Science Experiment

 

It is wonderful to have parent volunteers in the Kindergarten classroom because then more learning opportunities can be explored by the children. So in the afternoon the children were offered with a big challenge. They were to use some materials to build something for a gingerbread cookie to float on so it would not get wet in the water. The materials on hand for them to use were: masking tape, pieces of Styrofoam, and tin foil. All the students who worked with Mrs. P. planned their ideas in the heads and thought carefully before they were ready for the big experiment. "What it work or would it not"? Many of the students were very hopeful that it would work because they did not want to eat a soggy cookie and they could hardly wait to get to eat the cookie. Some of the students told me "this is the best day ever".

I have included some of the photos of their creations. Everything worked and not one student had to eat a soggy cookie. The morning students will have an opportunity to complete the experiment tomorrow (Thursday).

 



Anti-Bullying Day

Wednesday, February 27 is set as Anti-Bullying Day. In order to show that we care about this huge issue of bullying, all the students and teachers are encouraged to wear pink in support of Anti-bullying day. If your child does not have a pink shirt, perhaps you could buy a cheap white T-shirt at a thrift store or Old Navy and dye it pink.

 

First thing in the morning there will be an assembly regarding Anti-bullying and what it means. The students will learn a bully is and what to do if someone bullies them. Let's try our very best to stamp ou bullying from all schools and all over the country of Canada!

 

Pink shirt day comes from two high school students in Nova Scotia who decided to take a stand against bullying.

 

Your child can support this special campaign to stamp out bullying by wearing a pink T-shirt, pink shirt or pink sweater. It would be wonderful during the assembly to see a gym filled with pink!

 



 



 



Language

 

The jolly phonic sound for this week is the S s sound. Please review the letter, sound and action with your child. Some of the words I will use in sentences during the week are:  sad, say, set, sum, son, sat, sit, saw, see, said, sky, sob, six, sell, sick, sap, sled, sank, sang.

 

 

The By Heart Words for this week are: be and up.

 

The word family is ug family using such words as:

bug, dug, hug, lug, mug, pug, rug, tug, jug, drug, chug. 

Evidence of Thinking Mathematically

 

The students are becoming very familiar with graphing and explaining what the graph shows us. Many of the students understand we have to count the two categories to find out which has the most and which has less. They are very comfortable with a number being more or higher than another number, or being lower or less than a number.

 

Then we moved onto proving our mathematical thinking. The students were asked how they knew one number was bigger, higher or larger than another. I am amazed at their mathematical explanations and thinking. I have a number of examples below for you to view. Remember we are talking about 4 and 5 year old students.

 

 

In one of the examples one category had 10 and the other had 6. One of the girls explained she knew 10 was a bigger number because it was a two digit number and 6 is only a one digit number, and two digit numbers are more than one digit numbers.

 

When there were 8 and 4 one of the boys explained, 8 is more because it takes 4 and then 4 more to make 8 but 4 is just 4.

 

Another boy explained it as, when I count I say 4 but then I count more for 8 because I say 5, 6, 7 and 8.

 

Another boy explained it as, 8 is more than 6 because there is 7 in the middle of 6 and 8 and I have to add one more to 6 to get to 7 and then one more to 7 to get to 8.

 

 

Another student added so that means that 8 is 2 more than 6.

 

 

Excellent mathematical thinking and explanations are happening in the Kindergarten classroom. 

Jolly Phonics

 

In the jolly phonics program there are the long vowel sounds and some of the blends. I feel the long vowel sounds are more for grade 1. When I taught grade 1 they were not introduced to the long vowel sounds until January. Since we have finished all the consonant and short vowel sounds in the jolly phonics program it is now time to review them.  We will begin next week February 24th with the letter and sound s. I have posted the sound page for you to download if you wish to do so.
You can assist your child by practising the letter name, the sound and having your child print the letters (both upper and lower case letters). Practise with identifying the letter name, sound and printing will be beneficial for both grade 1 if your child is SK and Senior Kindergarten if your child is now a JK. Thank you for assisting your child in their education.

Light Table

 

 

Many of the ELKP (full time kindergarten programs), have a light table. These are very expensive, so instead of a light table I decided to bring an overhead projector into the classroom and added some 2D shapes for the students to use to create various designs and creations. Some of the students created puzzles and pointed out on the whiteboad the place they wanted their partner to place the next shape. Others created rocketships and wonderful designs.

The students work with a partner and work as a team to create something. They create their design on the overhead and it is projected onto the whiteboard in the classroom.

This has been a wonderful new centre and there have been a few times where the students have lined up waiting for a turn at the light centre. I have included just a few pictures to show everyone what the students have created.

 

 



Mathematics

 

In the area of Math the students will be introduced to data management, mainly graphing. The students will be asked to choose something they like better between two things. For example: "What do you like better cats or dogs." Then each student will choose which one they prefer and place their name in the graph chart either under the picture of the cat or the dog. Then they will be asked what they notice about the graph. The students are expected to be able to orally explain that one of the groups has more or less than the other. They will then be challenged to explain how they know.