "dad". These words are good choices since the children will be finishing up their Christmas presents and making cards for their parents this week.

 

 

 

Exciting News

 

 

I am so excited because I have two new followers, which means I am up to five followers now. Just so you know I will not be posting anything onto the blog during the Christmas break because I have promised my husband I will not do any computer work during the holidays. After all a promise is a promise!



Little Elf on the Shelf Update

 

It doesn't matter if it is Stella Elf or Rainbow Bella, they sure are tricky little elves. Not only do they move every night when there is nobody in the room, they have begun to play little tricks with some of the things in the classroom.

One day Stella Elf took the morning message and hid it behind the big blue container that holds all the trains.

Another day Rainbow Bella crossed out Love Mrs. Foote on the message and wrote Love Rainbow Bella.

Then on Friday, Stella and Rainbow Bella took the children's name tags and hid them. Everyone looked all over the classroom and they were never found. Now that means the SK's and the JK's must sign their name or part of their name in the book everyday! Perhaps this was the Elf's sneaky way of having all the children learn to practise printing their names.

I wonder what sneaky little tricks those elf's have up their sleeves for this week and the last week. I will be sure to keep everyone updated.

Every morning and afternoon when the children come into the room the first thing they do is look for their little elf and are very excited when they find her.

Even though all the children voted on the names the boys are a little sad that the elf has a girl name. So they have decided to keep the name and now the elf is half boy and half girl. i told the children that once you have a vote and something is the winner there is no changing it even if you don't like it.

I really thought the elf on the shelf and some of the tricks she is doing would prompt some of the children to write to her. But that has not happened as much as I thought. However, on Friday during joy day the children coloured their own little elf and I put them on our classroom door.



Math

 

We will be using various forms of non-standard measurement tools to measure various things in the Kindergarten classroom. To begin with the children will use string to measure each other and to each piece of string they will attach their name. The various sizes of strings will be examined and we will discuss what we observe about the different sizes of strings and why they are so different.

 

The following math activities will be set up as a math station where a small group of children will work at a time.

The children will use small and big marshmallows to measure three different sized paper gingerbread men. After they have completed the measurement process we will discuss which one took more/less and why they think there was a difference.

 

Another activity is where the children will use small and big candy canes to measure a variety of objects. They will discuss what they noticed when measuring the different objects.

 

The last math activity for this week is where the children will be given a gingerbread cookie which they will be able to eat. Then they will place in the large graph pocket chart whether they ate the gingerbread man's head first, his hand, or his foot. Then as a large group we will talk about what the graph shows us and what that means.

 

Another fun activity that will be going on this week is where the children will be designing something for the gingerbread man to float on so he can get across the river without getting all wet and soggy. There will be a variety of materials for them to use. There will be a tub of water for them to test their creation out in.

Next week I have several parent volunteers, especially in the morning so they will be asked to look after this centre.

I am asking for donations of Styrofoam meat trays or other type small trays (like those from frozen foods) and tin foil. I have other supplies that the children will be able to use. For example, wax paper, paper towels, pieces of felt material, tissues, small margarine tubs, plastercine, cotton balls, corks. I want the children to use their problem solving skills to think about what material will be the best to not get too wet and which a design that will float. This is just a fun activity as a follow-up to the reading of all the different versions of the Gingerbread Man.



Language

The "By Heart Words" for this week are: my and pink. I will be taking the word pink to help the children see by changing the consonant "p" with other consonants new words can be made. For example if you put a l - link, m - mink, s- sink, r - rink, w - wink.

 

The jolly phonics sound for this week is the "l" sound. On the message each day I print simple "l" sound words and as a large group we try to stretch out the sounds to figure out what the word is. This is mainly for the SK children, but there are several JK children who are able to figure out the words. At this time I am working to assist the JK children to identify the letters of the alphabet. For those children who do not know the letters, I am beginning with the letters in their name. Additional practise with this skill, as well as practising to print their name would be very beneficial.

 

We are continuing to work on retelling the story. However, for the next two weeks we will be focusing more on the problem that occurred in the story and the solution. Also I want the children to begin to share some of their own ideas of what they would do if they were the character in the story. Many of the stories for the next two weeks will be Christmas stories.

