We're becoming readers! Students have been so thrilled to share their home reading books with me each day. Thank you for your support with this new and exciting time in their lives. Each week, we learn a new sight word for students to begin noticing in text that they read. We call these Popcorn Words because they keep pop, pop, POPPING up all over the place! We spent some time reading, searching for and creating these words in class this week. 

These are the words we have practiced so far: 

I, a, the, me, be, we, he, she, you

 

 

 

As we begin to wrap-up our investigation of what animals do to survive the cold winter months, students were challenged to demonstrate what they have learned so far by creating their very own non-fiction book. Your child will be bringing home their completed books next week. Take a look at how your child's drawings are (or are not) progressing. Did they add detail to their drawings and show care and attention in their coloring? Are they beginning to use writing as a way of showing what they know? Did they include at least one animal that hibernates, one animal that migrates and one animal that adapts? How confidently are they able to recall facts they have learned about what animals do in the winter? 

  

 

In order to ensure children are understanding the math concepts and vocabulary we have been working on, students were asked to demonstrate their understanding of numbers that come BEFORE and AFTER other given numbers. These will be sent home in student folders on Monday. Please have a look at your child's work and support them to practice these important early math skills if they need a bit of extra practice. Thank you for your help! 

 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Miss Roberts :)

We had a week full of love! Children reflected on what love means to them and created paintings to show the beautiful things that fill their hearts. 

 

 

Students did some writing to accompany their paintings. As you can see, we have a wide range of writing abilities in our classroom. At this point in the year, I am looking to see that children are able to independently sound out words with a beginning and an ending sound. Many are sounding out words with beginning, middle and ending sounds and are combining these words into sentences. Yaaaay!!! 

We made some new friends this week! Children created valentines for our new grade 4/5 buddies. They came to our classroom to read stories with us on Valentine's Day.

 

Classroom Reminders:

Thank you for your support of our new home reading program. Please remember to return the book AND the log book inside of the ziplock bag each time you send it to school. This helps to protect the books and allows us to communicate back and forth about your child's reading. Feel free to write notes or questions to me in the log book. I would encourage you to have your child keep their books for more than one day. Have them read it over multiple days to build their confidence, fluency and sight word vocabulary. 

Have a beautiful long weekend everyone!

Miss Roberts

We had a wonderfully wintery week in kindergarten! Our letter this week was W and students came up with many things beginning with this letter. 

 

We had SO much fun on our winter walk! With magnifying glasses in hand, we were animal detectives on the hunt for tracks and clues of animal activity in our community. Check out some of the amazing animal tracks we found!

 

 

I would encourage you and your child to take a look for tracks around your yard. Please feel free to take pictures and send them in for students to share their discoveries with one another. 

 

We learned about some of the special ways animals adapt to the winter and discovered that not all animals hibernate or migrate.  Some animals grow a thicker winter coat and change color to camouflage themselves and adapt to the cold temperatures. We spent time talking about the snowy owl and created some very adorable owls of our own.

 

 

Our math word of the week was AFTER. Students practiced identifying and describing numbers that come after another given number. Children are learning to do this with confidence and automaticity. Try rolling a die at home and have your child tell you the number that comes after the number that is rolled. For a SUPER challenge, see if your child can identify the number that is 2 more than the number rolled.

Thank you to those of you who were able to support our dance residency by coming to our dance celebration today. Our kiddos did such an amazing job. So proud! 

Classroom Reminders:

1. Due to Teacher’s Convention next week, there will be no school on Thursday, February 15 or Friday, February 16.

2. Valentine's Day is coming! Your child is welcome to bring in valentines to hand out to their classmates if this is something they are inspired to do. If your child chooses to bring in valentines, I have a couple requests:

-Organizing the handing-out of these things is a bit difficult, especially because not all students are able to read each other's names at this point in the year. To simplify the process, I am asking that students sign their valentines with their own name, but leave the "To" part blank. Or write, To: My friend. Each class has 16 students. 

-We have spent a great deal of time learning to write our names with lower case letters, using a capital only at the beginning. As your child will be writing their name 16 times, please encourage them to write their name this way. 

-Due to student allergies, I request that students not bring in food treats for each other. If you are interested in sending in something extra, pencils, stickers or any other non-food treat is welcome (but not at all necessary!!)


Enjoy your weekend!

Miss Roberts :)

A beautiful flower shop has sprung up in our classroom! Children have fully embraced the arrival of February, the month of love, by creating bouquets of flowers to deliver to one another throughout the day. 

 

  

Students were so excited by this that they wanted to spread their kindness flowers beyond the classroom. The afternoon students created flowers for staff, siblings and friends throughout the school and were SO very proud to go around delivering them. 

 

 

To further our understanding of animals in winter, we spent time this week learning about migration. Ask your child to teach you about some of the animals that migrate. There are 3 main reasons why animals will choose to migrate. See if your child can identify all 3! 

 

We spent time learning about the math word, LESS and practiced coming up with numbers that are more or less than another given number. We learned a new number game called Who Has Less? to help us practice this new skill. 

Our letter of the week was E. These short vowel sounds all sound so similar! Children are learning to hear the subtle differences between each.

Classroom Reminders:

1. Wednesday, February 7 is Winter Walk Day!  This is a Canada-wide initiative to celebrate winter while promoting the year-round health benefits of walking. On this particular day, all Albertans are encouraged to walk outside.  Our kindergarteners will be participating in this initiative by going out for a walk from 11:00-11:20 (am class) and 3:00-3:20 (pm class). Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately to be outside for approximately 20 minutes. We will need 2 parent volunteers from each class to join us for our walk. If you're up for a little winter fun and have your approved security clearance, please email me to let me know (taroberts@cbe.ab.ca).

2. Exciting news! Sound Kreations will be coming to our school to facilitate a week-long dance residency for students. During our gym time this week, children will be learning to explore different types of dance from around the world. We invite you to join us for a short celebration of our hard work on Friday, February 9 from 11:30-12:30. Please note that this is a morning class early dismissal day. If any students from the afternoon class would like to be a part of the final celebration, they are more than welcome to join the morning class during their portion of the performance. 

3. Scholastic orders are due Monday.

Happy Saturday!

Miss Roberts :)