Week 14: Making Books

Short and funny week this week, with the PD Day on Friday and Mr. McCullough away on Thursday afternoon.  Still, here's what we managed to get done.

Books We Read
Press Here (again, since we would be using it this week)
Lisa & The Snowman
A Silly Snow Day

Weekly Centres
Writing
We practiced our letter "M" on chalkboards, on the ground, in the air and with crayons and pencils.

Patterns
Using the items we found last week on our fall nature hunt, we created repeating patterns using leaves, pine cones, small rocks, sticks and wood chips, and then glued them to pattern strips on the wall.

Press Here Bookmaking
With the help of our reading buddies, we created our own, six page "Press Here" books, using action words like shake, tilt, blow, press, push, rub and tap.  We used red, yellow, green and blue stickers and some special shiny bug and jewel stickers for the last page.

Other Things We Did
We built words that started with a "MA" sound, like man, mat, mad, and a few others.
We hung up our Only In Fall, Only In Winter drawings so they could rotate like a mobile.
We read a few of our own Press Here books and practiced all the different actions.
We talked about "found patterns" in the classroom.
Mr. Hanson showed us a Charlie and Lola story on his Smartboard.

Week 13: Only In The Winter

Books We Read
Snow Story
Snow Sports
Time To Sleep
Press Here

Song of the Week
Douglas Mountain

Snows are a falling on Douglas Mountain,
Snows are a falling so deep!
Snows are a falling on Douglas Mountain,
Putting all the bears to sleep.
Putting all the bears to sleep.

Trimming the wicks on Douglas Mountain,
Shining up the chimney so bright!
Trimming the wicks on Douglas Mountain,
So we can bring the night!
So we can bring the night!

Centres
November Portfolio
Students spelled their own name, using the letters they have learned so far, and created a picture of their choosing.  They then explained the picture to the teacher, who wrote a description underneath.

Patterns

We created growing and shrinking patterns using rocks of various shapes and sizes.

Art
We flipped our cardstock paper over and created a scene of something we could only do in the winter.

Science
We experimented with ice cubes, seeing how long cubes took to melt in the water and out of the water.  We also tried to sink various containers with ice cubes.

Building Blocks
It was our free centre for the week, though many students kept with the winter theme when building.

Other Things We Did
We talked about clues that tell us that winter is coming
We came up with activities and events that could only happen in the winter.
We role played winter sports using the book Winter Sports.
We talked about the difference between growing, shrinking and repeating patterns.
We built more words on the carpet, adding the letter "D" to our mix of R, N, A, C, T and S.
We gathered the last items of fall we could find outside and will be using these items to create repeating patterns next week.
We talked about hibernation and learned that fat (in the form of lard) can help insulate animals from the cold (which we replicated using ice cubes)
We had our first lockdown practice of the year.  Everybody did a really good job of hiding and being quiet so we could have a nice, safe class.

Week 12: Only in the Fall

Books We Read

Leaf Man
Fall, Leaves, Fall
We're Going On A Leaf Hunt

Song of the Week
(From "We're Going On A Leaf Hunt", sung to the tune of "We're Going On A Lion Hunt")
We're going on a leaf hunt,
We're going right away!
Let's find colourful leaves!
It's a WONDERFUL day!

We practiced the chorus several time and went through the other sections of the book as well.

Centres

Writing
This week's letter was the letter "N".  We started at the top for our first line, went to back to the top and went down diagonally, and then went from the bottom to the top to finish.

Pattern Strips
Using pattern squares, we created their own colour patterns using only crayons or coloured pencils - no math manipulatives to use as reference this time!

Art
Using our "Only in the fall..." discussion as a springboard, students drew pictures of something that they could only do during the fall on cardstock.  We'll be using the back next week for something else!

Building Buckets
We kept making patterns with the building buckets and also made some neat creations of our own.

Sand Table
We had the sand table as our free centre this week.

Other Things We Did

We learned the sound of the letter "N" from our Jolly Phonics Songbook.  We also learned that the front of an airplane is called a "nose" by figuring out the riddle "What's flies, not alive and has a nose?" 

