F is for fall! We had such a beautiful, nature-filled week in kindergarten while also learning about our new letter of the week.
We headed outside on Wednesday to complete our Terry Fox run and search for nature treasures that we would be using the following day for a special project. The children were beyond excited about the fact that they were able to bring their special finds back inside.
The following day, we read the story Leaf Man and created our own leaf-inspired stories. How cute are these?!?!
Learning to tell very simple stories with a beginning, middle and end is something we will practice all year. Ours is a classroom rich in oral language opportunities. A child who can tell a detailed story/narrative will later be able to write a detailed story/narrative. It all starts with talking! Have your child create imaginary stories wherever they go. Or ask your child to re-tell some of their favourite bedtime stories.
Here are 3 story examples that were shared today of varying oral language complexity:
"He’s flying away."
"Leaf man and Leaf Lady are holding hands and walking down the street and then they are going to a new home to live."
"They’re walking by a river and they saw a butterfly going down to catch some fish and bugs. It had waterproof wings. Stick man and stick lady saw the butterfly. They couldn’t believe their eyes! They had never seen a butterfly quite like that."
Inspired by the sweet story, Fletcher and the Falling Leaves, the kiddos enjoyed adding leaves to our very bare classroom tree (while secretly practicing their scissor skills 😉). We also created some pretty sweet Fletcher-inspired art.
Our house is now complete and we've added something very special to make it even more fun...miniature versions of US!
The weeks keep getting better and better! I'm so proud of the progress these kiddos have made throughout their first month of kindergarten 💖
Enjoy the beautiful fall colours this weekend! And be on the lookout for things that begin with the letter F :)
Love,
Miss Roberts
💛
Check out what the kiddos were up to for math this week with Mrs. Planden:
This week in kindergarten we started our day by practicing our letter formations for the numbers 1-10 using our white boards. I noticed how careful and thoughtful they have been, and when I pretended to really struggle with the number 5 and trying to remember the multi-step number, they cheered me on, helped me with positive self-talk as I tried something that felt really challenging and then congratulated me on my efforts! What a supportive group!
After a fun movement break to one of our favourite songs, we moved right into representing numbers with our new ten frames. A ten frame is a visual tool used to help gain mental fluency with numbers. It is important that we get lots of practice composing and decomposing numbers. We would represent 5, and then when I asked them to show me 7, some students would dump out their trays completely and add 7 more blocks, while some noticed that they could just count on 2 more to make 7 from 5. These are all strategies that are valuable to discuss as a class.
I showed the kids a fun new game using the concept words of more, less and the same. (Fewer is another word that can be substituted for less). Students would sit around a big collaborative playing board with their partner, and would each take a turn rolling the dice, and then flipping over a dot card. They would move their game pieces (manipulatives) onto a ten frame, and then assign each number with the words more, less or in some cases the same.
Finally, we began our discussions of sorting using a book that helped students visually see and understand the idea of sorting, or grouping like objects together into sets. A wonderful and practical way of helping these skills --which are an important precursor to more complicated math down the line-- is actually organizing! Cleaning up a great big mess is a really great hands-on way to support your child at home towards furthering their success with this concept. This weekend, I give you permission to say, "Mrs. Planden wants you to clean up your toys by sorting them into groups!" Having your child help you organize book displays by the spine colour is another great and practical way to build understanding of these concepts and show children the real life applications of the concepts we are taking up in class. Most students have a good understanding of the idea of sorting things by colour, and we are currently working to add other methods of sorting things into our repertoire (such as shape and size).
Classroom Info and Reminders
1. We have finally collected enough tin cans and egg cartons. Thank you so much for your contributions!
2. Monday is Picture Day!! Don't worry, if your child is away on Monday, retakes will be happening on November 5th.