 

 



 

Christmas Concert

 

I wanted the Kindergarten parents to be well informed about the Christmas Concert this year. It is being held at Meadowvale School in the gym December 18, 2012 for the morning Kindergarten children and the rest of the school. The Kindergarten children will be performing first at about 9:05. They will be singing two songs and it will only be a few minutes long. We have been practising for about three weeks already, so hopefully they will not display stage fright. After the morning Kindergarten children have performed their little performance the children in the other classes will be performing. I may take the Kindergarten children back to the classroom during this time.

 

The afternoon Kindergarten children and the rest of the school will be have an afternoon performance on Thursday,December 20, 2012 in the gym at 2:30.Once again the Kindergarten children will be performing two songs and their performance will be first. Then the children in the other classes will be performing after the Kindergarten children.

 

This is a very exciting time for the children and for myself. I love the joy, laughter and excitement the young children bring to this special season of the year!

Elf on the Shelf

 

 

At Chapters I purchased the book "Elf on the Shelf". It comes with a little elf. I typed up a note from Santa's Toy Factory in the North Pole to the children and attached the note to the box the book and elf comes in. I then wrapped the whole thing in brown paper and addressed it to Mrs. Foote's Kindergarten Classroom, Meadowvale School, from the North Pole. The whole parcel was then placed into the freezer for the weekend, and again at lunch time.

The note explained to the children this little elf was sent to our classroom by Santa to keep an eye on all the children to make sure they were having kind hearts and listening to their teacher and their friends. The book explains the elf was sent to their homes, but I changed it to the classroom and all the things the elf would be looking for. The children were amazed and they were all in amazement!

 

 

The morning children named the elf "Stella" and the afternoon children named the elf "Rainbow Bella". There were many names in both classes but after voting these were the two winning names because they had the most votes.

 

The children were advised the elf was magical but if they touched the elf he/she would loose all their magical powers. I also explained that the elf sometimes likes to hide in different spots in the classroom, so when they arrive every day they will have to look for where she is. It was explained that on the last day of school I would have to mail the elf back to Santa.

 

When we were getting ready for outdoor play in the afternoon one of the children exclaimed, "they were sure the elf moved", and a little boy shouted, "I am sure I just saw her move her eyes."  I am hoping they will make the elf pictures and write to her. I am also sure many of the children talked about the elf that is in our classroom and now you know too!

 

What an exciting time in the Kindergarten class. The magic lives inside everyone because the young children bring it out in us once again!

 



Donations

 

Since this is the season of runny noses and sneezing I would appreciate if each parent would kindly donate one box of kleenex to the Kindergarten classroom. I having been purchasing the kleenex so far and we have gone through four boxes already. Thank you for your thoughtfulness.

 

 

I am looking for any christmas craft donations for the children to use on Joy Day! Some of these may be christmas wrapping paper, small boxes, christmas foam shapes, christmas stickers, used christmas cards, used stamps, glitter, various colours of garland, and any other wonderful craft ideas you may want to donate. Please do not feel you have to do this. Today I bought things for the Christmas centre and was amazed how quickly those dollar store items add up. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.

 

I am still in need of empty plastic jars. The children have really enjoyed the science discovery bottles with the gel and shampoo and describing what they noticed about the two different fluids in the containers.

 

Now I want to add different discovery bottles but find I don't have any and am in need of them. The water bottles are too narrow to place the things in and the things don't move as freely. But wider type bottles such as miracle whip and peanut butter as well as these types of bottles work well.

 

 



Math

 

 

The children have now finished up with two-dimensional shapes. We did not have enough time to work on the three-dimensional figures, so this unit will be saved to a later time. Instead we will be learning about measurement. The expectation for measurement in Kindergarten is: the children are able to compare and order two or more objects according to an appropriate measure (eg., length, mass, temperature, weight) and use measurement terms such as longer than and shorter than. The main focus at this time will be length. 

 

The children will use non-standard forms of measuring devices, such as footprints, string, cubes, and straws to name a few. In the sand the children will use various containers to discover which container will fill up the sand bucket quicker and why and which container will fill up the sand bucket slower and why.