We talked about things we could only do in the fall, coming up with ideas like play in the leaves, have Thanksgiving, go to Halloween parties and start kindergarten!

We saw a magic wand, cars from the movie "Cars" and a magical pony carriage during our Show & Share.

We talked about what a conversation with a man made of leaves would sound like.  Could a leaf man speak?

We started learning about growing patterns and talked about what the opposite of growing could be.  More on that next week!

Week 11: Patterns & Imagination

Books We Read
The Tree That Grew To The Moon
The Magic Beads
Tikki-Tikki-Tembo

There was no "Song of the Week" this week, as we did several songs from our Jolly Phonics books.

Jolly Phonics Letters
R
A
T
C

Centres
Writing Centre
We worked on the letter R this week - it's like the letter P, except with an extra line!

Patterning Centre
Students were given feathers, rocks, pom poms and bears and created simple patterns on large pattern strips.  They then used crayons to copy the colours and shapes onto the pattern strip.

Art Centre
We worked on our fine motor skill by trying to learn how to twist pipe cleaners into a peace sign.  This was a tricky one, some got it, some didn't, but everybody got help if they needed it.  We also coloured in some large-scale peace signs.

Block Centre
We used the blocks and lego in the centre to make other repeating patterns based on shape and colour before getting down to the business of building.

House Centre
This was our free play centre for the week.

Other Things We Did
We talked about how we could use our imagination for our Show & Share, using books like The Magic Beads and The Tree That Grew To The Moon  as examples.

We used our message board to explore patterns involving letters, numbers and shapes.

At Show & Share, we got to see Care Bears, Spiderman, a Beauty and the Beast story and a Dragon.

We used our chalkboards to create words with C, A, R and T.

Week 10: Peace Week

Books We Read
Peace Week in Miss Fox's Class
A Poppy is to Remember
The Peace Book
What Does Peace Feel Like?

Song/Poem of the Week
The Poppy Song (sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques", each line echoes)

See the poppies,
Oh so red.
Growing on the hillside,
Beautiful.

We remember
On this day
Soldiers on the hillside
Far away.

Centres
Writing
We worked on the letter "B" this week.  It's just like the letter P, except with an extra "bump" at the bottom.

Math
We talked this week about the idea of patterns.  Students defined it as something that changes, but also stays the same.  Students were asked to make simple patterns based on one colour or shape, using a variety of items.

Art
Using red tissue paper, glue, and a picture of a poppy, we created 3-D poppy art and put it on our wall.  This was really hard to do, but everybody worked hard and got theirs on our wall.

Sense & Sensory
We worked on the idea of making lines and cutting on lines, using a combination of dry erase boards, connect-the-dot sheets and threading shoelaces.

Sand Table
This was our free play centre for the week.

Other Things We Did
We talked about what "peace" means in our class, with each student coming up with their own personal feeling.
We talked about what makes a pattern and used ourselves(!) to make patterns based on boy/girl, clothes and hair colour.
We started our show and tell this week and saw a dinosaur, a seal, a gold Power Ranger and somebody's older sister!
We learned how to follow dots to make connect the dot pictures.

Week 9: Halloween Week!

Due to Mr. McCullough being sick and a computer formatting issue, we were unable to complete this blog entry and, unfortunately, lost the picture that would be attached to this post.  Here's a brief sketch of what we did in our centres and some of the week's big activities.

Centre
Writing
Using the letters we have learned so far, we revisited our portfolio pages.  Students spelled the letters in their name that they learn, traced the ones they did not know, and drew an explained a picture of their choosing for their portfolio.

File Art
Students decorate large envelopes, which will be used to house all of their work for the upcoming school year.

Fall Art
Using two provided lines, students created a brown tree and multicoloured leaves to show what trees look like in the fall.

Block Centre
Students were asked to create "spooky" buildings for Halloween.

House Centre
This was a free play centre this week.

Other Things We Did

We had our Halloween Parade, where we got to walk around the neighbourhood and show off our costumes.
We learned that pumpkins - small ones, medium ones and big ones - ALL float!
We learned that our medium pumpkin had 496 seeds!

Kindy Colour Groups

Hey everybody,

Below are our current colour groups.  These will be the groups we use to organize things like Show & Tell. 

