This week in kindergarten, we discovered about a zillion things that begin with the letter S and had so much fun exploring some new classroom centres that revolve around SSSSPACE! Your children know A LOT about this exciting topic already...even more than their teacher! Don't worry, my ego can handle it. Making discoveries alongside children is one of my favourite things in the world. Did you know that the sun is over 1 million times the size of the earth? Did you know that Jupiter has 63 moons? This stuff is so cool! We explored books, watched many videos, spent time staring at distant galaxies and had tons of interesting conversations about the universe. It was a pretty special week. I have a feeling this topic will continue in our classroom for quite some time.
Kindergarteners solidify the concepts they are learning about through their play. This time in our day is SO important!
"I drew a galaxy!"
S is for STORIES! We are learning to become super storytellers and discovered that most fictional stories have some important things in common:
1. A main CHARACTER
2. A SETTING where the story takes place
3. A PROBLEM that happens to the main character
4. A SOLUTION to the problem
After creating about a dozen silly stories about ourselves together, children were challenged to create a simple story of their own using materials in the classroom. When they felt ready, they shared their stories with their classmates and helped each other to ensure their stories had all of the important elements. This was so much fun! They absolutely loved this and were so proud of their finished stories.
The following day, we learned how to represent stories through drawings. This was a bit more of a challenge for our little ones, but they persisted and came up with some pretty spectacular stories.
"Drufus the dragon was at the park but then he saw a sign that said, "NO DRAGONS ALLOWED AT THE PARK". Then he went to a different park but it had the same sign so he went to his friend's house."
"There was a girl named Olivia. She lived in a castle. The knight couldn't find the princess. She was hiding in her closet looking for the perfect dress to wear."
"There was a little girl named Lily. She was at the mall. There was no cheese! It was pizza night! She got an idea. She went to the grocery store instead."
"One day there was a unicorn in her house. She found a dragon in her house! She screamed! The dragon told her he was a good one. They got married and had a baby."
I would encourage you to have your child start identifying the 4 main story elements in the books you read together at home. Ask your child who the main character is, where the story is happening, what the main problem is and how the problem gets solved. Or show them the image below and ask them to tell you their own simple story. We shared many giggles doing this :)
Here are a few more pictures of things we did throughout the week. We practice our letter sounds every single day through a variety of different games and activities.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I'll see you all on Tuesday!
Miss Roberts 💖
Here’s what the kiddos were up to in math this week…
This past Monday we looked at some of the pattern strips that were created using our centre-time work using dot markers. As a class we determined whether they were an example of a pattern or a non-example (ie. not a pattern). Students were then given their own sheets of large dot stickers and created their own examples and non-examples of patterns to show their independent understanding in their math journals. They were also asked to find the pattern core and name the pattern they created -- (AB, AAB, ABB, ABC, etc.)
From our study of repeating patterns, we naturally began diving into exploring geometric patterns, and in particular we looked at the work of Day Schildkret, an earth artist who uses nature finds to create what he calls 'Morning Altars' to decorate the ground floor. The students were then encouraged to use their knowledge of repeating patterns to arrange loose parts to create their own beautiful geometric patterns using natural materials at centre time.
We are getting ready to wrap up our formal instruction on the unit of patterning in math. Our centres will likely still return to this important work, but we will be moving on to incorporate other mathematical ideas into our whole group instruction. We have been so thrilled and proud of our students and their growth over the unit as they are now able to identify, reproduce, extend and create patterns with two or three elements using manipulatives, sounds and actions.
Mrs. Planden 💛
Classroom Info and Reminders
1. I’ve received a couple questions about Scholastic Book orders. We will not be sending home paper flyers this year but you are welcome to order from the monthly flyer online if you wish. If you use our classroom code: RC198020 you will receive free shipping on orders over $35 and a percentage of all sales will go towards earning our classroom extra goodies. You can head to scholastic.ca or click HERE for a direct link to the Reading Club page.
2. As you have likely heard by now, children in our classroom earn popsicle sticks as a way to positively reinforce great behaviour (respectful listening, saying please and thank you, being a helpful friend, taking care of our belongings, etc). When children earn 10 popsicle sticks, they earn a prize from the treasure box. If you happen to be at the dollar store anytime soon, we would gladly accept donations for prizes (our supply is running low). I generally buy packages that contain 8-10 items for $2. Any help would be greatly appreciated 😀