 

In the construction area the children will build something and then use various materials to measure what they made and discuss which object took more and which took less and why they think this happened?

 

To begin the unit the children will be given a tongue depressor and ask them to go on a hunt in the classroom to find something shorter than the tongue depressor and something longer than it.

 

I want to use this activity as a formative assessment--to see what the children already know. I will not give them a lot of direction, I just give them the stick and let them go forth into the room to find their objects. As they are working, I circulate and talk to the children. I ask them to show me objects that are longer/shorter than the sticks. I ask them How do you know? and What does that mean--shorter? (or longer?) These questions will give me a general idea of where the class stands as a whole in their understanding.

During share time, I will have the children show the rest of the class their examples of longer/shorter objects. The children will demonstrate how they compared the objects. Hopefully some children will be able to show how they lined the objects up at one end.

Next, we  will discuss why it's important to have the objects properly lined up with the stick and what happens if we don't. We will also talk about the words longer, shorter, taller, bigger, and smaller. How are they the same? How are they different? When would you use them? (For example: A giraffe is _____ than I am. This pencil is _____ than the scissors). We talk about what length is.

 

When the children are working in the creation centre I will ask them to find three crayons that are different lengths and to show me the crayons from shortest to longest. Another day they will go on a length hunt and find three things in the room that are different lengths and show them from shortest to longest and then longest to shortest. I plan on taking pictures of these activities and writing their comments and adding them to their learning stories.  

 

Literacy

 

 

In literacy our "By heart words" for this week are:   is  black.  Most of the children know the word is and it, because these two words occur so frequently in our message of the day. However, it is now time to add the words to our "by heart" wall.
I want to thank all the parents for working so diligently on these words because when we practise them daily the children know them. Most of the SK children are able to find the words on our "by heart" wall which helps them with their writing.

 

 

Retelling

 

 

Retelling is a very difficult reading strategy for the children. Usually they either give too much detail or too little. This is why I have decided this will continue to be the focus for the rest of this month. Some of the stories we will be using lead themselves very naturally to retelling. The Gingerbread Man and these others.

                                                                 

The children will have props to retell each of these stories and this will be another centre.

           

Construction Area

 

The construction area was buzzing, especially on Friday. The children have begun to challenge themselves by adding more and more to the train tracks. They decided to use the little blocks ( a very generous donation) to create tunnels, cities, huge towers for the trains to go through. I was taking pictures like crazy on Friday and could not keep up with the children. Other children wanted to enter the area and I heard some of the children (SK's) saying,"well there are only 4 but if you work as a team and are not bossy (but have a kind heart) then you can come in". Another child stated, "remember we have to listen to each other and look at each other when we are speaking".

It is wonderful to hear evidence of the children taking about some of the lifeskills they have heard and independently implementing these into their play situations. Evidence like this shows concrete learning is truly taking place in the kindergarten classroom!

 

On Friday there were nine children in the centre and only cooperative behaviour and communication was taking place. They were very disappointed to tidy up at the end of the day!



Dramatic Play Area

 

The children have thoroughly enjoyed the Pet Shop and this little area enhanced the children's communication skills and team building skills. All the children were able to self regulate the number of children in the centre because they chose how many children should be in the centre. I heard the children say, "I can't come in right now because there are 4, see 1,2,3,4". They would patiently wait until someone left the centre and then they would go in. This gave the children the responsibility, rather than coming and asking me all the time. I can not believe how much they have matured in such a short time. But we have decided to change the centre, before the children become bored with it. I asked the children what they would like it to be now and they all want it to be a Christmas centre. So we created a list of things that would be needed for the centre and here are some of their ideas:

Little Christmas Tree - so my husband went on the hunt and found two that are 2 feet tall, hopefully the children will find them useful.

Christmas cards

santa hats

ribbon

bows

wrapping paper

little boxes to wrap

little bells

little tiny christmas decorations  - but I want the children to create these

Presents
Snow (pretend)
Candy canes (little ones)
Santa
Santa's sleigh
Reindeer
Christmas stockings

The children were so excited on Friday to see the snow, they are all convinced that it is Christmas now!  The excitement is in the air!!