When you see the name of the colour group show up on a monthly calendar, that means your child will be a part of that activity that week.  The groups are blue, yellow, green, orange, pink.

Kalen Nathan Elizabeth Rae

Cameron Jet Ava Alison

Marilisa Daphne Lachlan Judah

Emily Kai Julian Marlee

Kyra Vita Angelo Henry

Week 8: Investigating Pumpkins

Books We Read

How Many Seeds Are In A Pumpkin?
Feathertop
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Poem of the Week
Scarecrow Dan

I am silly old Scarecrow Dan.
I flip and I flop like a scarecrow can!
I move my arms.
I move my wrists.
I shake my legs
And I shake my fists!
I lean way down
And I lean way back.
I jump up and down like a jumping jack!
I stand real still and don't make a sound.
Then, I sit back down upon the ground!

Centres
Language
We did a big practice session of all of the letters we've learned to write this year in preparation for writing the next part of our monthly portfolio.

Sight Words & Sorting
We sorted seven sight words - a, the, on, is, and, in, of - matching small strips of paper to much larger word cards.

Art
We drew what were we are going to be (or what we think we are going to be) for Halloween.

Building Bins
Students were challenged to use the materials in our building bins to reach one end of the carpet to the other.

Sand Table
Students made sand castles but also discovered items like marbles and bones in the sandbox.

Other Things
We learned how to predict how many seeds are in a pumpkin based on its size and colour.

We predicted if pumpkins would float or sink.

We also predicted how many seeds we would find in a pumpkin.


By trial and error, we figured out the difference in size between a small pumpkin and a medium pumpkin by using snap cubes.

How's Your Engine?

Hey Jackman Families!

In all of our kindergarten and primary classes, teachers are working on the idea of self-regulation with our students. 

Students are being asked to “check in” on their engagement level to make sure they are consistently calm, focused and alert.  They will check in on a regular basis using our “Engine Chart”.

The engine chart shows a car going through three different levels. 

Level 1 – Low or “Idling”

At this stage, students aren’t causing a distraction to other students, but they are not attending to the task at hand. 

Level 2 – Just Right or “Running Well”

Here, the students have engaged their minds to the task at hand and are actively and productively participating in the classroom environment.

Level 3 – High or “Out of Control”

At this point, students are over-stimulated and are focused on something other than our lesson in a way that takes other students off task.

Our class will be creating criteria for each one of these levels over the next few weeks.  We will be using the above language on a daily basis and parents are encouraged to use the same language at home for reinforcement.  For example;

"How's your engine?"

"Is your engine running too high right now?"

"I think your engine is a bit low."

The end goal is to have students actively thinking about how they are doing through the day and for them to be able to recognize when they need to get their engine running properly (and how to do it!)

Thanks folks!  Talk to you soon!

Week 7: Finding Clues

Books We Read

Max's Words

The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin

Chalk

Song of the Week

The Three Ghosts

Ooooooooh, 1, 2, 3!

Ooooooooh, ghost are we!

Ooooooooh, when you sleep!

Ooooooooh, we will creep!

Ooooooooh, you won't hear!

Ooooooooh, when we're near!

Ooooooooh, what we do!

Ooooooooh, we scare you!

BOO!!!!

Centres
Language
We started working on the letter "T" this week and introduced the sight words "is" and "the" to our sight word magnet board.

Math

We added numbers 5 through 10 on our number lines and added dots that match the number.

Drama

We learned how to properly use puppets and put on simple, improvised "plays" in our drama centre.

Art

Using egg cartons, scrap paper cuttings, markers and pipe cleaner, we made hanging ghosts, which are now hanging above the kindergarten entrance.

Blocks

Our block centre was our free centre this week, where students got to design whatever structure they like.

Other Things

We got into our colour groups for the rest of the term and learned how to use our names, the colour of the sign and our friends to find out where our work centre is.

We talked about what a clue is and how we can use it to find all sorts of information.

We started in on Jolly Phonics, using the "E" song to learn the short "e" song.

After looking through the story "Chalk", a story without words, we "told" the story the next day using only the pictures as clues.

