DrumFit

 

Tomorrow the morning Kindergarten children along with the Grade 1/2 Class will be participating in Drum Fit. Drum FIT is a fun, fast-paced fitness program that combines music, dance, rhythm and learning. I found a sample of Drum fit for Kindergarten and hopefully you can watch a snippet of the program   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmiZS6H5pkA . You may have to copy and paste the url into the address. The children are encouraged to wear very comfortable clothing. The morning children will be participating from 9:45 to 10:30 and the afternoon from 1:00 to 1:45. Those children who have a Meadowvale TShirt are encouraged to wear it. A special thank you to the PIC group for providing the funding for this great opportunity. I should be in wonderful shape at the end because I will be participating twice in one day. 

Scientist in the School

 

What a wonderful experience for the children and myself. I want to take this opportunity to thank Tawnya for a wonderful learning experience and thank the PIC for providing this experience for the Kindergarten children. The children were engaged, they made observations and the learning was great. I was very impressed by many of their responses to questions and their thinking. I am sure we have many scientists in the making. This was a worthwhile experience for the children, parent volunteers and myself. I also want to thank the parent volunteers for their dedication.

 

 

April Happenings in Kindergarten!

A letter will be going home tomorrow about the Art Gallery. They will be coming in to offer the children a wonderful artistic experience working with pastels. This will be occurring on April 4th for both the morning and afternoon classes. There is a cost of $5.00 per child. I have chosen for the children to make a portrait of themselves using pastels.

 

Spring Lambs

 

Both the morning and afternoon Kindergarten children will have an opportunity to go to St. John's in Fonthill to visit the spring lambs. In order to save the cost of busing both classes will be going in the morning. It is imperative that we leave the school at 9:00 sharp. Unfortunately, I am limited to only three volunteers. Therefore, with the permission form letter there will be a place for you to sign for volunteering. I will put all the names into a container and have another teacher pick three names. You will be notified only if your name is chosen. The permission slip letter will be sent home on Tuesday, April 2nd.

April is a very exciting month!



Science

 

I am very excited about Monday and Scientist in the Classroom. Not only am I intrigued about what the children will be learning about animals and their habitat, but I am very excited to hear about what some of their "I wonders" will be.

 

I think once spring is truly in the air, the children will have more "I wonders" then they do at the present time. I bought some pussy willows on Friday and I am eager to hear what some of the children's observations, questions, and I wonders, will be related to the pussy willows.

 

My husband and I went for a long hike on Saturday, to short hills and I was able to find a variety of dried up plants for the children to examine, but there were no pussy willows.

 

 

This week the children will be offered a variety of observations with peeps and what happens to them when they are placed in a variety of liquids.

 

 

 

Easter

 

I want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a  happy Easter.I hope you enjoy the time to spend with family and friends. Please remember there is no school on Good Friday or Easter Monday. Everyone returns back to school on Tuesday, April 2, 2013.

Math

 

I have made a game using plastic eggs where the children subitize the number of dots on one part of the egg and find the matching number to go with the dots.

 

Another Math game is the Easter Bump. I created this game where there are some Easter items with numbers on them. The children roll a die and cover up that number with their maker. If another child rolls that number they can bump off the first child's counter. The winner is the one who has the most counters on the board.

 

 

A little tip about using dice at home. When playing a game with your child that requires dice, it is inevitable the dice will fall to the floor. At Dollar Tree, in the kitchen area, the wall closet to the cashiers, they sell 10 little clear containers with lids. Place the dice in the container and the children can still see the dots or numbers on the die or dice. It is the dollar tree over at 4th Avenue. 

Language

 

The "By Heart Word" for this week is the word "are". This is a word the children need to memorize because sounding it out does not make sense. The children frequently require this word when they are reading and when they are writing.

 

I am amazed at how well the children are using the By Heart chart when they are writing. They love to go and get the word and use it to assist them with their writing.

 

 

The grocery store has naturally generated an interest for the children to write a list. Some of the children are making pictures, others are stretching out the sounds and some are using the flyers to spell the words correctly.

 

 

In Jolly Phonics we will be revisiting the "n" sound. The action for the sound is to stretch out your arms to represent the wings on a plane and make the

n-n-n sound. I try to offer the children words that begin and end with the n sound. Some of the words we will be learning are: nip, nap, nut, net, not, nest, pin, run, sun, pan. The children have also been learning about vowels and which letters of the alphabet are vowels. Once again the emphasis is mainly on the short vowel sounds. 

Science Learning

 

At the science table I placed a variety of materials such as magnifying glasses, pinecones, bark from a birch tree and some other dried plant materials. I unfortunately am not a plant person and do not know many of the plants names or how to care for them. However, a friend of mine has an excellent green thumb and donated the various materials to me.

 

 

 

 

 

I did not want the children to know the names of these things, instead I wanted them to examine them through the use of magnifying glasses and sketch what they noticed. The second part of this discovery centre was I hoped it would generate discussion, rich wonderings, and wonderful describing words. I was amazed at what they noticed and the wonderful sketches that were made in a short time period.

 

One of the JK children decided that we needed to have another board and name it Science Learning!

 

Some of the wonderful sketches are hanging there for all to see. I scribed some of the describing words and wonderings on their paper.

You may not be able to read the printing but you will be amazed at the sketching and work produced. I am very proud of their learning and sharing and the important thing is so are the children!

 

 

 



Science

 

Thank you to the Meadowvale PIC, both the morning and afternoon Kindergarten children will have the wonderful experience of having "Scientist in the Classroom". Our scientist is scheduled to come on Monday, March 25th for both the morning and afternoon. There is a need of 4 parent volunteers for the morning session and 3 parent volunteers for the afternoon session. As a volunteer, Tawnya our presenter will meet with you and discuss what she will need you to do. You will act as the discovery guides at each centre. Some of the centres include:My Home is in a Tree, My Home is in the Sea, My Home is Underground, My Home is to be Found.

