Blending Paint Colours

 

The students have been learning how to blend primary paint colours to create secondary paint colours. This month is an excellent opportunity with pumpkins all around us in the season of fall. I gave the children a paper plate with yellow, red, and blue paint and asked them to paint a big orange pumpkin with a green stem. The different shades of orange and green were wonderful.

The next day the students used black, white or yellow paper to add eyes, nose and mouth, so the pumpkins now became Jack-o-Lanterns. I have included some of the paintings for everyone to enjoy. No two are the same. We have true artists in the Kindergarten classroom!

 

 



 

I made one orange pumpkin and then the other one I added more and more yellow to get the light orange colour. She decided to write beside her pumpkins. One is freaky (frece) and the other is a vampire (vampir) pumpkin.

 

This student told me everybody has an orange pumpkin and I used the paint to make my own colour of pumpkins. I made six pumpkins I know because 3 plus 3 makes 6. Three on the top and three on the bottom. I subitized to get my answer.

 

This is a squished pumpkin on the ground.

Progress Report Cards

 

If your child is an SK they will be bringing home a progress report card on Tuesday, October 29th. This report card lets you know if your child is beginning, progressing or (IE) insufficient evidence. If a child receives a beginning in the area of identifying the letters and sounds of the alphabet, this means they successfully identify some of the letters and sounds but not all of them. Progressing in this same area, means your child knows most or all of the letters and sounds. Insufficient Evidence, means during my observations and assessments, the child did not identify any of the letters or sounds and this is something together we will work on with your child.

 

At the bottom of the progress report card, there is a comment section where I have added my observations of how your child has adjusted to the routines and the expectations of the Kindergarten program.

 

Parents of SK children will have an opportunity to set up an interview time that coincides with your schedule and mine. All the teachers attempt to set up interviews for those parents who have older siblings in the school first. Inside the report card you will receive a letter and a form where you can state your first three times and dates. I will try my best to accommodate everyone.

 

If your child is a JK, in mid November I will send home a note where you will be able to schedule a time to come into the classroom and observe your child. During this time you are more than welcome to stay for the whole morning or afternoon. Otherwise it may be too difficult for your child if you attempt to leave them half way through the program. Then later, that same day you and I will have an opportunity to meet and discuss your observations and any questions you might have regarding your child. 

Mathematics

This week we will be finishing up with patterning. Most of the SK students confidently create and extend simple ABABAB patterns. Some of the SK students have challenged themselves to create more complicated patterns, such as AABB AABB;  ABBB ABBB; ABC ABC ABC; ABBC ABBC ABBC. Some of the JK students independently created and extended a simple AB AB AB pattern, and a few required a little assistance.

A reminder to parents of JK students, the Kindergarten program is a two year program. This means your child has two years to complete the Kindergarten expectations.

Dramatic Play Centre

The students are thoroughly enjoying the Halloween Centre. They have made a variety of decorations for the centre, bobbed for apples, and made some ghosts from paper plates and cut up paper towel strips. Either on Monday or Tuesday, the students will be given an opportunity to brainstorm suggestions for the centre after Halloween. What happens is the students suggestions for the centre. After four or five suggestions, the students are offered an opportunity to vote on the various suggestions. The centre with the most votes is what it becomes. When the students have reached a decision I will be sure to post the results of the voting. 

Language

The sound for this week is the short "e" sound. I have attached the jolly phonic page to the right side of the blog. Any of the vowel sounds are more difficult for the students. During large group time, I usually blend the sounds together for the students and they state the word. Some of the words we will be working on are:

pen, sent, bed, set, red, pet, egg, elf, fed, end, met, hen, best, get, men, leg, let, wet, yes.

The "By Heart Word" for this week is "me" and the colour word is "black".  In order to review the "by heart word", twice a week I ask volunteers to find a specific word and bring it to show me. This is mainly for the SK students, but some of the JK students are also learning.

In the area of reading comprehension for this week the focus will many be on listening to a variety of Halloween stories and discussing things from the story. 

Things To Do At Home

 

I noticed during observations of the children, that some of them experienced difficulty to identify the numbers from 1 - 12. So I found a fun game for the JK students and one for the SK students. For those students who have difficulty identifying numbers from one to six, they roll one die, count the dots on the die, find that number on the sheet and colour the number. The die would also works well to subitize the number of dots.

Once the students have mastered numbers one to six there is another sheet where the students roll two dice, subitize the first number of dots and count on and find that number and colour it.

