It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone, our first set of 'Communications of Learning' have been sent home, and we are only weeks away from the March Break!
We continue to learn more about, and grow with your children each and every day. This blog was created with the intention of creating a paperless classroom. For environmental, as well as time saving reasons, we thought that having a blog, a twitter account, as well as remind, we could eliminate the majority of paper being sent home. We believe that our mission has been successful. Rarely do we send home notes, and if we do, they come from administration and require your immediate attention. As many of you know, we tweet on a daily basis in order to keep you as close as possible to your child's learning. We hope that some of the tweets you read provoke conversations at home. We also find that your children are very eager for us to tweet out their accomplishments. Remind is also an app that we find very useful in our classrooms as it is a means of communication between you the parents and us the educators. Please remember though, that if we do not respond to your 'remind', chances are that we have not seen it, therefore if it is a matter of urgency, please do contact the office. All this being said, we understand that you are all busy with your work and family lives. We will continue to have our blog, but will not use it as a means of communication unless there is something that we would like for you to read. Thank you for your continued support, The Brown Beaver & Purple Penguin Kindergarten Team
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Language
* Making Connections and Visualization * Rhyming * Letters: e,h,r,m,d,c,k * Words: on, the, a , and , is, was Belonging and Contributing * Listening and responding to others Self-Regulation and Well-Being * Demonstrating spatial awareness in activities that require the use of large muscles Demonstrating Math and Literacy Behaviours * Respond to a variety of materials that have been read * Investigate quantities by comparing sets with more, fewer or the same number of objects * Graphing Problem Solving and Innovating * Making predictions and observations * Use, read and represent whole numbers to 10 * Use math language Religion and Family Life * Being a caring citizen French * Following one and two step directions * Responding to French materials read aloud Science * Five Senses * Animals getting ready for winter, hibernation In our classrooms we have been discussing how although we are all part of 'Our School Family', and loved by God, we are all different. We value our differences and are proud to have different backgrounds, talents, interests, and strengths. In order to deepen our understanding of the importance of being unique and special, we invite you and your child to send in a photo or a drawing of something special about your child. We have discussed how we are artists, writers, scientists, gardeners, builders, athletes, ballerinas…a team of friends, and A School Family. When you send in a photo or drawing/painting/poem, done by your child, we will highlight it and display it in the class so that your child can be proud of who he/she is, and also proud to be different, yet part of 'Our School Family'. We welcome your creativity, and look forward to proudly displaying your children in our classroom. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. Bonjour Parents!
I wanted to share with you a few of the YouTube videos we watch and sing in class. Listening to French songs, videos and movies are all really great ways to help your child improve their understanding of the French language. Together, we sing songs about the alphabet, numbers, colours, the seasons etc. Numbers 1 to 20 https://youtu.be/UsEz58BblMY?list=PLUJH-nqGlZf0ctOatNJiALaEWtZQIS9E0 Alphabet https://youtu.be/_LYy3P2okyw?list=PLUJH-nqGlZf0ctOatNJiALaEWtZQIS9E0 Colours https://youtu.be/ud4RpGZKx3s https://youtu.be/nb7nj_leYfQ Fall https://youtu.be/3dJ4E222lEE Checkout our Twitter for any new songs we're learning. I will be posting YouTube links. Mini TFO is a great online resource for young children learning French. They have a website with games and videos featuring characters and shows they may be familiar with in English. http://www.tfo.org/en/mini-tfo They also have a great YouTube channel with videos and songs that often link to things we are learning about in class. The students love them and I love seeing how engaged they are when attempting to figure out what is being said. By watching the images, they usually get it right! https://www.youtube.com/user/MiniTFO Having your child listen to French songs and videos is a great way to support their learning at home. Happy listening! Mme Megan Religious Education
Can you believe that we have finished one month of school already? The children have settled well into routines and we are all feeling more at home in our new school family.
