This week in kindergarten, we talked about the letter H. Students thought of many spooky things beginning with this letter and found it much easier to print than M. Although we focus on one letter per week, we are constantly talking about all of the alphabet letters and learning how to use them to sound out simple words. I find that emphasizing one particular letter each week allows students who are not yet familiar with all of their letters, to feel successful and confident.

I would highly encourage you to talk about letters and words with your child at home. Finding random times in the day for word play is a fantastic way to practice and master beginning reading and writing skills. Play games and ask questions while driving around in the car, "What is the first letter you hear in the word HHHOUSE?"  When they can confidently name the first letters of these words, try asking them, "What is the last sound you hear in the word TOP?" "Can you think of a word that rhymes with CAT?" 

We learned that pictures, as well as words, are powerful ways of telling a story. We looked through many of our classroom books and discovered that the pictures tell a great deal. We analyzed a variety of work samples to see if we could read the main idea from the pictures students had drawn. Students decided that organization and detail were important for our pictures to be understood. With this knowledge fresh in our minds, students drew about a special family memory and included as many details as possible to give the readers clues about what was happening in their own personal stories. On the following day, we created a small checklist of what was important when colouring a picture. The children came up with 3 important rules to be followed in order for our colouring to look "right." Students reflected on their work after colouring to self-assess whether they remembered to do these 3 things. 

Our kindergarteners worked hard to label their drawings with letters and many students took a big leap in their writing skills this week. All students made an attempt at adding letters to their work. Some students are writing random letters, some are matching initial letter sounds with what they have drawn, some are beginning to listen for beginning and ending sounds, and some are sounding out entire words. ALL of these are developmentally appropriate for this age. Each student learns at different times and in different ways and all are challenged to take the next step in their learning, however big or small that may be. Check out these writing superstars!

We've been practicing a new math game called, Lucky Number. This game helps students to practice printing numbers to 6 on a simple bar graph. Dice games are a great way for students to develop their mental math skills. Subitizing, or learning to recognize small quantities without counting them, is an important step in developing number sense. Try some dice games with your child at home. Do they count the dot patterns each time they roll or are they beginning to recognize and associate dot patterns with numbers? 

Classroom Reminders:

1. Students are asked not to wear thier Halloween Costume to school on Monday.

2. Please label mittens, gloves and toques with your child's name or initals. 

As always, thank you so much for taking the time to read about and engage in your child's learning. These early skills are fundamental and so very important for your child's success later on. 

Miss Roberts

We learned about the letter M! With each new letter, we learn an action to help us remember the sound each letter makes. Ask your child what our actions are for P and for M. We practiced printing Ms in our journals and drew pictures of things that begin with the /m/ sound. M was much trickier to print than the letter P.

Many students had a difficult time printing a lower case M. Ask your child to demonstrate their printing skills for you at home. Students demonstrated a lot of risk-taking in their writing this week, making their teacher very proud. Some of our students are now attempting to record words with beginning, middle and ending sounds. For example, MKE (monkey), MJK (magic) and MRZ (Mars). This is a GREAT first step in learning how to write. YIPPEE!!

We had an Occupational Therapist visit our classroom for a lesson on pencil grasp this week. Students loved her finger warm ups. She led students through a variety of finger strengthening exercises by having them pretend to be making lemonade. "First, squeeeeeeze the lemons as hard as you can. We need to get all the juice out!" The kids had so much fun with this and learned some great new skills along the way.

Students were introduced to the artist, Piet Mondrian. He's one of my personal faves. I was over the moon to see some of his work up-close this summer. Not only does his name fit perfectly with the letters we have learned so far, he also makes amazing art! We looked at a variety of his paintings and came up with criteria around what our pictures would need to ensure they look like a Mondrian. We used red, yellow, blue and white rectangles to make our own Mondrian-inspired art. 

With Halloween around the corner, we spent our Early Dismissal Friday talking about what it means to be healthy. Students categorized healthy and unhealthy foods and activities. 

Classroom Reminders:

1. Thank you so much to those of you who offered to be our classroom volunteer coordinator. I received a wonderful website suggestion that will allow parents to sign-up online for a volunteer time slot...GENIUS! If you have your approved security clearance and would like to come spend some time with us in class, please visit our sign-up site: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/4090B4CAAA82AAAF49-volunteers 

If you are unsure of the status of your security clearance, please contact Ilona in the school office. 

2. Halloween Hey Day is taking place on Friday, October 28th from 6:00-7:30pm. They are in need of volunteers! If you think you may be able to help out, please visit the following link: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040a4ea9ab28a31-halloween1 They are also accepting new or recycled toys/prizes for the games that take place in the gym. There is a box outside of the office where you can place your donated items. While we are on the subject of Halloween, I wanted to let you know that our school policy requests that students not dress-up for Halloween at school. Come celebrate at the Hey Day instead! I hear it's quite an event! 