I have included the two sheets for your convenience, under the heading Things To Do At Home on the right hand side of the blog. Every once and awhile I will include a little something like this to reinforce a particular skill.
Just a little tip about dice and young students. I always place the die or dice in a small clear container that has a lid. Then the dice do not go all over the place and if the students turn the container upside down they are able to see the die or dice dots. I bought my little containers at the dollar store, I think in the baking section, ten for one dollar. This strategy really saves any frustration on the part of the student or the adult.

For those of you who have an Ipad there is a free app that reinforces subitizing of the dots. It has three levels and will reinforce this skill for your child. The name of the app is Spot the Dots. 

I have just downloaded it to the Ipad and will give the children a chance to play tomorrow. 

Pumpkins

With the trip to the pumpkin patch quickly approaching the students have become intrigued with pumpkins. So yesterday I decided to investigate what they actually already knew about pumpkins. Here is some of their background knowledge:

Pumpkins start out as a seed.

There is a vine that they grow on and the vine is on the ground, not in a tree.

Pumpkins can turn into a Jack-o-Lantern.

Pumpkins come in different shapes, colours and sizes.

There are seeds inside the pumpkin.

Your Mom can make good things to eat with pumpkins, like pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie and pumpkin scones.

Next, I decided to take it one step further to see what the students "wondered about Pumpkins".

I wonder....

Do all pumpkins grow on a vine?

How do they turn into a Jack-o-Lantern?

How do the seeds get into a pumpkin?

What is the stuff inside the pumpkin and what is it good for?

How do pumpkins change from the seed to the pumpkin?

What is the biggest pumpkin?

Why do pumpkins only grow in the fall?

When does the farmer plant the pumpkin?

Can you plant the seeds from inside the pumpkin and will they grow into a pumpkin?

What makes some pumpkins different colours?

I think we will start learning about pumpkins this week and continue into the next week. Hopefully we will be able to find out many answers to the students "I wonders". 

Children at this young age experience difficulty distinguishing between a statement/comment and a question. However, if you ask young children what they wonder about they have no difficulty creating a question.

Dramatic Play Centre

The students have been very busy creating spider webs, spiders, pumpkins, goblins and other creations in order to decorate the dramatic play centre as the Halloween Centre. After voting the morning class decided to call the centre Ghost Town. Some girls worked very hard to create the sign and add details to the sign. After voting the afternoon class decided on the name The Haunted House. Both signs are displayed in the classroom.

 

After school I put out the dress-up clothes that I bought last year from Value Village, garage sales and Goodwill. A special thank you to one boy's Mom from the afternoon class for donating a few boy costumes. If any parents have any costumes they would like to donate for two weeks that would be a wonderful addition to the centre.

 

The students have decided to continue to sell pumpkins in the centre and to also create Halloween crafts and cards to sell. As special things are being created, I will be sure to add pictures of the centre to the blog. 

Reminder about Pumpkin Patch

Just a reminder about the pumpkin patch on Friday, October 25th. Please listen to the weather report and ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the conditions. Rain boots may be a good idea if there has been quite a bit of rain during the week. The trip will continue even if it rains. All the children only come to school for the morning and they do not need their backpacks or a snack. They will receive an apple as a snack. Please remember to have a grocery plastic bag for your child, with their name on it in order to carry their pumpkin home. We do have 14 or 15 parent volunteers and then Mrs. McBurney and myself. There are 27 children going on the trip altogether, which means at the most parents will have 2 children. 

Language

 

The By Heart word for this week is he and the colour word is orange. This week the students will also be introduced to the word family word: at. Word family words help the children to spell many other words such as: cat, bat, fat, hat, mat, pat, rat, and sat. The important thing about word families words is to ensure the students are chunking the sound at and then adding the beginning sound to the chunk. For example, if the word is hat, the students should sound it out as h  at, hat rather than h  a  t.

 

The sound for this week is the C/K sound. The students pretend to have a set of castanets in their hand and do the ck,ck,ck,ck sound. Unfortunately, there is a problem with adding the sound to my blog. I tried to find a solution, and apparently at this time google is aware of the problem and are attempting to fix it. I even deleted the whole section, but that did not help. When the problem has been fixed I will attach the page to the blog. If anyone wants a hard copy of the page ask and I will send one home. However, I believe that after Monday's lesson your child will be able to show you the action and the sound. A big thank you to those parents who are practicing the letter and the sound with your child. Many of the SK students know the letters and the sounds we have learned this far. Keep up the great work parents!