It was wonderful seeing so many families join us on our ‘Meet the Teacher’ night. The children are always so proud to show you their ‘home away from home’. During that evening, one of the questions raised was, ‘How do I get my child on a school bus?’, please visit the OSTA website, and your questions can be answered there http://www.ottawaschoolbus.ca/. Another parent was curious on how to stop their child from nail biting. From a teacher’s perspective, we are always reminding the children to keep their hands out of their mouths for hygienic reasons, but ceasing the habit of nail biting is a little more complex and would be best answered by a family physician. With the warmer weather upon us, we continue to encourage the children to come to school dressed appropriately. Although it is warmer at the end of the day, the mornings are quite brisk and we do stay outside for half an hour every morning. One of our focuses throughout the year is healthy, active living. We always encourage the children to eat their healthy snacks first, some good choices are: fruits, vegetables, dairy products and grain products. The children are becoming accustomed to this and are proudly making their own choices at snack time. In order to give your child the opportunity to make healthy choices we encourage you to provide them with a variety of options that they can choose from. We are in the midst of planning our first school trip. As soon as the details have been finalized, we will share all the information with you and we will enlist the help of volunteers at that time. Thank you for those who signed up to make play dough for the class! We will inform you when it is your turn. Feel free to be creative. Pinterest is an excellent resource and has some great ideas on what you can add to your play dough ( i.e., food colouring, glitter, essential oils…) to make it special. Thank you also for those who follow us on twitter, and who have signed up for remind. Please let us know if you need any assistance with becoming techie! Although it is a paperless classroom, there are notes sent home from time to time and we will either send them home to you in a large Ziploc bag, or in your child’s lunch box. We do ask that you send back the Ziploc bag if we send one home to you. Reduce, reuse and recycle!!! Thank you for your continued support and we look forward to another amazing month! We are off to a wonderful start to the year! Our little ones are becoming more accustomed to spending their days at school. We can see old friendships rekindled and new friendships blossoming.
Our focus of the month will continue to remain on routines, transitions and getting to know one another. In keeping with the new Kindergarten Curriculum document, our four main areas of focus are: Belonging and Contributing, Self-Regulation and Well-Being, Demonstrating Literacy and Mathematics Behaviours, and Problem Solving and Innovating. Thank you so much for all of the supplies which have been donated to our classroom, we will put them all to good use! Thank you also to all the parents who have signed up for ‘Remind’, it is a very efficient means of communication between you the parents, and us the educators. Thank you to those who follow us on twitter. We hope you are enjoying getting a glimpse into the days of your little ones. Thank you for returning all of the forms which we have sent home over the last few days. Although there have been many, they are all important, and it is essential that we have them returned to us A.S.A.P. In keeping with our theme of ‘going green’ and having a paperless classroom, we would appreciate you sending back the ziploc bag with your child’s name on it, when we do send home a note. Our gym and library days have been determined. The Brown Beavers will go to the gym on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. They will go to the library on Wednesday afternoon. The Purple Penguins will go to the gym on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. They will go to the library on Monday afternoons. We ask that your child please return his/her library book by the day his/her class is scheduled to go to the library. Once a library book has been returned, your child may sign out a new book to read for the week. Our meet the teacher night is scheduled for Wednesday, September 21st at 6:30pm. We look forward to seeing all of you there! School photos will be taken Wednesday September 28th. Once again, thank you for your continued support. This year the Ontario Ministry of Education has released a new Kindergarten Program. You can find specifics about the expectations by visiting the Ministry's website : http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/kinderprogram.html. More information on this will be given at our Open House later in September. 8 :30 Our day starts
8 :30-9 :00 Outdoor gross motor play 9:00-9:15 Transition to indoors ( undress, say prayer, sing O’Canada) 9:15-9:30 Sign-in books 9:30-9:40 Students gather at carpet for short circle and introduction to different activities of the day (language, math, science and technology, fine motor, visual arts, dramatic and sensory play) 9:40-10:50 Students engage in guided, free play. Teachers engage with students to enrich, expand and assess their learning to guide further instruction. Snack table is open during this time. 10:50-11:00 Clean-up 11:00-11:30 Students gather at carpet for Read-Aloud, Interactive Conscious Discipline Song or Morning Message 11:30-12:00 Lunch-time 12:00-12:15 Clean-up and get ready for recess 12:15-12:30 Outdoor gross motor play 12:30-12:45 Students enter school, get ready for rest time 12:45-1:15 Quiet time, students relax their bodies and minds on their mats while tranquil music is played 1:15-1:30 Students gather at carpet for afternoon circle 1:30-2:30 Students engage in guided, free play. Teachers engage with students to enrich, expand and assess their learning to guide further instruction. Snack table is open during this time. 2:30-2:45 Clean-up time 2:45-3:00 Students get ready for home 3:00 Dismissal Students have library once a week for 30 minutes. Students go to the gym twice a week, each consisting of a 15 minute block. |
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November 2016
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