Happy Holidays!

It is now the Winter holidays! We hope all the students and their families have a wonderful break. School re-opens on January 4th. See you in 2016!

Writing in Kindergarten

Often, the poetry folders will ask students to draw a picture and write a sentence and I've had a few parents ask me what exactly we are looking for when we ask the students to write a sentence. 

Student development varies from child to child. We begin by asking the children to write whatever they can, whether it be to simply draw a picture and accompany it with scribbles or to write any random letters they may know. At this point we are simply trying to get the students used to the idea of writing.

After this, we try to get the students to start hearing the different sounds within a word and to begin writing the letters that accompany those sounds. At this point they will not hear all sounds and will usually only write the initial sound and will omit vowels as they won't hear them.  For example, if they want to write the word "home" they may simply write "H" or "HM".

We then move on to the point of being able to stretch out a word to hear as many sounds as possible and to write them down. At this point they may be able to write the word "home" as "hom" because they are able to hear the H-O-M sounds, but they obviously won't hear the E because it is silent.

Eventually, by the end if SK, we hope to get to the point where students are able to readily write simple sight words and are comfortable trying to sound out unknown words, while remembering to leave spaces between their words! 

Below are some examples of the different ways in which Kindergarten students write "sentences". They are not in any particular order and are from JK, SK and ESL/ELL (English as a Second Language/English Language Learners) students. 

(I was playing in my house and I was colouring.)

(I went outside.)

Fine Motor Activity - Sewing

Sewing is a great way to help strengthen fine motor skills. It's even something you can try at home!  All you need is a hole punch, paper and some yarn or string with tape wrapped around the tip. 

Poem/Homework for week of November 30th

December Calendar and Newsletter

Clothing Drive Update

Huge THANK YOU to the families that have donated to our warm clothing drive for the needy!  There is still time to donate. We are accepting new or gently used clothes (hats, mitts, scarves, sweaters, long sleeved shirts, socks, coats, etc.) until Friday, December 11th. 

Number Activities

Here is a sample of some hands-on activities we do to help learn the formation and value of numbers. Both are something simple that you can even try at home. These activities also helps strengthen muscles in the hand and fine motor skills!

Where is all the snow?

We became really excited by the little bit of snow that fell earlier this week. We became so excited that we decided to make our own snowmen! I guess we got a little ahead of ourselves because the sun is still shining, the temperatures are still warm and the snow has all melted away. That's okay, we don't mind, we can wait for snow!

Poem/Homework for week of November 23rd

Poem/homework for week of November 23rd. The JKs have been spending extra time learning numbers 1-10 this month. As a review for everyone we will be talking about the proper way to form these numbers when trying to write them. This week will be numbers 1-5 and next week will be 6-10. 

Clothing Drive!

Please send in any new or GENTLY used winter items by December 11th. Thank you!

Poem week of November 16th

Poem for week of November 16th.  We revisited the idea of being good friends again this week. We talked a lot about what the characteristics of a good friend are and how we can show each other we are good friends. We even made a class book about our friends, which I hope to start sending home next week. Also, we have been spending sometime talking about the WORD "I" again. We also introduced the word "you", which are both the focus of the homework this week. (*yes, I realize there is a typo in the 2nd last line! Please disregard the "are".)

Class Plant

We have a class plant! We have been watching it for the last month and have been observing the changes. So far we have noticed that roots began growing, have become longer and changed in colour. Also, the leaves grew bigger! We are very excited to continue our observation and wait for the day we may be able to transfer the plant into some soil. 🌱🌿🍃

Poem for week of November 9th.

 We spent a lot of time this week talking about Remembrance Day and peace. Both of these are a difficult concept for children of this age to grasp. Please talk to your children about the importance of Remembrance Day and about what peace means to you and them.

Learning Board

In our class we have a Learning Board.  Together, we list our Learning Goals, which we call "What we are learning" and what we need to do to be successful. This is sometimes called a Success Criteria in the older grades, but we call it our checklist.

As you can see, we have been learning about how plants grow. We've also been working on listening skills,  patterning in math and the importance of being a good friend!  

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

October Crafts

Here are some crafts from October that we did not get a chance to post earlier.

Welcome Back!

Learning is Fun!

Take a look at some of the fun learning happening in our room! A student decided to practice his letter sounds during Free Exploration time, another is practising his building skills, while the third searched around the room for words he could read and then try to spell. Can you figure out what he was trying to write? 

Poem for week of September 14th.

This week we talked a lot about what we need to do in order to be good listeners. We learned to listen and focus with our whole body.

September Calendar

Poem Week of September 7th

Friday Folders and Poetry Books

Every Friday we will be sending home GREEN FRIDAY FOLDERS

and YELLOW POETRY BOOKS.

The Friday Folders will contain any important notes and school information for parents.  We will also be using it to send home student work from throughout the week.  Please empty the Friday Folder and return it to school every Monday.  If you ever need to send a note to school for teachers please be sure to put them into these green folders.

Our class will be learning a new poem every week and this poem will be sent home in their Poetry Books.  Please read over these poems with your child and help them with the little "homework" activities for that poem.  DO NOT do the work for your child!  Sit with them, help them and do it together, but do not do it for them.  These are just meant to be short, fun activities for your child to complete over the weekend to give them a sense of accomplishment and pride in their work.

Our Classroom

Our classroom - Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what our classroom looks like!  We have many fun, inviting and educational centres in our classroom.  This is just a sample of some of the activities the children will take part in while in Kindergarten.  We have an arts and crafts/writing centre, dramatic play centre, blocks/building centre, sand/sensory centre, listening centre.  We also have the science and exploration centre, our painting station, math centre and reading corner. We also have some technology in our room, including computers for student use and a Smartboard.

Welcome!

Hello All,

Welcome to a new school year. I'm excited to have you all joining us for all the excitment and fun of Kindergarten. 

This blog will be used to keep you informed and up to date on some of the learning and fun activities happening in our room. 

You can also find us on Instagram @misspal109 and on Twitter @misspal109. 

No student names or pictures will appear in any posts. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak to me.