 

The students are beginning to be more confident in sharing their thoughts and ideas about how the character is feeling in the story. This will continue to be the focus for next week, as well as discussing the problem in the story. 

Patterns

 

 

Some of the students are challenging themselves to create more complicated patterns. I have been working with a few students in order to teach them how to name the pattern. For example, ABCD ABCD; or it may be an AA BB CC DD AA BB CC DD. There have been a few students who have decided to create patterns when building with Lego, or other building materials. I have included a few examples so parents can observe Mathematicians in the making.

 

 

ABCDE  ABCDE    ABCDE

I could not fit the whole pattern into the photo.

 

AAB   AAB   AAB

 

AABBCC   AABBCC    AABBCC

 

Lego     AB  AB  AB 

Then the same child changed it to a:

AAB   AAB    AAB

 

She changed it one more time to a:

 

AAABB     AAABB    

 

 

When your child is at home creaing and designing a building, a structure, a painting, or a picture, ask them to create a pattern for you. Investigate patterns at home, for example, when you set the table with forks, knives and spoons. When you bring the Mathematics into your child's home life (not drill and practice) this assists your child to know Mathematics is everywhere, not just something I do at school. 



Patterning

 

Last week the students had an introduction to patterning. Today I placed some different colours of glass square tiles and some coloured cubes to see what patterns the children would create on their own. Three or four of them created some simple patterns but enjoyed showing me the pattern and explaining their colour pattern. Each of the students were able to name their pattern by explaining the colours they used to create the pattern. Each of them were also able to explain what would come next in the pattern. Amazing math was happening in the Kindergarten room.

 

 

For this pattern I asked the girl if she could use the same colour glass tiles but make a different pattern. She told me she could put brown, beige, brown, beige. Then later she called me back to tell me she could put two beige, one brown, two beige, one brown. Now that is great mathematics in the area of patterning.

 

As more patterning occurs in the classroom I will hopefully be able to post more pictures.

 

Just a reminder that Wednesday, October 16th children's permission forms for the Pumpkin Patch and the $5.00 is due. I need these in order to do the final count and for the scheduling of the bus. 

Mathematics

 

The students will be given opportunities to explore patterns. Such exploration provides practice in predicting what will happen, talking about relationships, and seeing connections. Children need to extend their ability beyond simply identifying a pattern. It is important for the children to be able to explain how they know it is a pattern and to be able to extend the pattern.

 

In order to observe each child's mathematical strategy, questions should be posed that reveal the child's thinking (e.g., "How did you decided to...? " "How did you know what came next in the pattern?" "What do you think will happen? How can you show me?" "Does anyone else have an idea?").

 

 

The children will be given a variety of materials to use to make their patterns and then I plan on taking pictures of the patterns created and extended. There will not be any pictures of the children.

 



Language

This week the Jolly Phonic sound is the "n" sound. To make the sound the children put their arms out to represent the wings of an airplane and chant "n, n, n".

If you look at the right hand side of the blog I have included the sheet for you to download and print out.

When working with your child on the sounds, please ensure you offer them the uppercase letter and the lowercase letter, since many of the combinations are different and may confuse your child.

For the SK children you could write out the words on cards and stretch out the sounds and have your child state the word. Some of the words we will be working on are: nap, nut, not, net. I want the students to realize sometimes the sound may be at the end of the word so we will be working on: tan, tin, man, ten, men, can, pen, run, ran.

In reading the focus will be on "how does the character feel?" The beginning of the strategy will be to focus on stating how the emotion the character is experiencing. The second part of the strategy will be for the students to give evidence to prove their thinking. For example, the student may use the picture to explain his/her thinking or sometimes he/she may give a phrase they heard or a word from the story. Offering evidence to prove his/her thinking about a story allows the child to demonstrate they comprehend what is occurring in the story.
When reading aloud to your child at home, stop at various parts of the story and ask your child how the character is feeling and how they know this.

Train Set

I have placed out the train set for the students to use over the next two week period. The students will be challenged to use the train set and track and at the same time create a village for the train to go around. It will be interesting to see what the students will create in order to make it appear more real.

A big emphasis will be placed on turn taking, working as a team and listening to each others suggestions. I am hoping to be able to post some pictures of some of the creations in the next couple of days.

