On Monday, we received a zany video message from a button-factory owner who needed our help with her broken button machine! Students had many ideas around how to help this eccentric lady sort her buttons. Students experimented with sorting the buttons in as many different ways as they could. We sorted by colour, shape, size, number of button holes, and by many other interesting

attributes students came up with (glittery/not-glittery, shiny/not-shiny, etc.). The following day, we explored sorting a variety of other interesting classroom trinkets. This was a breeze for some students and caused difficulty for others. Have your child do some sorting for you at home. Leaves or rocks may be a fun thing to sort! Also...blocks, lego, or any other interesting things you can think of :) 

We read the story "Ten Hungry Caterpillars" by Bill Martin Jr and were inspired to make some caterpillars of our own! Students were challenged to create 1 caterpillar that was longer than a crayon and 1 caterpillar that was shorter than a crayon. We had lots of fun decorating our caterpillars. For an added challenge, students were encouraged to try and make patterns on their caterpillars. These were so much fun to make and a great activity to practice our fine motor skills too!

This book also inspired a new fall center in our classroom! Kids are LOVING this. 

We used our new knowledge of drawing shapes to help us progress beyond drawing stick people! Students practiced creating people using many different shapes and learned how to add interesting details to personalize the individuals in their drawings. 

Students began working on our first class book. Over the course of the year, we will make many of these. They always follow simple pattern text and include student pictures, making them a classroom favourite during reading times. Our first book is all about colours. Students each chose a favourite colour and created a page for our colour book. 

We spent some time each day this week talking about where we see letters and numbers in our environment. We searched the classroom and the halls of the school for any letters or numbers we could find. As we learn to become readers, writers and mathematicians, it is important for students to see firsthand where they may use this new knowledge in their world. I encourage you to point out these things when you're out and about with your child. Do a letter hunt at the grocery store to see how many of a certain letter you can find. Talk about what the numbers on a sign are telling us. This will help students to understand that learning about letters and numbers is something that will help them to better understand and interact with their world, as opposed to being something we do just at school. Make it fun!

We continue to practice our observational drawing skills. On our Early Dismissal Friday we sketched beautiful fall leaves and painted them with magical watercolour pencil crayons. Ask your child to tell you how they work :)

Classroom Reminders and Requests:

1. We would really like some family photos for our classroom! I would love to give students an opportunity to share a bit about their families with each other. If possible, please send in a picture of your family for us to display in our classroom. I would like to include these pictures in your child's journal afterwards, so they will not be returned. 

2. Friday, October 7 is a Professional Day for teachers. There will be no school for morning OR afternoon kindergarten on this day.

Have a beautiful weekend! 

Miss Roberts