Using "and" and "is" on a small chalkboard, we helped finish Mr. McCullough's sentences while learning our sight words.

Week 6: Sorting Ourselves

On a four day week, the kids can be a bit squirmish.  Plus, there was a supply teacher in on Wednesday afternoon. so we moved away from the organized centres format this time around and tried a few different things here and there.

Books We Read
Chicka Chicka 1 2 3

Song of the Week
And When You're 1

And when you're one, one, one,
Show me your thumb, thumb, thumb.
And when you're two, two, two,
Tap with your shoe, shoe, shoe.
(repeat)

And when you're three, three, three,
Bend at your knee, knee, knee.
And when you're four, four, four,
Stomp on the floor, floor, floor.
(repeat)

And when you're five, five, five,
You do the jive, jive, jive.
And when you're six, six, six,
You do the mix, mix, mix.
(repeat)

And when you're seven, seven, seven,
Jump up to heaven, heaven, heaven.
And when you're eight, eight, eight,
Stand well and wait, wait, wait.
(repeat)

And when you're nine, nine, nine,
Ya ya ya, nine, nine, nine.
And when you're ten, ten, ten,
Start it again.....
(repeat)

Activities

Printing and Letters
We worked on making our letter "P" and also did some work with magnets on the sight words "to" and "and"

Math

We sorted ourselves as a class by who ate turkey at Thanksgiving and who didn't.  Then we had to guess a different sorting rule every day when Mr. McCullough sorted us.  We came up with sorting rules like boy/girl, colour of clothes, types of shoes and who was wearing a sweater.

We also started working on our own number lines, using a Promethean Board to organized the numbers first, and then gluing the numbers onto long pieces of cardstock.

Children also were able to use the castle centre, playdough centre and sand centre in a variety of activities.

Week 5: Giving Thanks

Apologies for the delay in posting this week.  Blame a combination of Thanksgiving and Mr. McCullough's other job at Jackman for the late post.  Pictures will be added to the blog on Thursday.

Books We Read
Children Make Terrible Pets
Let It Fall
A Selection of Thanksgiving Poems for Children

Song of the Week
The Turkey Song
(Sung to the tune of "Do Your Ears Hang Low", with arms positioned like turkey wings)
Well you turkey to the left (move left)
And you turkey to the right (move right)
Then you take your turkey foot (stick out one foot, heel to the ground)
And you scratch with all your might (scratch heel on ground)
Then you take your turkey head (point to head)
And you move it wobble-wobble (shake head up and down)
Then you turn around in place (turn around)
And you say "Gobble-Gobble!"

Weekly Centres

Printing and Letters
We kept practicing writing letters, this time working on the letter D.  We also started looking at the sight words "the" and "of".  Then, we glued the individual letters to cardstock.

Math
We continued the theme of sorting.  The week, students chose a bucket of items ranging from animals to dinosaurs to cars and sorted them by an attribute of their choosing.

Art
Part two of our leaf rubbing project.  We took our rubbings from the week before and covered them with watercolours, with the intention of being able to see the pastel through the watercolour.

Drama
In our house centre, students were asked to re-enact family dinners, with the focus on trying to put together a Thanksgiving dinner.

Other Things We Did

We talked about what being "thankful" is and why being thankful for things like family, friends, food and shelter is different than liking things like Ninjago and skeletons.

We've officially started exchanging books at the library!  Don't forget to send you old ones in so you can get new ones!

We talked about words that start with the letters "S" and "A".

We read "The Three Little Kids" through an interactive RAZ-Kids book and answered questions on the touch-screen on our library Smartboard.

Kindergarten Week 4: Signs of Fall

Books We Read

The Great Fuzz Frenzy
O Canada
Franklin's New Friend

Song of the Week
O' Canada (Second Verse - quite a few of the kids actually got it!)

O Canada! Where pines and maples grow.
Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow.
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western sea.
Thou land of hope for all who toil!
Thou True North, strong and free!

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Weekly Centres

Printing
We continued learning our letters, this week working on the letter E

Math
We sorted teddy bears, sticks and buttons by size, colour and shape.