If anyone has any books about trains that the Kindergarten class could borrow that would be wonderful. Be sure to have your child's name written inside the book. Also, any pictures of trains, or a calendar that shows different trains would be appreciated.

Wonderful Learning in Kindergarten

Our wonderful parent group provided apples for the children in both classes to eat and enjoy on Monday, October 7th. There were many apples left over, so Thursday, October 10th in the morning I brought in my slow cooker and decided I would make applesauce and the children could enjoy this during snack.

After morning announcements I asked the children if they noticed a different type of smell in the classroom and to try to describe the smell.

A few of the children described it as good, a food, delicious. Then a few others stated: "it smells like raisin toast", "cinnamon", or "apple pie".

One of the girls suggested "we should track the smell to find out where it is coming from". One of the boys suggested, "we should check all the snack bags to find out which one has that smell".

Fabulous problem solving suggestions from the kindergarten students.

There were only a few students who took the challenge to taste the homemade applesauce.

Artists in the Making

 

 

At the creation centre last week, I placed a picturesque photo of autumn leaves and the reflection of the scene in the water. Next, I put out a variety of colours of paint. The students were asked to be artists and create the same scene with the use of paints. Those who participated at the centre did an amazing job. When working on the creation, one of the boys commented,"one day we may be very famous artists!"

 

 I have included the sample photo and some of the Artistic Creations for your enjoyment and pleasure!

 

 

 

This is the photo placed at the Creation Centre.

 

 

Here are some of the children's creations from the scene. This was a free choice activity.

 



Mixing Colour and Shades of Colour

 

 

During the last two weeks when painting, I have heard comments from the children such as:

-look I made purple when I put red and blue together

-I made orange with red and yellow

There were other colour discoveries too. Then one girl commented: I wonder how I can get the purple to be lighter and a boy wanted the orange to be darker. I explained to the children there were different shades of many colours. I pulled out one of the purple paint chip cards. The children examined it for awhile and asked how these colours were made.

 

This little learning experience caused me  to think about how there are so many different shades of colours in the environment and in the classroom. This week at the creation centre the children will be offered three different colours of paint and see what the children do with the paint and examine all the different shades of one colour they are able to create. It will be interesting to see where the learning takes them and what they wonder and learn from the activity. I love when the children help me to design the learning experiences!

 



Character Education

 

On October 4th,  the whole school had an assembly to kick off our Character Education. This program consists of six pillars, and each pillar is a different colour and a different character trait.

The first pillar is Responsibility and the colour is green. All the children and staff at Meadowvale School have been divided into a different pillar and colour.

 

When the school has pillar days, and when there is a character trait assembly, the children are encouraged to wear their colour. T-shirts are going to be ordered for the children. A form will be sent home and you are asked to give the size of T-shirt your child will need.

 

Each time there is a spirit day or an assembly, I will try my best to email parents and to put the notification on the blog.

 

A note will be coming home on Monday with your child's name and the pillar name and colour they are in. If you have any questions about this program, I will try my best to answer them.

 

In class, the children will be complimented when they demonstrate responsibility through their actions and behaviour. 

Language

 

As a large group, we review the jolly phonic sounds we have learned so far. This activity is very short and takes about two minutes. A volunteer comes to the front of the class, tells the class the letter and then does the sound and the action. The children love this activity because they feel they are the teacher.

 

This week the children will be introduced to the "p" sound. Each day I stretch out sounds of simple three or four letter words and ask the children to attempt to tell me the word I have made. This strategy (known as phoneme segmentation) assists the children to understand that words are made up of sounds and readers put the sounds together to figure out words.

 

You can assist your children in this area by stretching out the sounds of some of the following words and asking your child to state the word. I am including a few of the simple words we will be working on this week:   pig, pan, pot, pat, pet, pit, pen,pop, peg, pup. At this time, the main focus in on the short vowel sounds.

 

Another focus in the language area will be working on "rhyming words". Students who are phonemically aware are able to identify and form rhyming words. Example: Do these words rhyme? fun-fan,  pig-wig, cheer-year, bread-seed.

 

The By Heart word for this word is "am" and the colour word "blue".



Update to Blog

 

On the right side of the blog, you can now download the new sound each week. You will find the sound under the heading "Jolly Phonics". Also, I have included another heading on the right side of the blog: Items to be returned. So when things are due to be returned to school I will included these items on the blog. I hope everyone will find the new additions helpful reminders.