Our classroom restaurant was magically transformed into a Starbucks this week and we've been serving up delicious drinks each day! Our kiddos are measuring, comparing sizes, engaging in polite and thoughtful conversations with each other, constantly talking about numbers, using writing for a real-world purpose AND having a ton of fun along the way. The glasses/pipe-cleaner combo is a headset for the staff working the drive-through and the cotton balls are whipped cream. Kindergarten genius at its finest. 

We dove deeper into our investigation of animals this week. We talked about why animals need homes and engaged in a collaborative art and research project to learn about where our favourite animals live. The discussions, questions and insights taking place were absolutely fantastic. We will continue to work on these next week. 

 

 

Our kindergarteners were challenged to apply their expert patterning skills to a math problem on Tuesday...

I see 6 flowers in my garden. The first flower is red, the second flower is yellow and the third flower is red. If the pattern continues, what color will the sixth flower be? 

This was very easy for some and very challenging for others. Try creating some similar pattern problems for your child to solve at home. Have them use drawing to show how they came up with their answer.

 

Classroom Reminders:

1. We will be having our class photos taken on Monday, November 27th. 

Have a sunny & beautiful weekend!

Miss Roberts :)

With report card deadlines looming, our blog post this week will be short and sweet :)

This week in kindergarten...

We learned about the letter T. We have now spent time focusing on 7 letters (P, M, F, H, A, C and T). If your child is not yet confident with letter sounds, I would encourage you to practice these sounds at home with them as often as possible. 

We worked through a pattern challenge, focusing on creating more complex patterns (e.g. ABC, AABBCC, AABC).

 

We are learning to identify our feelings and shared about times we felt happy.

 

"When I got these new shoes with my mom."

"I was playing in the sand and my brother was surfing."

We learned about how to engage in a meaningful conversation! Students practiced being speakers and listeners and learned how to make comments and ask questions to help keep a conversation going. Have them show off their skills for you this weekend!

Classroom Reminders:

1. Please refer to the email sent from the school about proper attire for gymnastics, which will be starting next week. We go to the gym every day except for Tuesdays.

2. Just as a reminder, morning students go to the library on Wednesdays and afternoon students go to the library on Thursdays. Please return your child's library book on or before those day if possible. 


Miss Roberts :)

Whenever possible, our classroom topics of investigation or inquiry stem from student questions, interests or passions. I feel that my role in all of this is to carefully observe, listen, guide and build upon these interests. Based entirely on student questions and curiosities, we developed some new classroom centers this week. We now have a classroom restaurant, doctor's office, puppet theatre and animal jungle happening in our coatroom. The engagement that happens when the ideas come from the students is AMAAAZING! And look at all this writing! 

 

 

One of the recurring themes that keeps emerging in our classroom is animals. We have a few kindergarten animal experts who bring in interesting facts to teach us every day. This has inspired a TON of amazing dialogue about animals and an obvious direction to guide our learning. On Wednesday this week, students worked in small groups to video each other sharing things they know about where animals live and came up with as many questions as they could about what they would like to learn about animal homes. We will use these student questions to guide our work next week.

 

We learned some new number games this week to build upon our recognition of numbers and our subitizing skills. Subitizing is learning to recognize the number of objects in a group of items without having to count them. For example, seeing dot patterns on a die. We also talk about numbers who hold hands and are close to one another on a number line (the number 5 holds hands with the number 4 and the number 6). We are also learning to identify numbers that come before or after another given number. Do you talk about numbers at home? I would encourage you to integrate numbers into your daily conversations. Look for numbers in the grocery store, on street signs, menus and houses. Talk about what comes next, what comes before. Chat about how many plates we need for the dinner table or how many cookies will be left after we eat our dessert. As always, make it fun!

 

In honour of Remembrance Day, students created beautiful poppies inspired by the artist, Georgia O'Keeffe.  We created our poppies using chalk pastels. Students learned how to use shading and highlighting to give greater depth to their artwork. 

Thank you so much to those of you who were able to join us for the beautiful assembly today.

Classroom Reminders:

1. Next Friday, November 17 is a Professional Day for teachers. There will be no school for morning or afternoon students.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Roberts

We made monsters this week! Students enjoyed creating character traits and interesting details about their monster friends. This was a great activity for practicing our oral language skills. Oral language is an incredibly important foundational piece of a child's literacy development. Students who are able to tell an interesting story filled with details and juicy tidbits will be much more confident when it is time to begin writing such stories later on. How can you practice this at home? Talk to your child! Create imaginary stories. Reflect on family experiences, trying to remember as many details as you can. Pause when reading stories together to talk about interesting words you come across. Have fun with it :)

With bellies full of candy on the day after Halloween, we spent time talking about things that are healthy and things that are not healthy for our growing bodies. Students had fun applying their understanding when they opened up their snacks that day. We learned that treats are okay sometimes as long as we give our bodies plenty of healthy things in between. 

 

Our super smart little kinders worked through their very first math problem this week: How many towers can you build using 1 red, 1 blue and 1 yellow block? It was a great exercise for students to realize the importance of organizing their work and seeing that there can be multiple answers to the same problem. 

 

Classroom Reminders:

1. Order forms for photos are due back to the school on Monday, Nov. 6. Retakes will be happening on Wednesday, Nov. 8. If you would like your child to have retakes, please write me a note or an email (taroberts@cbe.ab.ca) so I can ensure they do not get missed on that day.

2. Scholastic book orders are due Nov. 8.

3. Our school will be accepting donations for the Veteran's Food Bank from now until Nov. 10.

4. Our school will be hosting a Remembrance Day assembly on Friday, Nov. 10 at 10:30am. The afternoon class will be reciting a (very) short poem at the assembly. Parents are welcome to attend. As the morning class does not have school on that day, morning students (along with their parents) are welcome to join us as well. 

Hope you're enjoying some delicious hot chocolate under a warm cozy blanket. Stay warm out there! 

Miss Roberts :)