Happy Halloween!

Our class joined the Grade Ones for a fun pumpkin carving session! Then, we took a scoop of pulp and seeds back to our room and talked about what we noticed about the insides of the pumpkin. We talked about how it felt and smelled.

We then estimated how many seeds we had gotten in that one scoop. After each student and teacher had made their guess, we piled the seeds into groups of 10 for easier counting and in the end we found out we had 210 seeds in just one scoop!

Also to celebrate Halloween, the students made their own tissue paper jack-o-lanterns. Each face was unique and different, just as each of us is unique and different! Take a look at some of the wonderful jack-o-lanterns the students made with Mrs. Menzies!

Pumpkin Hunt

This past Monday our class went on a little pumpkin hunt! We hid the mini-pumpkins in the yard in front of our school and the students got to come out and go around looking for a little pumpkin of their own.

Once each child had found a pumpkin, they got to decorate them with a face of their choice to make a jack-o-lantern. Check them out!

We Are Good Friends!

We always emphasize the need to be good friends in our classroom, but due to recent tragic events, we have been talking even more about the need to stop bullying before it starts. We observed a moment of silence last Friday and continue to talk about ways to combat bullying. The students in our class wanted to be leaders in friendship and came up with this list for others to follow in order to be good friends.

Learning Board

This is our Learning Board. We always make note of our Learning Goals, which we entitled "What we are learning" and what we need to do to be successful. This is also sometimes called a Success Criteria in the older grades, but we call it our checklist.

As you can see, we have been learning about Seasonal Changes and watching what happens to our tree, Princess Peach as the weather changes. We've also been working on sorting, patterning and the importance of being a good friend!

Please talk to your kids about all the things we've been learning at school!

Poem for week of October 22nd

This week we will be learning about the letter J and making jack-o-lanterns! Here is our poem for this week:

Poem for week of October 15th

Here is the poem from last week. We were learning about the two sounds letter O makes. Students were asked to draw a picture and write a sentence of something special that happens in October.

Leaf Creations

During one of our many visits to Princess Peach and her tree friends we decided to collect some leaves to watch what happens to them when they are no longer attached to a tree. Afterwards, we decided to make some artwork with those leaves. Here are some of the creations:

Building Builders

We have some wonderful builders in our room. Many students like to plan and work together to create some interesting structures.

Poem for the week of October 8th

The leaves are falling down,

The leaves are falling down,

All over our school,

All over town.

As we will be learning about the letter Ll this week, students are asked to find that letter in the poem and circle it.  They are also asked to draw a picture and write a sentence about Princess Peach, our adopted tree!

Poem for the week of October 1st

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent a lot of time last week talking about the importance of being thankful. Mrs. Menzies also did a cute turkey craft with the students as well! I hope you spend quality time with your families this long weekend and remember all the wonderful things we have to be thankful for.

Sorting

We have been spending a lot of time learning to sort in math and explaining our sorting rule. A few girls decided to sort buttons and explained that they were sorting by shapes. Another student decided to sort the toys by type. We're getting very good at our sorting!

October newsletter

Dear families,

The year got off to a busy start! We had a lot of new students coming to our Kindergarten program and because of this our school was fortunate enough to gain another Kindergarten teacher! A few students from each class have moved into this new class and the children are settling in nicely and are all very eager to explore and learn. We hope your children have been sharing many stories of the fun learning happening in Kindergarten with you!

September Recap
During the month of September our greatest focus was on establishing routines. Routines include: entry, settling in with a book and other activities, listening when someone is speaking, raising a hand before speaking, washing hands before eating, cleaning up after yourself, lining up and walking together as a group, and dismissal routines. We have already seen significant growth in a very short time, and we ask that you reinforce our school rules at home.

Mathematics
In the area of mathematics, this month we have been working on sorting. We have discussed how we can sort in different ways such as by colour, type, size, etc. The children have had many opportunities to practice sorting at our math sorting centre. To reinforce these concepts at home, have your child help sort the laundry or sort a pile of toys into their appropriate bins. In October, we will continue to work on sorting and will begin our new focus of patterning.

Letters of the Alphabet
Throughout the school year we will be focusing on specific letters of the alphabet. This involves identifying the upper and lowercase letter by name, learning the sound that is represented by the letter, sorting word cards (begins with S/does not begin with S) and identifying words that begin with the letter. If you would like to help your child at home, send them on a treasure hunt around your home looking for objects that start with our letter of the week.

Friday Folders and Poem Books
Thank you for remembering to send back the Friday Folders and poem books each Monday. We hope your child has been enjoying reading the weekly poems to you over the weekend. Please remember to help your child to complete the short activities at the end of every poem. By the time the poem goes home on Friday, we have worked with the poem for 4-5 days. With your assistance, your child should be able to “read” the poem aloud. Try reading the poem together with your child or divide the poem up into 2 parts, one part for your child and one part for you. Taking the time to read these poems together will get your child excited about reading and give them the confidence that they can read!

Lunch and Snacks
Thank you all for your co-operation in getting the students familiar with their snacks and lunches. Labeling AM snack as #1, Lunch as #2 and PM snack as #3 is really helping! Just a gentle reminder that students should only be bringing water (no juice) to school. Also, please make sure to pack snacks and lunches in plastic, NOT glass, containers! Please remember that nut or nut products are NOT allowed at school! This includes Nutella. Please do not send snacks or lunches that contain any kinds of nuts as we do have students at school with life-threatening nut allergies.

Halloween
​We will be having a very small Halloween celebration in our classroom on October 31st. More information will be sent home on this soon, so please watch for that.

Important Dates:
October 8th – Thanksgiving Day. There is no school on this day.
October 18th – Photo Day Professionals will photograph each child and take a class photo. You will later be given a proof of your child’s photo and have the opportunity to purchase them if you are interested.
October 18th – Curriculum Night More info to follow
October 31st – Halloween Party More info to follow.

As always, thank you for your help and co-operation!

Sincerely,
The Kindergarten Team

October Calendar