 

In the past this has been a wonderful engaging learning experience for the children and myself. The session does take up the majority of the morning and afternoon.

 

A very big and special thank you goes out to the PIC group!!!

Language

 

 

For this week the "By Heart Word" is: in. The word in will be a wonderful opportunity to offer the children with the word family "in". Using the word "in" children learn how to chunk sounds together. For example, "in" is the chunk and if you add a "b" to the beginning the word is "bin". We will follow the same procedure for other words:  chin, fin, grin, pin, tin, skin, thin, spin, win.

 

 

During teacher read aloud for the next two weeks, I want to reinforce the importance of using the pictures to assist with figuring out a word and how the pictures help us to understand what is happening in the story. In order to reinforce this skill with the children, periodically I will cover up the text in some of the stories and have the children use the pictures to assist them to tell the story. Using the pictures to assist with reading is a very important skill for beginner readers. Please reinforce the use of this skill when your child is reading to you at home. 

Mathematics

 

For the next two weeks the children will be offered additional opportunities to work at various math stations in order to represent a set of objects in a variety of ways. Many of the children continue to require additional practise with subitizing. Subitizing is very important to assist with addition of various numbers. The children will have opportunities to create number books. JK's will be responsible to create a number book from 1 to 5, and SK's 1 to 10. They will print the number and show the number with pictures. 

Dramatic Play -  Grocery Store

 

Well the first week back after an enjoyable week off from school the children will be offered mini lessons on how to write lists and when people write lists. The grocery store is a wonderful area where writing of lists becomes a meaningful and useful experience for the children. I have been collecting a few grocery store flyers and receipts for groceries. If parents have some extra copies of old receipts and flyers from grocery stores that would be wonderful.

 

When you are getting ready to go grocery shopping, a suggestion is to have your child sit with you and create the list together. If your child is JK, they can make pictures of items you want and then write the beginning and ending sound of the item beside it. This is a way to reinforce the learning in a meaningful and fun manner. If your child is SK, they too can make the picture but have them stretch and write the sounds that they hear for the particular item. This may take longer to create the list, but it will be a great learning experience for the two of you!

Dramatic Play Centre

 

The post office has been a tremendous success and has provided the children with many opportunities to write letters to each other or to their parents. They have learned things need to go into an envelope and a name on the envelope is also needed as well as  a stamp. However, after March Break there will be a new experience for the children. When we brainstormed what to change it to, it was voted to have a grocery store.

 

 

The children brainstormed things that are needed for the grocery store. I have included a list and perhaps during March break parents will be kind enough to save a variety of empty packages and cans for us.

 

Things needed:

 

fruit and vegetables (plastic)

a variety of cans with labels on them ( please make sure there are no rough edges, I have a special can opener that ensures all edges are smooth).

empty boxes, cereal, crackers, salt, pepper containers, empty yogurt containers, empty egg cartons, empty margarine containers, empty milk and cream containers, and any frozen food containers.

paper bags

little aprons

old receipts

 

 

I have one shopping cart, a cash register, and play money.

 

The children will be responsible to make price tags and signs for the various items, as well as organizing the various foods in a neat manner, so the shoppers can find what they wish to purchase.  Any thing else you can think of would be greatly appreciated. If you wish you may start to send in the materials Thursday and Friday. Then Friday, I can start to set things up before March Break.

 



 



I wonder...

 

The other day we were reading a book called "My Friend Rabbit." This is an excellent book about friendship and there is very little text and the pictures are excellent to tell a story and the illustrations are hilarious. The children were laughing the real belly type of laugh.The day we were reading this story it was raining outside.

 

So after the story I had the children look out the window to watch the rain and tell me what they noticed. There was wonderful discussion, but then one of the children asked why there were not any worms outside in the rain? This one question caused a frenzy of "I wonders..." from many of the children. I have decided to share these with all the parents.

 

I wonder where worms go in the winter?

I wonder if worms have ears? If not how do they hear things?

I wonder if worms have eyes? How do they see if they don't have eyes?

I wonder if a worm breaks in to can it go back together?

I wonder what worms eat?

I wonder how many babies worms have?

I wonder how if worms come from mommies or eggs?

I wonder what worms houses look like?

I wonder if worms have houses?

I wonder how worm babies are born? 

 

 

So I have decided some time in the very near future I will have to buy some worms and bring them into the class so we can investigate and make observations about worms.

Language

 

The jolly phonic sound for this week is the short vowel "i". Some of the words for the children to practise are: pin, sit, ink, pig, tin, dip, tip, hip, fit, fill, bit, fin, and ring.

 

 

The "by heart words" for this week is: fun and to. Many of  the children are using the word fun in their writing so I have decided to add to the list.

 

 

We are continuing with reading books about friendships and discussing what type of friend the character was and giving evidence from the story. This is only taking place orally, there is not written component.

 

 

The reading strategy for the children will be continuing to use the beginning and ending sound to figure out the word, and stretching out the sounds.

Paint Easel

 

Great news! The school bought the Kindergarten class a paint easel. Now the children will have an opportunity to paint each and every day. There was excitement in the class last week and painting was a big hit. I am sure we have many artists in the class. Please remember to praise your child's efforts when they bring home any artistic endeavours, whether it be in painting, pastels, or some of their own creations. I believe in free expression, so each day a put out a variety of stickers, foam shapes and scrap pieces of paper for the children to use to create something they are very interested in.

 

Next I will encourage the children to write some words about what they have created, or write about who their creation is for, or perhaps the steps to make one just like it. I encourage to have the children write in a variety of the centres they visit.