February is the month of love and we have fully embraced it in kindergarten! Children have spent the past couple of weeks designing a beautiful new flower shop that has been flourishing with excited customers, keen on making deliveries to their friends throughout the school.
Did you know that February is also Heart Month? We've been learning about the important role our heart plays in our bodies and spent time talking about how to keep our hearts healthy and strong. Children had a lot of fun finding their pulse and we enjoyed trying different exercises to see how each one made our heart rates go up or down. Try this at home!
We got up-close with some healthy foods as well! The kiddos LOVED exploring this painting provocation. There was so much rich dialogue happening about texture, flavour, colour and how things grow, as they painted each fruit and vegetable.
Have you heard about our new Question of the Day? As a progression from our morning sign-in, children now work together to read a question, make a choice and sign their name. The questions are simple, but bring about SO much interesting conversation between the children.
It's a great way to practice our new reading skills, look for popcorn words, and learn to compare and contrast sets.
After everyone has signed their name, we spend time analyzing the data we have collected and make many mathematical observations. This is a perfect opportunity to reinforce mathematical vocabulary such as more, less, most, least, equal, etc. Start asking your child about the question of the day and have them explain how they responded and why. We're learning so much about each other and becoming expert mathematicians along the way!
We learned a new math game this week called Fill the Houses. This game is great for counting, adding-on, subitizing (recognizing how many are in a set without counting) and as always, building upon our number sense to 10 (eg. "This house has 6 in it so far. How many more do you need to get to 10?").
We have some new popcorn words we have been searching for in the stories we read at school. I would encourage you to point them out when you see these words in your child's home reading books, when you're in the grocery store, or anywhere they happen to pop up! These are the words we have learned so far: a, I, my, the, and
Classroom Information and Reminders:
Thank you for your amazing support of our new home reading program. Our little ones are SO PROUD to be reading! Here are a few tips to ensure our program continues to run smoothly:
1. Pleeeeease ensure your child's home reading book AND log-book come back to school in a ziplock back that has your child's name on it. This is the only way we know which child has brought back what book. The log-book is an important way for us to communicate back and forth about how your child is doing. There is no need to record each time your child reads the book. Simply record the name and level of each book your child brings home.
2. Please know that reading is not an expectation in kindergarten. As many are ready for this exciting step, we like to offer the challenge, but please don't feel any pressure to have your child rush through the levels.
3. Is your child finding the books easy? That's GREAT! Tell them they must be an expert reader! Boost their confidence! Tell them they're a genius! Embrace it! It is extremely important at this early stage of reading for children to feel confident in their abilities as a reader.
4. Just a reminder that we only exchange Home Reading books on Mondays and Thursdays. This ensures children have a few days with each book.
Thank you for your continued support! As always, if you have any questions or concerns about your child's reading, please do not hesitate to contact me through email or pop in after school :)
Sorry for such a long post this week, but we've been busy! Enjoy the weekend. See you Tuesday :)
Miss Roberts