3. We have Earth Rangers coming to do a presentation at our school on Thursday, October 27 from 9-10am. Students will get a chance to see some live animals and learn about why some of our favourites are becoming endangered. As this is a morning-only event, afternoon parents are welcome to bring their child to the morning performance time. You will need to stay with your child during the presentation. If you're interested in learning more about what the Earth Rangers are all about, check-out their website! www.earthrangers.com

Thanks for reading!

Miss Roberts

We were pattern-making machines this week! We learned about how to identify and create patterns, translate patterns (from an action to a colour pattern), and had fun searching for patterns on our clothing each day. Students experimented with patterning using a variety of classroom materials and learned how to use our classroom iPads to take pictures of the patterns they made. The afternoon class became designers for their Early Dismissal Friday and designed their own T-shirts, bracelets and necklaces. Students turned one of their pattern designs into a bracelet to bring home. Have a look for patterns around your house and ask your child to create and extend some patterns for you! 

We worked through our very first math problem this week: How many people are in your family? Although this seems like a very simple problem to work through, students learned many skills by completing this task.

They learned to use pictures to solve a problem, explored how to organize their pictures so that they could count their family members afterwards, and added numbers and letters to their work to clearly communicate an answer. This problem also inspired conversation around how much of our family to include. Some students drew only those who live in their house. Others drew grandmas, grandpas, uncles, aunts and cousins! 

On Thursday, we learned about what it means to sequence a story. Students practiced unscrambling a variety of simple story pictures as a group before choosing one to try on their own. They loved coloring, cutting and gluing their own stories and enjoyed sharing the story they created afterwards. 

Check-out a couple of our new classroom centers! Students are so excited to be making their own books and are loving our colour-mixing science experiment. 

Classroom Reminders:

1. Picture day is coming! Students will be getting their school pictures taken on Tuesday, October 18th. Please return the photo form that was sent home this week. Please put it in your child's folder and send it in on Monday so that we can have them organized prior to picture day. 

2. Winter is here, and along with it comes hats, mitts and many other winter goodies. Please ensure your child's name or initials are somewhere on these belongings. I find random mittens and gloves every single day that no one claims as their own. 

3. I am looking for a morning and an afternoon parent who would be willing to organize a volunteer calendar for us. I will be asking parents to email you if they are interested in volunteering. Your responsibility would be to create a calendar to schedule these visits. I can give you more detailed information if you choose to volunteer. Please email me if you're interested in being our classroom volunteer parent! taroberts@cbe.ab.ca

Thank you for taking the time to read about your child's learning this week. Have an amazing weekend with your family!

Miss Roberts

Each week in kindergarten, we will highlight one letter to help us practice letter formation and become more confident with letter/sound relationships. This week we learned about the letter P. Students practiced printing this letter in their new printing journals and drew pictures of things that begin with this sound. 

Throughout the year, we will also be creating many exciting art projects that reinforce the letters we are learning. We had fun reading many Pigeon books by Mo Willems this week and created our very own Pigeon art. Students were so proud to learn how to draw their very own pigeons and were very excited to practice their new skills at center time. 

We talked about Thanksgiving and had a meaningful discussion around the things we are thankful for. Students had SO much to share on this topic and expressed gratitude for many special things in their lives. Here are some of the students' ideas.

"I am thankful for my family because they help me to grow big and strong."

"I am thankful for my mom because she gives me gentle hugs."

"I am thankful for my stuffies because they help me to sleep at night."

"I am thankful for all of the people on Earth because they make our planet a better place to be."

We then drew pictures of the things we are thankful for. 

On Wednesday, we met Marty the Math Monster! Students had fun watching him count and had a great deal of advice for him around how to make sure that he was counting accurately. We taught Marty that counting things in a clump can be tricky because we could miss something or accidentally count something twice. We learned that moving each item as we count it or organizing things into a line help to ensure accuracy when we count. Kids then showed off their understanding of numbers to 10 by ordering numerals and creating number sets. 

Classroom Reminders:

1. If your child does not yet have an indoor pair of shoes at school, I would encourage you to send in a pair for them to wear before the weather changes. Students are expected to change their shoes each day when they arrive at school. One of our most important goals in kindergarten is to promote independence for our young learners. Shoes with laces make this difficult. If at all possible, please send in shoes that your child is able to put on by themselves. If your child has laced shoes, please take some time to teach them how to tie them. This will give them a leap forward in their independence when getting ready each day! Thank you for your support!

2. If you would like to order any Scholastic books this month, please return order forms on Tuesday. 

3. We continue to go to the library each Wednesday (morning class) and Thursday (afternoon class).

4. AFTERNOON CLASS ONLY: Due to a very over-crowded hallway of very big Grade 5/6 students, we will be once again changing the doors where students are dismissed at the end of the day. Sorry! Our little kinders get a bit lost in the shuffle and we want to ensure their safety and comfort in the hallways. Beginning on Tuesday, afternoon kindergarten students will be dismissed from the doors around the corner in the courtyard (the same doors where we lined up earlier in the year). Our entry doors will remain the same. Just the dismissal door is changing. Thank you for your understanding.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Miss Roberts