Art
We worked on the first part of a two-part project, leaf rubbings!  Students rubbed the outline of a leaf into a white piece of paper, which will be painted with watercolours next week!

Science
Students were given magnifying glasses to look at our fall discovery table and see if they could find out what was on the table (answers to be given in week five).  They also used the Fall Finder to discover and draw signs of fall right outside our window.

Free Centre

We returned to the sandbox centre this week, but the challenge was now to add water and see if we could build castles and notice what happens to the sand as it gets wetter and wetter.

Other Things We Did

We sang verse two of O Canada with our Reading Buddies at the tree planting ceremony which was held at Jackman in honour of Jack Layton.

We learned how to take books out of the library and have started taking them home!

We also made our own library cards.

We had our first supply teacher of the year, Ms. Sparling, who will be back for the afternoon of October 1st.

Kindergarten Week 3: Heroes and Good Friends

Books We Read

Terry's Story

(we didn't actually read it, but I showed the students pictures and explained the story of Terry Fox and why we run for him every year)

We Share Everything

A Sick Day for Amos McGee

The Pet Dragon

Weekly Poem/Song

(to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it")

Where do you start your letters?  At the top!

Where do you start your letters? At the top!

If you want to write a letter then you better, better, better

Remember to start it at the top!

Is this the top, top, top?  No, it's the bottom!

Is this the top, top, top?  No, it's the middle!

Is this the top, top, top?  Yes, it's the top, top, top!

Remember to start it at the top!

Weekly Centres

Language

We worked on writing the letter "F" (remembering that our letters start at the top!) both on chalkboards and on sand.

Math

We sorted a rainbow of bears into lines of numbers.

Art

We each designed our own hero (super or otherwise), giving them names and powers.

Science

Using the water table, we started making scientific predictions about whether objects would sink or float.

Sand Table

Sand was used as a free play centre this week, as students shared the different sand toys.

Other Things We Did

We came up with definitions for "hero" (somebody who helps or saves people) and "prediction" (a thinking guess).

We worked on the concept of bigger and smaller using numbers.

We kept changing our predictions of how many days are in the school year.

We learned how to find books in the library.  Soon, we'll start taking them home!

Week 2: Friends and Filling Buckets

Hey everybody!

Another fun week in Room 207!  Here's what we did!

Books We Read

Those Shoes

Enemy Pie

The Giving Tree

Poem/Song of the Week

(sung to the tune of Frere Jacques)

Fill a bucket (fill a bucket)

Every day (every day)

I can fill a bucket (I can fill a bucket)

You can too (You can too)

Fill a bucket (fill a bucket)

Every day (every day)

I like filling buckets (I like filling buckets)
You will too (you will too)

Weekly Centres

Language:

We created our"September" page for our portfolios, drawing a picture of anything we want and writing our names (or attempting to)

Art:

We drew pictures of what makes us happy inside buckets so everybody can know what "Fills Our Buckets"

Blocks:

We tried to recreate structures in pictures by the wall.

House & Drama:

We were challenged to set the table to look like a picture.

Sense and Sensory:

We practiced our fine motor skills by tracing lines, playing with shoelaces and using tweezers to move small objects from one bowl to another.

Other Activities

We met our Grade 5 reading buddies and they read to us!

We learned and acted out the story of "Herman the Worm"

We changed our estimates of the number of school days in the year

We helped Mr. McCullough reorganize his alphabet tiles.

Week 1: My Friends and I

Hey everybody,

Here's a quick overview of what we did during our first week of kindergarten!

Books Read

The Kissing Hand

A Visitor for Bear

Fill A Bucket: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Children

Winnie the Pooh: Friendship Day

Poem/Song of the Week

(Sung to "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star")

Kindergarten here we come.

We know we'll have lots of fun!

Lots of things to make and do.

Reading, writing, counting too.

Kindergarten here we come.

We know we'll have lots of fun!

Art

Students were asked to draw a picture of themselves and attempt to write their names!  We will be revisiting this activity later in the year to see how students do.

Other Activities

We learned how to use the block, sand and drama centre.

We danced to the "Popcorn" song.

We are signing in every day before we start our daily reading.

We are counting down to... how many days are there in the school year again?