Kindergarten Writing

 

I am thrilled with the writing that has been happening in the Kindergarten classroom. There are many JK children who eagerly demonstrate a desire to write almost every day, which is very exciting to me. The JK children are usually writing about one sentence, when I assist them. What happens is the children make a detailed illustration of their story first. Then they tell me their sentence and I count for them the number of words they have in the sentence. Then I stretch out the sounds of the word for the children and they write the letters to match the sounds. The only words I insist they spell correctly are the By Heart Words, otherwise the words are spelled phonetically. Research shows that if children think they have to spell every word correctly they will not but quality into the writing and will not have to desire to write. If your child wishes to write at home, just stretch out the sounds for them. There are some SK's who are beginning to write and they are independently stretching out the sounds and writing the letters to match the sounds. These children are definitely getting ready for grade one.

 





Language

 

The jolly phonic sound for this week is the "m" sound. Some words we will focus on are:  map, mat, man, men, met, mist, miss, mop, mud, mom, mug, much, mad. I have to thank many of the parents for assisting your child with the sounds at home. It is very evident that you have been working hard with your child because most of the SK children know most of the sounds and many of the JK children are very aware of the sounds. Both groups experience some difficulty with the short vowel sound, especially the short "e" and "i" sounds. But with continued practise they will master these sounds too.

 

The By Heart Word for this week is the word "they", mostly because this word seems to be appearing in many of the books for the SK children and also the children often require this word for their writing. Since many of the JK and SK children love to get the word from the By Heart Wall to help them when writing, I thought it may as well become one of the words.

 

This week we will continue with reading nonfiction text to learn and attempt to answer some of the children's wonderings about giraffes.

 

 



 

Kindergarten End of the Year Trip

 

I have booked the end of the year trip for the Kindergarten children. Both the morning and afternoon children will be going together. There is no limit on the number of volunteers. The cost for the children is $6.00 per child and $2.00 for volunteers.

 

The date of the trip is Tuesday, June 18th and we will be leaving the school at 9:00 a.m and then returning back to the school at approximately 2:30. The children will need a snack and a lunch for the trip. The place we will be going is to Heartland Forest in Niagara Falls.

 

The following are some of the details regarding the trip. We will be breaking into 4 groups and a variety of stations to rotate through.

 

1. Guided forest hike with a staff member from Heartland Forest and a stop at the pond to look at tadpoles.

 

2. Scavenger Hunt - instructions will be included this is school provided supervision.

 

3. Art station - school supervision

 

4. Mini putt   - school supervision

 

5. Playground - school supervision

 

6. Train ride - Heartland Forest staff and school supervision is also required.

 

 

The first week in June there will be a permission form and more details about the trip being sent home with your child. This will be a new experience for the Kindergarten children and Meadowvale School.

 

New I Wonder Topic

 

This week the children learned a variety of things about birds, such as they take about a day to make the nest, items used to make a nest, how the feathers help them, how long it takes for a baby bird before the egg hatches.

 

So the morning children had some new I wonder questions which were: How long can a zebra stand?

How long does a giraffe's tail get to be? Where do giraffe's live? How long do giraffe legs grow? How long does a giraffe's neck grow to be?

 

Due to all the questions about giraffe's it looks like I will be going to the library to find books about giraffe's so we can find some answers to their wondering's.

 

I am truly amazed how thoughtful many of their wondering's are becoming. 

Marble Painting

I wanted the children to have the experience of a different form of painting. So I saved two big used pizza boxes from pizza day and aired them out. Then I placed the child's white paper inside the pizza box. Next I used red, blue and yellow tempra paint and each child demonstrated which colour blob they wanted first, second and third. Finally one marble was placed inside each paint blob and the child was instructed to shake the box back and forth as much as they wanted. All the children loved the new experience and many of the teachers commented about the wonderful painted creations and asked how they were done. I have decided to include a few for everyone to admire. Today each child wrote about what their marble painting looked like to them.



Language

 

The jolly phonic sound for this week is the "r" sound. Some of the words include: rag, run, red, rat, rug, ram, rock, rot, ran, rim, rig, rad, ring, rang, rink, rip, rack and rub.

 

The By Heart word for this week is saw.

 

 

Over the next two weeks the children will be learning about rhyming words. This is difficult for some of the children. First they will be asked to identify some rhyming words, then they will be given a word and give a word that rhymes with it. The song "Down by the Bay" is an excellent introduction to rhyming. For example, Did you ever see a bear, combing his hair?

 

This week I plan to read a variety of nonfiction books about birds and robins in order to see how many of our "I wonder" questions we can find answers to. The questions and answers will eventually be posted on chart paper for everyone to see.

 



Volunteer Lunch

 

Just a reminder to all parents who have volunteered either in the Kindergarten classroom or the school as a whole. Thursday, April 25 at 12:50, there is a luncheon planned as a special thank you for all volunteers. This is the schools way to thank you for everything you have done for the classroom, the teacher, the children and the school as a whole. We want you to know all the time you have dedicated to assisting our school is greatly appreciated! If you have not sent in your notice please do so Monday morning.

I want to take this time to sincerely thank all the parents who have volunteered in the Kindergarten class. All the children and myself have greatly benefited from the time you have dedicated to our classroom!